U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

67–830 WASHINGTON : 2000

BRIDGING THE TECHNOLOGICAL GAP:

INITIATIVES TO COMBAT THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPOWERMENT

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 28, 2000

Serial No. 106–48

Printed for the use of the Committee on Small Business

(
(II)

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

JAMES M. TALENT, Missouri, Chairman

LARRY COMBEST, Texas

JOEL HEFLEY, Colorado

DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois

ROSCOE G. BARTLETT, Maryland

FRANK A. LOBIONDO, New Jersey

SUE W. KELLY, New York

STEVEN J. CHABOT, Ohio

PHIL ENGLISH, Pennsylvania

DAVID M. MCINTOSH, Indiana

RICK HILL, Montana

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania

JOHN E. SWEENEY, New York

PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania

JIM DEMINT, South Carolina

EDWARD PEASE, Indiana

JOHN THUNE, South Dakota

MARY BONO, California

NYDIA M. VELA ́ZQUEZ, New York

JUANITA MILLENDER-MCDONALD,

California

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

CAROLYN MCCARTHY, New York

BILL PASCRELL, New Jersey

RUBE ́N HINOJOSA, Texas

DONNA M. CHRISTIAN-CHRISTENSEN,

Virgin Islands

ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania

TOM UDALL, New Mexico

DENNIS MOORE, Kansas

STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES, Ohio

CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas

DAVID D. PHELPS, Illinois

GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California

BRIAN BAIRD, Washington

MARK UDALL, Colorado

SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada

HARRY KATRICHIS, Chief Counsel

MICHAEL DAY, Minority Staff Director

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPOWERMENT

JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania, Chairman

PHIL ENGLISH, Pennsylvania

JIM DEMINT, South Carolina

FRANK A. LOBIONDO, New Jersey

EDWARD PEASE, Indiana

JUANITA MILLENDER-MCDONALD,

California

DENNIS MOORE, Kansas

STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES, Ohio

TOM UDALL, New Mexico

DWAYNE, ANDREWS, Professional Staff Member
(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on March 28, 2000 ............................................................................ 1

WITNESSES

Mitchell, Dale, Executive Director, Delaware Valley Grantmakers, Philadelphia, PA ................................................................................................................ 3

Steen, Leslie, President, Community Preservation & Development Corporation, Washington, DC ........................................................................................... 5

Mills, Scott, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, BET.com,

LLC, Washington, DC .......................................................................................... 8

Dash, Darien, CEO, DME Interactive Holdings, INC., Englewood Cliffs, NJ .... 10

Miller, Harris, President, Information Technology Association of America,

Arlington, VA ........................................................................................................ 12

Bushkin, Katherine, Sr. Vice President & Chief Communications Officer,

America Online Inc., Dulles, VA ......................................................................... 14

APPENDIX

Opening statements:

Pitts, Hon. Joseph R ......................................................................................... 36

Prepared statements:

Mitchell, Dale .................................................................................................... 38

Steen, Leslie ...................................................................................................... 41

Mills, Scott ........................................................................................................ 72

Dash, Darien ..................................................................................................... 75

Miller, Harris .................................................................................................... 77

Bushkin, Katherine .......................................................................................... 81

(1)

BRIDGING THE TECHNOLOGICAL GAP: INITIATIVES TO COMBAT THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2000

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPOWERMENT, COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS, Washington, DC.

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:00 p.m., in room

2361, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Joseph R. Pitts (chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding.

Chairman PITTS. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, 2:00 having

arrived we are going to call the hearing forward. Thank you for

joining me and the other members who will soon arrive today to

discuss private sector initiatives that are in place to help bridge the

digital divide, the disparity between use of the Internet among the

rich and the poor.

This is the second hearing that this subcommittee is holding on

this topic. The first hearing, held last July, discussed the findings

of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s report, entitled Falling Through the Net, which defined the

term the ‘‘digital divide.’’ Since the release of this report there have

been initiatives from the private sector and government that have

been proposed and implemented to help combat the digital divide.

Indeed, the White House has proposed $2 billion in tax incentives and $380 million in new spending in the fiscal year 2001

budget to expand use of computers and training for teachers in

computer-related skills. I believe that before this Congress considers any new government spending or programs it is imperative

that we examine the methods that are already in place to expand

the technological reach of this Nation’s poorest citizens. To that

end, this subcommittee has convened this distinguished panel of

witnesses to receive their wisdom and to hear their experiences on

achieving technological awareness and access for all.

Since the vanquishing of the dreaded Y2K bug the digital divide

has become the new perilous buzz word in the information technology sector. In fact, the term digital divide encompasses more

than a technology gap between Americans at the highest and lowest income levels. The NTIA studies reveal that those living in

urban areas were more likely to be online than Americans living

in rural areas and that white households were more than twice as

likely to have Internet access as black or Hispanic households.

The digital divide is not just an American phenomenon. Italy recently announced a plan that would offer ninth grade students

computers at a 40 percent discount to encourage them to use the
2

Internet. Additionally Venezuela is considering the introduction of

prepaid cards to allow inexpensive Internet access at special community centers as part of a campaign to popularize the Web.

One of the overlooked issues in the national debate of the digital

divide is the state of disrepair of the schools that are being targeted for new computers and upgraded technology. Many students

there who suffer from a lack of access to technology also suffer

from being exposed to under achieving schools, poorly trained

teachers, and neglect from school board bureaucracies that become

virtual economic black holes. Unless teachers are properly trained,

and schools are held accountable for using their new found technologies in ways that advance the academic progress of their students, the introduction of new technology into these classrooms will

not help solve most of these students’ underlying academic deficiencies.

Indeed, a recently released report by the Children’s Partnership

pointed out that the Internet is virtually useless for the estimated

44 million Americans who read below the average literacy level.

The good news, though, is that there are many private sector initiatives that are poised to close the digital divide. Companies such

as Microsoft, Raycom and Sun Microsystems are donating software,

hardware and Internet access to students in underserved neighborhoods.

Today’s panel represents a broad cross-section of the types of programs that I believe will help narrow the digital divide. Dale

Mitchell, Executive Director of the Delaware Valley Grantmakers,

from my home State of Pennsylvania will testify about her organization’s efforts to partner nonprofit organizations and philanthropic

institutions. Leslie Steen, President of the Community Preservation and Development Corporation, will speak about her organization’s community technology center and its efforts to completely

wire its 800-unit housing development. Darien Dash, who is CEO

of DME Interactive Holdings, Inc., the first ever publicly traded

black-owned Internet company, will discuss his tenure as technology chair for School District 5 in Harlem, New York. Robert E.

Knowling, Jr., President and CE0 of Covad Communications, will

testify about the Information Technology Association of America’s

digital opportunity initiative, which provides internship programs

in the information technology for minority students. And Katherine

Bushkin, Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer

of America Online, will testify about her company’s efforts to bridge

the digital divide through the works of the AOL Foundation.

I look forward to the enlightening testimony of our panel.

Before I turn to—well, I guess the other members are not here.

I will turn now to the distinguished ranking member, Ms.

Millender-McDonald, for her opening statement.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would

like to again commend you on bringing this second hearing on the

digital divide hearing to us. I would like to say that it was this subcommittee and its chair who brought the first hearing about falling

through the net, defining the digital divide report coming out of the

Department of Commerce. So I commend you for your efforts in

continuing to keep us front and center on this.
3

I am indeed concerned about the digital divide given the fact that

I do represent the south central part of Los Angeles all the way

down to Long Beach in southern California, which takes up not

only Watts but Compton, Lynwoods. Some of the most impoverished areas in southern California, as far as Wilmington, a highly

immigrated community. And we see that the ‘‘falling through the

net’’, report which defines the digital divide, speaks about the gap

between the haves and the have nots. It is clearly an important

issue, an issue that those of us in the Congressional Black Caucus

as well as those of us in the Women’s Caucus are completely concerned about because it is small businesses that will be bringing

about the jobs, the largest creation of jobs, and clearly small businesses need a work force that is highly skilled and highly trained.

And so we welcome you here this morning as we continue the

dialogue on the digital divide. And again I thank the chairman for

his vision to continue to keep this before us. I do have a statement

that I will submit to the record, Mr. Chairman. Thank you again.

Chairman PITTS. All right. Without objection. Thank you. We will

now go to our testimony. We will begin with Dale Mitchell, Executive Director of the Delaware Valley Grantmakers, Philadelphia.

Welcome. You may proceed. We will use the light system if you

haven’t been here before. You have 5 minutes and after 4 minutes

the yellow light will go on, at the end of 5 the red light. We will

try to keep as close as we can to the time schedule.

STATEMENT OF DALE MITCHELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,

DELAWARE VALLEY GRANTMAKERS, PHILADELPHIA, PA

Ms. MITCHELL. Thank you very much. I will just start by giving

you a little bit of background about Delaware Valley Grantmakers,

known as the DVG. We are one of 29 regional associations of

grantmakers nationally. We are a membership organization comprised of private and community foundations, charitable trusts,

grantmaking public charities, corporate giving programs, and individual philanthropists in southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New

Jersey and Delaware.

Our mission is to promote effective and responsible philanthropy,

corporate social investment and community involvement by acting

as a clearing house of information, strengthening cooperation

among funders and grantees, informing and educating

grantmakers, recipients of grants, public policy makers, and the

broader community about social responsibility and philanthropy.

We develop and encourage community leadership and work to foster the culture of giving and to increase philanthropic resources.

We take an active role in addressing a range of issues, including

community needs, effective decision making, and public policies

that concern philanthropy.

DVG leads one of 18 coalitions from around the country who received funds from an organization known as New Ventures in Philanthropy to launch and support strategies to increase giving in

their region. DVG’s initiative is reaching out to the region’s entrepreneurs and rapidly emerging growth businesses, particularly the

information technology and e-commerce industries, to inspire and

engage them in giving back to their communities through both long

term financial support and volunteer assistance. Rather than en-
4

couraging this constituency to embrace philanthropy in general, the

coalition is working to engage them in solving a real problem and

utilize the talents that have made them successful in their businesses.

Through focus groups conducted with these industry leaders it

was determined that many feel they have a moral obligation to ensure that all individuals and communities have access to technology and that they are provided with the tools and knowledge to

enable them to compete and share in the new economy. These industry leaders also believe that developing and implementing strategies to bridge the digital divide are in their own best self-interests

and they see social investment as a way to apply their entrepreneurial skills in a different arena.

The Eastern Technology Council, located just outside of Philadelphia, has a data base that indicates that there are more than

15,000 technology firms in the region, and that e-commerce alone

was responsible for the creation of more than $14 billion of market

capital in 1999. Obviously this region has the potential to bridge

the digital divide through both the intellectual and financial capital

of these industries.

