October 24, 2005
Monday October 17th Meeting
On Monday October 17th, The Finance and Operations Committee heard reports from the African American Ethnic Academy (Dr. Virginia Henderson, Andreal and Arlington Davis), Project Bootstrap (Dick Anderson), Centro Hispano (Peter Munoz) and the Urban League of Greater Madison (New President and CEO Scott Gray and Ed Lee). All of these programs receive Fund 80 from the school district. The committee heard about the nature and scope of their services, physical site, evaluation processes and the responsibilities for the programs. The discussion was excellent.
There has been talk amongst some board members and community that the board should cut Fund 80 dollars from the budget. It was asked that if board members wished to do that they should make formal motions soon so service providers have the opportunity to make adjustments to their budgets. I don’t agree with this.
I believe that the board is not only using the Fund 80 appropriately, it should be used more. These community partnerships should be used to fund programs for Southeast Asian students, LGBTQ students, and schools without community centers, TAG students and more.
Expansion is definitely on my “to do list.”
We also discussed student fees and asked Administration to give a list of all extracurricular activities that have a paid staff. If this is something that the board is going to consider, we should talk about it in October and not in the spring (during our budget season). In addition, we should get feedback from parents, coaches, community members etc.
Wisconsin State Journal reported on the meeting
http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=wsj:2005:10:18:531404:LOCAL/WISCONSIN
Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 2:36 AM
August 10, 2005
Meeting on Monday August 8th
The Finance and Operations Committee (Bill Keys & Lawrie Kobza) met on Monday August 8th to discuss a "sub-committee" to be formed regarding advertising. The subject was tabled until Monday August 29th when Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, Roger Price will present an updated charge to the committee. Cristina Daglas of the Capital Times gave this account of the meeting. It should be noted that the entire board was there for the discussion.
Posted by Johnny Winston, Jr. at 6:15 PM
June 13, 2005
Madison School Board Finance & Operations Committee Presentation
Johnny Winston, Jr. kindly asked me to give a brief presentation to the Madison School Board's Finance & Operations Committee on "Non-traditional Communication Strategies". Following are my thoughts:
- Don Severson, Larry Winkler and Ed Blume offered a number of comments at the beginning of the meeting. Larry posted his notes "With is not a 4 letter word". I'll post other links as soon as they are available.
- Opening Remarks:
Many of you have little doubt that people’s use of new technologies can be socially and economically transformative. Scholars have found that new tools of communication and information dissemination do these things:
- The role of experts and information gatekeepers is radically altered as empowered amateurs and dissidents find new ways to raise their voices and challenge authority.
- Attempts by those in power to censor activity and choke off new avenues of commerce inevitably bring a wider libertarian backlash and, eventually, new social and political institutions form.
- There is a struggle to revise social and legal norms, and the battles center on the concept of intellectual property.
- Cultures of identity multiply as people use the new technologies to find others who share their background or their passions or their lifestyle.
- New forms of language arise.
- New ways to pursue scientific study and new scholarly disciplines emerge as knowledge spreads much more quickly.
- Boundaries break down between the private and the public spheres of life.
- Literacy grows and new emphasis is placed on training and educating children.
- New professions emerge. Read more: PDF
- The role of experts and information gatekeepers is radically altered as empowered amateurs and dissidents find new ways to raise their voices and challenge authority.
- OODA Loops (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act). Compare the old news/information cycle to the one we're living today.
- Terms and Places:
- The Cathedral & The Bazaar
- NetNewsWire - The Best; Mac OS X Only
- Windows RSS Newsreaders
- NYU's Jay Rosen writes about traditional and emerging media.
- Wispolitics does a great job creating and aggregating state political news.
- UW Grad Dave Winer is the original blogger.
- The EFF, which we should all support, has published a "Legal Guide for Bloggers".
- Business Week: Mass collaboration on the internet is shaking up business.
- Roger Price expressed concern about the authenticity of information. One of the key differences with internet writers or bloggers is that others can link and/or comment on any post. This type of expression or fact checking is nearly impossible in traditional one way media. Roger can choose to participate in the conversation, or not. If he does not, the conversation continues, without his point of view. Jon Udell writes a timely article on this very issue: "Wikipedia and the social construction of knowledge"
- Steve Rubel: 10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public Relations
- Robin Sloan, Matt Thompson & Aaron McLeran created this fabulous look back at the media revolution - from 2014. It's called EPIC
Posted by James Zellmer at 10:08 PM | Comments (1)