Research Associate Professor Jon Gant, director of the GSLIS Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI), has been invited to participate in an invitation-only broadband research conference on December 7 in Washington, DC. The event, sponsored by NC Broadband, a division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, will "design a research agenda for how the country can best measure the economic impact of publicly-funded broadband initiatives."
Gant is a national leader in the areas of digital inclusion and broadband adoption. He is the director of Urbana Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B), a partnership between the cities of Urbana and Champaign and the University of Illinois that is building one of the fastest broadband networks in the country. Gant is leading campus participation in US Ignite, an initiative fostering the design of next-generation applications in six key areas of national interest, such as education and health. UC2B is a founding partner of US Ignite and will serve as a test-bed for the applications developed through the initiative. In addition, Gant recently received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to provide continuing education to library leaders about the ways in which libraries can participate in building the next generation of the Internet.