Subject: Re: Markle initiative for universal e-mail
Mary G Jones (mgjones@cqi.com)
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 08:49:45 -0400
Message-Id: <199804171151.HAA32244@raptor.cqi.com> From: "Mary G Jones" <mgjones@cqi.com> To: <roundtable@cni.org> Subject: Re: Markle initiative for universal e-mail Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 08:49:45 -0400
On Thu, April 16, 1998, Coralee Whitcomb <cwhitcom@bentley.edu> wrote:
>
> In response to Mary's concern:
>
> I think Mary's concerns are very valid if we make the assumption that
> all personal computing should be done in one's living room. I, too,
> believe that this is an unrealistice objective for the near term and
> we may well lose the access war and create a permanent information
> underclass if we don't find another way.
>
> Fortunately, there is a very healthy movement of community networking
> centers growing throughout the country. Typically, these are centers
> with several computers who open their door to the public for some
> number of hours in the week. More and more schools and libraries
> are also offering public access to the Internet.
>
> I run such a center, Virtually Wired, in downtown Boston. We have 20
> computers online, we're open 47 hours a week, and we're staffed with
> primarily homeless and disabled volunteers. Eveyday the computers are
> filled with homeless, elderly, disabled, unemployed - you name it.
> In addition to access we can provide lots of human help. We have an
> incredible staff of tech volunteers - all homeless.
>
>
> Most community technology centers start life with a big grant from
> somewhere. All intend to become self-sustaining in 2 years. Virtually
> Wired has never received a big grant so we have survived very meagerly
> on revenue. Our attempts to get funding have found a very skeptical
> funding community. Without buy-in from a big well-known entity, it is
> difficult to prove credibility. The concept is new and most of the
> practitioners are so overwhelmed in making them work, they have no time
> to share best practices, much less to study and evaluate. Nevertheless,
> we all know that we are doing what it takes to close the information gap
> in our little corner of the world.
>
> This long winded post is meant to support the Markle work on email. If
> a well-respected organization like Markle can prove to the world that
> basic access to the Internet is crucial, community technology centers
> get a huge boost in credibility as necessary resources for every
> community. It's going to be a long time before we practitioners can
> put our efforts into effective advocacy on our behalf.
Coralee,
What you are doing is fine. Perhpas I read Markle's project too
narrowly. I had the impresssion it was directed to discussing the value
of E mail rather than to ways in which we can make this available to all
individuals and particularly those who are not apt to have computers at
home. But I also think we have to do some research on the extent to
which this is comfortable medium for individuals with low literacy
skills. Your project should give us some insight on this. How do you
find the usage of e mail as distinct form others services on the
Internet? Mary
Mary G. Jones
<mgjones@cqi.com>
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