Based on the theory held by many that the most effective solutions to social ills must come from those closest to the problem,

DVG is developing and implementing strategies to foster cooperation and partnerships between the region’s nonprofit organizations,

philanthropic institutions, corporations, the public sector at the

Federal, state and local level, and these rapidly emerging IT businesses to bridge the digital divide.

We will encourage effective and creative new strategies, leverage

resources and work to strengthen and replicate the many initiatives that are already under way in the region. These initiatives include but are not limited to, the Free Library of Philadelphia Bits

and Bytes Project, funded by the William Penn Foundation, which

conducts computer clubs where children and teens learn how a

computer works, basic computer vocabulary, keyboard skills, research on the World Wide Web, et cetera. The project also helps

children, teens, parents, teachers and child care providers learn to

use these new technologies to access information and enhance

learning.

A project with the School District of Lancaster, Pennsylvania,

funded by the recently created Lancaster Osteopathic Health Foundation and another local foundation, will provide school principals

and administrators with access to technology to keep them on the

cutting edge of child health and wellness development.

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development is seeking to match the State’s $3 million investment to

continue the initiative to have Internet capacity in licensed child

care centers throughout the commonwealth. Based on surveys of

youth in selected neighborhoods of Philadelphia which indicated

that the activities of greatest interest were computer clubs—I am

going over my time here.

Chairman PITTS. That is all right. You can wrap it up.

Ms. MITCHELL. Their interest was in computer clubs, a collaboration of community groups, foundations, corporations, the city’s Department of Recreation, the school districts and others are estab-
5

lishing technology resource and research centers to provide resident youths, age 6 to 16, with access to technology by collectively

increasing the capacity of after school projects that are existing and

currently exposing program participants to technology.

The CIGNA Corporation funded the computer learning centers at

elementary and high schools in Philadelphia and Hartford, Connecticut, entitled Technology Training for Integrating Math and

Enhancing Science. The IBM Corporation’s We Have Narrowed the

Digital Divide, You Can Too, which showcases the success of IBM

and the United Way Teaming for Technology and KidSmart initiative, which provides early literacy tools to children 3 to 6 years of

age. IBM’s Global Reinventing Education Initiative, where in

Philadelphia the reinventing education model for teachers focuses

on effective use of technology integrated into the curriculum and

voice recognition technology for special needs students and those

who have English as a second language.

Through funding provided by the Howard Heinz Endowment, the

Pennsylvania Humanities Council will offer programs on technology and community at 10 sites in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Programs will include both face to face and virtual discussions on

the ways that information technologies are changing society.

And finally our Pennsylvania Education Secretary announced 5.2

million in grants awarded to 26 projects to strengthen information

technology training across the State. And this morning’s Philadelphia Inquirer noted that the newly created Lendfest Foundation in

Chester County provided $600,000 to provide software, free software and training in Internet use for elderly. And that grant was

presented to an organization called Generations On Line in Philadelphia. Thank you.

[Ms. Mitchell’s statement may be found in appendix.]

Chairman PITTS. Thank you, Ms. Mitchell. We will have questions to explore these a little bit more. I would like to welcome Representative Mark Udall from Colorado. He is not a member of the

subcommittee, but he is a member of the full committee and he has

expressed a great deal of interest in this—Tom Udall. I am sorry.

So we will go now to Leslie Steen, President of Community Preservation Development Corporation, Washington, D.C.

STATEMENT OF LESLIE STEEN, PRESIDENT, COMMUNITY

PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Ms. STEEN. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and subcommittee

members. I want to thank you for this opportunity to appear before

the subcommittee and offer the views of Community Preservation

and Development Corporation on the digital divide. You are to be

congratulated for having the forethought to convene this hearing

and investigate the issues.

Community Preservation and Development Corporation, known

as CPDC, has been actively bridging the digital divide for 41⁄2 years

in seven low income communities. CPDC works to revitalize communities by providing affordable housing and connecting people

with resources and with their neighbors to enable communities to

be strong, self-reliant and sustainable.
6

I don’t have to tell you about the reports like the Department of

Commerce’s Falling Through the Net, you are very aware of this.

But I do want to call to your attention how a real community is

embodying the power, speed, and what is rapidly becoming a basic

need of technology. What I do want to emphasize is the need for

all of us to make a conscious effort to help prevent citizens from

falling through the net, not tomorrow but today.

Edgewood Terrace in Northeast Washington, D.C., offers a prime

example of how CPDC and a community work together to implement the goal of revitalization. In 1995, CPDC received a request

for jobs from the residents of Edgewood Terrace, then a development of 884 HUD subsidized apartments that were seriously deteriorated and subject to significant criminal activity and economic

depression.

This is a picture of a community needing solutions. To find that

solution CPDC turned to technology. In 1995, it was clear that the

jobs of the future would be in technology so we set out to bring that

resource to Edgewood Terrace. When we graduated our first job

training class, we gained, for the first time, a real appreciation of

how powerful technology could be as a redevelopment tool.

Our approach to revitalizing this community combined a substantial rehabilitation of the physical structures with the community building programs centered on the use of technology. This produced both safe and attractive housing appealing to people of all

incomes and even engaged and civic minded community.

With us today is Bridget McLaurin, a graduate of our first class.

Today after several jobs and promotions Bridget works for National

Geographic.com earning over $30,000 and she is a junior at Catholic University. One after another her aunt and cousin also have

graduated to successful employment from our classes. Bridget, her

family, and her neighbors have recognized what technology can do

for them. Technology provides for them the opportunity to leapfrog

numerous obstacles and to join the economic mainstream of the

21st century.

Today our average graduate earns $23,000 upon graduation and

is prepared to succeed with a career plan, hard skills, the right attitude and appearance and an understanding of what it takes to

make it. The availability of technology has motivated the residents

of this community and its surrounding neighborhood to overfill our

four computer classrooms. The technology is a drawing card like

none we have ever seen. The people know what it can do for them

and they want it.

Edgewood terrace is being turned into an electronic village. Our

goal is to wire all of the apartments to access to a community network, community Web site, and high speed access to the Internet.

Using a newer technology known as thin clients, we have created

a manageable and sustainable community network giving all apartments use of a full range of Microsoft software without the headaches of daily care and feeding of computers in apartments.

CPDC has been able to make all of this technology available

through the efforts of numerous partnerships. This all started

when the Department of Housing and Urban Development gave us

the critical seed money and created the outstanding Neighborhood

Networks Program. Microsoft followed with a meaningful relation-
7

ship to help us access more resources and of course its software for

everyone. Netier donated thin clients. Data General donated servers. Data Transit gave time and expertise in integration and support.

Our educational partners include Catholic University of America,

which teaches part of our career enhancement programs and provides graduates with college scholarships; Bell Atlantic, which

sponsors one of our technology employment programs; George

Washington University, which provides interns in career assessment and evaluation; Morino Institute, which is teaching us how

to use the Internet to effectively grow children’s minds; and corporate leaders on our advisory board such as Fannie Mae, Edelman

Public Relations and Bell Atlantic. And now the Department of

Commerce’s National Telecommunication Information Administration’s Technology Opportunities Program is enabling the extension

of the community network to the rest of the apartments to serve

the needs of the residents who are clamoring for access to the resource.

Koenie Carter, who is also with us today, graduated from our

employment program and entered college after overcoming many

obstacles common to people in disadvantaged neighborhoods and

working at several menial jobs. She represents the win-win relationship between CPDC and its business partners. She has tripled

her income and is working for a biomedical division of Catholic

University.

It is important to recognize that this technology is being used as

a community building tool. This is not just about access. Access is

a tool given to people. Strong, economically vibrant communities

are the result of what we can do with this tool. Mr. Chairman, it

has been a long road to bridging the digital divide at Edgewood

Terrace but we will continue to expand this model. Why? Because

as Jonathan Alter of Newsweek put it, the computer is not a deus

ex-machina, a god that can fix every social injustice. Access to technology won’t by itself level the playing field. If you wire them, they

won’t necessarily prosper. You have got to facilitate the possibilities. CPDC is doing just that with the Edgewood Residents Technology Advisory Board, e-Tab.

Also with us today is Patricia Fisher, an active member of e-Tab

and one of our newest graduates of the employment program. She

is a single mother with a 5-year-old son. She has been on and off

public assistance and her last job before entering our employment

program was at Starbucks. Pat graduated, took a term contract job

with a business and policy research firm, and now has three job offers. And best of all, Pat moved to Edgewood Terrace to be part of

the electronic village and join e-Tab.

To use the resource called access, e-Tab and CPDC are in the

process of building a Web site to serve the needs of the community,

a chat room for the teens to talk about self-esteem and relationship

issues, a community bulletin board for notices of meetings, a portal

to educational Web sites for the children, health screening for the

seniors, and whatever else the community determines are worthwhile endeavors.

To make this happen, a governance structure is evolving within

the community. People come to meetings to discuss the community
8

network and how it should be deployed. They have formed committees and have established rules of conduct for the use of the network. They are teaching each other how to use the technology. We

do not have a help desk at Edgewood Terrace. The residents are

their own help desk. They are creating relationships with their

neighbors where none existed before. In short, they are relying on

each other, not on CPDC or the government.

I urge you to be a catalyst to encourage the Silicon Valleys of

America to invest in our cities, our underserved citizens, our community based organizations that can fill the void and given the Nation a return on its investment that has not been seen before. Technology is radically changing the social landscape of Edgewood Terrace. If CPDC can find the financial means, we intend to replicate

this model to turn other depressed communities into vibrant, selfreliant centers of economic activity. In 3 years the electronic village

at Edgewood Terrace will be the click heard round the world.

Thank you.

[Ms. Steen’s statement may be found in appendix.]

Chairman PITTS. Thank you. That is quite a story. Scott Mills,

Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer of BET.com.

STATEMENT OF SCOTT MILLS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, BET.COM, LLC, WASHINGTON, DC

Mr. MILLS. Good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity

to share BET.com’s efforts to address the digital divide in the African American. BET.com is a joint venture between BET Holdings,

Microsoft Corporation, News Corporation, USA Network and Liberty Digital. The company is majority owned and controlled by BET

Holdings and is based here in the District of Columbia. The company’s mission is to educate, empower, enrich and entertain the African American online population.

BET.com launched our Web site on February 7th, containing over

20,000 pages of original and partner provided content, robust online communities and leading edge communication features, all tailored to the African American perspective.

African Americans currently underutilize the Internet relative to

other ethnic segments; however, African Americans are projected to

be the fastest growing online ethic population in 2000. However,

failure by any community to fully utilize the Internet will adversely

affect its effectiveness and ability to compete in the 21st century.

As a company dedicated to serving the African American online

population, BET.com has focused on understanding and developing

strategies to address the digital divide.

