A few years ago, some people were concerned that a digital
divide would separate those that have technology from those that
don’t. That doesn’t appear to be the case today if you consider
the number of homeless people who have computers and access to
the Internet. Take Charles Pitts, for example. Mr. Pitts is 37
years old and lives in San Francisco. He has accounts on
Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, runs an Internet forum on Yahoo,
reads online news, and emails friends regularly to keep in
touch. The difference between Mr. Pitts and many other people
who do these types of activities is that Mr. Pitts lives under a
highway bridge. To keep his laptop charged, Mr. Pitts, who has
been homeless for two years, keeps a mental list of spots where
he can charge batteries and go online, including a deserted
corner of a downtown train station and wired cafes who tolerate
long stays and lots of bags. Others, such as Skip Schreiber, 64,
an amateur philosopher who lives in a van, get more creative
when it comes to powering