Building Digital Communities: Pilot
With one in five Americans not using the internet and online interactions becoming a daily necessity of individuals and organizations, communities are recognizing the importance of taking action to increase digital inclusion. Libraries, local government and non-profit organizations are often the leaders of local digital inclusion efforts. Building Digital Communities: Pilot is a project supporting and documenting the work of pilot communities to increase the access and use of digital technologies. The work is based upon Building Digital Communities: A Framework for Action created by IMLS, the University of Washington and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).
Building Digital Communities: Pilot relies upon the principles and steps defined in the Bulding Digital Communities: A Framework for Action and Getting Started. In order to further the knowledge base of how communities become more digitally inclusive, we are posting lessons learned and digital inclusion planning resources. Each of the pilot communities is represented by a coalition of a library, a local government and a community-based organization.
Because digital inclusion is a complex and community-wide goal requiring a multi-sector coalition, we are focusing on the steps recommended in the framework.
- Convene stakeholders.
- Develop a shared community understanding of digital inclusion.
- Create a community action plan.
- Implement the plan.
- Evaluate and revise the plan.
OCLC has partnered with the University of Illinois Center for Digital Inclusion, Waymark Systems to provide stakeholder engagement expertise and guidance.
To support the pilot communities and further the knowledge base, OCLC’s WebJunction hosts resources online and convened webinars. Recognizing that digital inclusion strategies must be community-wide and the need for information dissemination, all resources and webinars are available to the public.
