Today over the noon hour, Richard Chabrán spoke on the topic: Digital Dreams, Human Realities: The Strategic Role of a Keystone Species. Richard is chair of the California Community Technology Policy Group (CCTPG). CCTPG's goal is "to advocate for policies that assure underserved communities reap the economic, educational, health, and civic benefits offered by computers, the Internet, and new digital innovations. CCTPG was formed as the Computers In Our Future Policy Group in 1998 and expanded its steering committee in 2001."
Richard's touched on a number of the issues related to dealing the inequities in our society that lead to what he termed "Cyber Segmentation." These inequities primarily include material capacity, acquired skills, and differential use of digital technologies. He prefers to frame the discussion in terms of people rather than in terms of the "digital divide."
It was interesting to hear cyber segmentation framed by VoIP. Lower income families are limited due to infrastructure and the increased costs associated not just with cable TV but by the added digital cable costs. Cable service, he explained, is considered an "information service" and apparently not subject to universal access. This means less dollars to support universal access and reaching the people who need it. Richard concluded with a a couple examples of community-based projects: Southern California's Tribal Digital Village and Pluggedin.
