EDCIVIC at DELPHI.COM
02-04-1995, 12:05 AM
February 3rd, 1995
Neighborhoods Online Launched in Philadelphia
Note:
We were going to write our own release on this, but the story in
this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer is even better.
To browse Neighborhoods Online, you can telnet to libertynet.org,
then go to the "Community Center," and find "Neighborhoods Online
on the menu. If, you are fortunate enough to have a World Wide
Web browser, point to http://www.libertynet.org and follow the
same procedure.
Ed Schwartz (edcivic@libertynet.org)
(With due credit to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 3, 1995)
"Worldwide Network, Local Connections"
A New Nonprofit Service is helping community groups on the
Internet
By Reid Kanaley
Joseph Caesar, head of the Lower Tioga Community Council, a North
Philadelphia neighborhood organization, emerged from a darkened
room yesterday and spoke as if he had the seen the light.
His group promotes local job creation and economic development.
And getting on the Internet, Caesar said, referring to the global
network of interconnected computers, "will be a fine way for us
to that. This is very exciting."
Inside the dark room at the University City Science Center,
Caesar had been among 80 people from the city's grassroots,
community and activist groups watching a projection screen as
pictures and text popped into view from computers at government
agencies, museums, and universities around the world.
That, explained the meeting's organizer, Ed Schwartz, president
of the nonprofit Institute for the Study of Civic Values, is what
the chatter about an information superhighway is all about
And it is high time that it be put to use by the people,
according to Schwartz, a former Philadelphia city councilman, who
said he decided last year that "neighborhood people were not
going to have to wait. We were going to have a stake on the
Internet."
To help claim that stake, Schwartz said the William Penn
Foundation has pledged $50,000 to subsidize computer training and
Internet accounts for community groups in Philadelphia through a
new, nonprofit service called LibertyNet. LibertyNet, which has
been on line for six months, is patterned after other low- or no-cost online computer services cropping up around the nation.
Groups that join LibertyNet under the program will become part of
Neighborhoods Online, which Schwartz is overseeing. It is meant
as a place on the Internet where civic activists can find and
assist each other, and as a launching pad for searching out the
rest of cyberspace.
Schwartz told his audience to consider the service a "beachead"
to "library that is everything in the world." He said accounts
providing Internet access and electronic mail would be free [to
50 community groups in a pilot program] for the first six months,
and would cost $6 to $15 per month [for everyone] thereafter.
That's about half of current commercial rates for individuals.
Internet boosters say the computer is fostering a new level of
communication and empowerment for groups and individuals once
isolated by geography, economics or other social barriers. "It
seems to promote and enhance collaborative efforts," said
LibertyNet director Chris Higgins.
Schwartz, a longtime housing advocate, said he already moderates
an electronic mailng list for civic activists [civic values], as
well as an email forum on an online service called Delphi
[Building Community].
For more than an hour yesterday, Schwartz and Higgins
demonstrated how the Internet could be navigated to find
information on laws, available resources, expert advice and like-minded groups across town or across the country.
"This allows us to go directly to those who who can make [job
creation] possible, cut through the bureaucracy," Caesar said.
"We'll see how it works when we get our hands on it."
Max Kraus, a co-chairman of LibertyNet said he hoped to foster "a
friendly electronic environment" for citizens, business and
government groups around the city. Still in its prototype form,
LibertyNet can be reached from anywhere in the world by anyone
with a computer and modem, and already provides information about
150 area organizations.
Each of them--hotels, museums,theaters, and businesses--has what
is called a "home page"--a computer screen full of pictures and
text that can be seen with the click of a button. In turn, any
page canlead to other pages stored in computers throughout the
global system. The network thus linking many thousands of
computers is known as the World Wide Web.
Once on the web, said Schwartz, "you can even access the Rolling
Stones and 20 seconds of "Voodoo Lounge," the rock group's latest
recording.
The popularity of the World Wide Web surged last month when the
Prodigy on-line service made it accessible to an estimated 1.2
million account holders. Other major online services are expected
to follow suit later this year.
Schwartz said that means Prodigy subscribers "can drop in on
LibertyNet,and if you're there, that means they're dropping in on
us, they're dropping in on you."
"This is a must," Gregory Wilson of the Philadelphia More
Beautiful Committee, declared in an interview. "There's no
choice."
Wilson and other participants, however, said it may be difficult
to bring many of the small, unfunded and volunteer grassroots
groups online. Higgins said LibertyNet was looking for funding to
put computers with modems in community centers, libraries, and
churches.
Meanwhile, said Caesar, "You're going to find a large group, I'm
sure, who are not ready to use it, even though they need it.
They'll have the will and the commitment, but not the
technology."
For more information: contact Ed Schwartz, Institute for the
Study of Civic Values, 1218 Chestnut St., Rm.702, Philadelphia,
Pa. 19107 215-238-1434 (edcivic@libertynet.org)
To subscribe to the civic values mailing list:
Send to majordomo@civic.net
A one line message: subscribe civic-values
"Neighborhoods Online" also points to the Institute for the Study
of Civic Value's gopher, managed jointly with the Center for
Civic Networking.
