Building an Internet Bridge – Community Internet – part 4 –
Creating Community Technology Centers which ensured Free Public Access for the Community
We review the Framework which RAIN Network was establishing to help define the National development of Community oriented Internet Networks or “FreeNets”.
That first Framework for Community Internet was made of these parts:
•Services to Small Farms, (early Ag-Tourism efforts, Small Farm online marketing)
•Services to community non-profits and community government
•Distance learning services for public schools, charter schools and home schools
•Telemedicine services for rural and chronically underserved urban seniors, families, and youth.
•Services to community Small Business to build new e-commerce skills
•Community Technology Literacy Skills development
•Services to non-English language speaking community residents
To help make these services available and understood in the Community RAIN Internet hosted technology skills classes and provided online access at Farmers Markets, Schools and Senior Centers on site using the Network’s Internet Bus. The Internet Bus was developed through USDA funding, designed to provide a mobile Computer learning lab with solar panels on the roof of the bus providing power and a satellite dish on the roof providing Internet connectivity.
The idea was to have a local Community Technology Lab and a mobile Tech Lab that could get out to those in our Community who did not have transportation to get to the Lab.
For 11 years, from 1994 to 2005, RAIN’s Community Technology Center in Santa Barbara, California, U.S., provided a model for other communities to follow in setting up an effective, well used Community Technology Learning Lab, library and meeting place used by over 400 non-profit organizations, over 2000 local small businesses as well as by families, teaches, seniors and youth, as a place to come to get online, learning about the Internet and build Technology Literacy Skills. The Santa Barbara RAIN Community Internet Lab was the Training Lab for Teachers, Physicians, Small Business owners and students.
Community Technology Centers are as important to every town and city as Public Libraries are. They provide a place where low income families, seniors, youth, (basically, anyone in the community who needs it) can come for free Internet Access and regular Technology Literacy Skills classes.
The Community Tech Centers are as important for the growth of American Technology as access to adequate bandwidth for rural areas. They ensure that the Internet becomes something regular folks understand. It is important to remember that each Community Technology Center in the United States and Europe represents a point of Free Access for members of the community who might not otherwise have that access. In a time when we see the U.S. Justice Department saying 2 Tier Internet is ok it becomes all the more essential that we provide free points of access to members of the Community who need it.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
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