The "Virtual" Reality

One of the questions that's come up over and over in my
conversations about what our country is learning from a year in
quarantine is "what's being done in places where connectivity is
keeping families from connecting at all?" According a 2019 report
from Pew Research Center, 58% of Black adults and 57% of Hispanic
adults have a laptop or desktop computer, compared with 82% of
white adults, and 66% of Black adults and 61% of Hispanic adults
have broadband access at home compared with 79% of white adults.


The 2019 U.S. Census, showed 36 million households that do not
subscribe to a wireline broadband service. 26 million of these
households are in urban areas. 10 million are in rural areas. The
lower a household’s income, the less likely they are to
consistently subscribe to a wireline broadband service.


Like many of you I've wondered all year about what's being done,
what more we can do to address this issue - one that's been
around long before the pandemic - and I was lucky for the chance
to sit with a group fighting hard to offer balance and equity in
the city of Philadelphia.


Juliet Fink Yates (she/her)


Digital Inclusion Fellow, Office of Innovation and Technology,
City of Philadelphia


Juliet Fink Yates has been working on addressing digital equity
since 2001 when she was managing a small ISP for 10,000
low-income Philadelphians without Internet access for the
Critical Path Internet Project. For many years, she worked as the
Chief Learning Officer at Philadelphia FIGHT Community Health
Centers at the intersection of adult education, technology and
healthcare. In 2010, she wrote, in collaboration with the City of
Philadelphia, the broadband stimulus grant that brought $5.4
million to low-income communities to set up computer labs (which
became known as KEYSPOTS) in 77 locations, reached out to
cultivate the key partners involved in that grant, and helped to
design the structure of that program, overseeing a team that
managed 28 of those KEYSPOTS. She was a founder of the Technology
Learning Collaborative, Philadelphia’s first professional
development organization dedicated to digital literacy providers
and advocates and was a member of the City of Philadelphia’s
Digital Literacy Alliance until she joined the City of
Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology this past
March as the first Digital Inclusion Fellow. In this role she is
charged to build the community of those in Philadelphia
interested in addressing digital inclusion and help support
innovative digital equity practices in Philadelphia. She has a
Master’s in Education from Harvard University Graduate School of
Education with a focus on technology in education.


 


Paolo Balboa (he/him)


Programs and Data Manager, National Digital Inclusion Alliance


 Paolo began his career in public library education and
outreach in 2013, first in Cleveland and most recently at the New
York Public Library. He has worked with the Mozilla Foundation
and a cohort of practitioners and advocates to develop a Web
Literacy toolkit, and he has served as a panelist at the American
Library Association Annual Conference to discuss digital
literacy. He received his Masters in Library and Information
Science with an emphasis on Data Visualization and User
Experience from the Pratt Institute. He is an advocate for access
equity in a variety of spheres, including transportation,
housing, and of course, broadband. He lives in Brooklyn with his
houseplants.


  


Andy Stutzman (he/him)


Project Director for Civic Technology, Drexel University


With an MS in Computer Information Science, Andy Stutzman has
over 20 years of technology experience within higher
education. Through his leadership and innovation skills,
Andy has strived to create programs and technologies that reach
beyond traditional boundaries. Since coming to Drexel
University, Andy has been involved in civic engagement and
workforce development initiatives across Philadelphia. As
the Program Director for Digital On-Ramps, he led a city wide
digital badging initiative that included managing the MacArthur
Foundation backed LRNG Philly program. Andy now works as the
Project Director for Civic Technology at Drexel University’s
ExCITe Center where he leads community based initiatives focused
on digital equity and inclusion. He is also the chair for the
Technology Learning Collaborative which has supported digital
inclusion initiatives throughout Philadelphia for over eight
years.


Thumbnail for the episode is art by @theeastlondonphotographer,
Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona


Links from this episode:


https://www.digitalinclusion.org/


https://www.digitalequityact.org/


Audio included from 3rd parties:


What are the benefits of digital inclusion?


Digital Inclusion in the Promise Zone Workshop Series: Access to
Connectivityby CSDCA


https://archive.org/details/Digital_Inclusion_in_the_Promise_Zone_Workshop_Series_-_Access_to_Connectivity


Closing the Divides: A Plan for Digital Equity and Inclusion by
The Aspen Institute
https://archive.org/details/theaspen-Closing_the_Divides_-_A_Plan_for_Digital_Equity_and_Inclusion


Understanding Digital Inclusion National Skills Coalition
https://youtu.be/-E0kVgH1sLk


Understanding Digital Equity, Inclusion & Literacy
https://otan.us/resources/past-webinars/understanding-digital-equity-inclusion-literacy/ 
OTAN (Outreach and Technical Assistance Network)


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