Personal Stories of Broadband Highlight Digital Inclusion Summit

Florence Pearson and her daughter Equanna (Photo credit: FCC)

The personal stories of individuals whose lives have been enhanced by access to broadband services or impacted by lack of broadband access formed an emotional centerpiece to the America’s Digital Inclusion Summit held in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. The Federal Communications Commission organized the event in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to preview the recommendations in the forthcoming National Broadband Plan. The event provided an opportunity to showcase a variety of ongoing programs from around the country that expand opportunity through promoting access to broadband and digital skills.

The Summit featured an impressive bipartisan parade of key government leaders in the area of communications policy, all making the case for national policies that will deliver affordable, universal broadband service to every community in the country and endorsing government partnerships with the private, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors to get us there. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen headlined the program that included FCC Commissioners Meredith Attwell Baker, Mignon Clyburn (who delivered an impassioned keynote address) and Michael Copps, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan, U.S. Representatives Lee Terry (R-NE), Edward Markey (D-MA), Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Lafayette, Louisiana’s City-Parish President Joey Durel, and Knight Commission Co-chair Theodore B. Olson.

Mr. Olson provided a broad overview of the recommendations and report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy which was acknowledged by several speakers as an important document that is helping to reframe the ways in which policymakers and the public alike think about information, communications and media and their relationship to the health of communities and democracy.

Despite of the array of government luminaries on hand, the real power of the event came from the six private citizens from across the country whose simple yet compelling stories of personal struggle and growth grounded the discussion of broadband technologies, broadband service speeds and FCC broadband research in the everyday reality of individual Americans.

Here were real people with real needs to educate their children, find jobs, support families, care for elderly parents, make healthcare decisions and help others in their communities.   In keeping with the theme of the day, the Voices of Inclusion included:

• Rhonda Locklear, a housing specialist from Pembroke, North Carolina and member of the Lumbee Tribe, who described the heartache of watching her sons struggle with the impediments of dial-up Internet service to access educational resources when so many of their peers enjoy the immense competitive advantages of broadband. She said she fears her kids’ chances for a better future are at risk.
• Garrison Phillips, an eighty year old Korean War Veteran from New York, who attended a computer training class designed especially for seniors through an program called Older Adults Technology Services (OATS). He can now maintain daily communication with the caregivers of his 103 year old mother, stay in touch with friends, maintain contact with his agent to occasionally pick up an acting job, and conduct research from the comfort and safety of his own home that enables him to pursue his interest in writing.
• Florence Pearson, education director of a Head Start program in New York, a mother and a grandmother, who overcame her fear of using computers to gain more control and independence over her work and her life. She remarked how important it is for her children to see her overcome the barriers of fear and discomfort with technology and to be proud of her for it.
• Alex Kurt, an AmeriCorps volunteer and technology skills trainer in St. Paul, Minnesota, who shared insights from his experience teaching computer and Internet skills at the Rondo Library. He said that, as successful as AmeriCorps’ Computer Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP) is in the Twin Cities, he and his colleagues are doing little more than damage control because CTEP is not big enough to attach the problem of digital literacy at its roots.
• Irwin Aviles, a resident of the Bronx, NY, who at the age of 47 lost his job and found it difficult to find new employment that would enable him to support his family given his age and technical work experience. He found help through Per Scholas, a program that provides a free education, including financial literacy and career development, as part of its Computer Technician Training Program. Having been out of school for over 30 years and with no PC experience at the start of his training, he earned  A+ Certified Computer Technician that enabled him to land a job with Time Warner Cable as a journeyperson for IBEW Local #3 in New York City. He said he would not be where he is today, with good job prospects for the future, if it were not for the Per Scholas program helping him gain the broadband skills needed to function in the digital economy.

Rep. Becerra added to the personal voices of inclusion when he spoke about taking long car trips with his parents across the Sonoran desert in Mexico and seeing the occasional dwelling with a single antenna protruding from the roof. The antenna was the means by which the residents could stay connected to the rest of the world and, he said, represented the same yearning to stay connected and participate fully in society that his bilingual daughter is experiencing in school today as a new classmate with very limited English skills reaches out to her as the means of getting connected to the rest of the school community. “Broadband is about making that connection,” Rep. Becerra said.

The draft broadband plan makes a number of recommendations on increasing broadband adoption to the FCC, Congress and other branches of government and the private and non-profit sectors. These recommendations include:

Improve digital literacy for all Americans

• Public funding for a Digital Literacy Corps to conduct skills training and outreach in communities with low rates of adoption, while building workforce skills for Corps members
• Increase the capacity and knowledge in libraries and community centers to provide digital literacy training
• Creation of an Online Skills Portal, containing free, age-appropriate lessons from the technology and education sectors that users can access and use at their own pace

Show how broadband is relevant

• Public funding for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to support public-private partnerships
• Private and non-profit partnerships in national outreach and awareness campaigns
• Targeted support for seniors

Make broadband more affordable

• Expand to include broadband in two FCC programs that currently help make voice telephone service more affordable, known as Lifeline and Link-Up
• Consider use of spectrum for a free or very low cost wireless broadband service

Improve focus on measurement, best practices and state and local initiatives

• Use remaining Broadband Data Improvement Act (BDIA) funds to enhance state and local broadband initiatives and planning
• Augment this with increased focus on evaluation and assessment of all adoption programs
• Creation of a Best Practices Clearinghouse for practitioners to share lessons on how to improve broadband access, adoption and utilization

The FCC is set to deliver the National Broadband Plan to the Congress on March 17.

As an adjunct to the main event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., many people participated via webcast. In Akron, Detroit, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Philadelphia, people gathered to watch the national webcast and convene local discussions about accelerating broadband adoption in their city or state.