The following article might directly related to our concerns
of expanding the information superhighway access to the poorer
side of our real-world communities:
"From the web page http://www.benton.org/Library/Low-Income
New Benton publication: Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income
Communities in the Digital Age examines the barriers (beyond
just income) that are slowing the spread of new technology
in low-income communities."
Read the complete article...
http://www.empowermentzone.com/bitbybit.txt
Granted, we SurvPC'ers already knew that it's possible to access
the net with the most obsolete PC's -- by using DOS internet, and
breaking the infrastructure barrier -- by using hammer's sub-ISP
model, or even without the need of any privately-owned PC's -- by
using the (previously discussed) community cybercafe model.
But the biggest problem is: Most people who life in the real-world
less-furtunate communities, like in the barrio, the ghetto, appala-
chia, chinatown, urban poor or rural parts of third countries, etc.,
are not yet aware of these facts.
Some of them might managed to own cheapy old PC's. But to them,
the internet is still viewed as an exclusive stuff, partly because
most ISPs (even free/low-cost ISPs) tends to advertise their
services as only useable with up-to-date computers, which these
people simply can't afford.
So, there are ways to get in floating around in the cyberspace, but
these folks who *outside* the cyberspace's "outher sphere boundary"
can't get in, mainly because they are not aware of those "insider-
only" knowledge! Well, how they can learn those if they are totally
outsiders? <g>
In the other hand, how *we* can effectively reach out beyond the
cyberspace to tell them how to get in? Any ideas guys? ;)
PS- This might interest our marketing/statistical folks as well
i.e. to figure out how many mass potentials hidden unforeseen
out there ;)
--Eko
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