Havenot

Date: Wed, 26 Apr 1995 08:19:03 -0400
From: W. Curtiss Priest <BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list <pub-adv@nysernet.org>
Subject: Equity and the Public Hand (Presentation to the Harvard Computer W. Curtiss Priest, Ph.D. Director Center for Information, Technology & Society 466 Pleasant Street Melrose, MA 02176 Internet: bmslibmitvma.mit.edu, Voice: 617-662-4044, FAX: 617-662-6882 This document may be distributed freely April 25, 1995 An Open Discussion with Government, Foundations, Non-profits and Grassroots Efforts The Will to Create the Future: Public Issue #10: "Developing an Equitable Information Structure -- the Role for a Public Hand" W. Curtiss Priest, the LINCT Coalition, Center for Information, Technology & Society Presented at the Harvard Computer Society, Cambridge, MA 02138 April 25th, 1995, 7 PM
PART I: The Virtual Ghetto
PART II: LINCT (Learning and Information Networks for Community Telecomputing)
PART III: The Basis for a Public Hand
PART IV: The Role for a Public Hand

PART I: Preventing the Virtual Ghetto:

Electronic Equity via Community Telecomputing Ken Komoski, The LINCT Coalition. Presented at the National Association Science Technology and Society, 1995 National Meeting, Arlington, Va. March 4, 1995 The Problem In the information age, knowledge is wealth. Unlike material wealth, information and knowledge-based wealth can be shared and no one ends up with less. Such wealth keeps growing. At present, however, access to the source of this wealth -- information technology and the skill to use it - - is restricted to the world's ''information haves." What they have are the computers, modems and know-how to pan gold from the cyberspace datastream. The "gold" of information and learning within that datastream may, indeed, be endlessly mineable, but not by the world's "information have-nots"-- those who lack the technology and training of the technologically privileged.

The Virtual Ghetto,br> Millions of technologically-disenfranchised 'have-nots' who cannot afford the cost of that technology and training are walled off from potentially life-changing tools and knowledge; isolated in the virtual ghetto. Meanwhile, a growing information economy and its opportunities surrounds them. Escaping from this virtual ghetto means being able to afford the cost of the technology and training needed to prepare themselves to share in the production of information-based wealth. Not being able to afford the cost of that technology and training, millions of families, seniors and disabled citizens are, in fact, being socially and economically disabled. Unlike long-entrenched ghettos, the new virtual ghetto is preventable. But what is the cost of prevention? At the local level, surprisingly little in dollars.

Start-up costs are under $10,000, and annual operating costs can be kept to a dollar or two per community member. Cooperating computer-literate volunteers from businesses, libraries, schools, churches, and municipal agencies can do most of what needs to be done. Together, they are the means of prevention. All that is needed is the will, the cooperation, and the skill to apply practical strategies at the grassroots level, where the virtual ghetto is growing. There is increasing evidence that this can be done in any community where people want to do it. This is already happening in a few locally-developed telecomputing networks in which information-haves are working with have-nots to prevent proliferation of the ghetto mentality in their midst. These community- based, community-building efforts are enabling the technologically- disenfranchised to learn-and-earn the technology and training needed to transform the virtual ghetto into an economically-viable zone of opportunity.

Assisting Community-based Prevention Initiatives
In order to help communities understand what they can do to achieve electronic equity, a coalition of socially concerned not-for-profit organizations in the U.S. has developed a low-cost model that communities can adopt and adapt to enable the technologically disenfranchised to learn-and-earn the computers and skills needed to mine the cyberspace datastream. The coalition is called LINCT, Learning and Information Networks for Community Telecomputing. The Coalition's singular purpose is to help communities to develop locally-run, cooperative telecomputing networks, committed to achieving community-wide equitable access to computer technology, training, information and lifelong learning. LINCT's mission is to assist as many grassroots community-based initiatives as possible.

