 Hello everyone. I hope you're enjoying your lovely sandwich My name is Elaine Ayala, and I'm a columnist for the express news where I also write religion and Media affairs, I'm gonna give you a minute to calm down here I'm gonna take another sip of my coffee. I'm still working on coffee. I wanted to start this discussion by you know I love as much as I'm a news person as Much as I'm a news person. I am I love hopeful stories I love stories with wonderful endings, and I'm gonna tell you one that's related to the digital divide I've yet to tell it in the paper, but I soon will and that is that I Met a housekeeper from a local university Who was really freaked out that she would soon? Have to fill out her timecard Via computer she had never touched one She was very nervous about it, and she sort of made herself the representative of her entire Work class and went to a Person in charge and said we really need to learn just how do you sit at a computer and And do this task that we'll have to do every day It was sort of the equivalent of a a a time machine where you have to click click in and click out So she found a very friendly face at the university who does this for a living. She teaches computers and and learned a whole group of people learned not only how to Clock in and clock out every day, but then started to feel more at home with that click and that access and So I'll jump ahead to the end of the story the housekeeper Bought a laptop because she was so interested and Got internet access and Then because she's such a good cook the university decided well now all these people are very engaged Let's create something That they can produce that we can put in our archives So cooking was the key so they asked the university asked each of the housekeepers involved in this project Give us a recipe now. They're very cagey. They also said you need to make this recipe so we can taste it So they gave themselves a party and now that those little cookbooks produced by all of those housekeepers That have family recipes and memories is in the archive of the University of Texas at San Antonio and what this story comes down to is that that laptop for that housekeeper became her self-esteem and So I want to leave you with that story and then Introduce this panel that will tell us how this all came about and and I and I hope also next steps Is this the first conference you do like this? This is the second one. So we're we keep pushing the envelope forward. Okay, so our panelists Did I introduce myself? I think I did right no Okay, I'm the religion reporter and the minority fairs reporter for the Express News I write a column on Latino politics arts culture every Monday in the Express News page to get your subscription and And I'm a native San Antonio With us on this panel are the three tri-chairs of this event Jordana Barton, she's senior advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Now, how cool is that? Dianne Cuellar. She's the principal at Center of Gravity Strategies. She's a media relations and strategic communications expert and Amanda Kimmer She's the vice president of cyber security at the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce So I want to open it up with Amanda Amanda. You must be very excited that UTSA is going to vote Significant resources to cyber security. So I'd love to know that That side of it But I tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to this issue. You all are so diverse in your fields But you all care about this Digital divide so tell us how you came to this Important policy and topic So hi, hi everybody. Are you awake? I'm gonna talk loud Because I know in the back I couldn't hear some people So hi, my name is Amanda. First of all, thank y'all for coming. This is really really important conversation for our city This is a really big issue to tackle. I don't want to minimize that at all It's very important and encouraging for us to see all y'all here And we know that there are a lot of different backgrounds represented So thank you for taking time out of your day So my background as you heard I work at the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce What a lot of people don't realize is that at the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce We have the cyber security San Antonio program And so that program is a hub for all things cyber in San Antonio just like the name says we didn't make anything too crazy with that And so we work with K-12 higher-ed industry workforce Small contractors large corporations the city State federal government anything that touches cyber I get to be Play a role in that and San Antonio is my hometown So I'm particularly invested in its continued growth in this space how I came to digital inclusion I'm an SISD alum very proud SISD alum always very biased. I have to say that up front So I went to Neil elementary. I grew up off Blanco Embassy not far from here I went to the FOIA middle school and then I graduated from Bracken Ridge high school So when you're talking about digital vibe now that I'm back in San Antonio, I worked in DC for eight years I just moved back to San Antonio last summer digital vibe is very real and it's very frustrating and it's very Infuriating to be honest when it comes to students not having the ability to access information That can make or break their careers or that can impact scholarships that they receive or for me Trying to find technical mentors that can come out to schools And then having those technical mentors for cyber patriot get frustrated because those students have firewalls And they don't have it people on campus and the it people don't get it And it's not their fault because they're overwhelmed and underworked and underpaid and all of that It's a whole thing. So I think for digital inclusion I guess my story is just it affects me it affects my cousins today Who live on the website? For people who want to buy houses on the west side for folks who want to reinvest in the west side? All of that brings me to digital inclusion and just basic things like applying for scholarships is a difficult Issue Do you see the I want to follow up with that. Do you see? The SAISD or other school districts moving forward and I'll give you one Another anecdote that came to us right after a beautiful library was dedicated on the south side the mission Right near mission drive-in and it's a gorgeous And it that side of town really needed a new Library And several people called some reporters and said, you know, what we're finding is that when we leave and close up the library There are a whole bunch of cars parked there and kids with a gleaming Screen still working and their parents, you know falling asleep at the wheel because they're trying to finish their homework Are you hearing stories like that when you're in the schools? Unfortunately, yes, and I don't think it's just K-12. I think it's university too And so since coming back to Antonio one of the stories I like to share is that I sucked my first year of college and I went away out of state came back And I think looking back having vocabulary to explain that problem When it comes to access to information and Infrastructure and the digital divide those are things you're you don't know about when you're an 11th grader or a 6th grader You don't know your economic status your class status You don't know about any of those things you just go to school and you say you're gonna go to college And then you're gonna get a job and so I think I Can see those stories of folks in the parking lot I think our panel this morning really discussed how we need to fix that And that it's a community effort And that we have to hold our elected officials in our our city government a local state and even federal government Accountable for that and I think those of us who have the luxury to be here today and take time off of work to learn We have the responsibility to then go back and educate our colleagues And our bosses and our friends and our family members to get involved I will say to your first point about UTSA there are a lot of encouraging Initiatives taking place in the city. There are a lot of folks stepping up creating nonprofits making it happen making sure that students are learning about opportunities particularly in cybersecurity and I don't want to Miss the opportunity to say there are other universities in San Antonio that have excellent cybersecurity programs So