institute for local self-reliance

Content tagged with "institute for local self-reliance"

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The Community Broadband Network Approach to Infrastructure Funding

On Wednesday, some of us joined Broadband Breakfast to talk about the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Community Broadband Network approach to infrastructure funding. It was a lively and fun conversation, touching also on the new Treasury Final Rules for the Rescue Plan funding, affordability challenges, the value of competition, and how we hope these funds shape up.

On the panel was DeAnne Cuellar, Sean Gonsalves, Ry Marcattilio-McCracken, Christopher Mitchell, and Drew Clark. Watch the session here, or below.

Announcing the Digital Health Story Collection - Share Your Telehealth Experience With Us

Today we launch the Digital Health Story Collection, an opportunity for health care providers and health care users to share experiences with or difficulties accessing telehealth care across the country. Share your story and help us tell policymakers why having access to fast, affordable, and reliable Internet service is critical for health and well-being.  

As we enter 2022 amid a new wave of Covid-19 infections, we are reminded of the critical necessity for all people to have fast, affordable, and reliable Internet service. Such service makes it possible to work and learn remotely, stay connected with friends and family, access vital public health information, and find employment or housing - all critical for maintaining our physical and mental health. Internet access has also enabled many people to access healthcare remotely through telehealth services, ensuring continuity of care while limiting in-person contact and reducing exposure to the coronavirus. 

​​The pandemic triggered a massive expansion of telehealth, but it’s not available to everyone equally. This is partly because not everyone has broadband Internet access. But it’s also because not everyone has the devices, skills, or level of comfort they need to take advantage of Internet access, even if they have it. 

Read the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's 2021 Annual Report

In 2021, as many large corporations took advantage of the pandemic to increase their outsized sway over our economy and our democracy, we’ve seen a growing movement for change across the country. Elected officials, advocates, and individuals like you are seeking out ways to build stronger, more equitable, and more sustainable communities.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance has worked hard to meet the challenges and opportunities of this moment. Our 2021 annual report [pdf] highlights the work we’ve done this year, including on-the-ground technical assistance, in-depth research and analysis, and coalition building with grassroots organizations, to empower local communities and help instill racial and economic justice throughout our economy. In hundreds of media stories covering our work, ILSR is influencing and expanding public understanding of monopoly problems across the economy and building support for taking action to counter it.

A priority in 2021 was advocating for local solutions at the federal level. From organizing Congressional support for reining in the power of Big Tech to successfully advocating for federal funding for local broadband networks to shifting the national climate policy discourse to focus on decentralized, local power as key to reducing emissions and creating jobs, ILSR’s influence was stronger than ever. 

Nearly every day we hear from local leaders and advocates who rely on our resources and expertise to make change in their communities. We couldn’t do it without your support. Donations from individuals are an important and unique source of revenue that gives us the ability to be creative in meeting the ever-growing need for solutions. 

Please consider making a tax-deductible gift today to sustain our work and support the movement for healthy, equitable, and self-reliant communities. We look forward to making an even greater impact in the coming year.

Thank you from all of us at ILSR. Your support makes a difference. 

Welcome DeAnne Cueller, new Community Broadband Outreach Team Lead

We are thrilled to welcome DeAnne Cueller to the Community Broadband Networks Initative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, where she will serve as the Community Broadband Outreach Team Lead. With the confluence of local, state, and federal energy pouring into finding the right broadband solutions joining an unprecedented amount of money flowing over the next few years, the opportunity exists to move the needle in connecting local broadband champions to each other, as well as the resources and tools they need to build more locally accountable, transparent infrastructure. 

DeAnne Cuellar is a tech equity advocate and communications strategist from San Antonio, Texas. She served as Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s digital inclusion appointee to the City of San Antonio’s Innovation & Technology Committee, resulting in several policy and funding priorities to close the digital divide. As a social impact entrepreneur, she co-founded several cross-sector nonprofit initiatives, advocating for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion for historically underrepresented communities.

Please join us in welcoming DeAnne! You can reach her at deanne@ilsr.org.

Welcome Christine Parker, new GIS and Data Visualization Specialist at ILSR

We are excited to welcome Christine Parker, PhD to the Community Broadband Networks initiative at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, where she will serve as a GIS and Data Visualization Specialist. She brings a wealth of experience in data analytics and data visualization to the team, and we look forward to putting her talents to work in our regular writing, analyses, and reports. 

Christine spent 15 years working on projects to support efforts from nonprofit entities focused on bird and habitat conservation. She is interested in creating and sharing maps and images that illustrate complex information in a way that is accessible and impactful. Christine earned her PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Please join us in welcoming Christine! She can be reached at christine@ilsr.org. Check out some examples of her work here.

We're Hiring! GIS and Data Visualization Researcher

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a national nonprofit working to empower communities by striking at the roots of monopoly power. Our Community Broadband Networks program focuses on local approaches to ensure everyone has high-quality Internet access. This program is a diverse and growing team that makes a difference – our analyses are frequently featured in national news media and sought out by policymakers.

ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks program seeks a GIS and Data Visualization Specialist. We are looking for candidates that have a passion for using their skills as part of a team focused on justice and equity for all. Our mission is focused on a range of digital equity challenges but this position will also offer opportunities to work on larger ILSR projects and goals.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

  • Create informative broadband coverage maps using public and internal databases, including the infamous FCC Form 477
  • Compile statistics related to Internet access across datasets
  • Creatively develop visual resources to educate policymakers and activists on issues around Internet access
  • Support ongoing research for longer reports and projects
  • Support research for our allies and partners, often working with BIPOC communities

QUALIFICATIONS:

Submit Your Broadband Bill and Help Fight for More Affordable, Transparent Broadband Pricing

A month ago we announced the launch of Let's Broadband Together, a coalition of organizations and advocacy groups led by Consumer Reports to collect as many broadband bills as possible and crowdsource the data necessary to fight the trend towards deliberately confusing, obfuscatory broadband pricing in the United States.

If you've had the intention to help out but were looking for that reminder, here it is. Head over to Let's Broadband Together and take a speed tests, submit a PDF of your bill, and answer a few questions. More submissions mean a better the dataset and more comprehensive evidence to support reform. 

Click here to begin, and join Consumer Reports, ILSR, and dozens of other organizations. 

 

ILSR Recognized in Broadband Communities Magazine's FTTH Top 100

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s (ILSR’s) Community Broadband Networks initiative is honored to be recognized as one of the top 100 fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) leaders by Broadband Communities magazine.

Broadband Communities publishes its annual Top 100 FTTH list to acknowledge the contributions that companies and organizations have made to the fiber optic industry. “‘Building a Fiber-Connected World’ is the tagline of Broadband Communities magazine, and each year the FTTH Top 100 list recognizes organizations that lead the way in this endeavor,” the publication explained. In addition to ILSR, awardees include fiber vendors, network operators, business consultants, and broadband engineers.

MuniNetworks and Community Networks Make the Mark

In the list entry for ILSR, Broadband Communities said:

ILSR’s publications, including its MuniNetworks.org blog, toolkit and weekly podcast that covers broadband and more . . . have been instrumental in showing communities that controlling their broadband destinies is feasible and has the potential to improve local economies and quality of life.

Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Community Broadband Networks initiative, commented on the award:

Broadband Communities was among the first to recognize the benefits of fiber optics for everyone and we are honored to be again named to their list of top 100 FTTH leaders.

Broadband Communities recognized a select few community broadband networks in the FTTH Top 100, including UTOPIA Fiber, an open access fiber network serving more than a dozen Utah communities, and Co-Mo Connect, the broadband subsidiary of Missouri electric cooperative. 

Welcoming New ACLS Postdoctoral Fellows to Work on Telehealth and Native Networks

We're excited to announce that two postdoctoral fellows will be joining the Institute for Local Self-Reliance this coming fall to undertake one-year broadband projects to advance policy intitiatives and help move the needle towards universal, affordable, high-speed Internet access in the United States. 

The fellows are coming to us through the American Council of Learned Society's Leading Edge Fellowship Program, which places humanities and social science PhDs with nonprofits working to solve problems, build capacity, and advance justice and equity in society. 41 fellows were named for the 2021 year to work on issues like voting, civic governance, housing uncertainty, health outcomes for communities of color, reforming the justice system, and education.

This is our first year participating, and we're thrilled to announce that both of our proposed projects were chosen. The candidates were each unique and outstanding, and we're thrilled to announce that Tessa A. Eidelman (PhD, Community Research and Action, Vanderbilt University) and Revati Prasad (PhD, Communication, University of Pennsylvania) will be joining us starting in September.

Submit Your Broadband Bill and Join Us in the Fight for More Affordable, Transparent Prices

Internet access in the United States is among the most expensive in the world, both in terms of absolute prices and in cost-per-megabit. Millions of families around the country can't afford to get online, making them even more disconnected from social services, family, and friends, more economically vulnerable, increasingly bearing the burden of the homework gap, and less healthy. 

All of this is a direct result of the broken broadband marketplace, dominated by just a few monopoly providers regularly raising prices to extract wealth from communities. It's also the result of an FCC which has consistently refused to mandate the submission of pricing data from Internet Service Providers (ISPs), or collect it from users themselves. Instead of investing in infrastructure upgrades or innovating, huge providers like Charter Spectrum, AT&T, Comcast, and Suddenlink have sunk time and energy into making our broadband bills harder to interpret, all while raising prices, changing plan terms, and playing around with data caps to pad their profits. 

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Let's change that, together.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance is joining with Consumer Reports to collect bills from 30,000 households across diverse geographic and demographic backgrounds in an initiative called Let's Broadband Together.