Getting Technology and Providing Training
LINCT begins by helping a community to get local and regional businesses to participate in the BET Initiative (Businesses for Equity through Telecomputing). Through the BET Initiative, LINCT shows communities how to acquire used but usable computers and modems that might otherwise become part of the information-age wastestream created by businesses' continuing need for faster, more sophisticated technology. As BET-Initiative businesses donate equipment to a community's nonprofit community network, it is channeled into a community-based Learn-and- Earn Technology (LET) Initiative, run by local computer-literate volunteers -- in libraries, schools, church basements, senior centers, etc. All training sites are connected to the community's telecomputing network, accessible to and from homes, schools, libraries, churches, social services, local businesses and municipal agencies. At these volunteer-run training sites, technologically disenfranchised families, seniors and the disabled learn-and-earn home computers-and- modems via a unique lease-purchase program. This program involves a commitment by trainees to begin learning to use the technology at a local training site, and to continue the training at home (these learning commitments cover payment of the initial portion of the lease-purchase). Then, by performing an agreed-upon amount of community service, applicants pay off the principal -- they own the equipment they've earned with "electronic sweat equity." What is actually earned is a local tax-exempt currency, called Community Network Credits (ComNet Credits) used to purchase computer equipment or a variety of services. One ComNet Credit is earned for every hour spent learning to compute, and using the community's online network, also by every hour spent working for others in the community. The network's training and computer-repair volunteers also earn local ComNet Credits for each hour they spend teaching community members. They, in turn, may spend their ComNet Credits to employ other members of the community to provide services they may need: childcare or eldercare, housework, transportation, shopping, dog walking, etc.

How Communities are Responding
In Suffolk County, NY their are five LINCT-affiliated communities, in which volunteer local computer buffs are beginning to train workfare mothers to do word processing, learn other employable skills, and to access the help of personal online mentors enlisted from among a local working womens' network. School dropouts are able to penetrate math's mysteries, school kids can get homework assistance or work with classmates on cooperative projects, and would-be graphic artists, reporters, and inventors can learn to make their earned keyboards and modems access unlimited information and knowledge. On the community-wide electronic bulletin board, housed in the public library, anyone in these communities may access classified want ads for community service jobs. Anyone using the network may earn as many credits as they have hours to spend helping others -- while also helping to build a community of people who can talk to each other, work for each other, and trust each other. The network's systems operator (sysop) is contributed by the host library, and starting in May 1995 the county's cooperative library services will also begin providing free Internet accounts to all low-income families who have earned a home computer and modem. The model being pioneering in these communities with the help of the LINCT Coalition is stimulating communities in New York City, Chicago, in other cities, and in suburban and rural areas to adapt this model to local needs and conditions. Reclaiming useful technology Sources of the hardware for powering electronic equity are readily available: computer cast-offs from business, government, and home users who have opted for faster machines. LINCT estimates that the U.S. alone produces a flow of 20-to-25 million used, but usable computers and modems each year -- equipment capable of tracking a moon shot or a whale migration, but lacking the speed and multimedia bells-and-whistles now demanded by sophisticated computer users in our technologically affluent- effluent society.
By affiliating with the many nonprofit agencies that are already helping to redistribute these used computers, the LINCT Coalition is confident that with their help to local LINCT-affiliated communities, every technologically-disenfranchised household may be empowered with earned equipment and training that will turn couch potatoes into distance learners and mentors, strangers into virtual and face-to-face friends, welfare/workfare recipients into electronic job trainees, idle hands into dancing productive fingers. Earned with ComNet Credits, this used equipment helps move locally-managed telecomputing networks toward equity of access, rewarding volunteer work, rewarding learning, and rewarding helping others. ComNet Credits help prevent the virtual ghetto by enabling people to convert personal time and effort into needed purchasing power for computer equipment and training.

The Need to Act Now
Communities need to act now to avoid creating an electronic Tale of Two Cities -- divided by an information superhighway with no on-ramps for inhabitants of the virtual ghetto. Community leaders, businesses, and ordinary people to begin working together -- adopting and adapting LINCT's working model -- to achieve local electronic equity -- neighborhood by neighborhood, community network by community network. The future costs of not acting now to make this happen are too great. For information contact: The LINCT Coalition The Hamlet Green, Suite 3 Hampton Bays, NY 11946 Voice: 516-728-9100 Fax: 516-729-9228 email: komoski@BNLCL6.BNL.GOV ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

PART II: The LINCT Coalition

The Hamlet Green oHampton Bays, NY 11946 Ken Komoski, Director W. Curtiss Priest, Policy and Systems Coordinator Voice: 516-728-9100 Fax: 516-729-9228 email: KOMOSI@BNLCL6.BNL.GOV (Komoski) BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU (Priest)