We believe that market activity, including our own, will eliminate the vast majority of the digital divide facing the African

American community. We also believe that the portion of the digital divide that cannot be bridged by pure market forces should be

addressed through a combination of public and private efforts. A

great deal of focus has been appropriately placed on the role economics play in the digital divide.

Cost and related issues are impediments for a portion of the African American population that is not currently online. However,

changes in PC and ISP pricing models are making cost less of an
9

impediment. With the proliferation of free ISPs, free Internet access is now widely available. And there are many new moderately

priced PC–ISP packages and a growing list of low cost non- PC

based Internet access devices available. As a result consumers can

now buy bundled PC–ISP packages for a monthly fee that is less

than the cost of basic cable service in many areas.

BET.com is planning to deploy two new services based on these

pricing models. The first service is a completely free BET branded

ISP. This free service will not require credit approval nor require

consumers to surrender excessive amounts of personal data. The

service will be available via software download on the BET.com

Web site and may be distributed via CD–ROMs and BET Holdings’

magazines, which have a circulation of over 2 million African

Americans. We believe this free ISP offering will be very attractive

to African Americans who already own Internet access devices and

are seeking a low cost Internet access alternative.

Our second planned offering is a low cost bundled PC–ISP package. This offering will provide consumers with a high quality PC,

a comprehensive software package, unlimited Internet access and

robust customer service for less than $30 a month. Recognizing

that credit may be an issue for some, BET.com is evaluating credit

facilities that will allow us to provide a package to consumers with

relatively low credit scores. We plan to market this service

throughout BET Holdings’ media properties and distribute directly

to consumers. We believe that both free Internet access and bundled low cost PC–ISP offerings will significantly reduce the economic barriers to Internet access.

Cost however is not a barrier for some portion of the African

American population that is currently off line. Instead, weak consumer demand and alternative expenditure priorities are responsible for this segment’s underutilization of the Internet. For example, according to the Target Market News report on buying power

of black Americans in 1999, African Americans spent $3.5 billion

on cable television subscriptions and only $89 million on online

computer services. This lagging consumer demand in the African

American community stems in part from limited targeted marketing of the Internet to African Americans and the relative paucity of online offerings tailored to this community.

Over the past several years there has been a proliferation of

well-funded Web sites targeting various affinity groups, including

women, Hispanics, Asian Americans and the gay and lesbian community. These sites were able to apply their capital to develop compelling and comprehensive online destinations. Until recently African American oriented Web sites and Internet ventures had great

difficulty attracting the capital required to develop comparable online destinations. As a result, online offerings tailored to African

American community paled relative to those of other affinity

groups.

Of course the appeal to the Internet for African Americans is not

limited to culturally oriented Web sites. African Americans visit a

vast array of Web sites, many having nothing to do with ethnicity.

However, until very recently most Internet companies, both general

market and African American, did not aggressively market their offerings to the African American community. This is evidenced by
10

the historic disparity in advertisement for online services in African American media properties versus general media properties.

Fortunately this is changing. A number of major well-funded African American-oriented Web sites will be launched in 2000.

BET.com is the first of the new sites to enter the market. With $35

million in initial capital and power strategic investors, BET.com

had the resources to build the comprehensive online destination

and aggressively market to the African American community. By

applying these resources BET.com was able to become the largest

and most heavily trafficked African American portal during its first

month.

Other similarly resourced sites tailored to African Americans in

urban communities are scheduled to launch this year. We believe

that the combined effect of the substantial increase in online offerings tailored to African Americans and the active marketing of

these offerings to African Americans will also significantly increase

African American awareness of and use of the Internet.

In conclusion, we believe that African American utilization of the

Net will increase substantially over the next 18 months and the effects of, one, low cost Internet access devices, two, the deployment

of compelling African American oriented Web sites and, three, the

targeted marketing of the Internet to the African American population are realized. However, there will be a segment of the community for whom these forces will be insufficient. This segment

will be best served by combined public and private sector initiatives

to bridge the digital divide.

[Mr. Mills’ statement may be found in appendix.]

Chairman PITTS. Thank you, Scott. Next witness is Darien Dash,

CEO of DME Interactive Holdings from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

STATEMENT OF DARIEN DASH, CEO, DME INTERACTIVE

HOLDINGS, INC., ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, NJ

Mr. DASH. First, I would like to thank the subcommittee for continuing to support this issue of the digital divide and keeping it in

front of everybody’s minds because we all know how important this

is. I have come today without a speech because I wanted to speak

from my heart.

I founded my company 51⁄2 years ago on the mission of expanding

the hardware and software infrastructure within minority communities. After being in the cable industry for a year and seeing the

disparities that were going on between new digital technologies

that were being marketed in 1993 and 1994 in African American

communities and Hispanic communities versus majority communities, I decided to do something about it and I quit my job the day

after I was married and founded our company in a one bedroom

apartment. Last year we became, after self-financing for the first

41⁄2 years, the first African American Internet company to be publicly traded in U.S. history. For us that is a testament to one thing,

and that is that hard work and striving in any community can lead

to development and that African Americans as a consumer group,

like Scott has just eloquently said, are a true consumer group that

represents over $533 billion and there are business models that

need to be built.
11

Our company’s whole agenda is to try to perceive a business to

people in the communities so they can be inspired to want to participate in the digital revolution. African Americans and Hispanics

have not perceived the Internet as something that is for them from

a business perspective. They have not seen role models that have

represented this Internet generation in the media. Not only have

PC manufacturers, ISPs as well as content developers not marketed their e-commerce and content services towards this community, the role models have not been represented in the Forbes 400.

The role models have not been represented to African American

and Hispanic youth.

Our company’s goal is to be able to build that sort of perception

in the marketplace. I am now the chairman of District 5 for Technology Committee in Harlem. What we have done is put together

a consortium of public and private partnerships to allow the children in that community to see company names like Oracle involved

in this community, company names like Mouse, which is a very big

nonprofit in New York that goes in and wires schools, Eureka

Broadband. They see these companies’ names and at a young age

can start to identify with the technology and the people who are

providing these technologies to them.

Our goal is also to be able to support the entrepreneur who

wants to put their business online. Our core business has traditionally been in B to B where we go out and actually support the

Queen Latifahs and the Puff Daddies of the world who are the big

role models in the African American community on putting their

businesses online. We provide them with backing solutions to help

them do their e-commerce, content development, strategic planning, and long term planning.

Well, the digital divide from a dial-up perspective has been something that has passed these inner city communities today. We have

to look long term, we can’t just look today and we give dial-up ISP

service and PC service and say, hey, we solved the digital divide

because that is not true. While these communities are now just

starting to catch up in the old school model of Internet we are

about to launch the new school model of Internet, which is called

I–2. And I–2 is based on broadband and wireless deployment, network computers and wireless devices. What we cannot fail to see

is that broadband deployment has to be pushed by the telecommunications companies within these inner city communities,

because we cannot put people onto an old system while the whole

new generation passes them by, because we would have bridged

the gap only to create a new one.

Our company’s goal is to continue to support the perspective of

these inner city communities as they look at technology and helping them to understand and retain the knowledge of technology, because that is really what needs to happen to bridge in divide.

I applaud all of my peers’ efforts in going into our community,

and we have recently announced a strategic partnership with

America Online to build a relevant branded service called Places of

Color, where we can go in and build on a nucleus of training, distance learning, certification, job placement, and relevant content

for a price point that is affordable. And we are also bundling with

PC manufacturers so that we can go in with both solutions. But we
12

have to continue to look outward and look on to the horizon as the

rest of our peer groups are doing in this Internet industry and see

that broadbands and wireless are the next generation. We also

have to go in and let these inner city kids realize that they too can

participate. It is the economic future of our country that we have

a generation of youth that understands technology, embraces it,

can deploy it, can be entrepreneurial with it. Otherwise this country will fail. Our economy will fail and we will continue to have to

look outwardly instead of inwardly for the next generation to support what we are doing.

Thank you.

[Mr. Dash’s statement may be found in appendix.]

Chairman PITTS. Thank you very much. The next witness is Harris Miller, President of the Information Technology Association of

America, Arlington, Virginia. Welcome.

STATEMENT OF HARRIS N. MILLER, PRESIDENT, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, ARLINGTON,

VA

Mr. MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Bob Knowling, the CEO

of Covad, wanted to be with you today but he had a last minute

emergency. But he is the Chairman of ITAA’s Digital Opportunity

Initiative, and so I am speaking for the entire committee. Just a

couple of small data points, Mr. Chairman.

Since I visited with you at your first hearing last year, about 10

million more Americans have come online, about 80 million more

people around the world, just to give you an idea of how fast this

industry and this Internet grows and how rapidly it does.

I would also mention that the individual from the administration

who was here last year to speak about the digital divide report, Mr.

Larry Irving, is now himself out in the private sector helping to

create content to attract more African Americans to the Internet.

So obviously maybe you helped convince him that was one of the

obstacles.

I would also mentioned, I am sure, great minds think alike. I

mentioned that perhaps BET could create an idea of a Web site,

and I am very pleased that BET has come to fruition though I have

not been given any shares in the company. But I do commend them

for that opportunity.

The incredible growth of the Internet still convinces me, Mr.

Chairman, that we are still using the wrong phrase ‘‘digital divide,’’

so I encourage this committee to change its terminology to ‘‘digital

opportunity.’’ in fact, if you notice President Clinton’s recent announcement he headlined from digital divide to digital opportunity.

Now the head of the World Bank is talking about the digital opportunity, the OECD, the United Nations.

Because of this rapid growth you have heard from the previous

witnesses, the creation of new content, the creation of new options,

the creation of new incentives for people to come to the Internet is

what is making this so exciting.

As we discussed last summer, Mr. Chairman, no technology has

ever grown as rapidly to Main Street and even down into lower income as has the Internet. Not television, not radio not automobiles,
13

not cable television, nothing has ever grown faster as a technology

and in terms of adoption as the Internet.

As Mr. Mills pointed out, every indication is that the fastest

growing community now on the Internet is in fact the African

American community. So I think these are all very positive signs.

But we still have some major opportunities to address.

One of the opportunities we must address is the absence of minorities as IT workers. The problem is not, I would contend, discrimination that we have had traditionally where some industries

as they grew up in the Industrial Age intentionally discriminated

against people of color. Really the issue is training and education.

As an example, in 1998 according to the Computer Research Association’s study, only 10 African Americans received Ph.D.’s in computer science. Only 6 Hispanic Americans did likewise. Other 2

percent of undergraduate computer science degrees went to African

Americans or Hispanic Americans.

