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Comment by incision | Hacker News Reader

>'Commute to work? Apply for benefits? Schedule appointments with doctors? Successfully keep those appointments? Keep tabs on kids while working/errands? A smart phone makes you better.'

Spot on.

Years ago, I maintained a couple of desktops in a sort of 'job center' where people could submit electronic applications for various low-end, entry-level positions.

The most common issue - no email address. Second most common - has email, but has to take the bus to the library to check it.

Cheap smartphones have been a boon at that level. There's a whole segment of the population that was missing out on all the benefits of being connected until very recently.

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> The most common issue - no email address. Second most common - has email, but has to take the bus to the library to check it.

Absolutely. We have come to know a couple of guys, one ex-homeless, who have real troubles here. We lent one an old iPad and that, together will free wifi in coffee shops and malls, has enabled him to talk to government agencies and job centers.

These days you can buy no-name android tablets from Walmart for $44. For example: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ematic-7-Tablet-with-4GB-Memory-an...

That's cheap enough that there's no reason for a poor person NOT to have one.

For some $44 is a lot.

Jack Monroe was poor and a blogger. She wrote a powerful piece about it once: ( http://agirlcalledjack.com/2012/07/30/hunger-hurts/ ):

> This morning, small boy had one of the last Weetabix, mashed with water, with a glass of tap water to wash it down with. ‘Where’s Mummys breakfast?’ he asks, big blue eyes and two year old concern. I tell him I’m not hungry, but the rumblings of my stomach call me a liar. But these are the things that we do.

> ...

> Then you start to take lightbulbs out. If they aren’t there, you can’t turn them on.

> ...

> Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one weetabix and says ‘more mummy, bread and jam please mummy’ as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawn shop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam.

These are the people who can't afford $44.

Cheap is one reason, but also...

When you're functionally illiterate and have spent a few years living on the streets, are not good with money, and have a generally chaotic lifestyle, then you may well not think about going to your local supermarket to buy a cheap tablet (even if you know what a tablet is)

For some folks, their lack of ability to cope with (and fit into) modern life is truly incapacitating.

Right, but that brings us back to the main point: how is an app going to solve that? It's not.

I take it you've never been on the breadline then? There have been times in my life when £5 has been a lot of money, when taking a 2hr walk (each way) to work for the first week, was the only option. It might not seem much, but then if they do buy it, what next? There is no starbucks in their neighbourhood, the library is two buses away, and none of your neighbours have wifi, or are happy to share it with you.

Plus if you are living a chaotic life, keeping hold of something like this, keeping it secure, dry and charged can be a mission in itself. And when times are hard what is going to be the easiest way to get some money (for bus fare to that job)...

So yes, if you are in the right location, with the time and means to get to an open wifi connection, and have the spare money to buy a tool like this, then awesome. But a lot of people aren't.

Well, as long as you ignore all the cultural and social elements that got him into that position in the first place. Oh, and the $44.

I take it you've never been actually poor? $44 can be a hell of a lot to invest in technology when you don't have enough money to cover the bills every month.

I left the United States to work abroad too soon to get into the project, but Washington DC (if you are in that area) Public Libraries had a very impressive computer literacy program where people were taught all kinds of the skills. I taught for a while.

http://dclibrary.org/services/computer

Things like this will make a big difference. The email thing, as an IT guy full-time, blew my mimd. Many of my students were not stereotyped homeless people, but frustrated people with low incomes and dead end jobs. Some of them really lit up as you showed them how to spend all free time that could be invested in free education and researching better job opportunties. I only wish I had stayed longer volunteering there to make a real difference.

I hope other places start digital literacy courses.

Here's a seemingly rare example of something that has unambiguously and significantly improved the lives of millions of poor people across the world. What lessons can we learn to try to repeat that success?

It seems today's fast track to helping communities is:

1) Equip them with internet-enabled smartphones 2) Give them software to get things done more efficiently

I just wish there was one more thing:

3) Decentralize the networks so there's no need to pay for an expensive mobile internet plan in order to communicate in your own neighborhood.

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