A CITRIS Research Exchange Seminar with speaker Shara Tibken
TALK TITLE: “Digital Redlining: The Broadband Gap’s Dirty Secret”
SPEAKER: Shara Tibken, Managing Editor, CNET News
BIO: Shara Tibken is managing editor at CNET News in San Francisco. In her role, she oversees a team of reporters, as well as covers the mobile device industry and the digital divide. Before joining CNET, Shara wrote about technology and the stock market for Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal in New York. She grew up on a farm in rural Iowa and graduated from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, in 2007. The poor internet connectivity in her hometown inspired Shara’s interest in the broadband gap.
ABSTRACT: Communities that couldn’t get mortgage loans in the 1940s are the same areas without fast home internet service today. Big broadband providers, when deciding where to invest the money to upgrade their networks, often focus on wealthier parts of cities and shun low-income communities. Fiber connections are expensive, and ISPs are hesitant to expand unless they expect a return on their investment. As a result, poorer communities often have no internet or are stuck with slow, legacy networks that can’t meet today’s demands — even though they usually pay as much as their wealthier neighbors who have gigabit fiber connections.
ABOUT THE SERIES: CITRIS Research Exchange delivers fresh perspectives on information technology and society from distinguished academic, industry, and civic leaders. Free and open to the public, this series highlights leading voices on societal-scale research issues. Each seminar takes place on Wednesdays from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm PT. Have a suggestion for a great speaker? Please use this form to suggest potential speakers for our series.
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