FCC kicks off computer donation program to help low-income people

A Federal Communications Commission-led initiative has launched a program that will allow U.S. organizations to donate used computers to low-income people.

"The costs of digital exclusion are rising," said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski at a press briefing in Washington, referring to how low- income people suffer from not being connected to the Internet.

"Broadband is our central platform in the 21st century for economic growth, information and opportunity," Genachowski said.

The nonprofit organization Connect2Compete (C2C) will redistribute the computers to the poor so they can be used to access the Internet and develop basic digital literacy skills.

Genachowski pointed to the ways that low-income individuals miss opportunities by not being connected. Many jobs -- including the many engineering positions U.S. companies now have difficulty filling -- require computer savvy. Even finding a job requires a computer. "Job postings are almost exclusively online now," Genachowski said, noting that 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies do all of their job postings online. Read more...