Looking ahead on December 24th

The free Friday Open Court Workshops resume on January 9th. They run from 4 to 7 PM. Interest has built to the point where we are going to kick off a campaign on the weekend of the First Friday in February to set up the FSO (Free Space Optics) link from the building that holds The Rack at 1844 Springfield Ave. and  Scoops & Soups at 1846 to the building that holds the office of Dr. Dione M. Williams, MD, at 1787 Springfield Ave. (See http://geeksfso.blogspot.com/2013/12/introducing-geeks-fso-proof-of-concept.html )

Draft schedule:

Putting the talent and genius of

Springfield Avenue on Display!

First Friday Weekend at The Rack

February 6th to 8th

Friday, Feb 6th

4 to 7 PM:    Geeks FSO Free “Open Court” Workshop for coding apps and creating content.

7 PM (open ended until 10 PM): Open Mic talent platform: $10 

Saturday, Feb 7th

10 AM to 2 PM: Networking brunch when it’s OK to talk to someone you haven’t met before. No host menu.

4 to 7 PM:    Seminar w/discussion: Connecting Springfield Avenue via FSO (Free Apace Optics). No host menu. (Note: Panel moderated by Hilding Lindquist.)

Sunday, Feb 8th:

2 to 4 PM:    Seminar w/discussion: Investing in the Future of Springfield Avenue Through Technology: $75 at door; $50 thru Feb 5th:
Moderator: Hilding Lindquist, System Design Consultant
Principal Speaker:
Dr. Barnet Schmidt, PhD, SM IEEE
Managing Partner
Kaplan/Schmidt Associates, LLC
Consulting Communication Engineers
West Orange, NJ,
Please note: Barnet doctorate defense was on FSO at PEP (Stevens) on November 19, 2013. He is an experienced communication engineer and prepared the presentation for theMaplewood proof of concept testbed.

Looking ahead ...

Geeks FSO, a local virtual community committed to open source development, is offering a free “open court/drop-in” workshop for coding apps and creating content every Friday evening from 4 to 7 PM at The Rack Café, 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ 07040. Our mission is to provide access to practice, like shooting hoops at a local gym or park.

If you want to hone your skills in coding apps or creating content then bring your laptop, tablet, or smartphone and join us. If you don’t have one of those, come on down anyway. We’ll work something out.

Starting with the first Friday in the coming academic semester (a la Essex County College), January 30^th, we will organize around a maximum of five continuing teams of two persons each, a “mentor” and a “student,” in addition to the “open court/drop-in” format. Team members will be selected on a first come/first served basis from a list of workshop participants who register and apply. After participating for two Fridays in a row, an individual may register to apply. After three Fridays he or she may apply to be added to the respective student/mentor lists from which team members are selected as vacancies occur. Teams will disband when either member dro ps out—either intentionally or after two consecutive absences from the Friday workshops—or after the last Friday of the academic semester, April 24^th in this case.


Some of the projects we are working on:

- Website basics: HTML, CSS, JAVA
Use w3schools.com website to learn and practice coding websites as an introduction to coding.

- Performance videos:
Participant paired with video professional to produce the participant's video of her performance.

- Live stream events:
Every Monday morning between 9 and 10am Geeks FSO holds a community forum as a livestream event at The Rack, as well as conducting the workshop as a livestream event.

- "How to" videos:
We are working on a videos that show
1. How to use products that have social value such as pedestrian safety reflectors.
2. How to use multiple cameras to enhance the visual effects of telling a story or providing information.

- Local virtual community for our Seniors/Older Adults:
See NYTimes: Retirees Turn to Virtual Villages for Mutual Support
Hilding "Gus" Lindquist, workshop coordinator, is a member of the virtual community of Community Geek: Using Science to Build Better Communities, providing resources for building successful online communities at communitygeek.com

Message to a young woman who asked about the Friday workshop at The Rack

You are a busy young woman! I am delighted that you would like to drop by on Friday ... or any Friday you can make it. There really isn't anything you need to bring except yourself plus your "computing device of choice."

