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Davis Community Network 1623 5th St., Suite I, Davis, CA 95616 Tel: 530-750-1170; Fax: 530-757-2938 www.dcn.davis.ca.us Corporation for Public Broadcasting Civic Networking Grant CPB Account # 80277/4210 Final Report July 1, 1998 to June 30, 1999 www.dcn.davis.ca.us/dcn/projects/cpb96 contact: Richard Lowenberg DCN Executive Director Narrative Progress Report This final Civic Networking report by Davis Community Network, covers the one year period of July 1, 1998 to June 30, 1999, and encapsulates the entire project from March 1, 1997 to June 30, 1999. It extends three months beyond the continuation to March 30, 1999, that DCN Executive Director, Richard Lowenberg, requested in late 1998, and was approved by CivNet Project Coordinator, Andy Carvin. This report builds upon the previous (2) Interim Reports, and brings the status of DCN’s CPB funded Civic Networking initiative up to date and to completion. The DCN Board of Directors and staff extend their thanks to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, for selecting DCN to participate in this important opportunity and to set examples for locally benefiting civic networking. 1. Development and implementation of services detailed in Workscope. In total, the DCN Civic Networking projects followed and resulted in the planned deliverables outlined in the original Workscope (Attachment A). In detail, there were a number of variations and alterations in the development and implementation of the project. (Attachment B) provides an outline report of the primarily personnel based changes that took place between the initial proposal and this final reporting, that were cause for changes in the funded projects. The main outcomes of our work have been an increased robustness of DCN’s regional community networking efforts, generally, and the creation of the WaterWorks environmental decision-support web site. The Project Evaluation reports on the lessons learned in the process. A. Task One: Geographic Information System, Document Database and Web Server Integration. This has been the most rewarding and fruitful of the project components. It has also been the most technically complex, and a focus for continued next-phase development. The WaterWorks web site, in its current iteration, has been publicly online since mid-1999. Its use to augment regional watershed decisionmaking is still very limited, increasing after being highlighted in newspaper articles, or after demonstration to potential user groups and project partners. The most critical lesson learned in the development of the WaterWorks project, has been how truly difficult it is to understand the inherent processes of decisionmaking in this arena, and to create an Internet-based complement to such processes. Our work on development of a software solution to integrate numerous web functions in real time, has not been completed as planned. Requiring renewed effort, it will need to incorporate technical capabilities, not available or selected by our team two or even one year ago. As a result, WaterWorks is much more of an information resource site, than the intended decision-support site. It is nonetheless, a most valuable building block among DCN’s civic networking tools, and the focus for committed next phase development. The WaterWorks web toolkit consists of GIS and document data; public and private conferencing; search engine; numerous relevant information resource links; calendar; glossary; and metadata forms. (Attachment C) The WaterWorks web site is located at: www.dcn.org/waterworks B. Task Two: Implementation of a Volunteer Recruitment and Management System for use by the Davis Community. The Volunteer Management project began better than it ended. Early intentions and collaborative actions were subjected to the deconstructive forces brought on by loss of key partner personnel and resulting shifts in partners’ prioritization. The Volunteer Management web site has not been as effective as intended, and has been eclipsed by some similarly intended and important national organization models. Our more locally focused site, though underutilized and too technically sophisticated for many of the intended users, has nevertheless served as the catalyst for some important cooperative accomplishments. In May 1998 DCN facilitated a Volunteer Management Summit, followed by a series of web design classes for volunteer organizations in June 1998. As a result, DCN now has a strong working relationship with Volunteer Connections of Yolo County, and numerous other regional volunteer-based non-profit organizations. The DCN Information Providers Committee (IPC) , through its Sponsored Projects services allocations and work with over 50 regional non-profits (Attachment E), has additionally set regional and (inter)national example as an important aspect of community networking. This work continues to develop as the Internet becomes a critical tool for non-profit communications and work. The DCN Volunteer Management Database is located on the web at: ayso.dcn.davis.ca.us/volctr/ Organizations that attended training and made web pages, can be found at: dcn.davis.ca.us/go/volctr/orgs/ The agenda and information about