Community Technology Centers: Narrowing the Digital Divide in Low-Income, Urban Communities

Abstract

As access to information technology (IT) and the ability to use it increasingly become part of the toolkit necessary to participate and prosper in an information-based society, many fear that the IT revolution is bypassing low-income, urban communities. In the absence of comprehensive public or private efforts to close the technology gap, community technology centers (CTCs) have emerged at the grassroots level. The purpose of this article is to describe the work CTCs are doing to address the economic and social impacts of the shift to an information society. In addition, we develop a typology of CTCs by organizational type and programmatic goal that is helpful in conceptualizing CTCs. This exploratory work is an important first step that must occur before answering tougher questions concerning their effectiveness, outcomes, and capacity.As access to information technology (IT) and the ability to use it increasingly become part of the toolkit necessary to participate and prosper in an information-based society, many fear that the IT revolution is bypassing low-income, urban communities. Recent studies substantiate these fears. Falling through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion, the fourth in a series of reports published by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA, 2000), reports that the divide between those with access to telephones, computers, and the Internet still exists and in many cases, is actually widening over time. Although overall access to information and communication technologies is increasing at a rapid rate, particular kinds of households are gaining access while others are not. Low-income persons and minorities, particularly when they reside in inner cities, are among the groups that are being left behind.The move toward an increasingly digital society has had economic and social impacts that threaten to exacerbate existing inequalities. Although access to IT is not a panacea for the problems facing the urban poor, failure to address the technology gap will likely aggravate current levels of poverty and isolation (Goslee, 1998) and increase the already large gaps in education and access to opportunity between historically privileged and historically disenfranchised groups (Blakely, Hadi, & Johnson, 1995). IT has the potential to provide low-income, urban residents with the requisite skills to participate in the information economy, new opportunities to facilitate the communication and networking among individuals necessary for community building, the means to more effectively participate in public discourse, and data and information to understand and attack problems they face. IT can also empower historically isolated individuals and groups and serve as a tool to enhance educational opportunities (Goslee, 1998;Sanyal & Schön, 1999).In the absence of comprehensive public or private efforts to close the technology gap, community technology centers have emerged at the grassroots level. Broadly defined, CTCs are community-based efforts to provide computer access and traini...

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Digital divide and information needs for improving family support among the poor and underserved

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A Conceptual Model for Psychological Empowerment of Telecentre Users

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