Boston area event: TNB Roundtable on what nonprofit organizations need to know about community technology centers
Deborah Elizabeth Finn
Dear CTC Colleagues,
(Putting on my Tech Networks of Boston hat)
Tech Networks of Boston (also known as "TNB")
hosts Roundtable sessions every other Friday afternoon; these are
informal discussions and presentations, on a wide range of topics of
interest to TNB's staff, nonprofit clients, and friends.
We
hope that you will join us on November 7th, when our featured guest
will be Peter Miller. The topic will be "What nonprofit organizations
need to know about community technology centers." Third Sector New England
has graciously offered to act as co-host for this session, and we will
therefore be meeting in the videoconference room of their NonProfit Center.
Here’s what Peter says about the session:
"Community
technology centers (CTCs) are ordinarily approached primarily as the
institution par excellence for addressing the problems of the digital
divide and promoting digital inclusion, with a host of secondary
benefits of interest to the organizations sponsoring them. This
presentation on CTCs will focus primarily on what have previously been
considered secondary benefits and should be of interest to any nonprofit
with constituents coming through the door as well as any staff or
consultants involved in organizational or technology planning.
"Among these benefits are:
"1.
Any member or client service can be very usefully enhanced by looking
at the technology tools and resources available in addressing it and the
advantages of having a CTC or in-house computer lab for constituent
training, education, and access. Any kind of literacy, health,
education, job training, recreational, civic, early childhood to
disabled and seniors and aging program that brings people in the door
can make a vital contribution if those people leave with enhanced,
focused, self-directed technology tools, resources,, and services.
"2.
A CTC/computer lab facility can also provide a full range of additional
services on its own terms: some examples are emerging technology tools,
applications, and programs, social media, where to get donated
equipment, apps, and connectivity, community-based desktop publishing,
data management, and consulting.
"3.
A major benefit of having a CTC is the expanded opportunity and
foundation it provides for collaborations and partnerships, for pulling
together and networking services and resources in a particular program
area to undertaking general community development on a fuller and more
integrated scale.
"4.
All these considerations together should lead any serious,
constituent-serving NPO to conclude: 'I need to give a serious look at
CTC development — both internally and externally. If we choose not to
build/have a CTC as a part of our planning, at the very least we
need to know about and have a mutually-supportive relationship with all
the special institutional CTCs in our program area(s) and community
— at libraries, churches, neighborhood centers, Y's, and Boys and Girls
Clubs, shelters, Senior Centers, ethnic and national orgs, and schools.' "
We hope that you can join us for a lively conversation! Please respond to this invitation, to let us know whether you'll be attending. We are running a very popular series and have to track the head count carefully, so a definite YES or NO is real help to us.
Best regards from Deborah
Phone: 617.504.8188 | Fax: 888.527.9333
deb...@techboston.com | techboston.com
Deborah Elizabeth Finn
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tnb-roundtable-what-npos-need-to-know-about-community-technology-centers-registration-13521682717