Foundation Journal

A recently concluded Digital Inclusion Summit in Kansas City highlighted the disadvantage residents face not having home broadband Internet access, especially school-age kids and job-seeking adults. As many as 25% of Kansas Citians and 70% of KCMO public school youth don't have home access , and it's good to know a digital inclusion coalition is emerging from the summit to fix this gap. Another fact from the summit shared during a presentation is that the uneven KC broadband landscape is common to other large metroplitan areas, like a report last week showing "some 800,000 New Jersey households with income of $35,000 or less, only 54 percent had broadband Internet access and 45 percent had no connection at all." So large projects to address the digital divide are needed. One such project by the Obama administration [possible NY Times registration required] proposes a solution to a problem "with fewer than half of American public schools connected to high-speed...

This free municipal wifi project in New York City is proposing a public-private partnership to extend Internet access to New Yorkers. The high-speed LinkNYC effort promises to be the world's largest free wifi network, relying on advertising at the wireless access points to pay startup infrastructure and ongoing maintenance costs, plus generate revenue for the city.

Conferences usually provide a welcome break from the daily toil by getting practitioners, activists and experts together to think and talk about the topic at hand. This was the case at the Rural Life Day in 2013 hosted by Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri, and promises to be the case this year with the conference theme "Soul and Soil In A Changing Climate." Join the conference on December 6, 2014 in Jefferson City, Missouri by registering for the day-long event . Here is the full conference statement: How we treat our farms, forests, mineral resources, and waters, how we structure our food systems, even what we eat day-to-day are all within our control and by these actions we are tied to the economic, political, and ecological order of our planet. At its core, the interlocking global environmental, climate, food, and natu-ral resource crises are a moral challenge that calls us to examine and change the way we use and share the earth’s finite res...

Many people today advocate for better nutrition options in our communities. Films, books , organizations, even a national Food Day , all describe the problem of obesity and diabetes caused by poor diets. The food bank where I work has a Nutrition Education department that teaches hundreds of adults and kids each year about affordable and healthy food. And advocates do not shy away from pointing out that food purveyors like McDonalds promote "bad food," so much that people are influenced by the message and don't pursue healthy diets. It's clear that "good food" advocates are fighting an uphill battle as fast food operators spend millions of dollars to market their food. The attraction to unhealthy food is especially acute among school-age children, so it's a good thing that an organization like Food Day is promoting a message to kids about good food and diets, even if for a single day. Food Day is "a nationwide celebration and a movement for heal...

Bringing up two girls and navigating the blanket marketing to kids -- especially movies -- meant we not only sat through countless Disney movies, but also bought a slew of knock-off toys. I'm sure we "invested" at least $200 in Beauty and the Beast -- toy tent castle, VHD videotape, books, and occasionally an unhealthy "Happy Meal" from McDonalds for the toy. And movie production companies like DreamWorks and Topps continue to market useless toys and food that increases obesity in kids. Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is calling out the two companies for this practice.  If you agree with CSPI, then  take a minute to send a message to DreamWorks and Topps to ask them to stop marketing junk food to kids.   

Comcast announced a low-cost Internet option as mentioned in today's Washington Post. "Under a back-to-school promotion running from now until Sept. 20, new Internet Essentials subscribers will get six months of free Internet access. In addition, those who were previously Comcast customers but were barred from signing up for Internet Essentials because they owed the company money for other services will now be able to subscribe to Internet Essentials — provided that their outstanding bill is more than a year old." Link to the full article -  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/08/04/comcast-is-expanding-its-10-a-month-internet-program-for-the-poor/?tid=HP_technology

Seems simple enough -- a broadcast radio outlet tries out a new medium like video. Several area radio stations have wandered into the video world with varying success and for various reasons as outlined here. Since the stations -- 96.5 The Buzz , a commercial station; KKFI 90.1 FM , a community station, 90.9 The Bridge , an affiliate of KCPT-TV; and KDHX 88.1 in St. Louis -- all rely on advertising, underwriting, or listener donations for support, so one reason for delving into video is to attract more "paying customers" to their radio broadcasts. Another reason is to connect with people in social media spaces they prefer, especially around music. Any media outlet paying attention to trends in radio and social media would be well-advised to tap into new media in order to maintain their financial base. The problem with this approach is that listeners have many alternative outlets -- for example, Pandora or Apple's newer streaming radio service -- for their listeni...