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August 9, 2005
Robert Rubin takes on the digital divide
Many of you may know that an early interest of Athena Alliance was the bridging the digital divide - with a conference New IT-New Equity-New Economy and a report Inclusion in the Information Age: Reframing the Debate. For that reason, the following item in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye: Project to Build Broadband For Low-Income Homes
A five-year project spearheaded by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin plans to invest $1 billion to build rental homes with high-speed Internet access for roughly 100,000 people with low incomes.
. . .
The project, called Access@Home, will be funded by grants, low-interest loans and equity investments from the National Equity Fund, a unit based in Chicago of Local Support Initiatives.
Most important, however, is this part of the equation:
The technology and training will be provided by One Economy Corp., a nonprofit company based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on extending the benefits of technology to people on the lower economic rungs.
A major point that came out of our conference is that simply throwing technology at the problem doesn't work (see our "Points of Consideration"). It is not simply a question of technological deployment, but using the technology to improve people's economic prospects and daily lives.
One Economy Corp. is a great organization which understand this. Their Beehive websites help end economic isolation, build assets, and raise standards of living by providing dynamic content for low-income people. This makes the technology relevant to improving people's lives - rather than just another entertainment and advertising mechanism.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at August 9, 2005 4:22 PM
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