Re: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
Champ-Blackwell, Siobhan wrote: And the page doesn't even work today - i'm assuming its been overwhelmed with users, but everytime i get on it, and try the interactive tools, it times out. siobhan Hi Siobhan, It works fine with firefox. What browser are you using? Andy,re: Meanwhile, don't get me started on Web accessibilty for the disabled. I ran an accessibility test on the homepage and the Inside the Pyramid page, which describes the pyramid in greater detail. Both failed even the most basic accessibility standards; in the case of the homepage, it was because it didn't have alternative text descriptions for all the images on the homepage May I take your don't get me started as a rhetorical device (aposiopesis)? On Tuesday, I finally had a chance to see the Virtual Learning Platform used in several distance training projects of a program I have translated for. The variant I saw is used in a Gender IT project financed by the Swiss Office Fédéral de l'Egalité (Federal Office for Equal Chances). It is nice because it looks like a village square, with little Playmobile guys representing students and teachers. But it is so wide you have to scroll left and right continuously, and it is in Flash with no alternate text version. When I pointed out that Flash cuts off blind people, the leader of the Gender IT project was puzzled: How can a blind person use a computer to start with? I was even more puzzled by her asking, but I explained. Now the real problem is that another variant of the same Flash platform is being beta-tested in 7 public middle schools of Ticino. Should the test lead to a recommendation of its generalisation to all middle schools, there is a strong chance that the accessibility issue won't get raised until it's too late. I just do translations and a few web searching jobs for them, whereas they have a big team of teaching and of tech experts, so what I say has no sway, per se. But I also spoke with one of the tech people there: he at least is aware that the problem is bound to come up, as accessibility of state web sites is made compulsory by the disabilty law that came into force on Jan. 1st, 2004 - though he is still wondering how to make the virtual platform accessible. I showed him the DDN site and he bookmarked it because he really liked the easy connection between community, blog and profile. And if the teaching experts want to stick to their visual metaphor (which might make sense at middle school), maybe they could go for something like http://learnweb.harvard.edu/ent/home/index.cfm , but with alt texts for all pics. ENT (Education with New Technologies) is one of the first e-learning sites Bonnie Bracey introduced me to, 5 years ago. The visual interface hasn't changed since: why should it, if it works? cheers -- Claude Almansi www.adisi.ch ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
Don't even get me started about the fact that nowhere on the personalization options does it allow a woman to state whether or not she's pregnant This has major implications for one's level of physical activity, level of calories, and balance of food groups (e.g. needs for extra protein, calcium, poteassium, etc). Did they never user test the application with women?!?! Or nutrionists who worked with women??? Terri Willard Project Manager, Knowledge Communications International Institute for Sustainable Development http://www.iisd.org ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
I sent an email to Mike Johanns, Secretary of Agriculture, with my concerns about the pyramid and the digital divide - thanks for pointing this out as well. Since I couldn't get in yesterday, I haven't fully explored the new pyramid. I found some lengthy brochures that explain it - who will take the time to read those, I wonder? And what about low vision, low literacy individuals, other than English language speakers. I'll let you know if Johanns contacts me. Just a few months ago he was governor of Nebraska - maybe my location will spur him to actually read the email? siobhan Siobhan Champ-Blackwell, MSLIS Community Outreach Liaison National Network of Libraries of Medicine - MidContinental Region Creighton University Health Sciences Library 2500 California Plaza Omaha, NE 68178 402-280-4156/800-338-7657 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://nnlm.gov/mcr/ (NN/LM MCR Web Site) http://medstat.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/ (Web Log) http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/siobhanchamp-blackwell (Digital Divide Network Profile) -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Terri Willard Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 10:00 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: RE: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid Don't even get me started about the fact that nowhere on the personalization options does it allow a woman to state whether or not she's pregnant This has major implications for one's level of physical activity, level of calories, and balance of food groups (e.g. needs for extra protein, calcium, poteassium, etc). Did they never user test the application with women?!?! Or nutrionists who worked with women??? Terri Willard Project Manager, Knowledge Communications International Institute for Sustainable Development http://www.iisd.org ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
