by Morgan Aldridge

I have lived my whole life in Vermont, so far, and I must say that it is not always on the cutting edge of technology. Although the lack of Cable and DSL internet connections in all but a few select cities, poor cell phone reception, and relatively few Internet and technology based businesses (compared to many states) often make me feel the effects of the Digital Divide, but they are nothing compared to that which many communities and countries experience. They are a mere inconvenience to me.

The Digital Divide is the gap in technological skills and available resources between age groups, races, countries, communities, etc., which plagues our planet. The biggest cause of this is not the inability of people to learn to use technology, but for them to gain access to it due to the nature of its high cost. The main reason for my writing this is to encourage people to reuse obselete technology which we often feel is inferior and feel like tossing in a landfill. We in the United States are trying very hard to combat the Digital Divide, and we will most likely clear a path for countries farther behind us, but we are still following "The American Dream" where every family should have a house with a big lawn and a white picket fence, a car in the garage, and dinner on the table (and now a computer in the study). We must be realistic and realize that although this is a wonderful dream to have, it is nearly impossible for many people to reach, and that by continuing to follow this dream so closely that we are in fact probably worsening the Digitl Divide.

What we need to do is to devise a relatively simple plan of action to follow. Most people currently think up methods such as making computers and Internet access cheaper and giving away computers to low income families, schools, and libraries, but the problem with this is that we can't just say some magic words and poof, things are cheaper and computers are appearing out of thin air. It just doesn't work that way. Don't get me wrong, they are good ideas and we should still be working towards them, but we need to find ways to work with what we already have too. I think that the slogan for recycling, "Reduce, reuse, recycle," is ideal because it is exactly what we need to be doing, recycling our older technology. People are starting to realize that although the older technology is not exactly the most popular these days, the use of older computers, slower Internet connections, and the like, are perfectly viable ways to help close the gap. And by reusing our older computers and other technology we will reduce that which gets thrown out. Don't worry, I didn't forget recycle, we are already trying to do that because it has the potential to make new computers cheaper to produce.

Organizations such as Computers In Our Future (CIOF) build technology centers in low income areas to provide residents with better access to technology and training. Other companies such as PeoplePC, which sells lower cost Windows PCs, often give away free computers to people or organizations to provide additional help in fighting the digital divide. These buildings, computers, and services, which these organization provide are a great help to to communities, but they come at a great cost. The organizations which organize these efforts spend billions of dollars in grants, corporate sponsorships, and individual contributions, to provide their services, but they can only serve small parts of the country (for example: CIOF only operates in California).

But some organizations such as Good Will provide simpler, more cost effective, services to help individuals, not just whole communities, by accepting donated computer hardware, refurbishing it to the best of their budget (which is practically non-existant I must add), and selling it at very low prices. Although the computers donated are often ones that are bound for the dumpster they are still perfectly usable for word processing or accessing the Internet. For example, a Mac Plus (circa 1986) can be found for about ten dollars at such a shop or on an Internet-based auction service and can provide word processing, web browsing, e-mail, image editing (although in black and white only), and game capabilites even in this day and age. A newer 286 or older 386 Windows 3.1 PC computer can also be found for a similar price (although a monitor usually needs to be bought seperately) and provide the same capabilities. Computers of this age may be frowned upon by your children, but if a family in need of a computer and can scrape up $10-20 they can purchase a computer which will be usefull for their whole family for much less than that of a $900 Windows or Macintosh PC. One of the biggest advantages to buying such an old computer these days is that most of the software has been on the market so long that it can now be freely obtained from the company that created it or from a local user group.