The IT work force data we have examined similarly is somewhat

disheartening. African Americans represent only 5.4 percent of all

computer programmers, yet they are over 10 percent of the U.S.

working population. Hispanic Americans only 4.6 percent of all

computer programming jobs and native Americans only .2 percent

of the total science and engineering labor force. Clearly, many minority groups are severely underrepresented in the IT work force.

And again I do not believe it is a case of employer discrimination,

rather a case of education and training.

So ITAA is focusing on what we call the digital opportunity initiatives intended to create new opportunities, to create a more diverse cross-section of Americans into the IT community, primarily

through comprehensive internship programs and a broad based

commitment from our member companies and targeted education

and outreach. As I mentioned, Robert Knowling, the President and

CEO of Covad Communications, is chairing the initiative and is

working hard to recruit companies to participate in this activity.

We have already created, for example, a Web based internship

program located at WWW.digitaljobs.com, which is targeted to attract underrepresented groups. Companies that have already

signed on to offer internships include Covad, Lucent Technologies

and Cyborg Systems. This opportunity is for minority students who

are in 2-year or 4-year accredited institutions and have at least a

3.0 or better to apply online for internships working in high tech

companies, and the high tech companies in turn will post online

their job opportunities.

Now, the only challenge we have here then is to use the technology itself to link the prospective minority interns with the companies who are actively looking to recruit these people into their

companies. We will then track the progress of these students to try

to make sure that they continue with their education and training,

and we hope become part of the work force so that when I come

back to you next year or the year after we can report a much higher percentage of minority students in these programs.

We are also working with various groups such as

Blackvoices.com, the Black Data Processors Association and the Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers to work on programs to

create awareness of these kind of opportunities. We are also
14

partnering with the Tech World Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., which prepares students for careers in information

technology. I have been very impressed, for example, by the president of the sophomore class who last year did an internship, an IT

internship at a local company here and made more money than his

family had ever made in 1 year in just 2 months.

We are also creating a digital opportunity think tank to bring together people of all walks of life to figure out ways to create even

more opportunities to bring people who have not been in the IT industry previously into the IT industry. Admittedly this is selfish to

some extent, Mr. Chairman, because the IT industry has a welldocumented shortage of skilled IT workers. To solve the problem

we have to reach out to women and minorities to bring them in.

We believe that this initiative, these internship programs, working

with the charter schools and others will bring more underrepresented groups into the IT industry and help make the digital opportunity even more of a reality.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

[Mr. Miller’s statement may be found in appendix.]

Chairman PITTS. Thank you very much for your testimony this

year as well and for reminding us to use the term ‘‘digital opportunity.’’ I will try to remember that.

Our last witness is Katherine Bushkin, Senior Vice President,

Chief Communications Officer of America Online.

STATEMENT OF KATHERINE BUSHKIN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, AMERICA

ONLINE, INC., DULLES, VA

Ms. BUSHKIN. Thank you, Chairman Pitts and other members of

the subcommittee. On behalf of America Online and the AOL Foundation, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today and

discuss the digital opportunity.

America Online, as most of you know, is an Internet services

company. It is based in northern Virginia. And just as committed

as we are to building a company that serves now 22 million consumers, we are equally committed to ensuring that the medium we

are building is one that can serve all Americans regardless of their

station in life. Clearly in order to fulfill that potential all communities and all people must be able to participate in the new digital

economy regardless of income, race, geography, or disability. So we

salute the subcommittee for focusing today on the importance of

ensuring digital opportunity for all.

Our assessment is that progress is being made in closing the digital technology gap. Yet it is also the case that there are still significant disparities in access to and use of the Internet. The bottom

line is that this medium won’t have fulfilled its full potential if people with disabilities don’t have access to its rich content, if kids in

inner cities never experience the magic of interactivity and if entire

rural communities are isolated from this revolution.

We believe, as another witness said today, that we have a moral

responsibility to make sure that every person has the chance to

succeed and to be part of the digital economy. And it is an economic challenge as well because in a networked economy people

who are already connected benefit each time more people are con-
15

nected. So beyond the statistics that are well known now about the

gap in demographics, there is also another issue that is critical to

our future economic health.

Although the United States is the birthplace of the information

revolution, the American work force is not yet ready fully to reap

its benefits. The Department of Commerce estimates that in just 2

years some 60 percent of jobs will require high tech skills. By 2005

there will be a growth of 70 percent in technology related jobs. Yet

according to a recent study more than 340,000 high tech jobs in the

U.S. computer industry remain unfilled, and we are not training

students for the skills they will need.

AOL believes that the online medium holds extraordinary promise for low income and underserved communities to join the economic, political and social mainstream. That is why we believe it

is so critical to find ways to turn the digital divide into digital opportunity and use it to close the gap. We think there are four elements necessary to achieve meaningful access to information technology.

The first is that we must ensure that all people have physical,

structural access to information technology on the Internet. This

includes hardware, software and affordable connectivity. Second,

we must ensure that people have sufficient skills and training. Not

only is it necessary to have the skills to use the equipment, but analytical skills are also critical to being able to use it effectively to

participate in today’s high tech workplace.

Third, as several witnesses have noted, we must provide content

that is useful and relevant to traditionally underserved communities, including low literacy content, content with diverse cultural

perspectives, content in many different languages and content reflecting the unique needs of individual underserved communities.

And fourth, we must undertake the necessary public education to

ensure the communities appreciate the need to adopt and integrate

the new medium so that communities can participate in the digital

economy and their children can be successful. These four elements

are the underpinnings of what AOL and the AOL Foundation has

tried to achieve in the last few years as we have worked in partnership with other companies and governments and nonprofits to find

ways to bridge the digital divide. We focus first on schools because

we think schools are where the skills are most important to be established and built from the top down. We don’t think this is a

matter simply of hand me down computers or continuing the debate whether technology matters in education. We must make

every attempt to ensure that those who need support in schools can

have it.

Two years ago we established an Education Initiatives Grant

Program that awards seed money to teams of educators, parents

and school administrators with innovative ideas for using interactive technology. We have done over 110 of those grants and we

have learned a lot already about what works and what doesn’t. But

we know schools aren’t the only source of solutions for the digital

divide in that it will take a lot more to get past it.

So this past November we initiated a program called PowerUp,

comprised of more than a dozen nonprofit organizations major corporations and Federal agencies. The idea behind power up is quite
16

simple. It is not enough to give people access to the computers and

the Internet we have to teach them the skills to make the most of

that technology and the guidance they need to make the most of

their lives. Based in schools and community centers around the

country, PowerUp not only will provide young people with access

to a wide range of content and information on the Internet, it will

also help them develop the additional skills they will need in the

21st century. We think PowerUp can be scaled quickly and we intend to have centers in 250 locations by the end of this year.

We are also working with the Leadership Conference on Civil

Rights to help bring participation into the 180 organizations that

are involved in the leadership conference and we are working with

a number of other organizations to build nonprofit capacity as people are starting to use the Internet more in other ways.

I want to close with four things that I think the subcommittee

needs to keep in mind as you follow this issue. The first is that we

are just at the very beginning of this evolution of information society. We are going to see much more innovation and growth. And

now is the time to help shape it.

Second, it is critical to remember that the new medium offers as

much opportunity to bridge the gap as it does to widen it. The paradox of this medium is that with very little money and a Web site

anyone can have the skills to reach a market that was previously

unheard. Communities that have not had access to traditional investment capital can use it for economic development. Underserved

populations that have been marginalized politically can use to have

their voices heard.

Third, keep in mind that the role of intermediary organizations,

nonprofits and others can be critical in bridging the digital divide.

We cannot see underserved and remote communities fully embracing the opportunities and benefits of the Internet unless those organizations are fully prepared to help their constituents.

And finally, we believe it is important to make sure that entrepreneurs from all walks of life, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds are given the same opportunity that Steve Case had 15

years ago when he was able to start AOL. We think we have a

golden opportunity to make the Internet a medium that serves and

empowers all segments of our economy so its transformative success is truly integrated throughout our society. We think we can

meet this challenge if we work together to ensure that the 21st

century is about digital opportunity for all and a new opportunity

for all Americans to come into the economic and political mainstream.

Thank you.

[Ms. Bushkin’s statement may be found in appendix.]

Chairman PITTS. We will now go to questioning by the members

of the subcommittee. I am pleased to note that the gentleman from

Kansas, Dennis Moore, has joined us. First, we would like to do one

round for Dale Mitchell. Dale has to leave to catch a train at 3:15.

So if I can ask the members in the first round to just ask Dale

questions. I will start.

Dale, could you provide the subcommittee with a little bit more

information regarding the project you mentioned, the School Dis-
17

trict of Lancaster and the Lancaster Osteopathic Health Foundation? Can you tell us more about that?

Ms. MITCHELL. I cannot tell you a great deal more about it. I believe it is being announced publicly today. Bob Haig, who is head

of the Lancaster Osteopathic Health Foundation, just gave me this

information late last week but they are very excited about it and

hope to work with all the schools and the principals in the Lancaster County area.

I think there is a news release that is going to come out on it

today. I will ensure that your office gets it.

Chairman PITTS. In your testimony you mentioned several Delaware Valley Grantmaker partnerships that involve programs for

young children. How important do you believe it is for children to

be exposed to information technology at an early age and what is

the key to closing the gap with these partnerships?

Ms. MITCHELL. Well, it is critically important. Before joining

DVG as its executive director 5 years ago, I spent 30 years of my

career with the IBM Corporation. So I learned early on what a critical tool technology is for people to succeed. And as was mentioned

by other panelists here today, there is a growing need in the information technology industry itself for employees as many of you I

am sure know we are bringing in employees from other countries

because there aren’t enough people in this country who have been

trained and educated in information technology. And that is why

it is so important if we want to remain competitive.

Chairman PITTS. How receptive have information technology

firms in your region been towards the Delaware Valley

Grantmaker initiatives to bridge the gap?

Ms. MITCHELL. We are starting to see a great deal more receptivity to it. In working with the Eastern Technology Council, and

these firms are all members of that council, I will say that I felt

for a while over the past 2 years that we have been working on this

initiative that I wasn’t getting anywhere. And just in the past few

months and I certainly think all the national attention that is

being paid to it by not only the Clinton administration but certainly others and seeing organizations like Microsoft and AOL becoming so involved in it, they are now starting to express a great

deal of interest and want to know what is going on out there and

how they can be of help and partner with our more traditional philanthropists and the nonprofit organizations. I think what we need

to ensure is that we not only keep having discussions like this but

that incentives are put in place to encourage these businesses to

get involved, tax incentives being one of them.

Chairman PITTS. Ms. Millender-McDonald.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and

thank you, Ms. Mitchell, for your great testimony this morning

along with all the others. You were very insightful and certainly

encouraging. But I want to ask you this, Delaware Valley

Grantmakers group, how many folks do you have, how many corporations and charitable trusts make up that group?

