Back when I was Executive Director of the Ohio Community Computing Network, I would visit Community Technology Centers often. I knew they were underfunded and understaffed.
It all came flowing back to me when I found myself helping set up a public computer lab last night. The lab is a project of the University Area Enrichment Association, with lots of involvement by FreeGeek Columbus. The lab will be staffed by volunteers and mostly available as an open lab. They are looking for volunteers to monitor the lab and answer questions.
FreeGeek volunteers and OneWebDay Columbus volunteers (including my kids!) set up the lab last night so we can use it for OneWebDay today. Its not fancy. Every machine, monitor, keyboard, mouse combo looks different. And used. Because they are. All are refurbished. A volunteer found the tables on CraigsList. And the chairs are of the metal variety so common in church store rooms (which is exactly where these came from).
The volunteers last night also cleaned up the FreeGeek Shop. Its an amazing space. Its the basement of Summit United Methodist Church. There is tech everywhere. Really, everywhere. FreeGeek has been working toward getting it organized. Much progress was made last night as you can see in this picture. My first response was "wow, floor space!" The picture was emailed to me at 12:50 a.m. I have no idea how late the volunteers stayed last night. I wish I had a "before" picture!
Today, OneWebDay volunteers will break down computers, separate the reusable parts from the ones to be recycled. I expect FreeGeek will have more volunteers than they are accustomed to!
To make it a day of learning AND giving, we also have volunteers teaching/facilitating workshops. Topics include Intro to Ubuntu (open source operating system), Legalities of Open Source, and Online Apps for Small Businesses.
Its going to be chaotic today. I decided its best to do what we can to prepare but to appreciate the chaos that comes from lots of folks trying to be helpful.
