While Trinity delivers educational services with state-of-the-art technology, only 36% of the College’s immediate neighbors have access to the Internet. Trinfo.Café evolved out of the desire to rectify this inequality by serving local residents, civic organizations, and small businesses. Before Trinfo.Café, the Trinity Information Exchange (TIE) was created in 1996 to connect arts and educational organizations.
TIE provided WWW and email support as well as computer literacy training for local non-profits. Trinity students helped these organizations develop computer skills and websites. TIE also participated in the Hartford Housing Authority’s “Campus of Learners” initiative, which provided IT support to Hartford residents in subsidized housing. Smart Neighborhoods and Trinfo.Café replaced TIE in 1999; a broader IT operation that keeps Trinity actively involved with the community’s IT needs.
Today, Trinfo.Café enables patrons to comprehend and value computer technology by tailoring computer classes to their professional needs and by demonstrating how computers, the Internet, Microsoft Office programs, and now the Cloud can be utilized to achieve personal and professional organizational tasks. Trinfo.Café aims to encourage organizations to take advantage of available, external grant funding that will allow them to independently address technical support issues and procure independence. This is an important goal for the sustainability of computer technology within these organizations.