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
Neighborhoods Online Launched in Philadelphia
Note:
We were going to write our own release on this, but the story in
this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer is even better.
To browse Neighborhoods Online, you can telnet to libertynet.org,
then go to the "Community Center," and find "Neighborhoods Online
on the menu. If, you are fortunate enough to have a World Wide
Web browser, point to http://www.libertynet.org and follow the
same procedure.
Ed Schwartz (edcivic@libertynet.org)
(With due credit to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 3, 1995)
"Worldwide Network, Local Connections"
A New Nonprofit Service is helping community groups on the
Internet
By Reid Kanaley
Joseph Caesar, head of the Lower Tioga Community Council, a North
Philadelphia neighborhood organization, emerged from a darkened
room yesterday and spoke as if he had the seen the light.
His group promotes local job creation and economic development.
And getting on the Internet, Caesar said, referring to the global
network of interconnected computers, "will be a fine way for us
to that. This is very exciting."
Inside the dark room at the University City Science Center,
Caesar had been among 80 people from the city's grassroots,
community and activist groups watching a projection screen as
pictures and text popped into view from computers at government
agencies, museums, and universities around the world.
That, explained the meeting's organizer, Ed Schwartz, president
of the nonprofit Institute for the Study of Civic Values, is what
the chatter about an information superhighway is all about
And it is high time that it be put to use by the people,
according to Schwartz, a former Philadelphia city councilman, who
said he decided last year that "neighborhood people were not
going to have to wait. We were going to have a stake on the
Internet."
To help claim that stake, Schwartz said the William Penn
Foundation has pledged $50,000 to subsidize computer training and
Internet accounts for community groups in Philadelphia through a
new, nonprofit service called LibertyNet. LibertyNet, which has
been on line for six months, is patterned after other low- or no-cost online computer services cropping up around the nation.
Groups that join LibertyNet under the program will become part of
Neighborhoods Online, which Schwartz is overseeing. It is meant
as a place on the Internet where civic activists can find and
assist each other, and as a launching pad for searching out the
rest of cyberspace.
Schwartz told his audience to consider the service a "beachead"
to "library that is everything in the world." He said accounts
providing Internet access and electronic mail would be free [to
50 community groups in a pilot program] for the first six months,
and would cost $6 to $15 per month [for everyone] thereafter.
That's about half of current commercial rates for individuals.
Internet boosters say the computer is fostering a new level of
communication and empowerment for groups and individuals once
isolated by geography, economics or other social barriers. "It
seems to promote and enhance collaborative efforts," said
LibertyNet director Chris Higgins.
Schwartz, a longtime housing advocate, said he already moderates
an electronic mailng list for civic activists [civic values], as
well as an email forum on an online service called Delphi
[Building Community].
For more than an hour yesterday, Schwartz and Higgins
demonstrated how the Internet could be navigated to find
information on laws, available resources, expert advice and like-minded groups across town or across the country.
"This allows us to go directly to those who who can make [job
creation] possible, cut through the bureaucracy," Caesar said.
"We'll see how it works when we get our hands on it."
Max Kraus, a co-chairman of LibertyNet said he hoped to foster "a
friendly electronic environment" for citizens, business and
government groups around the city. Still in its prototype form,
LibertyNet can be reached from anywhere in the world by anyone
with a computer and modem, and already provides information about
150 area organizations.
Each of them--hotels, museums,theaters, and businesses--has what
is called a "home page"--a computer screen full of pictures and
text that can be seen with the click of a button. In turn, any
page canlead to other pages stored in computers throughout the
global system. The network thus linking many thousands of
computers is known as the World Wide Web.
Once on the web, said Schwartz, "you can even access the Rolling
Stones and 20 seconds of "Voodoo Lounge," the rock group's latest
recording.
The popularity of the World Wide Web surged last month when the
Prodigy on-line service made it accessible to an estimated 1.2
million account holders. Other major online services are expected
to follow suit later this year.
Schwartz said that means Prodigy subscribers "can drop in on
LibertyNet,and if you're there, that means they're dropping in on
us, they're dropping in on you."
"This is a must," Gregory Wilson of the Philadelphia More
Beautiful Committee, declared in an interview. "There's no
choice."
Wilson and other participants, however, said it may be difficult
to bring many of the small, unfunded and volunteer grassroots
groups online. Higgins said LibertyNet was looking for funding to
put computers with modems in community centers, libraries, and
churches.
Meanwhile, said Caesar, "You're going to find a large group, I'm
sure, who are not ready to use it, even though they need it.
They'll have the will and the commitment, but not the
technology."
For more information: contact Ed Schwartz, Institute for the
Study of Civic Values, 1218 Chestnut St., Rm.702, Philadelphia,
Pa. 19107 215-238-1434 (edcivic@libertynet.org)
To subscribe to the civic values mailing list:
Send to majordomo@civic.net
A one line message: subscribe civic-values
"Neighborhoods Online" also points to the Institute for the Study
of Civic Value's gopher, managed jointly with the Center for
Civic Networking.
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list