[September 02, 2009] National report finds many can't afford to join digital community Tweet Sep 02, 2009 (The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- A high school student, a young woman with a baby and a retiree using the computers Tuesday at the new Carnegie Library branch in the North Side had at least one thing in common: Each said they can't afford to have either a computer or Internet access at home. They reflect many Americans who remain stuck in the "digital divide" that exists despite government efforts to offer people online access to public meetings, complaint forms and other resources, according to study the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project released yesterday. "If the goal is to use the Internet to open government up to a wider range of people, that may not really be playing out," said Aaron Smith, a Pew researcher. A national telephone survey conducted in August 2008 of 2,251 adults found that only 8 percent who made less than $20,000 a year engaged in two or more government or political activities online in the past year. Of those who made more than $100,000 a year, the number was 35 percent. "There's a big difference between people who have ubiquitous access to the Internet and people who have to take a bus to go to the library," said Stuart W. Shulman, a political science professor at the University Massachusetts Amherst who wasn't involved in the study but has studied and written about "e-democracy." "It doesn't surprise me that what they're finding is people who have Blackberries and iPhones use them to stay connected and be better informed about government," he said. Pittsburgh leaders have pushed lately to expand government offerings online. Last month, City Councilman Bill Peduto and Priya Narasimhan of Carnegie Mellon University launched iBurgh, an iPhone application that allows people to wirelessly report complaints. Narasimhan wants to expand the service to all types of cell phones. "At the end of the day this succeeds only if everyone has access to participate," she said. "I think it's fairly realistic. We could have something that would use text messages to make public service announcements, and people could sign up." In July, city officials earmarked $52,000 to pay to post videos of City Council and other public meetings online. City Controller Michael Lamb is working with a private company to develop a Web site that will allow people to search city contracts by vendor and political contributions by donor. Brittany Jones, 17, of the lower North Side said the new library on Federal Street made searching for a college and talking with friends on MySpace much easier. Following local government isn't on the agenda for her limited computer time. John Smith, 59, a retired railroad worker, said he hasn't been able to afford to keep up with advances in technology. He doesn't think the city's iPhone application is intended to help him. "My computer is so old I don't even try to put the Internet on it," he said. Smith, of the Pew Institute, said the proliferation of political candidates and government resources on social-networking Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter could help reach low-income residents. Among people surveyed younger than 35 years old, 72 percent reported using social-networking sites to engage in political activity and 55 percent said they post comments, pictures or videos about politics to the Web. "That's the hopeful side of our research," Smith said. "Young people in particular have really latched on to social media tools as part of political debate. There's some evidence that socio-economically those people differ from the norm, as well." To see more of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]