2025-01-17T12:43:07-05:00 2024-09-30 861758098 SCHULTHEISS & ASSOCIATES 720 NORLAND AVENUE CHAMBERSBURG PA 17201 990 2023-10-01 455473281 A CONNECTED PLANET ACON 7037901911 PO BOX 7605 MCLEAN VA 22106 GREG HEARNE BOARD MEMBER, CEO 7037901911 2025-01-10 true false MICHAEL L HARGLEROAD P00038835 7172672100 2025-01-17 2023 2024-10-15 13:58:12Z GREG HEARNE PO BOX 7605 MCLEAN VA 22106 1094699 false X X 2012 VA PROVIDE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO ENABLE INFORMATION SHARING, EDUCATION, AND MEDICAL SERVICES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. 5 3 8 0 158 0 868483 1094637 77 62 0 868718 1094699 0 0 813473 971876 0 0 159369 141906 972842 1113782 -104124 -19083 253370 172770 200795 139278 52575 33492 X THE MISSION OF A CONNECTED PLANET (ACP) IS TO PROVIDE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO ENABLE INFORMATION SHARING AND TO IMPROVE THE EDUCATION & HEALTHCARE SERVICES PROVIDED TO CHILDREN IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD. false false 84111 ACP COMPLETED THE DESIGN OF A LITERACY APP CRAFTED FOR SPEAKERS AND LEARNERS OF LOW-RESOURCED LANGUAGES. THIS LITERACY MOBILE APPLICATION IS TO BE AN INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL TOOL, DESIGNED TO ENHANCE FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION BY UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF THE ALPHABET AND UNLOCKING THE POWER OF THE WRITTEN WORD. THE APP WILL TAKE A GAMIFIED APPROACH TO LEARNING, OFFERING A SERIES OF BITE-SIZED LESSONS ACROSS TEN LEVELS, TRANSFORMING THE EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY INTO AN ENGAGING ADVENTURE. LEVERAGING CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY, IT WILL UTILIZE TEXT-TO-SPEECH FUNCTIONALITY TO DELIVER AUDIO CONTENT, MAKING THE LEARNING PROCESS BOTH ENGAGING AND ACCESSIBLE. THE APP'S COMPREHENSIVE SUITE OF FEATURES WILL INCLUDE AUDIO-ENABLED LEVELED READERS AND DECODABLE BOOKS, ALONG WITH A CAREFULLY SCAFFOLDED PHONICS CURRICULUM ALIGNED WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL STANDARDS, FOCUSING ON ESSENTIAL READING CONCEPTS, STARTING WITH LETTER RECOGNITION AND ADVANCING TO SYLLABLE FORMATION AND WORD BUILDING, ENSURING A SOLID FOUNDATION IN ALL KEY PHONICS CONSTRUCTS, WHILE PROVIDING A BALANCED AND ENGAGING EXPERIENCE. ACP IS ACTIVELY SEEKING FUNDING TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE APPLICATION SERIES. ACP HAS REMAINED DEDICATED TO MAINTAINING ITS LIBRARY OF FREE MOBILE APPLICATIONS, AVAILABLE ON BOTH THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE AND APPLE APP STORE. THESE APPS INCLUDE GENERAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY APPLICATIONS, DESIGNED TO HELP USERS DEVELOP ESSENTIAL SKILLS IN LETTER, WORD, AND NUMBER RECOGNITION, SPECIFICALLY TAILORED FOR HAITIAN CREOLE SPEAKERS. ANOTHER CATEGORY FEATURES AUDIOBOOK APPLICATIONS, ADAPTED FROM PHYSICAL BOOKS CREATED THROUGH THE MOTHER TONGUE BOOKS (MTB) INITIATIVE BY THE MATNWA COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER ON LA GONVE ISLAND, HAITI, AND OFFERING MULTILINGUAL SUPPORT IN HAITIAN CREOLE, FRENCH, AND ENGLISH. ADDITIONALLY, ACP HAS CONTINUED TO SUPPORT AND MAINTAIN THE "DUCATION DE QUALIT POUR TOUS" (EDUQUAT) SERIES OF MATHEMATICS AND FRENCH-LANGUAGE ARTS APPLICATIONS. THESE WERE ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED THROUGH A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB) AND LES FRRES DE L'INSTRUCTION CHRTIENNE (FIC) IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, IN PREVIOUS YEARS. 