Annual Digital Inclusion Events
Net Inclusion - Angela and the NDIA team host the premiere digital inclusion conference in the United States. The Net Inclusion conference has been a staple in the digital inclusion community since 2016, bringing hundreds of practitioners, advocates, academics, internet service providers, and policymakers together to share their knowledge and discuss:
National Digital Inclusion Week - Initiated by Angela’s team at NDIA, the annual Digital Inclusion Week activates hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals every year.
Digital Inclusion Publications
State Digital Equity Plan Toolkit. 2022. An NDIA publication, under Angela’s leadership, the Toolkit combines the team’s subject matter expertise, lessons learned from our community of over 1,000 affiliates across the country, and our understanding of the Digital Equity Act.
Digital inclusion as a social determinant of health. 2021. Along with her co-authors, Angela shows that internet access and digital inclusion is a “super social determinant of health.”
Limiting Broadband Investment to "Rural Only” Discriminates Against Black Americans and other Communities of Color. 2020. Angela Siefer, along with Bill Calahan, review broadband policies and advocate for solutions that prioritize inclusion and racial equity.
Digital Inclusion Start-Up Manual. 2019. An NDIA publication, this guidebook is the 101 guide to launching a digital inclusion program, including understanding the available data.
Discount Internet Guidebook. 2018. An NDIA publication, this guidebook includes the history of affordable home broadband, the types of services available to low-income households, strategies on successful outreach, and recommendations to policy makers and internet service providers on how to lower the barrier for home broadband subscriptions.
Digital Inclusion Coalition Guidebook. April 2018 + Updated in 2022. An NDIA publication, this guidebook reflects lessons learned from six community-wide digital inclusion coalitions.
Digital Inclusion Outcomes Based Evaluation. May 2017. Co-written with Dr. Colin Rhinesmith, this report is based upon research with focus groups. Published by the Benton Foundation.
Introduction: Digital Inclusion Policies and Programs of Local Government. December 2016. This is the introduction article to the issue of the Journal of Digital and Media Literacy that I guest edited. Seven representatives of local governments wrote articles for the issue.
Innovators in Digital Inclusion: Ashbury Senior Community Computer Center. December 2016. Second in a series of digital inclusion program innovators published by the Benton Foundation.
Innovators in Digital Inclusion: PCs for People. September 2016. First in a series of digital inclusion program innovators published by the Benton Foundation.
The Right Time for a National Digital Inclusion Alliance. May 2015. Blog post on DigitalIncluisonAlliance.org defining the opportunities now for increasing broadband adoption in the United States. As the Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance I am blogging regularly on the NDIA blog.
Lifeline - Where Is It Going? A Community Perspective. May 2015. Guest article for the Benton Foundation with recommendations and questions for the impending reform of Lifeline.
Kansas City Digital Inclusion Summit Keynote Slides. 2014. I was honored to deliver the keynote presentation at the Kansas City Digital Inclusion Summit.
Integrating Digital Inclusion, Dissolving Silos. 2014. I presented these slides at the ICA Digital Divide PreConference. The slides compare the digital inclusion activities of Seattle, Minneapolis, Austin, Philadelphia and Chicago. This work builds off of the Trail-Blazing paper.
Building Digital Communities: Pilot. 2013. While with OCLC, I supported nine communities piloting Building Digital Communities: A Framework for Action. Scroll to the bottom of the project page for the documentation which includes lessons learned and detailed activities of the pilot communities.
Trail-Blazing Digital Inclusion Communities. 2013. This paper is a response to a question posed to me by one of the local leadership teams piloting Building Digital Communities.
What is Digital Inclusion. 2013. While with OCLC, I created a page defining digital inclusion and linking to resources.
Digital Inclusion Infographic. 2013. While with OCLC, I led the creation of a Digital Inclusion Infographic. Various file formats and individual pieces of the infographic are available.
Congressional Testimony
May 10, 2023. Angela Siefer advocated for a national digital inclusion strategy while testifying on “Closing the Digital Divide: Overseeing Federal Funds for Broadband Deployment” before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
December 13, 2022. Angela testified before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee Hearing on Broadband Access.
January 29, 2020. Angela testified at the first congressional hearing on digital equity - watch her testimony below.
Broadband Adoption
Libraries' Increasing Role in Broadband Adoption. 2016. Cowritten with Katherine Bates, Urban Libraries Council and Colin Rhinesmith, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Oklahoma and Benton Foundation Faculty Research Fellow. Published by the Benton Foundation.
"Municipal Fiber and the Digital Divide: A Modest Proposal". 2015. Co-written with Bill Callahan, we make the case that by changing their Terms of Service, municipal networks can create an opportunity for low-income neighborhoods to create low-cost broadband service options. Guest blog post for National League of Cities.
NTIA Broadband Adoption Toolkit. 2012. I helped conduct interviews and wrote content for the NTIA Broadband Adoption Toolkit.
Connect Your Community. 2010- 2012. As a member of the leadership team, I created the CYC curriculum and wrote blog posts and news articles.
Community Anchor Institutions
"Community Anchor Institutions and Residential Broadband Adoption". 2016. Written for and published by the SHLB Coalition.
"Community Anchor Institutions Broadband Progress Report On the Five Year Anniversary of the National Broadband Plan". 2015. Co-written with John Windhausen, the report details the areas in which the United States has and has not made progress on Goal #4 of the National Broadband Plan.
Inclusive Gigabit Libraries
"What Good Is a Gig?" 2014. A preliminary peak into into the Inclusive Gigabit Library research project of the Center for Digital Inclusion, University of Illinois. This is a guest blog post on ALA District Dispatch. Cross posted on IMLS UpNext.
"How Your Library Can Get a Gig". 2014. Learning from the Cuyahoga Community College how public libraries can access a gigabit network through state research and education networks. This is a guest blog post on ALA District Dispatch.
"Inclusive Gigabit Libraries: Learn, Discuss & Brainstorm". 2014. A co-written Grant Report to the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
State Support of Broadband Access & Use
State-Level Broadband Policy: A Compendium of Resources and Approaches. September 2015. I wrote this for the Pell Center at Salve Regina University.
Local Action, State Support Needed. 2014. Guest blog post for the National League of Cities' series on Municipal Broadband Networks.
From the Wayback Machine, Literally
My Fuzzy Crystal Ball. 2005. A perspective piece I wrote for the Community Technology Review on the future of promoting and understanding community technology centers. I've linked to a PDF because the Community Technology Review is now only available via the Wayback Machine.