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Bringing People and Technology Together
With 1 in 5 Americans not using the Internet, and 38 percent of U.S. citizens lacking at-home Internet access, communities are recognizing the importance to increase access and use of information technologies.
Online interactions have become a daily necessity of individuals and organizations. Access to the internet is needed to find jobs, learn about health care, pursue education and trainings, strengthen communities, and more. The Dodge City Public Library, City of Dodge City and Dodge City Community College are leading the stakeholder engagement process to help determine the digital future of Dodge City. This facilitated process will help define Dodge City’s current and future needs and resources to ensure community members have access to and understanding of how to use information technology.
As a valued member of the Dodge City community, your input is needed! Please join in this facilitated process, Wednesday, April 24 and Thursday, April 25, 2013. Please register for one of the four sessions by clicking to this page .
Please see below for greater details on BDC: Stakeholder Alignment. Additional Resources:
BDC: Framework: http://www.imls.gov/assets/1/AssetManager/BuildingDigitalCommunities_Framework.pdf
BDC: Pilot: http://www.webjunction.org/explore-topics/building-digital-communities.html
Building Digital Communities: Stakeholder Alignment Summary
Based upon Building Digital Communities: A Framework for Action, Building Digital Communities: Stakeholder Alignment guides select communities through a process of evaluating digital inclusion stakeholder engagement and aligning their collective interests. The objective is to stimulate community wide discussion and planning efforts to create and support healthy, prosperous and cohesive 21st century communities.
Federal and national support of digital inclusion is important but ultimately, digital inclusion is a local issue that requires local solutions. In Digital Cities (2013), Mossberger, Tolbert and Franko make the argument that “place matters” in regard to broadband policies that impact digital inclusion (p.9). They state the reasons place matters is due to:
1. Local governments are responsible for a variety of policies and for funding programs.
2. Social inequality is spatially patterned in metropolitan areas and by neighborhood.
Why Stakeholder Alignment
The first step recommended in Building Digital Communities: Framework for Action is to “Convene Stakeholders”. Digital inclusion is a complex and community-wide goal. A coalition of local government, education institutions, libraries, community-based organizations, business and residents is necessary. “Stakeholder analyses are now arguably more important than ever because of the increasingly interconnected nature of the world.” (Bryson, 2004, p. 23)
Local leaders working toward a more digitally inclusive community struggle with how to define stakeholders and how to engage stakeholders in a discussion regarding digital inclusion. The process will engage stakeholders, instigating a community-wide discussion that may not have otherwise taken place. Overlapping interests will be discovered and relationships will be built. Bryson states “there may be a complex interaction between formulating problems and searching for solutions, with the two jointly contributing to organizing participation.” (2004, p. 25)
Key Personnel
Building Digital Communities: Stakeholder Alignment is being led by Jon Gant of the Center for Digital Inclusion at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Angela Siefer of OCLC’s WebJunction with stakeholder alignment process and analysis support from Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, lead for an NSF project on Stakeholder Alignment in Complex Systems, based at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Background
Gant, Siefer and Cutcher-Gershenfeld are modifying a stakeholder alignment process and analysis developed and tested by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Mark Nolan, Michael Haberman, and others of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF-VOSS EAGER 0956472, “Stakeholder Alignment in Socio-Technical Systems” and NSF SciSPR-STS-OCI-INSPIRE 1249607, “Enabling Transformation in the Social Sciences, Geosciences, and Cyberinfrastructure”).
Building Digital Communities: Pilot is an OCLC project supporting and documenting the work of nine pilot communities to increase the access and use of digital technologies. The work is based upon Building Digital Communities: A Framework for Action created by IMLS, the University of Washington and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The Framework is designed to engage all sectors—libraries, city/county managers, community-based organizations (CBOs), and other stakeholders—to form coalitions and make strategic decisions to increase access to broadband and adoption of digital technologies. The first step recommended by Building Digital Communities: a Framework for Acton is to engage stakeholders. Now in its second year, an important revelation of Building Digital Communities: Pilot is that communities struggle with convening and engaging the full array of stakeholders needed for success.
Implementation
The process and lessons learned will be documented to further:
• The knowledge base of community led digital inclusion stakeholder alignment.
• Stakeholder alignment scholarly literature.
