A social enterprise through the Internet

HP Internet Philanthropic Initiative - Theme #2 - The Internet’s Impact on Society

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Transnational spin off meeting, by Pietro Papoff, 6/7 April, 1998

Project Start up meeting - Nov 24th, by Pietro Papoff, 28 November 1997

Aggiornamento di Fabio Focardi - AMIG, 1 Ottobre 1997

Original project proposal, by Lorenzo Coslovi, Pietro Papoff, 5 June 1997

Documents

Transnational spin off meeting

Agenda

April 6^th

9,00 Welcome to participants. Work plan of the meeting. Presentation of the Elis students who are volunteering in the project.

9,10 Italian Sub Project - Mr Stefano Bargioni, Mr Pino Fusco, Mr. Marco Billi

9,30 Dutch Sub Project – Ms Belinda Tanner, Ms Edna Kavanagh

9,50 Guidelines for the II Request for Proposal – Mr Albert Frank

10,15 New Sub project proposals – Mr Pietro Papoff

10,30 Break

10,45 Splitting into two groups:

1. Old Partners: Planning of future activities
2. New partners: Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland: Start up of the two days training activity "Tools for Workgroup at the distance"

"Tools for Workgroup at the distance"

Set up of a Multimedia PC

Topics to be dealt with:

1. Hardware: modem card (PSTN, ISDN), CD Rom drive, desktop videoconferencing system
2. Software: set up and configuration of:
   Netscape (Browser, E-mail, Instant Messanger)
   Netmeeting: Internet Telephony, videoconferencing

More than formal lessons participants are expected to receive hands-on training (practical experience)

Participants

1. Italy – Sarah Cassidy, Shirley Tien, Carmen Sofia Brenes, Regina Estrada, Gin Gomes
2. Netherlands – TCL (Belinda Tanner), Europrof (Ms Edna Kavanagh)
3. Poland – Dobrochna Lama
4. Lituania – Vysuomene Svietimo ir Kulturos Vystimo Organizacija (Carmen Baena)
5. Estonia – Baltic Aridus (Cristina Amoros)
6. Sweden - Trädlärkan (Beatriz Velasco, Cecilia Christiansen)

Project Start up meeting - Nov 24th

Thanks to a financial contribution from Hewlett Packard a meeting among all members has been arranged in Rome. Participants have been: Pietro Minissale from Sicily, Rolando Bianchi Bandinelli, Valerio Miocchi and Pino Fusco from Pisa, Marco Billi and Centineo Cataldo from Florence, Pietro Papoff and Bruno Picker from Rome. Topics under discussion have been as follows:

• Internet provision to all partners: by the end of 1997 all partners will be provided with all necessary equipment (PC+modem+internet subscription to a provider)
• Map of the skills over the partnership: at the moment most of the partners need to undertake basic training on office automantion packages and on web developmente tools. Moreover some experts (professionals in the multimedia field) are expected to join the project if we really want to give a valuable outcome. By the end of march 98 all members of the project are expected to be operational on basic WEB development technology.
• JOBS to be entrutsted to the partnership: Rolando from CNUCE CNR is willing to entrust some jobs to the partnership such as web publishing.

Filmato in Real Player 5.0 della riunione

Aggiornamento di Fabio Focardi

Caro Lorenzo,
ti informo sulla ripresa settembrina del nostro progetto.

1) Abbiamo individuato dei locali idonei alla logistica di un Centro Servizi e di Telelavoro a S.Piero a Sieve (Mugello).

2) La Comunità Montana e il Comune ci hanno concesso dei locali in una bellisssima villa del Comune (sarà insediamento di servizi pubblico-privati).

3) Attiveremo la installazione delle macchine non appena create le strutture base.

4) Abbiamo individuato almeno 2 persone disabili idonee per essere inserite. Si stanno formando in un nostro corso di formazione.

Sono molto contento delle evoluzione.

Ti ringrazio

A presto

Fabio Focardi
___________________________________________

Amig - (Centro di Riabilitazione Villa Valentina)
Via del Poggiolino, 12
50139 - Firenze
Tel. 055-400763 Fax 055-400661
E-Mail webcead@tin.it

Amig - (Progetto Horizon)
Via Bonvicini, 40
50132 - Firenze
Tel-Fax 055-5004436
E-Mail webcead@tin.it

Amig - Cead (Centro Europeo Ausili Disabili)
Via Bonvicini, 40
50132 - Firenze
Tel-Fax 055-5004436
E-Mail webcead@tin.it

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Original project proposal

"HP Internet Philanthropic Initiative - Theme #2 - The Internet’s Impact on Society"

