As editors, we can take very little credit for what is worthy here. Our delight and pride is in seeing how others have risen to the occasion. The bulk of this effort really rests with two people—Daniel Schackman at CTCNet and Melissa Daigle at the College. Both are CTC VISTAs and have been working very hard on their respective projects since their start dates last summer, making substantial contributions to the overall project by their work, their example, and their efforts to involve others.

For his part, on this particular project, Dan has shepherded a great deal of the content, the writing, and the organization; Melissa has worked in all these areas and has overseen most of the production work, too, for both the online and hard copy versions. Together they have achieved for the conference what the Review tries to do for the movement more generally—they have given it a depth and thoughtfulness that is not ordinarily associated with the busy-ness that overwhelms almost every active practitioner and activist in the community media and technology field and that all too often extends to conference workshops themselves. With articles, interviews, and resource pointers divided into sections that correspond to the conference tracks and workshops, this special issue of the Review, integrated with post-conference workshop links, provides a living testimony to the thoughtfulness that informs our work and guides us in developing effective practices and programs at their best and to leading a life fully rich in thought and action to challenge us in the highest way possible. We are both humble and proud in having the opportunity to offer these things to you.

As the Editors' Introduction notes, this special Community Technology Review is designed to complement and add to all the activities surrounding the CTCNet Conference. The five sections in this issue correspond with the five tracks:

• The Big Picture
• Policy, Advocacy, and Organizing
• Leadership and Management
• Programs and Curriculum
• Technology

The Association for Community Networking is also presenting AFCN track sessions as part of this year's conference.

The articles in these tracks were selected to enhance the tracks overall, as well as address some of the topics that will be presented in particular workshops. The contents and section headers are being linked to the sessions which will all have presentation and follow-up materials, as best as they can be organized. We welcome your comments on what we believe is a unique and dynamic conference-publication combination.—the editors

Access Aware: Making Your CTC Accessible to People With Disabilities
Curriculum Development for Youth Technology Programs--The YouthLearn Method
Creating a Realistic Fundraising Plan
ScienceQuest: Successful After-School Learning
The CTC VISTA Project: Orientation, Update, and Training Sessions

Fuller information on these sessions can be found on CTCNet's 2003 Conference Website.

Community Content Development: Processes and Products in the Context of Community Initiatives, Programs and Goals--Ann Peterson Bishop of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Paul Adams of PrairieNet, and Andrew Cohill of Design Nine.

Community Networking 2003-05 (for CTC's)--Gene Crick, President of AFCN's Board of Directors, and Steve Snow of Charlotte's Web.

AFCN: Strategic Planning & Future Initiatives--Richard Lowenberg of the Davis Community Network, and Andrew Cohill of Design Nine.

On June 26^th, Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet) in collaboration with the Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) and the Association for Community Networking (AFCN) will convene our 12^th annual conference. We're excited to bring you this special issue of the Community Technology Review combining articles and interviews from people that represent this year's conference tracks and our work in the field.

Kavita Singh

The theme, "Creating Our Future: Shaping the Agenda of Community Technology," was carefully selected to speak to our future and to the strength of our movement. The evolving developments and impacts of communications technology in society are powerful and complex. Our shared goals of greater equity, opportunity, and benefit for all people is evermore critically important. Inclusiveness is a fundamental value of our work. As a network, we embrace diversity and are working with our members to include the diversity of all people, including people with disabilities.

Mary Lester

Finally, the role of our organizations is changing. What we have been and are doing now may not be what is needed as we move forward. We look forward to your joining us for the necessary conversations and the shaping of action agendas that will help to make the "information revolution" a "people's revolution."

Gene Crick

We're working hard to bring you a conference that includes these issues in all of the sessions and gives us time to reflect on the road ahead. How can we use our networks, numbers, energy, and effective spaces across the country to define our own agenda?

Enjoy this special conference issue. See you in Washington DC!

Kavita Singh, Executive Director of CTCNet
Mary Lester, Executive Director of ATA
Gene Crick, President of AFCN

More than two years ago, HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina's proclaimation that HP would be a company committed to global citizenship prompted the creation of an e-inclusion vision for HP. This vision was based on the premise that technology, in conjunction with communities, could help people learn, work, and thrive.

