High Technology and Low-Income Communities ― Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology

How will low-income communities be affected by the waves of social, economic,political, and cultural change that surround the new information technologies? How can we influencethe outcome? This action-oriented book identifies the key issues, explores the evidence, andsuggests some answers. Avoiding both utopianism and despair, the book presents the voices oftechnology enthusiasts and skeptics, as well as social activists.The book is organized into threeparts. Part I examines the issues in their socio-technical, economic, and historical contexts. PartII--the core of the book--proposes five initiatives for using computers and electroniccommunications to benefit low-income urban communities:- to provide access to the new technologiesin ways that enable low-income people to become active producers rather than passive users;- to usethe new technologies to improve the dialogue between public agencies and low-income neighborhoods;-to help low-income youth to exploit the entrepreneurial potential of information technologies;- todevelop approaches to education that take advantage of the educational capabilities of thecomputer;- to promote the community computer: applications of computers and communicationstechnology that foster community development.Part III presents a synthesis of the various topics.Its main questions are, What are the prospects and problems of initiatives to enable the poor tobenefit from the new technologies? and What federal, state, and municipal policies would enhance theprospects for success?Contributors : Alice Amsden, Jeanne Bamberger, Anne Beamish, Manuel Castells,Joseph Ferreira, Peter Hall, Leo Marx, William J. Mitchell, Mitchel Resnick, Bish Sanyal, Donald A.Schon, Alan and Michelle Shaw, Michael Shiffer, Bruno Tardieu, Sherry Turkle, JulianWolpert