Beginners are more than welcome, they are essential ... and a huge reason why I am being low key about recruiting.

I am looking for those individuals who are motivated to explore what we are doing because it interests them. And it may take some time to assemble that core group, but it is essential that none of us feel obligated more than being motivated by our interest. However, the goal is to be able to support ourselves economically from the "fruit of our labor," from what we do. On the other hand that goes without saying, I suspect.

Also, there are numerous structured courses that someone can take and we are not competing with them. A significant problem -- from my pov -- is that a person has to sign up and put down the money in order to really get a feel for whether they want to seriously pursue either coding apps or creating content. So my approach is to "come on down and kick/pass the ball around a bit" to see where it leads.

The downside is that many of our youth aren't attuned to this type of "open court" interaction outside of sports, but I remember it well from the brief times I would hang out with the Beats (Beat Generation) in North Beach in San Francisco in the early 1960's. And it's the story of the Village and what is now happening in enclaves in Brooklyn and elsewhere ... and I think (as I wrote recently): "The Rack is a sweet spot on Springfield Ave, a thoroughfare that runs in a straight line from the heart of Newark to the upscale community ot Millburn, a New Jersey affluent Township, with the two ends converging in Maplewood ... and now with The Rack to channel the synergy of this dynamic confluence of diversity."

It is this multicultural, diverse ethnicity & socioeconomic confluence with so many young people from so many different backgrounds, but all speaking the same language with common symbols to coalesce/converge around ... well, I think it is one of the most exciting places on the planet for potential. And I will keep trying to put together the right ignition switch to turn it on to creating for the digital universe ... coding apps and creating content ... the gold mines and oil fields of opportunity for today's youth with talent because while privilege can grease the skids for talent, it can't be effective without it. And motivated talent if given opportunity will create wealth, which is the history of the middle class, especially in the USA ... from the first settlers through the gold rushes, through homesteading, through drilling for oil ... and other endeavors with "open enrollment" as it were ... and this is not to try to teach you something you don't already know, it is explaining my "world view."

And just as we had towns and cities with their commerce grow up around the gold and oil fields, the farming communities, we have the "Silicon Valley-style" economic growth around the new mother lode of the digital future. And being so close to NYC, we're a natural ... and if we can meld our diversity into creating our future then I believe we will have also created a community that will thrive in the manner of our (at least my) ideals: an economically strong, well-educated, creative and productive middle class that provides "space" for every individual to fully grow positively (need I qualify it?) into their existence as a human being.

Anyway, I go on and on ... and I look forward to seeing you on any and all Fridays that you wish to come. It's an open court. You can run with the ball.

Monday Mornings at The Rack pilot ...

This was our "pilot" production for the Monday Mornings at The Rack talk show and forum hosted by Clarence Williams, III, with Gus Lindquist. It is planned for the 9 to 10 AM hour at The Rack, a cafe at 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ, 07040, (973) 327-2353, every Monday morning that is not a holiday.(973) 327-2353

facebook.com/TheRackCafe

The Rack is a sweet spot on Springfield Ave, a thoroughfare that runs in a straight line from the heart of Newark to the upscale community ot Millburn, a New Jersey affluent Township, with the two ends converging in Maplewood ... and now with The Rack to channel the synergy of this dynamic confluence of diversity.
Come on down and have a cup of coffee in the Scandinavian tradition of fine brewed coffee on those mornings that Gus Lindquist is on site preparing it from the world's finest coffees. The delicious, aromatic house coffee is always available for those wanting to take a break and chill. Free wifi and an "open use" Casio keyboard augment the ambiance for today's youth involved in coding and content, the latest fields of opportunity for creating wealth where talent is what matters rather than privilege..
 
Gus is an "old fart" visionary who harkens back to the Beat Generation of North Beach in the early 1960's in San Francisco. Clarence is younger, with an engineering degree from Cornell. He owns property and runs a business on Springfield Ave. The two of them have been kicking around ideas on how to harness the energy of the future from the diversity of Springfield Ave. where its east end meets its west end in the Springfield Avenue business district surrounding the intersection of Springfield and Prospect.

