Transmission Project

Morgan created a digital media committee composed of diverse community members, planned 3 large digital storytelling nights cumulatively drawing over 300 attendees, and created a digital toolkit which includes training on how to create digital stories.

Morgan helped the San Diego Community Technology Coalition move from a very static website, to a drupal/civic space website which allows for staff to enter data in the site and for community members to search a GIS based maps to find CTCs near them. He also helped to establish many community collaborations, in particular where SDCTC is now placed to help San Diego build it’s capacity for free wi-fi access in our underserved communities.

Morgan also helped set-up a new computer lab at our Youth Housing Project which serves 23 formerly homeless youth.

For SDCTC, Morgan brought together some of the more cutting edge technology advocates to our Annual Symposium and to several workshops put on throughout the year. He helped open the eyes of other Community Technology Centers to how they could use technology to advocate for their clients.

Cara created the syllabus for and developed the Open School class for teens who are out of school and working toward their GEDs as well as a video training class for youth.

She also did outreach for UTEC’s summer video programs, and connected with local museums, performing spaces, and local teens who expressed a desire to partipate in Cara’s video class.

Cara also helped plan events such as movie and discussion nights in the community.

In her capacity as Assistant Editor of “The Community Technology Review” (www.comtechreview.org), Danielle ably undertook a wide range of responsibilities including taking over the reins from the previous Associated Editor and completing all organizing and author communication already in the works, coordinating sections and writing a substantial number of articles for the fall issue. She oversaw the development and production of the online version, dealt with university printing services in arranging for hard copy printings, and did author/contributor follow-up. Following this, she was helpfully involved in working with the Advisory Committee in undertaking future planning, and when the decision was made for the publication to go on hiatus and be replaced in the interim with the Project newsletter/report, she accepted oversight responsibility and published the first issue (see www.cpcs.umb.edu/vista/newsletters) in its entirety. She has followed this up with taking primary responsbility for planning future issues for the remainder of the project year, including coordination with the Priority Area Coordinator materials, as that dovetails and integrates with her work with them in developing curricular material for the project that can be integrated with the College’s Community Media and Technology Program (www.cpcs.umb.edu/cmt). In addition to these things, she has proved to be a key and invaluable member of the project leadership team at office headquarters.

Danielle serves as liason between the Community Media and Technology Program curriculum building efforts and the VISTA project’s content focused learning groups. She has been extremely effective in working with faculty in curriculum design, making real connections between the field work of the VISTA’s and the CMT curriculum. She has also worked to assist me in the Tactical Media project, a project-based learning initiative of the program, in coordinating planning and research, presentations and communications flow for the project. She has also taken the leadership in creating and presenting a number of new media workshops, digital storytelling, for example. Along with her VISTA partner, she coordinated a digital media mini conference for students, faculty and staff. Danielle has undertaken extensive curriculum research for a study on community media our program is doing in conjunction with the Benton Foundation, as well research for the development of future courses in the College of Public and Community service. Danielle has performed at a very high level of thoughtfulness and strategic insight. Danielle has made an enormous contribution to the CMT program’s development.

Danielle has quickly become an important part of the Project headquarters team. She has shown admirable persistence in her efforts to draw some useful ‘curriculum’ from busy VISTAs and under-utilized ‘priority area coordinators.’ I actually think that she has accomplished more in this area than she gives herself credit for– mostly through her exchanges with VISTAs in the field but also through her (and Shannon’s) efforts to get VISTAs involved in workshops and events related to the CMT program. She has in some sense become an unofficial VISTA leader through here extensive contact with VISTAs across the country. She has also done a good deal of evangelizing for the Project– a number of new organizations will be applying as a result of these efforts. She’s a gifted/natural-born communicator and that’s just so helpful in so many ways.

Roxanne helped plan and deliver the member acceptance letters, handbook, and Pre-Service Orientation. She has answered many questions from the members on many topics related to their service, thus setting them up to accomplish our mission. This includes 6 one-on-one, more in depth check ins with members, one regarding youth media. She has helped plan and facilitate Corps Days where AmeriCorps Members participate in formal and informal training, speakers, workshops, field trips, etc. She has prepared and delivered media literacy training with 2 AmeriCorps CTEP members for the statewide MLK Day AmeriCorps conference. She and two AmeriCorps CTEP members prepared and delivered a technology literacy workshop for the All VISTA Conference (which she also helped coordinate with MN VISTA Leaders). She has also moderated our online message board, created her own blog and encouraged member blogging. Finally, she has been the advisor to two CTEP member committees, media and communications.

Roxanne has contributed to the ability of three CTEP sites to move beyond the “tech center as babysitter” mentality by assisting them to use technology resources to give youth a voice via digital media. At SPNN, she has lent her media literacy mentoring to the youth department where teens are creating a TV program for a teen audience. At the YWCA, she and Ken nelson provided a video submission opportunity to the staff and youth, and provided them with the curriculum, which allowed the youth to complete a video to submit. At Intermedia Arts, she has assisted in the identification and securing of hardware and software to implement a digital media center, and complimented this with assisting in the curriculum development and program planning.

Blake spent most of his time working on the DANEnet Day of Service. Which was a success in the fall of 2005. He also with the EPICS service learning program at the University of Wisconsin where he is teaching the current students (the reality of nonprofits and low income citizens [fall term]; Web programming [spring term])

Blake is also working with the Youth Resource Network to create a Web portal for youth serving activities/agencies.

Lastly, Blake helped to write a successful Youth Visions proposal and he has been the day-to-day DANEnet presence on that grant.

We have been on a breakneck pace and I rely upon the Vista for a great deal. We’ve convened several major statewide events: Digital Literacy Showcase, Digital Neighborhoods Fundraiser, the Statewide Conference and the launch of the statewide colaition on Community Tech Day, yet another event. We’ve also formulated the database staretgy, and a sustainability plan (still being refined and executed). We’ve made an impact on the vision for the state community technology sector and we’ve launched a ring of websites in addition to the relaunch of our own site on a content managment system. This makes generation of content much easier, and more easily shared. Additionally we’ve put certain other webtools and communications infrastructure in place: phplist for our ilctc Bulletin, webforms for feedback and hylafax for blast communications.

Nathan has done an excellent job in his role as a VISTA here at UTEC! He took on a leading role in coordinating UTEC’s most comprehensive and successfull fundraiser to date. He has contributed immensely by helping us organize and develop a new online grants database (which I strongly believe will be a model for other nonprofits on how to best integrate technology into their development work). He has written and won grants. He has created a well organized foundation/donor recognition system that has substantially improved our capacity for relationship building with funders. And he has provided much excitement around the development of a new individual donor organization process. I have been very pleased with Nathan’s work (this being his first time in a development position as this) and would rehire him in a minute.