A Social Enterprise through the Internet: enhance occupational opportunities of physically disabled people through the setting up, via the Internet, of a Virtual Community at European Level

Date

May 97

Participants in the project

The project is made up of two subnetworks of partners, one in Italy and one in Holland. Each subnetwork comprises 3 groups of competencies: training, research and company links

Principal Investigator

Elis

Via Sandri, 45- 00159 Roma - +39-6-439.4661 fax .4681

Pietro Papoff Elis Director

papoff@elis.interbusiness.it

Michele Crudele Project Manager

crudele@elis.interbusiness.it

CNR - National Research Centre

Rolando Bianchi Bandinelli

CNUCE-CNR

Via S. Maria, 46 - 56100 Pisa - tel. 050-593223 - fax 050 904052

r.bandinelli@cnuce.cnr.it

Alberto Tronconi

+39 55 4223861 Fax 4223783

tronconi@service.area.fi.cnr.it

AMiG-CEAD association of disabled people

Via Buonvicini, 40

Fabio Focardi

AMIG tel. +39 55 400763, CEAD tel./fax +39 55 5004436

webcead@tin.it

Sodalitas - enterprise association

Ruggero Bodo

via S. Marco, 18

+39 2 58370293

European Partner

Technologie Centrum Limburg

Postbus 483

NL - 6400

AL HEERLEN

Mrs. Belinda Tanner

tel +31 45 5740832; fax 5711229

btanner@xs4all.nl

Home page address/URL of the project

projects.elis.interbusiness.it/I_disabled

Summary

This proposal is asking support from HP to speed up the activities planned by Elis on Telework through the Internet, addressing the needs of physically disabled people.

With this document we are asking support from HP for the first year (out of three) only but we expect to be invited to make another proposal to HP Europe next year.

The deliverables of the first year of this specific component sponsored by HP, will be the set up, management and evaluation of a pilot virtual community of disabled people (5-10 in Italy and 1-5 in Holland) willing to re-enter the labour market thanks to Internet facilities.

The philanthropic intent of the overall program, that HP will contribute to, is to support new job opportunities induced by new multimedia and Internet technologies.

In the long term (3 years) we expect the virtual community to become an enterprise (a social company) made up of 30 people (some disabled some not) spread over 6 European countries who are able to earn a living through the Internet.

Milestones (chronological breakdown structure of the project)

1. April 97: Elis has put up an application (under the EU LEONARDO program) to ask the European Union to co-fund the activities of this pilot project and extend them over three years and he’ll be told in September whether he’s been successful or not. In the latter case it’s possible to put up new applications under such headings as: TIDE - DGXIII, ESF - DGV). Amig Cead has alredy been granted a European Fund under Horizon (II IC/142/H project). Cnuce - CNR has put up a similar application under the EU program ADAPT.
2. September - December 97: Survey and ranking of 15 possible activities that can be carried out at a distance via the Internet by physically disabled people. In particular we shall investigate activities and services to be offered in the marketplace such as:

• set up and run corporate web sites
• market and sell activities through Internet
• technical writing
• technical translations
• production of learning materials
• distance tutoring

1. January - March 98:
   * Database of disabled who are possible candidates for the projects
   * Database of possible mentors (possible entrepreneurs willing to help disabled people)
   * Market research of possible customers of the virtual community
   * Competence needs analysis and curricula development to carry out the activities highlighted in the survey and matching market research
2. April - June 98:
   * Set up of an Internet server to support tele-work of the virtual community.
   * Set up of a pilot group of physically disabled people equipped of necessary Internet facilities working at both national and European level.
   * Install tele-work facilities (HW + SW) and train the disabled: in Rome students from colleges willing to volunteer will take care of training. We are looking forward at the possibility of making people work in suitable service centre, opened to disabled and non disabled, for work, training and recreation.
3. July - September 98:
   * training of disabled (continuing from the previous phase)
   * start up activity of the virtual community
   * evaluation for an extended project (from 10 disabled to 30) and involvement of other European Countries
   dissemination activity; conference

II year

Physically disabled people can widely take advantage of Internet technologies to lower the barriers of the labour market they have to face. In the second year each Country will activate two other countries (Italy will activate both Great Britain - Jewel & Esk Valley College in Edinburgh, and Denmark - Technical College Slagesle, near Copenaghen) and so 6 national networks will be operating in Europe: in Italy (managed by Elis), in Holland (Technologie Centrum Limburg). Along with this activity we will handle the start up of the social company helped by a group of mentors.

