Best of Austin®

Best Internet Safety Net and Digital Divide Bridge

Ana Sisnett and Austin Free-Net

It took the Austin Free-Net – not a big corporate donor, not a foresighted government agency, but a community collective of real citizens – to get the Internet into the Austin Public Library. Under the leadership of community activist (and poet) Ana Sisnett, the Free-Net has built on this foundation to bring not just cyber-excitement but real computer literacy – and the associated job and life skills – down to street level in Austin's communities of need. The Free-Net has helped all of Austin remember why this high tech thing is important: It can change the world.