© The Atlanta Journal--Constitution

Sunday, 02/27/2000

Campbell's vision of tech centers draws criticism.
City receives D+ from Syracuse.
After Atlanta's poor grade, councilman wonders:
is city qualified to teach computer skills?

By Julie B. Hairston/Staff

Southwest Atlanta resident Larry Williams was moving from odd job to odd job in 1994, earning about $12,000 a year.

Then he enrolled in a technology training program offered by the Atlanta Urban League.

"I had some experience (with computers), but not a lot," Williams said. "The familiarity I had wasn't current."

After gaining his certificate from the Urban League, Williams enrolled at Atlanta Tech and is still adding skills to his resume.

He is about to start his third job requiring computer skills, earning more at each level, with UniSys. Now, Williams said, he is earning about $50,000 a year and expects his income to climb after he certified in some new skills.

Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell wants city government to create more success stories like Williams.

Campbell plans a citywide network of technology centers that will provide computer equipment and training for those who can't afford it. His proposal would be funded with $8.1 million from a new deal the city just signed with cable franchise operator MediaOne.

But not all members of the Atlanta City Council are rushing to embrace Campbell's proposal.

Although the council approved the agreement that will provide the money, all but $486,000 is being held in a special reserve account until council members have seen more details about how the centers will work. So far, no one from the city administration has provided any.

Critics of the proposal acknowledge the importance of eliminating the so-called digital divide, but they are not sure Atlanta's city government–recently assigned a D+ on how it handles its own computer network in a study conducted by Syracuse University–is the best agency to lead the uninitiated to computer literacy.

"That is certainly no role for the city of Atlanta," said Council President Robb Pitts. "We're going far beyond what the state allows us to do."

Councilman Lee Morris said he fears the city may drain precious resources from other reponsibilities to fulfill a mission it is ill-equipped to take on.

"I'm afraid we already try to do so many things, we don't do any of them well," Morris said.

In addition to the city school system and the Atlanta-Fulton County public libraries, a number of business and philanthropic organizations already are working on training initiatives. The Reynoldstown Revitalization Corp., for example, recently received a small grant to set up a technology center in that community, and the Atlanta Urban League has enjoyed great success with its "Cybercamp" for teens, which meets every Saturday.

Williams, now 45, said he thinks getting computer training into low-income communities will reap extensive benefits for individuals and the city as a whole.

"Most people if given the opportunity will take advantage of it, "Williams said. "Even if you get the kids hooked with games, maybe that will get them thinking about how this works and that leads to a skill: computer programming."

Lyndon Wade, president of the Atlanta Urban League, said his organization, with support from IBM, local banks and other business interests, spends about $400,000 a year providing technology training to both youngsters and adults from low-income families in Atlanta.

"But that's not nearly enough," Wade said. "I think the city will make a tremendous positive impact if they go forward with a well thought-out plan."

Jabari Simama, the new executive director of the city's community technology centers, envisions forming partnerships with existing centers such as Reynoldstown or the Urban League's to improve those programs and share ideas that work. In areas where most households don't have a computer or easy access to one, and no other technology centers, Simama said the initiative will create centers and provide staffing through donations, grants and the $8.1 million. Simama has not yet provided any details of how the network would be formed or operate.

He also has proposed mobile technology centers that could move around the city like bookmobiles, but has said nothing about how many might be needed or how they would circulate.

"We think that mobility of design will be an important aspect of what we're doing," Simama said.

But Tamara Sturak, a computer professional at the University of California and coordinator for the Oakland Community Information Infrastructure, said that most technology centers are designed to be stationary, dependable and perpetually accessible. That way, centers can provide the kind of safety and stability that might be lacking elsewhere in depressed neighborhoods and offer the possibility of becoming places where people receive a range of services in addition to computer training.

Most experts agree that success in the job market is tied to computer literacy, but the question of who should teach computer skills to hard-to-reach people is still open to debate.

"In Seattle and Austin, for instance, the city managers have recognized the need for technology expertise and hired staff technologists to help spearhead their community endeavors," Sturak said. "Other cities have barely survived Y2K and are ill equipped to even maintain internal computing and network infrastructures."

Seattle and Austin both rated a B in technology management in the same study that gave Atlanta a D+.

Along with several other council members, Morris balked at unconditionally giving the $8.1 million the city will receive from its new deal with MediaOne to the community technology office.

Councilwoman Clair Muller, who heads the council's City Utilities Committee, said that the city's inability to use five cable channels it sold to MediaOne for $8.1 million in the franchise agreement is evidence that Simama, who oversaw the city's telecommunications and media relations department, is not the right choice to preach the high-tech gospel to hard-to-reach city residents. Although the city has had control of the five cable channels for more than 15 years, it has never used them.

But Simama said only the city has the clout and accountability that other public and private organizations lack to pull together a coordinated computer-literacy effort.

"The city will never be able to abdicate its responsibility to advocate for an important social good to be done in the best and most comprehensive ways possible," Simama said.