Offline America:  Why We Have a Digital Divide – Jessamyn West, MetaFilter.com

One of the most interesting panels I came across in the list of chosen panels was Jessamyn West’s panel about the divide between those who are online constantly and those who don’t even have access to the Internet at home.  Being graduate students focusing on New Media and Social Media, I think we take for granted that we have constant access to the online world via computers, iPads, mobile phones, etc.  We might complain if a video is taking too long to load or if a site doesn’t work for a few minutes – but what about the people who don’t even have Internet access?  We are so used to constant access that it is easy to forget that others aren’t.

Jessamyn West is a library consultant from Vermont and moderator at MetaFilter.com (a community weblog).  She also just finished a book explaining how librarians can meet the challenge of teaching novice computer users how to do what they want to do online.  In her description of the panel, she explains that 35% of Americans have no broadband access at home, and 22% don’t use the Internet at all.  The goal of the panel is to identify who these people are and why they aren’t online, to uncover issues that are preventing some Americans’ online access, and to determine who is helping and who is hurting the situation.

To get a little more information, I emailed Jessamyn asking her about any topic additions/changes she might have made since she submitted, and about the people she would be including on the panel.  I was impressed – she got back to me in less than 5 minutes with the names of her panelists and more information about what the panel will focus on.  Her panelists will include:

• Justin Grimes – open access advocate; PhD Student at UNC; He will be focusing on the policy side of expanding internet access
• Jay Cuthrell – broadband hardware expert; He will be talking about what happens with companies that are actually trying to provide broadband to underserved areas

She also mentioned that the panel will focus less on the personal aspects of the topic, and more on the technical aspects.  For more information about her previous experience with the topic, check here.