we are the only city in the nation to have five centers of academic excellence in one city So we have UTSA. We have st. Phillips. We have San Antonio College We have our Lady of the Lake and Texas A&M San Antonio So there are five different universities you can go to for that I think our students need to know that so they can develop those partnerships with those professors and Have more of an ease Smooth transition into those spaces one more question before we move to the end One of the major issues that people have in their homes is that Having access to Internet is getting more and more expensive. What do people at the chambers of commerce all over? What are they doing? How are they championing those people can who cannot afford? It's one thing to own a laptop That's probably easier to own a laptop and get one then it is to pay a monthly bill That's getting more and more expensive to to access the Internet Tell us about what we what we can expect from chambers of commerce and our business community to make that more accessible Right, so I think a good example is that we're here, right? So being involved with this conference Putting together these panels. I know it seems like admin logistics work But I think when you think of a chamber of commerce you might think of just businesses But a chamber of commerce is not just businesses. There are schools involved. There are university presidents There's local state federal government officials members of Congress and their staff And so our cyber security industry council is 250 members strong and that represents the industry's Impact here in our city. The reason I say that is because through all these different sectors Whether it's education workforce talent development. It's not just going to be industry-led, right? It's a community-led Problem or a community-led solution that's going to be the answer And so I think in as much as we can incorporate all those ideas and people that's the only way we're going to solve it I don't think it's just on the chamber of commerce I think it's these larger coalitions that are building that are representative of all of people in this room Okay, well, I wish I wish spectrum was here because I have something to say to them, but Okay, Dian You're a media Specialist a lot of reporters around town know you because you've been the spokesperson for one Councilman or another you've been involved in a lot of we get a lot of press releases from you So how does how does a person like you get involved in this issue? Tell us your About your passion for this topic Wow, okay So the the media representation part of my work actually goes pretty far back in 2005 I was working here in San Antonio With a large group of public access producers that were they themselves going through a transition When we were moving everything from analog TV to digital TV and public access producers were going online And I've actually been on the opposite side of this issue throughout the years And the reason why I got involved with the public access producers is because at the time There was something called Senate bill 5 that was at the state level that was deciding how we Funded cable access producers how we funded, you know, and how internet service providers funded the markets that they served in and Luckily that there are two people in the room. I actually got to work with 13 years ago One of them being Gabriel Garcia who was working with the city of San Antonio at the time that was, you know, kind enough You know to You know shed light on how these policies impacted us at the municipal level and I actually got to meet 80 up to 83 different public access producers and community organizers like Andrea Figuero who's also in the audience And we went on to co-found something nationally called the media action grassroots network And so that media action grassroots network if you're not familiar with it if you go online There are social justice organizations and community groups that are not internet service providers They're not digital literacy professionals. They're not people. They're actually doing this work But they are they are individuals that are doing all sorts of work around racial justice immigration Women's rights civil rights and human rights that understand how the complexities of digital inclusion impacts their work and the importance of Preserving the internet because they use that as a communications tool to communicate their work to the community Fast-forward what that works look like later on Me and Andrea worked on the local to national level she'll talk about this a little bit more But we actually spent several years advocating to protect the internet and all of the things that the communities use That are empowered with the internet at the at the national level So we've done everything from meeting with lobbyists speaking to our congress people speaking to our senators working with the FCC We've met with commissioners. We've done filings and I'm proud to say that we played an active role With a delegation from San Antonio and the state of Texas to fight for net neutrality What is the status of net neutrality now? So the status of net neutrality is it's in a different place than it was when Obama was president So every president that comes in has their has their favorites and has a different philosophy about that policy Councilman Pilias talked a little bit earlier about the importance of net neutrality for me net neutrality means that if If you have access to the internet that the free flow of information Should be open and for me one of the oldest antidotes or analogies that we use is the difference of people in our community Have an access to a dirt a dirt road versus them, you know an area highway So Not good Jordana Jordana is all over the place today, isn't she she is the She is the senior advisor a senior advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas That's such a chingona kind of role So how does a banker get involved in this issue? Why was it important to you? No, that's a good question. I I get it a lot. What does the Federal Reserve have to do with the digital divide? and The Federal Reserve as you all know is in charge of the macroeconomy right making sure that we have stable prices interest moderate interest rates and A sound economy we are the regulator of banks financial institutions And my job at the Federal Reserve is to work at the community level I mean I'm responsible for the community Reinvestment Act and training bankers in how they can invest in low and moderate income communities So one I do a lot of training and and and so forth, but I also do a lot of research And and my research at the Federal Reserve Is action research? So I do mixed method research to talk about the communities that we have to to write about and understand And bring stories forth to inform the macroeconomy and to inform policy I have to do mixed method research because like we talked about in the earlier panel The census data will tell a certain story, but it's not the full story and and you might miss out in the most important stories So I was doing research here in San Antonio and along the Texas, Mexico border And I was studying basic infrastructure like water wastewater electricity people's act the lowest income people in the colonias Their access to those things they were talking to me About the digital divide how is impacting their children one of the the most profound Areas of the digital divide is in the homework gap Which is lovely because they're already thinking about their children's future and how a Computer and internet access is going to affect their ability to move forward how they couldn't do their homework At home one one lady after one of my focus groups and I would have never known this I had my little questions and you know, I didn't know to ask that question, but it came up across the border So I had I documented it because I do Mix method research so that that helped me to tell the more complete story. She says can you make this a? a Wi-Fi hot spot because my little boy has to do his homework as I handed it to my intern And I was and we were like no you can't because there's not the infrastructure to support it And and she didn't have that kind of data plan that she would need either to be able to support it So so it came to the top of my of the agenda and and what I write about in closing the digital divide is how I came to understand