Contact Information
Address:
89 Main Street, City Center
Montpelier VT 05602
Why is your organization interested in increased broadband usage among your members and community:
Perhaps the most overriding reason that our local vulnerable populations subscriptions to broadband are below the median is that the cost of purchasing the services fails to outweigh the perceived benefits of having broadband in the home. Whether a person's interest is in social media, employment research, skill-building or access from home to the rich cultural and educational opportunities, the main reason many underserved populations in our area do not get broadband is that the service and the equipment are financially out of reach, or the feel the programming is not relevant to their life situations. However, we believe that a connected populace is an informed populace; that given the tools and a working knowledge of local, national and world affairs, access to topics of interest and ability to use the tools of free speech, that the everyone benefits. This grant will enable ORCA to better realize its mission of ensuring public access to free speech and open networks.
Demographic Information
Service Area Congressional Districts:
Vermont. Entire state is one district
Does your organization serve a federally recognized tribal entities? If yes, please identify:
Number of hosehold subscribers:
Estimated population size of your service area:
Please provide demogrphic information for the population you serve:
The service area includes one small city, Montpelier, population 7,760 (2008). The rest of the area is comprised of small towns, villages, and rural country. the median income for the counties we serve, based on 2008 figures, is $35,746. The estimated average region-wide racial makeup is 96.4% White non-Hispanic. Montpelier has the largest number in the service area of people who speak a foreign language at home, or 7.2% of the total population. Of these foreign-speakers, 25% are refugees from the Balkan states. A much smaller number are French-speaking immigrants from equatorial Africa. Because of lack of public or low-cost transportation in the smaller towns, the penetration of foreign speakers, disabled and underemployed adults is lower elsewhere than in the city of Montpelier.
Supporting Vulnerable Populations
Please describe the specific affirmative steps that your program will take to engage and serve the groups identified:
We will expand our service area via new commercial broadband initiatives that are already planned, particularly targeting the rural areas. We intend to continue reaching out to schools, non-profits, arts organizations, municipalities and other community organizations that serve vulnerable people. We will soon be implementing a survey process, both online and in hard copy for input on what the community would like to have happen. Working with our Board of Directors, who represent the scope of our geographic broadcast area, we will, as funding permits, diversify our portfolio of programs, goods and services and interactive classes and seminars in how best to use media for optimal effect.
Please describe the ways your center will be accessible to people with disabilities and technologies will be used:
From a physical standpoint, our center is located in the first floor of a ADA-compliant building with wheelchair access, automatic doors, accessible restrooms and an elevator. Our computer center will have at least one computer workstation with a large format screen and all pertinent accessibility features active. At this time we are examining the technology of bringing closed captioning to our TV channels. We have recently partnered with the city of Montpelier to provide on-line access to city meetings. Our hope in the latter venture is that other communities will look toward Montpelier’s example.
Do you offer, or plan to offer, multilingual training and outreach? If so, please describe and identify languages it will be in:
Based on the above demographics, there is not a significant non-English fluent population in our service area. However, we have identified individuals in our community that can assist in this area when the need arises or upon request.
Local Drupal Development Commitement In addition to what the OMF will provide through this grant, we
estimate that a successful implementation will require a minimum of 80
hours of local drupal support (through trained staff, contractors, or
volunteers).
How many hours of professional drupal development support can you commit to securing between Oct 2010 and Oct 2012:
What is the estimated Cost (or value, if volunteer) of this commitment:
Current Capitial Equipment Commitment If your organization already has some or all of the equipment
required to implement the Open Media Project, or the capital budget
necessary to acquire it, that value will be included as part of your
match. If not, grant funds will be used to acquire the equipment you
require.
Current Digital Broadcast Server(s):
Current Dedicated RAID Storage:
Other Current Equipment Value:
If other, please explain:
* Our broadcast server is a Princeton B3400 with built-in RAID with 2TB of effective storage included in its price. The amount listed is the value after depreciation.
Future Capital Equipment Commitment If your organization already has some or all of the equipment
required to implement the Open Media Project, or the capital budget
necessary to acquire it, that value will be included as part of your
match. If not, grant funds will be used to acquire the equipment you
require.
How much Capital Equipment budget could you devote towards the
acquisition of the following equipment:
Future Dedicated RAID Server:
Future Digital Broadcast Server(s):
Other Future Equipment Value:
If other, please explain:
Additional software licenses, peripheral equipment, Handicams, etc.
Technical and Administrative Support We estimate that a successful implementation of the OMP will require a minimum of 80 hours of technical and administrative support
(through involvement of your ED, bookkeeper, engineer and other staff). Any time contributed will count towards your in-kind match.
How many hours can you commit to securing between Oct 2010 and Oct 2012:
List each staff member, position, number of hours committed, and hourly wage (or equivalent, if salary):
Joanne Crowley-WAtkins, Administrative Assistant 1 hour per week at $16/hour total $1600.00
Technical Director, Madhavan S. Nair, 2 hours per week at $19.71/hour total $3942.00
Executive Director, Kenric Kite, 2 hours per week at $22.60/hour total $4520.00
These numbers are based on 50 weeks per person per year during the indicated time period.
Video Content Commitment Partners will be supporting Sustainable Broadband Adoption by
addressing the primary hurdle identified by non-adopters: a perception
that broadband is not relevant to life, especially in low-income and
minority communities.
What is the value of the staff time and resources you are willing to
devote to supporting the production of video content that will address
'broadband relevance' from the perspective of members from
disconnected communities"?
If other, please explain:
One of our goals is to have students participate in this outreach, which will train members of those communities in the video creation process and will thereby be mutually beneficial to those communities and ORCA.
Broadband Training Program
If you intend to provide training or education, how many people in total will your program(s) reach:
How many hours of training do you expect to provide per person on average for your program(s), through completion of training:
How many Full Time Employee (FTEs) will you employ for broadband and digital literacy training purposes:
Describe the qualifications and training of full time employee instructors of broadband and digital literacy training:
Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree in Technical Video Production/Mass Communications. Proficiency in media technologies, a thorough practical knowledge of Drupal. Media literacy, knowledge of emerging technologies, and web communication applications necessary. Practical education experience is a plus.
Job Creation
How many indirect jobs will be created from this project:
How many direct jobs will be created from this project:
