THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING
1996 CIVIC NETWORKING GRANT PROPOSAL
A CIVIC NETWORK AS A STRATEGY FOR BUILDING A "SMART" COMMUNITY
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A regional partnership of the University of California (Davis), Davis Community Network, City of Davis, Yolo County (Community Development and General Services agencies), and Yolo County Volunteer Center is designing and implementing new Internet-based civic networking services built on the existing Davis
Community Network and Yolo
Area
Regional Network telecommunications infrastructures. This partnership is developing on-line communication tools and specialized information
content on the Davis Community Network in three areas: geographic information systems, specialized document web service, and an on-line volunteer management and coordination sys
tem. These new resources will be showcased at three newly-developed regional technology demonstration centers through demonstrations designed to educate, inspire and convince, and through an educational program for
local governmental staff, elected officials, and the public. The resources developed as a consequence of this project will be made available throughout the County, and all tools developed will be provided for free in the public domain.
The proposed areas of application and content development-geographic information systems, and specialized document web service-will allow local governmental agencies throughout the Yolo region to provide on-line access to valuable information that is not
now readily available (such as the county code, and comprehensive land-use and zoning maps). The goal is to increase the quality of community-focused content, particularly with information that can assist in the public discourse and decision-making invol
ved in civic processes such as general planning, zoning and evaluation of Environmental Impact Reports. The overall objective is to support community problem-solving, especially in the area of watershed issues, by providing information resources and too
ls to the public as well as governmental and educational organizations.
The volunteer management and coordination system will aid in recruiting (and documenting) volunteer staffing for the project itself, and provide a tool for the hundreds of volunteer-based organizations in Yolo County. In addition to content and tool devel
opment, the project has an outreach, training, and public awareness component to help the public and local government officials understand the potential use of these tools, through the use of regional distributed technology demonstration centers connected
to the community network. Sites include UC Davis SunTREC lab, Woodland (a new training facility) and City of Davis.
Eighty thousand dollars of CPB funding is being provided to support the implementation of these new services, for software and network development, world wide web design (for very large complex documents using document web server software), consulting, pu
blic education and training. One-tenth ($8,000) will be for the purchase of communication equipment; the remainder will be distributed among the partners to develop applications and content. The CPB grant is matched by $144,560 in in-kind funding from t
he partners.
UC Davis partners include the SunTREC lab at UC Davis (an existing government technology demonstration center sponsored by Sun); as well as the Distributed Computing Analysis and Support and the Advanced Network and Scientific Applications departments of UCD's Division of Information Technology; the City of Davis; Yolo County; the Volunteer Center of Yolo County; the Davis Community Network, a
501 (c) (3) non profit which has been operating a community network for the past several years; and the Yolo Area Regional Network. DCN is the fiscal agent for the grant.
For more information, check the detailed project web pages, or contact Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director of the Davis Community Network (rl@dcn.davis.ca.us, 750-1170).
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