Untitled - socium.ge

324 Lisa J. Servon and Randal D. Pinkettdigital divide. Before discussing the second argument of this chapter – thatcommunity technology centers (CTCs) are key innovators in this effort – it isnecessary to establish the context in which these organizations work. Thegenesis of the community technology movement arguably dates back to 1968when the National Urban League established a training program in LosAngeles, California, for adults in COBOL programming using a mainframecomputer. More than two decades passed before the movement reached itsnext major milestone. 1In 1980, Antonia Stone, a former public school teacher, started a non-profitorganization called Playing2Win (P2W) (Mark and Briscoe, 1995; Stone,1996). P2W’s mission was to address computer access inequities in the lowincomecommunity of Harlem, New York. Consequently, P2W opened theHarlem Community Computing Center in a public housing development in1983, where it enjoyed tremendous success. In 1990, P2W and six similartechnology centers created an informal network as a means of sharing theircollective experiences in the use of computing in under-served communities,thus helping to formalize the concept of “community technology.” In 1990 and1992, P2W secured a planning grant and a subsequent three-year commitmentfrom the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish and developP2WNet – a network of community technology centers (CTCs) primarilybased in the north-east United States. Finally, recognizing the need for additionalorganizational infrastructure to bring the network to a national scale, theEducation Development Center (EDC) proposed and received a five-yeargrant from NSF to expand P2WNet into the independent, nationally basedCommunity Technology Centers Network (CTCNet). Today, CTCNet islargest network of community technology centers in the United States, representingmore than 650 CTCs across the country.The evolution of CTCNet signified one of a number of developmentsoccurring during the early to mid-1990s that significantly advanced the fieldof community technology. In July 1995, the National Telecommunications andInformation Administration (NTIA) of the US Department of Commerce,under the leadership of Secretary Ron Brown and Assistant Secretary LarryIrving, released its first statistical report of computer and Internet use in theUnited States entitled, Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the “Have Nots”in Rural and Urban America (US Department of Commerce, 1995). Thissurvey represented the first in a series of reports released in 1998, 1999, and2000 by the NTIA examining the gap between the so-called “haves” and“have-nots” with respect to information and communication technology, andpopularizing this phenomenon under the term “the digital divide.”The movement reached a peak in 2000–2001, during President BillClinton’s final year in office. In January 2000, Clinton announced his planto narrow the digital divide during his State of the Union address. This