49816 DUE TO PERSONNEL CHANGES AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY (CMU), ACP CONCLUDED ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CMU LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (LTI) AND IS IN THE PROCESS OF ESTABLISHING A NEW COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH TO ADVANCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPEN-SOURCE TEXT-TO-SPEECH (TTS) CAPABILITY FOR UNDER-RESOURCED LANGUAGES. AS PART OF THIS INITIATIVE, ACP FOCUSED ON DEFINING OVER 2,000 UTTERANCES THAT ENCOMPASS BASIC CREOLE VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE RELEVANT TO PRIMARY- GRADE EDUCATION. THESE UTTERANCES WERE DERIVED FROM DIVERSE SOURCES, INCLUDING NEWS ARTICLES, BOOKS, JOURNALS, THE BIBLE, AND PRE-EXISTING DATASETS. TO RECORD THE UTTERANCES, ACP ENGAGED A PROFESSIONAL RECORDING STUDIO IN HAITI. THE RECORDINGS WERE COMPLETED IN TWO SESSIONS, FEATURING BOTH MALE AND FEMALE VOICE ACTORS TO PROVIDE DIVERSE VOICE OPTIONS. THE STUDIO HANDLED EDITING, CUTTING, AND EXPORTING THE RECORDINGS, WITH ACP CONDUCTING THOROUGH REVIEWS TO ENSURE QUALITY. TO REFINE THE INITIAL TTS DEVELOPMENT, ACP ORGANIZED A SECOND RECORDING SESSION AIMED AT ENHANCING VOICE CLARITY AND ADDRESSING THE SPECIFIC TONAL NEEDS OF QUESTIONS, WHICH REQUIRE A DISTINCT INTONATION AT THE END OF SENTENCES. USING THESE RECORDINGS, THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH LEVERAGED ITS PROPRIETARY EVERYVOICE TTS TOOLKIT TO CREATE TWO SYNTHESIZED VOICES FOR HAITIAN CREOLE. THE EVERYVOICE TTS TOOLKIT IS ONE OF THE PRODUCTS EMERGING FROM THE SPEECH GENERATION FOR INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE EDUCATION (SGILE) PROJECT WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, WHOSE AIM IS TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOP STATE-OF-THE-ART SPEECH SYNTHESIS SYSTEMS AND TECHNIQUES FOR INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES, WITH A FOCUS ON HOW TO INTEGRATE TEXT-TO-SPEECH TECHNOLOGY INTO THE CLASSROOM. ACP IS NOW ACTIVELY SEEKING GRANT FUNDING TO DEVELOP A TTS ENGINE THAT WILL SERVE AS A PLATFORM FOR DEPLOYING THESE SYNTHETIC VOICES. CONCURRENTLY, ACP IS WORKING ON BUILDING AN INFORMATIVE WEBSITE THAT INCLUDES ONLINE TEXT- TO-SPEECH TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY. THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO DISTRIBUTE THE MOBILE APPLICATION GLOBALLY VIA THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE. 805432 1094637 ACP CONTINUED PROVIDING POLICY AND PLANNING SUPPORT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND (USCENTCOM) IN THE AREAS OF INFORMATION SHARING AND DISSEMINATION THROUGH THE USE OF CLOUD-BASED PLATFORMS. ACP PROVIDES AN UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION SHARING (UIS) LIAISON OFFICER TO VARIOUS NATIONAL LEVEL AGENCIES IN THE WASHINGTON DC NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION AND ADVISORS AT USCENTCOM HEADQUARTERS IN TAMPA, FL. THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF THEIR WORK THIS YEAR FOCUSED ON PLANNING AND PROTOTYPING OF NEW CLOUD-BASED INFORMATION SHARING SYSTEMS TO ENABLE COMPLIANCE WITH NEW FEDERAL LAWS ON INFORMATION SHARING. 