I agree with MIchael. Public policy making in the US seems to have been taken over by powerful, wealthy, special interest groups. In many ways, it is a dinosauer that most of us cannot influence. Those of us working in small charities and who lead intermediary efforts that connect people, knowledge and resources, are not even on the radar of most public leaders.
My goal is to connect individuals from around the country (and the world) who want to help kids and families who need more help, and who understand the power of tutoring/mentoring to create a personal bond between those who can help and those who need help. Using the Internet we can connect people and ideas, into a grassroots movement that can a) solve some problems that government is not solving, using private sector resources more creatively and more efficiently than government programs; and b) elect representatives who will be more responsive and provide more leadership to the issues that we raise The result of point <a> and point <b> may make it unnecessary to have government involved, or it may provide motivation for government policies to evolve to a system that is more consistent in its support, and that distributes its help to all of the places where help is needed, not just to a few high profile places, and not just when the media is putting on the pressure. While this may, or may not, be the mission of the Digital Divide Network, or many of those who participate, it is the mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Thus, my participation here is to share ideas that others might use and to extend and invitation to anyone who might want to participate in T/MC events and actions that focus on point <a>. Dan Bassill Tutor/Mentor Connection http://tutormentorconference.bigstep.com Original Message: ----------------- From: Michael Maranda [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 15:03:33 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [DDN] Educating the philanthropic community Thank you Mike G. for jumping in here. Your points are salient. I do agree and wish for greater meaningful public policy effort in the US on these issues, and don't mean for this conversation to be dominated by US perspective. But, still, will speaking from that perspective: It's my view that if the Philanthropic community began to take this (our issues) seriously, that would lead to a general shift in the policy climate, and our efforts to push for public (govt) sector involvement would have broader support. That's my logic on local and regional levels, where I think we need to push at present. ____________________________________________________________________________ Michael Maranda President, The Association For Community Networking (AFCN) http://www.afcn.org Executive Director, CTCNet Chicago Chapter http://www.ctcnetchicago.org Co-Chair, Illinois Community Technology Coalition (ilCTC) http://www.ilctc.org Vice President, CAAELII http://www.caaelii.org Vice President, NPOTechs http://www.npotechs.org Join us for Digital Neighborhoods: Connecting All Chicago to the World, October 20th! http://www.ctcnetchicago.org/event Attend the Illinois Community Technology Conference, November 16-17, 2005. http://www.ctcnetchicago.org/conference -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gurstein, Michael Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2005 6:40 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: RE: [DDN] Educating the philanthropic community Although the conversation has drifted away, I still find the title of this thread somewhat interesting. It is probably only in the US where such issues of broad public significance and interest as the Digital Divide would be seen as being a primary responsibility of private "philanthropy" (read "charity") rather than as a major element of public policy. For better (and sometimes of course, for worse), all of the other OECD (read Developed) Countries have approached these issues (with more or less interest and commitment) through public funding rather than through the privately administered consequences of a deeply flawed tax system. I would have thought a more useful topic of discussion (even in the US) would be how to educate the political community and more importantly how to influence the political process and public policy concerning these matters. As for the initial focus of this discussion, again in a properly and equitably funded public education system one of the necessary elements would be appropriately (and publicly) supported repositories of information and resources concerning the DD (as for example, is the DDN website) among other areas. Of course, and necessarily, maintaining the free flow of discussion, comment and critique such as is the content of this e-list should always be left to those most directly concerned rather than public officials. Mike Gurstein -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: October 8, 2005 11:46 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [DDN] Educating the philanthropic community In a message dated 10/8/05 5:33:18 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > I don't think we can, but I am certainly learning a bit more about the > culture of 'the funded world'. > Everyone in the conversation is not funded. Unfortunately, or otherwise, some of us do what we do to help where there is no other way that those we work with can be assisted. Sometimes interesting things happen. I paid my way to go to a Global Forum, to which I was invited , and became the editor of a book, on the very ideas we are discussing. It took me a long time to get out of "America think" and then into global think,... and the forum was exciting because people were face to face and the conversations we had were.. well , sometimes a little more heated than here. Funders were helping in developing nations , and one person from a big funder, got up and said that there were no problem in such and such a country. His funder was creating the infrastructure for the whole country.. etc.. etc. Well, I had worked recently in that country and girls were not included in rural areas in the technology and the Queen had a project to help them. Then the people wanted to query content. Indian Schoolnet has, according to some, taken local content , and local languages to put on the net, and, follows up on the teachers who were trained to see if they can indeed, use what they were taught in training. There were many points of disagreement. One woman simply says that they will use old computers and explains why.. you can imagine that we had lively conversations. In creating the forum, there were invited people who think about "gender". Of course the majority of people in power were men, and some were new to ICT. It is good that we can share ideas and learn here. My point about women was only from experience. Carrying water in bronze vessels on the head.. not my cup of tea. Gathering sticks for firewood.. the wood is less and less available. I don't know the answers..but it is good to think ! Bonnie Bracey Sutton bbracey aol com _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