The e-inclusion mission is to provide people access to greater social and economic opportunities by closing the gap between technology-empowered and technology-excluded communities, focusing on sustainability for the communities and HP. To fulfill this mission, HP has developed a number of philanthropic initiatives and forged public/private partnerships to help underserved communities fulfill their aspirations for participation in the digital age. Many of those investments have been in community technology centers.

Janiece Evans-Page, Director of e-inclusion and Global Solutions for HP Philanthropy and Education, noted, "CTCs are increasingly demonstrating that they are important assets in building a community's human, social, and economic capital. We've been able to leverage these rising community assets with HP's technology expertise to create positive change in many underserved communities across the U.S."

An example of one initiative is the HP Community Technology Centers Grant that awarded HP technology to twenty-six non-profit organizations and educational institutions for community centers targeting adults and youth in underserved communities. The awards include computer equipment and in-kind volunteer components provided by local HP employees.

Bess Stephens

"The CTC Grant represents a key strategy for HP Philanthropy," said Bess Stephens, Vice President of HP Philanthropy and Education. "This approach brings the best of HP—HP technology and talent—to communities that need it the most." By selecting organizations in underserved communities, the initiative contributes to HP's e-inclusion mission.

Another example is the HP and Magic Johnson Foundation (MJF) partnership. Over the past three years, HP and MJF have established 11 Magic Johnson HP Inventor centers in inner-city communities including Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Harlem, Chicago, Lansing, and Houston. Over the next 18 months, an additional 11 centers will be established. This partnership has enabled underserved communities to harness the benefits of the digital economy and empower youth, adults, and seniors to a new world through job skills training, computer literacy, financial and credit education, and health education. HP and MJF are developing a model that will enable future doctors, lawyers, teachers, technicians, and professionals to emerge from these centers.

The company's e-inclusion efforts are all about collaborating with partners and communities to create sustainable solutions that are culturally relevant and increase access to information, create new opportunities, and empower the citizens of these communities to enhance their lives.

HP may not have a crystal ball, but it is cognizant that a vision of technology access for all can be achieved through a collective community partnership. It is through cooperative efforts and collaboration that this vision will be shaped and realized.

The organization was founded in 1990—as the Playing To Win Network—by the late Antonia "Toni" Stone, a former math teacher who during the early 1980s had started a computer technology center in the basement of a housing development in Harlem. In the early 1990s, Ms. Stone cooperated with EDC in an application to the National Science Foundation (NSF), which resulted in a five-year ($2 million) grant to support the extension of the network's services, the expansion of its membership, and its evolution into an independent, self-governing non-profit organization. The grant also supported sustained, professional evaluation of the Network and its affiliates. At the start of the grant the organization's name was changed to the Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet). Consistent with its NSF grant goals, CTCNet has now incorporated in Massachusetts as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization with a board of directors representing its affiliate organizations.

While at EDC and supported by the NSF grant, CTCNet and EDC staff produced several widely-used publications, including:

• The Center Start-Up Manual
• The CTCNet Evaluation Toolkit
• Who Goes There? Longitudinal Case Studies of Twelve Users of Community Technology Centers
• Computer and Communications Use in Low-Income Communities, a report prepared for the Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Impact of CTCNet Affiliates: Findings from a National Survey of Users of Community Technology Centers
• Community Technology Centers: Impact on Individual Participants and Their Communities

These publications have all been made freely available via the web and can be found at the CTCNet Publications web site.

For its blend of Internet-based activities, including web site and regional, national, and topical discussion lists, CTCNet was named the 1998 winner in the Public Access category of the America Connects Consortium funded through the U.S. Department of Education to provide technical assistance to community technology centers throughout the United States. In 2002, CTCNet joined with the Association of Christian Community Computer Centers (AC4) and the Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) to manage the Connections For Tomorrow (C4T) project, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Also at this time, the network was joined by 515 former PowerUP Centers.

Now, we are poised for growth in exciting new areas, from community development to regional organizing to international connections.

To the future, and beyond!

