The Internet Is a Universal Human Right. Just Ask the Homeless Daniela Hernandez - Wired
go to original October 18, 2013

Darrell Pugh teaches a web publishing class at the Tenderloin Tech Lab in San Francisco. (Alex Washburn/WIRED)

Darrell Pugh uses cheese to teach computer skills. He thinks it puts his students at ease.

When Pugh teaches his students how to browse the internet, click on hyperlinks, copy and paste text, and even open and close browser windows, he takes them to Cheese.com, an online database of cheeses. There’s something about the site, he says, that makes them more comfortable, and they need all the comfort they can get. You may take those simple computer skills for granted, but Pugh’s students find them confusing and daunting. They’re afraid of breaking the computer — or even the whole internet — if they make a mistake.

Pugh is an instructor at the Tenderloin Technology Lab, an outreach organization in San Francisco that aims to help local poor and homeless people bridge the digital divide. The five-year-old operation offers free internet access six days a week as well as basic computer skills classes and workshops on blogging, photo editing, social media, and even entrepreneurship. Pugh and the Tech Lab staff help students deal with everything from everyday websites to Twitter and Facebook to newer internet tools like Etsy, TaskRabbit, Tumblr, and Weebly. The aim is to provide the city’s less fortunate with skills that can make life easier, help them connect with friends online and off, and generally boost their confidence.

The lab is part of a growing movement where nonprofit organizations are using computers, mobile devices, the internet, and even digital currencies to help improve the plight of the country’s poor and homeless, nudging them towards new jobs, new homes, regular healthcare, and other things most people take for granted.

Read the rest at Wired

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