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The US community technology movement 325high-profile statement placed the issue at the forefront of the nation’sconsciousness. One month later, the Clinton–Gore administration released itscomprehensive proposal, From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity (TheWhite House, 2000), which outlined specific strategies and budget initiativesfor addressing the problem. In April 2000, President Clinton led a “newmarkets” tour to mobilize public and private partnerships to address what hereferred to as the “key civil rights issue of the 21st century” (The White House,1999). The tour included stops at CTCs such as “Plugged In” in East Palo Alto,California. Clearly, the community technology movement had come of age.In 2001, dramatic changes occurred in the community technology landscapeas the Bush administration assumed office. As early as February 7, 2001,Michael Powell, the newly appointed chair of the Federal CommunicationsCommission (FCC) likened the digital divide to a “Mercedes divide” (TheNew York Times, February 7, 2001), arguing that it was not the government’sresponsibility to provide everyone with access to the latest technologies. Thatsame month, the Bush administration released its first study of computer andInternet penetration under the revealing title A Nation Online: How AmericansAre Expanding their Use of the Internet (US Department of Commerce, 2002),wherein they suggested that the gap had closed significantly in recent years.CTCS AS KEY INNOVATORSThe community technology movement works to foster the positive benefits ofthe information revolution, while combating problems associated with thedigital divide (Hecht, 1998). This movement was initiated primarily by peoplewho had access to technology, usually through their jobs, and who foresaw thepotentially negative externalities of leaving large segments of the populationbehind as socioeconomic systems were undergoing transformation. Like manycommunity-based movements, community technology initiatives were developedto fill a gap unfilled by the public, private for-profit, or private non-profitsectors. The majority of existing community-based organizations (CBOs) didnot have the capacity to extend their missions to encompass the technologygap issue. For the most part, then, CTCs were initiated by community-mindedpeople with some understanding of technology. Most were started as independentefforts without strong ties to the existing community development infrastructure.Community technology centers (known as telecenters in other countries)have emerged at an increasing pace in the past several years to try to narrowthe digital divide in various ways. CTCs are locally based non-profit organizationsthat link community residents to IT resources. Thousands of organizationsare currently working to disseminate IT to local communities. CTCs