International Community Technology Programs

Linking with International Efforts to Bridge the Global Digital Divide

Using GIS Mapping to Build Community

Creating Public and Private Partnerships

Building a Learning Community--the CIS Learning Community

Making Community and Technology Fit

CTCs--Providing Access to the Power and Potential of the Earned Income Tax Credit for Low-Income Filers

CTCs & Local Schools

The World Bank: Global Development Learning Network

CTCs and Resident Associations as Partners for Community Empowerment

Tools & Strategies to Address the Realities of Class, Race & Gender in a CTC

Improving Social Service Accessibility Through Connecting Communities Digitally

We asked some of our colleagues for their memories of conferences past:

“I recall attending the 1995 CTCNet conference at the Capital Children's Museum in Washington, DC and meeting dozens of very wonderful people. Attendance at this conference was small, but it was exciting all the same. This was my first interaction with technology access activists from other cities. I see some of those same faces at current CTCNet conferences, and they seem like family to me. I love meeting new people at CTCNet conferences, but the old-timers have a special place in my heart. They're like childhood friends. We've been through so much together. To have seen CTCNet grow to its current size and stature has been amazing. And the journey has just yet begun.”—Phil Shapiro, Educator

”The Conference I have the most vivid memories of was the Pittsburgh Conference in 1997. The organization (now CTCNet) had grown. What was so great about that conference was that the energy of a growing grassroots organization was clearly evident. It was the last time CTCNet would have (at least for me) that feeling of being a very young baby almost able to walk, but not quite there yet. All wondrous and a bit unsettling at the same time. Contrast this with the Conference in Chicago, which was our first venture into the realm of upscale hotel venues. If Pittsburgh was CTCNet as a toddler, Chicago was our high school prom. We weren't accustomed to our new growth and the fancy duds, but we pulled it off. And Austin? It was so clear we had almost arrived. We were adults in the first real job with real responsibilities and a new family to take care of. The masses of people, the growing movement, and others were starting to look to us for guidance and support.”—Felicia Sullivan, Director, Lowell Community Technology Consortium

“I think the most significant year for conference growth was 1999 (Chicago), when the conference was moved from the college campus environment to a spacious hotel. The number of sessions and quality of presentations increased. By 2000 (Atlanta), presentations were made available online. I find the online materials from conferences to be VERY useful resources.”—Judy Hallman, Executive Director, RTPNet

“It was exciting and moving for me to observe the diversity present [at the] CTCNet conference in Atlanta. The racial and ethnic variety was impressive, and made a visible and dramatic statement about what is happening in CTCs around the country today. Just as exciting was the age diversity (at least one really cute baby was in attendance, and I know that Toni Stone was about to enter her eighth decade) and the "lifestyle" diversity. One friend commented that there were a surprising number of women in shoulder pads carrying big fat planners. (I was one of them, almost—this year I traded in my fat planner for a Palm Pilot that weighs about four ounces, which is a big win for the frequent traveler.) There were also representatives from city government, labor unions, religious organizations, corporations, and—of course—the Birkenstock crowd. I loved it. There aren't many opportunities for such a diverse group to come together in our society around something as positive as community technology centers. I am grateful to be part of what we are building.”—Laura Breeden, Director, America Connects Consortium

“At the 2002 CTCNet Conference, I was particularly amazed by the amount of local regional organizing occurring across the country. Folks were sharing information on why they had organized, what they planned to do with their coalitions and discussed the possibility of forming formal CTCNet chapters. To me, this is the beauty of CTCNet conferences. Regional organizing was not established as a priority for the 2002 CTCNet Conference but when we bring together grass roots CTCs, they define their own agenda, and end up sharing the information that is important to them, and at the same time, inform the CTCNet staff and board of the issues they are facing. And the best evidence of how the CTCNet Conferences have improved over the years is the quality of the snacks. At the 2002 CTCNet Conference we were treated to ice cream bars and warm pretzels. The attendees talked about it for days and even mentioned it on their evaluation forms. The importance of yummy snacks should not be underrated!”—Angela Stuber, Executive Director, Ohio Community Computing Center Network (OCCCN)

“I think the CTCNet national conference has evolved over the last five years into a wonderful community technology experience. In my opinion, there is not a venue like our conference that promotes genuine diversity in attendees and programs for our community initiative.”—Erroll Reese, President, CTCNet

This year, with over 1200 affiliate members, we are sure this gathering will be a source of community building, idea sharing, and organizing for our movement. We are all looking forward to this year’s conference being the best ever, and each year’s surpassing the last!

