[reyf]

Thanks, Rey from One Degree here. Right now we're focused on improving our site and adding some great features so that our users (low-income families in San Francisco), can easily find what they need. Who knows exactly what the future holds? We're intently listening to our One Degree members, so they will likely help us shape what our product looks like in the future.

I can tell you that there's a growing trend that low-income families are using smartphones, so we'll be aggressively expanding in that direction. We'd love to create the best-in-class nationwide platform to access and use nonprofit and social services.

[judk]

I would guess that social services step #1 is don't piss away money on a cell phone and data plan...

[reyf]

Having access to the internet is quickly becoming an important part of what it means to be a productive and contributing member of our society. If being part of a community means building relationships and communicating with people in your community, why should we expect the working class members of our society to not be entitled to having the same technologies to communicate and build community that you and I enjoy in the middle class? Additionally, let's face the facts: you need the internet to apply for jobs, look for housing, apply for schools, and many other very fundamental tasks. Luckily phones and data plans are getting cheaper, so access to the internet is becoming more feasible, but there is still a ways to go. I urge you to have a bit more empathy. We are all just humans living in a very imperfectly structured world learning how to see each other as humans.

[bmajz]

That's simply not true. A lot of people need cell phones, especially if they're transient and job-hunting. Increasingly, you need the Internet too - at least email access. Going to the local library doesn't cut it if you need to get a quick response to an interview request.

[reyf]

Thank you! You took the words right out of my mouth.