939359 true false false false false false false false false false true false false false true false false false false false false false false false false false false false false true false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false false true 0 0 false 8 true false false false false false false false false X 5 3 true false false false false false false true true false false true true true true false false true true false X GREGORY HEARNE 7037901911 PO BOX 7605 MCLEAN VA 22106 GREG HEARNE BOARD MEMBER 65.00 X X 275000 0 31481 DAVID RYAN EMPLOYEE 40.00 X 160417 0 0 JOSE BOULOY EMPLOYEE 40.00 X 156106 0 0 EDWIN MALDONADO VAZQUEZ EMPLOYEE 40.00 X 120946 0 0 DR JOSHUA HEARNE BOARD MEMBER 10.00 X X 17187 0 343 DAVID COKER PHD BOARD MEMBER 1.00 X 0 0 0 RUTHERFORD SNYDER BOARD MEMBER 1.00 X 0 0 0 BENDEGUZ VIRAGH BOARD MEMBER 1.00 X 0 0 0 729656 31824 4 false true false PROGRAM INCOME 1094637 1094637 1094637 62 62 1094699 1094699 292187 200000 92187 520151 520151 104640 95711 8929 54898 49573 5325 1780 1780 7075 7075 478 478 9339 7004 2335 20059 15044 5015 29907 22430 7477 12796 12796 5665 5665 8772 8772 TRAVEL 19894 9947 9947 SERVICE PROGRAM SUPPORT 8000 8000 AUTO EXPENSE 7779 5834 1945 MEALS & ENTERTAINMENT 7315 7315 3047 3047 1113782 939359 174423 0 1312 35175 196065 87268 79363 29236 55793 50127 200 200 253370 172770 58255 45715 142540 93563 200795 139278 X 52575 33492 52575 33492 253370 172770 -19083 X false false false X 25132 158 25290 1013160 750668 856893 868483 1094637 4583841 1013160 750668 882025 868641 1094637 4609131 4609131 119 51 33 77 62 342 119 51 33 77 62 342 1013279 750719 882058 868718 1094699 4609473 0.99990 0.99990 0.00000 0.00000 X 46701 3276 43425 32662 25960 6702 50127 OFFICER - G. HEARNE 48563 LINE OF CREDIT 45000 93563 false false false false false false false false false GREG HEARNE BOARD MEMBER, CEO 275000 31481 306481 DAVID RYAN EMPLOYEE 160417 160417 JOSE BOULOY EMPLOYEE 156106 156106 FORM 990 - ORGANIZATION'S MISSION THE MISSION OF A CONNECTED PLANET (ACP) IS TO PROVIDE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO ENABLE INFORMATION SHARING AND TO IMPROVE THE EDUCATION & HEALTHCARE SERVICES PROVIDED TO CHILDREN IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD. FORM 990, PAGE 2, PART III, LINE 4A ACP COMPLETED THE DESIGN OF A LITERACY APP CRAFTED FOR SPEAKERS AND LEARNERS OF LOW-RESOURCED LANGUAGES. THIS LITERACY MOBILE APPLICATION IS TO BE AN INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL TOOL, DESIGNED TO ENHANCE FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION BY UNRAVELING THE MYSTERIES OF THE ALPHABET AND UNLOCKING THE POWER OF THE WRITTEN WORD. THE APP WILL TAKE A GAMIFIED APPROACH TO LEARNING, OFFERING A SERIES OF BITE-SIZED LESSONS ACROSS TEN LEVELS, TRANSFORMING THE EDUCATIONAL JOURNEY INTO AN ENGAGING ADVENTURE. LEVERAGING CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY, IT WILL UTILIZE TEXT-TO-SPEECH FUNCTIONALITY TO DELIVER AUDIO CONTENT, MAKING THE LEARNING PROCESS BOTH ENGAGING AND ACCESSIBLE. THE APP'S COMPREHENSIVE