The International Computer Science Institute
is pleased to present a talk:

"Community and Technology Networks in Practice"

Blanca Gordo ICSI
blanca icsi.berkeley.edu

Tuesday, June 1, 2004 ICSI, Rm 607 4:00 pm

Under what type of community governance structure could members of ethnic social groups residing in poor places benefit from the use of information technology? There is little question that the poor need or could benefit by having community mechanisms that deliver public access to modern social and technical infrastructures--as a safety net to ensure competence and fairness. Yet, the crucial question for policy makers and planners remains: What type of community mechanism and governing body could sustain economic and social strategies that reach new development demands, such as technology production markets, and in ways that facilitate social mobility for the poor under extreme poverty living conditions and growing income and wealth inequality patterns in the United States? To discuss this complex planning phenomena, special attention is given to the governance structure of the "Plugged In" experiment in the poorest part of Silicon Valley--a model for civic intervention with public and private funding support. The public services that it provides are aimed at low-income communities at the grass-roots level in East Palo Alto, an urban pocket of poverty in the region. This project works at preparing populations to meet social and market demand within a high technology knowledge based economy in the metropolis. Innovative programs have afforded these users the opportunity to experiment and develop expertise to overcome conditions of poverty and inequality by gaining entry into the formal labor market and increasing educational attainment. The city has also gained through the development of a community and public technical infrastructure and in a way that adjusts to our meta institutional systems of formal operation based on technology.