Richard Lowenberg

At the CTCNet Conference in Washington, DC, the AFCN Open Source Initiative and Awards will be announced. The initiative, which is promoting the creation of Open Source community networking software tools and application, is putting out a call for submissions, and will offer a financial award for best solutions.

Also, the organization's leadership will take the opportunity to discuss new strategies and future initiatives for the organization itself, with the input of all conference attendees who want to join in. Though initiated by early exemplars in the late 1970s and through the BBS days of the 1980s, the current version of Community Networking organizations and activities has been relatively the same for the past ten years, since around the time that the Internet went public. The times, they are a-changin'. It is time to rethink the context, needs, goals and actions that surround local community development in the "information society" to continue to give greatest relevance and effectiveness to the next generation of Community Networking initiatives.

AFCN is currently encouraging individuals to be candidates for Board and Officer positions. The organization needs smart, creative and influential new leadership. It's time for some of the dedicated "old guard" to rotate out of office, and for new humane energies. If you are technically skilled, or a builder of social networks, or an economic mover and shaker and are already too busy, you're the person we want. Give it some thought, then .

The AFCN web site offers information about the organization and about the many community networks that have spurred a movement, a wealth of online resources, research, lessons learned, personal contacts, and active links to site-specific experiences; and next steps to take in order to grow a community networking project where you live.

“Community mapping is powerful because of its capacity to democratize information—both what is recorded and who has access to it. When presented well, maps have the power to convey complicated information and relationships in a straightforward, accessible manner, enabling non-experts to participate meaningfully in community planning and advocacy.”—PolicyLink

How can a grassroots organization or community project make use of an expensive, technical tool like GIS Mapping for community-based social action campaigns? The first step is to see GIS as more than just a shiny acronym. GIS (Geographic Information System) is a catalyst for planning, implementation, and evaluation of local initiatives. Community planners can identify problem areas, compare densities of specific issues in their city (single parents, juvenile crime, traffic accidents, etc), plan events that are central to their constituents, and share and compare local information from their community to other communities and cities. By bringing GIS into the strategic planning phase of an initiative, stakeholders can better predict the effects and success of their programs. By using GIS as an evaluative tool, planners can demonstrate program results in ways that words alone simply could not reveal.

The next step in demystifying GIS is to separate the technology from the process. The Geographic Information System that enables “community mapping” consists of data, software to analyze the data and produce a visual representation, and the necessary hardware to store the raw data and the resulting presentations of the data analysis. There is a broad range of manifestations these three basic components can take—from paper, markers, and human minds to a high-end mapping utility loaded onto top-of-the-line computers with high-resolution laser printers. Although these two possibilities are extreme ends of the spectrum, the underlying process remains the same: collection and analysis of data for the purpose of creating an image that reveals trends, contrasts, and gaps in resources.

Both PolicyLink and Libraries for the Future (LFF) are involved in community mapping projects using GIS. PolicyLink has recently published a Community Mapping tool as part of a larger resource called the Equitable Development Toolkit. The Community Mapping section of this comprehensive toolkit identifies key information needed to assess the considerable public and private forces driving gentrification.

There is a “three-part recipe” for using GIS as a community building tool:

• Community knowledge and participation
• Data by geography
• Technology capacity

The conference session, "Using GIS Mapping to Build Community," explores GIS from a national perspective, followed by a case study of a youth-led community development project, focusing on the potential of GIS in community development and change, the value of collaboration and partnerships, and the public library’s role in the CTC movement.

Libraries for the Future is working with youth in four communities in Arizona to assess the quality and quantity of after-school programs. LFF offers one case study in community mapping from this program called “Communities for Youth,” shares its experience in exposing youth to GIS mapping as a tool for social change, and reviews the curriculum used in the program.

Community technology centers are everywhere, or so it seems. But, sometimes our efforts to find each other, to interact, and to collaborate seem a bit haphazard. That’s why we created the CTC Map and Database.

When I began working on the Community Computer Access Network (C-CAN) project nearly two years ago, I could confidently name only a handful of CTCs in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Part of my responsibilities as an AmeriCorps*VISTA for C-CAN was to track these centers and find new ones. I am happy to report that there are now about 70 CTCs in our database.

