Closing the digital divide is a marathon and a sprint for cities

At the recent Cities Today Institute City Leadership Forum in Dallas, US Chief Information and Innovation Officers discussed their progress with addressing the digital divide – something that shot to the top of priority lists as the pandemic laid bare stark inequities in internet access and the effect this has on people’s lives.

Joshua Williams, FUSE Corps/City of Houston

One key takeaway was that while federal funding such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers a welcome boost for digital inclusion, it isn’t a panacea. Securing the money requires significant effort and much of the impact won’t be felt for some time. For many cities, it’s a balance between doing what they...