Projects

District Dollars

DCN collaborated with the Davis Joint Unified School District (DJUSD) to develop an interactive website to help our community understand the current DJUSD budget situation.

Nonprofit Internet Toolkit

Every nonprofit has fundamental needs. For example, all nonprofits need to inform, educate and/or inspire people about their organizations or causes. Many nonprofits need to manage their volunteers. All nonprofits need to communicate with their members and clients. These needs can often be met by applying the right tool to the task. The Nonprofit Internet Toolkit describes a variety of tools, resources, classes and support that could improve a nonprofit's effectiveness in serving its mission.

Volunteer Management for Nonprofits

Internet tools and resources for nonprofits to start a volunteer management system or to improve on an existing one. Great for capacity building.

This AmeriCorps CTC VISTA Project

This AmeriCorps CTC VISTA Project, the Volunteer Management and Nonprofit Internet Toolkits, is a combination of community networking, technology assistance to nonprofits, and digital media which is intended to ensure the benefits of the next-generation web serve the public interest and benefit civic society in Davis and in Yolo County. DCN's VISTA, Rian Graves, has worked with the VISTA Project Team to work directly with six nonprofits, including DCN (California Bike Museum, Yolo County Food Bank, Yolo Community Foundation, Tree Davis, STEAC) to test a small (3-4) set of tools, including tools from the current DCN Toolkit. As Ms. Graves spent over one year with DCN. She understands common nonprofit needs and is working with the VISTA Project Team to test current DCN Toolkit tools to match specific nonprofit needs. The VISTA Project Team's goals are to: a) identify minor but high priority modifications to the current DCN Toolkit; b) test additional tools to match nonprofit needs, collecting information on sustainability and related ongoing support; c) make recommendations to the DCN Board for approval of minor modifications to the current DCN Toolkit; and, d) build a nonprofit community for ongoing mutual aid in the use of Internet tools by nonprofits, with ongoing DCN support for the community.

Community Calendar & Web Calendars for Organizations

Many organizations have learned that they now need an interactive calendar on their web sites. The problem is that there are many calendar program plug-ins available online, but none that effectively meet both organizational requirements and community event posting needs, specifically for Davis. The DCN Web Team has developed an integrated solution: an easy to use, aggregated and linked Organization Calendar and a Davis Community Calendar. DCN’s web calendar program is intended to be used by Davis area institutions, local nonprofit groups and community organizations, at no cost.

Websites with Content Management System (CMS)

DCN assists nonprofit organizations to effectively use a content management system for capacity building -- streamline workflow, facilitate division of labor and enhance communications internally as well as with the public.

SimpleSites

Based on years of experience assisting local nonprofits and community groups as well as their valuable feedback, this award winning website-creation tool is developed from Plone by DCN with ease of use, practical application, and multimedia capability in mind. It is a powerful package of template-based tools for creating websites ranging from one simple web page to sites with multimedia and other sophisticated features -- without having to know HTML. This is an ongoing project with new features added based on community needs.

Voter Information Project

DCN has provided online Voter Information since 1996. DCN, in partnership with the Yolo County Elections Office (YCEO), City of Davis and DCTV, provides Internet related services to Davis area candidates and campaigns; and maintains the DCN Voter Information web site, a voter resources clearinghouse, with links to candidate and issues web sites, campaign finance reports, the County Elections Office web site, and more.

Putah Creek Watershed Portal

The Lower Putah Creek Watershed Portal will help stakeholders and researchers more easily find proposed, ongoing, and past projects and studies that affect the Lower Putah Creek watershed. This project is built using open source software

Yolo Area Regional Network

 

DCN CR3 (Computer Recycling, Refurbishing, Replacement) Project

DCN accepts donations of recent model computers and peripherals for re-donation to needy area community organizations, and for placement at free public access sites. We are currently only accepting recent model Mac and Pentium systems in good working order, as well as late model displays, printers, etc. DCN has placed well over 100 systems with area organizations to date.

Community Networking

 

Public Access

DCN has since 1994, placed free public access computers with Internet connections at strategic sites in Davis and neighboring communities. DCN places systems are usually refurbished used computers. DCN partners, including Virtual Market Enterprises, Omsoft Technologies and City of Davis, have added to and help to maintain specific public access sites. DCN has also donated over 100 used and refurbished systems for computer labs, adult education programs and public access at public housing facilities, migrant centers, schools, libraries and community-serving non-profit groups.

The First Ten Years