[WEB4LIB] Re:Digital Divide (was Re: RE: Questia: who is behi nd

[Zoe Holbrooks]

Dan wrote:

> And we have it in Idaho and everywhere else.  My point (and guaranteed
> to be the last one on this topic, I promise) is that the problem isn't
> computers.  The problem is economic.  The lack of computers is just a
> symptom.  Let's focus on the big problems of education, jobs,
> addiction, crime, et. al., and when some of those are handled better
> the digital divide will go away, the same as plenty of the other
> "divides" that you may care to so name.

Here, here!!!  Many of us who work in economically deprived areas or with 
economically underadvantaged clients (students, communities) -- and who are 
ourselves members of those communities -- have long recognized that when a
groovy label gets stuck on something, it means a lot of cash will get thrown
at middle managers, universities, and think tanks to investigate/"research" 
the issue. Lots of ink will get spread on lots of pages bemoaning the
tragedy
and pontificating on solutions.
 
The reality is that underadvantaged communities get (and have always gotten)

less and what they do get is usually the bottom of the barrel -- whether
that 
is groceries or schools. Students who can't read can't make the most of 
whatever they do have access to. Literacy and numeracy are the critical 
technologies here. 

Personal anecdote: I'm the volunteer Library/Technology Coordinator for a 
tiny Native American alternative junior/senior high school in Seattle. This
student body and their associated faculty get moved from one physical
location
to another -- frequently far across town from their homes -- every 2-3
years.
Like clockwork. Their library mostly consists of garage sale donations. When
my alumni association got involved with them last year, we had 23 copies of 
John Grisham's The Firm in our stacks, but nothing by Sherman Alexie, James 
Welch, or most any other contemporary Native author. We had a room full of 
donated 386 and 486 machines, most of which barely ran MS Works. In spite of
the fact that: 
- the District IT office (and crew) resided in the same location, 
- the library/computer lab had T1 in the building (put in the year before by

  a parent volunteer group), 
- and the existence of all the necessary cabling (donated by the principal's

  brother-in-law), 
- AND a willing and knowledgeable crew of volunteers experienced in setting
up 
  labs and networks, 

THE LAB WAS NOT ONLINE DURING THE ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR. 

Why not? The IT office somehow couldn't manage to inform the Principal (or
any of 
the tech volunteers) how to get the lab connected to the School District's
net. And 
somehow, in spite of being in the same complex, the employee responsible for
this 
particular school couldn't ever quite manage to spend the hour or so to get
it 
connected. So, in spite of all the rhetoric about wiring the schools and
getting 
everyone on the Net, it never happened.  

This year, the school was moved again. This time to a community college
campus nearby. 
They received a donation of recycled machines from a local federal
government regional 
office. They are now connected (via the community college's network) -- as
of the new 
year. Of course, now that they are located on the community college campus,
they have
access to the community college computer labs. But not through the efforts
of the 
school district.

My point here is that entrenched classism, racism, and political maneuvering
drive a 
lot of what goes on. Schools and communities who are at the bottom of the
list for 
books, teachers, facilities, etc., aren't going to be on the top of the list
for 
groovy stuff like state of the art technology. Underserved communities are
well aware 
that they will have to struggle for whatever they get, and for some they've
been 
struggling so long they have just pretty much given up. 

The "Third World" isn't somewhere else, it's here: It's on remote
reservations, in inner 
city warzones, and in rural hamlets. And it's not all brown. Those of us who
live in 
privilege -- and that's pretty much every one of us with a decent paying job
who has a 
phone and cable at our command -- do well not to forget that.

Zoe