eChicago 2011: Democracy, Diversity, and the Digital
The Partnership for a Connected Illinois will sponsor the live internet streaming and archival recording of the eChicago events in Chicago this week. The stream can be viewed at http://www.digibridge.net/echicago/. The events and stream will take place Friday, April 22, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday, April 23, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A complete program of events can be downloaded athttp://webdocs.lis.illinois.edu/comm/echicago2011program.pdf.
eChicago will take place at the University of Illinois Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted, in Chicago, and is open to the public. Advance registration can be made through the eChicago website at http://echicago.illinois.edu/. The event is free to all, but space is limited.
This is the Fifth Annual eChicago symposium, which brings together practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to share ideas and strategies for allowing communities to become full participants in the digital age. Representatives from community organizations, universities, and libraries, and anyone else who is interested in the digital divide, information policy, and how broadband can increase opportunities and improve life outcomes are welcome to attend.
Plenary presentations on local breakthroughs in digital government and digital music will include:
- Greg Waas, CIO, Cook County
- Matthew Guilford, Director, Director, Technology Policy and Digital Excellence, City of Chicago (invited)
- Capital D (David Kelly), HipHop artist and founder, All Natural
- Art (Turk) Burton, Chair, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians
- Paul Maloney, VP, programming, Accuradio.com
Panels will cover topics such as broadband projects, local history online, community media, cybernavigators, social work, librarianship, ebooks, seniors, education, the technological revolution, computer clubhouses, and more.
In addition to the Partnership for a Connected Illinois, other sponsors and partners include the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Jane Addams School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago; NASW Illinois; Chicago Public Library; Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago; Benton Foundation; The Chicago Community Trust; and others.
Each eChicago becomes a book available in print or free online at http://echicago.illinois.edu/.
Background readings are available at http://echicago.illinois.edu/2011backgddocs/.