Shaw University

Martel A. Perry

Published: Jul 17, 2006 12:00 AM-Modified: Jul 17, 2006 08:10 AM

Janell Ross, Staff Writer

But by the end of the year, Hardy will likely join one of the fewer than 20 free community wireless Internet networks in the state.

"I know how to turn [a computer] on," Hardy said. "I can peck out a letter. And [I've] been online up at my church. But who would have thought I could do that in here," she said, motioning to her living room, "or in the kitchen."

Over the next year, Shaw University plans to begin expanding wireless Internet access to portions of the community closest to some buildings at its Southeast Raleigh campus, said Martel Perry, Shaw's executive vice president.

And the private, historically black college is thought to be among the first to provide such a service to the community.

After solving a few remaining security and public use concerns, residents such as Hardy who live closest to the Talbert O. Shaw building will be given access codes and possibly computers no longer in use at the school, Perry said.

He added that Shaw plans to expand the service in 2008 to about 200 households that surround its campus.

Wireless Internet access is the Toyota of Internet access options. It tends to move faster than dial-up but slower than high-speed broadband service and is generally considered a bit less secure.

The university's efforts will do more than bring a few hundred households online or free users from wall connections to the Internet.

University officials hope the new wireless network will position Shaw as a bridge across the often-discussed digital divide between the technology haves and have-nots.

"This is not about winning favor with anybody or selling them on our expansion," Perry said. "What it is about is closing some of the gaps, that [digital] divide, and making this institution a resource. We really want our neighbors to enjoy a lifetime of learning. "

Getting up to speed

When Perry arrived at Shaw in 2003, the school's communications systems were so outdated that it was not uncommon for someone calling a four-digit on-campus extension to get nothing but silence, Perry said. Parents trying to reach their children in Shaw's dorms were sometimes subjected to hours of busy signals. The school wanted to help the community get access to the the Internet but had technological problems on campus.

Since 2003, Shaw has made nearly $4 million in system upgrades. Now it is ready to turn its attention elsewhere, to places such as historic South Park, an aging community founded by freed slaves.

Today, nearly 69 percent of its residents earn less than $25,000 a year, according to a 2005 DemographicsNow estimate. About 85 percent of its residents are black, about 7 percent are white and about 11 percent are Hispanic. The average South Park household spent $178.71 last year on computer hardware.

Nationally, many black Americans and people with lower incomes and educational attainment levels trail others in Internet access and computer ownership.

A new sort of digital divide --the gap between those with first-generation, slower Internet access and those with the more modern high-speed and wireless options -- has also emerged, said Shannon Howle Schelin, director of the Center for Public Technology at UNC-Chapel Hill.

The debate emerging among municipalities is whether free or low-cost networks should stretch citywide or simply cover downtown, Schelin said. In cities such as San Francisco, wireless Internet networks blanket the area.

There are about 20 North Carolina cities, including Raleigh, that offer free wireless Internet access in limited areas. In Raleigh, the city-sponsored network is available on Fayetteville Street. In Southern Pines, a newspaper plans to offer free wireless service to the downtown area, then expand it over time.

Training empowers

At Shaw, Hooshang Foroudastan, the school's chief information officer, said the university should be in a position to give away about 15 computers this fall and offer training courses to people living within the range of the wireless network.

Foroudastan said Shaw will limit some of the ways the wireless service can be used. For legal and security reasons, the university will block music and movie downloads and things that might severely slow the network. But residents should be able to do just about anything that is legal online.

The school hopes that residents will tap into lectures and other on-campus learning opportunities in their homes, Perry said.

What Shaw is doing is, in many ways, revolutionary, Schelin said. The school is talking about access to the type of technology, equipment and training that can empower, she said.

"Just because you build it does not mean they will come, you know. People have to have [a computer] to get online and the training to really use the Internet in meaningful ways," Schelin said. "The potential of the Internet is not whether or not I can surf and go to MySpace but how you can use it to gather information and negotiate the real world."

(News researcher David Raynor contributed to this report.)

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