by Barbara Lach

From left: Tom Esselman, CEO of Connecting for Good, Mayor Quinton Lucas, and Mayor/CEO David Alvey

Kansas City, Kan., Mayor/CEO David Alvey and Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Quinton Lucas joined area digital inclusion leaders and activists at the 4^th Annual Digital Inclusion event Dec. 4 hosted by Connecting for Good at its campus on Michigan Avenue in Kansas City.

Both mayors emphasized not only the significance of access to online resources as one of the factors in building resilient communities but also digital training and skill development.

“Creating opportunity is important,” Mayor Lucas said. “Digital literacy is providing the how, not just the who and the what.”

Mayor Alvey said Internet has become a fundamental part of infrastructure because all factors contributing to social determinants of health are linked directly to digital inclusion.

“On behalf of people Kansas City, Kansas, thank you to Connecting for Good for your efforts to connect persons and communities through digital equity,” Mayor Alvey said. “All of your work to provide Internet access, affordable computers, online educational content, technical support, computer skills training is already showing a positive effect for individuals, for families, for neighborhoods and for communities.”

The digital economy has transformed the way we work and communicate, making digital skills one of the most fundamental prerequisites for employment, but many residents miss on job opportunities because they lack the necessary training and Internet access, said Tom Esselman, CEO of Connecting for Good.

“Less than 46 percent of households have Internet access at home in this zip code,” Esselman said.

Esselman said his organization offers training and educational resources for the most vulnerable residents to develop the skills they need to enter the workforce, secure better jobs, strengthen family stability and build resilient communities. The Kansas City non-profit is a regional leader in bridging digital divides and one of only few organizations nationwide offering all five components of digital inclusion: Internet access, affordable computers, computer skills training, educational online content and technical support.

by Barbara Lach

The digital economy has transformed the way we work and communicate, making digital skills one of the most fundamental prerequisites for employment, but many residents miss on job opportunities because they lack the necessary skills, said Tom Esselman, CEO of Connecting for Good, at the Third Annual State of Digital Inclusion event Dec. 5 hosted by Connecting for Good in Kansas City. Ninety percent of professionals must have at least basic digital skills training to perform their jobs.

Esselman said in partnership with community organizations and individual donors, Connecting for Good has provided digital skills training to almost 10,000 residents in 2018.

The Kansas City non-profit is a regional leader in bridging digital divides and one of only few organizations nationwide offering all five components of digital inclusion: Internet access, affordable computers, computer skills training, educational online content and technical support.

by Barbara Lach

The Kansas City Star

by Barbara Lach

A picture is worth a thousand words…envision a white workforce with less than 2 percent African American representation.  Google, Facebook and Twitter employ 41,000 people; 1.8 percent of them are black.

Owning mobile devices does not get African Americans jobs in social media and tech companies any more than it provides adequate technology to do homework even at elementary level.  African Americans enjoy less than 75 percent of the benefits of the digital economy when compared to white Americans today. The National Urban League highlights this technology gap in its 2018 State of Black America report released May 3.

The League has created a Digital Inclusion Index to demonstrate how often African Americans get a fair opportunity at upward mobility within the tech sector. The index measures three areas: digital skills and occupations, digital access, and digital policy. African Americans are at 74.1 percent.

In some areas African American score above average digital equity. Although 2.8 percent of African Americans and 2.6 percent of white youth earned degrees in computer and data science in 2015-16, racial diversity in social media and technology companies remains minimal—fewer than 5 percent of the workforce.

“Historically, while great industrial breakthroughs have profited our nation, African Americans have often been exploited, rather than elevated by these advancements,” said Marc H. Morial,  National Urban League President and CEO.

“Access to the internet is essential to modern American life,” Maria Smith explained in her March 27 talk at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Job applications, school enrollments, efficient communication with doctors—all of these tasks now require reliable internet access. However, one in four Americans lives without a broadband connection in their home.

The online world is no longer a distinct world. It is an extension of our social, economic, and political lives. Internet access, however, is still often considered a luxury good in the United States. Millions of Americans have been priced out of, or entirely excluded from, the reach of modern internet networks. Maria Smith, an affiliate of Berkman Klein and the Cyberlaw Clinic, created a four-part documentary series to highlight these stark divides in connectivity, from Appalachia to San Francisco, and to uncover the complex web of political and economic forces behind them.

by Barbara Lach

Telecommunications incumbents in Missouri found this year a legislative ally in Sen. Ed Emery and together are well on their way to kill municipal networks…yet again.

Introduced in January by Sen. Emery, Senate Bill 186 cleared its way to the full Senate for debate. Using blanket restrictions that prevent cities from selling any type of goods or services—including broadband—when private businesses already offer such goods and services, the bill prohibits municipalities from providing broadband utility services. SB 186 comes less than a year after previous legislative assault on municipal networks in Missouri, HB 2078, failed thanks to arduous work of many community broadband supporters.

