News release

HP Technology Transforms Native American Reservations

Tribal Digital Village celebrates three years of cultural preservation and prosperity through technology innovation

HP and the Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association (SCTCA) today announced the third anniversary of the Tribal Digital Village, a project designed to help the tribal community bridge the digital divide and meet key community and economic development needs through the creative application of information and communications technology.

HP, SCTCA, University of California at San Diego, Palomar College and other partners are commemorating the anniversary today at a community event at the Pala Reservation in San Diego County. Activities include tours of Hi Rez Digital Solutions and San Pasqual Resource Center, cultural performances by tribal members, presentations on project achievements by digital village leaders and comments from HP executives.

"The success of the Tribal Digital Village began by listening to the needs of the Native American community and taking an innovative approach to provide HP technology to meet those needs," said Debra Dunn, senior vice president, Corporate Affairs, HP. "Throughout our three-year partnership with the tribal community, HP has been proud of the achievements of the tribal community to utilize technology to enhance their rich traditional way of life"

Since the Tribal Digital Village was launched in 2001 with a $5 million HP grant to SCTCA, the program has successfully fostered cultural, educational, community and economic development in the Southern California tribal community. HP's contributions have enabled the diverse tribal communities to connect and communicate with each other and preserve their culture through the use of technology and they have provided opportunities for economic growth with the establishment of a for-profit digital printing business, Hi Rez Digital Solutions.

The Tribal Digital Village has engaged community youth and adults to ensure the development and transfer of technical knowledge and expertise going forward. In addition, the Tribal Digital Village has conducted outreach to communicate its goals to organizations and institutions outside of the tribal community.

As a result, in December 2003, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell visited the Tribal Digital Village, providing an opportunity to gain exposure for the community's accomplishments, share best practices that can be leveraged by other communities and possibly yield federal support from programs that enable isolated, rural communities to install, maintain or upgrade their technological infrastructure.

Together, SCTCA and HP have achieved the Tribal Digital Village's goals of providing the Native American community with programs that address five key areas. They are: linking the tribes to a community network infrastructure; preserving traditions and culture for future generations; improving education opportunities through distance learning; enabling community interaction using online tools; and launching a community-led economic development project.

Tribal Digital Village achievements:

• Community Network Infrastructure: An impressive, high-speed wireless Internet and wide area network infrastructure spread over several thousand square miles and utilizing 200-plus miles of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint links was designed, built and implemented by newly trained tribal community members.




Local high school students participated in Youth Academy programs where they were trained to use topographic and global positioning system software to identify and survey potential sites for the solar-powered wireless network line-of-sight radio nodes.

The community backbone links thousands of American Indians across the region and enables interaction and collaboration among members of rural tribal areas, and it provides access to educational resources outside the reservations. More than 50 buildings, including 20 computer labs, are now connected.

• Community Service Access: Tribal members can now access their own Web portal and e-mail system, leverage video and webcams, and access other online cultural, medical and technological information. The team also has created a portal to enable individual tribes to host their government and educational Web sites. Multiple community calendars are helping facilitate communication throughout tribal communities.



• Distance Learning: Community members, including young people and seniors, are connecting to each other's tribes, surrounding school districts, health agencies and colleges for distance learning, tutoring and mentoring programs.



• Cultural Education and Preservation: Tribal members, from youth to elders, are creating audio and video materials for a variety of projects related to community members' histories, languages and cultures. The Tribal Digital Village collaborated with First Peoples Cultural Foundation to launch a Web-based, multimedia, indigenous language dictionary system (www.FirstVoices.com).




FirstVoices provides tools for language preservation efforts while giving control of content to each tribe. In addition, Tribal Resource Centers are now using distance-learning services through Internet-based video conferencing.

• Entrepreneurial Spirit: Two businesses that launched in October 2003 - Hi Rez Digital Solutions and Southern California Tribal Technologies (S.C.T.T.) - are believed to be the only American Indian consortium-owned, technology-based for profit businesses in the United States.




Hi Rez provides digital printing services in the Southern California area using an HP-donated HP Indigo 3000 series digital press, as well as HP service and support. S.C.T.T. is an Internet service provider and technical-support business. One goal of the businesses is to generate income for the 18 community tribes; a portion of profits is planned for use in funding ongoing tribal community programs. The ventures also will provide technology-based jobs for Native Americans throughout the region.

"In 2001, the SCTCA had a vision of bringing together remote tribal communities via a powerful wireless network," said Denis Turner, executive director, SCTCA. "HP's contribution and involvement in the Tribal Digital Village made this vision possible. Over the past three years, we've established a wireless infrastructure that has brought together 18 tribes dispersed across several hundred square miles, preserving culture and promoting sustainable growth simultaneously."

HP's commitment to e-inclusion

The Tribal Digital Village is part of a growing global network of communities HP is partnering with as part of its e-inclusion program. The program seeks to provide people access to greater social and economic opportunities by closing the gap between technology-empowered and technology-excluded communities, focusing on sustainability for the communities and HP. Other communities include the empowerment zone of East Baltimore, Md.; East Palo Alto, Calif.; Dikhatole, South Africa; Kuppam, India, and Mogalakwena, South Africa.

Over the last 20 years, HP has contributed more than $1 billion in cash and equipment to schools, universities, community organizations and other not-for-profit organizations around the world. In 2003, HP's giving worldwide amounted to more than $62 million in cash and equipment.

About Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association

The Southern California Tribal Chairmen's Association (SCTCA) is a multi-service non-profit corporation established in 1972 for a consortium of 19 federally recognized Indian tribes in Southern California. The primary goals and objectives of SCTCA are the health, welfare, safety, education, culture, economic and employment opportunities for its tribal members. A board of directors comprised of tribal chairpersons from each of its member tribes governs SCTCA. More information about Tribal Digital Village is located at http://www.sctdv.net/

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the last four fiscal quarters, HP revenue totaled $74.7 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.