Last Friday I met with Michael Brooks, the director of the Local Development
Corporation of East New York (a disadvantaged minority area), who I had met
briefly a couple of weeks ago through Gary Markovits. Brooks wanted to talk 
to me because a central part of his strategy for development and job 
creation in this area is to push the use of computers and the Internet. 
He has a few initial ideas for this:

- offer training and classes, on everything from repairing PCs to data entry 
  to devloping Web sites, and have the training materials online.
- start businesses for people to do data entry etc (one initial project
  is to handle signing on of new customers for CSNet), Web development, 
  repairing PCs, a computer store (including 2nd-hand equipment), etc.
- set up Web sites for local businesses, with the development being done by
  local people
- train local teachers in how to teach and use computers and the Internet
  (like CSNet is doing now)

He wanted to try to figure out if there was any way we could help them, or
possible collaborations or joint projects we could do.

This is somewhat similar to Infomall mid-Hudson, in trying to jumpstart new
technology companies, however it is different in that this is a disadvantaged
area without the skills or infrastructure of the Hudson valley. However I 
thought perhaps one way we could help them is just for Denny and I to have a 
chat with him, and perhaps Denny could give him some idea of what he has been
doing with Infomall mid-Hudson, and what things have worked well there that 
might be applicable to East New York. At the very least, some of their people
would be interested in attending the Web consortium meetings at the Lubin
House and getting plugged in to the Web developer community in NYC.

Brooks suggested that there is NII and/or other govt funding available that 
is specifically targeted at disadvantaged areas like East New York, and that
joint proposals - them and us (and perhaps commercial companies like CSNet
or Web developers) - may have a good chance of success. An initial 
suggestion for a possible project was online training and teaching.
Apart from possibly using Tango for this (similar to what we were planning
to do with CSNet), I can't think offhand  of any projects we could do that 
would be "high-tech" (i.e. using high-end Web or computing services), which 
is my main concern about this endeavor.

On Friday they are being visited by a bunch of local and state politicians.
He asked me if we could get back to him by then with at least an expression
of interest (or not). Ideally he would like to be able to say that they are
exploring possible collaborations with Syracuse University on Web projects,
and have me show up to the meeting as living proof. I told him I would ask
you and see if you were interested.

So, are we interested? If so, I will attend the meeting Friday, and perhaps
the first move would be to arrange a meeting with Brooks, Denny and I to 
discuss ideas for possible projects.

Paul