LIBRARY

The archive of publications prior to 2004 represents work created by CMC staff and their colleagues at the Benton Foundation. Education, Libraries & the Internet, and e-government, youth, and broadband access are just some of the themes examined by this wide-ranging library of publications exploring the digital divide.

E-Government For All
Publishing date: June 2004
Format: HTML, PDF, MS WORD, and RTF
The Center for Media & Community, in conjunction with the NYS Forum, has released a new report examining the challenge of achieving equitable access to e-government. The report, “E-Government for All: Ensuring Equitable Access to Online Government Services,” is a summary of the E-Government for All virtual conference held last November.

DIGITAL DIVIDE

Achieving E-Government for All: Highlights from a National Survey
Publishing date: October 2003
Format: HTML and MS Word
Commissioned by the Benton Foundation and and the NYS Forum, this wokring paper by Professor Darrell West of Brown University, examines the results an annual survey of the accessibility of government websites and addresses guiding principles to improve them.

Preparing Disadvantaged Youth for the Workforce of Tomorrow
Publishing date: August 2003
Format: PDF

Based on the November 2002 Teens and Technology Roundtable, co-hosted by Benton, the report examines strategies to engage underserved youth populations to help them develop 21st century skills. Co-published with Germany's Digital Opportunities Foundation (Stiftung Digitale Chancen) in German and English.

A Broadband World: The Promise of Advanced Services
Publishing date: February 2003
Format: HTML and PDF
From the Benton Foundation and the Alliance for Public Technology, this report offers 12 case studies of innovative uses of broadband services in US communities.

Toward Digital Inclusion for Underserved Youth: A Transatlantic Roundtable

Publishing date: 2002
Format: PDF

Report from the October 2001 Teens and Technology Roundtable gathering of American and European foundation, corporate and government decisionmakers as well as researchers and practitioners to promote digital inclusion for underserved youth.

Bringing A Nation Online: The Importance of Federal Leadership
Publishing date: July 2002
Format: HTML, MS Word, Plain Text and PDF
A response to the federal report A Nation Online, this report concludes that continued federal leadership is essential to bringing a nation online, given the significant technology gaps that remain along economic, racial and geographic lines. Published by Benton and the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, in conjunction with Leslie Harris & Associates.

Federal Retrenchment on the Digital Divide:
Potential National Impact
Publishing date: March 2002
Format: HTML and PDF
This policy brief explores the likely impact of budget cuts to federal investments to bridge the digital divide.

Native Networking: Telecommunications & Information Technology in Indian Country
Publishing date: 1999
Format: HTML
This report provides government policymakers, tribal leaders, and public interest advocates with essential resources and analysis. It analyzes the critical telecommunications and information technology policy issues facing tribes, focusing on the interaction between Indian sovereignty and federal and state regulation in a quickly changing policy and practice arena.

Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income Communities in the Information Age
Publishing date: 1998
Format: HTML and PDF
This groundbreaking national report examines the gap that separates America's low-income and underserved communities from the benefits of the information age.

Inventing the Future
Publishing date: 1996
Format: HTML
This "What's Working Now" report highlights the efforts of nonprofits that are making a difference with communications technology in their communities.

A Nation of Opportunity: Realizing the Promise of the Information Superhighway
Publishing date: January 1996
Format: HTML
This national report, published by National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council and hosted by Benton, was the first significant report from the federal government to examine the role of the Internet in America, and set forth a vision of making it accessible to everyone.

KickStart Initiative: Connecting America's Communities to the Information Superhighway
Publishing date: 1996
Format: HTML
Created following the release of A Nation of Opportunity in 1996, this online toolkit helped community leaders launch local "KickStart Initiatives" to bring their communities onto the Information Superhighway.

What's at Stake and
What's at Stake II: Defining the Public Interest in the Digital Age
Publishing dates: December 1996/June 1997
Format: HTML WAS II Format: HTML
The networks of the digital age will take their shape from the institutions that build them. But they will also be defined by the users who make demands on them, and by the policymakers that set the rules for them. And by the citizens who see what's at stake -- and act on it.

The Benton Universal Service/Universal Access Virtual Library
Publishing date: May 1995
Format: HTML
An extensive library of research and online resources related to universal service.

Nonprofits as Engines of Social Benefit
Publishing date: April 1995
Format: HTML and PDF
Nonprofits play a unique role in delivering public interest benefits to the American people, wrote former Benton policy director Andrew Blau; we must develop policies that ensure that nonprofits will have the opportunity to play a similar role and advance in the information age.

EDUCATION/EDTECH

The Sustainability Challenge: Taking Edtech to the Next Level
Publishing date: March 2003
Formats: HTML and PDF
In the last 10 years, the United States has invested over $40 billion placing computers in schools and connecting classrooms to the Internet; the report cautions that this massive investment in educational technology, or edtech, may be at risk. Published in conjunction with the EDC Center for Children and Technology.

Great Expectations: Leveraging America's Investment in Education Technology
Publishing date: January 2002
Format: PDF
Second in a series, Great Expectations examines the impact of the federal E-Rate program in Chicago and Milwaukee. The report also includes an evaluation toolkit that school districts can use to analyze the impact of education technology on student learning. Published in conjunction with the EDC Center for Children and Technology.

The E-Rate in America: A Tale of Four Cities
Publishing date: March 2000
Format: PDF
This report was the first national-level analysis of the federal E-Rate program, with a focus on its impact in four Midwestern cities. The report also includes a political history of the E-Rate and other resources. Published in conjunction with the EDC Center for Children and Technology.

Effective Language for Discussing Early Childhood Education and Policy
Publishing date: May 1999
Format: PDF
When the media does stories about child care, it tends to frame them narrowly, focusing on safety and work issues. Effective Language is a collection of articles, published in cooperation with the Human Services Policy Center at the University of Washington, that suggests how parents and other adults can begin to frame child care issues in the terms of child development and early education, and as community issues that require community solutions.

The Learning Connection: Schools in the Information Age
Publishing date: 1995/1996
Format: HTML
The Benton Foundation's seminal report on the state of education technology in the United States. This version of the report is our second edition, published in 1996. The first edition of the report, published in 1995, is also available.

LIBRARIES & THE INTERNET

The Future's in the Balance: A Toolkit for Libraries and Communities in the Digital Age
Publishing date: 1998
Format: PDF
This toolkit takes up the challenge laid down in Buildings, Books, and Bytes by drawing on the expertise of seasoned communications practitioners, public opinion experts, and advertising and public relations professionals. The toolkit offers library leaders a communications strategy and a set of hands-on tools for reaching the public more effectively. Libraries and communities can use The Future's in the Balance for internal education and discussion, as well as to orchestrate public education and outreach.

Buildings, Books, and Bytes: Libraries and Communities in the Digital Age
Publishing date: November 1996
Format: HTML
This report, Funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, reveals what library leaders and the public have to say about the future of libraries with the advent of the Internet.

Local Places, Global Connections: Libraries in the Digital Age
Publishing date: 1997
Format: HTML
Libraries have long been pivotal public spaces where people can come together to learn, reflect, and interact. But today, information is rapidly spreading beyond books and journals to digital archives, databases, and a flow of electronic images over computer networks. Will libraries lose their role as lending institutions? And what will happen to libraries as physical places where diverse people can gather to pursue knowledge individually and collectively? Published in cooperation with the Libraries for the Future.