I’ve been frustrated over the years by my inability to respond to blog postings. The blogger says something. I want to raise my hand and ask a question, make a comment or suggest an alternative way to look at the issue.
Alas. Not so many opportunities. Too many bloggers appear to follow the “broadcast” model. They write. We read. No connection.
And then I’d be interested in some comment on my comment, and a third person’s comments on either the initial posting or the two comments. Suddenly, we have the start of a conversation.
THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG
So, the purpose of this blog is to promote conversations and communications among the readers – practitioners and policy markers. The goal is to become a clearinghouse of ideas and opinions. And to promote the contribution and processing of ideas.
At the recent CBAIS conference in Cleveland, convened by One Community for a coalition of SBA projects in seven cities, Kami Griffiths of the CTN Bay Area spent most of an hour asking the breakout participants to describe software “training gems,” explain their function and give the URLs. It wouldn’t take long to develop a library of useful applications through this BLOG. And names of people who could explain how they might best be used. An ideal sharing experience.
We’ll start the BLOG postings with commentary on the Connected Living efforts in Illinois to provide computer and Internet training to seniors and people with disabilities in HUD buildings in 10 cities in northern Illinois. We have baseline information on 3,000 residents participating in the training. Connected Living has collected lots of data. The evaluators from Northern Illinois have rich data sets to work through and they have complete access to the training efforts.
Back to the BLOG. We’ll tend to measure the success of this effort in terms of the numbers of comments and conversations prompted by the BLOG. And perhaps the quality of the comments. We’ll do an assessment of this effort at the end of the year.
So let’s get started.
Great idea. Is this an affinity group for all BTOP projects serving seniors or only those in public housing?
No, Don Samuelson’s intention is to have this function as a clearing house for all BTOP senior awardees as well as anyone interested in advancing the interest of seniors understanding and using the Internet. Our intention is to create a “Big tent.”
Congratulations to Don Samuelson for creating a national website that focuses on getting senior citizens online. The research and analysis that will be provided on this site won’t be available anywhere else.
The goal is to start with the HUD-oriented BTOP recipients in northern Illinois and to share the experiences with all of the other BTOP projects serving seniors and the HUD Neighborhood Networks sites that have been serving seniors in multifamily and public housing since 1996 and to help them produce new wine in old bottles.
I like the great graphics showing senior citizens (myself on Social Security) “conversing with each other and with all ages” in society on things that are important. I propose Get Seniors Online sponsor a “Bird drawing competition” in partnership with local schools and libraries to come up with each communities “images of trusted information” from a Community Anchor Institution (family member, school, hospital, congregation, service organization). Let each community come up with its own “big” or “little” bird (or other animal or personification) along the lines of “a little bird told me,” or “watch the canary in the coal mine” who warns when it’s unsafe. Or, maybe just draw “a grapevine,” as in “I heard it …” Congratulations to GSO for kicking off the conversation with Charles Boyce’s The KeyPad Kid graphics for youth, adults, seniors, small business persons all. Layton
The amount of information on the site is amazing. It is nice to see such transparency regarding the overall grant programs and specific details on how a project is being rolled out in the community. I look forward to being part of the discussion on determining program implementation best practices.
The success of the site is going to depend on the willingness of you and others to share your experiences with this online community and to make comments on the postings.
Love the humorous images you’ve chosen…amusing without being disrespectful. We’re working on our plan for our larger public outreach campaign, and may want to beg, borrow or steal some of your ideas. Thanks for getting this started.
Feel free to “beg, borrow and steal” whatever ideas seem most important to you. Do look at the dog video on the “Contact” page. I click on it whenever tI want a LOL moment.
Don:
I am impressed with your Senior On Line blog. It displays the values that technology brings to Senior Citizens and disadvantaged citizens. It is a great tool that engages citizens to international resources. I like your community concept that connects all community resources.
Keep up the good work.
Victory Bell
There are 40,000,000 seniors, 75% above the poverty level and 25% below it. About 50% of the 30,000,000 of the 75% category are online. That means that 15,000,000 ae not. Then only 10% of the below poverty line seniors are online, 90% are not – 9,000,000. So. It appears that 24,000,000 seniors are not online. A big opportunity to extend the value of the Interent to the baby boomers, and pre-baby boomers.
Don,
Congratulations on your project and efforts! Surely well deserved. The preparation and attention to detail is uniquely descriptive, and informative. I think the program is formed and transitioning well, and i look forward to ongoing collaboration. I am really impressed by the adoption rate of the participants, and am looking forward to reading some of the evaluative assessments, of the operative staff and participants, as they relate to successive program activities, or new initiatives. This great work will become a greater work!
Tyrone W.
Digital Development Corporation
@Tyrone: GSO appreciates your support and participation. As you go through this site, please add your comments to any articles that you feel are interesting. We need your voice.