Digital Inclusion Trailblazers

With the digital inclusion field changing so quickly, NDIA, sponsored by Google Fiber, is reworking the indicators and reevaluating local governments for the Trailblazer inventory. Supported by an NDIA Working Group, NDIA will announce the new indicators Fall 2019.

Digital Inclusion Trailblazers is the first public inventory of local government initiatives promoting digital literacy and broadband access for underserved residents. NDIA and Mobile Citizen first launched this effort in 2016 as an advocacy tool for local, state and national digital inclusion leadership, and as a handy database of examples for communities interested in taking similar steps themselves.

Previous indicators of digital inclusion leadership:

 

1. Does your municipal government have at least one fulltime-equivalent staff dedicated to digital inclusion policy and programs, and supported by the municipality’s own revenue rather than third-party grant funding?

2. Does your municipal government convene, and/or materially support, an ongoing digital inclusion planning process for your community?

3. Do officials of your municipal government participate actively in a local digital inclusion coalition?

4. Does your municipal government regularly conduct and publish research on Internet access and use by your residents?

5. Does your municipal government directly fund community digital inclusion programming, i.e. digital literacy training and/or assistance to residents in getting home Internet access?

6. Does your municipal government directly fund one or more public access computer labs?

7. Does your municipal government provide material support to a public or community wireless network deployed in one or more residential neighborhoods, and offering Internet access to residents where they live?

8. (This indicator only applies to cities and towns that are Internet Service Providers, i.e. operate municipal networks.) Does your municipal ISP provides a discounted rate, or other special affordability option, for home Internet service to disadvantaged residents?

Local Government Trailblazers