IBX Game Changers Challenge

Link back to the Information Advocates Notebook

Link to the iStart IBX Web site

Link to the IBX Budget discussion

Jim Wurster's Comments

Aliaunda's Comments

Michele's Eval Doc

Baba Bob's notes

See also the "Discussion" Page for notes

Business Name

Philadelphia Information Advocates

Business Abstract

A network of dedicated, trusted, community-based listeners intelligently connecting resources to requests.

An Information Advocate is a person who helps their neighbors, community members, or any other group of people learn about the resources, skills and needs of other members of the community and the world. They provide access to social supports and help the community to build social capital by listening to their constituents and converting what they learn into information that can be shared in ways that are appropriate to each person's needs. They help people to conduct research and teach people how to use information and communication tools. Their importance lies in the fact that they are a person who is available to be helpful in using modern technology and knowing who does what in the community. Information Advocates help their community with COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION and TRUST.

1. Read and agree to the official rules and conditions

Yes

2. Team leader name and email address:

Stanley Pokras <pokras@ntronline.org>

Application and Organizational Information

5. Team or Company name:

The startup of this project is being sponsored by Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR), a charitable 501 (c) 3 organization.

NTR's Mission:

NTR is committed to helping the people of Philadelphia, and the organizations that serve them, have access to and use of information and communication technology.

NTR's Vision:

NTR envisions Philadelphia as a city where all people, regardless of financial resources, have the skills, knowledge, and access to the informaiton and communication technology they need to achieve their goals.

6. List all founders/board members/advisors:

Board of Directors, Nonprofit Technology Resources

Ken Kramer, President - Trainer, Comcast Corporation

Ed Cummings, Vice-President - President, Electronic Design Systems

William M. Finn, Treasurer - Certified Public Accountant

Patricia G. Coyne, Secretary - Human Relations Rep, Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations

Stanley R. Pokras, Executive Director - Nonprofit Technology Resources

Virginia Booker - Director, W.E. Martin Production Company

Vanja Buvac - CEO, The Cadence Watch Company

Nathan Cottrell - Account Manager, SHI International

Myra Cousins - Retired university professor

Ronald E. Cropper, Jr. - Network Administrator, DOT/DHS, City of Philadelphia

David Rifkin 

Simmone R. Roberts - Retired business administrator

Jonathan R. Verlin - Teacher, South Philadelphia High School

Narissa Wallace - President, Multi-Media Concepts, Inc.

Tim Wisniewski - Assistant Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia

7. Organization website:

Nonprofit Technology Resources: http://NTRweb.org

Philadelphia Information Advocacy: http://ntrweb.org/information-advocacy/

8. Organization address (if not located in Philadelphia, Chester, Montgomery, Delaware, or Bucks counties, what are your plans to establish a location in the region?

Nonprofit Technology Resources, 1524 Brandywine Street, Philadelphia PA 19130

9. Business model:

Non-profit

The founding organization is Nonprofit Technology Resources, a charitable 501 (c) 3 organization. The project may grow into a coalition of organizations with a new corporate name and a new IRS filing.

10. Date established/years in business:

Nonprofit Technology Resources was founded as "Public Interest Media Project" in 1974. We took the current name in 1993. 

Information Advocacy became a project concept in the Spring of 2011 and is an extension of work done as "Everything for Everybody" in 1970.

11. How will you measure your impact on health and wellness? What metrics will you use?

There will be two levels of evaluation for this project. The first will evaluate the development of the project and will measured, in part, the number of organizations and individuals who have agreed to participate and the numbers of people taking advantage of the training and technology resources offered as they become available.

The second level of evaluation will compare Philadelphia today with Philadelphia's health statistics as they change going forward.

