Alliance Alert Spring Special Edition - Become a Digital Empowerment Council Member

Join ADE - Become a Digital Empowerment Council Member

Posted Apr 09, 2010

Get involved! ADE will launch its Newark Digital Empowerment Council at the Digital Empowerment Summit in Newark on April, 23rd, 2010. The DEC meetings will start for the Washington, D.C. council on Wednesday, April 14th in downtown D.C.

As a council member, ADE will rely on your expertise and judgment to assist the Alliance for Digital Equality in advocating for the underserved communities of Washington, DC and Newark, NJ.

Across all segments of society, we have seen tremendous growth in home broadband adoption over the last several years. In some cases, we saw triple digit growth from one year to the next. Unfortunately, those growth rates, especially among lower income and minority households, have begun to slow. Data from the most recent Pew Internet study indicates that growth rates for broadband among African-American families are leveling off. Of those surveyed, 46% of African-Americans indicated that they had broadband at home in April 2009 versus 43% who indicated this in April 2008. This represents a growth of 7% from 2008, but is significantly below the growth between 2006 and 2007, where we saw increases of 121% and 29%, respectively.

The Alliance for Digital Equality’s mission as a non-profit consumer advocacy organization is to facilitate and ensure equal access to technology in underserved communities. ADE also serves as a bridge between policymakers and minority individuals in order to help the public understand how legislative and regulatory policies regarding new technologies can impact and empower their daily lives.

As a DEC member, we ask you to perform the following:
• Actively engage in dialogue to promote understanding of the digital divide
• Serve as an advocate for broadband accessibility, affordability and adoption
• Identify partners to maximize ADE/DEC outreach into local communities via school systems, senior networks, government and businesses

If you would like to join our Washington, DC or Newark, NJ council or any of our other councils throughout the nation, please contact Toni Smalls, at 404-815-4067 or sign up today.