A project called data.org, http://www.data.org recently launched a $10 million challenge to support data driven projects for social impact. One grant for $1.2 million was awarded to the University of Chicago’s, Center for Data and Computing (CDAC), https://cdac.uchicago.edu.
The goal is to develop new tools to measure broadband access and work with community partners to enable high speed internet to be available to all.
According to University of Chicago Computer Science Professor Nick Feamster and his research team, “Closing the digital divide is the moonshot challenge for our generation. It is necessary to make it possible for all to access reliable and affordable high speed internet in many urban rural areas not only in the U.S but also globally. It is a grand scale challenge that requires not only technical expertise but also an integrative approach to the impact on society.”
The grant was awarded as part of the data.org Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge, a funding program to enable the use of data science to advance shared prosperity and to help ensure an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Challenge based at CDAC, https://www.data.org/challenge the intellectual hub and incubator for data science and artificial intelligence research, is partnering with the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, Chicago Public Schools, the civic non-profit organization Kids First, and urban solutions accelerator City Tech Collaborative.
One of the biggest problem with FCC’s broadband map acknowledged by technologists and policymakers is that the resource only reports access at the census block level, which overestimates the number of homes with high speed internet.
In addition, some popular internet speed tests were designed for earlier eras, when access speeds were much slower before the use of video streaming, conferencing, and households today have many connected devices, Also download speed is no longer the only metric that matters,
Current datasets lack important factors such as the cost or subscription rate of area internet service and its performance or when multiple devices are online simultaneously or the quality of the experience while using apps such as YouTube or Zoom.
The grant awarded via the data.org Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge, will combine cutting-edge data science and machine learning tools with new measurement approaches and data sources from internet service providers, government agencies, and technology companies.
The research team will collect data on internet access and performance, physical infrastructure of internet services in Chicago neighborhoods, and collect information on affordability, digital skills, usage for education, employment, or other services.
The data will be shared publicly and will be used to build public maps and dashboards. Measurement and visualization tools will also be released as an open source toolkit for other communities to use to assess their own local digital access.