A: The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is a national, nonprofit institution chartered to assist in the creation of sustainable connected communities. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has partnered with OneCommunity, an internationally recognized leader in creating and operating sustainable business models for connected communities to establish the Center.
Dedicated to driving the adoption of broadband platforms and applied connectivity policies, the programs facilitated by the Center aim to spur economic development, telemedicine services, e-government/e-democracy, educational opportunity, multi-media content creation, inclusion, open dialogue, and innovation.
A: The term “connected community” means a community where private citizens, municipalities, businesses, and other organizations use broadband services and e-applications that improve the delivery, speed and quality of educational, health care, economic and civic services.
A: Not necessarily. Connected community initiatives are based on strategies that incorporate any and all technology tools available to extend broadband services and their application within communities, including fiber, DSL, cable, and wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, cellular, EVDO and WiMax.
A: The Center supports you in building connected communities by providing world-class strategic and tactical know-how, as well as “on-the-ground” consulting resources. Our unique approach features the:
- Building of broad support across key community stakeholders based on a return-on-investment model. This allows your community to lead its own connected community efforts, determining scope, scale, ambition and level of commitment as dictated by your community’s unique circumstances.
- Development of public/private partnerships for sustainability. It takes multi-stakeholder co-investment, in-kind contributions, and sharing of assets, including collaborating with local technology providers to create connected communities.
- Construction of infrastructure and application programs that generate positive and measurable capacity and impact for core community services (i.e. health care, education, public safety, economic development, government, arts & culture).
A: It comes down to approach. The Knight Center uses OneCommunity’s award-winning methodology, which is based on broad cross-sector engagement and support. By bringing together key civic, government and business leaders as well as helping to develop usage and adoption strategies, the Center helps communities create financially sustainable programs that deliver measurable value to key stakeholders and constituents. The Center’s focus on project outcomes rather than particular technical tools or applications results in tailored projects that leverage the assets of your community in response to its top economic, social and civic priorities.
A: Broadband is high-speed Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access over a modem. Dial-up modems are generally capable of a maximum bit rate of 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) and require the full use of a telephone line. Broadband technologies, in contrast, supply at least four to five times this speed, typically without disrupting telephone use.
Industry standards typically define broadband as download speeds equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s. The Federal Communications Commission currently defines broadband as anything above 768 kbit/s. Speeds are defined in terms of maximum download because several common consumer broadband technologies such as ADSL support much slower maximum upload speeds than download.
A: As more and more information and services migrate to the Web, broadband access is increasingly becoming the platform for the delivery and receipt of high quality, core public and private service offerings. Education, health care, civic engagement, government services, transportation, workforce development, and economic development are just some of the areas where data exchange and quality service delivery are tied to broadband access.
A: Community broadband refers to a community-sponsored program to enhance or offer broadband services in a neighborhood, city or region. Community broadband solutions can include municipal wireless (city-sponsored programs to deploy wire-line and wireless Internet access in all or part of a city), community wireless (wireless projects that are rooted in a community group, neighborhood, or institutional collaborative) or local programs that extend and promote access of any kind. Community broadband implies that local stakeholders combine interests and buying power to create a shared infrastructure for Internet access.
A: When we speak of universal access, we mean that all institutions and individuals in a community have access to broadband connectivity and devices capable of using this connectivity. While ubiquitous access implies “anytime, anywhere” coverage, universal access may involve a mix of hot spots, local coverage and institutional coverage.
A: Today’s public square is quickly moving to the Internet. The Knight Center for Digital Excellence believes that the fate of communities and democracy depends on citizens’ access to information, commerce and government. Increasingly, these services are delivered online. By reducing the barriers to Internet access, communities and individuals have the best opportunity for economic prosperity and optimal quality of life.
A: Digital inclusion means that all citizens have access to broadband-connected devices and the skills required to use them. The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is about more than digital inclusion. Knight Center programs are focused on helping communities create sustainable broadband infrastructures that connect institutions and individuals for the delivery of core services and information exchange. Our application of digital inclusion refers to the deployment of a broader set of applications in education, government, health care, journalism, public safety and the arts.
A: The Knight Center has 3 components:
The Resource Center proactively develops tools, methodologies, templates, models and guides to accelerate the community adoption process. The Center continually updates, acquires, develops and shares “best practices” and other learning resources. In addition, it hosts community workshops, training seminars and national symposia to share and build on best practices and lessons learned.
The Connected Communities Team (CCT) works directly with communities to assess readiness, develop strategies, and build local capacity to support broadband connectivity programs that elevate communities. The team works within communities to build local relationships, define requirements, inventory assets and identify opportunities to build collaborative strategies to implement infrastructure, applications and programs.
The Digital Opportunities Challenge (DOC) Fund is a key tool to motivate and sustain efforts to develop progressive, innovative and collaborative connected community strategies. It essentially acts as a seed fund to mobilize select Knight Communities, sustain momentum, and help build local capacity for self-sufficiency and ownership. It is a highly leveraged investment, attracting important commitments of time, money, in-kind donations, and other resources.
A: Starting in 2008 with five communities and expanding in 2009, staff from the CCT is available to partner with Knight cities to assess community interest and benefits. Experts in community broadband solutions and applications, CCT members work directly with community stakeholder to facilitate discussions that seek to identify cross-segment opportunities for community investment and benefit leading to the development of community-specific business and technology plans.
A: Every community is different. The Knight Center of Digital Excellence consults with each community to assess the top economic and social priorities, stakeholders, and existing infrastructure and programs to discover opportunities. Identification of opportunities leads to the creation of collaboration and participation, enabling stakeholder organizations to leverage and scale resources, gain operating efficiencies, reduce overlapping services and the assessment of total cost of ownership (TCO).
A: Over the next five years, the Knight Foundation will provide $25 million to the Knight Center of Digital Excellence program: $15 million for the development and operation of the Knight Center and $10 million for DOC Fund grants made available to connected community programs in Knight Communities. Awards require a demonstration of commitment to becoming a connected community, and matching funds are required. Funds are awarded to support projects in communities that have secured public-private partnerships to build sustainable systems for connected communities.
A: Both require some “proof of readiness” or investment by the community. CCT resources are assigned on a case-by-case basis to create broad cross-segment partnerships to expand access in a given community. The Digital Opportunity Challenge Fund is intended to provide seed money matches for other community investments to drive programs to be owned and sustained by the community.
A: Matching grants are designed to meet the specific needs of different communities as each community has unique strengths and opportunities. Hence, matching requirement ratios vary (e.g. $1:$1, $1:$2). More information on the DOC Fund will be available soon – check the DOC Fund page for updates.
A: The Center is beginning with the 26 Knight communities – cities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers and where the Knight Foundation has an on-going presence and involvement. The Knight Center of Digital Excellence’s mission is to help as many communities across the U.S. as possible as resources become available and communities request assistance.
A: The Knight Center is actively engaged with a small number of communities and developing plans for engagement of all 26 Knight Communities. Our goal is to reach and engage all 26 communities over the next five years.
A: Communities may contact the Center by e-mail: info@knightcenter.info.