Weekly Wrap-up, October 09, 2015

Sprint is helping to solve mobile connectivity. Watch Sprint CEO, Marcelo Claure, at MIT SOLVE. Have a few extra bucks? Donate to help launch Tech Goes Home Chattanooga (TGH CHA), The Enterprise Center's new digital equity program for residents across Hamilton County, TN. Modeled after Boston’s award-winning Tech Goes Home, our mission is to provide underserved residents the tools, education, and access required for 21st century skills development. Find the Indigogo campaign here.

Google in Ghana: Google has announced that it’s hard at work trenching pipe for a fiber optic network to serve the cities Accra and Kumasi in Ghana as part of its little-known Project Link initiative, which already provides broadband Internet to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. And while it may be boring compared to drones and satellites, it has the potential to improve access to the millions of people living in these cities.

A cool case study about digital equity in Tennessee where “a group of education, business, and community leaders from Nashville has been seriously discussing digital equity for more than five years. Under the leadership of former Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Superintendent Jesse Register and long-standing former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, the group is working on a major effort to transform education in the city.”

Check out coverage from Washington Post Live’s “Bridging the Digital Divide” forum this week. Highlights include:

  • Maya Wiley, counsel to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York Public Library director of adult education services Luke Swarthout and The Post's Emma Brown discussed digital inclusion efforts in New York City including public WiFi hot spots and loanable WiFi units.
  • San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor and Abby Livingston, D.C. bureau chief for The Texas Tribune, discussed how critical digital literacy is to the economic growth of cities.