through data and and interviews and focus groups that Digital inclusion is economic inclusion now. It is the platform Right for everything and and as Amanda was was really pointing out it and it's it's a means to an end, right? It's it's not to have Access just in and of itself. It's what it provides a child can have can do their homework can have a level playing field In school you can create opportunity entrepreneurs the promise of the internet is That it's democratizing right that no longer our innovations just happening at the center of the network Now a person in their computer and little knowledge of code can create Google or Facebook or Airbnb Or you know these huge wonderful companies are children that we can unleash if they have access They can they can create some of the the solutions the businesses the social enterprises that are gonna That are gonna address some of our greatest social problems, but not if we have the digital divide Not if we don't have that level playing field so so my job was to to understand the economy how to create inclusive economy and indeed I I discovered with the help of really the lowest income people in the country and that This is a structural barrier to upward mobility because of how it impacts everything for banking critical As banking becomes digital more and more people left behind That's really very important to the Federal Reserve that people have a safe relationship with a bank or credit union Because that matters to your their whole future right so all of those things This is why we we got involved and made it part of the Community Reinvestment Act too. That's awesome Amanda I wanted you to address the entrepreneurial ship piece of the digital divide and And I know you just don't deal with businesses, but we we know that San Antonio has an immense wealth of small business people and What has been your take as you look at that landscape? How? how How connected are they and how is? the lack of connectivity impacting their their business So lots of different ideas So I think Just quick background. So even though I was born and raised here in San Antonio. I just moved back last summer So I just want to preface that with Because we all have access to information Get out there and meet people and learn what's going on in your community That's gonna be my disclaimer my homework for y'all today So based on what I've learned this past year There are tons of resources for entrepreneurs in this city and our barriers to entry are pretty low And what I mean by that is that San Antonio is a pretty friendly city We're welcoming city You we have access to our mayor to our city council to business leaders pretty easily Right compared to other cities like in DC if you wanted to meet somebody like that You better be important or have a lot of money or have something big to say But in San Antonio, that's very different And I think that's something that we need to take advantage of when it comes to entrepreneurs, especially with students They have access as well We need to bring them along with us and so when I think of the resources available even if you don't have access to internet We have live fun on the west side, right? Even if you don't have access to the internet downtown or you don't have super fast speeds We have a library that's open till 9 p.m. On the weekday that has launch essay, right? We have the Maestro Entrepreneur Center. We have the UTSA small business development center Which is a fantastic resource. They have small business advisors for free Aka like federal taxpayer money, right? We're paying into it We should be getting that back But they have advisors that all you do is call them up and then they call you right back they email you right back You have a meeting set up. They walk through all these resources. They check in on you That's their job because at the end of the day to get that federal money the next year They have to show how many small businesses have started how many jobs they're creating how many resources they're developing What's the impact on the community? That's on them. That's not on us It's on us to develop the ideas and have the the vision To make that happen and to run with that But there are so many resources in our city and so I think we're really lucky to have that and I think when it comes to Digital divide we have to tackle that as well But you know the other day I got a little frustrated with somebody because they were saying you know I understand San Antonio It's hard because not everybody grew up surrounded by founders and entrepreneurs and I kind of called them on it I said that's BS like I grew up with you know, a bullet the man riding his bike through the neighborhood. That's an entrepreneur You know, I grew up at the FOIA. We had the ice cream truck lady outside our school every day that had everything That's an entrepreneur right? That's a founder and if she had multiple trucks Then she's like expanding her business, right? And so I think in some ways we have to redefine for ourselves in our community Who is an entrepreneur and who is a founder and how do they access those resources and make sure we're being inclusive in that as well? Because technology I love cybersecurity. I love technology But we did not create entrepreneurship and we did not create innovation or entrepreneur, you know start-up founder mentality We are I think a city of hustlers and I'm very proud of my city in my hometown And I think we have to kind of foot stomp that a little bit more that we already have these innovation and resources here We just have to make sure they're connected and I think technology like you said is a tool to make that happen I guess. Oh Jordana. Did you want to address that? I? think that I definitely think What Amanda is saying is is true and accurate There's another another part to this and that is you know we talk in the city about creating an ecosystem for entrepreneurship, but one of the very important things for the digital inclusion line is is Alliance is to make sure we have the broadband infrastructure and People with the digital and technical skills They need for the workforce to be able to attract it to keep entrepreneurs here to build their businesses and attract Industry so in other words, I gave the example this morning H eb, you know Had built their innovation center in Austin And that for me as you know, I always say it's my H eb How could they do that to me? You know and and we have the digital inclusion Alliance Did you feel a little betrayed by that? I felt betrayed? Especially as part of the digital inclusion Alliance because we are organized around this issue and what is innovation? But taking a little bit of a chance and it's not much of a chance with the people of San Antonio and what we have going here You know to to have that here to build our tech Center here at with tech block and and all the others that are trying to build this this Innovation and this entrepreneurship and so forth. How can companies also say we believe in you? We don't just want you for your dollars to come to our stores These work good at going to get those tortillas and everything else right especially the seven tortillas Can I hop in real quick? I just want to say so I'm gonna do a little selfish shout out But there are two people that work for Cybersecurity IT companies that are headquartered here in San Antonio So IP secure is one of them and their CTO is here and Bill Gonzalez works at Webhead and they're another one here So even if we have some opportunities that do not stay here We have lots of cyber and tech companies that are investing in our community and not only that But they're in our schools and they're helping to bridge the digital divide by hosting Students who want to compete in cyberpatreon other competitions, so we're finding creative solutions to this It's just all happening at once and we're trying to do it all and that's what we need more hands Yeah, it did not to say that nothing happens here right everything happens here But it's that we need a very concerted effort and and for and to really win the trust And and we won't want to have the brain dream like in the Valley. We talk about that all the time Rubin and art and you know people from Brownsville that are here in McAllen We we have examples of students who grew up in the Colonias and they went went to Stanford to get their engineering degree and running a business an