FUTURE PLANS
Governors State University and the South Metropolitan Regional Leadership Center are committed to the continuation of the Lincoln Networks as tools for regional development in our region. We are confident that the existing framework is of high quality and is comprehensive, and we see great potential for developing leadership in the south metro area using these tools. One of the objectives of the SMRLC is to provide leadership training for members of institutions in our region, and we view it as essential to train these individuals regarding the benefits of using technology, and about how the Lincoln Networks can serve as a vehicle for information-sharing and collaboration.
Another high priority in our future plans is to continue looking for ways to use the technology to improve job skills and provide economic development opportunities in communities of limited resources in our region. This is reflected in our recent TIIAP proposal for the RISE Project (Reaching for Independent Success through Enterprise). We will also continue to support the computer telephony systems, working with the Village of Phoenix to enhance outreach in Phoenix , and in nearby communities like Harvey and Robbins where resources are limited.
We anticipate receiving $35,000 from a prominent telecommunications corporation to assist our work on the access issue. With these funds plans are in place to establish a community technology center in Phoenix, which further integrates the telephony server with WWW access. We hope that funds from other sources will make it possible to extend our current services to more communities where access is still a serious issue. A portion of the funds we expect to receive are also earmarked to assist Coolidge School to integrate additional features of the telephony software into the school curriculum. A series of workshops with teachers in the areas of writing, science, and math are planned.
In the future, the technologies that were used in the Lincoln project will merge and evolve. Within the past granting period the use of audio like that on our computer telephony server has begun to spread quickly on the Web (Lincoln was the first community network in the country to use Real Audio on its website). Lincoln has also pioneered the cross linkage of the WWW and information on the Lincoln InfoLine telephony system.
Lincoln recently developed the capability of posting material from its own computer telephony system onto to its corresponding WWW site (e.g. Coolidge students’ stories from the Lincoln InfoLine can be heard on the Lincoln website.) Using the Coolidge example as a model, CyberSight was established in the spring of 1997. CyberSight is the first regional all-student electronic tabloid in the US. As stated earlier, it combines the written and spoken work of students across school districts as part of the Lincoln’s First Annual Apprentice Webmaster Training Camp this summer. Plans are underway to continue CyberSight this fall with cooperation and funding from school districts in the region.
Lincoln began planning to enter the Webcasting arena in the fall of 1996. The development of Webtide is the first exploration of webcasting by Lincoln. Like CyberSight it also incorporates recordings from the computer telephony server on the Webtide website. Together with Webtide host, Dr. Mel Muchnik, veteran broadcast journalist on staff at GovernorsState University, the "Virtual Interview" technique was created. The Virtual Interview gathers recordings from callers to the Lincoln InfoLine. The recordings are edited and placed as Real Audio files on the WWW. Plans for the future include the posting of recordings from participants throughout the region on the Webtide site.
Cross linkages, as exemplified in CyberSight and Webtide, will help us to increase access and to allow valuable information from communities with limited resources to reach out beyond their region.
Other plans of the Lincoln Networks, including the Lincoln InfoLine and the Lincoln Website, follow a model of growing independence from grant funds and increasing reliance on regional resources, and reimbursement for services. Plans are underway to invite vendors on the Information Superhighway in our region to a Cyberfair. The goal of the Cyberfair will be to create awareness of services throughout the region. The Cyberfair will take place at Lincoln’s Regional Telecommunications Conference – 1997. The Telecommunications conference will focus on recent changes in FCC regulations and invited representatives from municipalities, libraries and schools are the target audience. Lincoln will benefit from participants’ registration fees and vendor display fees. The informational services and hosting provided by Lincoln will allow us to begin to generate an independent revenue stream, not by providing Web services but by harvesting surplus value from it’s position as a regional information broker.
Lincoln also hopes to begin a series of evening workshops this fall which will focus on how the Internet and WWW can help small businesses to compete in today’s increasingly electronic world. Lincoln has secured the volunteer services of one area web service vendor who will give the seminars. It is hoped that others will follow by volunteering their time to increase awareness of the commercial value of the WWW as a stimulus to regional economic growth.
Plans are also being considered for generating revenue from the provision of specialized databases which attract visitors to the site and which create opportunities to derive additional revenue from user fees or advertising fees. The database initiative began when Lincoln posted the Kankakee Help Book, a searchable database allowing visitors to quickly identify social services in the Kankakee area. Currently Lincoln is porting the searchable database of daycare centers from its Lincoln InfoLine over to the WWW. Visitors will be able to locate daycare centers in their community and peruse pricing, location, hours and contact information.
The placing of the daycare database on line will serve as an entrée to daycare facility operators who can through their participation help Lincoln to establish another source of revenue and who may wish to establish their own web presence. Most daycare facilities qualify as small businesses and can benefit from understanding how the WWW works and what potential benefit it may have for them. Once searchable databases are provided it is possible to explore at least two new sources of revenue -- 1) advertising from vendors of products desirable to parents and 2) the benefit of volume purchasing by Daycare center operators (as aggregated by Lincoln). In the second scenario, Lincoln helps Daycare Centers by serving as a virtual purchasing agent, securing the lowest possible prices on items needed by more than one daycare facility, e.g. food, paper products, crayons and other supplies, and cots and other furnishings.
A recent White House press release has cleared the way for increasing commerce on the Information Superhighway. Regional and community networks will find ways to support commercial transactions in their regions by increasing awareness of the economic potential of the WWW, continuing to aid connectivity as necessary, helping businesses, small medium and large, to establish and take advantage of their place on the web. Increasing commerce will create multiple opportunities for regional networks over the next few years. Surviving networks are likely to be those that contribute value added services through active, creative partnerships with businesses, communities and organizations in their regions.