I recently went to eBay to do a little of my own research on the prices of older Macintosh and Windows PCs, specifically the ones that are what I consider the bare minimum for accessing the internet and providing a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to ease the learning curve. Systems that meet these criteria, in my opinion, are the Macintosh Plus and a 386 IBM/Compatible PC running Windows 3.1. Older Macintosh and Windows or DOS PCs can provide access to word processors and the Internet, but Internet access is restricted to terminal emulators (text- only access to an ISP's computers) and therefore are not really suitable for everyday use. A quick search for "Mac Plus" returned a long list of things even somewhat related to the search string which included eleven actual working Mac Pluses. The prices, although at the time they were not the final selling prices, ranged from $4.95 to $24.49 with an average price of $11.08. The search for "386" resulted in thirteen working 386 PCs, some with monitors and/or printers and some without, ranging in price from $5 to $250 with an average price of $54.22. Although the Windows based 386 PCs were much more expensive than I had anticipated, those that were more expensive did include both a monitor and a printer, but $250 or even $170 is, in my opinion, quite a bit over priced. The results of my search are shown below:

User groups can provide significant help to those in search of a computer or assistance with their computers for various reasons. Although the membership to most user groups is not free, if contacted, they are often willing to let you attend a meeting or two to see if it something you would like to do or will atleast help you get some free or low cost assistance. If you are shopping around for an older computer, user groups will almost always provide you with free information to help you decide whether the type of computer that they support is best for you. Trust me, they will always claim that their platform is the best, so try a couple different types of computers while you decide what you like best, it's a lot like shopping for a used car (only you will rarely find an older computer that is rusted out and needs a new head gasket). Membership to user groups is very helpful and fairly inexpensive, but members usually gain many benefits such as free software, technical support, and discounts on hardware and software. For those who have Internet access, whether at school, a library, or a friend or relatives residence, I would highly suggest finding an Internet-based user group because they are almost always free, are not limited by geographical location, and usually still provide all of the benefits of a local user group.

In addition to user groups, one of the best Internet based support systems that you can find is the mailing list. Anybody with e-mail access can ask a question and anybody else that even has a vague idea of how to assist them will most likely respond. Although you often get multiple similar answers to questions you will almost always get it answered correctly. The biggest advantage to mailing lists is that easily spans continents. I often assist people from Germany, Japan, South America, and other various places around the globe. Although in many countries around the world it is hard to find computers for such low prices as you can in the United States, almost every computer that is still in use (yes, including that old Commodore VIC-20 in my closet) can me made to handle e-mail. One of the disadvantages to mailing lists is that they are almost always restricted to a single language, most commonly English for those which know no international borders, but those that stay pretty much within one geographical region, such as a country or continent, will usually use a more natural language for the region.

One problem that we as a society, in the United States, have is that of completely disregarding what technology others are still using when we do upgrades in big business and in education. For example, the college that I am attending (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) doesn't support 10Base-T ethernet connections to its network anymore, it only supports 100Base-T. This means that many students, including myself, are stuck with no network access on their older computers and if they want network access they, in many cases, are going to have to buy a whole new computer to remedy this problem. I think that it is great that my college's campus now supports faster 100Base-T technology, but a Mac Plus or a 386 PC, both of which would have been perfectly usable on a 10Base-T network (with the purchase of a NIC or network adaptor of some type), can no longer survive and users of these older computers must resort to a sneaker net (sharing floppy disks). 10/100Base-T switchable hubs can solve this problem quite easily, but every student isn't going want or be able to afford to spend the $60-100 for one of these hubs, especially if they are only going to use one of the five to eight ports. Not only is it too bad that they require students to buy a new NIC (Network Interface Card), but they don't offer them other solutions (such as that of using a switchable hub). Although this isn't happening in every school accross the nation, it is continuing to be the trend, and will leave students behind. Big businesses also tend to do similar things, but they generally control the computer hardware and software, so the effects of deciding to follow such a rigid upgrade path are better know before hand.

College students should be encouraged to take older computers with them, as opposed to purchasing a new one before school starts. Most college students will already be dishing out an outrageous amount of money to pay for their college education, books, and meal plan, if they will only need a computer for browsing the web for research and for typing papers then they should not need to buy a new computer. Colleges often encourage students to utilize the computer labs if they don't want to buy a newer computer, but those labs can become swamped when papers are due, so I would advise people to try to buy an older computer if they feel they can get by with one. These older computers are especially useful to students coming from lower income households where, even if their family already has a computer, they might need to purchase one for school, because they can be purchased for such low prices and still provide most of the functionality of a newer computer.

