the Digital Town Hall

There is a difference between available and accessible. In New York City, practically every household has at least one option for moderate-speed Internet service. Most have two: Time Warner and Cablevision connect to 98% of households and Verizon offers DSL to 87%.

Yet less than half of the city purchases the service. Broadband adoption rates in the Bronx rival those in rural America. Three quarters of low income households throughout the city do not have their own broadband connection. If you are a New Yorker reading this from your home, you are in a privileged minority.

Most efforts to address this problem focus on what’s called “demand-side stimulation.” That means trying to convince people to purchase a computer and an at-home broadband connection because, well, what crazy person wouldn’t purchase an Internet connection when they could? The problem must be in the people who aren’t on the Internet, rather than with the Internet itself. Of course, the people who have this idea all use the Internet every day and can’t imagine life without it.

If we’re going to make the Internet work for the other half of my city – and the other half of the country – we’re going to have to ask the people who know the Internet’s problems to help design the solutions.

We’re going to have to change the Internet so it reaches people how they want to be reached, rather than trying to change the people so they start using the Internet how the rest of us currently do. That means setting up wireless hotspots in barbershops and laundromats, in addition to libraries and cafes. And it means delivering high speed, open Internet to mobile devices, since so many more people already have those than have personal computers. We’re going to have to get Internet service to fit into people’s current communications budget, rather than expecting them to take on an additional expense.

It's time to stop fighting to preserve the Internet as it is and start fighting for the Internet we want – one that works for everyone.