How 2 Cities Are Making Big Strides to Close the Digital Divide

During the October 17, 2014 Digital Inclusion Summit (see Jason Harper's report) in Kansas City noted Digital Inclusion Strategist Angela Siefer identified herself as a “huge, huge advocate of city involvement in digital inclusion” projects towards improving affordable Internet access in low-income neighborhoods.

This position represents a challenge to Kansas City to build bridges that close a digital divide in our community. Kansas City would do well to look at the example of Philadelphia and Minneapolis to launch big impact efforts, as Ms. Siefer pointed out in her presentation. And through the efforts of an emerging digital inclusion coalition that includes the KC Public Library, KC Digital Drive and Connecting for Good, a roadmap has been defined to bring city and other resources to this effort.

Through a city-run project called "Keyspots" Philadelphia placed 80 free wireless hotspots in operation. Through their efforts they are offering 847 workstations across Philadelphia, which provided 208,780 hours of training to 22,544 participants, including 430,362 visits to the Keyspot locations for free computer access. Plus they distributed 5,000 netbooks to Philadelphia Housing Authority residents completing an 8-hour, sweat equity training. The results of this effort? Organizers claim to have saved or created 113 jobs in the Philadelphia region.



Siefer mentioned the community-based Technology Literacy Collaborative employs two Americorps workers to track nearly 200 computer technology centers (CTCs) throughout the metropolitan area. These centers offer "free Internet access, computers, software, and perhaps assistance and instruction." In addition to the CTCs, the city of Minneapolis has "an outdoor wireless network that covers nearly 100%" of the city.

During a November 2014 trip to Minneapolis I noticed the "City of Minneapolis Public WiFi" networks while driving in South Minneapolis. The ubiquitous coverage provides a no-cost option for people throughout the city, especially low-income workers and families. My sister chose a higher speed broadband Comcast network for her home, but was familiar with the free wireless. The city indicates that a "credit card number is required to log in for security purposes but there is no charge." Most people would not submit a credit card, in fact, I was not challenged to provide mine when I connected to the wireless network.

While a city-wide initiative like Minneapolis' free wifi network or a comprehensive effort like Philadelphia's Keyspots may not be on the horizon for Kansas City, at least KC is developing a vision. This vision also includes launching pilot projects, perhaps in the Urban Neighborhood Initiative east of Troost Avenue and the Northeast neighborhood tracts north of 23rd Street.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Community Media: Serving More Than a Geographic Region

Community media outlets like KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City have thrived for decades, maintaining a well-established broadcast model: high-quality studio sound broadcast to a wide geographic area serving the "community." Non-profit community radio station like KKFI, along with college radio and small commercial radio stations keep costs low by renting small studios and operating with few paid employees. These stations attract small audiences but differentiate themselves by focusing on community issues, music and culture. This focus is what defines community media, along with -- in the case of community radio -- maintaining cooperative ownership, not corporate ownership. Community radio operators always knew that "community" was more than a geographic region; it was the various cultural, ethnic, social and artistic communities for which locally-produced radio shows target. KKFI has local radio shows by or directed to African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and immigrant
Read more

Quest for a new volunteer management system at KC area food bank

Image
Note: This document is an early draft of a business case to upgrade a volunteer management system. It is not intended to be a fully organized statement of requirements, but more of a collection of features and a document for discussion. Overview Harvesters, the Kansas City area food bank, would like to improve the capability of the Volunteer App, the volunteer management system used to schedule, track and recruit volunteers and groups.  The Volunteer Services department would also like to improve the efficiency and accuracy of volunteer management by adapting their processes with new features and functions from an updated application. The current, custom Microsoft Access-based system developed a few years ago provides a rich-featured, robust solution to track individuals and groups volunteering at Harvesters. The system tracks all volunteers working in the Volunteer Outreach Center, as well as those donating their time and skills for events and in departments throughout Ha
Read more

Lee's Summit Proposes the Sanity Approach to Waste Reduction

Image
Finally! The city of Lee's Summit, Missouri took a responsible approach to trash service by replacing an all-you-can-dump-with-no-free-recycling-option to a "volume-based" approach similar to the successful service used in Kansas City, Missouri. After the service is changed, then those residents who have paid $2.50 per month to trash companies like Deffenbaugh can rely on the new service for free recycling, plus get the satisfaction that waste will be reduced and recycling increased. ...the City Council directed city staff to issue the state-required two-year notice to all solid waste haulers providing services in the City that the City is considering implementation of a comprehensive, citywide, solid waste program.  The program currently proposed by city staff includes volume-based pricing for residential trash service with unlimited, curbside recycling at no additional fee .  Under this proposed program, residents would only pay for the amount of trash they discard ;
Read more