2000-2004 Activity Report

 

 

February 27, 2005

Table of Contents

Introducing KnowledgeBase, Inc. *

The Real Divide Is Not "Digital" *

2004 Accomplishments *

Publishing *

Strategic Partnerships, Classes, and Workshops *

Programs *

2003 Accomplishments *

Strategic Partnerships *

Programs *

Consulting *

2002 Accomplishments *

Strategic Partnerships *

Programs *

Consulting *

2001 Accomplishments *

Strategic Partnerships *

Programs *

2000 Accomplishments *

Sponsored Lectures *

Summer Camps *

Workshops and Strategic Meetings *

Technology Consulting (to support mission-driven organizations) *

Derrick Brown's Biography *

 

Introducing KnowledgeBase, Inc.

Founded as an informal community outreach project in 1995, KnowledgeBase is a Georgia corporation (incorporated April 24, 1998). Our mission is to educate and empower people by creating learning content that enhances their reading, writing, math, entrepreneurial, leadership, and critical thinking skills.

KnowledgeBase offers the following products and services:

HISTORhYmes

... Is a literacy activity that enhances reading comprehension, grammar, and writing skills by using the creative imaginations of young people to conduct social action projects, and to relate stories about historical and contemporary figures.

The Summer Academy

http//www.ubp.com/KB/ksa2001/

... Enhances participants' reading, writing, math, leadership, entrepreneurship, and critical thinking skills. These ends are accomplished through interactive problem solving, skill-enhancing classes, applicable technology demonstrations, and concept-reinforcing games.

Project CHIP

http//www.ubp.com/KB/CHIP

... Refurbishes and distributes quality, low-cost computers to mission-driven organizations and families.

Writing Your First Business Plan

http//www.ubp.com/MFB/syllabus.html

... Is an interactive seminar (soon to be published as a book) that uses the Bible to teach aspiring entrepreneurs an inside-out approach that allows them to transform their vision into mission-driven actions.

 

 

The Real Divide Is Not "Digital"

Since 1999, our work has received more attention due to the emergence of the Digital Divide (a disparity in computer and Internet access and use among people of color) as a national issue. We believe that the mainstream's recognition of this "digital" divide gives us the opportunity to resolve the knowledge, experience, and economic resource divides that created it by employing the following four strategies:
      1. Collaboration. Our initial investment must be to organize leaders and communities to see and to work to achieve the same end - the collective education and empowerment of people through improving their reading, writing, math, entrepreneurship, leadership, and critical thinking skills.
      2. Each One Reach One, Then Teach One. Our next investment must focus on first creating awareness of the need to develop skills, then building technology centers in churches, schools, and community centers that grant access to those who do not have it, and providing training that makes this access meaningful.
      3. Access To Capital. The success of each of these efforts depends on having money available to finance them.
      4. Edutainment. We must build companies that produce compelling content that enlightens and entertains.

 

 

2004 Accomplishments

Publishing

Games

Derrick Brown Hosts Talk To Me Game During Interview Day For 2004 Blank Family Fellows (BFF) Youth Summer Internship Program (YSIP) (February 16, 2004)

 

Poems

Poem The Intern's Pledge (Presented To 2004 Blank Family Fellows) (April 18, 2004)

Poem Talk To Me (March 28, 2004)

 

Strategic Partnerships, Classes, and Workshops

Derrick Brown And 12 Male Tech High School Students During Saturday School Mentoring & Discipleship Session (December 4, 2004)

 

Cornerstone International Youth Camp Participants Construct "Tower Of Babel" During The Problem With Problem Solving Workshop (July 2004)

Union Ame Church Summer Camp Participants Assemble Computer During How To Build A Computer Workshop (July 2004)

Programs

 

 

2003 Accomplishments

Strategic Partnerships

Decatur High School Students During 2003 Knowledgebase Summer Academy At Georgia Tech (July 8-12, 2003)

Dunbar Elementary Teacher Charkeshia Jones Works With Fickett Elementary Students During 2003 Knowledgebase Summer Academy (June 5-9, 2003)

Programs

Students Perform During "Open Mic" Session At 2003 Knowledgebase Summer Academy (July 21-25, 2003)

Consulting

Activity Research & Development

Training

Database Development

General Computer Consulting

 

2002 Accomplishments


Strategic Partnerships

Dunbar Elementary School Teacher Computer Training (June 10-11, 2002)

Programs

2002 HISTORhYmes Presentation

 

