Champaign-Urbana Open Access Coalition

The Broadband Access Committee (BAC) a collaboration of the joint Champaign-Urbana Telecommunications Commission, is charged with exploring the issue of Internet access in the two cities, particularly as it meets the needs of underserved and rural communities and neighborhoods. The BAC met on February 4 to cover the Broadband Access Committee mission statement and hear a presentation by Abdul Alkalimat, the newest committee member and a UI faculty member in community informatics.

Professor Alkalimat gave a brief history of his Internet access research, including surveying the ways that hip-hop culture engaged the community in Toledo, Ohio, to help close the digital divide. “Access does not equal use, and this is a fundamental issue we have to examine,” said Alkalimat in his discussion of how transformations occur in communities where the broadband access initiatives are being considered. “We need at least one major catalytic agent to jumpstart the digital life of the community from the economic bottom up, to look at all aspects of community life that are actual, which can also be virtual. If the community is analog and the rest of the society is digital, there are serious implications over the long term.” Professor Kate Williams and several students from the Community Informatics Lab at GSLIS were in attendance and shared current research underway that could contribute to the establishment of ongoing national models for community informatics research.

As a result of the work of the CI Lab presented by Alkalimat, the committee agreed to support a community-wide forum on broadband access on the North End of Champaign-Urbana, specifically reaching out to local citizens who would benefit from the initiative. This proposal is another step in fostering community-based collaboration with the University, the private sector, municipalities and local community based organizations that have been focused on free or inexpensive Internet access.

Notably, a member of the BAC and former City Council member recalled the history of Champaign-Urbana in building walls to contain people or assets. Youth programs and access to business services, as well as jobs and the tools of expression have been important to the Historically Black Community in C-U but major infrastructure or real estate development projects have not typically been fashioned to include, but rather exclude the Black community. The CI Lab effort to have the BAC meaningfully engage in a community forum is an important step in addressing and closing the local digital divide. The BAC, along with several GSLIS faculty at the University of Illinois, is looking in earnest at how community broadband access could come to fruition in the near future.

Check here often for ongoing reports on the progress of the effort.