Stories

Information Availability:
A group of children are given an assignment to look for information for a school project on diversity on the web. Some children find information about different cultural groups. Some children find information in other languages. Some children do a simple search and find over 100 hate groups whose information is available on the web.

Another youth hears the stories in the news about recent school violence. That evening, under the guise of working on a school assignment, he logs onto his home computer and starts looking around on the Internet. In one and a half hours, he’s downloaded pages of information about home bomb-making.

Access to health information has changed dramatically:
A woman with Graves disease went online and found an electronic news group for others with the same disease.  Through the group she was able to learn firsthand about how other women were affected by the treatments her doctor suggested.  She also found out about possible treatments that her doctor hadn't explored with her.

The Hunger Site: Meeting hunger needs online?
I've received ten emails telling me to go to the Hunger-Site.com where I could click on the site and some portion of funds would go to helping.   I tried it and found they get money for bringing in customers to see the ads they have on their site.  I'd like to see more of the online economic structure helping meet community needs.  How effective is this?

This project is part of the City of Seattle Citizens Technology Literacy and Access initiative in cooperation with the volunteer Citizens Telecommunications and Technology Advisory Board (CTTAB) and Sustainable Seattle. Additional assistance for the forum is being provided by Progress Project of the Evans School of Public Affairs and the Glaser Progress Foundation and Seattle Community Network.

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