Why Foundations of All Kinds Should Promote Internet Access

[Source: Ford Foundation, by Luis Ubiñas, April 4, 2010]

The Federal Communications Commission's release last month of the National Broadband Plan holds profound implications for all of us who are working to expand opportunity in America.

As the Internet becomes a gateway to democratic participation, economic opportunity, and human expression, it is critical to the future of our country-and our philanthropic missions-to ensure that everyone has high-speed, or "broadband," access to an open Internet. That is a central goal of the federal government's new plan, which, among other things, also seeks to expand the wireless spectrum for mobile devices and create a digital literacy corps to help more people use online tools.

In years past, foundations have tended to view grant making focused on Internet policy as a "media" issue. The thinking was, "Let those grant makers already focused on media policy pursue that work, while others remain focused on their own important issues, from education and economic development to human rights and the arts."

It's clear that this binary thinking no longer fits with contemporary reality.

Today the Internet is fundamental to every issue we care about. Efficient and low-cost health care, for example, will soon depend on high-speed access to online medical and diagnostic tools. Some 77 percent of Fortune 500 companies accept job applications solely online, according to one study. And digital classrooms that use high-speed Internet are already connecting students with a vast new world of ideas and information.

Such innovations may be transformative, but if Internet access is limited, the unintended consequence is the creation of an "information underclass," in which many citizens are uninformed and cut off from civic and cultural involvement.

Our actions today will decide whether that future belongs to a few or to all Americans. We must move beyond the notion of the Internet as a luxury and instead understand it as a necessary tool for anyone who aspires to be a full member of our society and economy-just as telephone service was defined in the last century.

The effort to ensure universal access to high-speed Internet among all citizens is a critical next step to ensuring that America realizes its great aspiration of equal opportunity for all.

Unfortunately, the latest data show that much work remains to be done to achieve this goal and to keep the United States fully competitive. The first challenge is one of access and speed. According to the Social Science Research Council, some 65 percent of Americans now have broadband access at home-but among households with incomes below $25,000, that percentage flips: 65 percent lack broadband connections. And a recent comprehensive study by researchers at Harvard University found that the average download speed in France is more than five times that in America. In Japan download speeds are 10 times faster. According to the study, the United States is now around 13th in the world and falling.

The key here is that access and speed are linked-it is of little use being online if your access speed is so slow you cannot fully participate-and yet neither is certain in America.

A second major challenge is sometimes harder to see but is as significant.

Even if all Americans gain access to the Internet, we need protections in place to ensure that the Internet itself remains neutral and open.
 
Without rules to ensure that all Web traffic is treated equally, we run the risk that censorship and suppression could become more commonplace on the Internet. The well-being of our national culture of innovation, the engines of our economic growth, be they at Apple or Facebook or Google-or tomorrow's versions of those businesses-requires an Internet without gatekeepers.
 
The decisions being made now will shape the online landscape and how we all use it for decades. What is needed now is a smart, healthy debate among citizens, companies, advocacy groups, and others that really grapples with the momentous decisions that will ensure that the public interest is represented. Along with helping to provide resources for that dialogue, grant makers can help educate our grantees and the public about the centrality of this issue to all that we care about.
 
Success for this country and the world will be achieved only by building a broad consensus of government and private partners that are willing to stand up for the public good.
 
All of us committed to progress, social justice, and rigorous public debate have a stake in this effort, and foundations are uniquely suited to building discussions among business, government, and nonprofit organizations in a way that no other institutions can.
 
That is why the Ford Foundation is committing $50-million over the next five years to support efforts that ensure both that broadband access to the Internet becomes a reality for all citizens and that public-interest values in the online space itself are protected. We want this to be an open conversation.
 

• Every person should have the opportunity to access high-speed Internet connections.

• Everyone should have a choice of providers to drive competition and innovation.

• Everyone should have the same legal rights and protections online as off-line.

• We collaborate with citizens, companies, and government to build common-sense rules to prevent censorship and anti-competitive behavior that can stifle innovation.

There is a real debate to be had: How can government, business, and nonprofit organizations lead innovation? How can citizens enjoy the access they need on the Web? How can government craft workable, smart rules of the road for all? The debate needs many voices.

At Ford we have come to see that our commitment in this dialogue is critical to protecting all of the other work our foundation supports; indeed, it is central to supporting any work that relies on the freedom of people to come together and to communicate.
While we are fortunate to be joined by many other grant makers that are realizing the importance of broadband to the issues on which they work, many other donors must join the effort.

Both the government's ambitious plan to increase broadband access in America and the resistance to it show that we stand at a defining moment of opportunity and challenge.

In the civil-rights movement, the war on poverty, and many other landmark battles, foundations have stepped up at critical moments in our nation's history to fight for opportunity, equity, and the common good of all Americans.

As the future of broadband access and freedom in America are under debate, foundations face a similar moment, and the country needs our resolve once again.

Luis A. Ubiñas is president of the Ford Foundation.