At city schools

Students tune in on how they use computers and the internet.

“One of the things we found is that for certain kinds of people, working class, and particularly minority guys, the gender gap (in regard to who uses computers) actually ran the other way because when you think about it in economic terms, they could see their sisters and moms being secretaries, but they couldn’t see themselves being secretaries,” Straubhauur said. “They could see themselves making computers or loading them unto trucks. They couldn’t see role models for actually using a computer themselves.”

One freshman in an interview at Johnston in 1990 said his mother was a secretary, and he did not know any male who used a computer at work, Straubhauur said.

“I mean he literally said flat out, I think computers are women’s work,” he said. “So one of the things we began to realize was that there’s some cultural and social issues that are getting in the way.”

Telecomm 101

City schools are a microcosm of the technological gap between East and West Austin. Deed restrictions kept African Americans and Mexicans-Americans east of Interstate Highway I-35—then called East Avenue—until actual segregation laws were passed in the 1920s, as reported by Community Impact. The highway has then historically served as a racial barrier between both sides of the city and between the unequal distributions of resources.

With the passing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, telecommunications companies deregulated in what was supposed to spur competition and lower Internet costs for consumers. The byproduct, however, became their denial of access to underprivileged, minority communities east of the Interstate. Texas telecommunications companies lost further accountability to the cities they service in 2005, when the 79th legislative session passed a law that moved cable and Internet franchising from the municipal level to the state. This allowed telecommunications corporations, like AT&T and Comcast, to install their services at any location without public involvement. Rural areas and low-income, typically majority minority areas were then left underserved.

Tackling digital barriers

Today, organizations such as Austin Freenet are working to change that by focusing on media literacy. Such an approach provides free access to the Internet in underprivileged areas and also helps tackle social barriers by offering free technology training that enables them to succeed in a digital age.

The cycle of computer and internet access to job security.

“Access to the Internet and computer training is important to everyone, not only to the people who can afford it,” said Dale Thompson, the financial manager acting executive director for the Dewitty Center, the nonprofit’s computer lab.

Places such as Austin Freenet are especially important under the nation’s current economic climate, Thompson said. Amid the subprime mortgage meltdown and the job losses that have followed, he said the need for the nonprofits would increase.

Locations such as Freenet are also valuable when looking at the Diffusion of Innovations, an academic theory which tracks how people pick up new ideas, Strabhaaur said.

“One of the things to note is that unless you do something about it, the richest, best educated and best advantaged are going to grab the new technology first and run with it first and fastest, he said. “The gaps will actually widen. You have to couple a need for an awareness of technology, with an awareness of education.”