Levin: Net Has Potential to Improve Minority Job, Health Care, Education Opportunities

Broadband advisor says closing digital divide is vital

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/22/2010 12:35:17 PM

The Internet has the potential to "exacerbate in equality," which is why universal broadband deployment and adoption is so important, said the FCC's top broadband advisor Blair Levin, at the Minority Media & Telecommunications Association's conference on Broadband and Social Justice in Washington Friday (Jan. 22).

While closing the digital divide was no guarantee of redressing the in "income inequality, residential segregation and social isolation," Levin said had grown in the past 30 years, that access can provide better jobs, education, health care and government services, which should not be denied to anyone.

But access means more than availability, he said, and adoption continues to be a key challenge.

Levin, who is overseeing preparation of the national broadband plan, said keys to spurring that adoption are a "social infrastructure" that "weaves our investments in digital access into the fabric of our communities," with that fabric including libraries and community centers; "social innovation" like online credit counseling or grant programs to "micro entrepreneurs; and "social purpose media," which means high-value content from private and government sources.

"We must ensure that there are no digital second class citizens," Levin told his audience.