Interactive Outreach Proposal

Using Public Television, the Internet and Alamo Area students to generate interest and volunteers to build and maintain the AACIS CTCs (Community Technology Centers.) A collaborative project of AACIS, KLRN-TV and the South Central Texas Chapter of the Internet Society.

The energy for this dynamic will come from three teams   ------

·        Content generation teams (TV/Web),

·        community facilitation teams, (Mentor Circles)

·        a practical advisory group (Advisory Board)

Together, they will generate the energy and ideas that will to attract and nourish volunteer facilitators for the Community Technology Centers. They will create projects using the network such as neighborhood web pages, virtual community history museums, Internet radio and Internet TV shows.

We will explore how these tools can be used to help us live better lives and share the exploration with the public

Since most of the people who will be using the AACIS system are now in High School it makes sense to have them play a decisive role in the design and implementation of the system. And it is important that they come from all the AACOG counties.

If things go well, we will fund a special scholarship program, starting with $50,000 to provide $100 a week to 25 high school interns through the spring of 2001. They will assist core volunteers to form an Advisory Group made of the 25 interns, volunteers for area schools and experienced communications and media professionals.

This group will use public television and the net to promote and invite participation of Alamo Area citizens in the project and help kick start the energy for the first phases of the experimental pilot projects that will result in the final design of the network.

Invite, Design, Experiment

The South Central Texas Chapter of the Internet Society (www.salsa.net) will collaborate with KLRN-TV to produce a series of television shows educating the public about the community network project and soliciting volunteers for the training program. The show will be produced with area high school students and the chapter's community networking group (Chaired by Richard Murphy of the Southwest Research Institute).

The first collaborative project will be the production of a three part pilot public television series with complimentary web site under the guidance of the advisory broad and the staff of KLRN-TV. The series will explore how AACIS can be used to help us live better lives. The series will be videotaped using digital video with rough footage streamed from the web for wide area collaboration. The public will be invited to watch.

As the pilot television/web experiment gets underway, project participants will be supported by volunteer expert “Net Buddies,” who will form the first mentor circles to test the concept, (of the Mentor Circle) help design interfaces (how things are displayed and arranged on computer screens.) and establish hard and software standards. Net Buddies will be specialists from the high tech and communications and community who will answer email questions from student project members. Questions and answers will be archived.

Participation of very busy people will be enabled by having meetings on the net, asynchronously, and facilitated by high school interns. E-mail, e-mail lists, chat rooms will be used to connect CTCs and persons in the project.

Students and production staff will gather input from the regions technology leaders, AACIS and others to insure maximum inclusively. A series of technology updates will be broadcast, coupled with a companion web site, which will offer on-line training and support to volunteer community network facilitators.

By May of 2001 we should have in place three teams, the Advisory Group, a broadcast and web production team, and a prototype for a mentor circle based on experience gained through a pilot project at the Margarete Huantes Center and other pilot centers. We will also have the basic design of a multilevel certification program for community network facilitators.

We will all meet at the beginning of summer and start over.

Pleas McNeel – December 2000