And yes, there is a lot that needs fixing in the production of Monday Mornings at The Rack, as you can tell if you watched this pilot video. But Gus and Clarence subscribe to the concept that perfection is the biggest obstacle to success, and doing something and THEN talking about it is the best way to dive into coding and content. It's like shooting hoops. You can talk all you want to about the proper form for a jump shot, but until you actually get out their and let your mind--your brain-body continuum--start getting it with access to practice, connecting the synapses.

From Friday November 14's workshop

 Gives you a feel for the emerging ambiance of the workshop. This has to grow in a natural progression of shared interest and motivation or forget about it. It's a volunteer effort. 

Hilding "Gus" Lindquist, the old geezer in the video,is a retired systems analyst and programmer. Gus started writing code in Fortran back in the mid-1970's on a DEC 10 distributed processing computer at the John Locke Computer center at the University of Washington while working on a administrative management system for Pacific Coast Banking School, including a complete accounting program. He had previously developed the accounting system for the reimbursement of costs in the North Slope/Prudhoe Bay Sealift for Arctic Marine Freighters, a Crowley Maritime Company, at the time one of the largest sealifts, if not the largest, by tonnage ever. After leaving PCBS he moved on to become the Data Quality Supervisor for the Department of Energy's North Slope/Adjacent Arctic Ocean CART Site's Science Team, working out of the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Gus then became involved in educational outreach to underrepresented populations in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). 

Quoting form elsewhere:

This will be "the team's" fourth major venture into educational outreach to those underrepresented populations.

The first, starting in 2000, was a three-year met tower installation at Plainfield High School that led to the Essex-Stevens Model Research Lab program that Professor Lvov has administered so successfully these past ten years, and which in turn led to the Summer Science Program at Valley Settlement House in West Orange, that is now in its eighth year and coordinated by Luis Grados, who was recruited out of the Essex-Stevens program while attending ECC.

Luis is a key advisor to the new initiative--the fourth major venture--in which we are doing the following:

• Providing an open court workshop for young people to learn coding of apps and create content every Friday afternoon from 4 to 7 pm at The Rack Cafe, 1844 Springfield Ave, Maplewood, NJ 07040, (973) 327-2353, https://www.facebook.com/TheRackCafe, with an open mic showcase from 8 to 10 pm on the first Friday of the month. (The next one is December 5th.)
• Exploring the development of an Environmental Science & Earth Systems Urban Laboratory (ES2UL) to work on increasing the recycling of what is otherwise waste material/garbage. This initiative includes the planned experimental use of a wine/cider press to extract the liquid from fruit/vegetable waste to reduce the weight of food waste from cafeterias and restaurants. (In fact, we would welcome the opportunity to work with the ECC cafeteria, and for which their is the prospect of NJ State funding, and you may want to talk to Professor Lvov on what steps we could take to explore this route.)
• Exploring the marketing of pedestrian safety reflectors to help fund the above initiatives.
• Livestreaming our activities in tandem with the tech workshop, including a live discussion of our ES2UL initiatives and their impact on the community, seeking input on how to improve our efforts from a wider audience.
• Looking toward the installation of a Free Space Optics (FSO) link to provide high speed/high bandwidth communications for the workshop.

 We plan to restart the open court workshop at Valley Settlement House in West Orange as soon as possible, with the same potential set of initiatives.

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For a $25 donation at http://www.patreon.com/geeksfso, send us your email address, we'll send you our newsletter for supporters that details how we use your money. Plus, if you send us your snail mail address, we will send you two (2) embossed silicone bracelets acknowledging your support of the Geeks FSO and our open court workshops. Plus we will include a 3-Pack of round leash reflectors from Safe-Flash - Personal Reflectors: 

Geeks FSO Open Court Workshop      geeksfso.com - $5

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Getting it done!

