Technola : Public Interest Law & Technology Updates & Commentary : Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow : Tech Advice for the Non-Profit Legal Sector

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just published a new report called "Networked Families":

A national survey has found that households with a married couple and minor children are more likely than other household types -- such as single adults, homes with unrelated adults, or couples without children to have cell phones and use the internet. The survey shows that these high rates of technology ownership affect family life. In particular, cell phones allow family members to stay more regularly in touch even when they are not physically together. Moreover, many members of married-with-children households view material online together.

View the full report here. Last month Pew published a related report called "Networked Workers" that may also be of interest. -M

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An interesting AP article on the recent Pew Internet and the American Life Survey, "Teens, Video Games and Civics." The survey found that ninety-seven percent of young respondents play video games. That's 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls, with little difference in the percentages among various racial and ethnic groups and incomes." Will the Wii be the great equalizer? Only time will tell, but for now my wife and I still have to travel all the way to Baltimore to visit Kate and her husband for our marathon Rock Band sessions. -M

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Last week, two news stories about poverty caught my attention.

The first showed up Sunday. In "The Poor and Plenty," the Baltimore Sun describes how Maryland's low poverty rate (8.3 percent) doesn't accurately portray the state's situation. Maryland has two of the top five richest counties in the nation and one of the top fifteen poorest cities (CNN - America's Richest and Poorest Places). When you combine all of these areas, the plight of Maryland's poorer areas become much easier to overlook. While this article talks about Maryland, it made several points that you should consider when looking at your local poverty rate.

• The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. "Average blue-collar families that work hard and earn a wage are not included in the [benefits from a growing economy]."
• Poverty rates are going up again.
• Children from low-income households in affluent states are worse off than those in less affluent states. (Check out the Annie E. Casey Foundation for more information.)
• Two items that can help are better health insurance for the poor and the earned income tax credit.
• Public opinion is changing. The Pew Research Center says that there is more support for government programs that help those in poverty.

Also mentioned in this article are the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE), a US Census Bureau program that provides updated estimates of selected income and poverty statistics. For those of you invited to submit full TIG applications, you might want to consider checking these estimates out.

Check back tomorrow for a look at the second news story - health care in Oregon. - K

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"Some 62% of adult Americans have taken advantage of mobile access to digital data and tools. The Pew Internet Project's new report, entitled Mobile Access to Data and Information, examines mobile access in two ways and finds that:

• 58% of adult Americans have used a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to do at least one of ten mobile non-voice data activities, such as texting, emailing, taking a picture, looking for maps or directions, or recording video.
• 41% of adult Americans have logged onto the internet on the go, that is, away from home or work either with a wireless laptop connection or a handheld device.
• Overall, 62% of adult Americans have either accessed the internet with a wireless connection away from home or work or used a non-voice data application using their cell phone or PDA, according to the Pew Internet Project's December 2007 survey."

View the full report here. -M

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