SOME QUICK BOILERPLATE IDEAS FOR GRANTS....$5000

The four abstracts for urban outreach, technology, training and society, and expression:



-After school tech and tutoring:

Abstract: The purpose of this program is to prepare select youths and at risk youth for the present and future service economy. Within the scope of this program we seek to cross the digital divide by training the students in various digital media, office media, and internet skills so that they can see the information not merely as acquiring computer and internet skills, but also critical skills in order to adapt to the fast changes within a global telecommunications culture. This program is meant to strengthen college bound urban youth in technical and critical skill in formats that are instructive, engaging and expressive. Focus will be placed on collaborative media projects, in addition to study for entrance exams and the creation of media portfolios for college entrance. This program recognizes that though Moore’s Law states the technology doubles in technological quality ever 18 months, facilities and expense often make keeping up with advances prohibitive. Through a combination of individual and collective project it is the intention that this program might compete with sports and other extra-curricular activities within the limited high school milieu.

Program and sample syllabi provided

-Business technology development center:

Abstract: The purpose of this program is to prepare and facilitate local business people for the global telecommunications economy. Similar to the after school tech and tutoring program we realize that the economic ability to keep up with the improvement of hardware and software is not always possible…nor should an individual worry about the tools of earning a living in a complex economy when this can be collectivized. To this end we are organizing a community business center and incubator which will have copy, high speed internet, wifi, teleconferencing, and multiple projection and display sources within a flexible setting. Within this space and agenda there will be night training in the latest technological advances win software and hardware such as wifi, and after hours grant writing and grant seeking and business plan development for pervasive training in both the Not-for-Profit, and the For Profit sectors. Again, it is through the technical and critical pervasive skills in combination that the local businessperson can strategize their economic and sustainable life within the global economy. Inexpensive devices such as AIM web cams and Skype telephony can me used to show the local community that it can share results with a global audience of collaborators.

-Urban eco systems:

Abstract: Most large social changes and paradigm shifts have originated within the city over the last 5000 years. It is not the rural or suburban or even universities that have grappled with the large and looming forces upon the history of civilizations. It is our contention, as paradoxical as it might sound, that the ecological crisis and the demand for sustainable living will be faced from the urban center. As it stands 60 percent of the worlds populations live in urban areas and poverty has ceased to be an exclusively rural issue. Within the urban caldron the imaging, education, and trial examples of sustainable and ecological living will find its greatest impact. Fresh water, solar heating, public transformation and thee greening of the paved city can take place on a small scale. What is important and dynamic is the Internet and telecommunication media and education that can develop models for better living. The Internet can establish contacts, and resources, in addition to life style re education and scenarios that can impact an urban dweller to live and demand a more ecological existence. One of thee most import features of this simple plan of demonstrating sustainable living style is to place the community online with other world wide projects. As with all of these abstracts it is important to use thee Internet as a means of overcoming isolation and alienation when attacking large problems such as education, poverty, sustainability and expression. It is the intention of the group to partner with other NGOs as well as universities such at Pratt, and Stony Brook. Special attention will be paid to the ‘emergence theory’ of small groups that organize around thee world creating ‘bottom up’ and local solutions to worldwide problems.

-Cultural Connections:

Abstract: personal and collective expression is one of the most enduring features of humankind. The necessity for this can never be undervalued and overlooked. Dance, drama, music, poetry, and many other forms of art and expression are often cultivated amongst our youth though, often because of the pyramid schemes placed by broadcast media, if they don’t ‘make it’, they become disaffected and abandon cultural expression all together for ‘practicalities’. During the past two centuries of colonization and economic migration and even enslavement, cultural expression was not merely an aesthetic to be turned off and on in the face of practicalities, it was the vital glue, which held together and allowed for the survival of a specific culture. In a global consumer and commodity society sincere cultural expression has returned to an aesthetic and lesser priority in the face of pervasive economics. The tenants of modernity even hold that the individual isolated from his or her community in absorbed work is the highest form of expression by type. Pluralism, creolization, and a general mixing and assimilation have made many ancient cultural forms ‘endangered’. What is emerging within the global commodity culture is a new spirit of collaboration across borders and geographies. The Internet, media, and recording and producing equipment have marched down in cost as ‘Moore’s law’ has accelerated. With these factors there is a beginning of an almost utopic aspect to cultural production and collaboration placed and moved online. Self produced CDs and DVDs, master classes with world practitioners, collaborative and beautiful hybrid forms are emerging and disseminated. We intend to facilitate, music, drama, dance, and most forms that can be performed live and recorded with digital media equipment. Again, technical skills with the digital media hardware and software will go hand in had with critical and creative skills. The famous Creole and hybrid art forms reacted in a proximity to each other (French, African, and Scotch/Irish to form Jazz in New Orleans). A local community on the interactive networks of the internet can make breathtaking new combinations of art forms with collaborations across the globe.

Syllabi and method listed in program.