Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 17, 2001
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Gov. Locke, Sen. Murray launch center to speed technology use in low-income and rural communities

SEATTLE - Gov. Gary Locke and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray today spoke at a reception launching Washington State University's Center to Bridge the Digital Divide. The aim of the facility is to help citizens overcome geographic and economic limitations by improving access to telecommunications technologies.

WSU's Center will focus on strengthening family opportunities and business competitiveness by bringing essential computers, software and high-speed Internet connections to households and small businesses in rural communities and low-income neighborhoods.

"The Center's mission -- to assist people, communities and government to bridge the digital divide -- could not be more timely or important," Locke said. "Communications and information technology are creating tremendous opportunities for our citizens."

"In too many parts of Washington, especially our rural areas, families and businesses are unable to unleash the vast potential of the Internet," said Sen. Patty Murray. "But because of the leadership of Dr. Bill Gillis and the WSU Center to Bridge the Digital Divide, communities throughout our state will be able to take advantage of the exciting educational, health care and economic opportunities that this technology allows."

Technology anchors Washington's largest, fastest growing and highest paying industrial clusters. Over the past five years, household median income in the state has jumped 20 percent, and much of that growth has been driven by technology.

Yet there remain huge disparities in access to the tools of the digital revolution:

Technology jobs are overwhelmingly concentrated in the Central Puget Sound region.

There are vast discrepancies in school districts' spending on technology.

And despite a lot of progress, state-of-the-art telecommunications services are still not reaching all of the state.

"The Center to Bridge the Digital Divide can help us tremendously in redressing these disparities," Locke added.

William Gillis, the Center's director and former commissioner with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, said, "With the formation of a new Center to Bridge the Digital Divide, we will be in a position to better connect all citizens to the benefits of the modern innovation economy."

The Center will:

Speed deployment and use of digital technologies in underserved communities

Enhance business opportunities and jobs in rural communities and low-income urban neighborhoods

Facilitate informed technological choices by businesses, individuals and community leaders

Facilitate informed technological choices by businesses, individuals and community leaders

Jump-start market deployment of digital technologies

Provide policy research and telecommunications assistance to create new economic opportunities and improved access to education, health care and civic participation

Facilitate training on applied e-commerce issues through WSU's Cooperative Extension delivery network and Small Business Development Centers statewide

Strengthen and diversify rural economies through telework job creation

Pilot test high-speed Internet in at least three rural communities north of Spokane and a selected Seattle or Tacoma inner-city neighborhood

Use telecommunications and information technologies to create an online reference for economic and business development topics
Begin a computer literacy education program for rural and low-income inner-city youth.

The governor added, "I encourage all of you to find creative ways of working with the Center -- as I pledge my administration will do -- to bring the opportunities of digital technology to all of our citizens."

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