African-American Museum Takes Public Lead on Y2K

Hank Dungee, director of information technology at the DuSable Museum of African-American History, organized a seminar series titled 'Y2K and the African-American Community' after being bombarded with calls from people worried about a citywide shutdown of utilities and essential services.

The museum's Y2K seminar series is broadcast to members of the Chicago Consortium for Higher Education, a group of 43 area colleges, universities and museums. Teleconferencing, made possible by a new information technology pavilion, allows participants at auxiliary sites to pose questions and participate in discussion.

The initiative is part of an emerging concept Dungee calls the 'museum without walls' in which museums help citizens understand the present as well as the past.

The first Y2K seminar in April had a combined museum and auxiliary site audience of approximately 1,200 people, said Dungee. Speakers included representatives from local, state and federal government, banking and technology industries, and utility companies.

The questions asked at the first seminar made it clear to Dungee that many people were in need of more background information about Y2K. So the second seminar, held on June 16, focused on explaining the reasons for Year 2000 dilemma. A 10-minute animated video preceded the discussion for this purpose. The second seminar attracted 1,600 people.

In mid-September, a third seminar will address issues involving companies that have not met compliance as of that point, Dungee said. He plans to have that meeting broadcast via satellite -- in addition to interactive television -- to reach a broader audience.

Underwritten by local businesses, the seminars are free. Talks in the series assume no prior technical knowledge because of the area's low computer literacy rate, Dungee said.

The museum has a Y2K reference page on its web site for Chicago-area residents with Y2K concerns: . The page contains links to compliance statements of municipalities, businesses and organizations.

Contacts: Hank Dungee, director of information technology, DuSable Museum of African-American History, Chicago, Ill., 773-947-0600; e-mail: hdungy@dusablemuseum.org; web site: www.dusablemuseum.org.

Background: Dungee operates the Black Chicago On Line web site: www.blackchicago.com.

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