How is it good?

So, someone wakes up one day a member of the digitally under-served population, and wants to join the served population. (Yikes! Bureaucraticisms abound!)

http://forgr.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/application-process-thoughts/

I think it looks great. And I think it looks kind of intimidating. Picture it: I don’t have much education, no insurance, job to job, my contact with officialdom is government assistance programs, some police, family court. On the whole, officialdom isn’t my favorite part of the world. I can’t escape the internet; every ad I see has a web address, lots of people I know have e-mail, even fancy cell phones. But I can’t afford access, a computer, and even if I could I don’t know how to make one go.

Someone without the means to access the internet wants access. The kiosks at the library aren’t enough; they’re tied to the library, they’re only accessible when the library is open, and there are restrictions on who, how long, and what material can be accessed on the kiosks.

Forgr offers something to help under-served individuals get online. Very cool. The project wants the individuals to join a community for the service. Fair trade. I’m still busy as all get-out, don’t have any particular reason to trust something which looks official… the project has to overcome my inertia and possible resistance… and if I’m really poor, don’t speak English well or at all, or have some other subcultural reason for fear and low trust, well heavens to Betsy… it may be a fair trade, but I’m going to be a tough sell.

This person gets connected to forgr, and at the end of the process has what, exactly? A computer (desktop? laptop?)? An account with an ISP? Software training (browsing? on-line shopping? web-based e-mail? Youtube? An office suite? Mapping software? How to use a database? Virus protection?)? Hardware training (plugging in a monitor and printer? how to swap a hard drive or video card? Network design?)?

Where does this person go to get connected to forgr? The Community Media Center? The Hispanic Center of Western Michigan? An independent forgr storefront somewhere in Eastown? On the West Side? Somewhere out on Grandville Ave? Breton and Hall?

There’s a vision of the individuals to the served by the forgr project. What is still unclear to me is what benefit the individual will obtain which will be enough of a motive for the individual to get connected to forgr. Even the most energetic outreach will only reach so far if what is on offer isn’t all that interesting.

*Firesign Theater