We gave a talk at Ethical Culture Society of Essex County today. Here's the blurb announcing it in their newsletter: [Fill in later]

We are bringing to fruition an interrelated set of programs and projects that address two fundamental goals identified by leading scientists and affirmed by the RFPs (Requests for Proposals) of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

1. Sustainability, and the need for everyone's participation (certainly a major increase in participation which suggests the need for a wider understanding of what we are facing both in the near and long terms of planet earth.)
2. Increased participation in STEM by underrepresented populations in those fields. (STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)

In pursuing sustainability we are exploring the development of an Environmental Science & Earth Systems Urban Laboratory (ES²UL) to work on issues related to the quality of life in urban settings. Currently we are focused on reshaping urban waste disposal by:

• Reducing the use of energy in transport of the waste stream through minimizing the weight of food waste by removing the water by high pressure pressing.
• Increasing the amount of recyclable material removed from the waste stream through ("What's in for me?") STEM incentives for those population groups not achieving their goals for recycling.

In pursuing increased participation in STEM by underrepresented populations in those fields this will be "the team's" fourth major venture into educational outreach to those underrepresented populations. The first, starting in 2000, was a three-year met tower installation at Plainfield High School that led to the Essex-Stevens Model Research Lab program that Professor Nadia Lvov, Assistant Professor/ECC LSAMP Project Director, Division of Mathematics and Physics, Essex County College, Newark, NJ, has administered so successfully these past ten years, and which in turn led to the Summer Science Program at Valley Settlement House in West Orange, that is now in its eighth year and coordinated by Luis Grados, who was recruited out of the Essex-Stevens program while attending ECC. Luis is a key advisor to the new initiative--the fourth major venture--in which we are doing the following:

• Providing an open court workshop for young people to learn coding of apps and create content every Friday afternoon from 4 to 7 pm at The Rack Cafe, 1844 Springfield Ave, Maplewood, NJ 07040, (973) 327-2353, https://www.facebook.com/TheRackCafe, with an open mic showcase from 8 to 10 pm on the first Friday of the month. (The next one is December 5th.)
• Livestreaming our activities in tandem with the tech workshop, including a live discussion of our ES²UL initiatives and their impact on the community, seeking input on how to improve our efforts from a wider audience.
• Looking toward the installation of a Free Space Optics (FSO) link to provide high speed/high bandwidth communications for the workshop.

Testing the food press concept ...

I took a pound (16 oz.) if veggie waste -- lettuce, cabbage, celery, a couple of small tomatoes -- and squeezed them in a plastic bag between two soft wood boards using simple screw clamps and wound up with 12 oz. That's a 25% reduction in weight without even doing anything special. This has promise.

New concept in fruit/vegetable food waste disposal ...

As part of our evolving Earth Systems & Environmental Science Urban Laboratory initiative we will be exploring new ways and means to reduce volume/weight of waste material by simply removing the liquid from food waste without composting the solid material. Hilding Lindquist, Eric Burbank, and Clarence Williams, III, came up with the concept of using a fruit/wine press to squeeze the water out of fruit/vegetable waste, and theoretically could reduce the transport costs disposal of restaurant food waste.

We will begin testing the use of these devices at Valley Settlement House and The Rack Cafe as soon as we can acquire a representative unit. We will keep you informed of our progress, but it appears promising on the face of it.

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/fruit_press.aspx

Let's do it!

We now have everything in place that we need to "shoot hoops" with coding apps and creating content at The Rack Cafe at our Friday evening workshops from 5 to 7 pm.

In one corner we will be set up to work through the various online coding tutorial programs starting with w3schools.com.

At the raised corner, that doubles as the performing stage, we will be set up to broadcast over livestream.com or record video for YouTube, or other internet venues.

The Rack Cafe is located at 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ 07040, (973) 327-2353. They are on the internet at facebook.com/therackcafe.

In case you were wondering, we use "shoot hoops" to let everyone know this is a drop in, "open court" program. If you want get a start at coding apps or creating content then come on down and get involved.

No hurry.

To give you a headsup on getting started ...

We will be using the w3schools.com lesson set while following the wisdom of lifehacker.com on:
Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code  
We'll be a "study room" for cross-mentoring ... come on down when you are ready ... or simply curious about coding ... or just want to participate in open source sharing/learning ...

Last but not least we have two Noblis NB 7850 S for casual app coding by drop-ins. We can do this.

