Community Broadband Mapping Database

Short Synopsis

The New America Foundation requests funding to develop and maintain an online Community Broadband Mapping Database (CMBD) to serve as a critical clearinghouse for information on community and muncipal broadband networks in the U.S. and the world.  

Description/Treatment

Access to the Internet and the broader digital community is no longer a luxury.  As society moves to the digital realm, those without access will be shut out of the economic, educational, social, and cultural opportunities that broadband access affords.  In 2001, the U.S. ranked 4th in terms of broadband household penetration according to OECD; in 2008, it ranked 15th.  The plummeting in the rankings is manifesting itself not just in terms of a worldwide broadband divide but also a persistent digital divide here in the U.S.  Minority, low-income, and rural populations continue to have limited or no access to broadband, further marginalizing communities that already lack the economic and educational opportunities afforded to their wealthier counterparts.

What is clear is that the current market-driven approach will not suffice in providing everyone with affordable access to broadband.  Commercial providers will continue to have little incentive to build out to less profitable, low-income and rural areas.  Because the federal government has shown little interest in pursuing a national broadband policy to promote ubiquitous and affordable broadband access, the task is left to state and local governments, NGOs, community leaders and concerned citizens to determine which solutions to implement.  Community groups, cities and towns around the world are building their own, high-speed and open wireless broadband networks.  These networks are bringing affordable or free broadband connectivity to areas and constituencies that are currently underserved or un-served by commercial providers.

The Community Broadband Mapping Database will serve as a clearinghouse for information on these community and municipal broadband networks and act as a tool for collecting, vetting, and displaying empirical metrics and qualitative information.  Advocates and policy makers considering investments in public broadband projects currently have few resources to aid in their research and implementation.  Making matters even more difficult, misinformation about the feasibility of community and municipal networks is rampant and generally hard to disprove in the absence of independent analysis and contradictory evidence. Even within the same state, broadband advocates and policy-makers are frequently unaware of existing projects. 

The CBMD addresses these shortcomings and aims to provide both in-depth profiles of community broadband “success stories,” as well as an interactive online database and mapping tool for community and municipal broadband projects across the country.  It will fill an enormous information gap and create a resource that will empower state and local leaders, local communities, NGOs and community organizers.  This collaborative project will not only educate these groups about key community and municipal broadband projects, but also provide them with practical guidelines and best practices for increasing broadband access in their local communities, all drawn from real-world examples with a history of successful deployment.  It will help guide the decision-making process of local communities and network implementers to develop a plan and select a network that would best fit their goals, resources, and local demographics.

Previous attempts to create a canonical mapping resource for community and municipal broadband projects have failed because of a lack of critical mass of users and adequate support staff to maintain the data.  Rather than building yet another stand-alone online resource for community broadband information, a key goal of this project is to bring together a coalition of motivated, expert organizations to build a single, open API database for their collective use.  All project partners plan to utilize the mapping database technology in their own work and will add their own data collection efforts to the endeavor to help ensure that the data remains up-to-date.  Through data and resource sharing, the Community Broadband Mapping Database is far more sustainable than prior attempts to develop these much-needed resources have been. 

Current partners for the database include Free Press, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, MuniWireless.com, and SEATOA. 

NAF requests funding in the amount of $75,000 to develop the map-stack and other programming for the online Community Broadband Mapping Database (CBMD), as well as to compile and input the data, complete in-depth profiles on selected “model” networks both in the U.S. and overseas, and finally to conduct outreach on the resource among activists, local governments and other policymakers nationwide. 

As part of this Community Broadband Mapping Project, NAF is currently working with the Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School to develop a report profiling successful international and domestic community wireless networks.  NAF and Yale ISP received a grant from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) in the amount of $30,000 to research and write a number of case studies, work that is well underway.  The report will include in-depth case studies that closely examine the development, build-out, and maintenance of the network,  providing practitioners in the field with an understanding of the process of building and deploying a network, including an examination of the business plan, technology, network architecture and community engagement strategies.  The case studies will also utilize quantitative data, such as equipment costs, speeds and network utilization, to assess outcomes of the network and develop multiple metrics for cross-network and cross-national comparisons of community wireless networks. 

NAF needs additional resources to develop an online version, or mapping “mashup,” including an interactive map of community wireless networks around the globe. The mashup will allow viewers to be able to drill down on the map to access the case studies, comparisons across networks and further resources.  In addition to inputting the information on networks that NAF and its collaborating organizations have collected, community network sponsors and activists will be able to literally “put themselves on the map” – and enhance and update available information – through a wiki that they could access directly.  Like Wikipedia, the ability to aggregate user-generated content on community broadband – and even discussion forums and conversations between interested parties – will be a major value-added.  NAF is expected to deliver the case-studies report by July 1, 2009 – and could begin developing the initial online mashup as soon as resources are available for programming.  This initial web mashup will serve as the foundation for the expanded Community Broadband Mapping Database described above.

The three core goals for this database are:

1. Inform public policy.  The database would serve as a critical evidence to refute notions of the infeasibility of community broadband networks and stimulate a broader debate about broadband policy and the viable options available to decision-makers.  In Europe, there is a willingness to utilize different models for broadband deployment.  Unfortunately, in the U.S. there is predisposition towards only allowing commercial deployments, with some states even passing laws to prevent cities from building their own networks.  A clear demonstration of the success of these networks would help to improve perceptions and potentially increase opportunities for governments, NGOs and community organizers to build networks.  

2. Empower state and local governments, NGOs, and community organizers.  The database will provide practitioners in the field with useful tools and information to build networks in their local communities.  Currently, this type of information is scattered throughout the web, and often remarkably biased in favor of the vendors and service providers that are paid to create the content.  This often means that localities or organizations must seek out expensive consultants who all too often have interests other than what is best for the community.

3. Sustain the proliferation of community broadband networks and provide a much-needed resource for bridging the digital divide.  In providing comprehensive and unbiased assessments of community wireless networks, the CMBD will empower state and local governments, NGOs, and community organizers, helping them avoid common missteps, and supporting the creation of successful networks.  It will provide a virtual forum for implementers, technologists, policymakers, and community organizers, providing a critical tool in expanding collaboration, helping to sustain community wireless efforts for years to come.