incredible online, you know business Out of Silicon Valley when she could have it in the border if there was the broadband infrastructure The ecosystem for entrepreneurship to support it. So that's that's what it's about. It's not in either or it's We want we want to oh, I can't wait to go to a paleta seller and buy my my paleta You know with my with my iPhone. That's what I'm hoping for. I Mean we do it at the pearl all the time with all those so why can't we do with the paletta man? I think it's possible Okay Yeah, we need more from you. Tell us tell us what's on your mind Tell us what you'd like to see from this conference where what should be talking about What should we be talking about next year at this time that will move the needle? I Would really like to see the next year's conference focus more on the human rights civic engagement aspect of digital inclusion this year where there's a heavy focus on The economy the value add the return on investment You know that the theme is upward mobility and so I kind of you know We're almost you know almost done with the day and we've been heavily focused on you know How this is good for the economy and you know how we can lift each other up and there's this now We're talking about entrepreneurs and small businesses and and resources And I think aside from that just like other issues there's this this human rights aspect and just the the civility and humanity of You know being able to communicate with each other Just like you know other issues are There's a human side and there's not necessarily like an investment and return on the investment And you're not gonna always see your money I think it's interesting that there is that a heavy focus on economy and putting a price tag to the return on the investment around this issue because Up until digital inclusion had a term digital equity and all of these other insider terms that we used to describe this issue You know There are people who work in technologies either cyber security or the IT Professionals that work at these companies that know that technology in itself whether it's software or hardware or infrastructure And so on is one of the most expensive things to invest in that doesn't necessarily Have a profit doesn't there's not a return on that investment. There's not always a profit reward and there's It being one of the most expensive line items in a budget You don't always hardly if ever see the return investment So I think it would be nice back to my original point next year if we could put the economic side apart I understand it. That's the shiny object this year and just talk about like the the the human right of You know being able to communicate with each other freely and openly and they're more connected empowerment from the civil rights and human rights side is It feeds back into the economy. They're more connected than Well, but no, but but I but I would love to see that more human rights people in the audience Telling us what they're experiencing when it comes to this issue We just have about five minutes left and I want to leave a little time for some questions or comments from people who have also been in in this struggle in this campaign for a while and We'd welcome your your contributions Yeah questions or comments really because I know that We're all sitting here, but you're you're sitting there and you're just as You're just as able to to comment and we'd love to hear from you. Those sandwiches couldn't have been that good. I Saw them Okay All right, here we go. So can you come forward so you can take this mic? Testing testing. Okay. My question was for those that are in the technology community How can we participate and get involved especially when it comes to tech mentorship or I mean It's more gonna be more difficult and challenging a longer road for us to get involved and help build Infrastructure, but very immediately very near term. We could all get involved and help You know pass our skills on to the next generation So my question would be what's the best way to enable change that way? So easily I know there's some teachers here. I know Mr. You know dr. Davis is here from cast tech River Bay is gonna be on a future or a panel in a sec from ESC region 20. She's also chair this as a STEM council I'm sure there are other teachers educators in this space I would just reach out to them. Honestly, sometimes you just have to call a principal or Find a CTE director at a school and just reach out to them and they'll put you to work. It's not hard They have tons of needs whether it's bringing in technology like Mooney mentioned for Saha They reuse laptops desktops of your organization is going through a refresh And you're gonna donate that stuff or sell it back anyway Consider maybe donating it to a school or to Saha or another organization that could use it There are tons of different ways that you can volunteer. I Would say just get involved and if you're still lost I will connect you to a bunch of people To be a member of the digital inclusion alliance Because we're gonna have Opportunities for leadership and for connecting with all these different organizations that Amanda pointed out and it'll be that that connection It's meant to be that connection. So I'm Dale McNeil from the library as Renee pointed out earlier today I just want to make a really Really very small comment from earlier in the discussion about the mission library Because I think it illustrates kind of the complexity of this What we're talking about are one of the complexities which is why were those kids? Outside the mission library using our Wi-Fi because we meant them to be right because we made sure that that Wi-Fi was available for people to use Even when we didn't we couldn't afford to staff the library to be literally open So that was a choice we made in all of our libraries and I know that was I didn't mean it as a criticism I meant it as the need that I didn't hear it as a criticism at all But my point is just that we have we can do these incremental things and they have also sometimes two sides That's right. So that's all I'm saying is that little incremental steps can move us forward as well No, I didn't hear it as a criticism. Yeah, I thought it was I was inspired by it because there were Parents sitting out there with their children and it was you know, 10 o'clock way beyond the library's time So I applaud the library. I also applaud bibliothek. I'm so glad you're here girls Be I don't know if they they're even hearing because they're both so involved. Look, they're not even looking up That is okay, that's another digital I Go through this with all my nieces and nephews. Hello. Hello. I love it. Hi. I Want you I just wanted to say that we love bibliothek My goddaughter Maria Elena Martinez is one of your managers And I just I go to it all the time just to scan things and and get your help on things like, you know Here help me. I'm old Say something really quick about the mission library about the you know Talking about the the human stories the people that are out in the community the ones that check out the devices the people in the cars Several years ago. We would we would go to the city council in the county and Other elected officials and we would try to talk to them about Digital inclusion and try to define the digital divide for them And we'll point them to lots of things to read on the internet and we would give them lots of publications But it wasn't until we took a picture of people sitting in their cars outside of libraries It wasn't until we took pictures of people sitting in McDonald's late at night to do their homework Did we peak the interest of some some people and I say that because I think we you know, it takes all of it It's it's yes, and it's not one or the other And so I think that we now that we know about these stories those those stories of seeing the the mother and the parking lot in the dark with the light on doing the homework You know it kind of propelled us forward It gave us a little bit more urgency to talk about that issue and we got together and we wrote the papers You know and we start to do that work And I think it's you know more of those stories are necessary because this this issue is going to change right when we fix one thing Whether it's a more robust infrastructure whether it's more access to devices and literacy training There's something new is going to pop up because just like water and