Native American technology access: the Gates Foundation in Four Corners
| Pages | 428-434 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470310499795 |
| Published date | 01 October 2003 |
| Date | 01 October 2003 |
| Author | Andrew C. Gordon,Margaret Gordon,Jessica Dorr |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Native American
technology access:
the Gates Foundation in
Four Corners
Andrew C. Gordon
Jessica Dorr and
Margaret Gordon
Introduction
As the world we all share becomes increasingly
dependent on technology, certain stories about
Native Americans and their circumstances are
so telling that they become iconic: take Myra
Jodie, for example, a Navajo teenager, selected
randomly from 25,000 contest entrants to
receive an Apple iMac computer in 2000. The
San Jose-based contest sponsors expected that
this gift would enable the winner to connect to
the Internet, but, when they finally were able
to contact Myra, calling her at school to tell
her what she had won, because her entry did
not include a home telephone number, they
found out that she did not know anything
about iMacs, or about Apple computers. More
than that, Myra had no phone at home ± and
lived ten miles from the nearest pay phone. An
expensive, extended line would be needed for
Myra's family to have a phone, and even then
they might be unable to afford it (Reid, 2000).
Similarly, on a visit to Arizona in 2002, we
came upon a woman who was delighted that a
``Lifeline'' phone service now reduced the cost
of phone service sufficiently for her to be able
to afford to have a cell phone in her hogan, a
traditional Navajo dwelling. But we learned
that, when the battery runs out, she has to
walk several miles to recharge the phone,
because she has neither electricity nor
transportation available to her.
It was in the context of this impoverished-
environment, lacking the fundamental
infrastructure to support technology access,
that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation[1]
chose to adapt their US Library program so
that it could provide access to technology to
the many Native American tribes in the Four
Corners region of the USA.
Beginning in 1997, the Gates Foundation's
largest technology initiative, the US Library
Program[2], has sought to increase access to
technology throughout the USA by equipping
more than 10,000 public libraries with
computing ``packages'' consisting of a rich
assortment of hardware, software,
installation, training and ongoing technical
assistance. ``Packages'' rather than
``computers'' is an important distinction in
describing the US Library Program, because
our assessments have demonstrated
repeatedly that facets other than computers
themselves, including detailed preparatory
activity before the equipment arrives, an array
The authors
Andrew C. Gordon is Professor and Margaret Gordon
is Dean Emeritus and Professor, both at Evans School of
Public Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington, USA.
Jessica Dorr is Project Coordinator, Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Keywords
Information retrieval, Computers, Libraries, Economics,
Internet, Native Americans
Abstract
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Native American
Access to Technology Program (NAATP) was designed to
provide computer and Internet access to Native peoples in
the Four Corners area of the USA. Through this multi-year
effort, complex packages of hardware, software,
installation and training have been made available to 43
tribes in 161 settings. An intensive, collaborative process
resulted in a package carefully designed to fit tribal
interests, circumstances and political arrangements,
including multimedia (graphics-intensive) equipment,
language preservation software, and satellite connections
to the Internet as necessary. This interim assessment
concludes that the program has substantially increased
tribal access to computing and information and has often
fostered creative use of the technologies. Deeply
embedded economic and political realities and their
legacies remain, however, with substantial immediate and
long-term consequences.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
428
The Electronic Library
Volume 21 .Number 5 .2003 .pp. 428-434
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470310499795
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