January/February 1985 RAIN Page 27 "United Way, VOLUNTEER and PACT are in a better position than Apple to make grants to their constituencies. We selected these particular partnerships because of our common interests in serving human service agencies, volunteer programs and international development activities." To date this year, the fair market value of the grants for which Apple has commitments under these partnership ~greements is over $590,000. Microcomputer Network Grants Apple has announced that since June of 1984, 216 community groups have rece-ived equipment grants through Apple Community Affairs that will link them via computer with similar nonprofit organizations to share information and · resources. The grants, valued at more than $795,000, were awarded to 48 networks whose interests include legal services for the poor and elderly, environmental conservation, assistance for the mentally disabled, adoption services, transportation for the elderly, arts services, histori- ·cal research, and humanities outreach. Connected by computer through telephone lines, the networks allow three to five organizations to share information resources and to send mail electronically to each other. · Since Apple Community Affairs began in November, 1982, Apple and other computer-related sponsors have donated products valued at over $2,225,000, which serve 491 community groups a_<::ross the U.S. Apple provides each group with an Apple Ile system that includes a display monitor and two floppy disk drives, an Apple Imagewriter printer and an Apple 1200-baud modem, as well as extensive training and support. In addition, the grants include Access II, Apple's·data communications software p~ckage, and AppleWorks,,a softWare program that integrates a word processor, financial spreadsheet and data base manager. Apple also has enlisted the help of cocontributing companies which provide additional products and services. Cocontributors in this year's grants include Verbatim (20 blank diskettes per system), Tymshare, Inc. (100 hours of free electronic message time per network), and Dilithium Press (computer books). Under its Community Affairs program, Apple reviews proposals for networks and awards grants three times a year. Grants are made to nonprofit organizations in six different categories: citizen action, research and development, support for the handicapped, the arts, foundation partnerships, international· and innovative challenge. A proposed network is evaluated on the benefits it would provide to the community, den:ionstrated need of the network organizations, its suitability for microcomputers, and its sustainability. Community Affairs is a program of Apple Corporate Grants. Copies of Apple Community Affairs guidelines can be obtained by writing to Community Affaii:s, Apple Computer, Inc., 20525 Mariani Avenue, M/S 23-L, Cupertino, CA 95014 Community Videotex and Parataxi Systems Traditionally, videotex (the word is only about five years old), refers to interactive public information services distributed over cable TV systems. However, services such as The Source and CompuServe that use telephone lines and-data communication lines to distribute information services to personal computer users are sometimes also referred to as videotex services. Any way you slice it, the business is growing. The videotex industry is expected to A graph of annual sunshine (not in Portland, Oregon). The light areas indicate the times when the sun shines. (FROM: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information-see page 28) · reach $25 billion per year within the decade. Most of the pioneering work in videotex has been done outside the United States. In 1981, there were over 15,000 videotex terminals in the United Kingdom, and it led the world. Since that time, France has taken the lead and now has over 250,000 videotex terminals in operation. France is in the first stages of a long-term development project that will result in the installation of 30 million terminals throughout the country during the next decade. While rp.any are watching the potential of videotex systems, only a few are eyeing the developments from a transportation point of view. In January, 1984, the U.S. Department of Energy and the State of Hawaii sponsored a conference on "Videotex, Transportation and Energy Conservation." A team of international experts in transportation, personal computers, a~d telecommunications critically reviewed the "auto-ride" parataxi concept. In tl;le early 1970s transportation professionals began using the term paratransit to describe a variety of techniques to solve urban transportation problems. The term referred to solutions such as carpooling, dial-a-bus, subscription bus and even hitchhiking. Fancy phrases such as "demand.-responsive general service with no advance reservation" are used in describing these parasolutions. At the heart of the thinking is the realization that the usual combinations ' being offered in most cities of buses, lightrail, or subways delivering service on pre-arranged schedules may not be appealing to a sufficient percentage of the population because the consumer is unwilling to adjust his or her schedule to that of the public transportation. It has been suggested that it might be possible to.develop an on-demand transportation system. The system would use a videotex system to link up homes and businesses to a central computer facility where transportation routes of public vehicles would be designed around the daily demands of the riders. Several areas are considering experimental videotex parataxi systems. The Urban Mass Transportation Administration, the City of Rafael (Marion County, California), and the San Francisco Foundation are sponsoring research on the use of community videotex-trnnsportation information systems to organize transit, paratJ;ansit and ridesharing resources into an integrated public transportation system. The State of Hawaii has asked the U..S. Department of. Transportation for assistance in establishing a publicprivate partnership to develop and test a videotex-based parataxi system in a suburb of Honolulu.
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