House Band gets it start

Ralph Desmarais on drums and Jared Blackwell on keyboard get their start as the very first house band for the Geeks FSO First Fridays at The Rack. The Rack Cafe, 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ 07040.

Ton Duong kicks off the First Fridays Program

On Friday evening, October 3rd, Ton Duong kicked off the GeeksFSO First Fridays Program at The Rack Cafe, 1844 Springfield Ave., Maplewood, NJ.


First Fridays showcases the talent of local young people for creating and publishing content for the internet. The talent is drawn in part from the regular "open court" access to practice (access2practice.org) workshops that GeeksFSO conducts on the other Friday evenings from 5 to 7 PM.

GeeksFSO sees the process of creating content for the internet as a gateway to technology for diverse and disadvantaged population groups, and the language of technology is math.

Ton Duong and an open mic at The Rack on Friday, October 3rd!

Plus an open mic for a few talented performers. Sign up at the door and if the list isn't already full, you will save yourself ten bucks!

Making progress ...

The new Valley Settlement House website is getting ready to go online ...

Our high school senior is working on his portfolio ...

Archie and I helped a 4th grader do his homework for the Summer Program on one of the downstairs computers ... that desperately need a wifi connection ... which is coming as soon as we have a website so our  reverse marketing guru can pull in the donations.

The 4th grader mentioned the bird feeders and the cameras. He said he would like to help. That made my day.

It's all coming together, slow but sure.

If you would like to help by donating, for the time being you can give through our crowdfunding website:

http://www.patreon.com/geeksfso

Help us raise the money!

50% of the children who participate in Valley Settlement House (VSH) programs do not have access to personal computers in their homes. Please become a part of our effort to create a Geeks FSO Campus at VSH by participating in our crowdfunding campaign at:

http://patreon.com/geeksfso

There are other statistics besides pcs in homes that make creating a Geeks FSO Campus at the facility a worthwhile program. And educational outreach to underrepresented communities in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) is a strong goal in NSF (National Science Foundation) and NASA RFPs (Request for Proposal). Both place a high degree of importance on involving diverse populations in confronting such issues as sustainability.

You don't have to donate a lot to help us. That is the beauty of crowdfunding. Start with $2 or $5 and get to know us as we grow. And we don't hesitate in asking for the $10-$25-$50 from those who are already familiar with the work we do.

Members of our team have been working on STEM educational outreach programs since 2000. The original 3-year weather station project in Plainfield, NJ, grew into Essex-Stevens Model program that evolved into the local LSAMP project (Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation) that is directed by one of the instructors in the Summer Science Program and a key adviser to the Geeks FSO Campus project at VSH:

Nadia Lvov
Assistant Professor/ECC LSAMP Project Director
Division of Mathematics and Physics
Essex County College
Newark, NJ 07102


This year the Essex-Stevens Model program (Essex County College-Stevens Institute of Technology) celebrated its 10th year.

In 2007 we involved Valley Settlement House in our educational efforts because they met the definition of a underrepresented community in STEM. This effort quickly evolved into a successful Summer Science program at VSH, that is now the foundation of the Geeks FSO Campus ... and so we grow.

Ton Duong joins the Geeks FSO Campus workshop!

Ton Duong is entering Stevens Institute of Technology this fall in the Mechanical Engineering program. He is transferring from Essex County College (ECC) where he participated in the ECC LSAMP under Nadia Lvov, Assistant Professor/ECC LSAMP Project Director in the Division of Mathematics and Physics at Essex County College, Newark.

Ton will be helping us with creating content. Here are some of his videos with his comments:

 - This is my favorite piano cover, Kiss The Rain composed by Yiruma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdJ_RL7WY7Y

 - This is my latest piano video, La Valse D'Amelie composed by Yann Tiersen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lywpoi3cK0

 - This one is another dance video project that I made last year, The Signal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6gbzSqwfp0

 - And finally, this is one of my most successful performances at ECC Talent Show in Fall 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL_f9F9vl7s

 - My channel is: https://www.youtube.com/user/tranez2205

 

He is also pursuing projects in robotics including working on a team that is building a robotic hand following the design plans of the InMoov project. We will be exploring options for becoming involved in this project in our workshops, and in taking advantage of Ton's participation--and at his suggestion--we are purchasing 2 ea.Arduino Uno Ultimate Starter Kits -- including the 72 page Instruction Books. He is working on a drone project that we want to support also.