last May’s Summit, can be found at: dcn.davis.ca.us/dcn/volunteer/may_conference.htm (Attachment D) DCN IPC Sponsored Projects since 1997, can be found at: dcn.davis.ca.us/dcn/IPC/IPC_projects.html C. Task Three: Utilization of Regional Technology Demonstration Centers for Education and Outreach Activities. The City of Davis Computer Training Lab has, in the past two years, become DCN’s primary community training and outreach facility. Over the past two years, free public classes have been held every Monday evening, except during holidays and through the hot Summer. The City Lab has also been the site for DCN Board and Committee meetings, and many project working group meetings. The UC Davis SunTREC Lab, an original partner in this project, was used initially, prior to changes in its prioritized use. In 1998 it closed for a period of time, and is now being converted to an NT Lab with a different educational focus. The Yolo County Office of Education (YCOE), serving all school districts in the county, has become an increasingly valued partner to DCN and its Yolo Area Regional Network (YARN) initiatives. The YCOE facilities in Woodland, include numerous large meeting rooms and training labs, with video conferencing capabilities. We have used these facilities frequently over the past year and a half, including for the Fall 1998 YARN Summit on Schools, Libraries and Telecommunications, attended by about 100 representatives from K-12 schools; libraries; higher education; educational hardware, software, support and training companies; telco’s, local government and parents. University of California at Davis continues to be a vital partner, often making a variety of facilities available for DCN public working meetings, presentations and outreach. Other facilities utilized to date are the Davis and Woodland Senior Centers; International House (for frequent meetings with Japanese and other foreign visitors, who are most interested in DCN as a “most successful example of community networking in the US”); and the Davis Public Library. DCN also provides free Internet access and public access terminals at these and about a dozen other sites around Davis and other regional communities, where training can take place. Task Four: Evaluation and Assessment of Project Success. In addition to successes, this section will report on variations, failings and lessons learned in the course of DCN’s Civic Networking Project initiative. Due to key staff and partner losses and changes over the last three years, this component of the project has not been completed as proposed or initially planned. Without a dedicated Evaluation Team, and with only sporadic public assessment, surveys and reporting, meaningful evaluation has given way to more personally experiential, in-the-field assessment of progress, failings, needs for greater attention, successes, lessons learned and needs-determined next steps. This, it turns out, is not unusual circumstance for small community non-profit organizations, and especially for community networking initiatives, in this time of rapid technological and social change. The Volunteer Management and the WaterWorks project have been realized differently than intended. Their ultimate objective, enhancing civic participation and effectiveness through Internetworked processes, has been achieved though. We also have far to go, yet. Our challenge is in working cooperatively over the long term. Overall, DCN is recognized as an important, successful example for community networking. As such it is a member organization in the Association for Community Networking (AFCN) and Community Technology Centers (CTC), and continues to be a premier example in the California Smart Communities Project. It also garners more than its share of international attention (Japanese exchanges), especially through the outreach, publishing and creative efforts of Executive Director, Richard Lowenberg. Regionally, DCN and its YARN project have nurtured ever greater organizational partnerships and working relationships, most recently with County Housing Authority and the Mario Obledo (Latino) Center, in Woodland. All of our CPB funded and other community networking works are having valuable public benefit, including a narrowing of the “digital divide” through hand-held, person to person promotion of universal access in this region. At the same time, DCN is, like most community networking organizations around the country, extremely fragile; continually having to re-evaluate and thereby re-invent itself. The services DCN offered over the past three years are not needed in the same way in the upcoming years. As a result of self-assessment and lessons learned by the DCN Board and Committees, the DCN organizational structure is being re-assessed, and may require restructuring, to most effectively serve this corner of the evolving information society. The future of DCN’s role in the community holds both frightening and exciting prospects, which go to the heart of intended sustainability. 