YMCA Earth Service Corps

On Saturday I met with Eric, Zoe, Jamia, Derek, Sam, Talia, and Viena from YMCA Earth Service Corps. We spent 30 minutes together reviewing the PSO summer project, website, design, and templates. The entire group liked the name and color scheme. In addition, they came up with a lot of ideas on how they could use the site to support their Earth Service Corps work - promote events, blog, share information, post articles…

They have signed on to be a testing partner!!!!!!!!!! We need to discuss how we’ll use them to test the site. Do we want to hold a testing day or allow each individual to test on their own.

One question they have is can their be a YMCA Earth Service Corps main group with subgroups (Hazen High School Earth Service Corps) attached to the main group?

Entry Filed under: partner strategy

Add comment January 28th, 2008 at 09:16am Chris Tugwell Permalink

Tasks for the BC team

As most know, this quarter we have 10 very talented undergraduates who are spending time working on the PSO through the CCCE. For the past two weeks, they have been learning about the theory behind PSO and other projects. As of Monday, they will begin analyzing the curriculum created by the YMCA and creating more of the curriculum modules that Chris Tugwell sketched out. We also want to give them a fairly solid preview of the other things they will be doing this quarter, so I would appreciate feedback and suggestions on what their role might be. Here are the elements we plan on having them tackle:

1) Understanding the curriculum created by the YMCA, evaluating it in terms of the learning goals, and drafting the curriculum modules that have not been written. This will include standardizing the modules and creating some good PSO-specific templates.

2) Another task will be devising ways for the PSO to fit into the programs in which other interns are working, including Aki Kurose Middle School and the City Year programs. The main task here will be working with the students from Aki to find ways to use PSO in combination with the Project Citizen curriculum.

3) Another task that makes sense for this group is marketing for the PSO. (There are several students interested in marketing.) Some materials we plan to have them create are: Powerpoints for presentations to both potential partner organizations and groups of youth; a plan and materials for advertising over Facebook, Myspace, etc.; and a set of ‘alternative’ materials such as videos and podcasts for the PSO site and the web.

4) Finally, the task that will require more thinking out is how the BC interns might take a lead on establishing the youth management process for PSO, perhaps by becoming regional leaders in different Seattle neighborhoods.

We would appreciate any comments on these ideas or suggestions for others. We plan to present a plan for the quarter to the students on Monday.

Entry Filed under: civic learning goals

2 comments January 24th, 2008 at 11:00am Chris Wells Permalink

MySpace

There was an interesting article in the Seattle Times today about MySpace’s efforts to protect kids.

Click here for the Seattle Times Article.

Entry Filed under: legal and privacy

Add comment January 15th, 2008 at 05:12pm Chris Tugwell Permalink

Power of Hope

Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Toby.

I spoke with Michael Harris today. He has done some research and chatted with some different people since our initial contact with him. One of those conversatios was with Sam. He mentioned it went well and that she helped answer a lot of his questions. Thanks Sam!

Power of Hope is officially a testing partner. Michael Harris will pull a team of staff and youth together to serve as the official Power of Hope testing team. Their web address is www.powerofhope.org

I have a feeling this is going to be an issue that comes up often. I propse that we put together some type of safety specs sheet for our partners to help alleviate their fears; as well as, educate them. My guess is that a lot of non profits are going to be wrestling with safety issues as they embrace emerging (maybe old by then) technologies. Plus, this would be a nice slide to add to the PSO PowerPoint a group of BC interns will put togther.

Any ideas on what we would want to say or should include.

Entry Filed under: partner strategy

1 comment January 15th, 2008 at 04:13pm Chris Tugwell Permalink

Curriculum Inventory/Needs

Chris W, Deen and I met. Chris is going to have the BC interns begin working on creating powerpoints for the learning goals identified in the curriculum inventory/needs doc. Download Curriculum Inventory and Needs (XLS)

Entry Filed under: digital learning skills

Add comment January 14th, 2008 at 01:25pm Chris Tugwell Permalink

Liability, Terms of Use, and other concerns

Is a minor bound to an agreement with the operator fo website where such minor promises to waive liability, to refrain from conduct that may lead to liability, or to other terms of using the website? What does this mean for Youth Commons?

What terms are common among websites with minor users? What are some terms we would recommend Youth Commons include in its user agreement?

What are the reuirements of the Children’s Online Protection Act (”COPPA”) and the Chid Online Protection Act (”COPA”) that Youth Commons must follow?

read entire summary Download YouthCommonsTermsofUseHansonKnight.doc

Entry Filed under: legal and privacy

Add comment January 10th, 2008 at 10:55am Chris Tugwell Permalink

Tort Liability from UW

Any website featuring content posted by both the site administrators and users should be aware of their tort liability; YouthCommons is no exception. This memo focuses on the tort of defamation under Wash. State law and the related Federal law, including brief description of both. Although the users of YouthCommons may be liable for content posted on the site, as a neutral service provider, YouthCommons itself is probably protected by the federal law described below… read entire document
Download YouthCommonsTortLiabilityHallRingland.doc

Entry Filed under: legal and privacy

Add comment January 10th, 2008 at 10:51am Chris Tugwell Permalink

Privacy and Photos

Hi all,

This is a relevant thread from Sam’s DigitalAid site which I am reposting to the blog for posterity. ~DEEN
—Hello there.

