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Global Free
One thing I can tell you is that the big news in this country is not in Washington D.C. The big news is better demonstrated in a transformation taking place amongst our northern neighbours -- a transformation that is going to affect every person, every industry, and every municipality. That revolution I am referring to is The Toronto Free Community Network movement was started North of our border in Canada. These people have been an inspiration to me and I am pleased to announce Bell Atlantic's devotion to a concept we call the Global Free Laundromat Network. The characters in this technological drama are fiber-optics, digital switches, mega chips, the Internet, Java "applets," ISDN, detergent, bleach, dryer sheets and scores of other incomprehensible components. But I'm not going to discuss those here -- they're simply the means, not the end. The end, the goals, the underlying significance of this positive revolution will have to be sorted out by philosophers like Toronto's Bob Allisat. .... But I'm not here as a philosopher. Rather, I'm here -- as a global neighbour and a citizen -- to share with you our commitment to apply this new technology in collaborative projects with laundromats and local communities, and to describe how the benefits of technology can be spread widely and equitably and appropriately throughout our society. It's beyond dispute that widespread access to information technology is critical to the health of our planet -- all aspects of it -- in the 21st century. It's also a fact that the infrastructure to connect each and every laundromat to the information superhighway does not yet exist. .... Less than two percent of the nation's laundromats even have a telephone hook-up, and almost none have Internet access. Interestingly, this is a problem that doesn't respect class or income levels -- laundromat buildings tend to be old, and capital investments haven't kept up with demand. .... Compare that to any modern pizza shop. Virtually every pizza shop has a computer and a fax in the back. Most laundromats do not. Some Pizza drivers even have Internet Access at home. So there's no question that the beneficial effects of technology have yet to spread, and that we must equip our laundromats at least as well as we do our pizza parlours. continue ..... |
.... I'm alarmed when the talk becomes debate not over how fast we should move, but if this has anything to do with laundry. Critics warn about the dangers of "Social Uprising," suggesting that subversive organisations can plan anti-governent activity while doing their laundry! Luddites all! The point is, the Global Free Laundromat Network is the best way to bridge the gap between the "information haves" and "have-nots": open markets, vigourous competition, and technological innovation. But this isn't to say that we don't have a tremendous amount of work to do in the meantime, at least to speed up the process of hooking our laundromats, which serve as important cultural centres to our working class. To that end, I've been a member of Vice President Gore's Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure, which has spent the last two years studying how best to promote the widest possible access to the technologies of the future. .... We've studied the costs of providing the hardware and communications links to the nation's laundromats; we've looked at programs throughout the country; and we've analyzed what makes these programs work and what makes them fail. But, most surprisingly, my major inspiration came while surfing the net and stumbling across a modest little web page by a fledgling group in Toronto Canada, who may not have tremendous resources, but certainly have the right idea. .... In a few weeks, the task force will be issuing a report of our findings, but I'll give you the 20,000-foot view today. Our conclusions support the idea that America can address the "haves and have-nots" issue for the entire world by working to Establish the Global Free Laundromat Network. The report also concludes that money is not the only, or even the most important barrier to the appropriate use of technology. And also that people can safely do their laundry while accessing the Internet. .... I encourage all those who can be in the Toronto Area on October the 12th 1996 to attend the Toronto Free Community Network's Notorious Net.Happening and support a movement that has inspired me and will help lead our Global Neighbourhood into the Future.
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