Digital Divide Interviews: Local solutions to a global problem!

By: Don Jason
Dj320306@ohio.edu

I conducted two interviews with experts in the area of bridging the digital divide. Susan Urano, the director of the Athens Foundation and James Hill, the Assistant Director of the Nelsonville Library.

I first was introduced to Ms. Urano last quarter when she spoke to Dr. Stewart’s Jour 415 class about a possible partnership with The Athens Foundation and ATHENSi.com through a Knight Foundation grant. According to the Knight Foundation Web Site, http://www.knightfoundation.org/home/, there mission is as follows: “We are a national foundation with local roots. We choose, as the Knight Brothers chose, to seek opportunities that can transform both communities and journalism, and help them reach their highest potential. We want to ensure that each community's citizens get the information they need to thrive in a democracy. And we ask, as we evaluate opportunities and grants, ‘Is this truly transformational?’ Because grant making requires a sound financial base, we preserve the Knight Brothers' gift through prudent investment and careful management.”

Ms. Urano said that The Athens Foundation is applying for a grant to get money to use cell phones to bring the internet to rural areas in Athens county where broadband and dial-up internet can not possible reach. She also said that the Athens Foundation is hiring two multimedia interns for the summer. These interns will shoot video on flip cameras and post it on the Foundations’ Web site as well as go out into the community and show people how to operate the technology.

Mr. Hill from the Nelsonville public Library was a great person to talk to about libraries in Athens County because Nelsonville has the head library for the county. Nelsonville Library gets information directly from Franklin county libraries in Columbus. Mr. Hill talked about the programs and classes that his library offers to the community. He mentioned a technology van that the library rented from Columbus that was stationed at the Library for a week. This van had the latest computer technology and experts who travel around Ohio teaching people how to use the technology and software. He also mentioned classes that ranged from basic computer awareness to in-depth computer usage, geared towards library patrons of all ages. Mr. Hill said some patron do not want technology in their lives so the library does not push technology on to people; however, they do make it available and assistance available to those who request it.

The Athens County libraries got new computers 10 years ago from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; however the libraries use their own money to repair and replace these computers as needed. They libraries are due to get new computers soon from the same charitable foundation.