Welcome
Early efforts to bridge America’s Digital Divide were directed almost exclusively to providing computer access for marginalized populations. Although computer access is important, the lack of knowledge on how to use and maintain it makes access about as useful as a textbook with blank pages. Information literacy, and workforce development are more critical areas of the digital divide that need to be addressed.
Rochester New York, like most other municipalities throughout the United States, faces significant challenges in moving its community into today's new information based digital economy. For communities to nurture and stimulate the growth of information literacy for all people, community wide technical infrastructures need to be built that will provide safe and accessible gateways to information and resources necessary to participate in the new digital economy.
The strategy for providing a solution to our local digital divide problem is largely based on leveraging existing community groups who have routine contact and provide essential services with populations on the wrong side of the digital divide. Rochester is blessed with many of these organizations that provide social services, education, and other community based activities. These organizations need help in augmenting the skills required for their core function with those required for solving the problem of the digital divide. The strategy to be taken builds on developing a core set of infrastructure services that these community organizations can utilize to fulfill their mission. Examples of these include Help Desk Support, network installation and maintenance, troubleshooting & repair, educational services, etc. These are the components of the Academy’s HelpTech Community Programs (The HelpTech Computer Remanufacturing/Recycling Center, CommuniTech, & KidTech).
