Cities Deploy Rapid Digital Inclusion Efforts Amid Crisis

Angelina Panettieri, the legislative manager for information technology and communications with the National League of Cities, is involved with efforts to connect cities with each other so they can share lessons learned during the crisis, and she, too, pointed to digital inclusion as one of the more pressing matters currently facing local leadership. It’s a challenge that faces both the public and private sector as well as city hall itself — how can organizations get devices into people’s hands so they can conduct all their business online? “What might have been a three- or five-year timeline has now been pushed into three weeks,” Panettieri said of the rapid acceleration of need. To this end, there are several communities across the country that have converted unused school buses into Wi-Fi hot spots, so users in need can park beside them and get online from portable devices in their cars. While this works in the short term, the cost and logistical hassle of the connections hardly make it an endgame solution. “That’s happening because we have fallen down on the job as a country,” she said, “because we have failed at providing adequate broadband infrastructure at a price where people can afford it. That’s happening because we messed up.”