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USIIA Alert July 13, 2009 Alert 09:02
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The following is an alert from the US Internet Industry Association, the nation’s oldest and largest trade association
for Internet commerce, content and connectivity. Information regarding USIIA can be found at http://www.usiia-net.org/.
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“Digital Inclusion 2009” Addresses Broadband Adoption Programs
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For Immediate Release
Contact: David McClure (703) 851-4784
Joint Conference of USIIA and Net Literacy will focus on federal, state and community programs to stimulate adoption of broadband among the 1/3 of Americans not currently online with broadband.
(Alexandria, VA, July 13, 2009) — The US Internet Industry Association and Net Literacy today announced a joint conference to help states, communities and their broadband providers better stimulate adoption of broadband among the one-third of Americans not currently using broadband.
“Digital Inclusion 2009” will be held October 6 – 8 at the Park Hyatt Washington Hotel in Washington, DC. The conference will span Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday and Thursday morning. Details about the conference are posted to http://www.usiia-net.org/confrnc/confrnc.htm, and include the preliminary conference agenda, registration link and information about room reservations.
“Digital Inclusion 2009 is a conference to help communities their broadband providers stimulate demand for broadband through programs of education,” says Dennis C. Hayes, the Internet pioneer credited with inventing the modem and the current chairman of USIIA. “One of the facets of the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act that has been largely overlooked in the first round of stimulus grant applications is the requirement to also establish broadband adoption programs. This conference is aimed at demonstrating how communities can use stimulus dollars to create effective community programs to bring broadband to all Americans.”
Details of the USIIA/Net Literacy proposal were outlined in a position paper released in June of 2009 and available online at http://www.usiia-net.org/pubs/Digital_Inclusion.doc. The proposal is largely based on the success of Net Literacy, a non-profit that helps make computers and Internet literacy skills available through community volunteer programs.
“Programs operated by Net Literacy have increased computer access to well over 100,000 individuals and has directly and indirectly increased computer, Internet, or Internet safety awareness among hundreds of thousands of Americans,” says Daniel T. Kent, founder of Net Literacy. “Our model of engaging ‘friendly high school student volunteers’ to teach seniors citizens residing in independent living facilities on a one-to-one basis has resulted
in more than 80% of the ‘senior citizen students’ graduating from 8-12 week programs. It is a working model that we can easily extend to community action organizations and government agencies.”
The three-day conference will also address the stimulus funding available for adoption programs and the use of “Computer Re-Tasking” programs to make computers available to low-income families and other groups affected by the cost of computing devices.
Formed in 1994, the US Internet Industry Association is the primary trade association for companies engaged in Internet commerce, content and connectivity. USIIA serves its members through legislative advocacy and professional services. The association is headquartered in Alexandria, VA. More information may be found
at http://www.usiia-net.org.
Net Literacy, a community-based, non-profit Digital Inclusion initiative that has operated in the United States since 2003, was selected by the European Union Study on Digital Inclusion as one of the 91 most promising good practice initiatives based upon an evaluation of programs in 32 countries. The Net Literacy (https://www.netliteracy.org) training programs are a proven nontraditional training model with successful track record, are scalable and easily replicable, and available at no cost for use by other non-profits.
