Chris Rabb

Wi-fi and the digital divides

I was pleasantly surprised and proud to learn a year or so ago that my adoptive home of Philadelphia would be providing city-wide wireless Internet access (aka "wi-fi"). I was even more excited to witness a growing advocacy among tech-savvy liberals and progressives for wi-fi as a public utility in cities and towns from coast to coast.

At the same time, I have been encouraged by perennial reports that support my long-standing belief that Blackfolk use computers, the Internet and all things technological, regardless of what people and media within and beyond the African-American community may think.

Now there appears to be no disparity between African-Americans and whites when it comes to accessing the Internet when controlling for class. Thus, the enduring "digital divide" persists along largely socio-economic lines (which of course is related to race).

However, if progressives choose to tout wi-fi as a public good and a new, robust civic resource for all society's stakeholders, then those progressive organizations that actively leverage the web to further their missions must have a commitment to racial inclusiveness that mirrors the demographics of the majority-minority "blue" cities in which wi-fi access may abound.

And as much as I am proponent of universal wi-fi access, in order for this new civic mantra to convert into real results, it must seamlessly 1) incorporate advocacy for free or affordable access to modern hardware, 2) cultivate diverse online destinations with substantive and actionable information, and 3) provide assistance to under-served communities in developing facility with the Internet.

Without such an explicit mission, the potential civic import of and impact from municipal wi-fi will amount to little more than a taxpayer-funded cyber-playground for the urban digerati.

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Posted at 6:00 AM, Dec 07, 2005 in Cities | Civil Rights | Democracy | Economy | Media | Municipal Wi-Fi | New York | Progressive Agenda
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