November 29, 2005

Wireless Philly & the Digital Divide

Philadelphia hopes to become the largest city with wifi available throughout the city. They're in negotiations with Earthlink to provide $10 to $20 per month broadband Internet access to all residents and tourists.

The NewsHour reported last Tuesday that city nonprofit agencies are using similar low cost wireless availability to make the Internet and computers available to low income residents. Terrence Smith mentions the People's Emergency Center, which is helping city residents get computers and wireless, and training them to use both.

The cool part is that the People's Emergency Center is training kids to do maintenance and troubleshooting of the computers – a win-win situation for the kids (who learn useful skills) and the neighborhood (who gets free computer support).

Great story. The text of the transcript is on the NewsHour site, or you can listen to it via RealAudio (or by podcast via iTunes).

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