Street of Digital Dreams...

[Doug Schuler]

FYI,

>From Jillaine Smith <jillaine at benton.org>.

-- Doug



[What follows is Benton's summary of the article; see the link at bottom
for the full text of the article. -- Jillaine]

A Year and a Half Later, a Wired Neighborhood Looks Back
Issue:  Community
Eighteen months ago, Microsoft's MSNstreet project offered residents of a
street in Islington, England the Internet beginner's dream package: a
computer, a modem, an Internet account through the Microsoft Network (MSN),
a dedicated phone line, a selection of software, a contribution toward their
phone bills, and on-site installation and tutoring by specialists. They
would also have access to a dedicated telephone line for troubleshooting,
and to a private Web site and bulletin board. In return, all they had to do
was keep a log of their online activity. The volunteers are still
enthusiastic Internet users and some of them believe the street's residents
are closer socially. "There has been a significant improvement in
communication in the street which would not have happened otherwise," a
volunteer said. The shared experience of being Internet beginners and
talking about local issues on the bulletin board "has meant that when we
meet face to face we can carry on discussions instead of blandly talking
about the weather," another said. "There is no doubt that e-mail will be
used by everybody, and that for all the talk of wiping out time zones and
geographical distances, it will become a normal way to exchange information
locally as well," said Andrew Graham, a professor of economics at Balliol
College in Oxford, who has been monitoring the project as part of his
research into the effects of new technologies on citizenship. Yet before
becoming commonplace, technology needs to "get much easier to use," Prof
Graham said. 
[SOURCE: New York Times (CyberTimes), AUTHOR: Bruno Giussani
<giussani at nytimes.com>]
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/10/cyber/eurobytes/13euro.html>

^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^
Jillaine Smith, Senior Associate (jillaine at benton.org)
Benton Foundation (www.benton.org)
1634 Eye Street NW, Washington DC 20006
v: 202/638-5770, f: 202/638-5771 


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