Uncategorized
U.S National Digital Inclusion Alliance Executive Director Angela Siefer to speak at TAF Canada 2019
The Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) USA, Angela Siefer, will speak at The Africa Forum Toronto 2019 under the theme: Seizing Africa’s Opportunity for Progress, holding from the 13th – 15th September 2019.
Angela has been working in the field we now call digital inclusion since 1997. She has helped physically set up computer labs in underserved areas, managed broadband conferences, conducted research, managed digital inclusion programs, assisted with the Department of Commerce’s Broadband Adoption Toolkit, testified before a U.S. Senate Sub-Committee and more. In 2015, Angela helped found NDIA.
Government Technology Magazine named Angela one of their Top 25 Doers, Dreams, and Drivers of 2019.
In her words, “In 2013, on behalf of OCLC, I led an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded project supporting communities piloting Building Digital Communities: A Framework to Action. In early 2014, I conducted research for the Center for Digital Inclusion at the University of Illinois for another IMLS funded project – Inclusive Gigabit Libraries”.
Conceived as a national advocate for federal policy, NDIA, under Siefer’s leadership, works with a growing number of local governments nationwide.
Local leaders now seek out the NDIA to help ensure residents have equitable access to laptops, smartphones, broadband and Wi-Fi, and to the skills they need to operate them. Issues of digital inclusion have crept into city departments nationwide, from housing and health to economic development. Essentially, tech is now a vital part of everybody’s life, so much so that cities must help get it to all residents. Siefer and the NDIA help local governments act as facilitators for community groups and libraries, which have long been on the front lines of inclusion. They do so through advice, best practices, benchmarking and fostering information sharing among stakeholders in the space.
NDIA’s noteworthy efforts include establishing firm definitions of digital inclusion and equity, bringing attention to digital redlining and supporting an ongoing push for federal policy to fund digital inclusion. It’s a natural extension of work she’s done for decades. Siefer has helped physically set up computer labs in underserved areas, consulted on broadband opportunity networks, written grant applications, assisted with the Department of Commerce’s broadband adoption toolkit, and more. One gets a sense that as with technology, digital inclusion work is ever-evolving, and it’s nice to know Siefer and the NDIA are helping local communities and their governments keep up.
Join us in Toronto to learn from Siefer’s digital inclusion experience for your city, community and organisation.
Visit www.commonwealthafrica.eventbrite.co.uk to register or for more information about our other Forum in New York, London and Sierra Leone.