One of the biggest debates which has been going on in my area, and in many other parts of the country, is how to bring high bandwidth Internet access to rural areas. Although this may not seem to be a very big concern to many people that live in larger metropolitan areas, it is a huge concern in rural areas. Not only does this affect individuals and businesses, but it also affects schools which might benefit from the increase in speed. In the past, and still in much of the U.S., schools and businesses that have wanted to provide Internet access to many users in one building or office area have had to either deal with extremely slow connections due to many users connected over one modem (such as a 33.6k or 56k analog modem) or had to buy multiple modems, multiple dial-up accounts from their ISP, and multiple telephone lines to support more users. The latter method can become quite expensive. High bandwidth Internet access such as DSL, Cable, ISDN, and satellite has the potential to give more bandwidth for your money, but many areas, especially rural areas do not have the option of using these high-bandwidth on ramps to the Information Super Highway. Although some of Vermont has gained high bandwidth access through DSL (specifically SDSL and ADSL through SoVerNet and VTel respectively) and Cable (through Adelphia) they are only available in select areas leaving the majority of the state without these connection options. Due to the fact that high bandwidth connections are not in wide use the costs of these services are still relatively high. Many rural communities are in worse circumstances than my state though.

Many of the Native American Reservations in rural areas don't even have power lines to all of the residences, let alone telephone lines or Internet access. In these communities it is often only the schools and businesses have Internet access, and even then the connections are often not stable. The problem with connections not being stable can occur anywhere that telephone lines are strung further than a certain distance from the switching station, the quality may seem to be only minorly effected during normal voice communications, but the effects are noticed much more by a computer's modem. Recently the Lake Valley Navajo School was given a $30,000 satellite connection to the Internet by Tachyon, Inc., to help combat this problem (Brattleboro Reformer, 4/17/2000, p.17). This is a good solution to the problem, although expensive, because they have few alternatives. The Bureau of Indian Affairs also finds this to be a reasonable solution and hopes to provide satellite Internet access to all schools in the Navajo Nation which can't obtain reasonable Internet access by other means. These types of problems are prevailent in low income communities, but also effect middle income communities such as those in rural mountain areas where cable television isn't even available only a couple of miles from the nearest homes with cable. These communities must already either get together and pay extra for the cable provider to bring cable in if it is possible, or each household must buy a satellite TV dish if they are not blocked by another mountain. Even these smaller middle income communities will be left behind as advances in Internet access are made because providers of high bandwidth connections to the Internet only want to provide services to areas with large demand. On exellent example of this is, once again, the state of Vermont for reasons already mentioned. There was an article in the Brattleboro Reformer on May 30, 2000, which talked about how Vermont is quickly gaining access to high bandwidth Internet access thanks to companies such as Adelphia and Bell Atlantic. Although I did not feel that this was true considering that there are only two cities in the whole state in which these companies currently provide high bandwidth services, one being the state's capitol, Montpelier, the other being the largest city in the state, Burlington. VTel will be providing ADSL a few select areas, but that's only two cites and a couple of towns so far, leaving much of the state to use dial-up connections. The article said that the whole state should be wired for high bandwidth connections within a couple of years, it did admit that there are still areas which would have to use satellite connections. Although two years may not seem like a very long time to most people, it is a very long time for the technology world which can bring forth amazing advancements in that amount of time and make today's technology as obcelete.

With technology changing so quickly, it is always hard for people to keep their hardware and software current. As the Digital Divide threatens to widen with growing technology traits, we need to see to it that older technology is provided with what it needs to survive and that communities and peoples get what they need to attempt to keep up with newer technology. As the Internet evolves and expands it provides more and more ways for the people of our planet to communicate with one another, but also tries to leave those that are computer illiterate or just not up to speed on current technology behind. Reusing older technology can provide stepping stones for those less fortunate to begin their climb to computer literacy, but they also provide vast resources to those that could have the newest technology, but choose to use the older technology.

Works Cited:

Computers In Our Future

SoVerNet

Bell Atlantic

VTel

Adelphia

eBay

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

"Navajos hope Clinton will help bring their nation online", Brattleboro Reformer, April 17, 2000. p.17.

"Adelphia, Bell vie for speedy net business", Brattleboro Reformer, May 30, 2000. p.3.