About This Issue In his January talk given to the CTCNet New England regional quarterly gathering, William Mitchell, chair of the MIT Department of Architecture and Planning and author of City of Bits, talked about the major urban transformation that technological development is creating. "Consider the fiber being laid," he asked as he showed us a photo of an open manhole surrounded by safety cones with a policeman next to it and a work truck nearby. "Picture banks," which were once public institutions on Main St. with gothic pillars as befit their status and role, Mitchell continued, and then went on to discuss the placement of ATMs-now an acronym in the vernacular- first in banks, then all over, and the current movement towards home banking and electronic cash. Finally, he offered, consider bookstores, their long history, and the recent establishment and growth of Amazon.com, the online bookstore that is exploding with business. More and more materials are being published and made available on the web as well as through it. The shift is dramatic. Since Gutenberg, the basic publishing paradigm has been (1) to print and (2) to distribute. With electronic communication growing more and more ubiquitous, the reverse is now coming to be the case. It is possible for any major publication to be available instantaneously, any place where there is active telecommunications access. It can be distributed around the globe, and, with agreed-upon conditions, printed anywhere. City of Bits is, itself, an example-it is available free online and its hard copy version is a best seller (http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/City_of_Bits/). This issue of the CTC Review, v.4, #1, is another example. The 150+ pages available here integrate multimedia audio and video as well as traditional graphics. Moreover, much of the material here is dynamic; you can follow it and explore as many paths as you care to. This dynamism characterizes some of the special CTCNet departments as well as this issue's features. The online directory will be kept up-to-date by including members and programs as they join and their memberships are processed. The online "Letters" department allows on-going responses and reactions; we welcome your contributions here (send to ctcnet@edc.org). The "Resources" page, through the active links that it provides, will also be constantly updated. As with issues in the past, the CTC Review continues to cover a range of developments going on in the entire field of community technology, as well as some of the news, information, best practices, advice and support from and for CTCNet affiliates and others directly involved with center-based access programs. Consider our lead articles: "Telecommunications Policy is a Civil Rights Issue" is a major position paper for the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a project directed by the author, Mark Lloyd. The paper is a key presentation of the connections existing and needing to be strengthened between current telecommunications policy and traditional civil rights activism. We've linked it to Mark Lloyd's entire, unedited version, complete with notes, and to an edited version of Abdul Akalimat's informative discussion of the technology of cotton and automobile production and its influence on Black History-an essay designed to help us appreciate the full force of technological change on our social and political development. The link to the National Urban League connects all this work with one of the premier Civil Rights groups that is in the forefront of technology program development and policy leadership. Cary Williams' article on "Computer Centers as Library Outposts" links to previous articles about some of CTCNet's library affiliates and other technology projects going on in the library field, especially those of Libraries for the Future, with whom we share so many interests. Dale Abell's "Improving Accessibility for People with Disabilities" is linked to, among other things, some of the complementary programs and resources that were discussed in last month's "CTC Network News." "CTCNet and the Association for Community Networking" shares links with AFCN's home page and the federal Department of Commerce NTIA TIIAP program, which provides one of the major sources of funding for community networking projects. Community networks make up a growing and influential subgroup within CTCNet numbering in the neighborhood of eighteen affiliates. Steve Cisler's review of the June '97 All-Affiliates Conference in Pittsburgh is linked to multimedia conference interviews with the people you see pictured here. A special thanks to George Preston, Stan Poreda, and Max Gail for making all the equipment arrangements and conducting interviews. The Review features additional interviews conducted by Alla Yakovleva-with CTCNet Founder Antonia Stone and five center directors. Phil Shapiro's piece on Real Video, "Letting Community Voices and Images Be Heard and Seen," exemplies as well as presents a useful resource for any center exploring and developing multimedia. CTCNet Updated So much has happened with CTCNet since the last issue of the Review. To touch upon some of the major developments: Some new staff have come on board. Kate Snow is now coordinating several affiliate services, including our corporate donations/partnerships program and the Associates program for volunteers. Clifton Chow and Bart Wise have joined the evaluation staff and surveys from participants at a variety of affiliate centers are now being analyzed. Pierre Clark is providing some coordinating services in the Chicago area, where we hope to hold our next All-Affiliates Conference, although the date for this is not yet set. Cary Williams has left the Ohio Community Computing Center Network and Lisa Lockhart, formerly with the Columbus Urban League, is now sharing responsibilities with Marsha McDevitt-Stredney. We welcome Andrea Kimmich-Keyser back as our NY area coordinator and thank Stephanie McIntyre for her interim help. In the Southeast, we are pleased to have arranged for regional coordination services through SEIR-TEC, the SouthEast and Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium, one of six regional technology consortia established by the U.S. Department of Education. This was arranged and is being coordinated by Don Holznagel, SEIR-TEC's Executive Director and member of our Advisory Board. Throughout the summer, an election campaign was undertaken as the CTCNet Steering Committee elected its second set of members, most of whom convened this January in Boston to help set the agenda for the coming year on CTCNet's road towards affiliate self-governance. In 1998, the Committee plans to focus on engaging affiliates more in the long-term development of CTCNet. As we "go to press," CTCNet is a semi-finalist in three Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Awards-along with a number of our affiliates. Congratulations to the Clubhouse at the Computer Museum, recent recipient of the Peter F. Drucker award for nonprofit innovation. This and other affiliate achievements are noted in our new Awards Department. Some CTCNet staff are just back from the Annie E. Casey technology conference for their Rebuilding Community Initiative grantees. Staff are working with film maker David Brown, who is producing a documentary on community technology centers. We're attending meetings with ICF Kaiser to help implement HUD Neighborhood Networks technology center programs in subsidized housing developments. We've just finished a trip to Washington, DC, where CTCNet and a number of affiliates were featured at overlapping conferences being sponsored by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Alliance for Public Technology (APT). How to Stay Involved Of course, we won't be updating the Review constantly, but we will be doing so on a regular basis. If you'd like to support CTCNet and receive periodic mailings about its contents, new developments in CTCNet and in the growing arena of community technology, simply complete the form below and send it in. If you'd like to be more actively involved, let us know that, too. We'd certainly like to hear from you. We invite your involvement. - PM Community Technology Center Review, Winter/Spring 1998 Table of Contents