BCC: Broadband Use Mapping, Data and Evaluation

SMA-1338471 Caroline Tolbert Colin Gordon Kevin LeichtJulianna Pacheco爱荷华大学Karen Mossberger亚利桑那州立大学宽带被国家宽带计划称为21世纪最重要的基础设施挑战。但是，宽带承诺的核心是宽带的使用，而不是基础设施的可用性，从而使人们能够获得信息、通信和服务。对于理论和公共政策，需要更多地了解个人、组织和社区使用宽带的情况，包括地理差异。该项目有两个方面：1)建立一个新的全国性数据集，提供有关宽带使用的本地数据，可以分析这些数据，以了解宽带使用的地理差异及其对经济发展、卫生、教育等领域成果的影响。2)通过创建宽带评估研究和数据的门户/储存库、召开会议和为新类型的宽带数据举办种子基金竞赛，培育跨学科的宽带研究社区。这项研究扩展了芝加哥和其他选定城市的先前研究，以绘制全国互联网使用情况以及在线政治、经济和人力资本增强活动的地图。统计模型将用于对美国每个县、所有大都市和全国50个最大城市的互联网使用和在线活动进行半年一次的估计。这将创建一个当前不存在的20年纵向数据集。我们将使用当前人口调查(CPS)1995-2015年的年度互联网使用补充资料中可获得的受访者，并将其与衡量社区社会经济状况的总体人口普查区域水平数据合并。对于芝加哥、洛杉矶和纽约市这三个美国最大的城市，我们将对社区或社区的互联网使用情况进行估计。基于这些数据的多层地图将通过门户网站公开提供，使用地理信息系统软件和开放源码在线平台，如哈佛大学Worldmap使用的平台。这些数据将为技术使用随时间的地理变化提供一个独特的视角，研究人员可以利用这些数据来检查社会变化并衡量技术使用的社会影响。跨政策领域和学科的互动可以帮助研究人员更好地理解因果机制或技术用于各种结果的条件。建立跨学科研究社区的活动包括在一个门户网站上与一个储存库和讨论平台共享数据集和地图，以及一个种子基金，以促进进一步试验宽带数据收集的新方法。将举行一次会议，进一步开发门户网站，并接触宽带评估研究人员和宽带数据专家的网络。广泛的影响：随着信息、服务和活动转移到网上，互联网的使用已成为充分参与社会的必要手段。但接入不平等仍然是一个障碍，需要关于宽带实际使用情况的更好信息来指导公共政策。有关地理变化的数据可以为有关目标和项目规划的政策决策提供信息，并可用于跟踪当地或邻里趋势或干预措施在卫生或教育等领域的影响。此外，我们建议开展跨学科合作，收集关于宽带使用的各种类型的数据和评估研究，以便为政策制定者提供关于趋势和最佳实践的更好指导。

SMA-1338471Caroline TolbertColin GordonKevin LeichtJulianna PachecoThe University of IowaKaren MossbergerArizona State UniversityBroadband has been called the most important infrastructure challenge of the 21st century by the National Broadband Plan. But, it is broadband use rather than availability of infrastructure that enables the access to information, communication and services that is at the heart of broadband's promise. For theory and for public policy, more needs to be known about broadband use by individuals, organizations, and communities, including geographic variation. This project has two dimensions: 1) The construction of a new nationwide dataset that will provide local data on broadband usage that can be analyzed to understand geographic variation in broadband use and its impact on outcomes in areas such as economic development, health, education, and more. 2) Fostering an interdisciplinary broadband research community through the creation of a portal/repository for broadband evaluation research and data, a conference, and a seed fund competition for new types of broadband data. This study expands prior research in Chicago and other select cities to map nationally Internet use and online political, economic and human capital-enhancing activities. Statistical modeling will be used to create biannual estimates of Internet use and online activities for every county in the United States, all metropolitan areas and the nation's 50 largest cities. This will create a longitudinal dataset of 20 years that does not currently exist. We will use available respondents in the Current Population Survey (CPS) annual Internet Use Supplement from 1995-2015, merged with aggregate census tract level data measuring socioeconomic conditions of neighborhoods. For Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City, the nation's three largest cities, we will create estimates of Internet use across community areas or neighborhoods. Multi-layered maps based on this data will be made publicly available through the portal, using GIS software and open source online platforms such as those used by Worldmap at Harvard University. This data will provide a unique view of geographic variation in technology use over time, which can be used by researchers to examine social change and measure social impacts for technology use. Interaction across policy areas and disciplines can help researchers to better understand causal mechanisms or the conditions under which technology use matters for a variety of outcomes. Activities for building an interdisciplinary research community include sharing of the dataset and maps on a portal with a repository and discussion platform, and a seed fund to promote further experimentation with new methods of broadband data collection. A conference will be held to further develop the portal and to reach out to networks of broadband evaluation researchers and broadband data experts.Broader Impacts: As information, services, and activities have migrated online, Internet use has become a necessity for full participation in society. But inequality in access remains a barrier and better information on how broadband is actually used is needed to guide public policy. Data on geographic variation can inform policy decisions about targeting and program planning, and can be used to track the impact of local or neighborhood trends or interventions in areas such as health or education. In addition, we propose an interdisciplinary collaboration to gather various types of data and evaluation research on broadband use, in order to offer better guidance for policymakers about trends and best practice.