1. My jaw dropped when I read of the cost of hiring the PR firm - was it $2.3 million? What could THIS group do with that kind of money? 2. I lean to the left about as far as anyone on this list, but I have to wonder if the Feds belong in this business at all? And if so, would it not be to simpler and cheaper to hire one very motivated person who would seek *private* funding for a web site that worked? And VOLUNTEERS who knew how to promote widely? At 9:42 PM -0400 4/20/05, Andrew Pleasant wrote: Hello, Agree on the points about the web site. Additionally, try to figure out which physical exercise group you belong to if you don't exercise everyday .. a required response to access a customized food pyramid...if the web site worked that is. Again, turning away the people perhaps most in need of the information. Underlying is the already ongoing controversy about the Feds hiring a private PR firm, Porter Novelli that often/mainly works for the food industry, to conduct the marketing associated with the release of the new pyramid(s). Gov. sources claimed the contract was necessary because they did not have the resources or skills to proceed without assistance and needed industry support to succeed according to an Associated Press article in recent NY Times. Critics argue it is like giving a wolf keys to the hen house. From that perspective, it is no surprise that the information is difficult to access. For what its worth. Best, ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
Champ-Blackwell, Siobhan wrote: I just checked it on Firefox and IE, and today its working on both. I can't remember which I used yesterday. siobhan Perhaps this will help you in instances when a site times out. In Windows (since you are also using IE, unless you're on a Mac) open up a command prompt (probably under your accessories somewhere) and type: tracert www.thedomainname.com where www.thedomainname.com is the site's full address. If the things times out without resolving, you have an issue with DNS. If not, and you see anything over 1000 ms or little astericks, you know that the routing on the internet is weird at that time for you. The tracert (trace route) command is wonderful for this. It shows you where the little packets of information are getting stuck on the internet. Give it a try now to see how it's supposed to work. Use DigitalDivide.net: tracert digitaldivide.net -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: Panama City, Panama [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxgazette.com http://www.a42.com http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net Criticize by creating. Michelangelo ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
Hi everyone, I've written a blog entry today that might be of interest. It's called The Mystery of the Food Pyramid: An E-Government Fiasco?, and it discusses the new USDA Food Pyramid released this week. The pyramid is actually one of a dozen pyramids now available, based on a person's age, gender and level of physical activity. Unfortunately you need to go online to find out which diet you should follow, and this raises some serious questions regarding the digital divide, e-government for all, and Web accessibility for the disabled. Here are some quotes from my blog: ... I truly, truly hope the USDA does more than just this website to educate the public, though. As I've written before in my work on e-government for all, it's poor policymaking to assume that all constituents will have equal access to the Internet or the skills to use it. Therefore, you need to make sure you use alternative offline channels -- TV, radio, print, in-person meetings, etc -- to make government services and information available to the people who need it. Unfortunately, when you look at various demographic groups, there's a higher likelihood of lower-income, less-educated people to eat a poor diet. Just the audience you'd want to reach in a public health campaign, right? Paradoxically, they're also the ones least likely to have Internet access or Internet skills. This makes it even more important to invest in large-scale offline campaigns to get health-related information directly into their hands. Meanwhile, don't get me started on Web accessibilty for the disabled. I ran an accessibility test on the homepage and the Inside the Pyramid page, which describes the pyramid in greater detail. Both failed even the most basic accessibility standards; in the case of the homepage, it was because it didn't have alternative text descriptions for all the images on the homepage To read more, please visit here: http://www.andycarvin.com A permanent link for the article is here: http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2005/04/the_mystery_of.html thanks, ac -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
And the page doesn't even work today - i'm assuming its been overwhelmed with users, but everytime i get on it, and try the interactive tools, it times out. siobhan Siobhan Champ-Blackwell Community Outreach Liaison NN/LM-MCR Creighton University Health Sciences Library 2500 California Plaza Omaha, NE 68178 402.280.4156/800.338.7657 option#1,#2, then #1 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://nnlm.gov/mcr http://medstat.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/ http://medstat.