Chapter 3: Getting started: Three important questions

Question 1. Why do you want to start a digital inclusion program?

A) Who are you? What’s your role in your community, and why is digital inclusion important to you? You might be:

• A librarian who sees crowds of people who need to use public computers.
• A teacher whose students can’t get online assignments done.
• A nonprofit housing manager whose tenants need help to get online.
• A workforce program manager whose clients need digital skills for job placement.
• A family services, senior services or healthcare provider whose clients need computer literacy and access to learn about and access services for which they are eligible.
• A business manager who sees a need for more digitally literate employees or job applicants.
• A local technology advocate looking to enable more citizens to engage with a “smart community” vision.
• A public official or civic policy leader concerned that community members are being digitally left out.
• A neighborhood activist or planner in a neighborhood where many residents are unconnected.
• Or just an independent, concerned individual who wants to help neighbors become more digitally connected.

Whoever you are, it’s important to be aware of the legitimacy and perspective you get from that role, of others in the community who could add their own legitimacy and perspectives as partners and of how your interest and program idea will be received by others based on who “owns” it.

B) What's the digital exclusion issue you want to address in your community? Do you want to focus on a particular population (such as seniors or community members with disabilities) or a particular outcome (such as improving job prospects or accessing health care resources)?

C) Can you describe the impact you would like your program to have? Can you be specific?

Question 2. Can you document your community’s need for a digital inclusion program?

Personal experiences and digital exclusion stories are often enough to get an initiative moving. But to target your efforts, clarify goals, build support and develop a strategy, you’ll want to have solid supporting data. Luckily, good local data about household technology access and needs is getting easier to find. Here are some places to start:

• FCC Form 477 Census tract and block data⁷ (See Appendix 1.)
• U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS) Data⁸ (See Appendix 2.)
• Any local survey data you can find Library computer-use statistics
• And talk to:
• Workforce program staff
• Housing providers
• County social service staff

Digital inclusion program planners in some communities have carried out their own survey research with local residents, three of which are the City of Austin, City of Seattle and the City of Fayetteville.

Question 3. What’s the organizational setting for the program you hope to start?

The basics of digital inclusion are similar in all settings. Important aspects of your digital inclusion initiative—including decision-making, resources, program objectives, training priorities, desired outcomes, metrics and constituent relationships—will vary depending on your sponsoring organization, operating style and goals.

So...which of these settings are you planning for?

A) Digital inclusion programming inside a community institution or established organization

• Library Housing authority
• Social service agency
• Community organization
• School
• Some other institution or organization

Digital inclusion programming in support of another program agenda

• Workforce training
• Adult literacy
• Health services
• Financial literacy
• Public childhood education
• Some other kind of existing program

C) A stand-alone community digital inclusion program

If the answer is “standalone community digital inclusion program,” then who’s the “owner”? Is there a sponsoring organization in place, or do you plan to create one?

This is vitally important if you plan to raise and spend money to support the program. It’s less vital but still important if you’re thinking about an all-volunteer, no-major-expenses operation.

Even if you don't need significant funding, you probably still need an organizational structure to:

• Get and keep your partners and volunteers engaged;
• Protect yourself and others from personal liability;
• Attract in-kind donations of equipment and supplies;
• Attract monetary donations and
• Create the kind of community presence and support you want.

If you want your donors to be able to deduct their donations, then you require a nonprofit corporation with a functioning board of directors and an IRS-confirmed charitable tax status such as 501(c)(3), with the ability to comply with government reporting requirements, accounting standards, employment laws, etc.

You can learn more about setting up a nonprofit organization at: National Council of Nonprofits¹² and Nolo's guides to starting a nonprofit¹³, including a state-by-state guide.

For a new digital inclusion program, the process of designing, organizing, incorporating and (if necessary) raising money for a standalone sponsoring organization will take a lot of effort and time before you’re in a position to start your work.

It’s often simpler to begin as a project of an existing institution or program with the possibility of spinning off an independent program if that makes sense at a later time.

The right path for your initiative will depend not just on its goals but on the particular opportunities and obstacles you find in your community—especially the people you may want or need to work with and the resources you find available. Make the effort to meet those people and explore those resources.

Taking the time to answer these basic questions—to your own satisfaction and the satisfaction of prospective allies and partners—will put you in a much stronger position to plan an appropriate, effective digital inclusion strategy for your community.

References

5]

“Maine Digital Inclusion Initiative,” National Digital Equity Center, accessed March 5, 2019, http://digitalequitycenter.org/our-strategies/ (Back to text)

6]

Tech Goes Home Chattanooga, accessed March 5, 2019, https://www.techgoeshomecha.org/
(Back to text)

7]

“Fixed Broadband Deployment Data from FCC Form 477,” Federal Communications Commission updated December 12, 2018, https://www.fcc.gov/general/broadband-deployment-data-fcc-form-477
(Back to text)

8]

Note: ACS Table B28002 provides data on households with cable, DSL or fiber broadband accounts—i.e., conventional “wireline” connections—vs. households for whom mobile devices are the sole home internet service. This distinction is important because mobile subscriptions are far more likely to have strict data usage limits and the devices they connect, especially smartphones, also have serious limitations in important use categories like education.
(Back to text)

9]

Sharon Strover, Joe Straubhaar, Karen Gustafson, Wenhong Chen, Alexis Schrubbe and Paul Popiel, Digital Inclusion in Austin, (Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, Technology and Information Policy Institute, 2015), http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Telecommunications/Digital_Inclusion_in_Austin_April_2_2015.pdf
(Back to text)

10]

Seattle Information Technology Department, 2018 Technology Access and Adoption Study, (Seattle: City of Seattle, 2018), http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/Tech/City%20of%20Seattle%20IT%20Technical%20Report%20v17b.pdf
(Back to text)

11]

“Digital Inclusion Plan,” Speak Up Fayetteville, City of Fayetteville, Ark., accessed Feb. 12, 2019, https://speakup.fayetteville-ar.gov/digital-inclusion-plan
(Back to text)

12]

How to Start a Nonprofit,” National Council of Nonprofits, accessed February 15, 2019, https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/tools-resources/how-start-nonprofit
(Back to text)

13]

“Nonprofits.” NOLO, accessed February 23, 2019, https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/nonprofits
(Back to text)

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