Colin Rhinesmith Presentation

Abstract:
The past 25 years of research on digital inequalities has framed the digital divide largely as a private problem, one that individuals should solve on their own by gaining access to networked technology and digital literacy skills. However, the COVD-19 pandemic forced many people, primarily poor people and people of color, outside their home to access free Wi-Fi, making the digital divide a much more visible, public issue. In response, more digital equity coalitions emerged in communities across the U.S. Yet, few in-depth studies have examined the formation, structure, and function of these coalitions and their implications for library and information science research, practice, and policy. 

This presentation will provide a conceptual framework and early insights from a national study to describe how research on digital equity ecosystems provides an engaged-scholarship approach to information sciences that are focused on understanding how community coalitions support digital equity, heathy communities, and broader social justice goals. The findings have implications for information researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in understanding how coalitions and universities can help to support the $65 billion Internet For All initiative led by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to advance universal broadband access and digital equity over the next five years.

Bio:
Colin Rhinesmith (he/him) is the founder and director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council, where he and his team work with communities to co-design responses to digital equity challenges and opportunities. He is also a research fellow with the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State University; adjunct lecturer with the iSchool at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign; and co-editor-in-chief of The Journal of Community Informatics. 

Previously, Dr. Rhinesmith was an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University. He has been a Google Policy Fellow with New America’s Open Technology Institute and a faculty associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Dr. Rhinesmith received his Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was an Institute of Museum and Library Services Information in Society Fellow, a researcher with the Center for People and Infrastructures, and a research scholar with the Center for Digital Inclusion.