website
Citizen Press Corps Project Developer
Organization:
Shires Media Partnership, Inc. VISTA Name:
Brooke Brown-Saracino
Program Start:
9/2010
Program End:
9/2011
Project Description:
The Corps member will help Shires Media Partners develop a Citizen Press Corps, a cadre of citizen journalists who will be trained to use digital technology to gather news not covered in other media in the community, making WBTN-AM a multi-media community information hub. The Corps member will develop a collaborative website where the citizen journalists will post and share their work, from which Shires Media Partnership will select posts for further refinement, broadcast, and distribution.
GreenBlueGray Project Developer
Organization:
Reclaim the Media VISTA Name:
Amber Cortes
Program Start:
9/2010
Project Description:
Our VISTA will help to launch a new hybrid radio/web media project serving high-quality news and features to community radio audiences in the Seattle area. The VISTA will help design and support a project workflow for recruiting news and information providers, organizing news producers, and preparing content for publication. The VISTA will help recruit and coordinate volunteer radio and media producers from regional community radio stations to host and produce programming. The associate will help create and maintain relationships with partnering media outlets, help maintain a project website, and help deepen network relationships among innovate grassroots, community and ethnic media outlets in the Northwest
The VISTA will also work with the project manager and RTM to conduct outreach to participating news outlets looking for weekly/daily news to feature, to maintain the project website, and the conduct community outreach to help promote the project.
CTC Development
VISTA Name:
Morgan Sully
Program Start:
9/2005
Program End:
9/2006
Project Description:
Develop capacity of our two community technology centers focusing on youth digital media programs, through volunteer recruitment, digital media curriculum,and volunteer training. Establish an online repository (knowledge base) for both internal documentation as well as resources shared by the community. San Diego Community Technology Coalition. Improve the quality of workshops, trainings, and resources offered to CTCs, and implementing more rigorous evaluation measures. Develop, in conjunction with the SDCTC directors and advisory council, three proposals for continued funding of SDCTC activities.
Project Outcome:
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.
Web Development Specialist
Organization:
EmPOWERment, Inc (for Pa'lante Inc.) VISTA Name:
Robin Brown-Pipkins
Program Start:
9/2005
Program End:
12/2005
Project Description:
An Americorps VISTA member would contribute to the development and sustainability of our media and technology related programs by contributing in some subset of the following areas: Youth and community technology programming, Youth radio programming, and Teen center IT management.
Project Outcome:
Robin completed a considerable amount of work on the programs website. Unfortunately, Pal’ante was forced to close it doors on 12/31/05 due to unforeseeable circumstances.
Outreach
Organization:
Community Technology Organizing Consortium (CTOC) VISTA Name:
Sheveeta Shepard
Program Start:
9/2005
Program End:
9/2006
Project Description:
Sheveeta will further our mission by assisting with our workshops for non-profits, managing and updating our database of members, and updating our website and listserve.
Project Outcome:
The work our VISTA is doing with our database and outreach is a major function to CTOC’s mission. As a consortium, keeping in contact with our members, keeping them updated to local policies, and positioning them to network together and exchange ideas and practices is reliant on constant and continuous communication with the membership base.
Our project has completed 5 workshops which covered the topics of IT fundraising for non-profits, education and advocacy surrounding local and state cable franchise issues in Los Angeles, disability and access issues, social enterprising for non-profits, and digital storytelling. In each of our workshops, our VISTA was implemental in outreaching to attendees and presenters, updating our website information and list-serv, and follow-up on evaluations of attendees.
CTOC has made major changes to the website, moving it to a new server and expanding the previous capabilities to include membership capabilities, a discussion forum, and more resources for local organizations to aid CTOC in its networking and outreach capacities. The VISTA has helped to keep the site updated with upcoming CTOC workshops and events, as well as making the site more user friendly by changing the layout of the page and adding visual pictures. Our VISTA has also aided in managing the list-serv and adding new members.
CTOC held a local logo contest for youth. This project was suggested and created by our VISTA who wrote a proposal, created the contest criteria, and outreached to local organization who worked with youth in digital media.
Webmaster and Outreach Coordinator
Organization:
Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network VISTA Name:
Nicholas Lewis
Program Start:
8/2005
Program End:
8/2006
Project Description:
MAIN is currently seeking an AmeriCorps VISTA member to serve as Webmaster, helping maintain web content on multi-platform network operating center with system tools that include Linux, NT, Apple OS and HTML, Drupal and Civicspace. Additional assignments include working at MAIN CTC/public access sites located in Texas Workforce Center and Bastrop Public Library, plus outreach efforts to engage underserved community members.
Project Outcome:
As an unfunded 501c3 offering free online support for other nonprofit groups, we have to strive for powerful but low-cost means to deliver services. Nick has helped completely overhaul our online operations, converting some key servers and sites to new automated Content Management Systems (CMS) software, esp. drupal and civicspace. This conversion has proved very complicated and we have a long way left to go, but without VISTA help it simply would have been unthinkable.
