Re: [CDAA-Talk] Registration Open For 1st Chicago Neighborhood Digital Excellence Conference and Technology Fair

[Pierre Clark]

Everyone:

This is Pierre Clark. Hope everyone has enjoyed their summer despite the record heat! 

The conference registration page for our conference is now up at http://dexcon2010.eventbrite.com. The website is up at http://www.digitalexcellence.net. The next planning committee meeting is Thursday the 9th at 4:00 p.m., @ Columbia College, 218 South Wabash, 7th Floor.

Our speakers/presenters list is growing, with some of the most knowledgeable neighborhood technologists in the country sharing advice, insights and strategies. Check the website often for speaker bios, conference day schedule and more! You can also register through the website. Registration is fast, easy, and you can use credit cards, debit cards, echecks, or cash to secure your registration.

Many people have asked: "Why a conference on digital excellence and what makes your conference different from the other events and conferences that are going on right now?"

My answer is: "Our conference is different because we will bring together more people from more industry fields - non-profits, cdc's, ctc/pcc's, web design developers, social media experts, wi-fi network developers, tech activists, government officials, foundation executives - than any other conference you will attend this year.

You will meet people who have established more ctc's/public computing centers and training programs, given away more refurbished computers and trained more residents in digital literacy, rebuilding and troubleshooting computers and connecting people with digital resources than any other group of people in Chicago. 

You will meet us and we want to meet and work with you, because as a new era dawns in Chicago, Chicago in the 21st century as a world-class digitally-empowered city can only emerge if we all work together. And that's what the 1st Chicago Neighborhood Digital Excellence Conference And Technology Fair is all about...bringing us all together for skills building, info sharing, and networking".

There will be 200 spaces at the conference. That's it. So don't wait. Reserve yours now at the early-bird rate of $77.00. And if you have questions or want to talk to me or any of the conference planning committee members personally about the conference, call me, Pierre Clark, at 312-970-0249. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you.

For The Conference:

Pierre A. Clark

Co-Founder: Chicago Digital Access Alliance Inc.

http://www.digitalexcellence.net

http://dexcon2010.eventbrite.com

312-970-0249 

> From: cdaa...@googlegroups.com<mailto:cdaa...@googlegroups.com>

> [mailto:cdaa...@googlegroups.com<mailto:cdaa...@googlegroups.com>] On

> Behalf Of Pierre Clark
> Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 8:04 PM
>

> To: cdaa...@googlegroups.com<mailto:cdaa...@googlegroups.com>

> Subject: Re: [CDAA-Talk] Re: Perhaps some initiatives of relevace to your
> October co...
>
>
> The City of Chicago took the work that the CDAA did in 2006 - the work
>
> that created and popularized the terms "digital excellence", digital
> demonstration communities, creating digitally-empowered neighborhoods,
> community wi-fi networks and all the rest - and put it, with our
> blessings after we presented it all to them in a meeting at MacArthur
> Foundation with the Mayor's Committee To Eliminate The Digital Divide
> on Monday, February 5, 2007, into a report - "The City That Networks",
> written by Robert Weissbourd - where they acknowledged same on p. 56
> and which was acknowledged by Julia Stasch at the CMW Conference in
> June, 2007.
>
> Then, after two years of silence they commissioned two more studies
> and put in three BTOP applications based directly on our work which
> have so far netted $16 million plus funding from tech companies for
> the "Digital Excellence Demonstration Communities" projects managed by
> LISC Chicago at the behest of , launched in three South Side, one West
> Side, and one north side communities in January 2008. Additionally,
> the Knight Foundation made a 5-year, $25 million award to create the
> Knight Foundation Institute For Digital Excellence, which they
> directly acknowledged to the CDAA was created based on its work.
>
> Now I am not recounting these facts merely to lay claim to anything,
> but to merely state the true facts and to provide the backdrop for the
> 1st Chicago Neighborhood Digital Excellence Conference and Technology
> Fair as the first of a series of annual events showcasing the work we
> continue to do in Chicago -in Woodlawn, Bronzeville, Englewood, Humboldt
> Park,Uptown, South Shore, Garfield Park, Washington Park- and more- and to
> reinforce the citizen-driven process to build a "culture of use" for digital
> excellence in Chicago,the State of Illinois and around the nation.
>