Project Goals

1. Provide Internet Access, Electronic Mail Addresses, Communication Software, High Speed Modems to 50 Community Organizations, and Subsidized Access for an Additional 100 Nonprofit Organizations. The UIC Academic Computer Center will provide remote dial-up access for the core 50 community organizations. The subsidized Internet access for the additional 100 nonprofit users will be negotiated with private local suppliers of remote dial-up Internet access.

2. Provide Telecommunications Training and Online Information Education. The curriculum will focus on the basics of effective telecommunications and on adding value to online information through collaboration and application to user needs. Training will include lecture-based demonstrations on the concepts and potential of the system and hands-on training to teach the specific skills required. ITRC's regular offerings in computer literacy and application training will also be available. All appropriate training documentation will be developed and provided by UIC's Academic Computer Center and the ITRC.

3. Promote Innovative Interaction between Information "Haves" and "Have Nots" and Cross Cultural Communications. Outreach and education to community organizations will emphasize the need for providing information content while encouraging faculty, staff, and community development professionals to interact with online community-based information in their research, writing, and planning. Further, the early findings that electronic networks help "level the playing field" suggests that information interaction between the Mexican-American, African-American, and academic communities may lead to broader community development coalitions organized around information interaction. In turn, cross cultural information interaction has the potential to raise a community's understanding of itself, its relationship to the outside world, and the outside world's understanding of Chicago's under-represented communities.

4. Seed the Development of Youth Oriented Electronic Grassroots Think Tanks. In two youth-oriented, community-based computer education labs--one in both adjacent neighborhoods, multimedia computers will be provided to allow for hyperlinked multimedia (Netscape) access to the Internet. Students will be encouraged to develop World Wide Web content relevant to online discussions regarding community development.

5. Provide Gopher and File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Clearinghouse Services for the UIC Neighborhood Initiative Program. A UIC gopher server and FTP site will be established to provide online access to relevant documents, resources, and scheduling data to facilitate information dissemination between UIC, community organizations, nonprofits, and donors. Each program area will have its own FTP directory and gopher menu subsystem.

6. Provide Gopher-based Pointers to other Internet Information Relevant to Housing, Economic Development and Jobs, Community Education and Health, and Nonprofit Management.

7. Provide a Searchable Online Version of the Donors Forum's Philanthropic Database.

8. Provide Wide Area Information Services (WAIS) for Selected Documents on Chicago Area Empowerment Zone/Enterprising Communities, Affordable Housing, Community Planning, and Nonprofit Management. WAIS capabilities allow for full text searches. This service will facilitate quick research on Chicago area community and nonprofit development.

9. Establish two Listservs: UIC Neighborhood Initiatives Community Partnership and Nonprofit and Donor Community Listservs. Listservs will be used for frequently updated notices and lists such as calendar events, government and media listings, request for proposals and awards, jobs and internships, and technical assistance needs and availability.

10. Establish three Online Conference Forums: UIC Neighborhood Initiatives Community Partnership, Nonprofit and Donor Community, and Network Evaluation and Comment Conferences. Conference forums will be provided for ongoing, issue-oriented dialogues. This allows for long-term online community building around critical thinking about public policy and opinion, program development, management and training issues, collaboration, and outreach. A conference dedicated to the evaluation of this network provides a forum for daily feedback on this project. It also allows project staff to respond to user needs and concerns in a timely manner. Further, conference forum archives will help new users become quickly familiar with the nature of this online community.