How Can the United States Address the Data Divide?

The historic infrastructure package will go a long way to closing the digital divide, but another divide looms in America: the data divide. Advances in technology continue to make it cheaper and easier than ever to produce, collect, and use data, and data-backed AI algorithms can produce new actionable insights. At the community level, data plays a critical role in identifying and addressing critical social and economic issues. At the individual level, data empowers individuals to access data-driven financial, educational, and healthcare services. But not everyone has enough high-quality data collected about them or their communities, and these gaps—the data divide—can create or exacerbate social and economic inequalities and negatively impact one’s ability to participate in the data economy.

A panel discussion about the importance of the data divide, the impact it can have on individuals and society, and steps policymakers can take to address data disparities to ensure equitable participation and representation in the data economy and promote overall data-driven innovation.

Speakers

• Dominique Harrison, Director of Racial Equity Design and Data Initiative (REDDI), Citi Ventures Innovation
• Christopher Wood, Executive Director, LGBT Tech
• Ioana Tanase, Accessibility Program Manager, Microsoft
• Traci Morris, Executive Director, American Indian Policy Institute, Arizona State University

Additional panelists to be announced.