Kansas City Digital Inclusion Summit 2014 Keynote

Editor's Notes

1. I must thank you all.
2. Because of you all I got my first quote (and my second quote) in the Wall Street Journal. Very exciting. My family was impressed. As with any interview, I fear I had too many points. I lacked a sound bite. I’d like to share with you what I actually said. For the first article I was asked this question -
3. My answer – Not any more so than other broadband service provider. Low-income families are not signing up because of cost, digital skills and relevance. The same reasons they don’t sign up for any other service.
4. The story I tried to get the Wall Street Journal to focus on was that the rollout of Google Fiber in Kansas City has drawn attention and resources to the issue of digital inclusion. It has led to new partnerships intent on reducing the digital divide.
5. I’d say you have an opportunity. Yes, yes, this opportunity requires a lot of work but by the looks of this room, I’d say you are up for it!
6. KC Digital Inclusion Fund – Even if it is not a lot of money. You have funds dedicated to access and digital literacy. So many communities would love to have such a pot of funds. Library Leadership – I love nonprofits. I’ve worked with nonprofits on digital equity issues way longer than with libraries but I have to say – the library leadership is essential. The library is an institution which means long live library programming! As an institution, the library can bring attention to issues. Case in point – here we are! I have to tell you, there was a time when I was more than a bit frustrated with libraries. In the early 2000’s, I was leading a statewide coalition of community technology programs. Back then, quite a few libraries were more of a digital hindrance. Many would not allow use of email! Fast forward to today and libraries are digital heroes. This Summit – Wow. How many participants? Over 200? That’s amazing. This Coalition – This Summit would not be possible without the Coalition. The strength of your movement (yes, you are a movement) is the diversity of community organizations and your dedication to digital inclusion. That is what I told the WSJ! That’s the story. Opportunity!
7. I know most of you are looking at that word “sustainable”. I’ll get to that. I promise.
8. Opportunity to empower Kansas Citians through technology. That’s the story. That’s a real impact of Google Fiber being in Kansas City.
9. Stand alone community technology centers are being created by local folks seeing a need.
10. As a graduate student, I worked with a professor who decided we should ask local nonprofits how the university could assist them. The result of that survey was the creation of a regional community technology coalition. That’s the term we used back then – community technology.
11. Looks pretty familiar, eh? And that was 18 years ago. Don’t let anyone tell you that technology will solve the digital divide. I was told that 18 years ago. And here we are.
12. I know it was 18 years ago because my oldest, Jonah, was born in 1997. He is now 17 years old now. Yes, that’s a robot he is working on.
13. I move to Columbus and become the director of the Ohio Community Computing Network which had recently been created to distribute funds to and support community technology centers in Ohio. Thanks to advocacy groups community technology centers received funding through California, Illinois and Ohio public utility commissions mandating support in telephone company deregulations and mergers.
14. I know what year it was because my 2nd child, Tess, was 2 months old when I accepted the job with the Ohio Community Computing Network. She is almost 15 now.
15. The idea of reducing the digital divide gets rolling. At the local level and the national level. At this time I am running the Ohio Community Computer Network. Around 2005 we realize that stand alone community technology centers are not sustainable as they begin to close down. Public access and training programs that survive are those within public libraries and community based organizations.
16. And federal funding is back. And more substantial this time!
17. I know what year it was because I was helping write grant proposals while I was pregnant with my youngest, Josephine. She is now 4.
18. I helped implement one of the broadband adoption grants, ran a few broadband conferences and helped write the NTIA Broadband Adoption Toolkit. There seems to be a correlation between digital inclusion activity and me having children. But don’t get any ideas. The correlation is not strong enough for me to have another child!
19. Digital inclusion has momentum! The federal grants plus the local interest in ultra high-speed broadband has more people talking about equitable Internet access and use! Because here we are!
20. I wish I could tell you there was a national organization working on digital inclusion that you could turn to for support. There isn’t. CTCNet (Community Technology Centers Network) is no longer around. But what I can do is point you to examples of other coalitions so you can gather ideas for creating your own model.
21. Philadelphia In order to apply for a federal grant – Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (stimulus funds), Philadelphia formed a coalition. While helping write the grant proposal, a local university put in the grant that they would help with marketing (at a reasonable cost, of course). I didn’t think much of putting substantial funds in for marketing. In my experience you recruit participants through partner organizations. What I did not realize was that program participants are not the only target market for programmatic marketing. The public access and training locations were dubbed “keyspots”. Want to know who LOVED the brand? Everyone. Identifying public access and digital training programs with the name of Keyspot, having a website that promoted the Keyspots, having marketing material that focused on a term that could refer to all those different locations, serving a variety of populations with a variety of support, turned out to be incredibly useful. Program participants recognize the brand and funders recognize the brand.
22. I’m not saying it was only the marketing that caused the City of Philadelphia to financially support Keyspots but it certainly helped. They went from being a grant based partnership to being a network. They now meeting quarterly.
23. The Minneapolis digital inclusion network is called The Technology Literacy Collaborative. It was originally created when four local partners wrote and received an Americorps grant. Somebody writing that down? Map searchable by city, services offered, language and postal code.
24. Who runs TLC? Volunteers, Americorps members and a City of Minneapolis Department of Technology staff person (who mostly works on digital inclusion issues). Yes, they have a city staff person who’s responsibilities include digital inclusion.
25. Community Technology Network is an actual 501(c)3 with paid staff. They’re primary mission is providing volunteers for community technology programs in the Bay Area. They also led the creation of this database of resources. The University of Washington is now working on how to scale up this database.
26. These are the topics in the Community Technology Network’s database. If you want a similar resource database, CTN is happy to share. Seattle is running a webpage linked to the same database.
27. I know, California is not a city. Calling it a state isn’t really accurate either. Its more like another country. BUT we can still learn from them. What word in this slide catches your attention? California is funding coalitions like yours. On a regional level.
28. There are only 7 regions in California under this plan and CA is a big state but still, the funding and the coordination sounds worthy of some serious coveting.
29. Chicago has a long history of grassroots digital inclusion work. Smart Chicago Collaborative is a 501(c)3 with paid staff.
30. Funded primarily by the Chicago Community Trust but also supported by the MacArthur Foundation and the City of Chicago. Political support almost as important as the financial support.
31. Here’s another one with government funding. This time at the city level. 4 full-time city staff working on digital inclusion. Seriously. Not joking. And funding for community technology programs that is a result of a cable franchise agreement. City staff AND a digital inclusion fund since 1996! They also have the database of access and training locations(like Minneapolis) and the database of resources (like the Bay Area).
32. Seattle really is the granddaddy of regional digital inclusion work. They have been conducting a digital inclusion survey every 4 years since 2000.
33. I only gave you a highlight of what is happening in a handful of cities. Each city has much more going on that what I referenced. Here is a chart focused on what the city government is doing. I am convinced city government support – financial and political is essential. This chart shows us what the City (capital C) is doing in these 5 cities. All Cities with a dedicated staff (or portion of a person dedicated to digital inclusion) are located in a technology department.
34. One of my favorite digital inclusion academics is Karen Mossberger who is now at Arizona State University. She says the Internet fosters Use of Information which creates Opportunity for Individuals which Benefits the Rest of Society. I agree. You are doing incredibly important work which will have a long last impact. I thank you.