Getting Inner Cities Online; For-Profit Enterprises Try to Make Money by Doing Good
The young man in baggy pants stands at a street corner with an armful of blue-and-gold fliers. "Ma'am," he says, waving one of the sheets of paper at a passerby. "Do you own a computer?"</br></br>Juan Velez continues, telling the woman about the "digital divide," the gap between the people who do and don't have access to the Internet. Many of the jobs in the next century will require computer skills, he says. Then comes the sales pitch: She can get her very own home system, monitor and all, plus unlimited Internet access for a year, for only $249.</br></br>Five other teenage volunteers are nearby, giving the same windup to other downtown visitors on a recent Saturday. They are part of an unorthodox technology-promotion campaign that began three months ago in this working-class town dotted with abandoned textile and paper mills.</br></br>The organization they represent is no charity. It's part of a growing group of for-profit enterprises trying to do well by doing good. The business models of such start-ups make some uncomfortable, and it's unclear how many will survive the current high-tech shakeout. But proponents say the companies show promise in serving markets long ignored by mainstream businesses.</br></br>Digital Mafia Entertainment Inc. (DME), based about 20 miles southeast of here in Manhattan and worth about $8.5 million in the stock market, specializes in selling discount hardware and technology services to urban minority communities. Its chief executive is Darien Dash, 29, a well-connected entrepreneur who has been traveling around the country with President Clinton for the past year encouraging people to get online.