Colin Rhinesmith

“Intake workers Selma and Delores describe the project to one of our applicants.” Photo from Cambridge Community Television

Yesterday’s orientation at Cambridge Community Television for our [bridging the] digital divide program was a great success. Over 30 applicants came to CCTV to learn more about the program and sign up for basic computer training.

As part of the program, participants will receive a free refurbished computer (either PC or Mac) and a wireless Internet access node. During the training, participants will learn how to connect to the City’s wireless network using their wireless node, or transmitter. Through participants’ involvement in the program they will also be helping to strengthen the wireless network for their neighbors closest to them. To learn more about the City’s wireless network involved in this program, visit Cambridge Public Internet Initiative.

Yesterday’s orientation began with coffee and snacks for intake workers with whom I met to review the following intake process that took place throughout the day:

1. Intake workers reviewed the program with participants.

2. Participants wrote down their goals and what they hoped to achieve during the program.

3. Participants filled out a computer skills assessment in order to be placed in the appropriate computer trainings.

4. Participants signed a contract that explained our commitment and their commitment to the program.

5. Intake workers filled out a training registration form with participants.

The process went very smoothly throughout the day. After participants met with intake workers, Matt Landry (Cambridge Educational Access) and I signed up participants for computer trainings set to begin next weekend. The day was a great opportunity to meet with and welcome participants in the program. It was also a lot of fun.

The participants I met with seemed genuinely excited and appreciative to be involved in the program, which has been over a year in planning with many different parties involved across the City of Cambridge. It’s exciting to see the program finally in action.

To learn more about the program and to follow along with its progress, visit the digital divide group at Cambridge Community Television.

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In a recent email exchange with a colleague, the following question was put forth to me, “How is broadband access going to increase literacy?”

Not claiming to be an expert on the issue, I decided to dig a bit deeper in order to try to have a more informed response. Here’s my reply:

“Thanks for the question. It pushed me to dig deeper into issues of literacy within the context of media education, universal access to broadband and the digital divide. Here are a few observations:

Recent research has addressed the challenges of “the participation gap” and other divides within a “participatory culture”. For example, MIT’s New Media Literacies program, as mentioned earlier, produced a White Paper for the MacArthur Foundation titled, “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” (PDF Download).

In the Executive Summary, the authors write:

A central goal of this report is to shift the focus of the conversation about the digital divide from questions of technological access to those of opportunities to participate and to develop the cultural competencies and social skills needed for full involvement. Schools as institutions have been slow to react to the emergence of this new participatory culture; the greatest opportunity for change is currently found in afterschool programs and informal learning communities. Schools and afterschool programs must devote more attention to fostering what we call the new media literacies: a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape. Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement. The new literacies almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom.”

The Digital Divide Network adds that the document is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

Nolan Bowie (Harvard) and Mark Warschauer (UC Irvine) have both addressed the participation gap within the context of reading and writing proficiency, alongside a growing list of other literacy skills (including media) needed to compete not only in today’s global economy, but in ways that include empowering workers with the ability to ask for wage increases, read bus schedules in order to get to work, etc. (See “UNIVERSITY and the Digital Divide” ).

In his 2002 essay, “Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide,” Warschauer writes

Content and language, literacy and education, and community and institutional structures must all be taken into account if meaningful access to new technologies is to be provided.”

The Community Technology Centers’ Network provides workshops for educators and trainers in this area, including “Tools and Strategies for Working with Limited Literacy/English Proficient Adults” within the context of computer and Internet literacy education. During my time as Chapter President of ACMEBoston, I became friends with a number of people who served in the CTC VISTA Project. Many of whom dedicated their time to similar initiatives, including teaching videoblogging workshops to public access TV producers in the City of Boston as a form of individual and community empowerment for workshop participants.

I look forward to more time researching these topics, but my overall impression is this: people who advocate for bridging the participation gap in a participatory culture recognize that basic reading and writing proficiency is a necessary starting point. It is this foundation upon which other literacy skills can be built and used by people to become more educated, informed and empowered participants in our society.

Thanks again for the dialogue.”

I’m still learning.

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Here’s an excerpt from Nolan Bowie’s Op-Ed in today’s Boston Globe on “Education for the long-term”

The critical question is not just an issue of technology, but raises the underlying issue, What kind of society do we want? When the question is phrased in this manner, it becomes clear that long-term public policy about information technology inherently involves society’s core values concerning power and politics, philosophy, sociology, economics and justice. Therefore, the answer ought to come from ‘we the people’ ourselves, after necessary public discussions, debates, teach-ins, arguments, and democratic conversations in open, public arenas and forums.”

Read the entire column at Boston.com.

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As noted, in several articles over the past week, Verizon is raising its rates for DSL subscribers due to the Universal Service Fund being removed. This morning, I received my email:

Dear Valued Verizon Online Customer,

Effective August 14, 2006, Verizon Online will stop charging the FUSF (Federal Universal Ser vice Fund) recovery fee. We will stop being assessed the fee by our DSL network suppliers. Therefore, we will no longer be recovering this fee from our customers. The impact of the FUSF fee is as follows: for customers of Verizon Online with service up to 768Kbps, the fee eliminated is $1.25 a month; for customers of Verizon Online with service up to 1.5 Mbps or 3Mbps, the fee eliminated is $2.83 a month (based on current FUSF surcharge amounts). On your bill that includes charges for August 14, 2006 you will see either a partial FUSF Recovery Fee or no FUSF line item at all, depending on your bill cycle.

