Sunday, May 23, 2010

Here is the first draft of my abstract for the Journal of Community Informatics.

Abstract

These field notes describe the origins and initial development of Computers for Communities a non-profit, in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, that refurbished computers and installs Ubuntu Linux on these computers. At the moment the group is run by volunteers only. The computers are then given to the volunteers for their service. Also the intention is that the computers are given away free to community centres, housing projects and other such community based organizations. The field notes describe the early days of the Computers for Communities through to the first lab installation in a tenant organization office. The notes continue to describe the first computer workshop where volunteers were able to refurbish computers and take one home. The notes end with the first general meeting of the membership and at the same time the submitting of paperwork to the Ministry of Industry to register the non-profit as an official organization under the laws of Canada.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Book review being worked on for local SAS user group.

I am working on a book review for a local SAS user group. I will give the presentation June 9 in the morning at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The review covers the book ODS: the Basics by Lauren E. Haworth. So far the book has proved useful to me at work.

Monday, May 17, 2010

I read a little of a journal article about older volunteers in the USA.

The article is
Tang, Fengyan. "Socioeconomic Disparities in Voluntary Organization Involvement Among Older Adults" Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 37, 1, March 2008.
This paper describes a statistical modeling of data from the Americans Changing Lives (ACL) survey from the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan. The author investigates the effects of socioeconomic status on type and scope of volunteering of older adults. The author concludes that education alone not income has a positive effect on types and scope of volunteering. The author calls on voluntary organizations to help older adults with less education volunteer and thus reduce disparities caused by inequalities in society.

Sunday, May 02, 2010

I looked at the schedule of economics 101 at Carleton. I will have enough to study at work though this summer.

The summer schedule of economics 101 is not bad and on TV it is great. I could watch it after work each day at 4:30. I could really use this credit in my work. I need to learn more economics and econometrics. I really need a break thought to regain reading time so a full course probably won't be how I spend my summer. I have training at work next week in supervising skills and more programming courses as well as computer science methods courses coming up in training at work. Also my French training will be happening again this summer. My French is improving and I can basically read French well enough for some jobs in Montreal and now my oral French and my written French need improving.