The CTC Database and Map was the idea that started C-CAN and has been the foundation for all other C-CAN initiatives. When we hold networking meetings and conferences it is to place a person with the dots on the map. When we recruit and match volunteers, it is to bring volunteers to the dots that need them. When we have meetings at City Hall with the mayor and his staff, it is to advocate for all of the dots on the map. It's all about the dots.

C-CAN will continue to connect the dots. Resources have been secured to complete the data collection and CTC Map and Database for 2003, and to publish it in a printed directory. At this time, we are looking for donations of printing costs—if you have any good leads, contact us!

Steve Wright was a high school teacher and administrator for ten years, and has been at salesforce.com/foundation as the Program and Technical Director for a little over two years. “And I did a couple other things in between,” he says.

My work with salesforce.com/foundation centers on community media. As I see it, there are two trends that make this work particularly important and immediate. First, the conglomeration of American media in the hands of a very few corporations has substantively locked individuals and communities out. The information that we get through the major corporate channels is run through an economic filter. Human stories and diverse opinions do not get heard. The second trend is the growth of technology and technology users to the point where it is now possible to produce quality media within a community for a local or a broader audience.

Specifically, salesforce.com/foundation has provided small community media grants to youth and community development organizations and then followed those grants with training and in person assistance to create quality, relevant media. To date, most of the work that has been produced falls in the youth media category. But, this is the easy part. The real goal of this work is to find audiences for the media. To do this we have built a web portal (www.youthspace.net) where much of this media is being streamed. It is our intention for this portal to become increasingly dynamic where content can be self-published and commented on by a broad audience.

Additionally, we are working with a group of community organizations in San Francisco to encourage our municipal leaders to hold Comcast accountable to the residents of San Francisco. This work has taken the form of community information meetings, testimony before the board of supervisors and convening of community media organizations to plan festivals and to trade resources.

Challenges

Political will:
Community Media is inherently political, and I am not necessarily referring to the content. The process by which an individual can be heard is a political process. To create a truly vibrant community media environment, the municipality must be involved and active in advocating this idea to the city’s cable provider. Many city leaders need to be educated about the benefit of taking this position. In many communities, cable companies are the sole or primary providers of television AND broadband. Broadband connectivity over cable is regulated in a way that gives cable companies a lot of latitude to filter or “favor” content. It is important that the community interests are reflected in the cable company’s decisions. Additionally, funders must have the vision to support community media projects even if the content is not supportive of their worldview. Democracy and free speech are perilously intertwined.

CTC role in Community Development:
While this is a challenge, it is also the most exciting part about our field right now. CTCs are growing from their foundation as public access facilities into two additional tracks that I can see: 1) technology assistance providers to other non-profits and 2) social change organizations that effectively use technology. (This is also demonstrated in the CTCs as Catalysts for Community Change study done for the Ford Foundation.) Because of this development, CTCs are now finding themselves convening neighborhood residents with other public and private agencies for purposes like creating community media or other civic engagement reasons. While this is a logical extension of a CTC’s technological expertise and community trust, it is a new role for many organizations.

I think both of these challenges can be summed up in the idea that community technology is very rarely about the technology.

The Rewards

The opportunity to work directly with a broad range of people to help facilitate their vision for their communities is extremely rewarding.

Some Words of Advice

I guess I have different advice depending on who is asking. For intermediaries or funders, the most valuable lesson I have learned is to get out of the way. The mistakes that I have made have been around pushing too hard on my agenda and not listening well enough to the people who provide the direct services to the community. Due diligence is critical, but once you have found an organization that you trust and you believe to be effective, let them do the work.

For Community Technology or Community Development folks, my advice is to seek out partners that that have complimentary competencies. The technological expertise that exists in CTCs is, in my opinion, under-utilized by other social change organizations. In a world where technology is more prevalent and more powerful, CTCs can position themselves to provide a whole new level of access—access to the ability to publish, the ability to be heard. This is also a very interesting social entrepreneurship opportunity. CTCs can provide training, web hosting, technical assistance, even connectivity to other community non-profits. If not for income, these services can be provided as a way to offset the costs of broadband (T1) connectivity, high-end technology or professional development.

