Bridging the Digital Divide

Communications technologies have continued to evolve and now increasingly provide opportunities for deploying low-cost broadband. However, conventional commercial business models for providing broadband often create bottlenecks to spreading connectivity. Over the past five years, successful community and municipal wireless networks have been overlooked and often dismissed, yet they hold tremendous promise for improving our nation’s approach to building communications infrastructure, empowering local communities and addressing the digital divide.

Addressing this topic and presenting the findings from a new policy report was a panel – consisting of Laura Forlano, Visiting Fellow at the Information Society Project, Yale Law School; Benjamin Lennett, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Technology Initiative; Gwen Shaffer, Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at University of California, Irvine; Aaron Kaplan from Funkfeuer, Austria; Stavros Papathanasiou from Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network in Athens, Greece; and Alison Powell, Media and Communications Fellow at the London School of Economics – moderated by Knight Media Policy Fellow Tom Glaisyer.

The panel discussed best practices for community and municipal wireless that spanned cases in the United States, Denmark, Spain, Greece, and other parts of Europe.  The establishment of local and municipal networks in these case studies demonstrated how affordable and fast wireless can be and offered an alternative to the ways we view internet access in the United States. 

With the current revolution in Egypt and the cut-off from internet access that the Egyptians face, the event helped to point out how pivotal community wireless is in sustaining community connectivity and involvement.  The panelists also offered insights that touched on issues of media access and its link to democracy, the connection between wireless access and political motivation, and comparisons between community-based and subscription-based access.

This event is co-sponsored by the New America Foundation and the Yale Law School, Information Society Project.

Participants

Introduction
Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

Speakers
Dr. Laura Forlano
Visiting Fellow, Information Society Project
Yale Law School

Benjamin Lennett
Senior Policy Analyst, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

Dr. Gwen Shaffer
Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine

Aaron Kaplan
Funkfeuer, Austria

Stavros Papathanasiou
Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network – Athens, Greece

Dr. Alison Powell
Fellow, Media and Communications
London School of Economics

Moderator
Tom Glaisyer
Knight Media Policy Fellow, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation