If you need further evidence that the Internet is changing the way we live, check out the Wall Street Journal article on people who manage to get on-line even though they are homeless. Some use inexpensive laptops while others get on-line using computers at libraries or shelters. And some use a little homespun ingenuity:
For Skip Schreiber, 64, an amateur philosopher with wispy white hair
who lives in a van, power is the biggest challenge to staying wired.
Mr. Schreiber tended heating and ventilation systems before
work-related stress and depression sidelined him around 15 years ago,
he says.
For his 60th birthday, he dipped into his monthly disability check
to buy a laptop, connected it to his car battery, and taught himself to
use it. “I liked the concept of the Internet,” says Mr. Schreiber,
“this unlimited source of opinion and thought.”
Keep in mind that the people interviewed for this article live in San Francisco, one of the most wired cities in the world. And I suspect that technological savviness isn’t a skill that most homeless people possess. But computers are only getting cheaper and most major cities will eventually have ubiquitous wireless networks that are dependable and fast. Once getting on-line is as easy as making a phone call (and we’re nearly there already), we’ll probably see more widespread Internet use among the homeless. That may not get them off the streets, but it might make them a little more visible and connected to a society that has largely ignored them.
One of these homeless men or women may communicate some splendid idea and come up with the solution to a major problem in the world.
The problem of homelessness for instance!