- NTIA Finds Digital Divide Widening
- Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse Established
- New Commission to Tackle Math and Science Teacher Shortage
- NASA Launches Ames Research Complex to Attract Tech Firms
Copyright State Science & Technology Institute 2002. Information in this issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest was prepared under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Redistribution to all others interested in tech-based economic development is strongly encouraged — please cite the State Science & Technology Institute whenever portions are reproduced or redirected. Any opinions expressed in the Digest do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Subscription to the SSTI Weekly Digest is free. If you are reading a forwarded copy of this issue and would like to receive your own copy each week directly, please subscribe at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digform.htm Requests to unsubscribe should be sent to sstiwd@ssti.org
NTIA Finds Digital Divide Widening
While more people are connected to the nation's information infrastructure, the "Digital Divide" between those Americans with the information tools to participate in the New Economy and those without is actually widening, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide is the third study NTIA has prepared examining Americans' access to telephones, computers, and the Internet. The report provides more than 100 charts and tables outlining the state of the problem across several measures and presents trends over the period 1984-1998.NTIA's new study finds minorities, low-income persons, the less educated, and children of single-parent households, particularly those in rural areas and central cities, are less likely to have computer and Internet access. At the end of 1998, 40 percent of American households owned computers, and one-quarter of all households had Internet access.
Some of the evidence provided in the report for the growing disparities includes:
- Households with incomes of $75,000 and higher are more than 20 times more likely to have access to the Internet than those at the lowest income levels, and more than nine times as likely to have a computer at home.
- Whites are more likely to have access to the Internet from home than Blacks or Hispanics have from any location [emphasis original].
- Black and Hispanic households are approximately one-third as likely to have home Internet access as households of Asian/Pacific Islander descent, and roughly two-fifths as likely as White households.
- Regardless of income level, Americans living in rural areas are lagging in Internet access. Indeed, at the lowest income levels, those in urban areas are more than twice as likely to have Internet access than those earning the same income in rural areas.
- The disparities based on education and income level have also increased in the last year alone. Between 1997 and 1998, the divide between those at the highest and lowest education levels increased 25 percent, and the divide between those at the highest and lowest income levels grew 29 percent.
NTIA's first report, released in 1995, was integral in framing the "Digital Divide" issue and in securing substantial increases for federal programs such as NTIA's Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP), the USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants & Loans Program, and the Department of Education's Community Technology Centers Program, among others.
Along with the growth of federal programs, companies, foundations, and associations have begun to invest or donate funds to support local, state, and regional efforts to address the Digital Divide. With the release of the report last week, President Clinton announced $8 million in donations from several companies were being made to support 10 information technology academies in distressed communities.
Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide can be downloaded from the NTIA website: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/
Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse Established
Calling it one of the most important economic development activities of his administration, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge recently announced the creation of the "Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse" -- a public/private partnership intended to provide support, infrastructure, and the expertise needed to accelerate the development and re-use of system-on-a-chip (SOC) technology.The Greenhouse — a partnership of three Pittsburgh universities, the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, the Commonwealth, and three international corporations — is intended to make southwestern Pennsylvania a worldwide leader in the development of SOC technology.
Sony Corporation, Oki Electric Industry, and Cadence Design Systems will work with the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse to help develop next-generation digital video and digital networking. IBM will help to design and operate an e-business network for Greenhouse. The Greenhouse will work to attract the involvement of other companies.
Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Pennsylvania State University will provide undergraduate and advanced degree, as well as advanced-education, programs in SOC design. Graduates of those degree programs will help to make the next-generation chips. The universities already graduate 1,100 students each year in the electrical engineering or computer science fields.
The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) has provided $3.2 million to enable local economic development agencies in the area and the universities to design the Greenhouse initiative. Governor Ridge has committed an additional $10 million over three years, to be distributed based on the initiative's success in creating a projected 1,500 chip-design jobs in the region over the next three years.
As a digital video and digital networking design cluster, the Greenhouse will include five main components:
- Electronic Design Technology Development Program, the initiative's key building block, will provide research funds, expertise, and project management to facilitate breakthroughs in digital video and digital networks;
- Electronic Design Education Program will develop the courseware and training modules for the retraining of existing electronic design engineers, as well as create a joint degree program among the three participating universities;
- Intellectual Property Exchange Program will develop the standards and processes to exchange IP, and also develop marketing plans and alliances with similar R&D groups around the world;
- Electronics Infusion Program, a new technology concept centered on sending highly specialized teams into medium- and large-sized companies to identify specific opportunities for the use of electronics to add value to their existing products; and
- Complex Support Program will provide program and project management; software and hardware tools; venture capital; and, potentially, a common facility to be used by Greenhouse participants.
To help build local companies in digital technologies and Internet-based business, Governor Ridge also announced that Redleaf Venture Management, an early stage Internet-oriented venture capital fund based in Saratoga California, will open its Atlantic headquarters in Pittsburgh this September. The state provided Redleaf a $200,000 Opportunity Grant to assist in opening the office.
To learn more, visit the Greenhouse webpage http://www.digitalgreenhouse.com
New Commission to Tackle Math and Science Teacher Shortage
Education Secretary Richard W. Riley has established the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century, which will recommend ways to improve the recruitment, preparation, retention, and support of math and science teachers. John Glenn will chair the 31-member commission. Governors Geringer (WY) and Hunt (NC) also will serve on the commission. Other members will include representatives of business, industry, academia, non-profit organizations, and government.The U.S. is expected to need an additional 2.2 million teachers over the next decade due to a record number of retirements and the increase in the number of school-aged children. Math and science teachers are anticipated to be in particularly short supply.
The Commission will report its recommendations to Secretary Riley by the Fall of 2000.
NASA Launches Ames Research Complex to Attract Tech Firms
The NASA Ames Research Center is developing a 200-acre research and development complex at Moffett Federal Airfield in Silicon Valley. NASA hopes to spawn partnerships between scientists at Ames Research Center and the private sector, fostering opportunities for technology transfer and contract R&D. The Complex will ultimately encompass the entire 2,000-acre federal property owned by NASA's Ames Research Center, Ames officials said.NASA has developed agreements with the cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale to establish the California Air and Space Center (CASC), and with Stanford University and the University of California at Santa Cruz on research partnership planning. CASC will be a science and technology learning center and teacher institute supported by futuristic NASA technologies. It will showcase Silicon Valley cutting-edge technologies and NASA missions.
The complex may include an expanded small business incubator program, possibly targeting biotechnology firms. NASA already has two incubators serving Silicon Valley firms. More information can be found at: http://www.arc.nasa.gov/ and http://casc.arc.nasa.gov/
Return to the top of this page
State Science & Technology Institute
5015 Pine Creek Drive
Westerville, OH 43081
Phone: (614) 901-1690
Fax: (614) 901-1696
Email: ssti@ssti.org© 2002 State Science and Technology Institute. All rights reserved.