MOBILE COMPUTER LAB COMBATS DIGITAL DIVIDE - The Community College
Foundation of California promotes technology awareness in poor urban areas with eBuses.
An eBus is a mobile computer lab with workstations and a satellite linkup that travels
through underprivileged neighborhoods, offering computer training and Web access
services. The foundation is sponsoring a six-week eBus tour in Illinois. Corporate
sponsors and state organizations will work with the eBus to facilitate its statewide
promotion. The foundation's Joyce Schriebman noted that raising technology awareness
through initiatives like eBus is one way to bridge the digital divide in communities that
lack funding, local facilities and Internet connectivity. "We can just park the bus and
people come right up," she said. "We'll park in front of a library, do some training, and
then show people that the same technology is available inside that library." (Wireless
Newsfactor, 23 Aug 01 - Edupage, 4 Aug 01. For the Wireless Web site go to:
http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html)

PROJECT GOAL, TO CROSS DIGITAL DIVIDE - By using their knowledge, training
and experience, the Advanced Network with Minority-Serving Institutions (AN-MSI)
project hopes to help minority communities enhance information technology. The four-
year project was created with a $6 million grant to EDUCAUSE from the National Science
Foundation. EDUCAUSE has formed partnerships with the Hispanic Association of
Colleges and Universities, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities' Executive
Leadership Council and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. AN-MSI
partners in the project include: the United Negro College Fund, the National
Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, the National Association for
Equal Opportunity in Higher Education and the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education.
First on the agenda will be internal reviews of networks and wireless setup for the Tribal
Colleges and Universities. (Syllabus Online, 1 Aug 01. For the Syllabus Web site see:
http://www.syllabus.com/