Information technology and low‐income, inner‐city communities
Abstract
Richard M. Krieg N metropolitan areas across the country, new approaches are emerging to address inner-city problems through the application I of computer technology and advanced telecommunications. The movement has unleashed creative energy in low-income neighbor- hoods, involving new individuals and organizations in community problem-solving. While inner-city computer and telecommunications applications hold promise, they are neither a panacea nor a shortcut for solving the problems of distressed urban communities. Considerable work is needed to assess the merit of current approaches and to harness the potential of new technologies as they come online. Expanded inner-city access to information technology merits consideration on equity grounds. For the past fifteen years, there has been concern that the anticipated benefits of telecommunications tech- nology would bypass low-income communities. Congressman Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts), former chairman of the House Telecom- munications and Finance Subcommittee, coined the term "information apartheid" to describe the detachment of low-income communities from the information revolution. The telecommunications environment is in constant transition due to technological change, new products and players, and shifting corpo- rate alliances. Governmental telecommunications policy, originally based on the protected franchise model, is in flux owing to increasing competition. Within this fast-moving arena, the application of informa-