BERLIN -- All of Europe is a kind of a laboratory in which to watch what happens as people try to catch up to the Internet revolution that has remade American life. That's especially true of a small town in southwestern Germany.
Beginning this month, a nonprofit organization provided computers and Internet access to more than 90 percent of the small town of Oberhambach, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Many of the town's 280 inhabitants are elderly, including one couple -- both 88 -- who are among the more enthusiastic participants in the Oberhambach Pilot Project.
"They were very anxious to see what the Internet was like," said Dirk Schmitt, the head of the state-sponsored consortium organizing the project. "The problem we have with old people is many are not willing to pay money for a computer -- first because it's a lot of money for them, and second because they don't know if they are going to be able to use it and control it. To learn a computer by a book is very, very hard, especially for an older person."
Much was made over the last year about Europe's preference for accessing the Internet via mobile phone technology -- as compared to Americans -- but that trend appears to have been overstated. In fact, European Internet usage is looking more and more like U.S. habits, and the Oberhambach Pilot Project fits squarely with that trend.
A recent European Commission report found that in terms of raw numbers, Europe will pass the United States sometime next year in quantity of Internet users. The percentages are rising rapidly as well.
The report found that 28.4 percent of people in Europe used the Internet in their homes during October, compared to 18 percent in March and roughly 12 percent in October 1999.
"The idea was to take a whole town that has no infrastructure -- no bakery, no butcher, no grocery store, no post office -- and provide people, especially older people, with a computer to find out what they would do with them," said Schmitt.
To make it easier for everyone to learn how to make the most of their computers, the program also includes having local high school students working as "IT Scouts."
They show up at the house to offer a full range of instruction at the outset, and then are available on call after that to answer questions or give regular tutorials. "It depends on the learning progress of the household," Schmitt said.
The project could end up attracting worldwide attention, both as a novelty and as a potentially meaningful window into the mysterious territory of how people who have lived without computers soon come to rely on them.
"I haven't heard of another project like this one, and it sounds wonderful," said Shari Steele, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
"Not only are computers being provided, but high-speed access and training are also included. This sounds like it was very well thought out and implemented. I'm interested in seeing if people participating find it to be helpful."
The IT Scouts earn 10 DM an hour -- and also gain useful experience, something they have trouble getting in school.
"They teach us a little about computers in school, but mostly I learn by myself at home," said Verena Weber, a 17-year-old high school student in nearby Birkenfeld who likes the IT Scout program so much, she's working with two families.
"I use the Internet to search for things I need at school, or to chat with friends, or to write e-mails," she said. "I've made some new friends in chat rooms. No boyfriends, though."
One family she works with has two children, ages 3 and 10, and the parents are looking to this program to learn about computers and the Internet so they can teach their children. The mother in the other family wants to learn for herself so she can use the Internet as a tool in maintaining a household.
"She wants to be able to buy things via the Internet, but she doesn't know how the computer goes," said Weber.
Weber has worked with each family only a few hours so far.
"First they wanted me to show them how to write e-mails, and how to use search engines like Yahoo Deutschland, so they could search for things," she said. "I think they are learning very fast."
Any program that helps educate Germans about computers could end up catching on elsewhere. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has tried hard to sell the country on the economic possibilities of the Internet, but training remains inadequate.
Only 10,000 computer science students graduate each year in Germany, though analysts predict as many as a quarter million information-technology jobs could open up in the country in the next few years.
The goal of the Oberhambach Pilot Project is not just to expand the horizons of a couple of hundred people, but to watch closely for one year and learn lessons that might have a wider application. To that end, Schmitt and his two part-time assistants are taking a rigorous approach to monitoring the attitudes and behavior of the people in the study.
"We did a survey before the people were provided with computers to find out what their feelings were about the Internet (before) having access to it," said Schmitt, whose survey included 50 questions. "We asked what they expect from it, what they think are the most interesting sites on the Internet, (what) they thought they would do (with it). Every three months we will ask follow-up questions to find out if there is a change from what they said in the first surveys."
The project started when a group of civic leaders from nearby Birkenfeld won a grant of 300,000 DM in a multimedia contest sponsored by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. That money was used to organize the program, the first of a series of planned multimedia research projects.
Donations were sought. Compaq donated enough 900-MHZ, 128 RAM computer systems for every household in the village -- with the stipulation that after one year, people could buy the system at a substantially discounted price of 750 DM, about one-quarter of its estimated value.
Deutsche Telekom agreed to provide every house with an ISDN connection, and T-Online agreed to provide every household with 20 hours of free Internet service per month.