LEARNING AND INFORMATION NETWORK FOR COMMUNITY TELECOMPUTING

Mission, Model, and Outreach The LINCT Coalition is a group of socially concerned not-for-profit organizations and affiliates dedicated to helping communities achieve electronic equity for all community members through the development of local telecomputing networks. LINCT Membership Organizations are: The Center for Information, Technology, & Society, Melrose, MA The Educational Products Information Exchange (EPIE) Institute Hampton Bays, NY Non-Profit Computing, Inc. New York, NY The Time Dollar Network, Washington, DC Affiliated Organizations: The National Urban League The Hispanic Federation of New York The New York Public Library The United Neighborhood Houses of New York American Association for the Advancement of Science, SLIC Project (Science Linkages in the Community) A Clear Mission LINCT's mission is to help communities to acquire both the technology and the know-how needed to make cost-effective, community-wide electronic networks accessible to all citizens, but especially to poor and economically marginal families, seniors and the disabled.

A Helpful Model and Process
LINCT's model and process helps a community to provide those who cannot afford the technology with the opportunity to learn-and-earn the computers, the connectivity, and the technical support needed to access local and global communication, learning, health, and employment opportunities. While thinking globally, LINCT's mission is to help communities to act locally by applying a model that begins by assisting local people to establish and manage a not-for-profit, cooperative telecomputing network that is open to all community members, and that connects them to the world. Help for Local Electronic Equity Initiatives To help a community ensure that even its poorest members may acquire the technology and training they need to access local and global networks, LINCT helps communities to: o acquire a share of the estimated twenty-to-thirty million used, but still usable computers generated each year by business, government, and home users, and to utilize those computers to build a local network that is accessible to all community members (used computers are made available to a local electronic equity initiative via the first three of LINCT's Electronic-Equity Initiatives:

BET (Businesses for Equity in Telecomputing) Initiative
GET (Government for Equity in Telecomputing) Initiative PET (People for Equity in Telecomputing) Initiative
develop a community-based Learn-and-Earn Technology (LET) Initiative, conducted at local training sites that are managed by local computer- literate volunteers.

At these sites poor and economically-struggling families may earn home computers and software by learning how to telecommunicate via the community's electronic network (the computers is not "loaners", they become owned by those who have earned the technology by having learned to use it; o establish and manage a program of electronic education and job training opportunities via a local DIRECT (Digital Resources for Education and Career Training) Initiative accessible to all homes, community training sites, libraries, schools, hospitals, churches, etc., to facilitate lifelong learning and employment opportunities for all community members; o develop and manage a program of citizen-to-citizen work opportunities, facilitated by a community-wide electronic Community Jobs Bulletin Board and "jobs-matching service," through which community members may work for each other and earn Community Network Credits (ComNet Credits); citizens and families may use these tax-exempt credits via the ComNet Credits Initiative to "purchase" needed services from others.

LINCT's Outreach Program The LINCT Coalition is preparing to launch a major program of outreach designed to motivate and to assist local communities to locally adopt and adapt the electronic-equity initiatives described above. LINCT is currently seeking the funding that will enable it to begin this outreach program by Fall 1995. The goal is to identify communities that are seriously interested in affiliating with the LINCT Coalition's mission to achieve electronic equity for the technologically disenfranchised through the development of community-based telecomputing cooperatives. When launched, LINCT's Outreach Program will include the following resources to all communities wishing to affiliate with LINCT's Electronic Equity Initiatives:

a community-awareness kit: Achieving Electronic Equity in Your Community;
a how-to manual,Creating Community-based Electronic-Equity Initiatives, (with supporting software) to assist already- established community networks to (a) acquire used computers via the BET, GET, and PET Initiatives, (b) establish a learn-and-earn training (LET) Initiative, (c) develop a local adaptation of the DIRECT Initiative;
a how-to manual, Developing and Managing a Community Credits (ComCredit) Program (with supporting management software).
online technical support.

The Electronic Equity Fund/Seed-Grant Program
LINCT intends to establish The Electronic Equity Fund as the centerpiece of its outreach program. (LINCT is currently developing capitalization for the Fund from private foundations and corporations.) Once the Fund is established, LINCT will invite communities to submit "seed-grant" proposals to help launch -- or to help re-focus existing -- local community-wide electronic networks working to achieve electronic equity. Seed grants will include both financial support and online technical support, plus network management hardware and software, and the "awareness" and "how-to" manuals described above. In order to qualify for seed-grant funding, a community's proposal must demonstrate a written commitment to match seed-grant funds through local fund-raising, plus a well-articulated plan for developing ongoing local funding for ongoing maintenance of the electronic network and its equity initiatives. LINCT plans to provide Electronic Equity Proposal Guidelines that will be available for distribution to communities interested in applying for seed-grant support from the Electronic Equity Fund. LINCT will establish evaluation criteria for assessing the quality of proposals submitted by communities. Proposals approved for funding by LINCT will be funded by the Electronic Equity Fund, which will grant money to communities with proposals approved by both LINCT and the Fund's Financial Oversight Committee. Through the Fund's seed-grant program, LINCT hopes to help hundreds of communities to achieve electronic equity.

