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Nonprofits and the NII
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Date: Thu, 12 May 1994 16:12:33 +0900
From: WestNet Administrator
The Technology Resource Consortium (TRC) has just submitted the following narrative to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for a planning grant to create a comprehensive training and support program that will enable the nonprofit sector to effectively access and use the National Information Infrastructure, the "information superhighway."
I thought USNONPROFIT-L list readers would be interested in our approach to education and training of the nonprofit sector. With appropriate training and support, as outlined in our planning proposal, TRC members can be effective catalysts in communities, making connections between nonprofits and the NII.
We've had very good reactions to our proposed program, and are confident it will be funded at some time, if not in this round. We'd be particularly interested in your reactions to our approach. And feel free to forward this message on other lists.
Marshall Mayer TRC Chair
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Building Nonprofit NII Intersections: A Comprehensive Proposal by TRC to Prepare for Broadscale Nonprofit Access to the NII
The Technology Resource Consortium is requesting a $100,000 TIIAP planning grant to establish a national program providing low-cost and easy-to-use access to the National Information Infrastructure for the nonprofit sector, as well as facilitating the development of information resources which will enable nonprofit organizations to effectively access and use it to benefit the public interest.
As a result of this planning process, the Technology Resource Consortium will produce:
* a comprehensive picture of the nonprofit sector's current needs for and use of the NII;* an overall plan to dramatically increase access to and use of the NII by the nonprofit sector;* recommendations about developing content that will motivate nonprofits to access the NII; and* a plan to provide low-cost and interactive access to the NII through community connections.
Through this collaborative effort, TRC will design methodologies that will enable all TRC members, as well as other technology support providers that service the sector, to help nonprofits be effective information consumers and providers on the NII. Enabling nonprofit organizations to provide information will ensure that their constituencies have access to appropriate information resources.
Introduction: The Technology Resource Consortium (TRC)
TRC is the only national association of nonprofit organizations that provides education about and access to information technology for the nonprofit sector. Founded in 1986, TRC represents 100 percent of the nonprofit organizations in the U.S. that provide a broad range of technology support services to the nonprofit sector. TRC functions primarily to foster and coordinate the development of technology support programs appropriate to the special needs of nonprofit organizations. We do this by conducting national programs (for example, conducting coordinated hardware and software solicitations for in-kind donations); by publishing a directory of member services; by exchanging service delivery methodologies; by convening an annual meeting (our last meeting's theme was "The NII: What's in it for the Nonprofit Sector?"), and by hosting an Internet-accessible electronic conference on the Institute for Global Communications (EcoNet/PeaceNet) to network between annual meetings.
Each member of TRC independently sponsors programs to promote the appropriate use by other nonprofits of computer and telecommunications technology, which includes conducting hands-on training classes, conducting needs assessments and developing implementation plans, developing individualized technology solutions, coordinating cooperative fundraising, and initiating other specialized local projects. The 22 members of TRC, with an aggregate staff of approximately 60 professionals, assist well over 5,000 community-based nonprofit organizations serving tens of thousands of individuals each year with independent and affordable technology support services closely matched to the special needs of nonprofit organizations. Our nonprofit clients are primarily community-based human service, cultural and advocacy organizations, but also include public school districts, health care facilities, libraries and public agencies. Concerning information technology, TRC is the key to accessing the nonprofit sector because of our depth of contact and experience.
Problem Statement
Everyone who is already connected knows that the emerging National Information Infrastructure presents a tremendous opportunity and resource for organizations. In recent years, nonprofits have increasingly taken responsibility for public services previously provided by government. Telecommunications can help these organizations effectively deliver services and increase public access to information. Nonprofits that serve disadvantaged communities can particularly benefit by making small, carefully targeted investments in appropriate information technology.
TRC's collective experience in the past ten years, however, convinces us that without immediate coordinated action the organizations of the nonprofit sector will become the major "have nots" of the information age. Despite our best efforts and the efforts of many others, we estimate that fewer than one percent of the nation's 1.4 million nonprofits are currently "online."
Nonprofits have been unable to make effective use of the technology primarily because there are very few specialized resources available to the sector to help them get connected. The market, in various ways, is already addressing NII needs of private individuals and business. But the market is not addressing the needs of nonprofit organizations, and the technology gap between them and the rest of society is accelerating. Cost is a major barrier, and there are also many technological barriers to be overcome by nonprofits, barriers that are easy to underestimate.
However, programs addressing only barriers to access, as important as they may be, will not by themselves ensure that the nonprofit sector makes effective use of the NII. Vice President Gore acknowledged this in his recent "Global Information Infrastructure" speech. The missing pieces are local promotion, training, support, and content that is specifically oriented to effective nonprofit technology use. By addressing similar factors, coordinated through a national strategy, TRC members were instrumental in bringing thousands of nonprofits into the "PC" revolution. Investing in human resources, the most important part of the connection, is again the key to effectively bringing nonprofits into the NII.
Furthermore, there is broad public support for this approach. A new survey of 1,000 people conducted for the Benton Foundation found that 77 percent of respondents supported government grants to help communities and nonprofit groups make new technologies available to nonprofits. Since the emerging national information infrastructure is rapidly changing, an immediate investment in strategic planning by the TRC will enable the nonprofit sector to take best advantage of new opportunities.
Planning Goals and Objectives
The goal of the proposed planning process is to develop a national program to provide locally-based access and support to the National Information Infrastructure for end users from the nonprofit sector through members of TRC. The 15-month planning process will commence on October 1, 1994.
To meet this goal, TRC has established a Planning Committee, made up of representatives of TRC member organizations in Dallas, Helena, Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Boston, which will take the lead on accomplishing several objectives in this period. Committee members have over 60 years of combined experience in the field of nonprofit technology support services. In four strategic planning sessions and through use of e-mail and computer conferences between meetings, Committee members will collaborate with lead TRC member organizations to accomplish the following objectives:
Objective 1: Determine the use of and needs for the NII by the nonprofit sector.
While TRC members have a great deal of direct experience with the sector, there has been no definitive and in-depth study of the telecommunications uses and needs of the nation's nonprofit organizations. Beyond our general knowledge, we need to know the key NII issues faced by nonprofits in much greater detail. Using a combination of techniques, TRC will conduct a comprehensive study to gather and analyze information on several key questions:
* What solutions to communication and information needs of nonprofits will compel their use of NII?* What is the actual level of NII use by nonprofits? What are the barriers that prevent increased access?* What marketing and outreach activities will be necessary to motivate nonprofits to join the NII?* What are the priority information resources that nonprofits need to access and use on the NII?* What are the organizational conditions for effective use of the NII that can be facilitated by TRC?
Working with the TRC Planning Committee, the Center for Nonprofit Management in Dallas will lead a process to develop a written survey instrument which will be sent to 7,000 nonprofits that have recently received technology support services by TRC members throughout the nation. We will also make the survey available online and through special interest publications such as The Nonprofit Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Focus group sessions will also be held in five cities represented by Planning Committee members to provide an in-depth follow-up to determine the priority needs to be address in developing programs. Special efforts will be made to ensure that the needs of nonprofits serving disadvantaged and underrepresented populations will be reflected in the survey. Aggregated results will provide an accurate picture of current conditions and trends by March 1995.
Objective 2: Design technology training and support programs to meet nonprofit needs.
The NII has many components, including information resources, applications and conduits used to access those resources, and end users that create and consume its products. The central premise of our proposal is that failing to plan for training and support of nonprofit telecommunications efforts represents a critical mistake which, if not remedied by strategies that TRC develops, will undermine progress that is made in building the infrastructure on other fronts.
Using the survey information (Objective 1), several TRC members - all leaders in their respective fields - will work collaboratively between January and June 1995 to design methodologies by which all TRC members and other technology assistance providers can provide nonprofits essential NII support:
* The Information Technology Resource Center (ITRC) in Chicago will lead the effort to identify successful NII training and support methodologies used by other TRC members and other for-profit trainers that serve the nonprofit sector. ITRC will also design planning mechanisms that TRC members can use to develop effective local support strategies based on adaptations of the methodologies below as well as to successfully integrate these training materials into their current curricula. ITRC is the first nonprofit technology support organization in the country dedicated to serving other nonprofits with 10 years experience in both classroom training and onsite mentoring.* The Nonprofit Computer Connection of the Technical Development Corporation, based on their experience of deploying two full-time mobile training labs in the New England area, will take the lead in adapting existing and developing new NII training and support curricula that TRC members can implement locally. These programs will focus specifically on how TRC members provide hands-on and personal support for effective NII use in classroom settings, ranging from how to use the Internet as an organizational management tool to troubleshooting services to frustrated modem users. TDC will also make recommendations on how TRC marketing & outreach efforts can be improved.* CompuMentor in San Francisco, the national leader in the development of mentoring and telecommunications training programs to promote effective use of information technology by nonprofits, will design a telecommunications-based mentoring program to cost-effectively assist nonprofits in effective use of the NII. The mentoring program will provide both onsite (person-to-person at the client agency's work station) and online assistance from volunteer experts, and will be particularly effective in serving areas previously unserved by TRC.
All 22 TRC members feature training and technical support as key elements of their service delivery. This strategic planning process will serve to review existing programs and provide a plan to upgrade the delivery of training and support as the NII is designed and implemented. The process will also identify new training and support programs that need to be developed by TRC members. Because of TRC's extensive experience, we are uniquely positioned to develop this plan.
Objective 3: Design information resources that nonprofits need and can access on NII.
Despite the wealth of information that is accessible through telecommunications, there is very little that is nonprofit-specific. PROSPECT-L and FUNDLIST are two of the only e-mail-based Internet resources available specifically for nonprofit management, both oriented toward university fundraising. USNONPROFIT-L is more general in nature, and will soon be the first nonprofit-oriented newsgroup. However, management resources that are of particular interest to nonprofits are very difficult to find. There are no information resources devoted exclusively to addressing nonprofit access to the NII.
