Watch: Poverty, the Digital Divide and One Web Day in Philadelphia
Watch the full presentation here
On September 22nd in Philadelphia, One Web Day organizers held a panel on the future of broadband and digital inclusion across the region. Todd Wolfson of Media Mobilizing Project (MMP) was on the panel. During the discussion MMP put forward an argument that poverty and the digital divide are deeply linked. Building on this analysis, MMP is harnessing the Federal Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program and bridging the digital divide as a core strategy of building a movement to end poverty led by the poor. Comments from the panel are below and here is a link to photos by Jesse Brown.
I want to start off by thanking Gwen for putting this panel together and for all of the work she has done on this issue. I also want to thank Nathan James and the folks at One Web Day. Their commitment to bringing awareness to the digital divide is crucial in solving this problem. I also want to applaud both the City Gov't and particularly Allan Frank and the Division of Technology, as well as the Free Library of Philadelphia for seriously focusing on this issue. Finally I want to applaud the Obama administration for making a national broadband plan the central concern of the FCC and creating the BTOP program, which we applied to for funds as others have mentioned.
I also want to briefly plug a report that came out recently called "A Public interest internet Agenda." My organization the Media Mobilizing Project along with many other community groups across the country played a role in doing the research and authoring this report and Beth and Hannah from the Media and Democracy Coalition did a fantastic job putting the report together. While the report puts forward a broad agenda there are two points I want to echo:
1) Communications access is a fundamental human right—particularly as we live in an increasingly digital technological society
2) Local, state and federal broadband policy must prioritize digital inclusion programs and historically disenfranchised groups
Building on that: I want to start out by saying that I believe the core concern for bridging the digital divide concerns the manner through which Internet access is becoming increasingly enmeshed with poverty and inequality across the country and in this city. Currently, based on census data we know that 1 in 4 officially live in poverty. 1 in 4. However, based on the same data and any humane read of census statistics we know that 1 in 2 Philadelphians or 50% of this city is one pay check, one social problem, one layoff, one health crisis away from slipping into poverty.
I know, I know this is a One Web day why are we talking about poverty.
I submit to you, that every major issue we see in this city connected to poverty, from joblessness, homelessness, drop out rates, college access and violence are all deeply enmeshed in the digital divide. And that is today, in 2009, but if we project 10-20 years forward, and more and more of society shifts online (from job applications to voter and civic engagement platforms, to information about health and community and the ability to communicate with friends and neighbors about one's life) the serious problems this city faces will be inextricable from the digital divide. Inextricable.
I want to clarify, I am not saying that solving the digital divide is sufficient for solving the serious problems this city faces, but I am saying that it is necessary and it will become increasingly necessary.
So Some things we need to do:
1) It is necessary that politics aside we figure out how to get Internet access into every household in this city and we make it a priority.
2) We get folks the training they need to take advantage of this new information and communication tool and
3) We need to create an educational system that caters to an economy that will increasingly converge with the Internet—from Pre K and Head Start through College.
4) We must recognize that the bundle of human social and economic rights of the 21st century, the rights that define what it means to be human, are increasingly communications rights
If we understand these things we will begin to realize that it is both a moral imperative as well as the best strategy for a healthy city to make solving the digital divide a core concern.
In this light, I want to briefly mention some of the work we as community groups in conjunction with the city and the Free Library System have done in recent months. Through a somewhat laborious public process, we put together some teams that have worked hard to put in proposals to the Federal Government that total somewhere around $30-40 million .
The first proposal led by Allan and the DOT is an infrastructure proposal aiming to build out city owned fiber for broadband in order to create public computing centers and merge that with the other technology needs of the city.
This is a great first step, but it is only a first step. If the monthly cost for reliable Internet access continues to stay prohibitive for poor and working class communities to get in-home access in Philadelphia, this will be a problem we must face. Internet access in this country is the slowest and most expensive of the industrialized nations and this problem must be solved if the Internet is to be accessible to everyone.
So to reiterate the first proposal is for infrastructure buildout.
Along with the Infrastructure proposal, the Free Library of Philadelphia, which is already the central institution for public Internet access, was the lead applicant and played a key role in putting together an Adoption proposal for the city. Many groups worked on this from my organization, to DIG, Philadelphia FIGHT, Philadelphia Student Union, Public School Notebook the Public Access Station and Institute for the Study of Civic Values. This proposal was a mixture of training folks in basic computer and web skills as well as advanced community media and journalism skills while getting those folks the hardware and access they need. The aim here is getting folks skill sets to utilize the web, which is vital and perhaps I can speak to in questions. Accordingly, there would be the establishment of a citywide Web portal, which would include information about city services, the ability to apply for benefits and community news channels amongst other things.
I am sure this will come up in more detail in questions.
I want to end today reiterating an earlier point by discussing a recent book which came out called "Cities of Knowledge." The book written by a historian that did her PhD work here at UPenn focused on urban economic development post WWII and ultimately on why Silicon Valley happened where it did in Palo Alto and not in other places. The central alternative case the author Margaret Pugh Omara looked at was Philadelphia and UPenn's University City Science Center initiative in the 1950-60s, which while not a failure was not able to match Palo Alto. The author offered one reason which I think we should take seriously as we consider any real Digital Philadelphia initiative. Omara explained that Penn and Philadelphia did not create an initiative that built the capacities of poor and working class communities of the city, but rather imagined getting rid of these communities, which led to antagonism. As Philadelphia moves forward into the 21st century, I hope we take this seriously and build a Digital Philadelphia that aims to build the skills and access of folks most disenfranchised so we can have a rising tide that actually lifts all boats.
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