Ton is an incredibly gifted and creative person and we are fortunate in having him participate in developing the Geeks FSO Campus.

Underway at Valley Settlement House ...

Newly installed birdfeeder with two surveillance video

 cameras at Valley Settlement House in West Orange, NJ.

A. The first Coding & Content workshop was held on Sunday, July 20th from 2 to 4 PM. We had two student participants and 2 mentors (Luis Grados and myself.)  One student -- from Essex County College and the Essex-Stevens Model Program -- will be working with Luis on updating the VSH website while learning html, CSS, Javascript, & Java. (Actually creating a new website.) The other student out of the VSH community and an 18-year-old West Orange high school student and drama major will be working with me in creating video content for the internet. (I will start using names if and when the students give me persmission to do so.)

B. Two bird feeders with three surveillance video cameras as part of a Zmodo wire-linked system were installed on Monday, July 21st. I did the installation with the high school student I am mentoring in the workshop. He is at VSH on weekdays. We will install one more bird feed this coming Monday, July 28th, and complete the installation of a total of eight surveillance video cameras next week. I plan to explore a communication connection to the Cornell University Ornithology Lab beginning tomorrow, Friday, July 25th.

C. In collaboration with Professor David A. Robinson, Department of Geography, Rutgers University -- and the NJ State Climatologist -- we will be instituting an Earth Systems framework for the science programs at VSH with two immediate initiatives:
1. Introduce the use of Skype to connect the classrooms of VSH with the global Earth Systems community beginning with Dave's climate science presentation in the VSH Summer Science Program from 1-3 PM Monday, August 4th. This Friday, July 25th, and next, August 1st, we will be debugging the connection to provide 2-way visual communication combined with projected PowerPoint graphics in the classroom.
2. Begin a precipitation measurement program  as part of the national  CoCoRaHS program, again, in collaboration with Dave's  role as NJ State Climatologist.

That is the beginning of what we hope will become a STEM Center for the community VSH serves. This is educational outreach to underrepresented populations in the STEM fields at its core. And yes we are doing it without a major grant BECAUSE it demonstrates what can be accomplished by a community that sets its mind to pursuing this goal.

Announcing the first series of workshops at the Geeks FSO Campus at Valleyh Settlement House

"Coding and Content Workshop 101a"

The first 2 hour coding and content workshop mini-series, "Coding and Content Workshop 101a," of the Geeks FSO Campus at Valley Settlement House for young adults ages 18 to 25+ is scheduled to begin on Sunday, July 20th at Valley Settlement House, 33-41 Tompkins Street, West Orange, NJ 07052  (973) 678-2550.

This initial mini-series will run for 6 weeks from 2 to 4 PM on Sundays through August 24th.

We will explore the use of online resources such as Jon Chan's Bento website as a guide for independent study for coding mobile apps and creating content for the internet within a workshop-based student-with-mentor learning environment.

Initially we will be looking at HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Objective-C, and Java.

The end goal of Geeks FSO Campus program is to develop marketable skills in our students for employment in rewarding careers, or even simply to enrich their lives with a deeper understanding of and heightened ability to interact with the exponentially expanding technology of the modern world.

Contact Hilding "Gus" Lindquist, hilding.lindquist@gmail.com to apply as either a mentor or a student. But while you may apply as one or the other as your main "function" in the program, you will be both within the context of the workshop.


There are a limited number of openings depending on the number of volunteer mentors available, but no more than ten students will be accepted into this workshop series as members in five two-person teams, and only ten more student applications will be accepted for the waiting list. As yet we have not put a limit on the number of mentors accepted into the program or put onto the waiting list.

This means that for this workshop series there will be a maximum of five two-person mentor teams working with up to five two-person student teams in order to be reasonably certain of at least one mentor and one student for each team's participation in the workshop.

Teams will be matched by their laptop's operating systems. For this initial series of workshops, students are expected to bring a wifi compatible laptop suitable for the workshop and will be assigned on a first come, first served basis to an available mentor team with a matching operating system. (Mac, Windows 7, Windows 8, etc.)

Prospective students without suitable laptops should still apply if they want to be put on the waiting list.

To the prospective student: If you are concerned as to whether or not your specific laptop is suitable then contact Gus for a determination while we are accepting applications, and no matter what, you will have put yourself in line to get a student slot in the program at some point ... and we know that extensive delay is denial, so we will be working as hard as we can to get you into the program as quickly as possible.

Our raison d'être ...

Go to YouTube direct: http://youtu.be/KEeBPSvcNZQ

Access to Practice

How do you unleash the pent up demand for opportunity in our young people who are trapped in circumstances of limited opportunity? How do you build a path to opportunity?

Think baseball. If we want our youth to learn how to play baseball, we build a baseball field. Think basketball. If we want our youth to learn how to play basketball, we build a gym ... well, a flat surface with a hoop or two ...

Isn't it amazing how little it takes to give a young person the opportunity to learn if they can practice on their own? Like Magic Johnson shooting hoops in the middle of the night at college ... or advice I attribute to Willie Mays, if you don't get out on the field and drop the ball a thousand times, you'll never be a good ball player.

There are huge opportunities in the STEM fields -- science, technology, engineering, math. For example, skills in coding apps or producing content are gateways to opportunity, and what is more, an individual can gain those skills on their own if they know how to get started AND they have access to practice

... and that is what the Geeks FSO Campus project is all about ... providing "access to practice."

We are creating a learning and training environment so an individual can acquire the skills to create apps and content based on their own motivation to hone their talent and little else ... because we are targeting the youth who don't have much else in the way of help ... young people who want a chance to shot hoops or play catch until they get it right ... because they want the opportunity to do something that pays off ... for them ... personally ... that they want to do ...

So no, it's not for everyone, but it is for anyone who wants it enough to be out there "shooting hoops" whenever they can.

Why we are hitting the bullseye ...

 "For the Tech-Savvy With a Need for Speed, a Limited Choice of Towns With Fiber" by Kate Murphy, The New York Times, April 2, 2014

"Tech Rivals Lay Down Arms for Youth Coding" By Nick Wingfield, The New  York Times, October 15, 2013, 5:38 pm

We're going up at Valley Settlement House In West Orange, New Jersey!

The first Geeks FSO Campus is "officially" in the works. We're setting up at Valley Settlement House (VSH) in West Orange, New Jersey, where members of the core team have been involved with VSH's successful summer science program for several years. Hilding "Gus" Lindquist was the "founding" coordinator and passed the baton to Luis Grados who has filled the coordinator's role since 2011.

Jackie Fox, VSH's Executive Director, has given the green light to the Geeks' "proof of concept" testbed project. Dr. Barnet Schmidt, PhD  SM IEEE, managing partner in Kaplan/Schmidt Associates, LLC, West Orange, NJ, consulting communications engineers, is the project engineer and will do a site survey in the next few days.  He prepared the presentation for the proof of concept testbed for the Springfield Avenue Business District in Maplewood. (See http://geeksfso.blogspot.com/2013/12/introducing-geeks-fso-proof-of-concept.html) It will essentially remain the same except for a couple of pluses. VSH already has a computer lab and the buildings are all together in one area, so the logistics required will be that much more manageable for a testbed.

Here's the concept and team members behind the project:

The core team is dedicated to developing another significant program for educational outreach to target populations who are defined by (1.)being underrepresented in the STEM fields; and (2.)disadvantaged relative to customary access to modern educational resources. This program is significant because it fits President Barack Obama’s recently announced $200 million initiative, “My Brother’s Keeper,” that targets disadvantaged black and Latino young men[i].