Our associates at Temple University have agreed to conduct the evaluation process. A letter of support from Michele Masucci is expected to affirm the commitment of the University. Stan

Your Solution, Innovation and Social Impact

12. Describe your proposed solution, product, or service and how it will help improve health and wellness in the region.

This project will establish a network of helpful people whom we are calling "Information Advocates" in communities throughout Philadelphia. The term "network" is used to emphasize that the Information Advocates will communicate with each other in providing services for their community members. The term community is used broadly to mean any group of affiliated people. A community may be geographical or conceptual.

An Information Advocate is a person who helps their neighbors, community members, or any other group of people learn about the resources, skills and needs of other members of the community and the world. They provide access to social supports and help the community to build social capital by listening to their constituents and converting what they learn into information that can be shared in ways that are appropriate to each person's needs.

Information Advocates help people to conduct research and teach people how to use information and communication tools. Their importance lies in the fact that they are a person who is available to be helpful in using modern technology and they are someone who knows just about everyone in the community. Information Advocates help their community with INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION, and TRUST.

• We will build a preventive health network utilizing existing systems and information, but provide the missing link which is the getting the information to the people who need it when they need it.

• We want to create circles of Information Advocates throughout the city.

• We want to place them in the neighborhood organizations where they will reach the most people who need help.<br>• We want to build relationships within communities to promote respect and acceptance.

• With the city structure in health and human services getting less and less funding, it will have less and less people to help those in need. We hope that our IA network will be able to pick up the slack and provide the information people need.

Information Advocacy is an extension of an idea developed by John Scully in the late 1960's. Scully had a store front shop from which he ran an organization he called Everything for Everybody. 

13. What root health issues will be impacted by your solution?

Health issues that are complicated by poor connections to other people will be addressed by this project.

Stress - which affects so many things that people try to do and then often not doing at all, or doing badly.

Many issues that relate to lack of income may be overcome because of this project. Problems as simple as a shower that doesn't work because a person can't afford a regular plumber can be harmful and can be corrected by knowing who in the community can help at an affordable price.

Having someone to check in on an elderly person during hot weather can be handled by a community Information Advocate who knows the elderly person and a young person willing to visit the older person each day.

This project can help put many of the well known preventatives of good health into play. It will help spread useful information about healthy practices. It will help put someone who has been trained to observe other people in contact with people who may not even know they need help.

This project will encourage collaboration and information exhanges among groups already concerned for the safety and health of their community members.

The trusted Information Advocates will help people make better health related decisions based on research rather than popular notions.

Declining Social Capital
"Social Media" technology is producing revolutions in societies across the world. At the same time, for many people, technology is not sufficient. The connections among people known as social capital has been declining for years, perhaps for generations. The most widely known review of this problem is the book by Robert Putnam - "Bowling Alone." In his book, Mr. Putnam describes the decline in social capital happening in our society and offers several reasons for this decline, including the time that people spend watching TV.
For a useful summary of Mr. Putnam's book, see the article by Brett Reeder of the Conflict Research Consortium.
http://www.beyondintractability.org/bksum/putnam-bowling

Social Isolation
Social isolation can be defined structurally as the absence of social interactions, contacts, and relationships with family and friends, with neighbors on an individual level, and with society at large" on a broader level.
Social isolation is considered a risk factor in the development of disease and in the disability that can occur in the course of existing disease.
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1578&page=243

External Stresses and Shocks
Resilience in human social systems stems from the capacity of humans to be able to anticipate and plan for the future. Resilience is conferred in both human and ecological systems by their capacities for adaptation to these external stresses and shocks.

“A Resilient City is one that has developed capacities to help absorb future shocks and stresses to its social, economic, and technical systems and infrastructures so as to still be able to maintain essentially the same functions, structures, systems, and identity.”
From the Web site Resilient City http://www.resilientcity.org/index.cfm?pagepath=Resilience&id=11449

14. Why do you consider your solution innovative? Discuss how it is different from existing solutions.

Our solution is innovative because it uses existing technology but builds into it people to people connections. The systems may be in place, but if people don’t know about them, or can’t use them, or don't have the time to use them, then the systems are useless. Our solution brings into focus connections that everyone can use. One doesn't have to be low-income to benefit greatly by having access to knowledgeable, trusted, people who can help reach out to other people and make good sense of the connections.

