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Between the government subsidies and family contributions at the core of ClickStart, it could easily be argued that the program's participating technology companies are getting the equivalent of corporate welfare. Is there a risk that ClickStart will benefit Silicon Valley's bottom line more than low-income families?

I don't know that you should pit them against them each other. The point is, How do you get quality machines to a population that hasn't benefited from dropping prices? You figure out some way to subsidize it so it's affordable, and $5 a month sounds like a fair rate to pay for a device and Internet connectivity. It's not a substantial burden. This stuff isn't cheap, and you can't just give it away, that would be too much of a burden on the private sector. Will industry benefit? Sure. But that's secondary to having more citizens being able to plug into this economy. It means they will become workers and consumers, and the trade-off for what the corporation gets versus what the worker gets is a reasonable one.

By Silicon Valley measurements, $50 million is a paltry sum. How far will this go toward wiring the poor?

It's a start. It's important to bring attention to this problem in a significant way -- the government's already been able to leverage its [subsidies] with a tremendous amount of private sector investment. Some private sector investments have even begun to outstrip any of the government's. It's important to figure out ways to bring industry resources and talent to bear for the other domains -- communities and homes. If we leverage it with corporate monies, we may be able to turn it into $100 million or more, and I think then you're talking about a substantial number of communities being able to bring their community technology centers online. The untold story is how many people actually get jobs and then go back to work, pay taxes and get off the welfare rolls. ClickStart really gets us going in a substantial way; but it's still hardly enough to do the job that's required if we're going to leave no Americans behind.

Is technology the best tool for improving the standard of living and education for low-income families? Oppenheimer argues that a good deal of the information on the Internet is geared for white and upper-middle-class families and indulgent consumption, whereas the poor's needs are a little bit more basic -- they need food, shelter and good job training.

Folks who are trying to make their way into the economic mainstream have a compelling reason for using these devices -- training, skill enhancement and career opportunities of the job pools. But you're not perpetually in that state. A lot of our programs take people from food stamps to 401Ks. When she's at the 401K end of the spectrum, she's not looking solely at programs to help her gain more skills so she can gain a better job, she's now looking at ways to train online, and being able to get the New York Times for free becomes more important. But it's natural that people would organize their life on priorities, and I think if you are trying to acquire the skills set to earn a living wage for you and your family, then what's happening on E-Trade is not relevant for where you are right now. It's not forward-looking enough to say that poor folks will only want a certain kind of content.

Oppenheimer points to content geared for white males. But BET.com has just launched, you've got Urban Magic, Black Planet, various Latino Web sites, UP and others. Those content challenges and opportunities will definitely be a part of what brings more minorities to the Net. The Web is a great resource for low-income folks because of its educational applications, job and career portals, online training, distance learning opportunities, etc.

Technical support and training for low-income households is a complex issue because no computer is truly plug-and-play. Who will provide support for home users who may not possess technical savvy?

You're going to see community call centers created, where it's maybe the local tech center and the local community college working together to provide the necessary support for the beneficiaries of these programs. These community call centers will evolve to provide the support that nonprofits, community members and new owners need, without the kind of price that has traditionally been associated with support. What will evolve is that they'll rely on institutions, community colleges and community technology centers. Churches, too, will begin to get smarter as they realize they can use labs and technology to have a new kind of access to their congregation.

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