HP Technology Transforms Native American Reservations (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

HP Technology Transforms Native American Reservations;
Tribal Digital Village Celebrates Three Years of Cultural Preservation
and Prosperity Through Technology Innovation

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040324005301&newsLang=en

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2004--PALA
RESERVATION/ HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) 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 is available at www.hp.com.