The project that brought some of Harvard's biggest academic superstars to one of the city's poorest neighborhoods last night had its origins in a keynote address that Gates delivered at the United Negro College Fund meeting in Minneapolis on January 18, 1999.

This was also the launch date for his Africana.com website, which now gets 18 million hits a month.

Gates said he envisions the program as a kind of "Hebrew school" for blacks, "an after-school program to teach culture and language in your local neighborhood."

"We use the basic concept and digitize it," he said. "We're concerned that black people master the new form of literacy. We want these programs to serve as digital bridges."

Over the course of the next two years, Gates, Appiah, art historian Karen Dalton and other Du Bois Institute staff secured a $200,000 grant from the Markel Foundation, cultivated a number of smaller donors, established a relationship with the Baker House and developed detailed curricula.

Teacher training finished last week and instruction begins Monday.

The Du Bois Institute has hired Educational Development Center (EDC) in Newton to evaluate the program, and the idea that engaging content can facilitate the development of digital skills, over the next year.

Whether or not the thesis proves true, Rivers said Gates' coming to Dorchester is important.