Technology Issue

Most of the subjects of these profiles are not working at the cutting edge of the technology industry. But they are creating its future by tackling the issue of the digital divide, the gap between those who can access and benefit from technology and those who can't.

If you're addicted to e-mail and you live on the Web, it's hard to imagine that anyone could be completely unfamiliar with computers.

The Raleigh Boys Club is full of kids in the after-school hours. Away from the roar of the brightly colored main hall, two computer labs offer a quieter place to take classes and do homework.

In the conference room at the Raleigh headquarters of Red Hat, approximately 80 members of the Triangle Linux Users Group crowd around a small laptop computer.

Jane Smith Patterson wants every home and business in North Carolina to have access to broadband Internet service.

In 1989, before the Internet as we know it came into existence, a group of geeks in Chapel Hill foresaw a need to share public information in a meaningful way.