To understand how infinitesimally narrow the digital divide can be, you need only enter the Emergency Housing Consortium's homeless shelter in San Jose, Calif., on a school night. Walk past the guard at the reception desk, down past the rows of slightly musty bunk beds, past the red-eyed guys slumped in front of a tiny TV screen filled with colored snow. Just as your heart starts to sag with despair for the human condition, though, stop and take a peek through the locked door on the right. The contrast couldn't be starker.
Class is in session, so enter quietly.
These are abstract concepts. You have to meditate on them. This is the first in a homeless shelter, but almost certainly not the last. People are motivated by the money, but they also want to prove to the world they can do this. Then there are times when the digital divide looks unfathomably deep.