Key components to the Building Digital Communities: Stakeholder Alignment process include:
1. Creation of a list of digital inclusion stakeholders defined as decision makers of local government, business (including broadband service providers), community-based organizations (serving populations least likely to be internet users) and individuals utilizing free broadband access or training.
2. Schedule multiple meetings of stakeholders based upon current networks . Participants of Stakeholder Meetings will be provided with print materials that provide digital inclusion strategy examples from other cities, an overview of the stakeholder alignment research process and contact information of the local conveners and national project coordinators.
a. 2-Hour Stakeholder Meetings consist of:
- A short presentation that defines digital inclusion, outlines the benefits of all members participating in today’s digital society
- Overview of the stakeholder alignment process
- 20-25 survey questionnaire which will begin determining the degree of alignment along digital inclusion principles as defined in Building Digital Communities: Framework
- Small group discussion
- Additional 20-25 survey questionnaire to further determine the degree of alignment along digital inclusion principles
- Review and full group discussion of preliminary results from questionnaire
3. Ensure a representative sample of key stakeholders complete the survey
4. Full Analysis of the survey results including graphical representations of stakeholder alignment
5. Two to three weeks after the initial meetings, gather all participants into one inclusive event (summit) to review the results and guide stakeholders toward future collaborations, communication and community-wide planning.
- The summit will consist of:
a. Welcome by local conveners
b. Distribution of print materials documenting the survey results from the stakeholder meetings
c. Explanation of the survey results
d. Identification of potential elements of a shared vision of success
e. Activity to determine what next steps participants recommend
6. Documentation of next step recommendations posted publicly online and emailed to all participants
7. Documentation of the process to benefit other communities in need of a digital inclusion stakeholder alignment and alignment process
The above process is led and staffed by the University of Illinois Center for Digital Inclusion and OCLC. The responsibilities of the local conveners in participating communities are to:
• Guide creation of the stakeholder list, identify key stakeholders, and determine how best to utilize existing networks for the initial meetings.
• Help coordinate the in-person events including securing space and encouraging stakeholder participation.
From initial creation of the stakeholder list to documentation of next step recommendations the process is likely to require three full months.
Definitions
• Digital inclusion: The ability of individuals and groups to access and use information and communication technologies.
• Stakeholder alignment: The extent to which interdependent stakeholders orient and connect with one another to advance their separate and shared interests.
Building Digital Communities
With one in five Americans not using the internet and online interactions becoming a daily necessity of individuals and organizations, communities are recognizing the importance of taking action to increase digital inclusion. Libraries, local government and non-profit organizations are often the leaders of local digital inclusion efforts. Building Digital Communities: Pilot is a project supporting and documenting the work of nine pilot communities to increase the access and use of digital technologies. The work is based upon Building Digital Communities: A Framework for Action created by IMLS, the University of Washington and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Building Digital Communities: Getting Started is a how-to resource for communities planning and implementing digital inclusion so that all community members can take advantage of digital technologies. The Framework and Getting Started are designed to engage all sectors—libraries, city/county managers, community-based organizations (CBOs), and other stakeholders—to form coalitions and make strategic decisions to increase access to broadband and adoption of digital technologies. Building Digital Communities: Pilot relies upon the strategies defined in the Framework and Getting Started to support the nine pilot communities. In order to further the knowledge base of how communities become more digitally inclusive, we are posting lessons learned and digital inclusion planning resources. Each of the nine pilot communities is represented by a coalition of a library, a local government and a community-based organization.
Building Digital Communities: Pilot is:
• Providing planning support and digital inclusion guidance to the nine communities.
• Documenting effective practices and lessons learned.
• Creating resources to support all communities working toward digital inclusion.
Contact Information:
Jon Gant
Research Associate Professor and Director
Center for Digital Inclusion
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
jongant@illinois.edu
(217) 333-5975 Angela Siefer
Digital Inclusion Program Manager
OCLC
siefera@oclc.org
(614) 537-3057
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
Professor
School of Labor and Employment Relations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
joelcg.workmatters@gmail.com
217-333-1454
References
Bryson, John M. (2004) “What To Do When Stakeholders Matter” Public Management Review 6.
Mossberger, K., Tolbert, C. and Franko, W. (2013) Digital Cities, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
