by Gary Beach

Help Make America Young Again

Opinion
Dec 01, 20082 mins
Developer

Next month Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Paraphrasing a decades old quote from NY senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan, America is “young” again.

Here’s an idea on how tech professionals like you can leverage the power of youth to jumpstart the ecommerce efforts of America’s hidden economy….the 95.5% of the 25 million companies in America who employ 10 or fewer people….52% of which have no internet web site… most of the sites up and running are over four years old!

Tech Corps, a national non-profit I founded in 1995, is launching a program called Student Web Corps. Student Web Corps’ mission is simply this: to build collaborative teams of web proficient middle/high school students and match them up with the owners of small businesses in the vicinity of the school. The students’ job would be to build a website for the small business, refresh an aging one or act as webmasters in training for sites that are operating efficiently.

Tech Corps needs to know quickly what your reaction to this idea is. Do you think the need is there? Do you think tech proficient students could act as a corps of volunteers to help jumpstart the ecommerce efforts of small businesses across the nation?

Send me your candid thoughts on the idea. 

Could it work.

Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus, CIO Magazine gbeach@cio.com