To make sure that community networks are never deployed in Missouri, SB 186 also allows incumbent telecoms to define the term ‘broadband.’ Incumbents could define and offer broadband as 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload, although the FCC defines broadband as 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. This in itself will prevent a city from starting its own network. In addition, this bill prohibits municipalities from forming partnerships with private sector companies to deploy broadband. As a result of this legislative action, Missouri residents will be stuck with lower speeds, inferior services and higher prices—bad for the people, bad for the economy, bad for education and bad for America.

The plea of some technology companies and policy organizations, such as Google, Netflix and Next Century Cities, to reject SB 186 as “a virtual ban on local choice, harming both the public and private sectors, stifling economic growth,” job creation and quality of life, has fallen on deaf ears of Sen. Dan Hegeman, Vice-Chairman of the Economic Development and Local Government Committee. Their argument in favor of businesses’ timely access to advanced networks and customers’ access to modern products and services went ignored by Missouri legislators. In their letter to Sen. Hegeman, the tech companies and advocates wrote SB 186 “is bad for Missouri communities…bad for private sector, particularly high-technology companies, and bad for America’s global competitiveness.” In pushing SB 186 to a Senate vote, Missouri legislators demonstrate strong support for monopolies while stifling residents’ access to fast Internet and all the advantages that it offers.

Municipal broadband networks serve well in communities where incumbent private service providers contribute to the digital divide or fail to upgrade infrastructure for high-speed Internet. Case in point Chattanooga, Tenn. The “Gig City” runs taxpayer-owned fiber optic network that provides affordable and very fast connections to its residents. But successful community-owned networks, like the Gig City or Greenlight in Wilson, NC, or the Roanoke Valley Authority, Va., are under attack. Backed by incumbents, such as AT&T, Verizon and Charter, anti-municipal broadband legislation intends not only to keep the existing city-owned networks from expanding but also to ban deployment of new networks. For example, Virginia House Bill 2108, introduced by state Delegate Kathy Byron, who received contributions from six telecom corporations, to limit municipal initiatives is now before the state senate. In Tennessee some legislators with good intentions, like Rep. Dan Howell, have argued since 2016 to repeal a law that limits community broadband, but incumbent AT&T of Tenn., which received $156 million in federal subsidies in September, lobbied successfully to delay HB 1303 for a year, thus preserving big telecoms’ monopoly. Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self Reliance urges to advocate for community broadband. Mitchell said, “Missouri should be encouraging investment and local Internet choice, not working with monopoly lobbyists to prevent it.”

Missouri legislators should not go out of their way to stifle competition and limit broadband access to the underserved residents, schools and municipalities. Under the old-fashioned concept of government, government actually governs to benefit the people. In 2017, however, our state government has abandoned large portions of city and rural residents, leaving them at the mercy of multi-billion dollar telecom corporations. Community-owned and municipal networks have an uphill battle against incumbents; they do not need the state government to prohibit them from even beginning the trek up the hill. What state legislators should do, instead, is work feverishly to remove the barriers to entry for local governments that are interested in connecting people left behind by the cable behemoths.

by Barbara Lach

Digital inclusion is ageless but digital education should begin as early as kindergarten, agreed panelists at the first annual State of Digital Inclusion event hosted Dec. 8 by Connecting for Good in Kansas City. The Kansas City non-profit is a regional leader in bridging the digital divide.

 

From left: Tom Esselman (standing), Mark Bedell, Chris Hernandez, Clyde McQueen, and Carole Malotte

 

The panel focused on a causal relationship between digital education and careers and quality of life. As an element of rudimentary education, developing digital skills should be part of K-12 curriculum, said Clyde McQueen, executive director of KC Full Employment Council. To prepare young people for careers today, digital education must start early, McQueen said as he mentioned the Kauffman Foundation’s, one of the event’s sponsors, recent announcement of an $80 million investment in postsecondary education over 10 years. Superintendent Mark Bedell, Kansas City Public Schools, also emphasized the importance of developing digital literacy and skills in K-12 as a path to successful careers and citizenship.

Another age-related aspect of digital education was raised by Carole Malotte, director of AARP Foundation SCSEP. As newcomers to digital technology, the elderly represent a substantive population group that can, and should, benefit from digital training to be able to use online services. “Success is defined by quality of life, not only by a great job,” Malotte said. Knowing how to use a computer and navigate the Internet improves the quality of life for older people.

As a community, Kansas City is facing a digital equity problem. Chris Hernandez, communications director for Kansas City, MO, said the Smart City initiative, a $15 million private-public partnership, provides funding for a free-to-riders streetcar, which connects business, arts and shopping districts, and offers free Wi-Fi coverage along the line. Despite such an initiative, digital equity of access to the Internet and skill sets across the City remains a challenge.

“As a community, we must get connected better,” McQueen said.

Tom Esselman, CEO of Connecting for Good, said his organization is building a digital inclusion ecosystem across Kansas City, in which both technology and education come together to bridge the social and economic gaps. In addition to low or no-cost broadband services and refurbished computers, Connecting for Good provides free digital training to low-income and unemployed residents of all ages.