But recently Kevin has turned his life around through Community Access, Inc. (CA), a nonprofit organization on Manhattan's Lower East Side that helps people with psychiatric and drug problems get off the streets and into housing and jobs. When a CA social worker approached him at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting two years ago and asked him to join, Kevin had no idea that the organization's name also expressed its philosophy regarding public information. In addition to an apartment and skills training, CA gave Kevin a free Internet account.

He didn't waste any time. Kevin quickly joined CA's Double Trouble in Recovery (DTR) online therapy and support group, which allows residents with mental-illness and/or substance-abuse problems to post messages and respond to other members at any time. After learning the Unix operating system, he became an administrator of DTR's email discussion list.

Kevin has since parlayed his in-house cyberskills to employment at a New York University library, as a freelance Internet consultant, and as a full-time employee at the Corporation for Supportive Housing (unrelated to CA) in Manhattan. His fortunes have convinced him that we should take our digital rights very seriously. "Free access to the Internet is the single most important element of our new information age," he says. "Everyone has the right to be online, just like everyone has the right to a place they can call home."

Through his work experience, Kevin has also gained a more metaphysical view of what makes him tick. "In essence, these new skills are a positive substitution for my addiction," he says. "I believe that researching comes natural to addicts and that retrieving information is the equivalent to copping, because it does alter my mood, and, most importantly, it makes me feel good -- about me!"