Imagine in your daily life if you were required to leave your home, catch a bus and wait in line at the local library to get your email. In our busy lives, low-income families have one hand tied behind their back because of the extra time doing basic daily tasks, or worse they just don't get to them because they do not have the access to technology that the rest of us have.
Our human service system was established to help the poor, yet aggravates the problem by treating people as passive recipients of services. Families are expected to be grateful as they shuffle into offices, fill out endless paperwork, wait for their overworked case managers and receive the same support that everyone else receives, no matter their particular abilities, opportunities or circumstances.
With the rise of the technology in the private sector there has been a rush to apply the same productivity gains to government, or eGovernment. However, we are in danger of eGovernment projects simply replicating the monotonous handing of social services online that large bureaucratic systems do offline. A primary reason? eGovernment systems are conceived and built for the ease and comfort of the staff, not the customer.
Instead, the State of Oregon's goal ought to be to help the poor to become better informed and engaged consumers of services. We have the opportunity to use technology to assist families to receive customized support from the comfort and convenience of their own homes. We must transform from an industry producing 'human service widgets' to providing online tools for families to guide their own growth.
An obvious starting place is providing affordable, high-speed computer and Internet access. We are lucky that the Northwest is one of the most wired regions in the country. A 2002 report found that 66% of Northwest residents were online. The Northwest's advantage of families being online extends to low-income residents as well. The same report found that for families earning under $30,000 a year, 47 percent were online, as compared to 38 percent nationally.
However, if you are black, Hispanic, Native American, an older adult, disabled, or under the poverty line, the ability to access technology changes dramatically. In Oregon, we need more equitable distribution and more affordable access to the Internet and there are several groups working on this challenge such as Free Geek, Centro Cultural's Adelante Con Tecnologia project and One Economy (Full disclosure: I am the vice president of One Economy.)
Unfortunately, access alone is not enough to leverage the power of the Internet for low-income families. Getting people online is a critical first step. But once online, they have to be able to find and utilize the information they need.
A part of the answer lies in the rich, entrepreneurial efforts of a new class of community leaders who are engaged with the idea that technology is a tool that can make a fundamental difference in the way we fight poverty. They are creating content-rich, multilingual Web sites that provide users with a resources to take positive action on the things that matter most in their lives ' money, health, jobs, school and family.
These sites include the international award-winning Oregon Helps that allows families to enter in demographic information and find federal and state benefits they are eligible for by county, such as food stamps, energy assistance and disability insurance. Also Housing Connections, another award winner, that allows families looking for housing to search against a database of over 50,000 units of affordable rental units. And finally, One Economy's own Beehive,an online portal that helps families build assets in order to start a career, improve their money management skills and find health care resources in their local community.
Beyond these community efforts the State must broaden its vision of how technology can play an essential role in fighting poverty. We must move beyond the notions of public computer centers and fiber rings as an adequate technology policy. A true technology policy enhances the ability of all Oregonians to improve their daily lives and acquire the necessary resources for them to move up and out of poverty.
First, the State must use the creativity and dedication of our citizenry to enhance Oregon's technology efforts. State agencies, including the Department of Administrative Services, must make sure that there is strong community representation included in the State's deliberations eGovernment projects, such as on the CIO Council or within the Information Resources Management Division (IRMD).
Next, State agencies must increase their use of the Internet to provide services to residents with more cross-agency collaboration. For example the Department of Human Services and Housing and Community Services can work in conjunction to deliver online services together. They are serving the same customers, who in their daily lives, don't distinguish between their 'human service' barrier and their 'housing' barrier. Truly innovative strategies will break down the silos of education, workforce development, healthcare, and financial support and will build an integrated approach where citizens can use tools and resources that are just as sophisticated as their real life barriers.
Lastly, and most importantly, the State of Oregon must develop a long-term vision for the use of the technology providing opportunities to our citizens. This vision must extend outward from just a pure government approach to include real collaboration with local governments, community efforts and even individual citizens.
The Internet is a malleable and transparent tool that does not need to conform to the boundaries of staffing structures and geography. If the best homeowner information is in Bend, why shouldn't the people of Redmond benefit? If Community Action of Washington County does a great job at helping families move out of poverty, why shouldn't DHS incorporate their 'content' into their online support systems? Without a clear vision of what technology can do in Oregon there is a fundamental question of what all the current taxpayer dollars going to eGovernment add up to do.
Oregon values the advantages of our knowledge economy, but for our state to become truly innovative, we must move beyond the simplification of it's a problem of the Digital Divide. The media world declares that 'Content is King,' and it is high time for our state and its leaders to listen closely to the demands of both the marketplace and the community.
Autor: Robert Bole
Quelle:BlueOregon, 18.01.2005