electricity and other utilities, you know It's it's it's something that we're going to continue to need to work on and protect and scale and sustain. Oh, yes Go right ahead. Thank you very much. My name is LaHona Chambers Lawson so one of the hats that I wear as I teach project management at UiW and One of the things that I always notice is that my students struggle Like sincerely struggle with but like actually wanting to be connected. It's not that they don't have the access They just don't want and it's it's I'm getting to a place now We're just like if you look around the room and I think we we saw this example epitomized just now Engaging multiple like different generations of Individuals is going to require for us to kind of be a little bit more innovative in terms of how we come together, right? So for example, we we're here right now, but a great example would be, you know, we're streaming live Okay, it there. I'm getting to a place now even with my own small business, right? I'm doing multiple different things. I did a poetry and wine for a cause now I'm doing a growth mindset talk and that's going to be Facebook live I'm trying to find different mediums to engage people, right? Because we're getting to a place where there's just so much information There's so much all the time, right? And it's kind of like okay So how do we connect and get out of silos and try to find ways to address those human rights and civil rights issues that are still Very pointed till the state, right? It's hard to have those conversations with different people that don't think the way that we think Because it's very hard to figure out how to tap into them So it's like I think we just kind of have to challenge ourselves To be uncomfortable and find different innovative ways of just engaging people that ordinarily wouldn't show up, right? I Think it's success when one of my elderly relatives wants to look up Luis Miguel You know and wants to see that on a phone So it's I take success everywhere it comes, you know, hi This is Angelique with Goodwill San Antonio. So I just wanted to share About some of the work that we have done about the the theme So when we the question I believe of the talk right now was why now and about a great point mobility so You know our experience in in our career centers where we welcome about 15,000 Individuals annually following the work of the digital inclusion alliance We started tracking data about the digital divide and we found out that about 40% of the clients that come to the centers today have Have disconnected and do not have the skills to be able to use a computer device So those individuals if they usually come to the good care center is because they have some sort of challenges to employment So they are the the individuals that we are targeting to try to achieve that upward mobility So they can sustain themselves and their families. So when we think about why now? I think it's important that the digital divide also touch about all the other aspects So usually people who are disconnected that people who have a low education of a low education Attentment there are individuals who are in unstable housing Individuals who have previously been incarcerated and have not been disconnected from those tools for a long time so when when we think about the the digital inclusion and a Point mobility, I think it's really about How we're gonna be able to address the digital divide within that context of the other barriers that those individuals affected by the divide are facing Because it's not a usually it's not all Being able to provide them with the connectivity all the skills is not necessary We're gonna be sufficient to bring them to that upward mobility and it's unfortunately never a straight path there They are often again those individuals face a lot of other challenges that require a systematic Output from our community on how we're gonna address housing how we're gonna address Education so they so they can leave themselves up. So I just wanted to share that and Why now because we need you need every every one of everyone in this room It's a it's definitely a systematic approach for our community. Thank you Thank You Angelique and I was just gonna address to what my friend the professor from IUW Mentioned and that is Economic justice is social justice is civil rights Rosy Castro Wanted me to speak at our leader of the lake with the 50 year anniversary with the anniversary of the civil rights hearings yes, and Because she recognizes that this is a civil rights issue and that economic justice is social justice We we would be I think we would be wrong if we would separate as if that's not exactly what we're talking about We're exactly talking about inclusion and creating inclusive Systems right if you're not included in our economic system, then we're failing if you're not included in our social system One more question or comment and then we're gonna wrap it up. Thank you so much. Hi I just heard one of the speakers say something about how economic justice is intertwined with social justice and this is Related to my question and thank you for having this conference. I'm happy to be here My name is Maley Carolyn. I am owner of a consultancy called engage between can you hear me? All right My name is Maley Carolyn. I'm owner of a consultancy named engage between and I'm always looking for Incentives for people to invest in people in my training work. I tell people that In organizations people are your best technology Right and again always looking for ways to underscore the value of people a lot of folks I experience feel and want to invest in that human potential and When it comes to making decisions This is not the decision that is made unless it intertwines like the moderator was speaking about with that economic bottom line value Right. I'm looking for new or nuanced ways to help underscore the value of people in this whole inclusion process What do you have to share and even any one of the audience as well? It's fundamental to why we're doing this work I think because we know that we're talking about technology about infrastructure things like that right engineering Details we're talking about Investing in people that is precisely what we're talking about and the challenge of our time that I talked about a little earlier is just that how do we in The face of this technology and this opportunity that it offers how do we become more human? How do we use our that the the data? Panel was really talking about that. How do we analyze data? not Just use you know cognitive computing and let it spit out an answer for us but really animal be able to analyze that data and be and be analytical right and About it. So so I think the very the very essence if if if we haven't communicated that well about the digital divide It is about investing in people and that's actually how I talk about it What for example when I'm training banks In in closing the digital divide under the Community Reinvestment Act They're gonna be doing some real you know financing of broadband infrastructure. They're gonna support training programs and so forth What what they they need to understand and what we talk about very directly is you're actually investing in people people that have not Have been under invested in right so that sort of answers your question. I'm just gonna add something really quick. So I would say Technology is a tool, right? And so some really cool things I've seen lately are the integration of virtual reality and augmented reality into training And so I'm not a technical person, right? I don't necessarily know how to do that But that's been interesting to me because I think until you can Actually have people stand in someone else's shoes and experience what they experienced are not gonna care, right? And I don't want to necessarily Keep having students say their same stories and this is what it's happening And we don't have the money and we don't have the infrastructure like that's not fair to those students or those populations to keep saying the same story and having to Educate people over and over and over and find the data over and over I think to some extent we have to be more creative in how we put people in other people's shoes So I think when you look at you know unconscious bias training when you look at Work place harassment training all these things are changing because people have become a little Desensitized to all