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/ http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/siobhanchamp-blackwell http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/siobhanchamp-blackwell From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Andy Carvin Sent: Wed 4/20/2005 1:46 PM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid Hi everyone, I've written a blog entry today that might be of interest. It's called The Mystery of the Food Pyramid: An E-Government Fiasco?, and it discusses the new USDA Food Pyramid released this week. The pyramid is actually one of a dozen pyramids now available, based on a person's age, gender and level of physical activity. Unfortunately you need to go online to find out which diet you should follow, and this raises some serious questions regarding the digital divide, e-government for all, and Web accessibility for the disabled. Here are some quotes from my blog: ... I truly, truly hope the USDA does more than just this website to educate the public, though. As I've written before in my work on e-government for all, it's poor policymaking to assume that all constituents will have equal access to the Internet or the skills to use it. Therefore, you need to make sure you use alternative offline channels -- TV, radio, print, in-person meetings, etc -- to make government services and information available to the people who need it. Unfortunately, when you look at various demographic groups, there's a higher likelihood of lower-income, less-educated people to eat a poor diet. Just the audience you'd want to reach in a public health campaign, right? Paradoxically, they're also the ones least likely to have Internet access or Internet skills. This makes it even more important to invest in large-scale offline campaigns to get health-related information directly into their hands. Meanwhile, don't get me started on Web accessibilty for the disabled. I ran an accessibility test on the homepage and the Inside the Pyramid page, which describes the pyramid in greater detail. Both failed even the most basic accessibility standards; in the case of the homepage, it was because it didn't have alternative text descriptions for all the images on the homepage To read more, please visit here: http://www.andycarvin.com A permanent link for the article is here: http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2005/04/the_mystery_of.html thanks, ac -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] blog: The Mystery of the Food Pyramid
Hello, Agree on the points about the web site. Additionally, try to figure out which physical exercise group you belong to if you don't exercise everyday .. a required response to access a customized food pyramid...if the web site worked that is. Again, turning away the people perhaps most in need of the information. Underlying is the already ongoing controversy about the Feds hiring a private PR firm, Porter Novelli that often/mainly works for the food industry, to conduct the marketing associated with the release of the new pyramid(s). Gov. sources claimed the contract was necessary because they did not have the resources or skills to proceed without assistance and needed industry support to succeed according to an Associated Press article in recent NY Times. Critics argue it is like giving a wolf keys to the hen house. From that perspective, it is no surprise that the information is difficult to access. For what its worth. Best, andrew Good points, Andy. In addition, the US Government apparently didn't realize that some folks might actually want to look at their new images (despite, or because of, how confusing they might be) -- when my wife (a trained nutrionist) tried to visit the new websites, she failed seven times because of cicuit overload or inadequate server capacity. Oh, well, we all eat Mediterranean in this household anyway, but still... it would be kind of nice if the Government had a vague idea what it was doing steve wagenseil expert/consultant OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions Human Rights Warsaw, Poland http://www.osce.org/odihr --- Andy Carvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi everyone, I've written a blog entry today that might be of interest. It's called The Mystery of the Food Pyramid: An E-Government Fiasco?, and it discusses the new USDA Food Pyramid released this week. The pyramid is actually one of a dozen pyramids now available, based on a person's age, gender and level of physical activity. Unfortunately you need to go online to find out which diet you should follow, and this raises some serious questions regarding the digital divide, e-government for all, and Web accessibility for the disabled. Here are some quotes from my blog: ... I truly, truly hope the USDA does more than just this website to educate the public, though. As I've written before in my work on e-government for all, it's poor policymaking to assume that all constituents will have equal access to the Internet or the skills to use it. Therefore, you need to make sure you use alternative offline channels -- TV, radio, print, in-person meetings, etc -- to make government services and information available to the people who need it. Unfortunately, when you look at various demographic groups, there's a higher likelihood of lower-income, less-educated people to eat a poor diet. Just the audience you'd want to reach in a public health campaign, right? Paradoxically, they're also the ones least likely to have Internet access or Internet skills. This makes it even more important to invest in large-scale offline campaigns to get health-related information directly into their hands. Meanwhile, don't get me started on Web accessibilty for the disabled. I ran an accessibility test on the homepage and the Inside the Pyramid page, which describes the pyramid in greater detail. Both failed even the most basic accessibility standards; in the case of the homepage, it was because it didn't have alternative text descriptions for all the images on the homepage To read more, please visit here: http://www.andycarvin.com A permanent link for the article is here: http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2005/04/the_mystery_of.html thanks, ac -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net http://www.tsunami-info.org Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
