RAPID: Quantifying Hyperlocal Digital Equity: A Path to Supporting Digital Participation

RAPID：量化超本地数字股权：支持数字参与的途径

• 批准号: 2034621
• 负责人: Rosta Farzan
• 金额: $ 19.63万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2034621&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Quantifying; Hyperlocal; Digital; Equity

This urgent research will swiftly address how the COVID-19 has made the digital divide untenable for people living in communities already marginalized by systemic disparities, by developing short-term immediate interventions that inform longer-term digital equity infrastructure. As many services shift to online delivery, suddenly the most vulnerable members of society are expected to own and master the most complex human-built artifacts: hardware, software, and the Internet, for daily living. The goals of this project are to (1) collect community data to understand the knowledge barriers individuals have faced with regards to the shift to digital health, education, and human services during the pandemic and the social structural roots of these digital gaps; (2) develop bottom-up and data-driven community digital participation indicators to evaluate the impact of a community coalition's ongoing work in distributing hardware and internet access to households across two neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, (3) quantify the digital know-hows within these communities and estimate the training cost, and (4) work closely with community-based organizations and resident leaders to design a peer-to-peer digital participation intervention for the purpose of training residents as community digital ambassadors who can address the identified digital participation barriers.The project is innovative in developing a framework to quantify digital equity at the hyperlocal level and designing customized tools and processes to support a community-based digital ambassador program. The research aims to answer questions of (1) What are the factors associated with the hyperlocal barriers to digital participation beyond hardware and broadband access? (2) How can this insight be translated into models that inform human service providers and policymakers in supporting digital equity? (3) How can this insight be utilized to develop an effective community-based digital ambassador program? The findings will investigate the hyperlocal, community-based factors in technology learning and diffusion, thus complement the existing studies and theories in innovation diffusion and learning, social mobilization, and regional economic development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项紧急研究将通过制定为长期数字公平基础设施提供信息的短期直接干预措施，迅速解决 COVID-19 如何使生活在已经因系统性差异而边缘化的社区中的人们无法承受数字鸿沟。随着许多服务转向在线交付，社会中最弱势的成员突然被期望拥有并掌握最复杂的人造制品：用于日常生活的硬件、软件和互联网。该项目的目标是（1）收集社区数据，以了解个人在大流行期间向数字健康、教育和公共服务转变所面临的知识障碍以及这些数字差距的社会结构根源； (2) 制定自下而上、数据驱动的社区数字参与指标，以评估社区联盟在向匹兹堡两个社区的家庭分配硬件和互联网接入方面正在进行的工作的影响，(3) 量化这些领域中的数字专业知识社区并估算培训成本，(4) 与社区组织和居民领导密切合作，设计点对点数字参与干预措施，以将居民培训为社区数字大使，以解决已确定的数字参与障碍.项目在开发量化超本地层面数字公平的框架以及设计定制工具和流程以支持基于社区的数字大使计划方面具有创新性。该研究旨在回答以下问题：(1) 除了硬件和宽带接入之外，与数字参与的超本地障碍相关的因素有哪些？ (2) 如何将这一见解转化为模型，为人类服务提供商和政策制定者提供支持数字公平的信息？ (3) 如何利用这一见解来开发有效的基于社区的数字大使计划？研究结果将调查技术学习和传播中超本地化、基于社区的因素，从而补充创新传播和学习、社会动员和区域经济发展方面的现有研究和理论。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为是值得的通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来提供支持。