We propose developing a “Geeks FSO Campus” (Free Space Optics) as a self-sustaining entrepreneurial incubator at Valley Settlement House[ii] (VSH) in West Orange, NJ, to provide the education, training, and mentoring for youth from the target populations in creating apps (applications) for smart phones, tablets, and other mobile computing devices plus content for the internet. The FSO component is to give the participants access to a high speed, high bandwidth development system without the high cost of fiber optics. In addition, the surrounding neighborhood is part of the Valley Arts District[iii] into which we could in all likelihood extend our FSO-based Campus Area Network

If you are at all familiar with the rapidly expanding market for apps for smart phones and tablets and the revenue generated by that market, you will need no explanation of our claim to becoming financially self-sustaining over the course of a three year startup program as well as become a replicable model for communities with similar demographics that includes the target populations .  Part of the proposal is to partner with a “for profit” business to market the apps and content and provide funding for the program.

We have assembled a superior team of key participants for creating the Proof of Concept testbed at VSH using a FSO communications link and are now taking the initial step of preparing a proposal to seek funding. We have the commitment of the team members and are going ahead with the project at VSH recognizing that the funding requirements are minimal to develop the proof of concept test bed there. We anticipate that the “return on investment” will be significant both in financial returns through the entrepreneurial component and the broader recognition relative to conforming to President Obama’s  “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative.

The team includes:

Site Management
Marcina “Jackie” Fox

Executive Director

Valley Settlement House

West Orange, NJ

Please note: Jackie has been involved with worked with core team members in the educational outreach program at VHS since 2007. She is an experienced program manager/administrator and is committed to the project. VSH has the facilities and computer lab to jump start the program on Saturdays and evenings at minimum cost.

Education and training (including intern mentoring program)
Nadia Lvov
Assistant Professor/ECC LSAMP Project Director
Division of Mathematics and Physics
Essex County College
Newark, NJ
Please note: Nadia has been a the lead person from Essex County College in the Essex Stevens Model program since 2007. It has expanded under her leadership to several other area universities with research labs and provides a base for recruiting interns for mentoring the program participants.

Luis Grados

BS, Computer  Science, NJIT

Please note: Luis started in the Essex County College research experience program with Stevens in 2009 when he also began assisting Hilding Lindquist with the Summer Science Program at VHS , becoming the coordinator for the program in 2011. He is young Latino who connects well with the target populations and is expected to take a leadership role in developing the entrepreneurial aspects of the program that will make it self-sustaining.

Technical oversight:

Dr. Barnet Schmidt, PhD, SM IEEE
Managing Partner
Kaplan/Schmidt Associates, LLC
Consulting Communication Engineers
West Orange, NJ,
Please note: Barnet doctorate defense was on FSO at PEP (Stevens) on November 19, 2013. He is an experienced communication engineer and prepared the presentation for theMaplewood proof of concept testbed which transfers directly to the VSH site with modifications for placement of the initial FSO link.

Participating Observers, Maplewood, NJ:  

Clarence Williams, III and Dione Williams, M.D.
Small business and professional services
Springfield Avenue Business District
Maplewood, NJ
Interested in replicating the program in the Springfield Avenue Business District of Maplewood, NJ.
Please note: Their proposed site is used in Barnet’s presentation re: Campus Area Network Project, 12/18/2013, included below. Clarence and Dione and have helped to guide the development of the program from its initial discussions over the past two years regarding educational outreach to local residents underrepresented in STEM.

 Participating Observers, Plainfield, NJ:  

Deborah Joyce Dowe
Community Activist
Plainfield, NJ
Interested in replicating the program in Plainfield, NJ
Please note: Ms. Dowe has been and advisor through Hilding Lindquist to LLLab’s educational  outreach program since it’s its earliest beginning in 2000 at Plainfield High School and brings with her the knowledge and experience to help replicate this program in Plainfield, whose residents are predominately underrepresented in STEM.

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[i] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304071004579407992832670628

President Wields 'Soft Power' to Help Minority Youth

Program Would Give Economic, Educational Opportunities to Disadvantaged Young Black, Latino Men

[ii] http://www.valleysettlementhouse.org/

[iii] http://www.valleyartsnj.com/