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What’s fascinating to me is that some of the institutions created in the 19th century to fight the “slough of despond” are not only still around but adapting to the latest needs of each city’s residents. For example, Chicago’s Erie Neighborhood House, founded in 1870, provides technology training for low-income residents. New York City’s Union Settlement House, founded in 1895, offers computer training classes along with their other extensive social service programs.

Philadelphia is going a different route to the same hoped-for destination of digital opportunity for all by creating a 21st century organization, Wireless Philadelphia. These days, the digital “other half” is likely to be the 15% of adults who are “off the network” but their situation stands in deep contrast to how most Americans connect to communications technology.