At this time in history there are very few, if any, places where a person can speak with another person and have their needs, skills, ideas, resources and interests noted, recorded and (if appropriate) disseminated. All too often the places that offer "community services" are unable for many (often good) reasons to simply recommend one neighbor to another. The Philadelphia Information Advocate Network will allow trusted people to be Information Advocates without the baggage associated with being an established organization.

The idea that we should have a network of trusted, dedicated listeners in every community adds to the power that the Internet currently offers to tech savvy individuals. With such a network in place, people who do not have Internet access, or the skills (and time) to communicate their needs effectively, will be able to take advantage of the full power of the Internet to make information about themselves accessible to the people who match and complement their needs.

As far as our research has revealed, existing solutions leave out the listener. This project makes real, caring, trusted people available to help their neighbors or community members. The Information Advocates will be people who can help a client prioritize their needs and find the best solution(s) while maintaining the client's privacy and security. Other networking solutions also leave out the network and only provide a tool for people to broadcast or search via a Web portal. With the Information Advocates Network in place, the Advocates will be able to meet, get to know each other, and discover the riches within each other's community. The best of the systems below allow localization, but some will give results in another state. 

Lotsa Helping Hands http://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/ - A tool for channeling public interest into private emergencies

Neighbor Hire http://neighborhire.com/ - A tool for marketing and finding people who provide services. 

Change By Us Philly http://philly.changeby.us - An online marketplace for community projects

Philly FreeCycle http://groups.freecycle.org/phillyfreecycle/description - A group that shares everyday items via an email list

15. What do you hope to achieve in the next 12 months towards implementing your solution? What major tasks do you need to complete to achieve these milestones?

There are two areas of achievement for the first year: First: Build a model Information Advocate network. Second: Build the foundation for the future development of the network as it grows within Philadelphia and beyond.
--
Build the Model Network
=================
* Hire and train the first network coordinator
* Identify about 12 Information Advocates in service to "early adopter" communities
* Design and implement a curriculum and training program to allow the Advocates to become familiar with the information landscape of Philadelphia
* Design a model Web-based communication database to allow the Advocates to keep notes and write and search listings for and by other Advocates about their respective community members.
* Train the Information Advocates to "crowd source" information into structures such as http://WikiDelphia.org
* Effectively promote the services of the Information Advocates using publicity acknowledging the role of the IBX Game Changer Challenge
--
Build A Foundation for Network Growth
============================
* Establish a set of guidelines for network members
* Increase the number of participating communities from the dozen early adopters to 30 or more communities
* Using what is learned through the model database, begin the design of an enhanced Web-based communication database that will be sufficiently robust to handle the needs of network members as the data traffic balloons
* Design and plan for increasing the number of Philadelphia Information Advocates into the hundreds or thousands over the next 5 years
* Begin the design process for involving communities outside Philadelphia as the idea of Information Advocacy spreads around the world
* Produce a formative evaluation of the initial one year period
* Produce a strategic plan and evaluation plan covering projections for the next 5 years.

Scalability and Practicality

17. What are your plans for scaling your solution throughout the region and beyond? What resources will you need to accomplish this?

The web communication tools will allow for regional and linguistic variety. The listing tools will offer geographical and conceptual focus. For example a listing may be directed at a particular zip code. Alternatively, a listing may specify a particular focus such as HIV or spinal cord injury. Once the Philadelphia Information Advocacy Network is functioning, we expect that there will be a need for the translation of listings into multiple languages.

19. What is your business model? For a for-profit venture, how will you make money? For a non-profit, what revenue streams will you develop to sustain your venture?