During the first nine months of 1995, Tom Sherman, on contract with TRC, will work with the Planning Committee to prepare recommendations that could lead to the establishment of several critical information resources which will be adapted from or supplement existing TRC materials:
* an online compendium of self-help texts that will provide answers to frequently asked questions about effective nonprofit use of the NII, including questions about hardware and software, network access and appropriate information and other resources;* a listserv or newsgroup for the discussion of increased and effective nonprofit use of the NII;* a directory pointing to information resources accessible on the NII of interest to nonprofits; and* an periodical, online and on paper, summarizing recent developments in the field.
Tom Sherman will conduct an online survey and make recommendations about how the TRC can develop and disseminate information resources for nonprofit access on the NII. Tom is very connected: he is affiliated with TRC's Nonprofit Technology Resources in Philadelphia, author of Electronic Networking for Nonprofit Groups: A Guide to Getting Started, published in 1991 by the Benton Foundation and Apple Computer, contributing editor of Nonprofit Times where he publishes his Tech Notes column, and was the manager of the Public Forum*Nonprofit Connection on GEnie for six years.
Objective 4: Design a program to facilitate nonprofit access to the NII through local servers.
For the foreseeable future, most access to the NII will be by computer and modem attached to the public switched telephone network. Increasingly, local bulletin board systems (BBS) or information servers are providing low-cost access to Internet e-mail services. TRC will develop a program to establish Internet connections among servers in member communities and the nonprofit constituencies they serve.
Desktop Assistance in Helena, MT will serve as the lead agency to accomplish this objective throughout 1995. Desktop Assistance already operates a server for nonprofits, WestNet, which provides its users conferencing, file transfer, and online database searching as well as unmetered access to Internet e-mail, listservs and newsgroups. WestNet uses FirstClass server software, accessible from any computer via a freeware graphical user interface client. The client software for Macintosh and Windows computers is identical to the user's operating environment (the Finder or Program Manager), thus reducing both the "culture shock" so often associated with nonprofit telecommunications and the need for training.
The WestNet server is connected to other FirstClass servers through the OneNet and to the Internet through gateway software and high-speed modem connections. Desktop Assistance is also instrumental in establishing a local cooperative to provide direct Internet access to WestNet users and other local non-commercial users. As a result, WestNet will be accessible by others directly on the Internet. More importantly, WestNet users who access the server via a SLIP/PPP modem connection will have full access to telnet, ftp, gopher and WAIS services with the same graphical FirstClass client software. This system can easily and relatively inexpensively be replicated by TRC members as well as their nonprofit clients that are on a trajectory to establish themselves as information providers on the NII.
All TRC members have extensive experience with electronic networking, ranging from e-mail and conferencing on IGC/EcoNet to netsurfing with Mosaic. Most TRC members serving on the Planning Committee are eager to establish either their own server or establish links with other local information servers to provide their nonprofit constituents access to the NII. Building on its own experience of establishing a server, Desktop Assistance will prepare a plan to establish a national program that would enable these and other members to establish these capacities for the lowest possible cost and highest possible connectivity, interactivity and interoperability. All TRC members can feasibly operate servers with identical software so that information resources could be easily distributed to all servers. The plan will outline all the steps necessary to establish a server, including specifications for hardware and software, network connections for LANs, dial-up connections from remote clients, Internet and other gateways, and all system operations.
Because the information resources on these servers are text-based, they will easily be replicable in newsgroups on commercial and community information services. Designing a clear growth path to ensure interoperability and connectivity will be key to extending access. Desktop Assistance will prepare a plan to replicate these information resources on other servers in areas currently unserved by TRC members that are connected to the Internet. These servers could be operated by one of the 400 OneNet members, by one of the many community networks run by libraries and community groups or FreeNets associated with the National Public Telecommuting Network, by a school district operating one of Apple's workgroup or Internet servers, or by public radio and TV stations that are installing servers for their audiences. Thus, low-cost, nonprofit access to the NII - and to the information resources TRC provides - could locally be attained in virtually any area of the country.
Conclusion
The outcome of these four planning objectives will be a comprehensive and feasible program to dramatically expand the number of nonprofits productively using the NII. The plan would facilitate the establishment of low-cost, easy-to-use local access and support programs to ensure effective use, programs which can be replicated. TRC will accomplish objectives that take advantage of the strengths and experience of participating TRC members as well as efficiently achieve results that no single member could do on its own. The ultimate beneficiaries - citizens - know that the nonprofit sector, with appropriate technology and assistance, will more effectively deliver service in the public interest.
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Marshall Mayer | Empowering nonprofits with Executive Director | information technology. Desktop Assistance, Inc. | Voice and Fax: 406/442-3696 324 Fuller Avenue - Suite C2 | WestNet: 406/442-3697 (8N1,14400) Helena, Montana 59601-5029 | Internet: westnet@desktop.org
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