Looking Ahead

What the future holds is more of the same. The ability to create media will continue to be easier and the corporate media outlets will continue to work to have their content seen above all other. I see a movement within the CTC community to provide access to the ability to publish, via cable TV and the Internet. This will be achieved through civic partnership with community and city leaders, with public access cable providers and with other social change non-profits who need increased exposure.

John Zoltner with Jane Oates, Senior Educational Advisor to Senator Ted Kennedy

In the last few years, CTCNet and many of our partner organizations have recognized that providing knowledge, support, and technical assistance to community technology centers (CTCs) is not enough to achieve our objective of a digitally-empowered society—without sustained governmental support, our objective will be difficult to reach. That support does not necessarily have to come in the form of new dollars—there are many ways federal, state, and local governments can support community technology without digging into their pockets—but our movement needs government cooperation. Through all of our policy activities, CTCNet reinforces the following beliefs:

• The Digital Divide has not been solved—in fact serious inequities of access and the ability to use technology and the Internet within the US population still exist. In order to ensure an educated and informed society in the 21^st Century, it is important to provide a network of public access and training points from a variety of sources, including CTCs, schools, libraries, non-profit organizations, government offices, and private and public homes.
• The United States cannot achieve equitable access among all Americans and adequate literacy for the 21^st Century if all levels of government are not focused on these goals. We advocate for local, state, and federal governments to provide leadership in the effort to connect those populations who have not yet achieved access to technology and the competency to use it.
• Because CTCs represent an extraordinary array of diverse communities, they serve as laboratories for developing innovative technologies, culturally appropriate content, original ways of applying technologies, and effective training strategies that benefit all segments of society, especially those that traditionally have not had access to computers, the Internet, or the skills to use them.
• Providing community access to technology is not just an option for schools, libraries, and non-profit organizations. It is a crucial element of fulfilling their goal to inform, educate, and serve the public in an equitable way. CTCs serve as a valuable partner to ensure that these organizations gain the capacity to provide access to technology that benefits the community.
• Because they often have the deepest reach and greatest effect in underserved communities, small faith- and community-based organizations are strong partners in the effort to eliminate the Digital Divide. As technology becomes increasingly important to their operations, however, they are caught in an organizational Digital Divide. We must ensure they have sufficient access to technology and the capacity to use it effectively, so they can maximize their impact in their communities.
• "E-Government" strategies should make government information and services available to the public through the Internet and other technologies. Not doing so lowers the quality of service, but doing so risks excluding residents without access to these technologies or the skills to use them confidently. Use of technology in government services must promote equal access to government and equal participation for all members of the public. The introduction of or changes in the use of technology by government must not reduce access or participation by the community and, whenever possible, should advance community access and participation.
• Because they provide the training and access necessary for residents to use government services online, CTCs are vital avenues to civic participation in e-Government services. E-Government projects should actively include CTCs in their planning efforts and take advantage of the reach of CTCs into the community to ensure that e-Government programs increase democratic participation in the government rather than limit it to those with access who are already skilled in the use of technology.

Specific advocacy actions that CTCNet has participated in this past year include the following:

• CTCNet was a founding partner of the Digital Empowerment Campaign, which brought together technology advocacy and civil rights organizations to advocate for sustained federal funding of the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) and the U.S. Department of Education's CTC initiative. It was this fight—which WE WON—that first activated CTCNet and our membership around policy issues.
• CTCNet is working with Rep. Nydia Velázquez's(D-NY) and Rep. John Larson's (D-CT) offices to provide background information for and help circulate a sign on letter asking Congress to raise TOP and CTC funding to their FY 2001 levels: $45 million and $65 million respectively.
• Through reports and other publications written by CTCNet or our partners and members, such as From Policy to Action: Profiles of Washington Area Programs Making Progress on the Digital Divide a report prepared for the Washington, DC Metropolitan Council of Governments, we continue to educate the public, government, and private sector about the extent and character of the Digital Divide in the United States and the community technology programs designed to eliminate it.
• Partner organizations, CTCNet chapters, and regional consortia of CTCs are coming together to educate legislators and directly advocate for support and funding for community technology centers. These efforts have been led by the efforts of the California Community Technology Policy Group, an outgrowth of the Computers In Our Future Initiative, which held its second annual community technology policy advocacy day in Sacramento on April 25^th. "Sacramento Day" brought 140 CTC advocates to the state capital to meet with close to 100 legislative offices. CTCNet-Chicago hosted a similar event on May 14^th. CTCNet affiliates in New York recently contacted CTCNet to organize a similar event. Though these efforts have been led by state and regional organizers, CTCNet hopes to take these local models and help to spread them to other areas by collecting and sharing information on events and education materials.
• CTCNet is organizing a similar national event in Washington, DC on June 26, 2003—the Pre-Conference activity day. During the event we will educate attendees from CTCs on why they should be involved in advocacy, train them on how to be effective advocates, and visit Capitol Hill and federal offices in order to make scheduled visits with legislators, regulators, and their staffs.

