About ECHO42

Want to help and eventually get paid to build our support network? CONTACT US

Join and Connect to Collaborate on Proposals

Browse through our members, and check out their profiles to find collaborators. Our website works in a fashion similar to Facebook and LinkedIn in terms of following versus connecting with another member.

Check out our new post category for Funding Opportunities.

A Think Tank for Digital Equity

EVERYONE COLLECTIVELY HELPING OTHERS is our effort to build a “Think Tank” coalition of everyone who would like to promote #DigitalEquity. In addition, it is critical to understand that the same dark money opposing municipal broadband, is also opposing municipal electricity. We need broad talking points, that address the systemic problems at the core of our society.

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Digital Equity is up against powerful forces

ALEC has become the model for coordinated, effective lobbying on Capitol Hill as well as in state capitols. ALEC pioneered the strategy of creating one-size-fits all legislation on a wide range of issues and then pushing it into law across the country…. ALEC is bankrolled by some of the wealthiest and most powerful corporate interests in the world. For instance, the Koch brothers have been among the group’s major benefactors for years. Part of the key to ALEC’s success was that few Americans ever heard of the group.
The Hill 2012

Opposition to Municipal Broadband

ALEC opposes municipal broadband projects and writes model legislation that limits the authority of cities and towns to build their own telecommunications networks. About 20 states have passed such laws.
Ars Technica 2015

It is still happening, but now Digital Equity has help from AI

Let’s help each other to promote #OpenAccess!

Our post explaining Open Access.

Chat GPT 4 says there are 20 organizations doing important work related to digital equity and Internet access:

  1. National Digital Inclusion Alliance

  2. Free Press

  3. Public Knowledge

  4. Next Century Cities

  5. Electronic Frontier Foundation

  6. Center for Digital Democracy

  7. Community Tech Network

  8. Institute for Local Self-Reliance

  9. Media Democracy Fund

  10. Open Society Foundations

  11. Color of Change

  12. Benton Institute for Broadband and Society

  13. Internet Society

  14. Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition

  15. American Library Association

  16. National Alliance for Media Literacy Education

  17. National Coalition for Media Literacy Education

  18. NTEN: Nonprofit Technology Network

  19. New America Foundation

  20. National Urban League

These organizations work on a variety of issues related to digital equity, including promoting affordable Internet access, advocating for policies that support net neutrality, and providing digital literacy training to underserved communities.

Let’s Learn How Incumbent ISPs Impact Legislation

Dwayne Douglas of Quilt (https://quiltnfp.org/) talks with Dr. Ron Suarez, Broadband Institute, about his trip to Springfield, the capital of Illinois, and what he learned about how the lobbyists impact legislation. There are lessons to be learned here. Learn about how getting one person to add an amendment can have a huge impact. In addition, we need short talking points, and a strategy to inform legislators how #OpenAccess is needed to promote #DigitalEquity. Let’s make the Internet become Open Access in the same way that the interstate highway system is #OpenAccess to FedEx, UPS, the US Postal Service, and anyone else, wishing to engage in commerce.

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