TenderVoice In The Tenderloin

As the leading facility in the Tenderloin dedicated to computer literacy and technology training, the Tenderloin Tech Lab has recently joined forces with members of an engineering and planning company called Arup to create audio visualizations of the larger Tenderloin community.  The project is a web application called TenderVoice, and its aim is to bring the plethora of available resources, social services and organizations to the fingertips of local residents and anyone else searching for services in the Tenderloin.

Looking for rental assistance?  Maybe you’re trying to figure out where you can find a medical center or a shelter in the Tenderloin. TenderVoice allows you to easily navigate through organizations in the community and listen to audio clips of staff talking about the mission, back ground and services of the organization.  By exploring the Tenderloin through audio, Tendervoice aims to personalize and simplify an otherwise tedious and difficult research process while improving basic computer skills and promoting community.

This past weekend, the project was a featured exhibit in the City Centered Arts Festival, hosted by the Gray Area Foundation For the Arts.  On Sunday, the Tenderloin Tech Lab showcased TenderVoice using the computers in its drop-in lab and invited people from the public to explore the web application.   Over the coming months, Arup and the Tenderloin Tenderloin Tech Lab will continue to improve the application and ensure that anyone who is looking for a specific resource in the Tenderloin is able to find it quickly while honing their computer skills and having some fun.

Visit TenderVoice.org and give it a try.

Also premiering at the Tenderloin Tech Lab this past Sunday was TenderNoise, the sister project to TenderVoice, which gives a visualization of the noise levels throughout the Tenderloin over a period of 2 and ½ days.  Want to see which areas of the Tenderloin are the loudest and which are quietiest?  Visit Tendernoise.com to find out!