Back when I was Executive Director of the Ohio Community Computing Network, I would visit Community Technology Centers often. I knew they were underfunded and understaffed.
It all came flowing back to me when I found myself helping set up a public computer lab last night. The lab is a project of the University Area Enrichment Association, with lots of involvement by FreeGeek Columbus. The lab will be staffed by volunteers and mostly available as an open lab. They are looking for volunteers to monitor the lab and answer questions.
FreeGeek volunteers and OneWebDay Columbus volunteers (including my kids!) set up the lab last night so we can use it for OneWebDay today. Its not fancy. Every machine, monitor, keyboard, mouse combo looks different. And used. Because they are. All are refurbished. A volunteer found the tables on CraigsList. And the chairs are of the metal variety so common in church store rooms (which is exactly where these came from).
digital divide
