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Conferences
TOP's Networks for People 2001 was held on December 6 and 7, 2001, in Washington, DC. The conference focused on RESULTS — TOP projects that are making a lasting impact and continuing to work in their communities. In addition to nationally-recognized speakers on information technology issues, TOP recipients discussed how non-profit and public sector groups use digital network technologies.
TOP's
Networks for People 2000
conference was held on October 30-31, 2000, at the Hilton Crystal City at National Airport in Arlington, Virginia. The NFP conference provided a forum for more than 450 people to discuss the connection of people, information technology, and services transforming American life, bringing together leaders in the field of telecommunications and information technology to express their views on what's state-of-the-art now and, as we enter the 21st century, what the future might hold for information technologies and public policies affecting them.
Gary Chapman of the University of Texas 21st Century Project fielded a panel on the skilled worker shortage issue. The conference theme of non-profit entrepreneurship was covered by the panel discussions on "Entrepreneurial Thinking: Using the Network as a Business Tool" and "Entrepreneurial Action: Non-Profit Leadership."
In addition, TOP grantees and other pioneers in the field had an opportunity to share their experiences, as well as to talk about the lessons learned and innovations made as they developed their networking projects.
Read a report on NFP2000.
Networks for People, 1999:
Held November 1-2, 1999, in
Arlington, Virginia, and attended by more than 600
people. The following is a summary of the conference:
Public Service Networking Faces Many Challenges, Many Opportunities
from Technological Advances
Emerging technologies present new opportunities for the public-interesting
networking movement, but they pose enormous challenges as well, Gary
Chapman, director of the 21st Century Project at the University of
Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs told participants in TOP's 1999
Networks for People conference.
[To view Gary Chapman's presentation, click
here.]
Chapman, the keynote speaker at the annual conference, said that public
agencies and nonprofit organizations have "all sorts of new ways to show
people how to do interesting and innovative things in these sectors."
But after describing several not-so-appealing aspects of the information
society — including growing income inequality arising from differing
access to technology, as well as the Internet's contribution to "a
vapid and commercialized mass media culture" — Chapman urged past,
current and prospective TOP grantees to "tell people that the kind of
work you're doing is an essential part of the Information Revolution."
The two-day conference, which was held November 1-2 in Arlington, Va.,
covered a range of issues. It opened with a speech by
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D, ND),
who suggested that universal-service policies
such as those that have made basic telephone service nearly ubiquitous
in the United States should be extended to advanced telecommunications
services. "If we have a nation of haves and have-nots with respect to
broadband access, we almost certainly will have a digital divide where
there will be areas of the country that will grow and have economic
opportunity and others [that] will be left behind," Sen. Dorgan said.
"It will just be inevitable."
The roughly 600 participants who attended the gathering spent much of
their first day exploring practical issues that public networking
projects face: what kind of changes organizations must make so they
can take advantage of new technologies; what opportunities cutting-edge
technologies present for nonprofit organizations (and how to pay for
these new technologies despite tight budgets); how to sustain
telecommunications projects when federal grant money runs out; and how
to bridge the digital divide.
On the second day, participants saw a preview of a program the Public
Broadcasting Service will air January 28 examining the digital divide,
heard from a diverse group of people involved in international projects
designed to promote public-interest uses of information technology, and
observed a lively discussion among representatives of leading
foundations about their approaches to funding information-technology
projects.
In his speech kicking off the conference, Chapman predicted that the
key technologies of the next decade will include high bandwidth, which
he said will create "all kinds of capabilities" such as real-time
video-conferencing, real-time telemedicine, high-definition "virtual
reality" modeling, video-on-demand and more. He said wireless
networking will come into its own, too, and will be a "huge boon" for
nonprofit institutions — especially schools. In addition, he said that
digital television will allow for programming that is targeted to
specific neighborhoods and for the transmission of data along with tv
signals; he said public broadcasters and community networks should form
alliances to take advantage of this "great new frontier." What's more,
Chapman predicted that technological advances will lead society toward
"ubiquitous," or "pervasive" computing — that is, basic computing and
telecommunications capabilities will come to be vested in a wide range
of appliances other than computers.
Such innovations promise to bring new efficiency and convenience to our
lives, but Chapman said current trends present substantial challenges to
public-interesting networking efforts as well — challenges that will
require creative, new thinking. One challenge is the digital divide;
Chapman argued that Americans must come to recognize that the solution
to this problem does not lie simply in training individuals to develop
the technical skills required to get good jobs, but also in addressing
the difficulties that entire communities face. Education, training and
privacy also represent additional challenges that Americans have only
begun to address, Chapman added.
Yet another challenge, according to Chapman, is the possible spread of
proprietary networks, in which telecommunications-service providers
also control content. "It is not clear that we, as public-interest
networks, will have access to these (new) networks," he warned. "You
should be talking about open access, about public standards, about
public domain and about keeping the Internet free and open from end to
end so that we (don't get) locked out simply because we're not a
lucrative partner for the people who are delivering services to the
home."
While Chapman opened the conference by urging participants to look at
the big picture, a group of leaders from private foundations closed the
gathering on a more pragmatic note, discussing what funders are seeking
today in information-technology grant applications. In many respects,
their comments echoed concerns important to TOP.
For instance, Willem Scholten, executive director of the Gates Center
for Technology Access, said technology should not be the driver of new
projects. The Gates center, he said, wants to fund "programs where it's
not about technology, it's about a problem in a community." Andrew Blau,
program director for the Markle Foundation, said foundations are looking
for projects that carefully document what they do. "We don't see enough
people taking the time to build evidence showing the link between a
project and their goals," he said.
Similarly, the AOL Foundation's David Eisner spoke of the growing
importance of collecting data that demonstrates whether projects
have achieved their goals. "New technology is forcing a more
entrepreneurial attitude in foundations," Eisner said. Today, he
explained, funders are more focused on results.
The ultimate goal, however, remains much the same – namely, to enable people to control technology, and thereby ensure that it helps meet social needs, rather than let technology control us. Chapman captured the argument by suggesting that the title of his keynote speech — "Where is Information Technology Taking Us?" — should be revised. The real title, he said, should be: "Where Do People Want Information Technology to Take Us?" |
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Mario Morino, Chairman of The Morino Institute, opened with a keynote address which set the tone for the rest of the conference - the need to move from access to applications and outcomes in the information technology field.
Paul Schroeder of the American Foundation for the Blind also addressed the conference on the importance of inclusion.