BDPA, Closing the Digital Divide
In a time where someone can broadcast his political platform through
Vimeo and professionals get advice through
LinkedIn, there is still a need for a membership association that facilitates face-to-face meetings between information technologists.
BDPA is the national association on a drive to organize blacks in technology into a unified field of technological expertise. “Black Data Processors Association—as BDPA was originally known—was formed in 1975 by Earl Pace and others due to the lack of minorities in the field; a lack of preparation of black youth to enter the field,” explains NYC chapter president Renetta English, “and the lack of preparation for blacks in the field to move up the ranks.”
New York City has the sixth largest chapter with offerings for the business owner or employee; the student and black community at large. There is the monthly Meet and Greet for networking and program meetings to sharpen information technology and professional skills. “The High School Computer Competition was introduced in 1989 which has teenage teams build working models or complex software applications. BDPA birthed another teen collaboration project called IT Showcase in 2010. The IT Showcase has the youth research and present high-tech projects involving such issues as artificial intelligence and cyber viruses,” beams English.
The digital divide is a continuing concern. Though more blacks work in technology and far more are consumers of IT, the community still lags behind US white households. Black Family Technology Awareness Week (BFTAW) is meant to stem the disparity. BDPA board member Tyrone McKinney a group member that conceived BFTAW. “Eleven years ago, BDPA collaborated with 100 Black Men, Inc. and the
National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) to put on a week of events to expose people to different pockets of technology that includes software applications, personal computers and career opportunities,” states McKinney. “For example, a past BFTAW event had a talk about operating systems. Android, IOS, and OSX are variances of the open source operating system UNIX.”
BFTAW is held in February in honor of Black History Month. The recent NYC chapter offering included presentations on cyber bullying and careers in the gaming industry.
SoulRealis, ceo Sean Scott was the speaker for the gaming industry segment. Scott spoke to this writer before presenting. Scott noted that “there are not many blacks in the gaming sector. The major development careers are programmer, artist, audio engineer, quality assurance, designer, and producer.”
SoulRealis’ major product is Game Dev Master. This is a website that connects everyone required for game development. Scott quips, “In industry lingo this is a matchmaker.”
In very recent years—2011 included—New York’s BFTAW event has been sited off the beaten path. Rather than a Manhattan tech industry address or Brooklyn’s wired DUMBO area, the event has been deep in central Brooklyn. This year it was in Brownsville at the Abundant Life Christian Center. The church has high capacity seating and a state-of-the-art media center. While the verdict is out on what is optimal siting, the reader may view the proceedings on cable or online on BCAT. Stay connected with BDPA through its website www.bdpa-ny.org, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Labels: BDPA, digital divide
New York Uses Diamond to Close the Digital Divide
Across the globe in cities like Philadelphia, Paris, and Beijing citizens and institutions enjoy 24/7 high-speed Internet access, using broadband technology. Even
Manassas, VA (2006 pop. est. 38,066) has broadband over power lines, making the Internet as close as a wall socket. The Big Apple, however, is lost in its sauce. What blocks New York from closing the digital divide so that every section of the five boroughs has the latest in e-communications?
On July 30, 2008,
Diamond Management & Technology Consultants’ Chris O’Brien briefed the New York City Council, the Mayor’s Office, and the
Broadband Advisory Committee on the findings of a study of access, cost and connectivity challenges faced by NYC residents, small to medium size businesses and large businesses. Research uncovered that the demand for greater bandwidth that comes from streaming video and HDTV required replacing existing copper cables with fiber optics and installing it in uncovered areas. Existing cable services gave access to 98% of NYC residences and 87% of NYC residences had access through DSL. Actual subscription rates varied based on socio-demographics. For example only 26% of NYC Housing Authority tenants subscribed to broadband. A low subscriber rate is also the case for New Yorkers aged 50 years and over. The common reasons for not subscribing were the affordability of computers, the cost of monthly subscriber fees, the need for computer training, and not seeing the value of in-home access.
In fact, one-third of people accessing the Internet at public libraries that were polled stated the library was their sole source. About half of them go to the library three times per week for this purpose.
Business users were split between those having T-1 lines and using DSL. Large firms experienced lower costs due to their T-1 line investment, while small to medium size firms had comparable cost to those of residences if they chose DSL.
Shaun Belle,
Mt. Hope Housing executive director and chairman of the Broadband Advisory Committee and Jose Rodriguez, committee member and president
of HITN TV both recognized that the study validated what they knew as on-the-ground technology service providers.
