A couple months ago, I wrote about the organization that my mom is involved with called Breaking Down the Digital Divide (B3D).  A few friends of hers founded it, and my mom getting a job with them was the main push that brought my family, who were originally from Western PA but living in DC at the time, back to Pittsburgh.

800px-tisb_computer_lab.JPGI was asking my mom a little more about the founding of the organization a few nights ago, and she told me an interesting story.  Before B3D started, one of the to-be founders was a prominent blogger in the then new but quickly growing Pittsburgh blog scene.  She blogged mostly about technology issues, but as time went on, her blogging became more and more focused on political and community issues.  She got a couple other Pittsburgh bloggers together, and they discussed ways they could start doing something about what they perceived was a problem common to all of them.

That problem, as I mentioned in that earlier post, was the digital divide in Pittsburgh.  At the time, Pittsburgh wasn’t in the best of shape.  The population was in decline, the public schools weren’t doing well, and the city was very segregated and socio-economically divided.  The combination of these issues meant that a lot of disadvantaged kids were getting left behind just as the digital age was really ramping up.

All of the bloggers felt that teaching these kids about technology, and particularly blogging, would be a great way to help prepare these children to better compete in the job market as they got older, give them a way to express themselves, and provide a tool for them to tell their stories in a way that was productive for them and society.  It would also help make Pittsburgh’s already growing blog scene even more dynamic and influential.  This was the definition of win-win.

But, as my mom put it, a lot of people have great ideas, but making those ideas reality is much more difficult.  Initially, the bloggers thought just that–it was a great idea, but how are we going to do it?  They started thinking about all the problems they’d encounter, and generally began to discourage themselves.  In the end, though, they decided to put a few feelers out and give it a shot.

The part of the story that really amazed me, though, was what happened next.  Once they decided to step away from the keyboard and do something about their convictions, people got excited.  One blogger knew some technology people at Pitt, and they quickly pledged to donate computers.  Another blogger knew some people in community organizations, and they pledged space to setup computer labs.  Before anyone knew it, they had equipment, space, instructors, buy-in from the community, and most importantly, a huge group of excited and motivated people.  Soon after, B3D was officially born.

These are the kinds of stories that make me think…what does it take to make things happen?  There are a million different factors, but one that seems universally constant is having enough guts to push past the doubt and various mental barriers we put up and just start making it happen.  I hope that after I get my career started, whatever that may be, that I have the guts to do just that.