Starting August 26, 2006, Verizon Online will begin charging a Supplier Surcharge for all new DSL customers, existing customers with a DSL monthly or bundle package, and existing DSL annual plan customers at the time their current annual plan expires. This surcharge is not a government imposed fee or a tax; however, it is intended to help offset costs we incur from our network supplier in providing Verizon Online DSL service. The Supplier Surcharge will initially be set at $1.20 a month for Verizon Online DSL customers with service up to 768Kbps and $2.70 per month for customers with DSL service at higher speeds.”

At the same time, the Federal Communications Commission has begun its questioning of this new fee.

The companies no longer have to pay a part of their high-speed Internet revenue into the Universal Service Fund (USF), which subsidizes communications services to schools, lower-income households and rural areas, as of August 14. - “FCC questions Verizon, BellSouth Internet fee“, Reuters, August 25, 2006.

To learn more about the Federal Universal Service Fund, read:

“Universal Service Fund” - Federal Communications Commission

“What’s at Stake : Universal Service” - hereusnow.org

For more articles on the DSL rate increase, read:

“BellSouth Drops Surcharge Plans For High-Speed Internet Offering” - Wall Street Journal

“FCC questions Verizon, BellSouth fee swapping” - CNNMoney.com

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(crosspost from acmeboston.wordpress.com)

Watch the video

This video is the introduction to a panel, titled “Human Hybrids: Creating a Global Identity“, that took place during the ID Mashup Conference at Harvard Law School on June 20, 2006. The video features co-founder and CEO of ASAFO Media LLC Derrick Ashong, Slam Poet Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo, Jair of Imaginify Community Network, and Jamaican Educator Marvin Hall, Halls of Learning.

Panel description from the conference website:

“In a world where people are increasingly able to connect across cultural and geographic boundaries, what is the future of human identity? Has technology equalized the transmission of culture, or amplified the voices of some to the increased exclusion of others? In the formation of a global identity, what will be the criteria that define “who we are” and who we hear?”

Time: 6 min. 59 sec.

Please note: This movie file is 30mb and may take some time to load.

This is video that I shot using my little handheld video camera. The full length audio podcast from this panel will be available later this week for download at AudioBerkman.

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by acmeboston with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

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The “Business notebook” section of the Boston Globe reports today that a non-profit called “Our Economy” hopes “to raise $20 million to provide free access to a yet-to-be-created bilingual website, Public Internet Channel.”

I tried to find out more through doing a Google search for “Our Economy” and other related search terms, but I couldn’t find any information about the organization.

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Today, thousands in cities across the country from New York to San Francisco to Chicago to Boston joined in protest against the major telephone companies. These companies are spending one million dollars a day lobbying Congress to re-write the nation’s telecommunications laws–while press reports reveal that these same companies provided the calling records of tens of millions of Americans to the U.S. government.

Here in Boston, a statewide coalition held a rally and press conference at the Massachusetts State House joining in the nationwide day of protests.

• Watch a video by Andy Carvin from the rally.

• Listen to the ACMEBoston Podcast of the press conference.

Learn more at about the National Day of Outrage at Save Access.

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I was interviewed today by Hiram Scott of the Boston Neighborhood Producers Group about bills in Congress threatening access to Community Media and the Internet. We also discussed ways that people can get involved and take action now to ensure that Congress protects the public interest in communications policy making.

Click here to listen to the ACMEBoston Podcast for May 7, 2006

This interview was aired live on May 7, 2006 on WRBB 104.9 FM at Northeastern University in Boston, MA.

Click here to watch a short video with Hiram Scott (above).

Click here to view more pictures from the interview inside the WRBB studio.

Hiram Scott and I (above) at WRBB 104.9 FM in Boston.

For more information about the issues discussed in the program, and to learn how you can get involved, visit SaveAccess.org and SaveTheInternet.com and take action today!

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Download the podcast from last night’s meeting with the Berkman Blog Group, where Jason Crow, Access Coordinator at CCTV and Editor of Media Policy Blog and I discussed threats to Net Neutrality and Access to Community Media from bills in Congress.

Learn more and take action today at SaveAccess.org!

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Broadcasting and Cable’s John Eggerton writes,

“Not included in the bill are voted-down amendments that would have held national video franchisees to a build-out schedule and toughened prohibitions on red-lining–building out more attractive parts of a franchise and bypassing ones with less potential return on investment or, as Ed Markey (D-MA) puts it, ‘the other side of the tracks.’ Still the bill as passed has language that requires telephone companies getting into video service to eventually serve all of a franchise, rather than allowing them to choose which parts of an area to offer service to, as the bill passed out of the Telecommunications Subcommittee allowed. That anti-redlining addition sat well with the cable industry, which had been pushing for it, but was not enough for Rep Markey and others who wanted build-out requirements as well.”

SaveAccess.org writes:

“Among the casualties today were these amendments;

1) Anti-Discrimination Amendment
An amendment to a national video franchising bill that would prevent discrimination of service based on race, religion, sex, or national origin. The amendment was defeated 29-23.

2) Build-Out Amendment (Red-lining)
An amendment that would have set build-out requirements for new franchisees under a national video franchise scheme being considered by Congress. Defeated 29-22, introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
A weaker amendment passed, but since it set no timetable provisions concerning ‘build-out’, it will be nearly impossible to enforce - nice planning!.”

What good is net neutrality without net service? These laws are not just about the Internet, they are about voice, video, and the Internet.

At Comcast, “Digital Cable, High-Speed Internet, Comcast Digital Voice.”

At Verizon, “Phone, Internet, TV”

At Time Warner Cable, “Cable, High Speed Online, Digital Phone”

At AT&T/SBC, “Voice, Internet, Digital Satellite TV”

This legislation allows the largest voice, video, and Internet companies to serve only the communities of their choosing–the ones that will bring the most profits. What about everyone else?

This issue is not about network neutrality. It’s about non-network discrimination.

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