DEVELOPMENT OF THE LINCOLN
INFOLINE:



Lincoln took a unique approach to the accessibility issue. Those without
current means were given access to a sophisticated computer telephony system,
which offered information over the phone as well as voice mail service
to interested groups. Information was available 24 hours a day 7 days a
week in selected areas of health, education, jobs and social service.



The overall strategy taken was to promote access to information over
technologies that are currently widely available while other less widespread
technologies become established. The specific information that callers
could access were in the following areas:



    

  • Education
    • 


      

    • child safety forum
      • 


    • daycare center locator (enter zip code to hear daycare centers in your
area)
      • 


    • educational curriculum oriented activities from the "Talking Test"
package (used at the Coolidge School Demonstration project)
      • 

    


  • Health
    • 


      

    • HIV Infoline (including an online resource center, quiz, and risk assessment
procedure)
      • 


    • List of County Health Departments
      • 

    


  • Jobs
    • 


      

    • List of Employment offices by County
      • 


    • PADS employment office – voicemail boxes for homeless seeking employment
sponsored in cooperation with PADS homeless shelters
      • 

    


  • Social Services
    • 


      

    • Lists of shelters for runaways, battered women children, other homeless
      • 


    • Staff voicemail boxes for 15 PADS homeless sites throughout the South
Suburban region with group messaging and forwarding capability
      • 

    






The original computer telephony server for the south suburbs was located
on Governors State University’s campus and offered a single dial in number
(708.235.4132) and 11 additional roll over lines. It began operation late
due to continued delays from Ameritech, who failed to properly install
the lines for the system from January through July,1996. Once the lines
were in place, the lines were brought to the internal computer telephony
server location and the system software was installed and configured. The
server began operation officially at the beginning of September, 1996.



The Lincoln Project also developed a cooperative demonstration with
the Village of Phoenix, Illinois. Village residents, Mayor Terry Wells,
village trustees, the local Coolidge School, and the Lincoln project set
up a voicemail driven application in which Phoenix residents could call
the "Voices of Phoenix Network" (708.333.VPN2) to receive village
news, school curriculum activities and news including homework, and police
department news. 



In the fall of 1996, Coolidge School inaugurated its portion of the
telephony server with a school wide writing and recording contest featured
on the Infoline. 158 students participated by writing and recording their
stories in the " Recording Studio" on the telephony server. The
winning essays were judged and selected by parents of Coolidge students.
10 prizes were awarded including the grand prize, a computer donated Turner
Telecom. The winning stories were later made available on the LincolnNet
and featured the students’ pictures, stories and recordings of the students
reading their own essays.



In the winter, students began using a mathematics activity called the
"Wise Guy Math Challenge" which gave students the opportunity
to practice their multiplication tables over the phone. This activity incorporated
math drill in the context of a game or contest. Students were able to participate
after school and won token prizes for the efforts.



After 6 months the Village of Phoenix requested its own computer telephony
server in order to include a wider variety of information and village services.
Under the leadership of Lester Hemingway, financial officer for the Village
of Phoenix, the new server began operation in March, 1997 at Coolidge School.
The Village plans to use the telephony server features to add additional
services in 1997 including voice mail boxes and a "news" feature
for the brand new senior housing site in Phoenix.



By March of 1997, two telephony servers were in operation. The original
server was advertised locally and throughout the region beginning in the
summer of 1996. At each meeting held at Governors State and other locales
in the region, the Lincoln computer telephony server was explained and
people throughout the region were invited to call in and take advantage
of the information service. Between September and December, 1996 nearly
7,500 calls were placed. The additional server established in Phoenix in
early March, 1997 had received 2,200 calls as of June 1st. The original
server received an additional 2,600 calls between January, 1997 and the
close of the grant period for a combined total of 12,300 calls in less
than a single year of operation. 



As a final note, Ms. Debra Baron, organizer of the Kankakee River Valley
Information Assistance Network, sent a letter to Lincoln requesting help
establishing a computer telephony system like Lincoln’s in the Kankakee
area. Kankakee is located in a rural area where the Internet and WWW have
low penetration and accessibility. They would like to use a widely available
technology, like the phone, to enhance information access as other technologies
spread and take hold throughout their region. 



We believe that our model of combining widely available technologies
with technologies that are small but growing has value nationally as a
significant way of addressing the accessibility issue. We conclude that
people with limited access can develop a positive technological orientation
by interacting with technologies that are within their grasp and which
offer true value in terms of information and connectivity.




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