This struck me, since these two cities are very wired, and nearly everyone uses e-mail, even if they don’t have a computer. A big part of this is that this is the home of the University of Illinois, and everyone with any relationship to the University has an account and good access to computers. On top of that there is good access in libraries, community centers and the like. But I was reminded that if you fall outside of this circle or don’t get access at work, and especially if you’re from out of town, there aren’t too many options, especially once the libraries and centers close.
Over the last few years it seems like a few Internet cafes have come and gone, but none have stuck around too long or been successful. This is probably because access for most residents is pretty good, so there’s little incentive to pay even a little bit for a few minutes access. But it does leave you out in the cold if you’re not one of the wired, and that’s kind of sad, especially for such a wired town.
That’s why I’m involved in our local IMC, because it does try to provide such access–and we would be open later than 9:00 PM if we had volunteers to staff then. I realize that this, by itself, is not necessarily enough–more shared resources would help. Still, I did see how important this access is just last night, when a traveling group putting on free techno parties rented our performance space. The group came in three old school busses and had people from France, Holland, and all over the US. They converged on our few slightly-out-of-date public-access Internet machines and definitely put them to good use for the entire night while the party went on. So, somehow, we’re getting there.
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