New York City is the United States most populated city and its largest media market. To stay competitive internationally New York must get up to speed to that of San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia. New York City Council Committee on Technology in Government, chaired by
Gale A. Brewer (C.D. 6), exists “to make better use of technology to save money, improve City services, and bring residents, businesses and non-profits closer to government and their communities.” The city explains the relative slow pace in the roll out of municipal wireless and broadband infrastructure is due to a concern for avoiding quick obsolescence yet high installation costs. Another concern is using programs that effect technology adoption by low-income households. Given a significant proportion of black New Yorkers are low-income and/or residents of NYC Housing Authority properties, it’s imperative that we become proactive in our demand for technology so as not to become obsolete as the broadband infrastructure is laid.
Labels: broadband, Broadband Advisory Committee, digital divide, New York City, technology
Brooklyn Nonprofits That Shovel in the Digital Divide
The search for Brooklyn nonprofits that are closing the digital divide through broadband installation uncovered a few things. One, dead zones—areas where either cable TV or broadband technology is not supplied—exist in Brooklyn. They exist because the major cable companies don’t believe it is profitable to invest the wiring. Another, nonprofits need to connect with one another. When posed the question, “Do you know of nonprofits wiring buildings or installing Wi Fi in Brooklyn, Mirielle Massac,
Child Development Support Corporation’s (
http://www.cdscnyc.org/) PR Director, thoughtfully turned the wheels in her mind and came up blank. Massac suggested that this columnist set up an operation. You can imagine that I was honored.
The investigation hit pay dirt. Keep in mind that it takes many wheelbarrows full before you strike gold or oil. It included contacting eleven major Brooklyn nonprofits—nine are located in central Brooklyn. Most didn’t return the call. Two were ardent telephone tagging. One VP of Information Technology said, “…their website is not a priority…” Reaching the Nonprofit Help Desk (
http://www.nphd.org/) was the “Eureka!” moment. Nonprofit Help Desk’s Executive Director Chaya Abelsky interrupted her out-of-town vacation to talk about the nonprofit and arrange interviews with three staff members.
Nonprofit Help Desk’s mission is to increase the capacities of New York City's small to mid-size nonprofit organizations through technology and operations management services, education and advocacy. It is one of four arms of the
Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island (JCC). It is recognized to be the first nonprofit to provide technology services to other nonprofits. Nonprofit Help Desk was born from JCC Executive Director’s, Rabbi Weiner, early adoption of the Internet. By 1992, Weiner recognized that the Internet and computers could be powerful social cause and nonprofit management tools. It was a matter of sharing the message to other nonprofits and then getting them computerized and web-enabled. Evidently, he sold his case for technology to the, then, Commissioner of Community Development Agency (now Department of Youth and Community Development), Gladys Carrion. Commissioner Carrion granted funds for the future Nonprofit Help Desk, without a Request For Proposal. Today, Nonprofit Help Desk gives training in computerized bookkeeping, Intenet basics, sets up computer networks and security systems and connects nonprofits to broadband communication technolgy. June 2007, ushered in the online social network for nonprofits called Puzzle
http://www.puzzlenyc.org/. Leah Vincent, Director of Development, oversees Puzzle and explained that, though
Puzzle is in Beta version, it’s the online space for nonprofits “to gain emotional support, find resources, discuss issues and [just] connect.”
Nonprofit Help Desk’s Technical Services Department arranges the wiring and does the network installation. Yossef Heskiel directs the four-member department. Heskiel is a certified Microsoft Systems Engineer and was an Electronics Technician for the US Navy. He sums up the process in four steps: assessement, recommendation, infrastructure planning & design and implemetation. Three examples of this process are
St. John’s Place Family Center (www.stjohns.org),
Caribbean Women’s Health Association (www.cwha.org) and
Dwa Fanm (www.dwafanm.org). St. John’s Place Family Center is located in a dead zone in the western end of Crown Heights (1604 St. John’s Place). It has an employment center, afterschool center and day care at one end of the block and the administrative office and social services are at the other end. The group had fifteen AOL dial-up accounts which amounted to $700 - $800 in charges a month. Nonprofit Help Desk visited the offices in 2002 and recommended the installation of fractional T1 lines. Fractional T1 is a business class data transfer that is half the throughput of T1 data lines. Though more expensive than dial up, St. John’s Place Family Center experienced a savings of about $10,000 annually. The nonprofit’s Executive Director, Louis Rodriguez is pleased with the installation. Rodriguez says, “The fractional T1 line enabled us to cut internet-related costs. We now have better email service at much less cost…We had SharePoint—an intranet program—installed as part of the T1 installation. This improves our capacity to share information among staff.” Nonprofit Help Desk literally ran 300 meters of wires through 2 feet and 5 feet thick walls in the basement to connect the two ends of St John’s Place.
