Will States Use One-Time Federal Funding to Get Digital Inclusion Right?
Left to right: Carlos Nathan, NTIA; Maribel Martinez, Maribel Martinez Consulting; Kyle Holley, Santa Rosa County; and Peter Murray, Dense Networks contribute their experience and expertise to the Florida Broadband Summit 2023 panel, “BEAD: Community Engagement Efforts through the Five-Year Action Plan and Initial Proposals”
Since 2015, I have been working to close the digital divide nationally, supporting communities with digital inclusion planning and implementing efforts to bring affordable broadband, low-cost computing devices, and digital literacy skills training to those who lack these tools. With growing interest in digital inclusion and a variety of organizations becoming interested in taking action, I have included key takeaways about this burgeoning digital transformation for decision makers across sectors and at all levels.
Over the past eight years, I have seen many challenges, changes, reasons for hope, and new developments in the #digitalinclusion space firsthand from both the nonprofit and for-profit sides. Soon, historic funding will make broadband infrastructure build-outs, access to devices, and digital literacy skills training initiatives more feasible everywhere. In speaking with colleagues across the country over the past two years, we share the same concern: Will states use this singular federal funding opportunity to get digital inclusion right?
State broadband offices, counties, and cities have the opportunity to responsibly, ethically, and wisely make use of billions of dollars in order to design and plan for transformative digital access over the next few years, especially in areas where internet access is sparse and where vulnerable populations such as asset-limited households, older adults, and people who speak a language other than English are concentrated, just to name three.
Additional Thoughts for Decision Makers:
Data does not tell the whole story; one size does not fit all. I’ve trained hundreds of Digital Navigators across the country to help people subscribe to internet plans that make the most sense for them, taking into consideration the types of access that are available in their area and their costs. I’ve worked with national internet service providers and small regional ones to learn about a variety of broadband solutions that make sense to particular geographies. Geo-spatial data is critical to internet infrastructure build-outs, but it’s not the only piece of information that should be used to determine where and how to build out.
Engage deeply with communities and listen. Every place has a heartbeat and the folks who live there know what they need. Part of my work over the years has been to identify and collaborate closely with stakeholders and community members to listen to communities, to learn about who is struggling and why, and to have a clear understanding of their past and persistent challenges.
Find your community’s assets. Find who else truly cares about the #digitaldivide in your community and work across sectors collaboratively with community members to thoughtfully plan the way forward together. Take into consideration what is needed (time, transportation, child care, translation, adaptive devices) for community members to participate in this type of community planning.
Vet proposals. In the end, I believe contractors who are awarded city/county/state funds to do digital inclusion work should have deep knowledge about the digital divide with the tested experience to implement professionally, reliably, ethically, and within a reasonable budget. It’s not an easy task to read thousands of pages of proposals, but it has to be done if we will identify the right people for these massive multi million dollar projects that could forever positively affect how we all live, work, learn, play, stay healthy, and engage civically.