2002 KnowledgeBase Summer Academy Back-To-School Auction

2002 KnowledgeBase Summer Academy Students Rebuild A Computer

Writing Your First Business Plan Students (March 2002)

Consulting

 

2001 Accomplishments

Strategic Partnerships

Centennial Place Elementary Second-Grade Students During "How To Build A Computer" (May 10, 2001)

Programs

Students Completing Internet 'Scavenger Hunt" At 2001 Knowledgebase Summer Academy (August 6-10, 2001) (Georgia Tech)

2001 Knowledgebase Summer Academy Students Refurbish Their Own Computers (August 6-10. 2001)

Pamela Berry And Family (Current Project CHIP Participants) (October 2001)

Writing Your First Business Plan Students (February 2001)

 

 

2000 Accomplishments

Sponsored Lectures

Knowledgebase Executive Director Derrick Brown Delivering Resolving The Digital Divide At Sandia National Laboratories (February 17, 2000) (Livermore, CA)

Delivering Keynote Address At CSRA Diversity Forum (February 23, 2000) (Aiken, SC)

Derrick Brown Visiting Burley High School During University Of Virginia Digital Divide Conference (March 23, 2000) (Charlottesville, VA)

Delivering Keynote Address To Youth At CSRA BDPA Conference (April 23, 2000) (Augusta, GA)

Address To National Department of Energy Contractors Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Diversity Training Seminar (May 11, 2000) (Atlanta, GA)

 

Summer Camps

Students Constructing Computer Network At KnowledgeBase Summer Academy (June 20-24, 2000) (Rome, GA)

Workshops and Strategic Meetings

Tavis Smiley Foundation's Youth2Leaders Symposium (August 26, 2000) (Atlanta, GA)

Enterprise Foundation Network Conference (November 14, 2000) (Atlanta, GA)

Technology Consulting (to support mission-driven organizations)

 

 

 

 

 

Derrick Brown's Biography

Derrick Brown founded, and currently leads KnowledgeBase. KnowledgeBase's mission is to educate and to empower people by creating content that enhances their reading, writing, math, entrepreneurial, leadership, and critical thinking (problem solving) skills.

He was formerly the Vice-President of Strategic Planning and Marketing for BGS Infosystems, Inc. (BGSI), an Internet startup firm who produces an Internet directory of African-related WWW resources called "The Universal Black Pages" (www.ubp.com). While with BGSI, Derrick authored the company's business and marketing plans, and also wrote strategic plans for BGSI's advertising, consulting, and electronic commerce operations.

Derrick earned his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering with honors from Clemson University in December 1991. He then worked for The MITRE Corporation's (Reston, VA) Signal Processing and Advanced Technology Department for one year before beginning graduate studies at Georgia Tech, where he received his M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in March 1994.

During his time at Georgia Tech, Derrick was an active member of the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA). He created the Information Resources and Technology committee in September 1993 to encourage students to use electronic mail and other emerging Internet resources like the World Wide Web. He served as BGSA president from May 1994 - May 1996, during which the organization became a leading advocate of information technology utilization.

Derrick also consulted at Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), Georgia’s premier high-tech business incubator. While at ATDC, Derrick served as a reviewer for ATDC’s Faculty Research and Commercialization Program (FRCP), which provided startup capital to Georgia professors with promising intellectual property who wished to start companies. He also served as Webmaster for Netcelerate, ATDC’s online entrepreneurial community.

Derrick served as a 1999 Technology Fellow with the Enterprise Foundation (http://www.enterprisefoundation.org). As a technology fellow, his duties were to use information technology tools and training methods to improve day-to-day operations in Enterprise’s constituent community development corporations (CDCs). Establishing these relationships has allowed KnowledgeBase to continue working with several of these organizations after the conclusion of Derrick’s fellowship tenure to help these CDCs establish community technology centers.

His work received special recognition in September 1999, when Derrick was invited to a two-day White House briefing of the African-American Internet Constituency. Organized in the midst of growing public concern over the Digital Divide, the group invited to the briefing represents the vanguard that has already been working for several years to conquer this problem by creating compelling Internet content and by organizing substantive infrastructure-building and training efforts targeted at African-Americans.

Derrick is originally from Elloree, SC, a rural community in central South Carolina. His personal mission is to educate and to empower people by creating content that enhances their reading, writing, math, entrepreneurial, leadership, and critical thinking (problem solving) skills. KnowledgeBase is his vehicle to make God's will for His people manifest on earth by