We begin a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Benton and the 25th Anniversary of Headlines.
Six Community Broadband Networks Demonstrate Diversity of Approaches to Connectivity Challenges by Christopher Mitchell, Sean Gonsalves, and Jericho Casper is released. MuniNetworks.org—the Institute for Local Self-Reliance clearinghouse of information about local government broadband policy—has published thousands of stories and conducted hundreds of interviews with those who have built, operated, or worked in the local broadband ecosystem. But for someone trying to get a sense of the range of community broadband approaches, there is no single document that encapsulates the variety of models. This collection is a preview for a much larger compendium of community-led broadband case studies that will be released later this summer.
We publish Putting State Broadband Funds to Work: Best Practices in State Rural Broadband Grant Programs by Ryland Sherman, Joanne Hovis, and Jacob Levin. State-level efforts are critical to distributing federal funds and incubating local initiatives. They have long-established programs for addressing rural broadband gaps and offer a valuable history of lessons learned, both of what works and what doesn’t. This paper describes the commonalities among many of the leading state rural broadband funding programs and recommends best practices.
A panel of international scholars chose two winners to receive the fourth annual Charles Benton Early Career Scholar Awards at their February 2021 virtual conference. They recognized Edward John Oughton, Assistant Professor of Data Analytics, GGS, George Mason University for Policy Options for Digital Infrastructure Strategies: A Simulation Model for Broadband Universal Service in Africa and Hoan (Sarah) Nguyen, a doctoral researcher and Graduate Fellow at the Annenberg School of Communications at University of Southern California, for ICTs Use for Mitigating Social Exclusion in the Lives of Homeless Women (Legacy Fund).
Dr. Colin Rhinesmith returns as Senior Faculty Research Fellow. During his 2021-2022 fellowship, Rhinesmith will examine what he is calling "digital equity ecosystems" in communities across the United States (Legacy Fund).