III year

In the third year we expect to repeat this schema activating two other countries each summing up to 18 national subnetworks

Background

Elis is currently running a three year program named: Jubilee 2000: a solidarity program to make disadvantaged people enter the Information Society. The program is made up of the following parts:

• a two years course named "Multimedia Languages & Technologies" for 30 boys of 18 years of age coming from disadvantaged regions of South Italy (1996-1998). This activity is funded by Telecom Italia, IBM, RAI - Italian public broadcaster. Hewlett Packard has given a grant to set up the multimedia laboratory (http://projects.elis.interbusiness.it/mpp)
• a distance learning project named Mediateca funded by the Italian Ministry of Labour and the European Social Fund aimed at preparing a learning environment suitable for addressing the needs of disadvantage people such as drop outs (youngsters who have failed in achieving a qualification within the national system), physically disabled students, women wishing to re-enter the labour market). The main purpose is to equip these people with the necessary skills to live in the Information Society. (1997-1998). The Elis approach to distance learning is based on the concept of "learning group".
• a distance learning pilot course, 6 months duration (September 98 - March 99) devoted to 60 boys and girls who have failed in achieving a formal qualification at school. The course will be held both in Rome and Milan where 2 Educational Resource Centres will be set up and two learning groups (classrooms) activated. Traditional lessons will be substituted - if appropriate - by multimedia learning materials available on the WEB and a tutor will design personal paths of learning of each student. Moreover each student will be given a PC and an Internet access so that some individual distance learning will be possible. This course has already been approved for funding by the Italian Ministry of Labour and the European Social Fund.
• a job creation activity made up of a practice enterprise, a telecentre and a cybermall, i.e. an incubator for start up companies. The project is partly funded by the ESF (European Social Fund), Telecom Italia, Leonardo da Vinci program of the EU

A.Mi.G. - C.E.A.D. has a wide experience using informatics and telematics in favour of disabled people, deriving from the informatic laboratory, activated since 1987 in the rehabilitation site of Villa Valentina, where technology has been used as a means of rehabilitation and autonomy for mental and physical disabled.

Moreover, its tight link with I.R.O.E. - C.N.R., one of the most prominent research institution, in Italy and abroad, on the field of technological research in favour of disabled people, keeps A.Mi.G. up to date with the most recent innovation and technology trends.

Thanks to is strong vocation on both rehabilitation and technology, A.Mi.G. has already started an activity to set up a social enterprise, composed of disabled and non disabled people, to offer telematics services via Internet. At this time twelve people are engaged in this project, that is part of the Horizon II IC/142/H project, currently on the way.

Inside the frame of the mentioned Horizon project we are in connections with partner in England, Ireland and Greece, with whom we presented a new project, under Horizon III , that comprise the implementation of a training and working network among the Italian partners in several regions.

At this point in time, our market investigations lead us to find the following possible market niche to aim at:

• Electronic publishing
• Support to traditional publishing (electronic composition and graphics)
• Web page creation (paying special attention to the accessibility for disabled)
• Telemarketing, distance selling.

All these activities have a common base of knowledge ranging from the use software tools (basic and professional), to almost a basic knowledge of graphics and communication theory. Moreover, especially for distance selling, a knowledge of law and financial rules regulating these activities.

Finally the A.Mi.G. is going to complete the publishing chain create a co-operative firm with two typography (in Florence and Pisa) to be able to complete the process from electronical composition, to production of final film, to printing.

CNR is the governmental body for scientific research in Italy, belonging to the Ministry for University and Scientific and Technological Research.

The CNR's purposes as an institution are:

· to promote, co-ordinate and control scientific research toward scientific and technical progress;

· to co-operate with Italian universities as far as scientific and educational activities are concerned;

· to act as a consultant as far as the State's scientific and technical activities are concerned;

· to make up provisions for the drawing up of technical standards of general nature.

In order to achieve these purposes, the CNR, among other things:

- finances and carries out research of national interest, both directly by its own research Institute and Centres and by means of contracts and contributions to Universities and other public or private bodies.

- promotes the establishment and development of scientific laboratories, and ensures their proper operations, also in co-operation with other public administrations.

- ensures, the participation in scientific and technical organisation at international level.

CNUCE is a research institute of the CNR acting both as a research Institute in the computer science field as well as telematic and computer services. In the origin, July 1965, the National University Electronic Computing Centre (C.N.U.C.E) was constituted as an Institute of the University of Pisa. Its original goal was to offer network and computing services to academic and research institutes.

CNUCE became a CNR Institute in 1973. Its workforce of 122 people makes it one of the largest CNR institutes in Italy. CNUCE still has the original function, of a service centre for scientific computation and networking, alongside the new role in the research activities. It is involved in many national and European projects, among them TIDE DEFIE project (Disabled and Elderly people Flexible Integrated Environment), TIDE MOSAIC-HS project (MOdular System for Application Integration and Clustering in Home System) and DOMOH project concerning computer aids for elderly and disabled people.

