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March 13, 2009
Day Two - New York - Patrt II
After a brief remiss, I'm picking up where I left off in New York on Tuesday. After leaving the ARC, I headed just a few blocks away to two ASB sites that are part of one organization: Citizens Union / Citizens Union Foundation and Gotham Gazette.
See the Addendum to this blog to learn more about these two organizations. I had a pretty brief meet with my two contacts here, but I did get to hear a little bit about the projects that the three SI students were working on.
At the Gotham Gazette, under the fabulous Amanda Hickman, Jeremy Canfield and Nan Chen utilized their web, information architecture, and wiki skills to assist with a project called "Councilpedia." This is an encyclopedia of money in politics in New York City that will invite readers to help Gotham Gazette staffers identify connections between political donors in NYC. These SI students assessed what is available and developed a workable structure for the project that made good use of MediaWiki's capacity for templated content segments.
Carrie Ashendale worked with Sara Stuart at Citizens Union on assessing and strengthening Citizens Union's web site and presence on online networks. She advised the organization on its web communication strategy. This included looking critically at http://www.citizensunion.org its electronic newsletter The Reformer and its participation in online networks also looking at similar and related organizations to understand the range of strategies being used elsewhere; writing a plan for improving functionality establishing greater online interactivity and advancing Citizens Union's communication and internet engagement. Carrie was also slated to look at ways to generate more links and drive traffic to our online communications.
I have to add a note in here that the aforementioned Amanda Hickman hosted students in ASB in 2005 when she worked at the LINC Project. It was inevitable that Amanda and I reconnect this year, as I was hunting her down as part of list of past contacts that had been part of ASB and she was trying to connect with SI to again be part of this program. As a result of this connection, not only did we get Citizens Union and Gotham Gazette on board for ASB, but Amanda also put me in touch with the other new non-profit organizations that participated in ASB this year (including ABC No Rio, Green Map System, Lower East Side Ecology Center, and Tribal Link Foundation). I love how networking can work out to benefit the service-oriented community! So, thank you Amanda!
I then grabbed a cab and headed back over to east lower Manhattan to ABC No Rio. ABC No Rio is a community center for the arts on Manhattan's Lower East Side. ABC No Rio was founded by artists committed to political and social engagement and we retain these values to the present. ABC No Rio is a place where people share resources and ideas to impact society, culture, and community in an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual support. Since founding they've been welcoming and supportive venue for thousands of emerging artists, performers, poets and musicians.
Program activity at ABC No Rio breaks down into two categories: public events programming, and facilities and resources. In addition to exhibitions, public events programming at ABC No Rio includes our weekly hardcore/punk matinee; COMA, our series of experimental and improvisational music; literary readings; performance; and film & video screenings. We also provide space to other cultural and community organizations for meetings, workshops, benefits and forums. ABC No Rio resources and facilities used by artists and the community at large include our zine library, darkroom, computer center and screenprinting shop.
This was my most unusual visit of the day... the environment is very visually stimulating: every two years, artists redesign the entire inside of the building and thus the walls are an array of really amazing and unique art specimens. Definitely not your normal work place with cubicles!
Steven Englander, as director at ABC No Rio, is the only staff member. Everyone else involved to keep the organization running is a volunteer. He was very pleased to have Adrienne Klum spend her week working on their ABC No Rio Archive On-Line project.
Adrieene spent her time working on planning the implementation of the web platform Omeka to "publish" on-line digital files of documents relating to ABC No Rio's founding and early years. ABC No Rio had over 400 scanned documents relating to the Real Estate Show and ABC No Rio' early years that they wanted to make accessible to the public via the web using the web platform Omeka. Omeka will also be used to presented materials and images complementing exhibitions in the gallery space as well as other activity at ABC No Rio. Adrienne helped to test and explore Omeka and helped determine and document the approach that should be used to move forward.
It was awesome to visit Steve, Adreienne, and the ABC No Rio cat, Cookie Puss! The entire day two of my visits was amazing just because it was a unique look (for me at least) into how small non-profits function successfully in NYC on really limited resources. Steve shared with me that without Adrienne's work, the project tht she worked on would have taken months to complete. Because she was able to devote 40 hours to this project, she truly assisted the organization in getting a start on a much-needed project.
ADDENDUM
Citizens Union of the City of New York is an independent, nonpartisan, civic organization of members who promote good government and advance political reform in the city and state of New York. For more than a century, Citizens Union has served as a watchdog for the public interest and an advocate for the common good. Citizens Union, which was recently described by the New York Times as the influential government watchdog group, works to ensure fair elections, clean campaigns, and open, effective government that is accountable to the citizens of New York.
Founded in 1948, Citizens Union Foundation of the City of New York is the nonprofit research, education and advocacy organization affiliated with Citizens Union, though it is governed by a separate board of directors and operates with independent finances.
Believing that an informed citizenry is the cornerstone of good government, Citizens Union Foundation also publishes GothamGazette.com, a daily news website covering local issues like no other news publication in the City. GothamGazette.com features news, commentary, in-depth analysis and links to resources on New York City. It has become a vital resource for elected officials, policy makers, advocates, community leaders, students, media professionals, and concerned citizens covering local issues like no other news publication in the City. Since 1989, Citizens Union Foundation has also monitored the New York City Council and has published Searchlight on the City Council, a comprehensive guide to the city's legislative body and its action that is available on GothamGazette.com.
Posted by kkowatch at March 13, 2009 12:00 PM