Building the Networked Future

Seattle's burgeoning high-tech economy is helping to produce the tools and products that will underpin future communication systems. Many of the 1,900 software firms in the area seem to be focused, as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates emphasized in his book, The Road Ahead, on how to use the technology primarily for shopping and entertainment. A few are applying the same tools to citizenship, education, and community problem-solving.

For example, RealNetworks, the company that brought audio and video to the Internet, is experimenting with public service announcements on the Internet. Since April, 1997, the RealImpact/WebActive division of RealNetworks, has worked with numerous not-for-profits to build activism and awareness of social and political issues. For example, the firm helped the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to mobilize "e-mail activists" for an Earth Day campaign. "Seinfeld" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus recorded a video message which was "netcast" over RealVideo and RealAudio software. To increase awareness, WebActive ran banner ads across RealNetwork Sites. And it teamed up with Starwave, which donated banner advertising on unused inventory on its sites. The result: over 100,000 people visited the site and 2,611 joined EDF's action brigade. In less than two weeks, EDF increased its activist network by more than 25 percent. "This was accomplished at half the cost of a direct mailing, and on a time frame where mail would never work," according to WebActive's Eileen Quigley.

A number of Seattle not-for-profits have been thinking for some time about how the new technology can be used not just for recruitment, but for citizen and community problem-solving. The 911 Media Arts Center for years has provided a locus for creative documentaries, community access to airwaves and cable, and linkages between artists and social issues. Today, the Center continues to provide training on how to use media in a socially active way, says Fidelma McGinn, another ex-Microsoft employee, who now directs the organization . More recently the Technology Resource Institute (TRI), under the direction of Willem Scholten, has brought hardware, software, and know-how to the aid of a number of libraries, librarians, smaller organizations and creative individuals in Washington State, nationally, and internationally. TRI has recently merged with The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, giving it the new name, Gates Center for Technology Access. In another creative project, the Seattle Art Museum teamed up with the public libraries to train artists to design websites, both for themselves and for arts organizations. The Open Studio project is bringing new sensibilities and esthetics to web design.