This activity is connected to its previous experience in other national project, particularly:

· availability of basic computer functions, through User Interfaces for Disabled (voice , other), namely: word processing, telephone, fax, connection and access to networks, learning aids for child/adolescent with sensory impairment;

· control of electrical appliances through EHS, namely: washing machine, oven or equivalent;

· control of entertainment equipment through EHS, namely: TV, HI-FI;

· control of safety/security devices through EHS, namely doors/windows, intrusion.

In the present project CNUCE will assist two disabled people to use Internet as tool for tele-work.

The participation is aimed to start propose a new European project in Horizon or similar programmes.

Activities (functional breakdown structure of the project)

To set up both at National and European level a virtual community (via the Internet) of physically disabled people who can co-operate at the distance on delivering services such as:

1. setting up the Internet infrastructure to support the project. We need to install, configure and start managing the network of servers (one per Country) maintaining a high degree of consistency to allow a central management of the overall network. This technical component of the project is extremely important, as in perspective we wish to consider installing "small servers at home" (of handicapped people) and we cannot expect them to have the technical skills to install/ set-up/ run/ update a server. In ELIS we have sufficient initial know how on that aspect and we recognise that the limits to solve this problem are currently in the scarce availability of products that support the concept of "remote management". This can be considered the technological platform activity to support the overall project for the next many years, and in this specific area we cooperate with a local university.
   Elis will be in charge of this activity.
2. job from the net. We plan to search, interpret, discover, create, jobs that the Internet makes available for working at home. Telework is already a reality for a number of professions. What is new for us is the possibility that new job profiles now exist. A new great variety of "added- value" contribution may be discovered in the Internet, and discovering and classifying them is the very first step of our effort. In parallel we’ll try to find out possible customers for the virtual community.
   CNR and SODALITAS will be in charge of this activity
3. We will ask ourselves (by the way most of the activities will be done by handicapped people who can use a PC connected to the Internet) how can we then teach (to handicapped people) the skills to become "professionals in the market" for any specific kind of activity which match the market research. So the skills development program will be designed and implemented in a pilot phase. We wish to run this in parallel in other 6-8 European Countries, to create an international network of skills. Therefore all the studies and reports will be made available in English, to bring this network to the attention of the international scene. This is a prerequisite to get important support from the European Union social support programs.
   If that decision (of producing learning material) will be taken, we’ll do that initially in English (to facilitate an international co-operation scheme). That’s why the first generation of handicapped "students" must know (or must learn) enough English language to survive in the exercise. The importance of the learning of the language is a key step in the program, because "working through the Internet" will be more and more leveraged by the knowledge of the foreign languages, starting from the dominating language in the business. That’s why we’re seriously considering from the beginning to look for the more suitable learning "courseware" for the English language.
   Elis (I) and TCL (NL) will be in charge of this activity
4. Selection of the first team (in Italy and Holland ) of disabled willing to enter the labour market through the Internet. The implementation of the pilot phase of the virtual community will soon follow the and initially it will be highly interactive and based on a person-to-person schema. All the best practice will be documented in English in the web servers of the network and attention will be taken to have a reuse concept in place as premise to commit on "some" courseware development.
   AMIG and others associations of disabled people (such as Fondazione Gualandi in Bologna) will be involved in this activity.
5. Dissemination. All partners involved in the project are highly visible to both national governments and European Union and this pilot project can be used as a pattern for getting the results across and exploited.

Requested Support

A detailed analysis of the equipment needs will be done as soon we get a go ahead from HP. In every country we need 1-2 NT server and about 5-10 home multimedia PC (with a small printer) for the disabled. Other 5-10 multimedia PC would be given to 5-10 mentors of the training centres. The strength of ELIS is the availability of manpower to manage most of the project activity, with the help of volunteer technical students.

HEWLETT-PACKARD Prices in IL for ITALY - Effective date: 01/05/97

We expect to be supported by HP Europe by a subset of the following hardware ranging from 75% and 100%

Publication of the results

We have the ambition to set an example in how handicap, education and the Internet contribute together to the progress of our society. We also believe in appropriateness that, whenever possible, governments must subsidy education to address social problem, as every investment toward building culture is worth 10 times any other optimal form of social support.

We are conscious that our opinion is shared (but not widely yet) so part of our program will be the diffusion of either the results and the concept inspiring us. Besides publishing the outcomes on our web server, we plan to publish our work and to attend at least one important annual Italian conference and one European one.

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Send a message to consel@elis.org for eny questions or suggestions.
Updated 27/04/09.