R101 and Center for Global, International and Regional Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz Partner to Bridge the Digital Divide.

Business Editors/Education & High-Tech Writers

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2001

Global Information Internship Program Key Element of Partnership

R101 and Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz today announced that they have entered into a strategic alliance. The alliance calls for the organizations to work collaboratively to bring critical information and e-business technologies to nonprofits to improve their organizational capacity, reduce their costs, and enhance the quality and number of their programs. The Center's Global Information Internship Program (GIIP) assists excluded groups to take advantage of the benefits flowing from the information revolution. Under the partnership, University student interns will work directly with R101 on its technology solution implementations in non-profit organizations. Other elements of the collaboration include assisting students in understanding strategic and tactical frameworks for applying advanced technologies for social benefit, joint research, and joint publishing projects.

"Restricted access to information technology devastates social opportunity, and institutionalizes new forms of social and economic exclusion," says Paul Lubeck, Professor and Director of the Center. "R101's mission is a perfect complement to ours. They have been able to harness best-of-breed technologies in partnership with technology companies, and bring much-needed expertise to excluded communities. By working together and with the energy of UCSC's highly motivated students, we will be able to make a bigger and more immediate impact on the information resources and effectiveness of vital community organizations."

Deidre Paknad, R101 founder and CEO, adds, "Not only does this alliance increase our resources and reach, it allows us to jointly define, document and replicate the delivery of information technology for capacity building and qualitative improvement of nonprofit operations." Paknad also states, "By working with UCSC GIIP interns, a generation of social entrepreneurs will graduate with actual experience that is equal parts advanced technology and its social application, better preparing them for careers that contribute to bridging the digital divide."

The University of California, Santa Cruz has a proud history of socially responsible educational programs, and its students and alumni are known for the positive impact their volunteerism and career choices have on regional and global communities. "UC Santa Cruz faculty and students are widely appreciated for their commitment to improve the human condition," notes UCSC Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood, "and it is particularly significant that one of our own alumni, Deidre Paknad is integrally involved in this project. By fostering a powerful convergence of rigorous academic discipline applied to one of today' most relevant -- and urgent -- social issues, this new partnership between R101 and GIIP exemplifies positive social activism in a most productive way. I am extremely proud of the leadership that is being demonstrated by our faculty and our community partner. This project is a wonderful opportunity for our students -- and it promises great benefit to our community as well."

R101 provides nonprofits with strategic consulting and technologies for constituent-facing services such as targeted portals, content personalization, e-learning, online education, e-marketing for donor management, online libraries and databases, marketplaces, inter-agency collaboration, and click-and-give commerce. Through its Companies that Care Network, R101 has developed deep alliances with the best technology companies and corporations committed to ensuring that these kinds of innovation are applied to our communities.

About the Center for Global, International, and Regional Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz

The Center for Global, International and Regional Studies (CGIRS) provides a multidisciplinary framework for world-class research on the possibilities and challenges of new information economies and technologies in society. Its mission is to build long-term research partnerships and foster innovative programs that create new models, tools and resources to address current social and economic challenges. It houses the Global Information Internship Program (GIIP), a unique public and community service program designed to foster university-community partnerships aimed at overcoming the digital divide through social entrepreneurship. GIIP raises the organizational effectiveness of community, human rights, and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) by strengthening their capacity to use the tools of Internet-based information and communication applications. For more information, visit http://www2.ucsc.edu/cgirs or call 831/459-2833.

About R101

R101's mission is to ensure that Silicon Valley is the beneficiary of its own innovation and to create an ethic of reciprocity that extends beyond corporate walls to our families and our neighbors. The company is distinguished by its focus on deploying strategic and constituent-facing technologies to a broad array of nonprofits within the community; its entrepreneurial approach and focus on measurement reflect the founders' experience. These sustainable technology implementations provide exponential benefit back to the community by allowing nonprofits to economically scale the number of services, improve the quality of services and increase the number of constituents served. R101's Companies that Care Network is comprised of Silicon Valley's best corporate citizens, who provide their technologies in part to mitigate the significant impact of the tech boom on the areas' nonprofits. R101 is a nonprofit corporation. For more information, visit R101 online at http://www.r101.org or call 650/461-0010.