PART III: Basis for the Public Hand

Excerpted and adapted from the Character of Information Report to the U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment 1986, 1994 W. Curtiss Priest Center for Information, Technology & Society

To understand the role of the "Public Hand" one must, in a market driven economy, identify those areas where markets will under-supply information or where economic and other forces cause information to disturb moral or ethical bases of society. The following discussion describes fifteen characteristics of information in commerce and transactions. By focussing on the nine characteristics related to market-failure and the characteristics related to freedom and privacy, we can better understand the need for a "public hand."

Characteristics and Properties of Information in Commerce and Transactions

1.1 Market Related Characteristics of Information as a Commodity
1.1.1 Intrinsic Co-production
1.1.2 Time Constrained Consumption of Information
1.1.3 High Investment to Reproduction Cost Ratios for Information
1.1.4 Relevance of Information More Variable Across Consumers
1.2 Market-failure Related Characteristics of Information 1.1.1 Public Good Characteristics
1.1.1.1 Inappropriability
1.1.1.2 Non-depletability
1.1.2 Externalities
1.1.3 Indivisibilities (of supply)
1.1.4 Economies of Scale and Scope
1.1.5 Inherent Uncertainty and Risk in Information Production
1.1.6 Information/Knowledge About the Information
1.1.7 Intangibility
1.1.8 Transaction Costs and Information
1.1.9 Equity/Distributional Considerations
1.3 Non-market Related Characteristics of Information
1.3.1 High Intrinsic Relationship to Human Welfare
1.3.2 High Intrinsic Relationship to Freedom and Privacy

It is useful to identify what distinguishes information from other forms of property. Fifteen distinguishing characteristics of information are identified and discussed. These characteristics are useful for generally inquiring into the nature and purpose of information in society. Summarized below are brief definitions of the fifteen characteristics and introductory remarks about the general importance of the distinguishing characteristic. Definitions and Introduction to Fifteen Characteristics of Information As a Commodity:

Intrinsic Co-production

The character of information to be instrumental in achieving other goods and outcomes. This character makes information inherently more valuable than goods that are not instrumental in character.

Time Constrained Consumption

The character of information to occupy more consumer time per dollar expenditure than other commodities. This characteristic combined with the relatively low reproduction cost characteristic (3) has long run employment implications.

High Investment to Reproduction Cost Ratios

The creation costs of information divided by the cost of reporducing one unit of the good. The implications of this characteristic are economies of scale and scope, and resulting market structure.

Relevance, More Variable Across Consumers

The character of particular information be be acquired usually only once. The results is high variability in consumption by each consumer. This characteristic tends to work in the opposite direction of low reproduction costs, since it implies that information will become more and more customized and particularlized. Market-failure Related Characteristics:

Public Good

The same information can be used by many consumers without interference. Inappropriability The difficulty in receiving full market compensation for the creation of information due to the problem of exclusion. The result is under- production and under-compensation. Non-depletability Information does not dissipate with use. Producers must compete with past producers but society benefits with an accumulation of knowledge. Goods with substantial public good characteristics such as national defense, recreational parks, and safety facilities such as lighthouses are usually supplied by the government to reduce the "free rider problem" associated with inappropriability.

Externalities

The effects of information, usually positive, that are not accounted for in its price. The effects of information, especially as education, have considerable positive externalities in terms of reducing unemployment and increasing general social welfare.

Indivisibilities (of supply) Information must be purchased in lumps; these lumps may be vastly greater than the information actually sought. This characteristic along with the variable relevance characteristic will contribute to utilization of information technology that reduce indivisibilities and permit customization.

Economies of Scale and Scope Decreasing unit costs when the scale of operation is increased; and decreasing costs associated with joint production. Historically, information distribution such as telegraph, telephone, radio, and television have exhibited sufficient economies of scale and scope as to require government regulation to reduce problems associated with natural monopolies.