Ms. MITCHELL. It is 154 organizational members and within

those organizations we have close to 700 people who are members

of the organizations because—of our association because they are

either staff or trustees of those organizations. About a third of
18

them are corporate, either corporate giving programs or corporate

foundations.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. A lot of the groups conducted with

this industry leadership determined that they felt a moral obligation, which I think is so critical. What do you think made them get

to that point of seeing this as a moral obligation?

Ms. MITCHELL. Well, I think as many business people in this

country, certainly not all of them, but we have a rich history and

tradition of corporations being socially responsible. And those that

are in this particular industry I think are beginning to see that if

we leave people behind and don’t provide them with this digital opportunity, then they are not holding up to their moral responsibility. And it is in their own self-interest. It is their future employees, their future clients, so that is certainly a big piece of it.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. This is the one thing that we try to

convey to businesses when we meet with them, that it is in your

best interest, it is your future workers. And clearly if they do not

see it as a moral obligation, given the fact that I think you stated

or some of the others, that we are having to go outside of this country to bring in skilled workers because of a lack of persons being

eligible to go to these jobs in Silicon Valley and all over the country, that too should say a lot. That speaks volumes to the need for

our business folks to look at this and the educational institutions

too, as coming from an administrative position in education, we

were worlds apart in business and education until all of a sudden

they see that we must bridge and become partners.

I really applaud you and all the others who are part of your

group in trying to bring about this digital divide. I will not continue to move from that, Mr. Miller, until I have seen this divide

or this gap closed.

The other thing that I wanted to ask you, Ms. Mitchell, and I am

pulling it from your statement, that is why I am underscoring all

of what you have—obviously the region has the potential to bridge

the digital divide through both the intellectual and financial capital

of these industries. Explain, expound on that just a little bit more.

Ms. MITCHELL. I want to take the opportunity since the AOL

Corporation and Foundation is represented here today, I had the

opportunity to hear David Eisner speak from AOL a couple of

months ago and he was the first I heard who said we have a moral

responsibility. And then I started to talk to folks in my own region

and they agreed with him. And one of the things in talking to these

folks, and also David said it, many of them in the early stages of

their business don’t feel that they can give a lot of money to this

cause at this point but they can certainly provide the intellectual

capital to it and——

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. That is, intellectual capital.

Ms. MITCHELL. They have the knowledge since they are in the

information technology industry to go into schools, community centers, et cetera, as volunteers and share their knowledge.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Okay. And that is very true. But in

my area of Watts, we certainly could, and would applaud anyone

who comes in, albeit BET, to give that intellectual knowledge base

and mentorship if you will. But there is also a critical need for

funding to go into the hardware-software part of it. Because you
19

can mentor for days and years and yet if you don’t have that tangible product on which you transfer that knowledge it is not as

worthwhile.

Ms. MITCHELL. We are hoping to tap both of that, the intellectual

as well as the financial. I think in any type of charitable giving in

this country research reflects that those that go there and volunteer first then grow into the biggest givers in this country. So we

are hoping and that is why we also want to partner some of these

rapidly emerging growth businesses with our more traditionally

philanthropies like the William Penn Foundation in Philadelphia,

the Microsofts, the AOLs, who are higher in the curve in their success, and leverage the resources.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I know my light is on, Mr. Chairman. I want to mention though that is true. I think the intellectual

part of it is so critical for those in the business industry to go and

speak with the top level administration in schools and educational

institutions because they too need that type of mentorship and

training, and who best to give that but those who are the top brass

on both ends.

Just concluding, the IBM Corporation We Have Narrowed the

Digital Divide, You Can Too. How many other groups are working

with them on that outside of the United Way?

Ms. MITCHELL. They are holding a conference later this week to

get other nonprofits to team with them on this. They are hoping

that this just begins to be replicated all over the country.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you, Ms. Mitchell. Thank

you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman PITTS. Thank you, Ms. Mitchell, for your testimony. I

think we are getting you out of here in time to catch the train.

Ms. MITCHELL. Thank you very much.

Chairman PITTS.We appreciate you coming in today.

Ms. MITCHELL. I will leave some of our just off the press newsletters that came out yesterday that talks all about ‘‘now I will call

it the digital opportunity, we unfortunately call it the digital divide.’’.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. You keep going, Ms. Mitchell, on

that with me.

Chairman PITTS. All right. We will begin our second round of

questioning. I will start with Darien Dash. Your testimony, Mr.

Dash, was very, very interesting. You mention in your position as

technology chair of School Board Number 5 in Harlem what has

been the response to the technology that has been provided to the

schools. And you also mentioned I think a public-private partnership. If you could explain that a little bit more as far as the

schools.

Mr. DASH. In Harlem it was a unique situation because I came

into a district after the superintendent had changed that traditionally had been the worst district in Harlem. They probably were the

furthest behind on technology than any other school district or area

in Harlem. What we had to do was to figure out a way creatively

to get machines and access broadband access into the schools and

also to provide content that the kids could relate to and could embrace.
20

So as chair what I did was put together a board of public-private

sector partners that I knew could bring value added to the table.

So Oracle has come to the table with network computers as well

as the Beehive, which is a networked based, Internet based community. Eureka Broadband came and wired the schools and Mouse,

a nonprofit organization, helped to bring Compaq and Alta Vista to

donate some 750 machines to the district so we can have at least

30 to 40 machines in each school. We launched the Secretary of

Commerce Daley’s digital divide tour in the district and he actually

came and did a brief tour of one of the schools and had an opportunity to see how the kids had embraced the technology and what

a difference it was actually starting to make in the school.

The children often don’t have access outside of the school, and

they don’t go to the public libraries after school because that is

what they call corny. So they don’t want to go to the public library

after school. So therefore when they are in the class they have, you

know, very brief opportunities to really interact with the computer.

There are so many kids and there are so many other problems that

exist in the school the few moments that they have with the technology has made a difference for them.

Chairman PITTS. You mentioned a new school model that you

were developing. Are you talking about a virtual classroom?

Mr. DASH. The Internet, they say every year is a dog year, 7

years in the regular industry. So when I said old school I was talking about traditional dial-up. I was talking about what we call the

ISP model where people are getting traditional 56K Internet service to the household, not broadband, not wireless. When I said new

school I was making reference to the next generation I–2, which is

the cable modem, broadband wireless access where the Internet

will start to be delivered in real time and the capacity for content

and the capacity for new applications in the entire model on how

applications are delivered and stored and how consumers participate with those applications will change.

It will revolutionize once again. So when I made that reference

that is what I was talking about.

Chairman PITTS. Do you envision a classroom that is conducted

virtually?

Mr. DASH. Absolutely. Next generation educational system is

going to be built on distance learning. And we have already started

to see that today. More and more people are getting certified online

and are participating online to get distance learning. I think that

it really makes a lot of sense given the inner city communities’ perspective in education. Kids don’t always think, are not always comfortable being smart in school or being in that classroom and being

the person who is getting good grades whereas on a one-on-one environment it is different. They have a different sort of relationship

and interaction with education and technology is the great enabler

to be able to do that. And the next generation of Internet is certainly going to be the platform to do it.

Chairman PITTS. Since you also have ties to the record industry

can you compare the entrepreneurial opportunities for young African American students in that industry as to those in the IT sector?
21

Mr. DASH. Well, you know it is interesting that you should mention that that it seems more and more record executives are fleeing

the record industry to try to get involved in the Internet. I actually

had a very prominent record industry executive who runs a big

label come to me the other day and say I want to be your ambassador to the entertainment industry and I want to come and help

build your entertainment division in your company. They certainly

know the next generation returns as entrepreneurs is going to be

in the Internet and the opportunities are greater. And I do see that

because African Americans are growing at such a rapid rate there

will be a lot of saturation from a proliferation of just general Web

sites that are not funded well enough to survive.

Funding is an important piece of surviving as an entrepreneur.

You can’t just have the good idea nowadays, you have to have the

financing to be able to survive it. And the record industry executives have traditionally been successful because they have been

able to self-finance their businesses or their albums to the point

where if it is a quality product it is successful. It is not quite that

easy in the Internet business.

Chairman PITTS. The red light is on. I wanted to ask you about

the strategic partnership that you mentioned but I will wait.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. That tells me, Mr. Chairman, you

want me to be careful too about the light. Listen, Mr. Dash, you

have a cousin who is in hip-hop?

Mr. DASH. Damon.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. How do you think perhaps that tool

can be used to enhance the interest of high technology among those

in urban areas?

Mr. DASH. We are using it now. The rappers and the entertainers, the ballplayers, they are the ones really today who are

driving urban culture and they are driving urban businesses. So we

are starting to use that now in putting those faces like BET has

done as well in putting those faces in front of the medium. Technology’s perception in the community has to change, and the ones

to do it are the, quote-unquote, market makers. Those market makers are the JayZ’s and the Puff Daddies of the world.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. You have lost me completely with

this, young man, but it is an age culture that we are talking about.

But if you are in front of them are you actually talking in this rap,

they are saying get on the Internet whatever, whatever?

Mr. DASH. There is a rapper named Nas actually who is a very

popular rapper I guess. He sold 21⁄2 million on his last release. In

one of his songs he starts to make reference to people getting involved in the Internet and more and more rappers are using the

dot com in their rap. He even made reference to being a public

company or taking companies public. I think that is really going to

be the next generation. Entrepreneurs are going to have more and

more public companies because they have seen how quickly things

can change when you have a public vehicle behind you. I think our

company has been a good exam of that.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I had last year in my CBC annual

legislative conference weekends, I was talking about going public.

So I need to connect with Noz, is it?

Mr. DASH. Noz.
22

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I have to connect with that. All

right. You know, our kids, inner city kids and even rural kids, really the two of them are very much behind in terms of getting connected. And you are right they have few computers in schools. I

mean it is about 18 to 1, in some of my schools in the districts of

Watts. But they connect every so often when they get on this computer, but it really doesn’t give them that feel and this energy and

motivation, but then it is not in the libraries, it is not in the

homes. That is where the divide comes in, Mr. Miller, that we are

talking about, this inability for these children and students to really get excited about this.

What can you tell me, outside of the rap groups, and that is very

important too for young folks these days, what else can we do to

start this avalanche of interest on the part of the Internet with our

kids and then speak to the new schools, distance learning is absolutely critical, especially with adult students going back to school,

and if they are, piped in or tuned into the Internet they could do

this distance learning far more effectively as well as wireless and

the broadband.

So just your summation of that, tell us how we can get them

more energized, motivated and get going on the Internet.

Mr. DASH. Interestingly enough, I think that there is already intent. The intent in the communities are there. People want technology. It is not that they don’t want it. It is it hasn’t been accessible, it hasn’t been marketed and it hasn’t been made to feel sexy.