those issues, but they're important issues And so I would say you know make friends in the technology committee in the community with engineers with developers with software developers with Folks in computer science departments in schools and say hey, I'm trying to communicate this how would you do it, right? If somebody wasn't understanding it How would you do it and then see what that answer is because I think a lot of times? We think we have the answers, but we're not giving people an opportunity to help us get outside of our box a little bit So that would be the only thing I would I would suggest Thank you so much for joining us today and thanks for inviting me Amanda Deanne and Jordana have a wonderful afternoon Nice to meet you. Oh great. I'm with education service in a region 20 Yes, no doubt You do I Know I'm gonna get up to Okay Are we ready for a second anything connecting? Okay, we're gonna start in a few seconds here folks So hi everyone. My name is just a little us It's a long one, but it's on my label Um Our panel is gonna be educating and upscaling San Antonio using public and private partnerships Um, and our panelists are pretty great so far. So I'm gonna let them do a brief intro each Because we are running a little behind on time. So when you're a do you want to go ahead and start us? I can pass because I was in the panel before again My name is Muneeta Jester and I manage the the connect home program with the San Antonio housing authority So I have been lucky to be working under inclusion for four years right now So this it's just like my dream come true like everybody knows what disinclusion is and trying to understand and and It's not an issue that love people do your what like, you know People are owning and San Antonio is really on taking off in those terms. So I'm super happy to be here. Thank you Hi, I'm rave Schaefer. I'm from education service center region 20 coordinator for strategic partnerships and innovation And I serve this as the San Antonio stem council chair and a co-lead on the stem steam ecosystem Jake Lopez executive consultant to say stomach. We have several partnerships with Saha Mune today as well as with Rave and region 20 And in addition, I work with a lot with workforce and career technology education Hello there. Good afternoon. My name is Ray fang and I'm the dean of academic success for Palo Alto College Responsible for the professional and technical education division Which includes a number of programs including computer science and IT Hence our interest in the digital divide Let's kick off with Boone. Um, can you tell us? Oh, sorry. She does have a presentation ready for us So just so real quick because I know kind of tried to the presentation before I just I just put those numbers there So we can share a little bit more what Saha does and who do we serve and that's our community The thing that I want to focus right there is the Well, the different one that we provide housing and creating communities for for our Residents not only to public housing like right the communities that we have throughout the city So San Antonio housing authority. We have over 70 public housing property so we're one of the largest housing property in the country and The median income of our household is it's about 12,000 a year so and then 89% of our residents are single mothers with you know young kids at home So you can see that our residents really need Us to have this conversation really need for us to you know collaborate with the different organizations to help them and use and The housing authority used housing as a platform really to help them to become self-sufficient So then you know Jordana talked a little bit more about the stats, you know One in six households in San Antonio do not have a computer One in four do not have internet access And now we are the 17 worst connected city in the country. So a Lot of the people we were talking about the digital divide are our residents. They're in our community So I just want to take this in this time to say thank you for all the partners and everybody That's here and really trying to engage with us and help provide services in our community because we couldn't you know Do anything without you? So I'm gonna skip a lot of this but that's the tracks and and again we have different partners and different strategies So it's part of connect home. We know that providing literacy training Computers and connectivity. It's digital inclusion. We got we got we got you know Everything cover providing the three legs of the stool for digital inclusion, but then if we talk what's next? So we have a lot of residents that are connected a lot of residents that went through the training and they have some Digital skills, but then we're looking okay moving forward What can we do to for them to use those tools as tech? those tools to to further in their career path and their education and I think that's where the you know, the rest of the speak on On that that they need the basic infrastructure, but it doesn't end there Essentially, that's what I want to say like once you have a computer and have the skills and the connectivity They still a lot that we need to do to make sure that people fully digital they include it There's a connect home, but I want to just share this is a picture of our team We have some new team members and some have left us and Too big about opportunities, but I want to share this is our digital ambassadors and you might see some of them So we have mr. Marvin Lampkin Lampkins over there. So he's a retired veteran He provides he is one of our residents and he is a digital ambassador He works tirelessly going to every community with our trainer to help provide training and tech support Because we should talk about that digital inclusion You want to provide a computer and you have the skills people need help with tech support? And that's always you know if anybody does tech support and want to talk to me Please I love to to chat with you because it's a huge need and we have some more of our digital ambassadors There when you guys are checking in there are residents that we provide extra training and extra service and we marry The program is our workforce development. So our digital investors they are learning how to they have their own project plan They go to the different sites and provide the help provide training. They provide tech support They go through the refurbished computers So we're really trying to use the ecosystem of digital inclusion and an Expendable one step further to see how can you include workforce development and education and all the other great stuff I know I I wanted to go through this presentation just real quick and just two more minutes To talk about Castiano homes So Castiano homes is one of our largest property on the east side. I'm sorry the west side West side of San Antonio and we we have 499 units there. So some of our units that has apartments are Three four five bedroom apartments. So it's a large multifamily Property that if you put on the map The Emily have you know provided to us that we're they're on the wrong side of the divide. So San Antonio housing authority Looked at like let's be creative. How can we Innovate that's what I remember Jordan. How can we innovate and reaching low income low and moderate income residents in terms of providing broadband. So The Mozilla Mozilla Foundation put out a challenge calling agencies to Let's be innovative how you connect people to the internet So we're so lucky and I brought that to our T directors like a we got to talk about this So you got to jump in and got to figure it out. So our team Department, you know, we was meeting to cast a year, you know talking about this We decided to create the solar match network is essentially just Wi-Fi Equipment powered by solar panels that allows us to you know, bring those equipments to a property like Cassiano, which is blocks long. So this is our entire property And then you see the green dots there those those existing solar panels And we're figuring out like once we have the solar panels and the poles We can put Wi-Fi equipment, but we can also put security cameras. We can put lighting So there's a lot we can do when you've been creative or when you just put in lighting You can put Wi-Fi equipment to help us expand the connectivity So this is what essentially the solar pole kind of looks like so it's the solar and then the Wi-Fi