Uncertainty and Risk in Production

The inability of firms to produce information when risks and uncertainties are present. A problem, in particular, in the generation of basic knowledge that requires substantial investment in research.

Information/Knowledge

Information about information is less likely to be available because of appropriability problems. This leads to under-consumption of information due to problems of search.

Intangibility

The character of the value of some information to be non-monetizable. Information is the basis of education, communication, and other activities which are difficult to value because the contribution of these activities to the welfare of society is largely intangible.

Transaction Costs

The additional costs incurred by the producer in appropriating the value of information. [Transaction costs, in the economic sense, are those costs associated with negotiation, contracting, and enforcement, and does not refer to the the general costs related to distributing or transmitting information.] Transaction costs are a major contribution to indivisibilities in the supply of information since contracting and enforcement costs are difficult to reduce below a certain minimum.

Equity/Distribution Considerations

At any time a society may decide that the distribution of goods is inequitable. This is done under various arguments regarding equity and fairness. John Rawls argues that one can think in terms of a social contract made in the "primal position" -- this is a position where no individual knows their "station" in society and then agrees to a contract that divides goods based on various arguments. One argument, related to capitalistic society, is that one would have some people "better off" if it made others better off than they would otherwise be. This is Rawls' justification for high salaries for the heads of industry. In terms of information, we can think in terms of minimal information standards that we would all wish to maintain. That is, no matter what your station were, you could be assured that you would have access to a certain minimum information base. In a society that becomes increasingly information centered, the minimum information base might be raised because of its centrality in a person's ability to be comfortable and capable in such a society. Non-market Related Characteristics:

Intrinsic Relationship to Human Welfare

Human welfare is a product of individuals and groups achieving desired outcomes. Thus, information is intrinsically related to human welfare in that it inherently facilitates the achievement of outcomes. 15. Intrinsic Relationship to Freedom and Privacy Freedom -- Information affects the range of choices available to the individual. Freedom is a lack of restriction on choices. Thus information leads to greater freedom. Privacy -- Incomplete information may result in defamation of character. Therefore, information must be selectively made private to reduce the probability of defamation. PART IV: Role of the Public Hand Let us look at the role of the public hand by examining some examples:

Public Goods: In our society we believe that basic civil knowledge is critical to the functioning of our society. It is for this reason that we educate everyone in history and civics. In an information society we would wish to continue to assure that everyone can access and use information related to the public good. In fact, the level of knowledge and access might be expected to increase as it becomes easier and cheaper to provide for the public good. As the result of our concern for public goods, we will wish to examine the continuing role of public institutions such as libraries and schools. We will wish to ensure that these institutions can function well in the new information infrastucture (or cyberspace).
Equity: As described early, we are at risk of creating virtual ghettos. Why is this offensive? Not only do virtual ghettos work against our interest in the public good, in the first example, but virtual ghettos offend our sense of fairness and justice. We wish, as a society, to ensure that no matter what station a person has, that station will be assured a minimal standard of access to information.
Freedom: Ithiel Poole wrote a famous book called Technologies of Freedom. He rightly identified that communication technologies are technologies of freedom. These technologies intrinsicly increase the "choice space" and increase freedom. In our society, we have strong sanctions to preserve freedoms and, thus, in cyberspace we will wish to continue those sanctions and make sure that no person or corporation infringes on those liberties.
Privacy: Privacy is a strange beast. To those who know us well, we need be less private, yet to others, who may threaten our liberties, we need to maintain secrets. Information is central to privacy. From medical records to criminal records we are continually at risk of someone knowing something about us and using it against us. This argues for legislative and public policy to guard privacy. (Yet no where in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights is there a "right to privacy.") Now I challenge everyone one of you to turn to the characteristics of information and work out your own examples for the role of the Public Hand.

_______________________________________________________________________________
| W. Curtiss Priest, Ph.D., Director *********************** | | Center
for Information, Technology, &Society * Improving humanity * | | * through
technology * | | 466 Pleasant Street *********************** | | Melrose,
MA 02176-4522 BMSLIB@MITVMA.MIT.EDU | | Voice: 617-662-4044 Gopher or WWW
to our publications: | | Fax: 617-662-6882 gopher.eff.org (under similar
organizations, CITS | | WWW: http://www.eff.org,
under Documents &File Archives, under Gopher
| _____________________________________________________________________________|