Published March 18th, 2007
in Documentation.
On day five, Megan and I met again with Linda Jackson to show her the basic structure of the Lower 9th Ward Homeowner’s Association blog and further discuss with her the goals and ideas for the association. We actually ended up talking with her for a couple of hours about her personal experiences after the storm and the general politics of rebuilding the Lower 9th ward. Linda voiced her concerns about investors buying up large portions of property in the area and attempting push residents out. We realized through this meeting that Linda has a lot of influence within the discussion about the Lower 9th Ward’s future. She will be attending a meeting on Monday concerning the distribution of vacant land within the city where she plans to found out how she can purchase land to begin construction of temporary residences within the neighborhood for displaced senior citizens whose homes were destroyed. She spoke in great length about the hardships of many displaced residents who are barely getting by in the areas where they have been re-located to. Many are no longer receiving emergency assistance and are finding it difficult or impossible to pay the rent in their new neighborhood. She also spoke about the significance of the land to many former residents, whose property has often been passed down through generations.
We also discussed with Linda the importance of incorporating a donation button on the site, which would allow people to easily donate money to her organization through paypal with their credit card. At first she was not happy about paypal’s 3% cut of the donations but we convinced her that this was the best way to reach an online audience. Since the Homeowner’s Association is a relatively new organization, she has yet to obtain a bank account. She plans to do this on Monday so Megan and I can set up the paypal account for her. After this is completed, the next step is to inform as many people as possible about the organization and their need for funding. More about that to come as the project gets under way.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation.
Wednesday was the busiest and hardest day so far. Megan and I went in the morning to the Green Project, an organization that has been present in New Orleans for thirteen years and has been functioning as the city’s sole recycling center since the storm. They are a nonprofit organization dedicated to creatively promoting and encouraging environmental sustainability in New Orleans. They recycle building materials and paint, deconstruct homes and salvage usable materials. While there we met the acting Director Angela and the executive Director, Donald, who both seemed very excited to have us documenting their work.
The center functions mostly through volunteers who come for the day and help the organization recycle paint and lumber materials, work in the composting section or various other tasks. Megan and I were assigned to do composting for the few hours that we were there.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation.
On the second day Marianne, Shawn, Patricia, Megan and I met with the Porch Project to discuss their technology needs and introduce them to the blog platform. We also met with Bruce, a professor at Xavier University in the Mass Communications Department and one of the people involved in the I-10 Witness organization, to find out more about their digital storytelling project and introduce them to the projects that we have been doing. Hopefully, there may be some collaboration in the future.
Steven then took us to the Lower Garden District for Lunch.
After that Megan and I went to the Xavier University Art Department, located in Gert Town. While waiting to go to our next meeting, we went out the immediate neighborhood and took some pictures.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation.
In the late afternoon of the first day, all of us went to Dillard University to meet with various community groups working in different neighborhoods in the city. We introduced ourselves by presenting several projects that students had worked on previously and by explaining this blog platform. Some of the projects presented with Dan’s You are not here project, Steven’s mapping project, Ruth’s booth project and the freeformed.net voice circle.
Published March 15th, 2007
in Documentation and Uncategorized.
Upon arriving in New Orleans, after getting very little sleep the night before, Caleb, Yonatan and I received one of the rental cars and attempted to find our way to the hotel. We were initially following behind others but, thanks to inserting the incorrect address into our GPS navigation system, we ended up getting a little lost. Not that we minded, I have always found that getting lost in a city early on allows you to have a perspective of place that cannot easily be achieved from the highway. We actually ended up on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District and somehow found the correct path to the hotel.
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