Social Capital, Diverse Neighborhoods and Networks Track
Where Goes the Neighborhood? Social Capital in Today’s Communities. Social networking may be the rage, but local social ties have weakened over the past generation. This track will explore how neighborhoods and local relationships are changing, highlight effective practices, and share ideas on how to build bridges that span differences in increasingly diverse communities. Join us for the discussion at the Summit, and keep your eyes on this page for session notes and follow-up dialogue.
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Rational technophobia
One of my clients recently shared that she had a quarterly report due to the feds for a program since de-funded. The report includes 160 fields of data on each of 100 young people enrolled in her program as of last summer, filed quarterly. Since none of those data reflect test or learning goals, and all reflect demographics, attendance, and behavioral criteria, it's hard if not impossible to see what kind of rationale supported the form. She then shared that the federal agency spent $12,000,000 in developing the form a few years ago, all to monitor programs whose average budget is less than $400,000/year. No wonder they hate tech and approach MIS issues with misgivings! When will federal systems begin to reflect realistic data requirements and cost-benefit based reporting? As long as they remain as arbitrary and inflated as those in Upward Bound, there is very good reason why NGO's approach every tech decision with fear and trembling.
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