2. Exploration of the relationship with local, regional and national educational, computer networking, broadcasting and other telecommunications services, beyond those of the original relationship. Much of this has already been stated elsewhere in this report. DCN continues to participate with DCTV and County Elections Office on web site coverage of candidates and issues, and live cablecast of election night results, receiving special recognition from the California Voter Foundation and the local electorate. The WaterWorks project, specifically, has served as the foundation for numerous new working relationships and exchanges, as listed on the web site. Richard Lowenberg continues to represent DCN at national conferences and workshops, including the annual Rural Telecommunications Congress in Aspen; NTIA-TIIAP Conferences in DC; and Government Technology Conferences in Sacramento. Contracted by the California Smart Communities Institute, he continues to work with numerous northern California communities on community networking development, and has proposed the integration of networking processes with new Smart Growth initiatives in the greater Sacramento region. Richard was the keynote presenter at the NTT Data Inforum in Tokyo, in the Fall of 1998, and at the invitational Digital Cities Workshop in Kyoto in the Fall of 1999 (proceedings to be published in 2000 by Springer Verlag); and now serves on the NAS/National Research Council’s Committee on the future of local broadband deployment and policy. Papers and resource links can be viewed on Richard Lowenberg’s personal web site: www.radlab.com/telecommunity/ 3. Status of services currently available. DCN now has over 2,000 online accounts. Managed by our current ISP partner, Omsoft Technologies, these include full dial-up, shell, web, DNS and virtual hosting, listserves, ISDN and new DSL services subscribers. With diligent efforts by DCN and its regional networking partners, Pacific Bell moved forward its plans by more than a year, and has recently begun to offer ADSL services in this area. Omsoft has installed an OC-3, broadband connection from DCN’s NOC (network operations center) to Pacific Bell and the Internet backbone, allowing DCN subscribers to have DSL access in Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento and Sacramento. (Attachment F) DCN’s Information Providers Committee (IPC) and the Web Team continue to be our most active and community benefiting volunteer groups. Attachment C is a list of all past and current IPC Sponsored Projects and their status. The work of DCN’s all-volunteer Web Team can be seen online. The Web Team promotes open source web solutions; ADA compliance; and other appropriate use and web design procedures for greatest public access and participation. The Web Team is also promoting the public use of WebBoard conferencing tools, to promote online civic conversations. Use by neighborhood groups and at election time, have been most pronounced. DCN’s role relating to ISP services is changing, in response to local needs and circumstances, and recent IRS rulings regarding non-profits and commercial services. Possibilities being examined range from becoming a membership based cooperative or municipal information utility, to recommending many ISP’s that support the community. 4. Status of demographics for local area currently having access to services. Not much is yet to be added to previous reports. Though DCN is moving towards a more regional services territory and sphere of influence, most real work is still focused on Davis and Yolo County. We have begun to provide bi-lingual Spanish-English web sites, especially for our migrant farm worker project and to reach the large Hispanic population of the region. DCN Internet subscribers include university students and faculty; senior citizens; government, schools and library staff; environmental activists; farmers; businesses, community interest groups and families. 5. Status of the number of users, and the frequency and nature of utilization. The DCN web site is the primary portal for Davis information, receiving over 100,000 hits per week, consistently. The number of DCN subscribers continues to increase, with support from ISP partner Omsoft Technologies. Internet subscribers are only a small portion of DCN’s community networking interest. Those having online access from any other national or local ISP can still participate and gain from DCN services. Our goal is primarily to educate and inform, so as to nurture responsible, healthy and vitally participatory community. 6. Status of the host Internet server and communications systems. DCN is fulfilling its role as a community Network Operations Center, with new OC-3 connection to the Internet backbone, and fiber ATM, T-1, DSL, ISDN, wireless spread spectrum and dialup modem connections offered to subscribers. Three Sun servers and two NT servers support users and their applications. We are fortunate to have an excellent network administration and support operation in place. 7. Creation of the electronic base map. The City of Davis base map was converted from an inaccurate AutoCad file, to a near accurate ArcView/ArcInfo file posted on the web; currently located under Mapping Resources in the WaterWorks and YARN (www.yarn.org) sites. 