Photo credit: Social Media for Nonprofits Before joining Knight Foundation, I was general counsel of a nonprofit tech startup, InSTEDD, which develops innovative tech tools to improve health and safety. So I am keenly aware of how digital tools help connect people to each other for information and collective action when their lives may literally depend on it. While it may not be as urgent as responding to a disaster, having the basic skills that unleash the power of digital technology is becoming fundamental for people to connect to information and resources at work and at home. It is especially surprising that so many people right here in Silicon Valley, the epicenter of technology innovation, are not digitally literate enough to use the technologies being created right around them. The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy stressed the importance of "strengthening the capacity of individuals to engage with information." Lack of skills to use new technologies creates a digital divide that excludes residents from new forms of information and active civic participation. That’s why Knight is making grants totaling $495,000 to six organizations in San Jose and Silicon Valley that are focused on promoting 21st century digital skills. Even in tech-rich Palo Alto, a digital divide separates low-income youth from their schoolmates. To bridge that divide, the Palo Alto Housing Corp. developed the Digital Leaders Intern Program, a media arts program where the teens learn digital media skills and produce films about their own experiences. One 15-year-old intern, Dami Bolarinwa, originally from Nigeria, was interviewed along with other local immigrants, telling his story in riveting first person and then helping produce The Choice That Changed Everything, a video about being “different” in a new country.