Two examples of productive outcomes are a new national community ICT resource project and a local community writing project . Though far from perfect they’re good programs that would never exist without our VISTA volunteer.
Nick helped completely overhaul our online operations, converting some key servers and sites to new Content Management Systems software, esp. drupal and civicspace. Though the very newness of the software has caused unplanned complications and delays, we’re managing to create a great many new content sections and features.
Website and Program Building
Organization:
Heart of Los Angeles Youth, Inc. VISTA Name:
Emily Yoshida
Program Start:
8/2005
Program End:
8/2006
Project Description:
Our VISTA is building the infrastructure for “STUDENTS” to be able to develop meaningful skills that will serve them well later in life. Journalism, Digital Media and in the future, E-Commerce are areas that HOLA youth will now be able to excel in because our VISTA built out the technology and curriculum to one day master these skills. This will in turn allow our kids to realize HOLA’s mission of advancing their lives (Through technology) and revitalize their communities with the new skills and experiences they will have had because of technology.
Project Outcome:
Emily went on to set up our new HOLA website in HTML, which was awesome! She is very gifted artistically and her contribution to that project will be felt and seen for a long time to come.
The Wireless Lab, the system for check in and check out, plus the Web Journalism project using this lab have also been successfully initiated by Emily.
Impact Quote:
Our VISTA’s technological skills were an incredible asset to HOLA. Her willingness to share her knowledge was invaluable and we are already feeling her absence.
Marketing and Outreach
Organization:
CTC Net Chicago Chapter VISTA Name:
Dave Chakrabarti
Program Start:
8/2005
Program End:
8/2006
Project Description:
The VISTA will work to advance the “Policy, Advocacy & Public Education” goals of the Illinois Network, informing stakeholders and demonstrating the impact, relevance and need for coordinated community technology efforts in Illinois.
The VISTA will also work to build a sense of collective identity for community technologists by facilitating regional activities, and by collecting the informational resources that will serve as the organizational core of the network, and which will be leveraged to the benefit and coordination of the network.
Lastly the VISTA will research and document the impact of community ICT efforts, correlating data on grants with political boundaries at multiple levels to facilitate the generation of audience specific presentations supporting sensible community ICT policy initiatives. And also assist in development and execution of sustainability plan for the chapter, including research and writing of proposals and coordination of fundraising activities.
Project Outcome:
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.
Community Outreach
Organization:
Community Software Lab VISTA Name:
John Miller
Program Start:
8/2005
Program End:
3/2007
Project Description:
Goal 1: Increase Community groups served from 25 to 100
Goal 2: Increase & Improve UMASS Lowell / community anti-poverty community groups
Goal 3: Make it much easier for non techs to update and create web pages.
Goal 4: Create effective system for fund raising through grants
Goal 5: Increase number of effective volunteers from (3) per year to (5) by evaluating potential volunteers more carefully and providing more formal training to new volunteers.
Project Outcome:
John is a big part of our growth from 25 to 35 organizations.
Three program directors have told me almost exactly: “Without John, I wouldn’t have learned how to update my websie.”
CTC Outreach and Program Building
Organization:
Young Entrepreneurs Society, Inc. VISTA Name:
Patricia Conrad-Wexler
Program Start:
3/2006
Program End:
2/2008
Project Description:
Goal 1: Successfully launch a regional web portal for area residents, businesses and organizations.
Goal 2: Create of a computer training and certification program at YES BizCenter
Project Outcome:
1. Regional Web portal: our Vista, Pat, and I worked with our teen web programmer, David Wiles, to complete the site’s functionality and design. The site went live in mid-September. Pat issued a press release which resulted in at least three stories and recruited two youth to staff a table at our region’s largest fall festival, which was attended by over 10,000 people. Since then, Meanwhile, Pat and several youth work continue to research, gather and enter content. We have a bevy of volunteers, including a disabled YES alumni, Alan, who works at our wheelchair desk two afternoons every week, gathering web addresses for the 975 business and organization listings in the site’s directory. In November, Pat forged a partnership with two town-specific websites (OrangeTownGreen.com and PetershamCommon.com) to collaborate on soliciting site sponsors from among the region’s business community. Our site now has 22 sponsors, who pay $225/year, which is split between YES and our partners. The funds are helping recoup some of our development costs and in future will create a revenue stream to sustain the site. The site has over 75 registered users and is growing.
2. IC3 & MOS: Pat contacted CertiPort and registered with them to become a training and certification site. She helped our TechVenture! teaching team incorporate IC3 into this 16-hour youth computer training program, which was offered last June. Pat raised over $500 in cash and in- kind contributions from local businesses towards the cost of the program. We also investigated funding through the Verizon foundation and through the state employment and training consortium. Pat also solicited in-kind contributions of computer hardware (two computers, miscellaneous parts, a network switch) and eight task chairs for our classroom. She also helped streamline the operation of our weekday Teen Cyber Cafe by having youth and adults create user accounts (sign an agreement of terms and conditions, etc.), with account settings that protect the computers from viruses, etc. There are now 125 registered users.