It hasn’t been made to be something that they can touch, feel and

understand.

In fact, to go back to your reference, Mr. Chairman, our venture

with America Online is built to do just that, to bring tangibility to

the Internet and to bring access with a bundles PC to the price

point so that people can understand it, touch it and feel it. I think

that as much as the young generation—because the kids gets it.

They get it more than I get it sometimes and the younger kids,

they are already there. Generation Y and generation X, we are the

ones who are pushing this thing. It is really about the baby boomer, our parents’ generations that are intimidated by technology.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Indeed they are.

Mr. DASH. It comes from being not being able to grow up with

it. And so I think that the barrier to entry is really there. What

we have tried to do is to go out into the faith based community and

really reach out there and let the parents feel the power of technology and let the parents really be able to embrace the technology

in a one-on-one environment. Because the kids get it. And even

kids who are what we call lost in our communities, you know, the

gang members, they really don’t want to be doing that. They are

looking for the new hustle. For them technology has to become the

new hustle. Drugs and guns and things of that nature, that has

kind of played out, as they say, in our communities because they

are tired—kids don’t want to go in jail.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I will be speaking this Friday on the

new image of Watts, because it was once perceived that it was gang

and drug ridden but not that way anymore. And people are anxious

to move out of that mode into a different mode but they need to
23

have the tools by which to do this. And I tell you, you had just an

outstanding presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman PITTS. Just one more question, Mr. Dash. What is the

strategic partnership that you referred to?

Mr. DASH. The partnership is with American Online and

CompuServe. What we have done is developed an urban brand of

ISP called Places of Color. The goal of the new service which is

built on top of the American Online infrastructure is to be able to

create core tendencies, which are training, distance learning, certification, job placement and to surround that nucleus with the relevant content that African Americans, Hispanic, Native Americans,

rural whites, the urban culture that transcends color can sort of

embrace the youth and bring the relevance at a price point that

they will feel comfortable with.

Chairman PITTS. Mr. Miller, you mentioned that Web based internship program that you have started. What has been the level

of response to this? How many students have been placed in the

internship?

Mr. MILLER. We haven’t placed any because we literally just

rolled it out two weeks ago. We have commitments from companies

to hire over 60 interns. We expect that number is going to grow.

We are getting calls from potential applicants from potential employers and from colleges and universities all over the country. So

we expect to have this fully ready to roll out in about three to four

weeks, and we expect to start placing interns this summer and into

the fall. And again, these are all going to be opportunities for students to work in high tech companies, real jobs, not make work

jobs, which we hope will encourage them to then become IT professionals and enter the IT work force.

Chairman PITTS. All right. And what role do you see Congress

playing with this whole thing, like programs for digital opportunity

initiative to continue to provide students with opportunities in the

IT sector?

Mr. MILLER. I think the key is some of the legislation that has

been considered to provide IT tax credit training for companies to

provide training for workers is one thing that this committee could

look at. Because many times companies, particularly smaller or

medium size companies when they are looking whether they are

going to spend their next dollar on IT training or not, particularly

when you are talking about people who may not be ready to join

the work force in three for four weeks but you are talking about

a year or two or three they are reluctant. So, for example, there

have been bills introduced in the House and Senate to provide IT

tax credit training.

I also commend to you the bill that Congresswoman MillenderMcDonald referred to before, the H–1B bill because as part of that

bill employers will pay a fee of $1,000 per employee which will generate about $180 million in new nontaxpayer-funded training dollars which would go into regional skills training alliances. Again,

much of that money can be focused on training minority students

and others who have not traditionally been part of the work force.

I think on the Senate version of the bill Senator Biden added an

amendment which would direct some of the money into boys and
24

girls clubs in inner cities, particularly for training, reaching out to

minority youth.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. That is our amendment for us there.

Mr. MILLER. So I think the high tech community sees this H–1B

bill, the House and Senate version. There are differences but it is

a win-win. Because we need temporarily the short term workers

that this is going to provide the real training dollars. The key that

I urge the subcommittee and the frustration we have had is that

the money that has been going into the H–1B program for years

frankly we think the Department of Labor has been very slow getting that money out there. It has been very unfortunate because we

in the employer community naively hope by now we can come back

to Congress and say look at all these minority workers that have

been trained. Unfortunately, the Department of Labor has only

given out about $12 million worth of grants in little dribs and

drabs instead of pumping that money out there quickly because

there are plenty of training opportunities out there and these students and the small and medium size employers frequently need

tax breaks or subsidies to do that training.

Chairman PITTS. All right. Ms. Steen, what kind of follow up

does CPDC provide its students once they graduate from technology programs?

Ms. STEEN. We follow them for a period of time as long as we

are able to. Following them long term is not always possible because people move and change jobs. But there is successful long

term employment and to the extent that they are residents of

Edgewood Terrace we definitely follow them. We provide them ongoing support. We have a club, an alumni club that people can

work with. Our job training now has expanded. We have worked

through many of the people that needed job opportunities at Edgewood Terrace and now 80 percent of our students who are from the

surrounding community, it is a little more difficult to keep track

of those folks on an ongoing basis.

Chairman PITTS. Could you give us a little bit more detail on the

educational partnership between CDC and Catholic and George

Washington Universities?

Ms. STEEN. Catholic we have been partners with for a number

of years. They are a nearby neighbor. We have reached out to them

and worked with them in a number of their departments. The Metropolitan College, which is the college that provides something akin

to continuing education, has been very aggressive with working

with us. They have provided scholarships for anyone that graduates from our employment training classes. And they also teach

at Edgewood Terrace in a program we call At Home on Campus in

an effort to break down some of the barriers for people to go to college. We have introduced college level courses at Edgewood Terrace

that people will take the first class in that course and then go on

and take the rest of classes at Catholic University. Georgetown—

George Washington I think you asked about, I will tell you about

both. George Washington has a department that has expertise in

assessment that we found to be an extremely valuable tool in helping students identify the correct career path, to help students find

out what their strengths are, how we should hone our curriculum

to make it relevant so that we can improve skills and get them
25

placed in jobs that are meaningful to them, get their interest and

that they can succeed at.

Georgetown University is our newest partner and they will be

studying Edgewood Terrace to document what has happened there.

I am not sure I am going to get the name right, Culture Communication and Technology I think is the name of the department.

And they are interested to know what the impact of technology is

on this community. And they will be assisting us with various

parts of our Web site development as well.

Chairman PITTS. Thank you very much. I see my time is up. Ms.

Millender-McDonald.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms.

Steen, let’s see where do I get started here with all of these lines

I have crossed over here. Let me first commend you and all of the

young women who have come with you today who have excelled in

your program and are now in jobs that are really not only creating

their self-esteem but also paying them a livable wage. So I commend all three of you young ladies who are out there in the audience today and keep pushing on.

You talked about the thin clients. I think it is thin clients I saw

here that I wanted you to expound a little bit more. ‘‘using a newer

technology known as thin clients.’’ explain that to me.

Ms. STEEN. When we embarked on creating an electronic village,

one of the issues that we grappled with was how were we going to

be able to sustain this technology in 800 apartments. Desktop computers take a lot of care and feeding. And you can’t be knocking

on someone’s door to go and correct something on the desktop.

Children have access, unsupervised access to a computer and they

can very quickly do some things to it that nobody knows what happened. And so we were if we were going to be successful in having

this technology continue and not just have a bunch of abandoned

equipment in apartments, we needed to find a technology that we

could manage remotely. And the thin client is the term that the industry uses for what I call back to the future. It is like an old

dumb terminal. It looks like an individual pizza box. There are

more varieties of it coming out right now. There are all kinds of

things that are coming out every day with different levels of use

built. The particular one that we have allows us to—it has an embedded NT chip in it. And it—basically you log on, it is a little box

you log on at your desktop, you have a monitor keyboard in this

little pizza box. You log on and it sends signals to a server farm

like the old mainframes but a server farm in a server room at

Edgewood and then all of the software is loaded on that server

farm in this remote location and it is administered, all the care and

feeding of it happens in the server room. If we need to upgrade

software, if we need to add a log on account, if we need to do any

kind of administration for this system, we can do it remotely. So

it is only when we have a hardware, a real hardware problem that

we need to deal with anyone in their apartments. And by minimizing what that hardware can do in the apartments, we minimize

how much we have to go back and forth.

We had to look at the cost of operating the system. We are getting donations. We have Federal funding for various parts of this.

The reality is we won’t survive more than a year unless we create
26

a sustainable environment. And all of that investment will disappear because there will be no one there to take care of it. And

so this is aimed at being an interim step to bring technology into

the home, to give people access and a way that they can use it for

the first time, understand it, deal with it.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. But it is not going to be sustainable.

Ms. STEEN. That is what the thin client is meant to be.

Mr. MILLER. That is the point. The thick client is not sustainable

because it costs so much money to maintain.

Ms. STEEN. The total cost of ownership in a thick client in a corporation, there are numbers anywhere from——

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. The thin client will be sustainable.

Ms. STEEN. It is much, much more sustainable. Then the hope

is that residents once they start using this technology will go on

and buy their own computer. They will want to have more software

than we will put on the network. They will want to customize

things. They will have learned enough that they will want more.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. So if they want to expand to

broadband or distance learning.

Ms. STEEN. Broadband is the pipeline coming in. At Edgewood

Terrace we have a T–1 line coming in and any of the committee’s

other sources could be the broadband. The thin client is just—it is

the hardware.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Okay, fine. Mr. Miller, you wanted

to add to that.

Mr. MILLER. Just to point it out there is also a tremendous potential savings for schools. Even wealthy suburban schools end up

with plenty of expensive PCs sitting in boxes because they don’t

have the budget to buy—they have the budget to buy the PC but

not to maintain it. Thin client, where most of the brains are based

in one place then, it is more like your telephone or the brains are

somewhere else and your telephone is just sitting there. You are

depending on someone else to fix the software. It is the same idea.

You have access to the information but you don’t maintain your

own system. If you have a thick pipe you can watch television, you

can do records, you could do anything you want. It is just you don’t

have to worry about that PC.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. So why haven’t we introduced this

to the educational world?

Mr. MILLER. Some companies are trying real hard.

Mr. DASH. That is the next generation.

Ms. MITCHELL. It is——

Ms. STEEN. It is new.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. This is why I had to get some more

explanation because it was a new concept that I had not heard of

either.

Mr. MILLER. We would be glad to arrange a demonstration for

you.

Chairman PITTS. Continue. Please respond.