equipment are attached to the boxes and It's part of this The Mozilla Challenger was we had to create an open-source solution that was sustainable and you could And it was also like we actually create a prototype that's on wheels because we want to so like any property We can actually put a pole and actually connect to to the the bandwidth and you know light up the community So I So our challenge right now is bandwidth So we have the equipment, you know one solar pole cost us I think was like less than $2,000 to put together and we purchase everything with using Amazon everything and Less than $2,000 so it could be really affordable and sustainable But our challenge is the bandwidth so where do we get the connectivity so we can get the bandwidth and essentially beam out the connectivity throughout the the neighborhood so Again partners, I keep asking right for people like hey if you have computers if you have bandwidth But it means but that's what really what he takes when we talk about due to inclusion, right? It's the partnerships and so looking forward what we so Missing a slide, but so we will enter this challenge. It was 90 organizations throughout the country They entered the challenge for the Mozilla the total price was a half a million dollars and There's 90 organizations. We're the only housing authority. We moved on to this the final stage There were seven organizations that essentially presented the prototype and we won third place So a couple months ago a guy we were able to say we won third place And we got a hundred thousand dollars to help us create this solar mesh network So what I'm telling you this is that yeah Is that you know, this is what a dn was talking about You know next summit and what we want to see I want to see how we're more of the creative ways that you guys in your Organization is already doing to bridge the digital divide like I want to talk I want to hear more about what all the organization all the city and all the housing authorities are doing creatively to solve This problem right now our creative resolution is the solar mesh network and we are really looking for partners organizations school districts non-profits church that do have bandwidth and One is rather that we're looking right now. It's called bandwidth sharing It's a concept that if you if your organization have a building or have a connectivity close enough to our communities If you don't use your Wi-Fi on the weekend or in the evenings We can actually put Equipment on top of our our rooftops that we can capture some of your connectivity and bring me down So if anybody wants to share bandwidth go to talk to me You know, so it's just again is just a creative solution to really help our residents be connected because they are the most affected by the digital divide and And you know, so bandwidth donations, so I will stop here because I already talked too much, but thank you guys Okay, so a little bit more from Jake My name is Jake Lopez executive consultant to say stomach and I apologize my my slides are not as fancy as moon today's So I just have a lot of pictures on there, but I'll let you know I Don't wear it. I guess I'm on the other side of the digital divide. I can't even work this So what we want to do is try to help close a digital digital divide as moon today mentioned they get these homes or these certain pop populations Connectivity they give them internet access Wi-Fi etc. Now, what do we do? What's a stomach what we want to do is help develop a workforce and we have to start them young getting a Interested in education the career paths and the correct courses to take So how do we do that? We do that with partnerships We do that with corporate Partnerships to help fund these programs and we've been a partner with Saha with moon today and some of their programs there to offer these Programs to their students that live in these housing projects or housing components real quick in this in the stem pipeline eight right now about 80% of the careers that are offered regardless of its middle skilled whatever technology need There's going to be some type of stem component and if you notice Coming this upcoming year right now freshman We have over 4 million freshmen in high schools right now as we speak By the time they graduate that graduating class they're going to drop 30% and that's a national average How many of them are going to choose a stem career path? Another 34% drop there Then you're going to see how many students are not eat can't even pursue that college plan because they're not college ready I mean they don't have the correct math courses the correct science courses They have to start at basic levels and in order for them to graduate is going to take them six years or more So they end up dropping out Then out of that you're down to use we started out at four million. We're down to two hundred and seventy seven thousand that choose a stem major and By the time they graduate we're down to five percent out of the four million students that we had So again, how do we curb that we curb that by partnering with entities such as Saha and other corporate? partnerships So those workforce needs a lot of the workforce that we grew up with they were known as blue collar like my dad and my parents they Work they're actually doing some manufacturing hands-on and building Well those careers today have changed and a lot of the students aren't aware of that Because they're afraid it's so much it that they don't want to go to school for but they're really called workforce needs What this guy is doing here? He's programming that exact same machine to do the exact same job except He's programming a computer to do it instead of him doing it by his hands So the blue collar jobs are now changing into gray collar jobs And that's what we want to prepare these students for by closing that digital divide So as I mentioned Right now eighty percent of the middle skilled workforce that is does not even require a degree just a high school diploma Need some kind of digital proficiency In the next five years those skills or those jobs are going to increase by almost five percent Non-digital proficiency jobs are going to be decreasing over the next five years by almost two percent So we want these students To be aware of these careers and we want to prepare them for those for those careers Now you may ask yourself self I've heard of stem different of the ways I've heard it with an extra M I've traveled all over the nation and I've implemented stem programs everywhere if you go to the Panhandle of Florida They'll have an extra M for stem and that stem stands for medical If you go to Ohio that extra M stands for manufacturing. So it really depends on where you are I think we've all heard of steam a up in New York, New Jersey is really big with the arts but if you go to Where was Iowa? It's actually for agriculture. They're actually like drones They're actually programming tractors to do the crops now today. That's what they're doing so all that to say that a lot of kids are intimidated by the stem component and what can I do as I mentioned all you need a stem STEM You see it in cosmetology today. Look what look what they're doing. I mean, I have a lot of experience in cosmetology. You can tell They're doing in the culinary. There's a lot of stem going on in those kitchens So in every job you can think of there's stem and we have to help these students understand that and again We do that by forging partnerships with other nonprofit entities corporates corporations to your colleges for your colleges etc and like I said mine isn't as fancy as moon a day so I apologize about that and So I kind of wanted to touch on a little bit of what he said earlier You're losing students through dropout rates But what are some of the ways that you're trying to keep them on revay like you're what that's your kind of? Yeah, absolutely So what's really important about the message that Jake shared is that there are multiple on ramps to a viable career Right here in San Antonio and so empowering parents and students with those multiple on ramps is really important We've come from and all maybe all of us in this room probably had the same messages from our parents that College college is the way you've got to go to college. You've got to go to college And while that's a really really really important message college right now may not be the answer for all students So there are