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[Masami Kikuchi]

Dear Lars:

Nice to have your comments.
Speaking about funding and fundraising, it is very difficult to receive any
grants in Japan, governmental or private, we have virtually none in Japan to
utilize comfortably; actually I am solely funding myself and running out of
budgets on my own projects.
This is partly because I am calling for collaborations in distance education and
intercultural communication, as well as arts and entertainments, live online
using ISDN-based videoconferencing systems, to those who wish and are capable to
in the USA, in that you guys have a lot of grant opportunities.
Particularly if you are concerned with "technology" among all
"telecommunications", you have thousands of grants and funding opportunities in
USA; because those private sectors involved are eager to disseminate their
technological expertise; Lucent, Cisco, AT&T, BellAtlantic, BellSouth, (MCI
WorldCom seems exceptional), well, Microsoft is the giant in funding as well, you
know, AOL, and many "Japanese firms in USA", like Sony, Panasonic, just to name a
few, although they do not offer grants or any other funding resources in Japan.
Even bankers are offering such technology-related grants opportunities.
Other funding than grants can mean their promotional opportunities in the
markets, to expend more than just a small piece of grants.

As you know, most granting organizations in USA restricts their grantees to
501(c)(3), which doesn't exist in Japan, also, my puropose of disseminating such
technological opportunities stationed in Chiba, Japan, is not for lucrative
(for-profit) ones, but not-for-direct-profits for us, or for-profit for the
children who should live tomorrow.

Please try to reach me for collaborative actions and programmes between,
primarily, USA and Japan, in such technological/arts and entertainment/distance
education fields.

My network currently includes:
BECON, Broward County Education Communications Network, FL.
MakeITWork, NYC Board of Education, NY.
Electronic Cafe International (www.ecafe.com), Santa Monica, CA.
The Ocean of Know, Young MacDonald's TeleFarm (www.oceanofk.org), Dover Plains,
NY.
Nuyorican Poets Cafe (www.nuyorican.com), New York, NY.
Lahti Adult Education Centre, Lahti, Finland

to name a few, plus many artists and entertainers in Japan and around the globe.

I strongly and enthusiastically look forward to hearing from you and
collaborating with you.

Regards,

Masami Kikuchi
producer/engineer/consultant
video-linked intercultural communication
Video Online Workshop
Chiba, Japan
email: masami at acm.org
URL: http://onlineworkshop.net/ (or if not accessible, vist:
http://208.56.196.240/)

<p>lars hasselblad torres wrote:

> greetings to masami kikuchi and everyone on the youth learn list.  i have to
> say it is exciting to see the diversity of backgrounds represented on this
> list so far.
>
> i am part of an artist-run organization in washington, dc that will be opening
> a center for new media learning in downtown washington, d.c. december of this
> year.  the goal of this center is to provide highschoolers, ages 13-21, with
> marketable skills in new media content production.  in particular, we are
> responding to a downwards trend in the city among young people: fewer and
> fewer are finishing highschool - truancy being the greatest barrier to that
> success - and lack basic job skills.  It seems little wonder that more and
> more are getting involved in felonious activities.
>
> our center, mediaport, will act as a drop-in 'apprenticeship' program in which
> students must complete 100 hours of training, gaining a broad understanding of
> the field while specializing in one area of media content development.
> whether that 100 hours takes eight weeks or two years isn't an issue, as long
> as they can demonstrate basic knowledge of the production process by the time
> they complete the learning cycle.
>
> mediaport will also provide a job and internship referral service to get the
> students into entry-level positions with design and content development firms
> or professionals around the city.
>
> right now mediaport seeks information on similar efforts around the world.  we
> would like to review case studies that show evaluation tools, community
> partnerships, and teaching methodologies that have been used to train the
> population of young people we are targeting.
>
> we would also like to hear about funding resources!
>
> i look forward to learning more from this group.
>
> lars hasselblad torres
> founder/director
> 202-483-2599
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
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