Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Catherine Miller, who works with Kids Voting, a nonprofit group that teaches children about responsible voting, receives instructions on navigating the NEON Village.

NEON Village emerges

By Maggie Benson

Los Gatos nonprofit groups can now participate in a new type of community--one without sidewalks, parks or streets--that is springing up in Silicon Valley.

This township, known as NEON Village, won't be found on any traditional map, but online worldwide.

Unveiled Feb. 28, NEON Village is a World Wide Web site that helps local nonprofit groups connect with one another and a global audience through the Internet.

More than 130 nonprofits and community groups are clustered into NEON Village, including Los Gatos Art Docents, Los Gatos Lions, Los Gatos Kiwanis and the Jewish Community Center.

NEON Village was developed by the Nonprofit Exchange Online Network (NEON), led by board chairwoman Jayne Cravens, and Virtual Valley Inc., a subsidiary of Metro Newspapers. The site provides nonprofits with free access to online services, helping them to expand their activities, programs and connectivity.

This is an attempt to organize Silicon Valley's nonprofits into a single virtual community, said Dan Pulcrano, president of Metro Newspapers, which publishes the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.

"I'm very impressed with the system as a way of bringing the nonprofits together," said Fil Maresca, a NEON board member.

NEON Villagers are able to disperse information about their programs and services to local and worldwide audiences, talk with other nonprofit groups through email or real-time meetings and forums, and gain access to application forms, nonprofit guidelines, volunteer exchanges and funding information.

Roy Hirabayashi, board member of NEON and managing director of San Jose Taiko, treats Internet perusers to sound bites of Taiko's Japanese drumming through his NEON home page. Hirabayashi said that he has had inquiries from Germany and other European countries as a result.

"[NEON Village] has expanded us globally," he said.

The project, which was funded by a seed grant from Applied Materials, also provides clients with workshops, training and technical support. Last year, NEON representatives spent more than 2,400 hours bringing nonprofits up to speed.

NEON Village is particularly useful now that legislation has made it legal for board members of nonprofits to attend meetings virtually. The legislation, cosponsored by Assemblyman Jim Cunneen and NEON, went into effect Jan. 1. Previously, state law allowed members of a board to participate and vote in meetings through conference calls, but not via computers.