8. Development of the Toolkit, the Toolkit Workshops, and the online versions of the training curricula and workshop outlines. The civic decision-support toolkit became toe foundation for the WaterWorks web site. Workshops, training curricula and outlines of workshops are also posted on the web, in the WaterWorks, Volunteer Management and YARN sites (see Item 1A and B). 9. Status of the local training activities as well as demonstrations of the project. Over the past year, the DCN Training Committee has been very active. Except during hot Summers and holiday periods, DCN has conducted volunteer led classes every Monday evening, for the past two years. Less frequent, but well attended classes were conducted previously. Free public classes are announced in the Davis Enterprise newspaper, and on DCN’s all-subscribers listserve: DCNews. Classes (and many DCN Committee and Board meetings) are held at the City of Davis Computer Lab, which contains 12 networked PCs, projector, white board and conference seating area. What has changed ? (Affecting the DCN Civic Networking Project) A number of organizational and personnel changes have occurred during the two years from beginning to end of this project, that have had large effect upon its process and outcomes. Fragility of non-profit organizations and of community networking initiatives, and frequent changes in personnel in the public sector, should not be a surprise, but they never-the-less have unexpected and difficult to plan for consequences. Following is an outline listing of the changes that DCN has attempted to navigate through in working to nurture a more democratically serving community networking initiative in the Davis region. (*) currently active University of California at Davis: primary faculty and staff departures. Vicki Suter: UCD IT research staff person and founding UCD liaison to DCN as a Board member, 1994-1998; author of CPB grant proposal, and primary project investigator and evaluation team coordinator; now contracting to EDUCOM. Joan Gargano: UCD IT Director, -1998; Founding DCN Board member, 1994-96. Carol Barone: UCD IT Vice Provost, -1998. * Russ Hobby: UCD ANSA Director; UCD-DCN liaison, 1998-. Geoffrey Wandesford Smith, SunTREC Lab (interns): Partner on CPB Grant; could not fulfill obligations through grant period, due to changes in SunTREC Lab obligations and priorities. County of Yolo: Major staffing changes and priorities over the last three years, have made County participation on CPB grant obligations much less than proposed. County IT Department has had an unspeakably turbulent past two years, making any commitments, and partnered work with key personnel nearly impossible. City of Davis: Important staff and project team members have moved on to jobs elsewhere, though our overall relationship continues to be strong. Lynn Maynard: City IT Director, and DCN Board member, 1994-97. Cathy Capriola: Assistant City Manager, and DCN/YARN liaison, 1998. Karl Mohr: City Finance (and GIS) Director, and CPB grant liaison, 1997. * Rick Guidara: City IT Director, and DCN Board member, 1998-. Volunteer Connection of Yolo County (former Volunteer Center) Joann Bisente: Director, 1997-98; resigned. Jennifer Carr: Project liaison, 1998-99; resigned. * Robert Lehman: Project liaison, 1999- ISP Partner AC&C: 1997 CWNet: 1998 * Omsoft Technologies: 1999- Davis Joint Unified School District: administrative departures, replacements, and new network. * Like the County, the DJUSD has been going through a turbulently difficult period, making long range cooperative efforts difficult. Work with individual schools, staff and teachers has been wonderful. DCN continues to provide the District with high speed (ISDN) Internetwork access and other service exchanges, as specified in an annually renewed MOU. Major replacements have taken place at the top District administrative and leadership level, including Superintendent, Business Director, Curriculum Director and Personnel Director. YARN (partners, not otherwise listed): * West Sacramento: * Woodland: * Winters * Yolo County Office of Education * Yolo County Libraries Additional Support and Partnerships: California Smart Communities Project: 1998-99 Project liaison, Marco Walshok, passed away unexpectedly in mid-1999. USGS National Spatial Data Infrastructure Program: 1997-99. Army Corps: Hydrologic Engineering Center: 1998. ESRI, Inc.: 1998 Pacific Bell: 1998 USDA: Natural Resources Conservation Service, Resource Conservation District, Farm Bureau National organization membership, and international exchanges: * AFCN * CTC * NTT Data and NTT Open Lab, Japan: 1998-99 Davis Community Network Board of Directors: an active Board, with 14 current members; approximately half serving since 1996, and half since 1998. Committees: some more active than others, depending on volunteer commitments. * Executive Director: Richard Lowenberg: late 1996-. CPB Project Manager. For list of conference presentations between 1997-99, see: www.radlab.com/telecommunity/dcn Aaron Vinck: Administrator, 1996-97. Lisa Matlock: Volunteer Coordinator, 1997. Juliet Mende: Administrator, 1997-98. Annie Zeidman: Administrator and GIS specialist, 1998-99. Contractors: Steve Edberg: Programmer, 1998. * Richard Reid: Web designer, 1999 Yolo County Demographics
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Last Revised: January 7, 2000