eACE operations continues to provide quality, reliable and affordable (ICT) computer support, help desk operations and Internet services to residents of Atherton Gardens.
Setting up Information Communication Technologies for Atherton Garden’s residents has proven to be a key empowerment tool which has assisted community building amongst residents and more broadly amongst government and non-government organizations that provide services to this community.
The eACE enterprise has distributed Green PCs in the majority of the eight hundred dwellings, connected all of the residents to a local estate-based Intranet where everyone can send and receive email for free.
The eACE enterprise currently provides internet access plans at $5 prepaid and $15 unlimited downloads per month. Around 632 accounts have been activated and are currently subscribing to the internet service. Residents who have been skilled to Certificate level in Information Technology by Infoxchange provide network maintenance and technical support for residents. Help Desk between 10:30 am and 4:30pm Tuesday to Friday. Volunteers assist in maintaining the operations of the help desk, and at the same time ensure that content found in the community intranet www.atherton.org.au is fresh.
Many residents have expressed a desire to have a computer that is able to run faster than the initial machines they were given. Most of the residents have approached the eACE Help Desk staff to arrange for an Upgrade for their computers. For $50 residents receive the following:
Over the past twelve months a total of 70 upgrades have been done.
Informational IT sessions and formal structured training has been provided to residents by both volunteers and paid trainers in languages other than English (Vietnamese and Chinese). Most recently eACE has delivered a funded IT course on Email and Internet Browsing through its partnership with Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential and Smith Family. Computer literacy courses for African women, men and elders were also conducted in partnership with the City of Yarra Community Grants.
The Atherton Gardens website can be seen at www.atherton.org.au. The website has become a very exciting communication tool. Tenants are already busy adding content to this website, and are using the interactive facilities such as the chat room, web page builder and online discussion forum. Johnny Nguyen is a local Atherton Gardens resident who is currently employed by Infoxchange in the Content Development Officer position and is responsible for ensuring that content is regularly updated and that it meets the needs of the Atherton Garden’s residents.
The iLearning Program is a web based interactive e-learning tool offering basic computer skills and is currently accessible on the estate intranet at http://www.ilearning.infoxchange.net.au/EACE.htm. iLearning (interactive Learning) currently leverages the infrastructure already built by the eACE project to help develop the skills necessary for residents to find employment. iLearning‘s interactive learning tool offering basic computer skills can further develop the skills of residents necessary to launch ‘spin-off’ businesses that can service the needs of local business and the community.
The eACE enterprise is keen to broaden its focus, develop a sustainable model and reach out to the community of Yarra through the establishment of Yarra Assist. Yarra Assist intends to provide the opportunity to ensure that residents can continue to access PC support services, at affordable prices. This model of sustainability is the new frontier in regards to community development and working with financially disadvantaged sectors of our society.
Yarra Assist is a community enterprise committed to the provision of quality, reliable and affordable computer support services to the health and welfare sector and small to medium sized businesses in the City of Yarra.
The Language Factory social enterprise has grown out of eACE. The demographics at Atherton Gardens, although unique, reflects the diversity of culture and languages that are found in other areas of high density public housing. Large inner city public housing estates are culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and as levels of engagement both within and outside rise, there is an increased need for affordable translation services in order to address the current barriers experienced by agencies and individuals in regards to communication.
It is a widely acknowledged fact that there is a significant range of community information that requires translation. However due to the current costs of translation services, combined with the lack of accredited interpreters in the languages of emerging communities, make translation of this level of information unsustainable.
Language Factory is a community resource that aims to provide affordable and responsive language services to diverse sectors of the community – both government and non- government / community organisations.
For more information please visit:
eACE
| Summary by Month | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Daily Avg | Monthly Totals | ||||||||
| Hits | Files | Pages | Visits | Sites | KBytes | Visits | Pages | Files | Hits | |
| Nov 2008 | 6839 | 4072 | 956 | 296 | 1787 | 3258820 | 5926 | 19132 | 81442 | 136791 |
| Oct 2008 | 8229 | 4391 | 1617 | 326 | 2412 | 4905030 | 10135 | 50144 | 136145 | 255124 |
| Sep 2008 | 7644 | 4466 | 818 | 277 | 1993 | 4367620 | 8322 | 24567 | 134003 | 229338 |
| Aug 2008 | 7994 | 4560 | 923 | 317 | 2197 | 4078315 | 9840 | 28641 | 141371 | 247823 |
| Jul 2008 | 12330 | 4578 | 5274 | 941 | 15526 | 5102473 | 29190 | 163511 | 141926 | 382240 |
| Jun 2008 | 21113 | 4742 | 13258 | 1770 | 33203 | 4033744 | 53128 | 397746 | 142262 | 633405 |
| May 2008 | 12644 | 5904 | 3488 | 638 | 10023 | 4471979 | 19807 | 108142 | 183032 | 391984 |
| Apr 2008 | 11627 | 6119 | 1775 | 483 | 5461 | 3161912 | 14497 | 53263 | 183582 | 348838 |
| Mar 2008 | 11195 | 5683 | 1727 | 446 | 4539 | 4966534 | 13842 | 53562 | 176190 | 347075 |
| Feb 2008 | 8777 | 4685 | 790 | 325 | 3169 | 2396534 | 9426 | 22926 | 135885 | 254550 |
| Jan 2008 | 9883 | 5328 | 789 | 321 | 2502 | 3109601 | 9967 | 24460 | 165176 | 306384 |
| Dec 2007 | 10781 | 4894 | 1116 | 305 | 2889 | 2477377 | 9473 | 34622 | 151738 | 334240 |
| Totals | 46329939 | 193553 | 980716 | 1772752 | 3867792 | |||||