Re: Computer Bank

[Linda Pall <lpall@moscow.com>]

Dear Ry and Other Visionaries, 
I am right in sync with your idea. The 1912 MHS Use committee is considering
the possibility of recommending to the City Council just this sort of
democratic information access center that could be part of the 1912
renovation. Telecommunity Centers sponsored by Southwestern Bell have been
very successful in the midwest. They are also working on a smaller scale
project with a city in Kansas. This is a great idea whose time has come. Tom
Hudson, coordinator of the 1912 development, would be a great contact for
you because this IS the teachable moment! 883-2890!

I am anxious to make the information highway something we all can have
access to even if some of us, like myself, are more like pedestrians. This
is a great chance for us to make the kind of difference in children's and
adult's lives that can result in more citizen participation... and maybe
even more and better participation in government deliberations. I appreciate
the thoughts and words of all of you who read this. Keep the conversation
lively and may Vision2020 go on indefinitely!




At 12:24 PM 8/1/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Let me float an idea. If we had space, power, and net access, how many 
>people would be willing to kick in to buy machines for an open-to-all 
>computer lab? The machines I'm thinking of are the e4me.com 333id's or the 
>like. Each machine would cost about a grand with a NIC, monitor, and small 
>UPS. It could be run on a pay-per-ability basis or for free, whatever trips 
>the lifters. If we had volunteers to teach, classes in Works or Word or 
>whatever could be run.
>
>Ideas? Much software can be had for free or low cost to non-profits. I know 
>people at Microsoft who could get us a half dozen copies of office and 
>encarta or whatever for cheap or free. If we gave people accounts on an NT 
>box, we could let them actually keep persistent records in the lab. I 
>dunno, I'm just throwing off sparks here.
>--
>"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will
>look upon the Act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
>   -- Gandhi
>
>