The FCC is putting forth effort to provide basic computer training and subsidize broadband access. Is this a worthwhile effort, or a waste of taxpayer funds? In my humble opinion, this is an excellent endeavor akin to teaching someone how to fish to feed them for a lifetime, rather than bringing them a fish and feeding them for a day (or however the saying goes).
While the pessimist in me acknowledges that subsidizing broadband access may be abused and used for mischeif and harm, and that providing basic computer training can only go so far, the optimist in me believes that teaching computer skills and providing internet access will truly empower people for greater things. With 80% of Fortune 500 companies requiring appliations online, increasing digital literacy is as necessary a part of our society today as traditional literacy. Not knowing how to use a computer significantly handicaps one from being employed at most industries and positions: in this day and age, computer skills are necessary for anything from simple time entry and email communication, to writing reports and complex programming. Additinally, armed with computer savvy, one can search the internet for prospective jobs and submit the applications at the touch of a keystroke.
To succeed, these programs and partnerships which the FCC deploys must be well managed and closely monitored. With the rest of the world ahead of this curve (as diagnosed by the reference to South Korea in the article), we as the U.S. need to be cognicent of dynamically changing and conforming to the people's needs to be totally effective.
www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/us/fcc-expanding-efforts-to-connect-more-americans-to-broadband.html?_r=1&ref=technology
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