Digital
cameras store, in addition to photographs themselves, some metadata
about the photographs. This metadata is often embedded with the image
itself. This can provide interesting data about a photograph. But it
can also be a privacy issue. Here is a post about this issue: http://netzreport.googlepages.com/hidden_data_in_jpeg_files.html

Question for you:

• Should
  we strip this data? (no guarantees that all the data would get
  stripped, but there is a Drupal contributed module that attempts to
  strip this data; this applies only to those photos uploaded to the
  site, not any pulled in from Flickr or other 3rd parties).
• Should
  we print this data along with the photo? (there’s another Drupal module
  that does this so it shouldn’t have much impact on cost/time)
• Should we do what 99% of the world does, which is neither? (don’t print it, don’t strip it)
• Or should we ask the youth what they want us to do?

Lemme know!
-Sam

4 comments so far

Samantha Moscheck Tue, 1 Jan at 12:26 PM

Hi Lance,
I got your email but not because of the reply – to post to the website
project management site you have to click on the link in this mail and
log in. I think there is a way to retrieve a forgotten password but I
can reset if needed.

I could post it to the blog, but the nice thing about the PM site is that
it keeps our email correspondence about the topic threaded and I get
the emails. Does the blog send emails of all comments? Deen?

I wonder, depending how the blog works, if we might use the PM site for
all this stuff and if somebody might, at some point, create blog posts
either copying or referecing the relevant PM messages.

Trying to keep it simple, but also be sure we all get included on the conversation.

Maybe just because of holiday but I didn’t see any response to my blog post about YouTube versus Blip TV - did folks see that?

Thanks!

Vicky Yuki Wed, 2 Jan at 8:32 AM

Thanks
for the information, Sam. I went to the netzreport site and actually,
there is a link at the bottom for a pdf of various examples where you
can actually see the whole image after it had been cropped.

I believe the site needs to be a safe place for youth to express
themselves and am not sure that they will feel as safe knowing that
images they had manipulated and placed on the site can expose what they
don’t want others to see. I also see this as an educational
opportunity, as I didn’t know that this was an issue with larger
implications.

I would like to hear from the Y folks who work directly with kids and whether they have experienced this as a problem.

Thank you!

Chris Tugwell Wed, 2 Jan at 9:21 AM

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Sam.

Sam,
do you know why most people don’t bother to strip or print the data? Is
it because they are unaware there is metadata stored on the photo?

The link you provided included a couple of real life scenarios where the
embedded metadata created some problems. I would hate to see something
like this happen to any of our users.

What’s the added cost for stripping photos?

Do you have a strong opinion on what we should do?

Samantha Moscheck Wed, 2 Jan at 12:06 PM

I’m sure most people have no idea. I had no idea either, to be honest,
until I stumbled on a Drupal module that attempts to strip some of it
out, and researched the issue a bit.

My personal opinion is that it is a very good thing to educate youth (and parents!) about. And
that actually stripping out the data on the PSO
site would be a good gesture, but not a whole lot more than a gesture
if we presume that youth are out uploading photos other places too.

Plus, I’m wondering about videos – is there any such encoding on videos? Etc. I have no idea.

I think it would be a very interesting project for a student to research
this issue. I bet there are software programs – probably at least one
free program – that you can run photos and videos through to completely
strip all the information before then sending it on to whatever website
or other place you’re sending it. It might be cool to encourage youth
to do that or to at least know how.

In terms of having the PSO site strip the info from JPG
files: There is a module already that makes the attempt to strip most
of the information – it would have to be modified to make it work with
this site, because I’m using a different and better method for image
handling, but i’ll put together a cost estimate. However, I’m
optimistic that we can get it done within our current development
budget.

Naturally it wouldn’t impact video or images from third party sites.

Amazing stuff!

Best,
-Sam

Entry Filed under: PSO website development, legal and privacy

1 comment January 4th, 2008 at 09:52am Deen Freelon Permalink

Content Policy

CONTENT POLICY

Puget Sound Off (PSO) is designed to provide youth with a forum for discussion, artistic expression, and action as a way to empower and encourage youth voice. PSO aims to be a catalyst for increasing youth involvement and engagement within the community. We desire to build community by encouraging expression of one’s beliefs while maintaining respect for others.

Important issues may sometimes require the addition of controversial or sensitive content, but good taste must come first in PSO’s content. PSO will be inclusive and respect the rights and feelings of others. In order to attain this goal, the following content is prohibited on Puget Sound Off:

· Content that is obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit;

· Content that is violent;

· Post or share any personally identifiable or private information of any third party;

• Content that is or may be deemed to be grossly offensive to the online; community, including but not limited to, blatant expressions of bigotry, prejudice, racism, hatred and profanity;
• Content promoting or providing instructional information about illegal activities.
• Content portraying or describing cruelty to animals

· Harm members in any way;

· Collect or store personal data about other users.

· Stalk or otherwise harass another;

• Content or other material that contains viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of Puget Sound Off servers or another users computer;
• Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letter,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;

· Engage in any predatory or stalking behavior.

Postings, blogs, photos, videos, or other content are not necessarily reviewed or approved by PSO or does the content reflect the views of PSO. Failure to adhere to this code of conduct may result, among other things, in the termination of your account and the deletion of content that you have posted on Puget Sound Off, with or without notice. PSO may reject content that, in its judgment, is deemed inappropriate.

This Code of Content is subject to change at any time at Puget Sound Off’s sole discretion.

Entry Filed under: legal and privacy

4 comments January 3rd, 2008 at 06:20pm Chris Tugwell Permalink