Digital Divide

• With the ongoing convergence of text, audio, and video media into the online digital form represented by the Internet, lack of Internet access becomes an increasingly painful economic handicap for low-income communities, in particular for communities of color.Typical residential Internet access in St. Louis requires the followingBroadband Account (e.g. DSL or Cable) - avg $50/mo, according to our Competitive Analysis
• Computer - minimum $200-$300 new
• A bank account and/or credit card

Although these items may seem common place to many readers, they are indeed hard to come by for many low-income residents, and particularly so for new immigrants. Also, experience from doing public computer programs at C.A.M.P. has shown that many children in the neighborhood have no Internet access whatsoever at home, prompting them to compete for the limited computers available at the library, school, or community centers. The short computer time with very limited adult supervision can strongly stunt individuals' awareness of the wealth of resources online, and hinder the diigital literacy they need to locate those resources effectively.

Inexpensive Internet access (coupled with low-cost computers provided by community technology centers like ByteWorks or CAMP) at home is an immediate solution to this problem. People can learn new digital media on their own time without feeling rushed, parents can supervise their children on appropriate and healthy Web-surfing behavior (or vice versa), and new immigrants may access multi-lingual information (not to mention cheap international calling via Skype) to help them better integrate themselves in the community.

What WasabiNet is Doing

As part of the grant-funded portion of WasabiNet, we have so far provided refurbished, Internet-connected desktop PCs to 4 Benton Park West families, and we working to put more PCs in the Cherokee Recreational Center this year.

Indeed the photo above shows Pepe, a local resident, checking out a newly-installed, refurbished PC from WasabiNet.

This subsidized home computing is possible thanks to the broad availability of used computers from donors like the Community Arts and Media Project, YEHS St. Louis, and generous individuals. All computers are wiped, refurbished, and installed with free Open Source software such as Ubuntu Linux, Firefox, and Open Office.