THE CUTTING EDGE : On-Line Computer Net Linking Latinos Debuts : Telecom: Designed to provide access to info highway, the service’s high costs dismay some.

Proclaiming the need for the “digital empowerment” of the nation’s Latino population, a consortium of nonprofit organizations on Tuesday launched an on-line computer network aimed at linking thousands of Latino community groups across the country.

Funded by corporate donations and a $450,000 federal grant, LatinoNet plans to provide modems, software and computer training to 300 nonprofit agencies in the Los Angeles area over the next six months. The idea is to provide an easy-to-use electronic information tool and to educate community leaders in how to use and produce information for it. Other cities to go on line initially include San Francisco, San Jose and New York.

At a time when getting on the information superhighway has become something of an obsession for many businesses, schools and individuals, the network’s founders wanted to be sure the Latino community was not left behind.

“We all know that information and knowledge are power, and we also know that it is not distributed equally in society,” said LatinoNet Chairman Armando Valdez, a former professor of Chicano studies at Stanford University. “We can not wait for information technology to trickle down into our communities. LatinoNet offers a model through which disenfranchised communities can become full and equal partners in the technology society.”

At a news conference in Washington, D.C., Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt praised the project as an example of the Clinton administration’s efforts to prevent new technology from creating a society of information haves and have-nots.

LatinoNet enables users to click on an icon labeled “education,” for example, and find a directory of scholarships and financial aid. An on-line calendar displays a running list of Latino-focused events. Interactive chat rooms allow users anywhere to log on with a local phone call and talk to each other about subjects ranging from Proposition 187 to medical care. Information is in Spanish and English.

But for a service that aims in part to bridge an economic divide, LatinoNet’s price tag is steep: $80 for nonprofit agencies and $60 for individuals, plus a monthly fee of $8.95 to access the America Online service where LatinoNet will be housed. It’s a far cry from the universal access Vice President Al Gore called for last January when he laid out the administration’s vision for the superhighway in a speech at UCLA.

The cost, which LatinoNet officials say is necessary to cover salaries for the organization’s nine staff members and other infrastructure expenses, raises questions about whether such services can actually reach society’s existing have-nots or if access to technology must be subsidized and regulated to prevent the deepening of those divisions in the information age.

Hundt noted that 17% of Hispanic children in the United States live in households that don’t even have a phone line--and therefore would be unable to access LatinoNet. He added that he hoped to hear over the network and through other forums how the FCC could help to ameliorate that problem.

A host of civil rights groups and civic organizations, including the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Consumer Federation of America, have spoken out in recent months about the need for more government participation in ensuring access to the new digital networks to traditionally marginalized communities.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s grant to LatinoNet is one of several issued by the government this year to address some of those concerns.

Magdalena Duran, of the National Council of La Raza, who helped launch LatinoNet in Los Angeles, said the issue of expense was the reason the group chose to focus on linking nonprofit organizations rather than individuals.

“These organizations become centers of information in the Latino community. So a farm worker, for example, could go to a center which would help him get access to the information he needs.”

“It would be better if it were cheaper,” said Rose Meza, of the Los Angeles-based Latin America Professional Women’s Assn. “But we have to look at who it’s profiting. It’s coming back to us.”

Meza said she is computer-literate but had not been on line before LatinoNet gave the group a modem, paid for the installation of a phone line and taught her how to use the software.

Edwin Urbina of the Central American Resource Center, which provides Latinos with information on immigration rights, said the network would help his organization keep in touch with similar groups nationwide.

And Ivan Stacey, a political science student at Cal State Los Angeles who has volunteered to help with the training process, said the network’s ability to provide information and create a broader national discussion would help the Latino community--not just technically but politically and culturally as well.

As a tester of the service over the last several months, he posted several messages criticizing Proposition 187, for example, and found plenty of responses waiting for him each time he logged on.

“I believe in the democratic aspects of computers. The democracy we have in the United States is stagnant. On these services, anyone can post what they want. This is education, man, and people need to be educated.”