Caroline Tolbert Colin Gordon Kevin Leicht Julianna Pacheco The University of Iowa
Karen Mossberger Arizona State University
Broadband has been called the most important infrastructure challenge of the 21st century by the National Broadband Plan. But, it is broadband use rather than availability of infrastructure that enables the access to information, communication and services that is at the heart of broadband's promise. For theory and for public policy, more needs to be known about broadband use by individuals, organizations, and communities, including geographic variation. This project has two dimensions: 1) The construction of a new nationwide dataset that will provide local data on broadband usage that can be analyzed to understand geographic variation in broadband use and its impact on outcomes in areas such as economic development, health, education, and more. 2) Fostering an interdisciplinary broadband research community through the creation of a portal/repository for broadband evaluation research and data, a conference, and a seed fund competition for new types of broadband data. This study expands prior research in Chicago and other select cities to map nationally Internet use and online political, economic and human capital-enhancing activities. Statistical modeling will be used to create biannual estimates of Internet use and online activities for every county in the United States, all metropolitan areas and the nation's 50 largest cities. This will create a longitudinal dataset of 20 years that does not currently exist. We will use available respondents in the Current Population Survey (CPS) annual Internet Use Supplement from 1995-2015, merged with aggregate census tract level data measuring socioeconomic conditions of neighborhoods. For Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, the nation's three largest cities, we will create estimates of Internet use across community areas or neighborhoods. Multi-layered maps based on this data will be made publicly available through the portal, using GIS software and open source online platforms such as those used by Worldmap at Harvard University. This data will provide a unique view of geographic variation in technology use over time, which can be used by researchers to examine social change and measure social impacts for technology use. Interaction across policy areas and disciplines can help researchers to better understand causal mechanisms or the conditions under which technology use matters for a variety of outcomes. Activities for building an interdisciplinary research community include sharing of the dataset and maps on a portal with a repository and discussion platform, and a seed fund to promote further experimentation with new methods of broadband data collection. A conference will be held to further develop the portal and to reach out to networks of broadband evaluation researchers and broadband data experts.
Broader Impacts: As information, services, and activities have migrated online, Internet use has become a necessity for full participation in society. But inequality in access remains a barrier and better information on how broadband is actually used is needed to guide public policy. Data on geographic variation can inform policy decisions about targeting and program planning, and can be used to track the impact of local or neighborhood trends or interventions in areas such as health or education. In addition, we propose an interdisciplinary collaboration to gather various types of data and evaluation research on broadband use, in order to offer better guidance for policymakers about trends and best practice.
