Give up a Saturday to volunteer to build Web sites? Yes! More than 100 people gathered at Infotec's training facilities to design Web sites for various Austin-Area not-for-profit organizations for the AIR-Austin event.

Teams ranged in size from one to 10 designers, and from one to three not-for-profit representatives, and were dispersed throughout Infotec's facilities. The day was filled with competitiveness AND fun, as design teams scrambled to develop 19 web sites in one day!

 
 
Each team was greeted with a "goodie" bag, filled with donated items (calendars, squirt guns, candy, notepads, cups, etc.) from various Austin businesses. Each team also received a certificate of appreciation for their involvement.

Not-for-profit participants arrived with their materials -- text and pictures -- ready for conversion into web languages. Work began at 9 a.m. and lasted non-stop until 5:30 p.m.

AIR-Austin volunteers circulated the rooms throughout the day to trouble-shoot, answer questions, provide moral support, and witness the excitement.

"I learned a lot," said Terry Garity of the not-for-profit organization Explorers of the New Century, "and I walked away with a great looking web site. Everything about the event was well done."

 
 
"We've had a website on MAIN, but haven't updated it in an embarrassingly long time - we knew we wanted a Spanish version and some other changes, but it was always, y'know easy to put off and so never got done," said Courtney Ward of El Buen Samaritaro. "AIR-Austin really got us all in gear. While Andy and the rest of my great team were working, I was writing the Spanish translations. With the Spanish version, the English version, and the two corresponding large text versions - my Thought Interactive guys really built FOUR websites! They were up for it, but about 2:00, the look in their eyes changed - WHAT HAVE WE GOTTEN INTO?"

"We had alot of fun and it was great meeting all the people involved," said Jocelyn Mellberg of Bipolar Productions. "Our team plans on continuing to work with People's Community Clinic to finish their site and help them to keep it up."

"I was bone tired when I left," said Jim Eliot of ISN, "but I felt great all day Sunday when I thought about how many people had been helped by a bunch of us - while we were having a great time doing what we're good at and love to do."

 
 
"The Infotec Training Center personnel were absolutely amazing, accommodating a variety of technical software and hardware questions from the variety of teams with grace and speed, allowing no major downtime or system failure problems -- a major feat, given the complications of the event," said Steve Guengerich, the event chair. "Also, the AIR-Austin/MAIN volunteers were just so solid and self-less in their time and effort."

"My fondest memory, however, is going from room to room and seeing the energy and heart being poured into their work by the web designers and developers. I just can't say enough about the true community spirit each and every one exhibited in working on behalf of their non-profit team member to try to make a positive impact for them with a new or enhanced web site."

 
 
"The freelancers, like Red, Diane, and Elissa, who came in cold, had no prep time and did great work on their own were wonderful," said Sharron Rush of Easter Seals, and the primary contact person for the event. "One team - the ACT Lab from UT, split their effort in order to help a nonprofit who didn't get matched up with a team, and Austin Access TV will have a great site as a result. Ziggy Oliver and the Rockdale PTO had done a lot of preparation. When they weren't matched up, they came to the design day anyway. They knew there would be rooms full of designers, so they'd take their chances at getting some time with a few of them. By day's end, they were well on their way to an elegant, accessible site with input from a half dozen designers and hours of work from a volunteer from the Austin Freenet."

"People would suggest solutions to folks who were on different teams. Ideas about accessibility and bilingual applications passed among the teams easily. The competition was very real though, as Jamie and Jennifer from Goodwill kept everybody's energy up with chocolate and cheers - it was terrific!"

"We had a great time and learned a WHOLE lot and really enjoyed working with Austin Access Arts." said, Kathleen Krause of the "Cybarians" team from Texas State Library. "The guys at Infotec were so helpful!"

"The combined talents and energy that filled the training and design rooms reinforced what I already knew--Austin is the greatest place there is and I challenge other cities and locales to take the AIR-Austin concept and top it," said co-organizer Sue Soy of MAIN. "Create your own event and web sites, document and report your findings and results for the rest of us. You will have fun and we'll all learn more together."

"The Tivoli team is already planning for next year," said Rob Sartin, event consultant and husband of Rachel Sartin of Tivoli. "They have developed software that generates a lot of their in-house web pages. They are looking at the modifications that are needed so that the accessibility options that they learned about will be automatically incorporated into the design."

Not-for-profits were as thrilled to see other groups get online as themselves. "I have been a supporter of People's Community Clinic for years," said Rachel Muir, Executive Director of Smartgrrls and another AIR-Austin Competitor. "What they do for the Austin community is awesome. I was absolutely thrilled to see People's get online!"

"Thanks for really keeping after us to join the competition," said Ruth of People's Community Clinic. "I've only even been on the web a few times, and actually got kinda bored. I guess I didn't realize how important it is to some folks and how much they depend on it for information. We are all really, really pleased with the result."

 
 
Ofcourse, nothing brings out volunteer Web designers the way free good food does! Time was allotted for lunch, but the designers chose to bring their food to their desks and keep working!

AIR-Austin learned a lot from this event -- and we will document these learnings here on our Web site for our own future events, and for those in other cities who want to have their own Accessibility Internet Rally!