Enlarge Morgan Lashley, a senior at Johnson C. Smith University, can't imagine life sans Internet.

Posted: October 5th, 2010 Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman

Imagine life without access to the Internet. Concerning, isn't it?

It's that concern that led to the formation of the Alliance for Digital Equality, a non-profit organization that held a daylong summit at JSCU on Oct. 1. Its mission is to be a "non-profit consumer advocacy organization that serves to facilitate and ensure equal access to technology in underserved communities."

If you are like many people, the Internet, whether accessed via computer or smart phone, offers instant connections to banking services, social networks, health care information, news, travel advisories, job listings, coupons and educational opportunities, like college classes and, increasingly, textbooks. And for many businesses, the Internet is critical for reaching customers.

For Morgan Lashley, a senior at Johnson C. Smith University, she can't imagine life without the Internet. She says she relies on the web to help her with research, but, more importantly, she uses it to stay in touch with her husband, who is stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army.

But not everyone has access to the Internet, and some who do have slow dial-up connections. That lack of access has a lot of people concerned, and many looking for ways to bridge the digital divide.

At JCSU on Oct. 1, local, state and federal policy-makers, along with members of the local and national media, scholars and leaders from other community-minded organizations participated in the summit.

None disputed the need to expand Internet access to every citizen, though a few pointed out that it's not enough to provide Internet access to a community, the members of the community also need to be educated about how to use their access to their benefit and avoid many of the pitfalls regular web users already know how to bypass.

The same week as the summit, Gov. Bev Perdue announced North Carolina had received $4.5 million in grants, and another million in matching funds, to expand broadband Internet access in the state.

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