One Community Informatics approach to address digital divides is the concept of the “First Mile”. The First Mile refers to a relationship between a community and its local broadband system in which the community is in control. Through planning and investment in community infrastructure first, broadband systems can be developed to support local priorities. This counters the traditional approach to telecommunications development, which focuses on community connections as the ‘last-mile’.
You may think that only a handful of these kinds of community networking projects exist, but that is not the case. Check out this map, which lists over 400 community networks in the U.S.
The First Mile concept began in the mid and late 1990s. One of the earliest adopters of the term was an advocacy group in New Mexico called 1st Mile, headed by activist and artist Richard Lowenberg. The 1st Mile used the term to describe a rural connectivity model that emphasized demand-side policies and infrastructure over supply-side models that often view enhanced connectivity in rural areas as not economically viable. According to the 1st-mile.com website, the First Mile “describes a local geographic orientation for telecommunications infrastructure and services deployment, with a democratic social and economic perspective, that focuses on the difference these systems and services will make in the quality of peoples’ lives.”
In the late 1990s, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations published a book called The First Mile of Connectivity. A group of rural telecommunications technicians, communication for development practitioners, university-based researchers, community-based connectivity professionals and policy-makers used the concept in a “communication for development” context. They argued that local institutions can drive telecommunications development.
The First Mile of Connectivity – Read the book for free
In Canada, similar approaches emerged in rural and remote First Nations communities. Few of the 633 First Nations have robust and sustainable broadband systems, or the capacities to manage them. Yet many recognize that broadband is essential to delivering many community services, and so have sought to bridge the digital divides that they face. Beginning in 1997, the Assembly of First Nations adopted several resolutions that supported community-based broadband development. In later units we will learn more about this work, which is captured in the AFN’s e-Community ICT model (PDF). We will learn more about the e-Community strategy later in this course.