SCN: RE: SCN 2: Special June 28th Meeting

[Joe Mabel]

I am not sure that I can make it to Wednesday's meeting (I have a late,
probably long, business meeting on the East Side that afternoon), so I
thought I'd try to share my thoughts in advance.

1. What are SCN's constituencies? This should not be a simple restatement of
our constituencies in the days when the Web was little more than a toy. I
would suggest that the current answer should be something like the
following, in declining order of importance. 
1A. People in the Greater Seattle area who -- for economic, cultural, or
other similar reasons -- are deprived of easy access to the Web and other
related technologies.
1B. People concerned with the creation and preservation of "public space" in
cyberspace.
1C. The Greater Seattle community at large, with an emphasis on
non-commercial aspects of that community.
1D. People pursuing similar goals in other geographic areas.

2. How can we best serve these constituencies?
2A. I would suggest that the answer for 1A may be very different from the
answers for the other constituencies. As J.K. Galbraith famously said, the
main thing you can do to help poor people is to give them money. The single
biggest thing we can do for people who can't afford access to the Web is to
(1) help them obtain computers and (2) help them obtain telecommunications
access. This may have very little to do directly with how we serve our other
constituencies. This involves things like recycling used equipment, hooking
people up to free or subsidized services which may be provided by groups
other than ourselves, etc. The biggest needs of this group cannot be solved
through a website, and I would argue that they cannot be solved by providing
them with access to an arcane, 1980s-style text-only menu-driven interface.
We need to work out how to provide these people with decent, reasonably
contemporary tools. I guess it's OK if they are 3 years behind the curve:
lots of people are. It's not OK if they are 10 years behind the curve.
2B. As for the rest of the constituencies, I would guess that a website *is*
the heart of how we can serve them.

3. We should know what other services are out there and direct people to
them rather than duplicating available services. We should try to support
other groups in what they do well instead of doing the same thing poorly.
For example, if there is a group doing a good job of recycling old
computers, lets help them and help publicize them instead of competing.

----------------------------------- 
I'm sure I'll have a lot more to say (including a lot about web content) if
I can make it on the night, but I felt that the above is what is most
crucial to have on the table.

----------------------------------- 
Joe Mabel
Saltmine
206.284.7511


-----Original Message-----
From: Steve and Melissa Guest [mailto:guests at scn.org]
Sent: Monday, June 12, 2000 5:39 AM
To: scn at scn.org; vol-announce at scn.org; vol-reserves at scn.org
Cc: SCN's ExComm Members; SCNA's Board Members
Subject: WEB: SCN 2: Special June 28th Meeting


Mark your calendars for 6:30pm, Wednesday, June 28 at the University
Branch Library (50th & Roosevlet)!  We're going to kick off the beginning
of SCN 2 with our first lively public discussion and brainstorming session
about the possibilities.

What is SCN 2?  Beyond a few pieces of new equipment, we're planning to
design, fund and build a completely new system and services.  We want your
help, first by telling us your hopes and dreams for what a new SCN system
could be capable of, and then (hopefully!) your assistance making at least
some of the dreams into reality.

For the 28th, we're planning to have fun fantasizing - no need for
practicality, and no critiquing of the ideas that are gathered during this
session (that comes later). 

We'll have a small spread of munchies - bring some to share if you are so
inclined.  Even if you don't have any specific thoughts on a new computer
system right now, come down just to see your fellow SCNers face-to-face!

This is only the very first of the input gathering efforts, so if you
can't make it, don't worry - we'll bug you again.  We will be using some
online input-gathering process as well, and will let you know as soon as
that is set up.

Hope to see you there!  If you know anyone who'd be interested, please
forward this message on to them!

 - Steve & Mel

-=- -=-=- -=- -=-=- -=- -=-=- -=-  -=- -=-=- -=- -=-=- -=- -=-=- -=- 
Melissa & Steve Guest, Co-Presidents           email: guests at scn.org
Seattle Community Network Assoc.                  ph: (425) 653 7353
http://www.scn.org/scna                              8am to 11pm PST
 
"Bringing People & Communities Together with Free Internet Services"

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