Mr. DASH. There is a little bit of precaution that needs to be

taken when you talk about the thin client machine. I have a 7-

year-old—I actually have 3 children but the 7-year-old uses the PC

every day when he comes home from school and uses the CD–ROM

quite a bit to learn from and also likes to sit down and mess
27

around with the word processor and store his information to the

PC in our house. When you are in a thin client environment and

you are in what we call an ASP, which is the application service

provider, instead of the ISP, which is kind of the evolution of the

ASP, when you are in an ASP environment they are giving you the

information, you give it back to them and they are storing it for

you in what they call a digital closet. Well, unfortunately if they

didn’t pay my 19-dollar bill that month my son couldn’t get his information out of the closet because the closet would be locked because the bill wasn’t paid.

But those are some of the potential downsides of what needs to

be looked at. I think local storage is an important issue in the

household. But certainly in the school and as a next generation second, third, fourth machine in the household network computers

and home based networks are definitely great ideas but I do think

that local storage and local processing power is an important issue.

Ms. STEEN. Local storage is possible depending on the equipment

that you purchased. Our equipment you can attach a hard drive.

We have local storage at Edgewood Terrace. It is an issue. Also an

issue is the operating system. We are using NT. And NT is not terribly compatible. It is built for an office environment. It is not terribly compatible with children’s software. And so we won’t be able

to put on this network what we have in our computer learning center that are serving youth until a future generation of Windows

comes out.

Chairman PITTS. Ms. Bushkin, did you want to add.

Ms. BUSHKIN. I think what you are going to see next is a leapfrogging to devices that are freed from and untethered from the

PC. It will range from the television which will change dramatically the notion of using the Internet when it is in your home to

the Palm Pilot or other handheld devices to having the ability to

use the Internet or get messages or find information on your cell

phone. I think we are going to see all of that change the way it

will be important to make sure that no one is left behind again as

the technology becomes so critical to the functioning of the economy, and it will be easier to vote and do everything else. The imperative for making sure that we bring everybody along will become even stronger.

Mr. DASH. Can I make one more point. We are none of us rocket

scientists. So.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Really.

Mr. DASH. So while the technology is so impressive it is not complex. And I think that it is important that we start to teach the

younger generations the underlying technology that is actually

there and how this all works so that they can figure out for themselves how to take advantage not just being a work force for but

actually take advantage of and participate from an ownership perspective in the next generation of technology.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I would like to propose to the chairman and this committee that we perhaps convene a type of demonstration for perhaps some of the superintendents, whoever,

around the country, however you see fit to do this, to bring forth

this new technology and this new concept. Because after all we do

want to continue to be on the cutting edge.
28

Chairman PITTS. That sounds like an excellent idea. We will talk

to our staff about doing that. Let’s continue now with questioning,

Ms. Tubbs Jones.

Ms. JONES. First of all, I want to apologize to the panel for not

having the opportunity to hear your testimony. I was a speaker at

a Community Development Corporation conference that kind of ran

behind schedule. So I had to get back here. But I am interested in

the issues that you have raised and impressed with what I have

heard in the last 5 to 7 minutes.

I just want to raise with you that I am currently sponsoring—

I know my staff person mentioned to me that you have been talking about distance education before I came in. And I am actually

sponsoring a piece of legislation called Greater Access to Distance

Education. And the bill will establish orientation programs as part

of funded distance education demonstration projects. And the reason I am sponsoring this piece of legislation is that many adults

fail to complete a distance education course due to a lack of proper

orientation in the package. They will get it, they will sit there and

they will go oh, well, can’t complete this and go onto something

else. In light of the fact that currently orientation programs are not

required, I am proposing that that be a requirement if someone

chooses to go through a distance education program.

And I put that out there just to say I am not a rocket scientist

either. I am not even close to knowing some of these things. My

17-year-old is a lot better at it than I am. But I know that in order

to bridge this digital divide we do have to provide opportunities for

people to—even once they access it to figure out how they maneuver through the process.

The other thing, the question I would ask and I am going to ask

Mr. Dash only because I want to hear him talk and I don’t have

anything written from him and I missed—to the reporter, is it possible I could get Mr. Dash’s testimony typed up for me, please?

Thank you.

My question is, what do you propose in areas for—for example,

I come from Ohio and a friend of mine just started—just ran for

the Senate in Ohio. And he was in southern Ohio in an area where

they don’t even have lines, their telephone lines are not such that

they can even, even if they bought a computer hook themselves up

to a line to access information. What do you see as happening in

the future to be able if the telephone lines don’t get hooked up,

what do we do for those folks?

Mr. DASH. We were speaking about the next generation that is

going on now, we were talking about things like AOL TV or the

next generation broadband. Cable will become what they call a

thick pipe for the Internet and for access and broadband environment through cable modems and wireless technology. There is a

Palm Pilot that is sitting here now that is untethered.

Ms. JONES. I still have a 5. I haven’t gotten to 7.

Mr. DASH. So everything will become actually untethered. So

they have a great opportunity of talking about the digital opportunity, they have a great opportunity to propel themselves ahead

of the curve.

Ms. JONES. How would you suggest that we get that message to

the folks that you know that aren’t even at this level that don’t—
29

forget the infrastructure for the old method and get ready for the

new one.

Mr. DASH. I certainly don’t say forget the old infrastructure but

in a situation like that, getting the message out was what we were

talking about before was about creating relevance. I think that is

the challenge from the business community. Therein lies the opportunity. Whoever gets there first with the best messages wins. Whoever gets there first with the most marketing dollars, chances are

is going to win because nobody else is there now. So it is a great

opportunity in doing that. So it is about creating relevance and

putting faces on it that people can relate to and putting it in a common sense perspective. Because I think technology, there has been

a veil that has been placed on technology. And it is time for it to

be lifted and for somebody to come out with a common sense approach on how to use it and access it.

Mr. MILLER. It seems to me that one of the great groups of communicators in the United States are our legislators, you and your

434 colleagues here and the 100 members across the way.

Ms. JONES. We are trying.

Mr. MILLER. You have the respect of your community. You are

well known in your community. I assure you if you said you were

going to go to your community, you wanted to do a series of town

meetings and you wanted IT companies and people like Mr. Dash

and Mr. Mills and others to come along and talk about the products and services they could offer they would be there in a heart

beat because it would be a time for them to talk about the good

things they can do without wearing their pure marketing hat. Not

that these companies don’t like to market too, but that is the opportunity. That is why I keep using the phrase, Congresswoman

Millender-McDonald, because it is an opportunity.

I just did a major event with our companies in Japan with the

Internet wireless access in Asia. Now we are talking about China,

1.2 billion people, India 1 billion people. They are talking about

wireless. They are not talking about phone lines. It is too late for

the plain old copper or fiber. So these companies are excited about

talking to these communities that you are referring to. But they

could use your help in getting the message out. This is real stuff.

It isn’t science fiction. This isn’t particularly expensive. We need to

lift the veil, as Mr. Dash was suggesting.

Ms. BUSHKIN. I also think the faster you can drive government

services online and things that are compelling so that people feel

that they are missing something if they are not online. So it is as

valuable to them to have an Internet connection, whether it is on

a PC or any other way as it is to have cable service or anything

else in their home, that we need to make that a critical part of everyday life so that people feel it is critical to their success and their

children’s future success.

I also want to come back to I think the long term goal for everyone is that there should be Internet access in every home. I mean

that would be the vision that we would all share. I think the first

step has got to be in every community and we make sure there is

access for every child. If the homework assignment is given that requires use of the Internet not every child can go home and find a

computer or do the homework but there certainly needs to be one
30

at the community center, at the library, at the boys and girls club

or the school needs to be kept open late so kids can use it. Once

kids are learning how to use the technology they will drag the parents in. This is the experience we are seeing in all the PowerUp

centers, the kids get turned on. It lowers the fear factor of the parents and they are coming along and learning it as well. So we are

getting the intergenerational benefits. But I think we need to see

this as a two-phase process. We have to go for community access

first with the goal as all the technologies change of putting this in

every single home.

Ms. JONES. I want to give Mr. Mills an opportunity to respond.

Mr. MILLS. I would like to add when we launched BET.com one

of our marketing efforts in addition to all the online and off-line

marketing was actually to go out and interface with people directly,

do all the people expos, do all the events and really reach out grass

roots. What we found was there was a tremendous response among

the African American population. If you go to a people’s expo you

really meet the people. You have parents and you would have children and they would interact with the large displays that we had

and all the computers that we had up and the parents would respond we really want this, we really like the product, but we are

a little mystified about how we go from zero to having this product

in our house. We are not sure exactly which ISP we should use.

We don’t necessarily have a good friend to call who can recommend

this. Help me understand how I should approach this process.

That is part of what drove BET.com to decide that what we

should do is build a bundled PC–ISP, BET brand of package and

sell it directly to our consumers. Because what we have discovered

is that our brand, given the strength of it and particularly the residence of our brand with an urban audience, gives us the ability to

communicate to this audience that we built a package just for you.

We understand you, you understand us. We have been here for 20

years. We built something specifically for you. We will get into your

home and help you get online. Not just for us but help you access

all the things you find valuable in the Internet space.

Ms. JONES. Thank you very much. Now Mr. Dash, one last request. You have to give me an autograph to take to my 17-yearold. He knows about you. All right.

Thanks.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I have missed something here. Show

you how far behind I am.

Chairman PITTS. We are going to do one more round. All the witnesses have to leave by 4:00, I understand, so we will do one more

round.

Mr. Mills, in your testimony you mentioned a dearth of information technology advertisements aimed at minority groups. What

has BET.com taken, what steps have you taken to publicize your

services and what does your Web site provide that has been missing from the Internet before its launch?

Mr. MILLS. When I say dearth it is not just with respect to the

African American Web sites that are online, but if you look back

6 months ago very few Internet companies, whether African American or general marketed Internet companies, were specifically buying African American media to communicate the value proposition
31

of their online services to our community. At the end of the day advertising is about generating awareness, generating trial. If you

don’t market to our community in a way that is relevant to our

community you won’t achieve the awareness and trial required to

get overall adoption of these services.

When we announced the creation of BET.com we noticed virtually no targeted marketing of online service to African Americans. Six months went by. You now have all of the national radio

shows, whether it is the Tom Joyner show or the Donny Simpson

show, all of those shows now have dot com sponsors. You have

now—even on our cable network we have a proliferation of dot com

advertisers actively buying our media to provide culturally relevant

messages to our audience about the value proposition of the Internet.

So it is not so much that it is a moral responsibility of these companies to communicate the value proposition to our audience but

instead that they now have kind of an enlightened self-interest

which is positive, and enlightened self-interest recognizing African

Americans are projected to be such an incredibly fast growing population that there really is an opportunity to serve that community

online.

What we have done is say let’s put the most marketing money

that has ever been applied against an African American product for

the African American audience. We spend between $81⁄2 to $10 million to market BET.com. We do that using our own cable networks.

