What Cities Get When They Offer Free Tech Support to Residents

In Sept, the Washington DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) piloted its “All Hands on Tech” program, setting up two repair events in which the city’s own technicians helped residents fix their devices. Volunteers from local nonprofits like ByteBack, which prepares adults for a career in technology, also came out to help. The events were held at libraries inside Wards 7 and 8, where some of DC’s poorest communities live. America’s digital divide is essentially boiled down to three things. “Nationally, you will hear device access mentioned along with internet access and training as the three-legged stool of digital inclusion,” says Delano Squires, head of OCTO’s digital inclusion initiative Connect.DC. Yet there’s little benefit in having a computer that’s infected with malware, or a smartphone you don’t know how to set up. What residents needed was tech support.