SUITE OF FEATURES WILL INCLUDE AUDIO-ENABLED LEVELED READERS AND DECODABLE BOOKS, ALONG WITH A CAREFULLY SCAFFOLDED PHONICS CURRICULUM ALIGNED WITH PRIMARY SCHOOL STANDARDS, FOCUSING ON ESSENTIAL READING CONCEPTS, STARTING WITH LETTER RECOGNITION AND ADVANCING TO SYLLABLE FORMATION AND WORD BUILDING, ENSURING A SOLID FOUNDATION IN ALL KEY PHONICS CONSTRUCTS, WHILE PROVIDING A BALANCED AND ENGAGING EXPERIENCE. ACP IS ACTIVELY SEEKING FUNDING TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE APPLICATION SERIES. ACP HAS REMAINED DEDICATED TO MAINTAINING ITS LIBRARY OF FREE MOBILE APPLICATIONS, AVAILABLE ON BOTH THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE AND APPLE APP STORE. THESE APPS INCLUDE GENERAL LITERACY AND NUMERACY APPLICATIONS, DESIGNED TO HELP USERS DEVELOP ESSENTIAL SKILLS IN LETTER, WORD, AND NUMBER RECOGNITION, SPECIFICALLY TAILORED FOR HAITIAN CREOLE SPEAKERS. ANOTHER CATEGORY FEATURES AUDIOBOOK APPLICATIONS, ADAPTED FROM PHYSICAL BOOKS CREATED THROUGH THE MOTHER TONGUE BOOKS (MTB) INITIATIVE BY THE MATNWA COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTER ON LA GONVE ISLAND, HAITI, AND OFFERING MULTILINGUAL SUPPORT IN HAITIAN CREOLE, FRENCH, AND ENGLISH. ADDITIONALLY, ACP HAS CONTINUED TO SUPPORT AND MAINTAIN THE "DUCATION DE QUALIT POUR TOUS" (EDUQUAT) SERIES OF MATHEMATICS AND FRENCH-LANGUAGE ARTS APPLICATIONS. THESE WERE ORIGINALLY DEVELOPED THROUGH A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE INTER-AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (IDB) AND LES FRRES DE L'INSTRUCTION CHRTIENNE (FIC) IN PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI, IN PREVIOUS YEARS. FORM 990, PAGE 2, PART III, LINE 4B DUE TO PERSONNEL CHANGES AT CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY (CMU), ACP CONCLUDED ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CMU LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE (LTI) AND IS IN THE PROCESS OF ESTABLISHING A NEW COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH TO ADVANCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPEN-SOURCE TEXT-TO-SPEECH (TTS) CAPABILITY FOR UNDER-RESOURCED LANGUAGES. AS PART OF THIS INITIATIVE, ACP FOCUSED ON DEFINING OVER 2,000 UTTERANCES THAT ENCOMPASS BASIC CREOLE VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE RELEVANT TO PRIMARY- GRADE EDUCATION. THESE UTTERANCES WERE DERIVED FROM DIVERSE SOURCES, INCLUDING NEWS ARTICLES, BOOKS, JOURNALS, THE BIBLE, AND PRE-EXISTING DATASETS. TO RECORD THE UTTERANCES, ACP ENGAGED A PROFESSIONAL RECORDING STUDIO IN HAITI. THE RECORDINGS WERE COMPLETED IN TWO SESSIONS, FEATURING BOTH MALE AND FEMALE VOICE ACTORS TO PROVIDE DIVERSE VOICE OPTIONS. THE STUDIO HANDLED EDITING, CUTTING, AND EXPORTING THE RECORDINGS, WITH ACP CONDUCTING THOROUGH REVIEWS TO ENSURE QUALITY. TO REFINE THE INITIAL TTS DEVELOPMENT, ACP ORGANIZED A SECOND RECORDING SESSION AIMED AT ENHANCING VOICE CLARITY AND ADDRESSING THE SPECIFIC TONAL NEEDS OF QUESTIONS, WHICH REQUIRE A DISTINCT INTONATION AT THE END OF SENTENCES. USING THESE RECORDINGS, THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH LEVERAGED ITS PROPRIETARY EVERYVOICE TTS TOOLKIT TO CREATE TWO SYNTHESIZED VOICES FOR HAITIAN CREOLE. THE EVERYVOICE TTS TOOLKIT IS ONE OF THE PRODUCTS EMERGING