---

John Zoltner is leading the "Regional Organizing & Collaboration" session at the 2003 CTCNet Conference with Erroll Reese, President of the CTCNet Board of Directors, and Bill Callahan of Cleveland Digital Vision. He is the Director of Policy and Programs at CTCNet's Washington, DC office.
]]> 2005-06-14T07:04:00Z 2005-06-14T03:04:00-05:00 tag:www.comtechreview.org,2005:/summer-2003//2.217 2005-06-14T07:04:00Z
Sessions in this track include: Creating Public and Private Partnerships Community Technology Policy Strategies Regional Organizing & Collaboration How to Lobby Washington on $5 per Day The Department of Education Community Technology Centers (CTC) Program: Lessons Learned TOP & CTC:...
anonymous peterm@igc.org Policy & Advocacy Sessions in this track include:

Creating Public and Private Partnerships

Community Technology Policy Strategies

Regional Organizing & Collaboration

How to Lobby Washington on $5 per Day

The Department of Education Community Technology Centers (CTC) Program: Lessons Learned

TOP & CTC: Lessons Learned in Nearly a Decade of Federal Investment in Community Technology ]]> 2005-06-14T07:03:00Z 2005-06-14T03:03:00-05:00 tag:www.comtechreview.org,2005:/summer-2003//2.16 2005-06-14T07:03:00Z

Rep. Nydia Velázquez Though gaining support for community technology amid steep budget cuts in the current Congress has been a challenge, CTCNet has found champions in Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Rep. John B. Larson (D-CT), among others. Rep. Velázquez...
anonymous peterm@igc.org Policy & Advocacy

Rep. Nydia Velázquez

Though gaining support for community technology amid steep budget cuts in the current Congress has been a challenge, CTCNet has found champions in Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Rep. John B. Larson (D-CT), among others. Rep. Velázquez and Rep. Larson coordinated sign-on letters this May to the Appropriations Committees of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary in support of increased funding for the Community Technology Centers (CTC) initiative and the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP), both of which are once again slated for elimination in the Administration's FY 2004 proposed budget. These letters have been signed by 48 Congressional Democrats.

We recently spoke with Rep. Velázquez to learn more about this exciting initiative.

CTR: Why did you draft these letters?
Rep. Velázquez:Even though technology literacy has become a basic life skill that is vital to educational, economic, social, and civic achievement, the Bush administration is seeking to eliminate federal programs, like TOP and CTC, which aim to build these skills, especially in underserved populations. I didn't want this to happen, so I drafted these letters to ensure that funding for TOP and CTC is restored.

CTR: Why invest in TOP and CTC during a tight budget year?
Rep. Velázquez:Now is exactly the time we should be investing in these programs. Both programs require such a small investment up-front, and they yield a big return in the future. TOP and CTC are critical to community development and are an important contributing factor to our nation's economic prosperity. But these programs, along with others focusing on health care, housing, education, and small business, are being cut in favor of tax cuts for big business and the wealthiest Americans.

CTR: What was the reaction of colleagues when asked for signatures?
Rep. Velázquez: Given that these programs serve people in communities across the nation, there was widespread support among my colleagues for this letter. Members of Congress who signed our letter represent both rural and urban districts and serve a diverse constituency, including seniors and minorities. We succeeded in getting TOP and CTC funded last year, despite the fact that the President tried to eliminate them, and we are confident that we will succeed again this year.


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