COMPUTER NETWORK LINKS ANTIPOVERTY GROUPS

'60S ACTIVISTS' RAP SESSIONS YIELDING TO HIGH-TECH COMMUNICATION

Poverty organizations are going high-tech.

A generation ago, social activists working for the poor, the hungry and the homeless often had to rely on personal rap sessions over beer and banjos at community halls and dingy storefront offices to communicate with those in similar organizations.

Now one of those 1960s activists, Sam Karp -- who cut his teeth in the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention anti-Vietnam War "days of rage" demonstrations, and as a civil rights and anti-Vietnam War demonstrator -- is bringing the advocacy organizations into the computer age.

Over the past two years, Karp, 42, has created a computer network called HandsNet, which is headquartered in Santa Cruz, Calif., and now connects more than 260 service and advocacy organizations and hopes to link up 2,000 more within several years. The symbol of the system is helping hands reaching out across America.

All that is needed is an Apple McIntosh Computer of 512E or greater capacity or an IBM PC, a special software package, a telephone and a "modem," which is a special electronic cradle or box that connects a computer to a telephone line and accesses the network.

"We find it pretty efficient," said Carolyn Bucey Eberle, director of field operations of the Coalition on Human Needs, an umbrella group of national advocacy spokesmen located here.

For an initial fee of $95 (McIntosh version) or $125 (IBM version) plus a monthly fee of $25, plus $8 an hour for daytime periods when an organization is actually "on line" (turned on and operating) -- or $4 during off hours -- an organization can send and receive messages to and from all others in the system, send and receive memos, and send and receive statistical information as well as program information.

An organization can obtain instantly the information it needs for its service and advocacy work from people who are expert in their fields, and who, in many cases, would not otherwise be accessible to all those needing their help, Karp said.

"Recently we sent out a list of how much money each state will get for job training" under the new federal welfare proposals, said Eberle. "It took only 60 seconds to transmit."

"We sent a message out for a reporter asking organizations if they could find people involved in certain types of welfare cases," she said. "It took 60 seconds." There were several responses. "Today I received a 'letter' from someone wanting help to raise money for an Alabama coalition to improve welfare benefits."

"We get reports and statistics and budget information" on social policy issues from many groups, including the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think-tank based here that does social and statistical analysis and research, Eberle said. "A group in Maryland needed a quick summary of the welfare bill -- they called and we put it on HandsNet.

"This is Karp's baby -- it's nonprofit, his dream," Eberle added. For her group, she said, the advantage is a big saving in the time required to get information; it expects to save on mailing and telephone costs in sending information.

Other groups that have joined include the Low Income Housing Coalition, Food Research and Action Center, National Coalition for the Homeless and a variety of hunger, religious and legal services groups as well as many local and state government groups involved with the poor.

Karp, a transplanted Pennsylvanian who has been in California for 20 years, attended Washington and Jefferson College, ran a commercial goat dairy in Santa Cruz, and was an anti-war and civil rights activist in the 1960s and 1970s. He became director of a food program serving low-income people in Santa Cruz and lobbied the California state legislature on such issues.

In 1986 he was California coordinator of the Hands Across America demonstration to raise money to alleviate hunger and homelessness.

"Around that time I began thinking it would be a good idea to create a way for programs to share information, experience and resources. With 35 leaders of the hunger and homeless movement in California, I approached Apple Computer and asked them for advice and technical expertise in building a network to connect California organizations. They gave us that -- but they gave us computers also. We did some market research to understand how programs currently communicated.

"We first went on line in California in December 1987; spent a year in a pilot phase. We had 100 California organizations on line. Then in January of this year we started going nationwide. We have 20 national organizations and 125 California groups and another 125 local or state organizations outside of California."

Karp said that while he hopes HandsNet can become financially self-sufficient through its fees in three years, it is still dependent on aid from businesses and state government and foundations.

"There are two ways of communicating on HandsNet. There is electronic mail and there is a library of information -- a searchable database of resources and statistics, demographics, public policy issues, news and other information.

"We want the organizations serving the poor to have the same access to new technology and information that the corporate sector is now using and experimenting with to do things rapidly and efficiently. Because of the aid of Apple and others, now we're on the cutting edge," he said.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.