Roberto Gallardo

The digital divide is the most critical issue of the 21st century – so this report sets out to talk about why it’s so critical and how we can close the divide. Why do we need to close the digital divide?

The digital divide is the number-one threat to community and economic development in the 21st century. Public policy 101 argues that, first and foremost, the problem needs to be defined and agreed upon in order to explore potential solutions. This report introduces a county-level digital divide index (DDI). The DDI ranges in value from 0 to 100, where 100 indicates the highest digital divide. This report presents findings for the 2014 updated version as well as the 2015 version. Some key findings include:

The percent of people without access to fixed broadband 25/3 decreased significantly between 2014 and 2015. However, this decrease took place mainly among counties with an already low digital divide. The number of people living in counties where the digital divide was higher (two higher quartiles) had a slight increase from 39.3 million in 2014 versus 39.5 million in 2015.

Efforts to reduce the digital divide will require public–private partnerships that deal with broadband infrastructure and digital literacy at the same time. Otherwise, residents may not subscribe to recently upgraded broadband connectivity, or those who increased their digital skills may run into lack of connectivity, expensive plans, and/or inadequate speeds.

[Commentary] Fast Internet access is the critical element in building healthier rural economies that create opportunity and improve quality of life. Here are some ways to get your community focused on the need for speed:

Lack of local leadership buy-in is a deal breaker.
Asking why you need faster Internet today is like asking why you needed electricity when candlelight was the standard 100 years ago.
Broadband connectivity and applications are quality-of-life issues.
Demonstrating usefulness is critical.
Urban density is no longer an advantage.
“Middle of nowhere” mentality is no longer applicable.

[Dr Roberto Gallardo is the leader of the Mississippi State University Extension Service Intelligent Community Institute]