Making Herself Obsolete: A Profile of CTCNet's Holly Carter

Usually people struggle to promote their own relevance. Therefore, it comes as something of a surprise to hear Dr. Holly Carter, director of CTCNet say her ultimate goal is to make herself obsolete. According to Dr. Carter, "leaders make us fragile." To ensure their sustainability, communities must relinquish reliance on outside leadership even when it's benevolent.

Dr. Carter recently visited the University of Michigan's School of Information (SI) in Ann Arbor. CTCNet stands for Community Technology Centers Network. While at the SI, Dr. Carter participated in a Community Information Systems class to exchange ideas about the course and vision of CTCNet. All the students in the class have been involved in collaborative projects with Community Technology Centers (CTCs) in Ann Arbor or neighboring Ypsilanti. Community Technology Centers are local places where people can get access to computers and computer-related technology, such as the Internet. 

Inspired by the question of how computers could act as a catalyst for change, Dr. Carter recently took this post at a grassroots organization after having spent most of her career in academia. Dr. Carter believes that there is a natural connection between her work as professor of Asian global development at Northeastern University and her current position with CTCNet. CTCs serve as a means of building sustainable development from the bottom up, whether in U.S. communities or abroad. 

Frustrated at witnessing computer centers that stand idle and underutilized, Dr. Carter strongly believes that the community technology movement does not just come down to a question of access. Community members need to be trained in how to utilize technology in order for the information revolution to really make an impact. In Dr. Carter's opinion, community technology centers have the potential to become a significant force in this social movement. As she told the class, no social change movements have been government or corporate induced. Instead they started out as popular initiatives organized by people seeking fundamental social change. Current initiatives to provide technology training and access offer the potential to activate just such a social transformation. 

There is a great deal of work to be done. As it stands, only about one percent of the more than 250 community technology centers involved with CTCNet offer state-of-the-art equipment. About half provide Internet service to their patrons. Often the hardware and software is so antiquated that training provided on these archaic machines doesn't result in contemporary marketable skills. With these considerations in mind and while defining goals for CTC's future, Dr. Carter believes that we need to look at the relevance of technology in individuals lives who are linked to CTCs. Many people are not acculturated to the Internet as a means of communication. 

CTCNet is committed to proving the transformative effect of technology in a variety of ways. A primary goal of CTCNet is to set standards of hardware and software donations to its affiliate centers. Although donated with good intentions, obsolete machines injure rather than empower because they're not providing skills relevant to today's workplace. Moreover, in order to make a true impact, CTC's across the country need to identify strategic points of intervention to effectively inaugurate change. Integrating youth and resident programming with computer center activities could be one way of doing this. Finally, CTCNet has established a Leadership Institute to bring staff members from affiliate CTCs together to develop strategic partnerships and receive more extensive training. 

For more information on CTCNet refer to their Web site. There you'll find a CTC Center Start-Up Manual along with a variety of publications about CTCs and their community impact. You'll also find information on CTCNet's recent national all-affiliate conference entitled Connecting Our Communities to the 21st Century.