Free Internet Service Update

Late last year I mentioned that the FCC had proposed a plan to offer free wireless Internet service to Americans. Not unexpectedly, the FCC didn’t take action before the end of the year as some had predicted. However, the new administration has included six billion dollars in their proposed economic stimulus plan in order to improve Internet access in underserved areas. As digital divide advocates have long recognized, increased access to the Internet will provide both short- and long-term economic benefits. (Thanks to Molly French for pointing this out.) – K

A Belated NLADA Annual Conference Report (Part 1)

I sat in on several great sessions at the NLADA Annual Conference. While most weren’t technology sessions, technology was nicely woven in to all of the presentations.

LSC Updates – Helaine Barnett, Karen Sarjeant, John Constance
I missed the first few minutes of the session, but I did arrive in time to hear Helaine Barnett talk about the LSC technology survey and the resulting guidelines document, Technologies That Should Be in Place in a Legal Aid Office Today, which was recently released. LSC is working to support grantees as they implement the outlined technologies. In particular, they worked with LexisNexis to develop a HotDocs software donation program and have funded the national document assembly project (NPADO) to support programs implementing document assembly initiatives. Through TIG, LSC provided funding for an updated version of the case management system report as well as a rating system for hardware, software, and vendors. LSC is also looking at identifying additional training opportunities and, as a part of this, will be webcasting parts of the TIG conference. In order to ensure that programs are looking at using technology to improve their service delivery, a technology plan will become a required part of an LSC grant application as was previously mentioned on Techno.la.

Additional technology-related news that was mentioned: LSC will shortly be sending check notices electronically; 33 TIGs were awarded; and LSC has funded the development of a website that focuses on legal issues for active military and veterans.

Client Use of Technology: 2008 Updates – Gene Donney, Kathleen Brockel
Gene led a great session about Internet use. (His slides are available on the LSNTAP.org site.) It was one of the most interactive sessions that I’ve participated in for a while. And Kathleen was an amazing Vanna White!

My take aways:

• The digital divide still exists, but it is getting smaller.
• Our clients are using technology with us or without us, and we need to adapt, so that we can better serve them. For example, another attendee told the story of being asked to send a homeless client a text message rather than phone him because it cost less on a pre-paid cell phone. This is simple and can provide significant benefit to the client.
• Legal aid has to provide more than one way of accessing its services. I will be the first to acknowledge that technology is not the solution for everything. Some communities, like migrant workers, can be best reached through in-person intake; others can easily access legal aid through hotlines. In the same way, online intake can act as an important funnel for others–homeless families who don’t have access to a phone because public telephones are disappearing and people who turn to the Internet for resources first.

That’s all for today. Check back later this week for more. – K

FCC Proposes Plan to Offer Free Wireless Internet Service

The Wall Street Journal reports that the FCC has proposed a plan that would provide free wireless Internet to Americans, but both telecom providers and consumer advocates object to it. Consumer advocates dislike the plan because the service will be required to filter out pornography and material not suitable for children; the telecom providers object for the obvious reasons. The FCC will likely take action on this plan at its December 18 meeting. – K

Recent Article on “Codelaw” By Gene Koo

I was just browsing an interesting new anthology, Rebooting America, which includes forty-four essays “brimming with the hopes of reenergizing, reorganizing, and reorienting our government for the Internet Age,” and came across a name that should be familiar to some of you.  Included in the volume is an essay by Gene Koo called “Creating Humane Codelaw,” which pulls from his experience as a statewide website coordinator at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, where he “became aware of a computer system called Beacon used by the MA Department of Transitional Assistance (aka “welfare”) to distribute various benefits such as food stamps to Massachusetts residents.” Gene goes on to describe how “software that executes law (“codelaw”) presents a number of challenges to a democracy,” and provide some ideas about how to ensure that codelaw “remains accountable to the people.” Also included in the anthology are essays by Yochai Benkler, Newt Gingrich, Craig Newmark, Howard Rheingold, Clay Shirky, and David Weinberger. -M

Survey: Nearly every kid a video gamer

An interesting AP article on the recent Pew Internet and the American Life Survey, “Teens, Video Games and Civics.” The survey found that “ninety-seven percent of young respondents play video games. That’s 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls, with little difference in the percentages among various racial and ethnic groups and incomes.” Will the Wii be the great equalizer? Only time will tell, but for now my wife and I still have to travel all the way to Baltimore to visit Kate and her husband for our marathon Rock Band sessions. -M

North Dakota News

Other than a brief moment last Saturday night, I was off the ‘Net for most of last week and was forced to turn to The Forum to stay in touch with world events. Compared to the quick, immediate reporting of Andy Carvin and the rest of Twitter, the coverage of Gustav and other national events was a bit frustrating, but I was pleasantly surprised with the subject matter of the stories that they are covering. For example:

• Life Preserver or Anchor? – A two-part series on payday loans and their affects, both positive and negative, on North Dakota consumers. Sunday’s article included an overview of payday lending, while Monday’s introduced an initiative that would use the funds from the Bank of North Dakota and credit unions to provide a payday loan alternative. Supplementary online material included video of a congressional hearing about payday lending in Indian Country and of Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner who provided small self-employment loans to alleviate poverty, speaking at Concordia College.

• Many Teens Sharing Pornographic Images – A story about teenagers using their cell phones to send naked pictures of themselves to others. One terrifying aspect of young people distributing these pictures is that the pictures are easily passed along and will be around for a very long time; a second is that those who send and have these pictures are disseminating and possessing child pornography. As Moorhead policeman Lt. Tori Jacobson told the reporter, “Right now, if an 18-year-old wants to have sex with a 17-year-old, that’s OK, but as soon as he takes a picture of her, that’s child pornography.” Unfortunately, this is not simply a local issue but a national trend.

• Resources Can Help Stretch Dollars – A financial advice column that focused on how a mother of four could try to make ends meet after leaving her abusive spouse. Liz Weston, the columnist, provides an excellent list of resources for families struggling financially.

• Families in Economic Bind Turning to Public Libraries – An article that notes that more people are turning to public libraries to fulfill entertainment needs and save money. This is good news for public libraries since their funding often depends on visits and circulation. And for legal aid programs who are looking for outreach avenues, this makes public libraries an even more valuable partner.

If you are interested in keeping an eye on stories like these, or the news in Fargo, North Dakota, you can either add The Forum to your news reader or follow it on Twitter. – K

The Municipal Broadband Debate

Here’s today’s second pointer to a segment from WAMU. This time, the segment is from The Kojo Nnamdi Show and focuses on the implementation of municipal broadband projects and why so many projects have failed. Again, you can listen to the recording on the WAMU website. – K

$100 Laptop Gets Redesigned and a New Price Tag

For those of you following the $100 laptop saga:

“Tossing aside its iconic green-and-white laptop with its distinctive antennas, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is pursuing a smaller 2.0 version, scheduled for release in 2010, in which dual touch screens will replace the keypad. The new version will have lower power consumption and a $75 price–a figure that OLPC claims is achievable despite the fact that the current model, the XO, sells for nearly double the sum mentioned in its “$100 laptop” moniker.”

See the full article here. -M