Gates developed the idea for the program while working on his Encyclopedia Africana with Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah.

Forty neighborhood middle school and high school students--many of them "sentenced to literacy" as part of their probation terms--are spending the semester using the encyclopedia and the related website to learn about the Internet, as well as about global black culture and history.

The program runs seven classes a day, five days a week from the computer room of the Baker House in Dorchester. The location is symbolic--Baker House had a former life as a crack den.

Rivers applauds the program as a step toward achieving those measurable outcomes he says are necessary for black elevation.

"With his idea of the Martin Luther King after-school program, Gates has produced a signature prototype for addressing one of the most urgent social policy questions," Rivers says. "He's bridging the digital divide that's emerging between the poorer black community and the world."

Gates said in October that he sees 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."