FROM THE SPEECH GENERATION FOR INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE EDUCATION (SGILE) PROJECT WITHIN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, WHOSE AIM IS TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOP STATE-OF-THE-ART SPEECH SYNTHESIS SYSTEMS AND TECHNIQUES FOR INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES, WITH A FOCUS ON HOW TO INTEGRATE TEXT-TO-SPEECH TECHNOLOGY INTO THE CLASSROOM. ACP IS NOW ACTIVELY SEEKING GRANT FUNDING TO DEVELOP A TTS ENGINE THAT WILL SERVE AS A PLATFORM FOR DEPLOYING THESE SYNTHETIC VOICES. CONCURRENTLY, ACP IS WORKING ON BUILDING AN INFORMATIVE WEBSITE THAT INCLUDES ONLINE TEXT- TO-SPEECH TOOLS AND IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGY. THE ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO DISTRIBUTE THE MOBILE APPLICATION GLOBALLY VIA THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE. FORM 990, PAGE 6, PART VI, LINE 2 DR. JOSHUA HEARNE GREG HEARNE CFO CEO GREG IS JOSHUA'S FATHER FORM 990, PAGE 6, PART VI, LINE 11B THE CEO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR COLLECTING ALL REQUIRED MATERIALS NEEDED BY THE ACCOUNTANTS TO PREPARE THE FEDERAL FORM 990. ONCE THE FORM IS COMPLETED, THE ACCOUNTANTS PROVIDE A DRAFT OF THE RETURN TO THE CEO FOR REVIEW, AND ANY UPDATES OR CORRECTIONS ARE SUBMITTED TO THE ACCOUNTANTS FOR REVIEW. A REVISED DRAFT IS THEN SUBMITTED TO THE CEO FOR REVIEW. ONCE THE REVISED DRAFT HAS BEEN REVIEWED AND IS SATISFACTORY, THE REVISED DRAFT IS THEN SUBMITTED TO THE FULL BOARD OF DIRECTORS FOR THEIR REVIEW PRIOR TO BEING FILED WITH THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE. FORM 990, PAGE 6, PART VI, LINE 12C ALL BOARD OF DIRECTORS ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE EXECUTED A WRITTEN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT THEY HAVE (A) RECEIVED A COPY OF ACP'S BYLAWS, WHICH CONTAIN THE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST POLICY; (B) READ AND UNDERSTOOD THE POLICY; (C) AGREE TO COMPLY WITH THE POLICY; AND (D) UNDERSTAND THAT ACP IS CHARITABLE AND IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN ITS FEDERAL TAX EXEMPTION, IT MUST BE ENGAGED PRIMARILY IN ACTIVITIES WHICH ACCOMPLISH ONE OR MORE OF ITS TAX EXEMPT PURPOSES. FORM 990, PAGE 6, PART VI, LINE 15A SALARIES WERE INITIALLY SET BASED ON INDUSTRY STANDARDS FOR THE TYPE OF WORK BEING DONE WITH ADJUSTMENTS WITH CONSIDERATION OF BEING A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION. THE CEO TOOK A SIGNIFICANT PAY CUT IN COMPARISON TO HIS PREVIOUS POSITION WITH SIMILAR RESPONSIBILITIES. THE SALARIES WERE REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY THE BOARD. IT IS NOW OUR STANDARD PROCESS TO REVIEW AND VOTE ON SALARIES AT OUR ANNUAL BOARD MEETING WHERE THE RESULTS ARE RECORDED IN OUR MINUTES. FORM 990, PAGE 6, PART VI, LINE 15B SALARIES WERE INITIALLY SET BASED ON INDUSTRY STANDARDS FOR THE TYPE OF WORK BEING DONE WITH ADJUSTMENTS WITH CONSIDERATION OF BEING A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION. FORM 990, PAGE 6, PART VI, LINE 19 ACP MAKES ITS GOVERNING DOCUMANTS, CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY, AND OTHER ORGANIZING DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC UPON REQUEST.