For
Caribbean Women Health Association is was the case of not needing or using the previous communication system which was a frame relay broadband system. It’s fine for frequent international communication but too much for local needs. The solution for this nonprofit was disconnecting the broadband and installing synchronous DSL. The nonprofit had been paying about $1,050 a month in Internet fees for 256 kbs; the new system gives 1.5 megabyte throughput for $329 a month.
Dwa Fanm operated using dial up Internet services and didn’t have computer network. Their solution involved signing with Roadrunner and configuring a network. Nonprofit Help Desk monitors and maintains hundreds of nonprofits’ computer systems with their remote technology monitoring system. This software is installed on the network servers and any glitches are emailed to the Technical Services staff’s Pocekt PCs. How’s that for being wired for success?
Labels: broadband, community, digital divide, Internet, nonprofits
Bronx Nonprofit Champions Broadband
The Bronx is steadily developing a reputation for being the home to nonprofits and businesses that make strides in bringing broadband telecommunication to all its residents. In 2006, Wired For Success profiled South Bronx Overall Economic Development Organization (SOBRO), Urban Television and Video, Per Scholas and the Digital Divide Partnership. Now it’s
Mt. Hope Housing Company (Mt. Hope) and its CEO, Shaun Belle, that are in the news. Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) nominated Mt. Hope and two other New York entities for the 2007 Intelligent Facility Award. While the award went to another nominee (see
Our Time Press, June 1, 2007), it is some feat to be recognized from contenders located across the globe.
Mt. Hope, a community development organization, set up a broadband network among its thirty-two buildings. The pilot project started in 2003 and included eight buildings. The original design consisted of one building serving as the base station. It was installed with CAT-6 cables, switches and routers located in the basement. Then, T-1 equivalent wiring runs up and through the walls to give juice to each apartment, ending at the roof. The roof was outfitted with a wireless access point that receives and transmits signals. This central building served the surrounding seven buildings that have antennae. These eight buildings permit two hundred low-income households to have high-speed Internet access. By 2007, all thirty-two Mt. Hope properties are wired using this configuration. Mt. Hope delivers online human services, business services and education services to 1,200 households. The current offerings are the family asset-building program and senior citizen computer training.
David Elcock, a Mt. Hope board member, stated, “Residents are charged between $12.00 and $20.00 for Internet access supplied by Verizon and DirecTV sends signals to the buildings. The cost to install the network was cheaper than a project of similar scope done in Manhattan.” This broadband infrastructure project was made possible through the concerted effort of Mt. Hope CEO Shaun Belle,
One Economy,
BCT Partners, and
Dot Org Technologies. One Economy is a seven-year old national nonprofit whose mission is to maximize the potential of technology to help low income people improve their lives and enter the economic mainstream. One Economy’s Board of Directors include executives from Fannie Mae, Wired magazine, Cisco Systems, and the FCC. Elcock explains that what was “key to making the project affordable was Cisco Systems’ donation of switches and routers as well as the contracted installers agreeing to comparably lower pay scales.”
If Shaun Belle has his way, Mt. Hope will continue its drive in real estate development, family asset-building and broadband infrastructure expansion. Belle is a graduate of Howard University and Columbia University Institute for Nonprofit Management. He has served on boards of many community and economic development organizations and he is currently the Chairman of the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee. The
NYC Broadband Advisory Committee was created to advise the mayor and the City Council on how to bring affordable broadband to all New York City residents, nonprofits and businesses. This committee will hold public hearings in all five boroughs to learn what’s at stake in making a high-speed Internet connection accessible to all New Yorkers.
It was the seat on the NYC Broadband Advisory Committee, followed by the Intelligent Facility nomination that brought Shaun Belle and The Bronx back into this columnist’s view. What is the Bronx and its nonprofits doing that the other boroughs need to do more of? In fact, The Bronx Borough President, Adolfo Carrion, hosted the first NYC Broadband Advisory Committee public hearing. One might have assumed Manhattan would have launched the public hearings. It’s home to Silicon Alley; it has the widest cable coverage and Councilwoman Gale Brewer, chair of the Committee on Technology in Government, represents the Upper West Side and Clinton. Is it a perception or a fact that The Bronx leads the way in bridging the digital divide? Keep reading this column for the answer.
Labels: broadband, class division, digital divide, technology
