February 12, 2003

SimHouston Report

Mayor Lee P. Brown announced on Tuesday that another 5,000 citizens have acquired free SimHouston accounts since Saturday, February 1, bringing the total to 70,000.  

The first of four free training sessions for SimHouston users was held at Houston Public Library branches throughout Houston on February 1. 

SimHouston, a suite of virtual desktop software applications, allows every citizen with a Houston Public Library Power Card to have access to the Internet at library locations to create, modify, store and send documents; to have dedicated storage space for the documents they create or acquire over the Internet; and to have an email address, all at no cost to the user.  Houstonians who own computers are now able to download the free software or pick up a CD at any library location, as well.  The only cost to those who use SimHouston at their homes or offices is the cost of their Internet access.

“Making technology available to every citizen, no matter what their socio-economic situation, has been a long-held dream of mine,” said Brown. “Houston became the first city in America to bridge the digital divide by making the software available to the public on library computers.  Now, we are making it available on CD and through the Internet site, www.simhouston.com, to all Houston Public Library Power Card holders.”

“The City of Houston is the first city in the country to give all its citizens access to the global information highway to ensure that no one is left behind due to a lack of access and availability to new technology,” said Houston CIO Richard Lewis. 

“To date, more than 70,000 Houstonians with SimHouston accounts created more than a quarter million documents using SimDesk,” added Library Director Barbara Gubbin.