Can You Find the Right Information Online about Your Community?

CMAP will be launching a community media and information scavenger hunt with local leaders to research and discover what information is available and what information is not available to the community online and elsewhere, using a new tool created by the Knight Foundation.

The results will be published in the fall along with a second community conversation that will help the group determine potential projects to support the accessibility of media and information in our community.

The Community Information Toolkit luncheon will be rolled out on Thursday, July 14, from 12:30-2 p.m., at the Gilroy Police Department Community Room, at 7301 Hanna St.

Please note: You must RSVP in order to attend.

If you’d like to receive an invite as a community leader interested in a dialogue and the data from this project, please contact CMAP. Participants will need to RSVP before attending the luncheon. Arteagas is providing the food.

Our goals will be to look at the following areas of data through a scavenger hunt to find and document media and information access in Gilroy:

• Supply: the availability of news and information in a community wanted and needed by citizens and residents, and the institutions that serve them. This includes the robust supply of information in three main areas:
  • Government services and information
  • Community news
  • Quality of life issues such as health, education, employment, social services, arts and culture, public transit and emergency services

• Skills: individual and institutional skills, ranging from digital and media literacy to the ability to engage others, for accessing and exchanging information. This includes the community skills that enable healthy flows of information, such as:
  • An individual's ability to find information (including via the Internet)
  • An individual's and the government’s ability to exchange information with others and the community   

• Infrastructure: Our community information systems are made up of a vast web of interrelated elements, including, among other things, the quality of local journalism and reporting, the vibrancy of public libraries, the accessibility of online government information, opportunities for individuals to freely express and exchange their views, and the availability of high-speed Internet.

Access to government and community information and the media is critical to our local resident’s ability to find jobs, housing, higher education and local school information, access to updated government meetings and services, non-profit organizations, to economic development, emergency services, religious, cultural, agricultural and neighborhood activities, and to encourage civic participation.

The tools in the Community Information Toolkit, developed by the Knight Foundation, will enable CMAP and Gilroy community leaders to explore the media and information needs of our community. Gilroy will be one of the first communities in the nation to deploy this new kit to assess community needs.

“Information is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets and good schools. If the news and information ecosystem is in trouble, so is civic life. Lacking accurate and timely information, a citizenry is neither truly free nor empowered to make change.” —The Knight Foundation

Please join us to participate in a facilitated dialogue about the present and the future of our community’s media, technology and information needs. We will have a follow up meeting in the fall to announce the data and discuss possible solutions to meeting the needs discovered during the process.

Email CMAP in order to receive your invitation to this event. Limited invitations are available due to space considerations.