Non-profit

Charitable donations, corporate sponsorships, training fees, network membership fees, web marketing and ad revenues

23. Please provide a brief background for each of the founders or principals who will be working on your solution, emphasizing experience relevant to implementing your proposed solution.

Stanley Pokras

Stan Pokras first developed an interest in computers as an electrical engineering student in the 60's. He has been Executive Director of Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR) since 1980 when he founded Other Networks, a newsletter devoted to the study of networks of people. He has coordinated NTR's broad spectrum of services in information technology, assisting hundreds of local nonprofit agencies with training and computerization projects since 1983. Under his guidance, NTR has developed successful programs which provide used computer hardware and training in computer refurbishing for both the staff and the clients of nonprofit organizations.

I'm not a math person, I'm more of a science fiction fan. Because of that, I've been following the movement of Social Network theory for over 30 years since I discovered Vol 1 No 1 of the journal "Social Networks" with the founding article by Ithiel de Sola Pool, "Contacts and Influence."

I immediately made the connection to Isaac Asimov's "Future History" which forms the basis of his Foundation Trilogy.

Since I'm not a scientist myself, I have been too shy to build acquaintances among the members of the SOCNet List. I have written to people there from time to time, but I can't say that I heard back from anyone who I believe I can communicate with on my level.

I consider myself to be a social engineer. I want to build systems and services that help people connect. I started down this path in 1970 by opening an information store front based on John Scully's "Everything for Everybody" in Manhattan. I sought out Scully after hearing the words "Whole Earth Catalog." I wanted to build a whole earth catalog of people. His business looked like an ideal way to start. For two years, my associates and I collected over 1500 "listings" (4 by 6 cards) of the things people wanted and had to offer. We listened to thousands more people as they called for help or stopped in to see us in our store. I have news articles about this experience that will be soon prepared for inclusion in the IBX proposal package, so you will be able to see this material shortly.

My current effort to build a network of "Information Advocates" is built on my experience helping thousands of people connect (or at least attempt to connect) with each other.

For more of my history: I was one of the founding members of the Electronic Networking Association (ENA). As it's Vice President I ran a conference here in Philadelphia in 1988 which brought people from around the globe. Joi Ito, now Director of MIT's Media Lab, was a young hacker at the time and a founding member of the ENA. I don't think he was even in college when I met him.

I got involved with international networking because I was publishing a newsletter called "Other Networks." That got me an account on Delphi where I met people from EIES, at the NJIT. We used Harry Steven's software, Participate (Parti). It was most well known on "The Source" but we used it on a system called Unison out of Denver. I also looked in on conversations on the Well, but I didn't become a regular there.

I recently re-read the book "Complexity, The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos" by M. Mitchell Waldrop. It's the history of the Santa Fe Institute. This book encouraged me to vision my work building an Information Advocates Network as evolutionary. The book inspired me. It made me wish to write a paper (which I'm not qualified to write at this time) that I would like to title: Civic Consciousness: Increasing Self-Sufficiency in the Complex Adaptive City.

Catherine Dibble (Advisor)

Catherine Dibble, PhD is the Founder, President, and Senior Research Scientist at Aiki Labs which specializes in developing resilient communities using information and communication technologies.

Catherine brings specialized knowledge of the sociology behind what we're doing with Information Advocacy and she also programs supercomputers!

http://catherinedibble.com/

25. What potential obstacles to your long-term success do you foresee? How do you plan on overcoming these obstacles?

Not all people are able to reinvent themselves as dedicated listners. Some people who may wish to take on this work may become overwhelmed with the difficulties their clients encounter.
Organizations with limited capacity to accept or deflect liability may have to avoid certain kinds of referrals. A "terms of use" document will be required to be customized for each Information Advocate's relationship with the community and their affiliated organization(s).

Other

29. Where did you hear about the Challenge?

A: Jeff Friedman posted a message in the Open Access Philly email list: IBX Game Changers Challenge