We use other people’s cable networks. We buy general market

media. We bought radio all over the country, we bought prints and

we bought the full universe of African American print. We own five

magazines ourselves but in addition we bought everybody else’s.

We bought Ebony, Essence, Jet, XXL, Vibe, Source, Spin, Blaze, so

we are basically—our mantra is that we are the African American

Visa. We are everywhere African Americans want to be. We think

that is important but we have gone one step further and said it is

not just about communicating a very self-serving message about

the value proposition of BET.com. We really have a broader perspective, which is about communicating the value and the importance of the Internet to the African American community.

So our Chairman Bob Johnson has actually reached out to a

number of celebrities in the African American space and said I am

willing to dedicate time on my cable network to generate a message

to communicate the importance of this medium to the African

American community. And we think by doing that, by having individuals who have stature in our community and who are considered school or sexy in our community say that that is an important

place for everyone to be, the Internet overall, that will really substantially affect the amount of traffic and utilization.

Mr. MILLER. Just another piece of jargon is called a vertical portal. The whole idea of people coming to the Internet and of course

22 million subscribers go to AOL. That is the biggest by far. But

this whole question of whether people want to go to a generic Web

site where there is lots of information or whether they want to go

to something that is more specific to them, however they identify

themselves if they identify themselves as New Yorkers, if they

identified themselves as African Americans, if they identified them-
32

selves as Southerners, so what you have seen created are these

vertical portals where they are specialized in one particular segment of society and they hope that they attract people who just

identify with that group. They might identify themselves as bridge

players. So as that happens then the whole marketing model

changes too. Because you can’t just market to generic magazines if

you are going to say my target market is only Hispanic Americans,

or primarily Hispanic Americans or primarily black Americans.

I think what Mr. Mills is reflecting in particular in the African

American community is in fact happening with a lot more communities because you are develop a lot more of these vertical portals

and they have to reach out through these other mass market publications, cable, television, others to advertise to get people to come

to their vertical portals.

Chairman PITTS. Ms. Bushkin, we have heard the lack of Internet content geared towards minority users. What level of minority

participation do you have within AOL’s communities?

Ms. BUSHKIN. We don’t keep track of that information about our

subscribers or our members. But I can tell you that we have some

African American communities that are very active on AOL. We

have an organization called Black Voices. We are very excited with

the new partnership with DME, Places of Color, which we think

will not just reach out to the communities of African Americans online but help bring new members online as well.

I think what everybody has said already about this as this being

the fastest growing market is absolutely true, and that we need to

be creative about the way we reach out to finding those people and

giving people of different backgrounds, different interests and different educational abilities new reasons to come online. I think

that is going to be the focus going forward as everyone reaches out

to provide more compelling reasons to use the Internet medium.

The first, if you look at the way the Internet adoption rates have

progressed over the past 10 years and it has been truly phenomenal, as Harris pointed out, it started with the hobbyists and

the people for whom this was a tool and then we moved into people

who were excited about using this perhaps for a business or a job

and we are just now beginning to touch and tap the mainstream.

But we have only begun. Only about 35 percent of the country now

is online. But when we study the people who have been online for

say 3 years versus 1 year what we are seeing is phenomenal integration into their lives in that they move very quickly from using

it one hour a month to one hour a week to one hour a day. It becomes critical to the way that they do everything from shopping to

school to communication.

The biggest gap in the digital divide right now is interestingly

single mothers. I can’t think of a group that needs the Internet

more in terms of being able to shop 24 hours a day at home. We

think it will offer tremendous benefits to people who are disabled.

So we think we are just at the point where we are beginning to

reach that group. And an organization like AOL is as committed

to reaching out to them as we are bringing that first wave of mainstream consumers online.
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Chairman PITTS. Finally, we have had a suggestion for a demonstration here. I saw, Mr. Miller, you pull out a Palm Pilot. Did

that have an antenna on it? Can you access the Internet with that?

Mr. MILLER. I can send e-mail messages from this. I can

download news clips from this. I can download stock quotes from

this. I can tell you where Starbucks is. I can order from Amazon.com online from this little itty-bitty thing. That is all available.

I can find the names of my local elected officials using this.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Uh-oh.

Mr. MILLER. I can trade stocks using this online without going

anywhere near my PC. I keep my schedule and phone numbers. All

these other things I can do online.

Chairman PITTS. We will pursue having a demonstration for the

members.

Ms. Millender-McDonald.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me

first go back to Mr. Mills and, Mr. Mills, I am so happy that BET

has been a pioneer in reaching out to the African American community in bringing these types of programs and this type of innovation to our community. Just want you to continue to reach out

and do what you must do. However, I must say that e-commerce

is one that you didn’t mention. I would like to suggest to you that

you do look into e-commerce. Especially Ms. Bushkin who spoke of

the fact that single parents, which are number one and leading up

heads of households do have this type of access to the Internet.

And everyone looks to BET for doing all of those things that must

be done, especially African Americans. I certainly would like to

suggest that to you.

I would like your people expo. I would suggest that you do that

in some of the major metropolitan areas and come to my district

first. I have suggested it, so come first. It doesn’t have to be in a

large venue because a people’s expo is just what we are talking

about is getting people interested in this. So I like that concept. So

do connect with me on that.

Ms. Bushkin, your presentation was very thought provoking. I

applaud AOL for the work that they do. PowerUp, we had a meeting among groups of high tech folks just last week. I was privy to

hearing more about PowerUp. We applaud you on your efforts.

What I want to know is whether you have 250 centers in various

locations. I don’t think you have one in my district.

Ms. BUSHKIN. Not yet.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. She is a very astute woman. She

said not yet; she didn’t say no but not yet. How do you identify

these centers and what is the criteria for those centers being placed

wherever they are?

Ms. BUSHKIN. We actually have four up and running but we are

aiming to have 250 by the end of the year.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. So I am still in the running. Okay.

Fine.

Ms. BUSHKIN. What makes a success—where is the other one?

Cleveland. There are a couple things that would make a very successful center. We have tried not to reinvent the wheel or start

from scratch. So where there is a boys and girls club or YMCA or

another center in the community, this could be the public housing
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project where already we think that there is a nucleus of people

gathering that is number one for us. And we like to partner with

organizations that are already serving the community that way.

Second, another key part for us is having some local sponsors

who are committed to helping the community and who will help us

bring in Vista volunteers, because we don’t think a center that just

has computers alone is enough. It is very important to have caring

adults teaching the kids how to use the Internet, guiding them to

find the right information and teaching them to find the information online that will give them the skills that they need.

Third, we are working with Gateway and a number of other providers to make sure that we can bring computers into centers that

don’t have them as well as some telecommunications companies to

do the wiring.

Fourth, we simply look for communities that have the greatest

need. So we are broadly and widely looking around. We have three

centers in this area and we would be happy to show you what is

working with them. Steve Case just visited Blue High School with

President Clinton three weeks ago where a new center is going on.

We have one in Southern Ridge in Anacostia, one in Gum Springs

in Alexandria. We are learning each time about what would be a

successful one. But certainly Watts would be a good place for us

to locate.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. We certainly look forward to your

coming there the next time.

Mr. Miller, you were so energetic in your presentation so I will

tell you although I don’t want to—I am not going to scold you as

much as I would like you’re telling us to forget this digital divide

and go to digital opportunity. I do agree with you we will say in

order to change from the digital divide we must look at it in digital

opportunity fashion.

The IT workers, we have need education. Bottom line. I mean,

you cannot have IT workers, you cannot have interns in all of this

unless you educate folks and you cannot educate them if you don’t

have access to these computers in the schools that will engage

them in the training to be skillful enough to move on into the internship program that you speak about.

Am I correct on that?

Mr. MILLER. At least students who don’t have algebra through

their K through 12 education, the chances of them becoming a successful computer programmer are not very good. So there are other

jobs they can do as IT workers, but if they can’t at least get

through those basic math and science courses in their K through

12 education then the chances of their post-education leading them

to become an IT worker and doing the wonderful things that these

people back here behind us have done, gets to be very difficult, not

impossible but much more difficult.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. I agree with you. To finish up my

questions—rather, just a comment. I talk with a lot of the HBCU

presidents and indeed the Ph.D. Programs are really falling behind

in those schools. And you speak of the very minuscule fewer people

who are into the Ph.D. Programs in computer science. That is

something that hopefully you can talk to me later about or whatever your suggestion is as to how we get folks in tune with that.
35

Because if they don’t have the training at all from the K–12 and

don’t have it in an internship program mode then they are not apt

to go to a Ph.D. Program in computer science.

Mr. MILLER. One of the things that is absolutely critical as to

what Congress can do, funding fully or maybe even going beyond

the administration’s request for additional research and development money in the IT field, the Congress has committed the last

few years a lot more money to medical research but there is a huge

role based on the President’s Information Technology Advisory

Committee for more Federal funding to universities for IT research.

Even that has a spillover effect. Because when you fund those university faculty then they need graduate students, which means

they create fellowships so then they attract more students to then

stay on. So a lot of it is a spill-down effect.

So I would commend to you what is in the President Clinton’s

budget to look at that for additional funding for IT research. It will

create the new technologies that will make access simpler. As Ms.

Bushkin said in her opening statement, we are just at the dawn

of this Internet age. We are still in the earliest days of this Internet age, and this reach and development, a lot of which is being

done by private industry but a lot of it can be done by academic

institutions by government also.

Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD. Let me again commend you for this

hearing. It has been most informative and you have really just outlined a great group of outstanding experts. I also want to say I regret that Politicallyblack.com could not be here so they have a

statement for the record they would like to submit for the record.

Chairman PITTS. Ms. Tubbs Jones.

Ms. JONES. In light of the time I am going to forego any further

questioning. I do have a statement that I would like to submit for

the record personally. I want to thank each and every one of you

for coming to our Empowerment Subcommittee and commend to

you as part of the President’s proposed budget the new market initiatives that you would consider the new markets that he is trying

to go into and perhaps we can take this as a digital opportunity,

Mr. Miller, and use the new market initiatives. Because it would

be a great opportunity to go into underserved communities with

dollars to be able to go in there in terms of equity. It would be just

an exciting thing for many of you to take up that opportunity and

go into some of these neighborhoods. Again I would like to commend you for your presentations. Apologize for not being here at

the beginning.

Chairman PITTS. Thank you. Without objection, we will end your

comments. We will leave the record open for 5 legislative days for

anyone who would like to add statements or any responses from

our witnesses. I would like to say this has been an excellence panel

today. We received some wonderful information, excellent recommendations, and the subcommittee will act accordingly.

The time of 4:00 having arrived, the hearing is adjourned. Thank

you.

[Whereupon, at 4:02 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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