6. PUBLIC OUTREACH AND SOCIAL AGENDAS

To address the public's need for an introduction to the technology, BCN started off with two categories of training: general, and target sub-community. We were very concerned that the training be sensitive to their level of comfort with the technology. For PSS, we developed and administered surveys to participants to determine their interest levels. With the seniors, we formed a Senior Citizens BCN Advisory Board which met regularly during the initial year of BCN. While the official Board no longer meets, several of the original members have become instructors for BCN's public orientation sessions. Several others have begun developing sites on BCN for community organizations.

For the general community training, we invited all interested parties to meet and develop an effective training program. We found that, while many people were interested in giving their opinions, no one was able to commit the time/energy to organizing this, formally. We tried to work with the public libraries; however, at the time they were overwhelmed by community requests for their general computer offerings, and were unable to really work with us to further develop a training strategy. During the first year of BCN's development, we held regular "BCN Demos" at CNS. We have since changed the name and focus of public training.

Most of the public who attend our sessions want to learn how they can gain access to BCN from home. Most of the attendees are new users who have never encountered the Internet much less the World Wide Web. We have changed the name of our training to "orientation sessions," because we are trying to orient the audience towards an understanding of how they can best afford access to the Internet, and we explain the connection between Internet access and use of BCN. The sessions are free to the public and are available three times per month. Our sessions schedule and samples of our syllabi are available online (http://bcn.boulder.co.us/bcn/training/center.html).

The sessions have been very successful. Our instructors have experience teaching in a variety of settings and are very sensitive to the needs of new users. To introduce BCN's new Latino resource center, we will be offering a session in Spanish. The session has been marketed specifically to Spanish language information providers throughout the County. The attendees will include representatives from Health and Human Services, Boulder Valley School District's bilingual programs, sports and recreation groups and more.

6.1 Lessons Learned: Public Outreach and Social Agenda

1. Learning what level of training to offer to the general public and sub-communities is difficult. Many people have never interacted with a computer, or if they have they may not be comfortable with one. Given our limited resources, we couldn't possibly organize and conduct basic computer training.

2. Decide early on just what level of training you can realistically provide. Identify and either work with others in the community who can provide basic computer kinds of training. Community colleges, public libraries and senior centers may be suitable.

3. If possible, a Training Coordinator should be recruited. Training is an important and very time-consuming activity.

4. Some members of the senior citizen population are deeply active in community activities and have well established connections with organizations that could be contributing information to the community network. Interested senior citizens will want to jump right in and get to work learning html if they think they have the opportunity. Give them the opportunity regardless of the initial time it may take to train them in the editor of choice at your community network. We have learned a significant amount about new users and their interests by offering one-on-one training sessions on using html. One volunteer, a 75 year old retired school teacher, is busy creating html templates for use by other senior citizens and the general public.