© 2000 Benton Foundation
Introduction
Anyone can see that a revolution is under way - a revolution in the way we work,the way we communicate, the way we do business. On the surface, it seems that the principal purpose of this revolution is to generate profits. Its watchwords are e-business and e-commerce and e-advertising. Its daily barometer is the Nasdaq composite index.
But the real revolution - the digital revolution - is changing more than just our business practices. It has raced into our daily lives - our homes, our schools, our communities. Children are being brought up with a mouse in their hands. Computer literacy is fast becoming a requirement for education and advancement. Millions of us correspond by e-mail,and many of our daily chores can be done electronically - paying the bills, balancing accounts, ordering groceries. Large parts of the entertainment industry are migrating to the Internet. Now television is joining the revolution by going digital. Very soon, the computer and the television set will be compatible and interchangeable, both of them interactive.
All the concentration on the marketing and money-making potential of these n ew technologies has obscured their equally important potential fo r improving the quality of our lives. How can they best be used to promote education,democracy, public health and hundreds of other interests that are our daily concerns? How can they be harnessed by teachers, librarians, museum directors, doctors, farmers, care-givers, welfare officers, workforce trainers,home learners,public safety officials,minority groups and voluntary associations?
If these new communications technologies are so powerful and so innovative (and there is no argument that they are), then why cannot they be harnessed to our local, communal needs? And why cannot we do this in every community in this country - whether a community is defined as a state, a city, a group of towns or a rural area?
The purpose of this report is to survey some of the experiments being conducted around the country in an attempt to answer these questions. The report begins by looking at the context in which the experiments are taking place - the frenetic development of online technologies, the approach of broadband and the transition of broadcasting from analog to digital standards. It examines the idea of community alliances for the public use of telecommunications,and it reports on a number of case studies and individual projects - in Kansas City, Chicago, Oregon, Central Indiana, Nebraska and New Mexico. Finally, it draws a number of conclusions from these studies, and makes tentative suggestions for the best ways of proceeding in other communities. There are no definite answers, no firm prescriptions, but there are useful indications of may work, and what may not.
Contents
| Introduction
| Opportunity
| Agents
| Alliance Concept
|Case Studies
| Conclusions
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