The first link up there (report) should be:http://www.afro-netizen.com/2005/10/aol_survey_show.html



Chris, I'd add 4) provide assistance to under-heard communities in getting their own voices online to that list. Bridging the digital divide has to be about more than bringing more audiences to the internet.



I am scrambling to dig up a really good report I read a few years ago that broke down the failure of Community Technology Centers to bridge the digital divide: early in the CTC movement, there was money galore for hardware set up, but grossly inadequate funding available for training and classes. I recently went hunting for free or very low cost basic computer training for one community organizer, a smart and accomplished woman who did not know some basic things about Windows like how to move one to the side so that she could work in two applications at once.



I was shocked at how little I was able to find. The Brooklyn Public Library offers a few classes at branch libraries, and AAFE's (Asian Americans for Equality) CTCoffers free classes to seniors in the Chinatown zipcodes, but that was about the best I could do. If there is more out there, it isn't easy to find.



To their credit, the Community Technology Centers Network and the CTC VISTA Program recognize this gap and are looking for smarter ways to bridge it. CTCNet provides a few solid curriculum resources and the CTC VISTA project has added circuit riders--who work with community organizations that want to use CTC resources and get their members online--to the slate of work that they can fund. The advantage of working with organizations in addition to open drop-in centers is that folks can work together to create content that matters and participate in policy debates directly, in addition to accessing important civic resources, health information and all the other good stuff that we digirati get from the web.

i couldn't disagree with you more Chris.

First, one thing I can't abide the dialogue in the United States (yes I'm not from 'round here!) is that everything has to be put in a party box. Municipal Wi-Fi is no more Liberal than Conservative. No more Christian than Muslim. It's no more part of the new Socialist dawn than school buses. Like school buses, its just common sense. It is a practical policy matter - something that will benefit people, benefit communities, benefit businesses, education, enterprise, civic engagement, arts, culture, community groups etc etc etc.
Forcing this debate into a left/right box just degrades it.

Secondly, the idea that communities should not go forward with Wi-Fi if they are not going to also go forward with a million other worthy ideas is just plain monkey wrenching - lets kill wi-fi before it begins. Let's not provide school buses unless we also ensure that every child gets a good meal every night, and suffers no abuse. Trying to get Wi-Fi through is tough enough. Lumping it into a single project to resolve the entire digital divide is a recipe to kill it before it sees the light of day.

Trying to make technology projects too big is a fundamental mistake which I watched throughout the 90's. This - "lets not do anything unless we do everything" approach was taken by large corporations and local government who'd commission humungous technology projects that would specify one system to fix every aspect of the organizations information needs. Big companies loved these contracts. They were worth 100s of Mil. Mosty they collapsed into litigation and chaos because a do-it-all project couldn't do any one thing even adiquately.

Chris proposes that a Municipal Wi-Fi project
a) provides wireless internet access (a pretty tall order itself in the rural community where I live)
b) provides universal affordable access to computers (which company gets that contract? Don't forget support and upgrades)
c) create information portals full of useful information (information chosen and edited by whom??? the information portal dept of City Hall, headed by a political apointee?? anyway - I thought that was called the internet!)
d)assist underserved communities - Wi-Fi WILL assist underserved communities - that's exactly why we are working for it here in the poor Red Counties where I live!

We need to takle each of the problems Chris outlines, modularly. Each one has a whole raft of decisions & issues that need to be resolved to make it practicable. Different people need to be involved in each of the items on the list - each are totally different projects. They need different funding sources, different kinds of skills involved and have many parts to their solution.

Please lets not get into jingoistic left/right over-simplified solutions like this.

Jennifer Louise, you have to pick one--bloated or jingoistic? Too complex or over-simplified?

Municipal wi-fi isn't enough. It just isn't. And if progressives are going to put energy into advocating muni wi-fi, we have to be able to talk to how to make sure that our communities can get what we think we need from muni wi-fi. The conservatives and the liberals can do what they want, but I think it is absolutely vital that people who believe that the digital divide is worth bridging not fool ourselves into thinking that municipal wi-fi, on its own, is anything like a magic bullet.

Jennifer Louise,

My post addressed the implications of muni wi-fi on African-Americans in blue cities from the perspective of a Black progressive. I intentionally avoided generalizing my remarks to discuss rural "red counties", etc., as that is not my field of inquiry.

Moreover, I did not state or "propose" that city governments implement the elements I deem necessary to making wi-fi what it should be: a powerful civic resource.

What I tried to convey to folks was the responsibility of progressives to take what enlightened cities have provided their residents and make this new public utility an agent for social justice.

At no point did I say or suggest that activists, NPOs and other entities abdicate their civic responsibility to government bodies.

In short, as Amanda has reiterated, web access itself is simply not enough.