Black Facts Online Funding

About Inner-City Software

CLOSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

Making a Profit, Making a Difference

Inner-City Software (ICS) began in 1992 as the weeknight and weekend hobby of MIT graduate Kenneth Granderson. By the end of 1993, Ken quit his hi-tech job to devote his full time to the outsourced programming business that he developed from selling software via electronic bulletin boards. Ken had discovered what the rest of the world would recognize years later; that the personal computer revolution was about to completely change the rules of work and business by giving individuals an unparalleled level of opportunity to become successful entrepreneurs.

Ken knew that earlier industrial and economic revolutions required significant capital resources to establish significant business interests, and this had helped keep persons of color like himself from establishing leadership positions in American industry. Recognizing that the computer software business lacked all of the traditional barriers to entry into a new industry, Ken decided to direct his business efforts towards clients and projects that placed a strong emphasis on helping communities of color benefit from the coming Information Age.

The Best of Both Worlds

Alternately appearing as a nimble start-up venture on the leading edge of technology and as a community organization looking to bring computer technology to the inner city, ICS bounces from corporate board rooms to inner city classrooms drumming up business as well as interest in computers and technology.

Over the years, ICS has used its client projects and new technology mandates as the foundation of its community technology projects.

A 1995 multimedia authoring product ICS sold to developers around the world was also used to create a multimedia CD-ROM version of “African Americans in Boston: More Than 350 Years,” the only interactive CD-ROM chronicling Boston’s Black history.

In 1996, ICS began building and hosting web sites for its clients. ICS used this same expertise to launch web sites for Boston’s primary communities of color.

By 1997, ICS was putting databases behind its web sites, turning them into interactive online business applications. This also resulted in Black Facts Online, the world’s largest online database of searchable Black History information. Black Facts was built by Martin Welch, ICS's first programmer.

In 1998, ICS built its first portal web site for a client who hosts multiple online communities. This online community building expertise is the foundation of future versions of the local community web sites as well as an upcoming ethnic portal targeting the Black community on a national level, blackpeople.com.

Mastery of leading edge technologies, uncompromising standards of quality and a strong work ethic, in addition to a strong commitment to delivering technology solutions to communities of color has helped ICS build a truly diverse client portfolio comprised of businesses and organizations from a variety of disciplines.

From our offices located in the heart of one of Boston’s inner city communities, ICS is “walking the talk” of closing the Digital Divide with continued online activities focusing on communities of color, active and visible participation in community organizations and initiatives, customer and vendor relationships with local businesses, staffing by urban residents and outreach to local youth.

While we maintain our grassroots community connections and a neighborhood business feel, we are seasoned technology professionals who have mastered a variety of leading edge technologies including SQL, HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, C⁺⁺, COM, XML, Active Server Pages and Visual Basic to deliver desktop, intranet, extranet, internet and e-commerce solutions to dozens of clients over the past seven years.

We believe that we exemplify the formula needed to truly close the Digital Divide – best-of-breed technology developed by people from low-income communities, in a company located in a low-income community. We prove every day that our low-income communities harbor genius and technical creativity at the highest levels and are capable of producing state-of-the-art technology if people are given the appropriate opportunities and guidance.

So whether it is web sites for low-income residents or venture capital firms, Inner-City Software has what it takes to deploy today’s technology for social or financial benefit. We are a Digital Divide success story in the making as we improve our community as we improve our bottom line.

You can find out more about Inner-City Software’s current activities on the Internet at http://www.innercity.com or you may contact us via e-mail at info@innercity.com, or via telephone at (617) 740-9339.