Updates

My understanding of the digital divide chanced over the course of CSC300 manly because I wasn't aware of how many people in Canada don't have Internet access. There are 25,086,000 Internet users as of September, 2009, which is 74.9% of the Canadian population, according to ITU. This percentage means that almost 1/4 of canadian population can't pay their bills online, search for a job or learn online and basically don't have the same opportunities as the rest of the population.


About the database, I have decided I will continue working on the database once the final exams are over. I would like to complete the work and do a useful tool for St. Chris. I will keep in touch with St. Chris to make sure all their requirements are met.


Thanks

Working

The Canadian national literacy survey states that Canadian adults need a literacy level of at least three in order to be part of our increasingly complex labor market. Approximately 43% of the population in Canada and 50% in Toronto are below that level. Without a good literacy level it's difficult to use and get used to computers.

Also the City of the Toronto has a poverty rate of 19.4 % according to Statistics Canada, where “Low Income Cutoff” (LICO) is, for example a family of two living in Toronto with total income below $22,964 (year 2000 dollars, before tax), or a family of three is considered low income if their income is below $28,560 and so on. Many of these families can't afford Internet connection, buying a computer or software.

I believe these two reasons contribute in creating a digital divide among people in Toronto. Organizations like St. Chris can strive to bridge the gap created.

Regarding our work, we started working on the database and it's coming along well. We have are three people now working on the database since St. Chris asked us to add another person. This should make our work load easier. Though is has been difficult to meet every time, we designed a bunch of tables and we are working to build a user-friendly form, which St. Chris staff can use at their convenience. Our database will help St Chris staff speed up registrations and set up classes for the learners in a timelier manner.  

Later,

Second meeting

On Thursday my friend and I had a meeting with Leilani, Songyu Ni and Cody of St. Chris organization. We first got a tour of the 248 Ossington location. This location it is the main location of St. Chris and it's more spacious. Songyu explained us that St. Chris needs a database for the learners and volunteer registration forms. The main functionality of the database would be to match volunteers with learners. St. Chris has about 1000 learners and 100 volunteers and right now all the registration and matching is done on paper and they have piles of it. I was quite surprised by the fact that they still work with paper. Also what surprised me is the low number of volunteers compared to the number of learners. I particularly noticed that Songyu would be interested in a web database for convenience. We are determined to do a good job. Today we started requirement gathering and taking notes of everything Songyu said. We got a pretty clear picture of what St. Chris requires from us. Now that we have something to work with we will start by installing Access, looking into designing an ER diagram and building tables. I am sure we will have questions to ask Songyu soon.

Later,

St Chris Community Service. First meeting.

I was assigned to work for Bang the Drum, the Urban Community Access Network geared towards bridging the digital divide which is part of St. Christopher organization. Today, I went to the King St location and met with Judy, the Bang the Drum coordinator. She explained us how St. Chris functions, their values and what are their needs. We were many students in a small room but I was impressed by the location and the friendliness of the staff. Among things such as a server and tutors, St. Chris needs a database in order to be able to register and match up volunteers with learners attending St. Chris's services. Since I am interested in databases I decided to take up the challenge with my friend even though both of us are not familiar with Microsoft Access. I am charged and ready to start learning.

Later,