1. Is the Digital Divide an issue for you or your organization here in Chicago?

It’s central to our mission – but we frame it from a positive angle: the Chicago we want is a thriving global city –each and every community area… and digital literacy, access and equity is the norm. That’s our mission. We’re very serious about surmounting the DD in it’s many facets… literacy without access would be meaningless and vice versa. Equity is about social justice and quality of life for everyone. That’s what has to be achieved to overcome the divide.

But defining the divide isn’t so simple … we have had a top down policy history that lags behind grassroots community needs. It takes time for funders to realize its more than equipment, and basic training and connectivity.

Grants and support on each of these fronts conceals the fact that the technology is dynamic – it is disruptive of society and our many hierarchies – and any solution needs to keep pace with the changes. Most institutions and many leaders have their head in the sand and unfortunately don’t see the opportunities presented by technological change.

But we don’t want technology for technology’s sake … that’s fetishism and that distracts us from building the Chicago we want.

We need to go beyond basic consumption of content and services mediated by the network. (The Network is the Computer). The digital literacy and access I want to see for Chicagoans is a digital and media fluency of the highest order: I want to see us using collaborative tools, producing local and personal media/content and producing tools to solve our own problems in our communities and the institutions that serve them … empowering us to remake those institutions to suit the needs of the people.

The core of the Internet’s design has something truly democratic … we have to embrace that if we are serious about what we value in our civic traditions.

2. How does the Digital Divide affect or impact your employees, children, students, family, or organization?

Community-based NPOs, and Community Leaders in general don’t make effective use of technology… this points to several things – first the dynamic, multifaceted aspects of the divide. It’s much more than whether you can turn on a computer and get on the Net … the question is whether you are comfortable using new tools and actively embracing new tools – especially collaborative tools.

Second, in general … It’s very important that community leaders appreciate this and that we support them so that they can better serve their communities.

I’ve seen this time and again in the CBO/NPO sector … community based organizations aren’t very far ahead of the populations they serve, when it comes to the divide. Plenty of NPOs buy what a vendor is selling and don’t understand what they have bought nor how to make effective use of it nor how much it really costs to integrate technology into their mission and get their staff up to speed, and generally they don’t have much by way of resources to do this right anyway. That’s why we need to be cultivating community technologists … we need homegrown technologists in our communities.

3. What steps, if any, do you feel Chicago should take to close the Digital Divide?

Baseline: how deep is the divide in Chicago? Who knows? How would you measure it exactly? And I don’t mean in a trivial sense of number of times people have access to or make use of a computer or the Internet in a given week … also I don’t want to see us relying on generic national data samples – we need to know where Chicagoans stand with respect to Digital Literacy and Access … and we have to define Digital Literacy as a higher process … not just look to skill sets as proxy …i.e. passing of an Office Applications class or cert is not enough…. And we shouldn’t push in that direction.

Set some goals.. .make them ambitious. If we establish a hierarchy of digital competence and literacy and if we had a real understanding of where Chicagoans are … we ought to move mountains to move the majority of Chicagoans up that ladder.

And how are you going to implement this, you may ask? If we’re smart we’ll start in each of the communities and network together the existing resources. We’ll break thru some of the barriers that preclude cooperation among some of the institutions and between community and institutions. This opens up the structure to some real change … and that’s the scary part. But as many recognize – it will be worse for all if we keep going as we have been.

4. Do any of the following areas strike you as significant and important for Chicago to consider?

Education: Providing education in the adoption and use of technology

Networks – Assure access to physical technology infrastructure (e.g. affordable Internet access).

Software – Availability/affordable of software

Hardware - Availability/affordable of hardware and equipment

Mindsets – Efforts to overcome mental mindsets that limit

I’ll add one that’s not encompassed in the above, right off the bat: forgive the neologism: in a word .. .info-structure. I said before this is a multifaceted issue… sometimes we miss important facets. Just ‘cause we have a list doesn’t mean we’re being exhaustive.

What does this mean? Attention to the structuring, presentation and usability of Information … not in terms of customers or clients or marketing but in terms of utility and navigability for the end user … content and design that is relevant and intuitive. We need portals and public information resources with appropriate investments for maintenance and updating. It wouldn’t hurt to rely upon experts in the field of Community Informatics and Library Information Science –we have some leaders in that field right here in Illinois.

But I would like to touch upon the several areas you listed …

At least… mindsets… so many aspects to this. People have to be awakened to the possible … and they have to see these tools as relevant to their life. Each alone is a tall order.

Certainly many feel a discomfort with the unfamiliar … and there are also expectations and disappointments with regard to technology.

But what is most jarring is the transformation in styles of work that is possible and necessary. Even the phrase the “network is the computer” requires a shift of mindset. And as we go to the heart of what the Internet is about – we come to see that our Freedom to Connect is important … we are talking about something fundamental – communication – we need to be capable of exercising our communicational skills and rights in an information age democratic society. The question of mindset is how we inspire people to “get with it”.

On software…I can say with confidence that there are robust open source solutions for just about everything you would want or need to do with a computer .. and often it will run on older equipment better than anything else you can get running on that equipment. This means the cost isn’t in licensing software, it is where it should be: training and support of the people using the technology – so they can get done what they want and need to!

5. Do any of these areas strike you as particularly important points of focus for closing the Digital Divide here in Chicago?

We won’t close it at all if we limit our focus to a kindergarten conception of digital literacy. As important as first steps and first taste of access is… we need a path to advanced digital and media literacy. We have to support a network of organizations operating at several levels, and connected in such a way as to support each other… if it’s training there needs to be a ladder or lattice of training options.

I’ll say it again … we have to be focused on bringing people to a higher level of digital fluency … where people can make use of the advanced tools of Web 2.0 … which some may regard as hype, and there is some hype around it … but the sophistication of the tools and the sophistication of the notion of collaboration is not to be dismissed. And if Chicago wants to be a leader in the digital era then more of our people need to be productive and innovative with technology tools.

So, in short, a training and support network that allows for development of advanced skill sets and judgment … open the door to collaboration, innovation and especially entrepreneurship. How many workforce development programs contemplate the notion of Entrepreneurship?

6. What actions would you recommend be taken to close the Digital Divide?

You don’t have enough tape...

7. What can or should you or your organization do to help close the Digital Divide?

We’re a network. And that means we have to promote a network/environment … facilitating and connecting Resources, Interests, and Talents …

Both Network and Community Level engagement is necessary … and that’s what we’re trying to promote.

Michael Maranda
Executive Director
CTCNet Chicago
Co-Convenor
Chicago Digital Access Alliance