What Have We Learned? Spillover Benefits for Society Urban and metro areas have high potential for innovation and social benefits across policy areas Inequality in adoption  Across cities and metros  Across neighborhoods within Digital Citizenship for Individuals Ability to participate in society online  Increase in Internet use (but not home broadband) in Chicago’s Smart Communities SBA,  Urban and metro programs were training, outreach, public access  Affordability not sufficiently addressed by policy Mossberger, Q.1.1

Cities and Broadband Adoption, 2009 Mossberger, Tolbert and Franko 2012, Digital Cities: The Internet and the Geography of Opportunity, Oxford University Press Q1.2 Q. 1.2

Place Matters for Broadband Opportunity  Cities (and their suburbs) vary widely –  from 39% with broadband at home in Buffalo  to 83% in Seattle in 2009  Minorities do better where high % of population is online  Cities and regions with low technology use have fewer resources for education, health, e-government, economic development, and more  Cuyahoga County 2012 –  only 50% of social service recipients have broadband at home  72% of parents in county core have broadband vs. 80% county-wide  88% of parents with broadband have used the school website vs. 56% with smartphones only  Mossberger, Q.1.3

Mapping Broadband Use Across Neighborhoods in Chicago, 2011 Mossberger, Tolbert & Hamilton 2012 Partnership for a Connected Illinois Home Adoption Smartphone-only Users Mossberger, Q.1.4

Community-Level Change: Smart Communities in Chicago  Smart Communities (BTOP SBA) neighborhoods have 15 percentage point higher increase in Internet use, – compared to other Chicago community areas, controlling for demographic change  No significant increase in broadband adoption, activities online  Regression models based on change in estimates in multilevel models, 2008, 2011  Early 2013 citywide survey will offer additional measure of change later this year  Program goal is to create a culture of digital excellence in community  Resource sharing, networks, as well as outreach?  Substantively large effect for Internet use in targeted communities  Report available at broadbandillinois.org. Mossberger, Q.2

What Accounts for Inequalities/Barriers to Adoption? Socio-economic factors and age - not availability - account for most digital inequality, whether urban or rural Multivariate analysis, 2009 CPS, Mossberger, Tolbert and Franko 2012 Cost is most important barrier nationally (computer + broadband) Multivariate analysis, 2009 CPS, Mossberger, Tolbert and Franko 2012 Neighborhood context (concentrated poverty/segregation) magnifies barriers and disparities in cities; These in turn reinforce poverty and limit access to health, education, employment, government services. Multilevel analysis, 2008 & 2011 Chicago surveys, Mossberger, Tolbert and Franko 2012 Mossberger, Q.3

Figure 8.6: Probability of Citing a Lack of Interest, Cost or Skill as a Reason for No Home Internet, Latinos and the Percent Latino in their Neighborhood, and for Blacks and the Percent Black in their Neighborhood Segregated neighborhoods magnify disparities, but barriers differ for Latinos in immigrant gateway communities Mossberger, Q.3

Why Mobile Phones Won’t Close Gaps Chicago 2011 survey, Mossberger, Tolbert and Hamilton 2012 Home Broadband AdoptersSmartphone-only Users Are statistically more likely to:  get community news,  get political info,  do work for job,  get health info  get transit info  score higher on measures of Internet skill Do less online than home broadband adopters, except for:  entertainment  job search  national news Have some advantages over those with no personal access Have lower levels of skill than home adopters Multivariate Models Mossberger, Q.4

What Next? Digital Citizenship requires skills and regular, full access Cost & Home Broadband Competition Universal Service Fund Reforms Municipal Broadband Evaluation Needed What works and why? Correcting problems in implementation early Identifying best practices Finding cost-effective options Research Roundtable on Broadband Evaluation Policy Brief Available at Mossberger, Q.5