Comments to the FCC Joint Board on Universal Service -- ANNOUNCEMENT -- April 15, 1996

Last Friday, April 12th, the Center for Civic Networking (CCN) and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GLIS) at the University of Illinois Champaigne/Urbana filed comments to the FCC Joint Board on Universal Service.

The comments are of interest to community networks, public access cable and community computer centers, schools, libraries, community development corporations, state telecommunication policy analysts and others.

The filing outlines a set of universal service recommendations and described data analyses that could support them. The Board was urged to develop Universal Service policy that promotes a leveling effect between information haves and have-nots while stimulating new sectors in the economy such as microenterprises and home-based businesses. At the same time this framework is explored, the Board is asked to carefully examine results of analyses that illustrate the characteristics of affected population groups.

The Center's Richard Civille said: "The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service has been tasked with a solemn responsibility. Its recommendations will influence decisions that will affect the new economy and individual quality of life in the United States for decades to come."

Dr. Ann Bishop , Assistant Professor at the Graduate School said: "We strongly urge the Board to seek out and examine data that will illuminate how their recommendations may impact economic opportunity and quality of life not only on disenfranchised groups, but on emerging economic sectors."

Bishop is a co-founder of Prarie-Net, a well established community network project serving over 15,000 in southern Illinois. Civille is a co-founder of CapAccess, a community network in the National Capital area serving over 12,000.

The filing outlines a Universal Service framework that provides:

• Market incentives and individual tax credits to increase computer ownership among low-income households and microenterprises;
• Electronic mail services for low-income children and job-seekers;
• Development of public access network services that offer useful and beneficial information products and services that address community needs and civic life;
• Mechanisms to finance network literacy programs through adult education programs, public libraries, and schools;
• Improved Federal data collection on the individual use of networked information.

These recommendations are based on The Internet and the Poor, written by CCN's Richard Civille and published in Public Access to the Internet edited by Brian Kahin, MIT Press, 1995.

The Center for Civic Networking and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana have undertaken a joint project to submit a set of white papers to the Board, based upon Census Current Population Survey (CPS) data that describe emerging groups of information haves and have nots, policy implications of the data and options for decisionmakers to consider.

The joint project will analyze Census data on demographic groups such as:

• Home-based businesses and microenterprises;
• Discouraged workers;
• Disabled individuals;
• Family farms;
• Group households; and
• Single mothers on public assistance.

These groups will be examined from national samples over a several year period, and then broken down into geographic regions, income quintiles, ethnic background and individual interests such as civic participation.

Civille said: "We hope that in the coming months, the Board will consider the demographic characteristics described in these white papers and by similar studies we hope will be submitted by other organizations."

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To receive a copy of the filing or a copy of The Internet and the Poor, please respond privately to this email message.

The materials will be available on the CCN web-site in several days, at Civic Net

The filing is available either in MS-Word binhex format or text.

The Internet and the Poor is available in MS-Word binhex format *only*.

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Richard Civille                         Center for Civic Networking  
Executive Director                   P.O. 53152  
(202) 362-3831                     Washington, DC 20009  
rciville@civicnet.org  
http://civic.net/ccn.html  
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