possibilities where students might have Certification and be able to pay their way through their education at a two-year or a four-year institution So it's really important to know what are the possible ways that I could earn the kind of education I need for the job I want to do and part of that the job I want to do part is educating students and parents about what's available right here in San Antonio the jobs that my husband And I do today were not jobs Two years ago, so it's really important to understand what your own strengths are So as students how does students understand what they're passionate about what they're really good at and how that aligns with Where they want to be when they grow up so that they can connect potential career options to the life They'd like to lead and how they want to get there the pathway part of that conversation is probably the hardest thing to Articulate because it's different depending on what kind of job a student wants to do and what they have to get there I mean I went to a magnet high school and I feel like we were gonna be I was supposed to be a doctor that didn't happen but I think being able to afford that Like variety to like sure you might not like this, but like Jake said there's culinary there's agriculture There's art, so there's plenty of ways just being digitally connected could do that for you And then to bring it back to dr. Ray or professor Ray You know college might not be for everyone that is true, but What are some of the ways? Palo Alto is Pursuing these partnerships with people that can help Yes, that's a very good question. I must say that a yes indeed It's true college is not meant for everyone and that's okay So at Palo Alto we recognize that and my faculty and staff they recognize that too and we have a very strong partnership with the ISD's and the high schools in the form of early college high schools, so we serve About 10,000 students of which 30% of them come from early college high schools That's from the high schools the ISD's and dual credits So that's a very significant amount of students from high and middle schools now So what's the message that we try to get out to them the message we try to get out to them is this That it is all right for you not to go to college if you so choose not to There are other noble ways here to To to be a useful citizen and that is through the vocational trade or some of the stem stem programs like agriculture Horticulture which lies within my division and cosmetology too, which also is a stamp Subject so that's what we try to tell the advisors At the high schools and also we try to reach out to the parents to make it clear that you know if your children So choose not to go down the four-year transfer route. That is okay You know choosing the vocational traits or the technical education for steam or stem That too is fine and as an institution. We try to facilitate that by giving the students the option by making it Accessibility so we as an institution We've tried very hard to make sure that students have access to the resources that we offer So in terms of learning in storm in terms of a student success in terms of a your employment and equity So we have been recognized by the Espen Institute based in Washington DC as One of the top ten community colleges in the whole of the United States of America Doesn't that deserve applause Thank you. Thank you so much. So under the leadership of our Chancellor Mike floris and our president Robert Garza, we are continue to try to bridge those those barriers that prevent our students from getting access to what they deserve in other words training and Education and one of that too is the digital divide over here And we're trying to work in partnership in tandem not only with the early college high schools But also with industry each of our program has got what we call an advisory committee That is made up of people from industry and so companies They populate the advisory committees and their job is to take a look at our curriculum to make sure that number one It's up to date. It's cutting edge. It's relevant and it suits the needs of the companies that we serve here in a local community So they play a very important role and they too Recognize the need for training and certifications like you mentioned earlier on so certificates are becoming more important in my experience Compared to what we were always keen on and that is the associates degree Which is equally important and statistics show that if you have an a you're more likely to stay in employment longer Compared to those who've only just got a GED but as time has changed and given the changes in a In technology and in the workforce Certification is becoming increasingly important and in demand Compared to a a and what's the benefit of certificates? Certificates are Beneficial in that they take a shorter time for the students to achieve So in a nutshell many of the students that we serve over 50% They are come from social economic disadvantage Divide so it's the same with the the population that you serve in the housing authority So we're in the same boat We want to see what we can do to bridge that so that students get trained properly Professionally and the rep around services that we as an institution offer. Thank you Thank you. Um, so when we talk about building Partnerships, how do you make each group attractive to you know the targets in the Microsofts of the world to be able to I Mean is it are you going through foundations and connecting that way and in grant writing or is it how do you activate that at all? Grants grants. Yeah grants play a very important role And that's what our precedent is is is focusing on now raising funds and all the funds that we do that we get grants that we apply for Go towards in the year investment in education and training for our students as well as the equipment. So I think in terms of working with partners the foundations to which we approach as well strategically Intentionally, I think the important thing that we've learned so far is Creating awareness and being intentional in your approach So it can't be a scattergun approach or or something that is speculative, you know But it has to be intentional so creating the awareness of this digital divide for example is key To to to connecting them with the right people who want to put their money where their mouth is who also then therefore see That there is a need to invest so what we are talking is about Relationships that are long-term and that takes time and then investment which requires a certain amount of Overthought and strategic planning for those who want to give they need to know too That there is a need and that if they put the money there that goes to the long-term investment of our local community Which is a win-win for the common good? I wanted to add a little something to that because I think a critical point and in San Antonio We're learning this across the nation now that we're part of a national Network of STEM ecosystems is that it's the relationships in San Antonio that are different from other Communities that make us really unique in how we work together So the fact that we all have access to one another the fact that a chamber would be sitting across the table from an ISD and An ISD would be sitting across a table from an industry member that is a really special and unique relationship in San Antonio So that's one of the things that we're learning is that we're a little farther ahead and jaked in a lot of that research too in the Ecosystem where we are far ahead and we are Closely connected so having long sustainable relationships is really really critical But the other thing I think we can always lift up in this community is our ability to collaborate and cooperate and to be less Competitive so we've talked about it every panel I think we've had 12 people up here and all 12 people have said How they've leveraged resources or are calling to action to leverage those resources So when we do what we do and we live in our strength and we bring our strength to the table across partners We find a way to use those collectively to do more for more people And so I think that's a critical thing coming from a place of yes in this community is really consistent It's not always healthy, but it it's pretty consistent in this community So when we come from a place of yes We are more likely to have resources to leverage to raise up some best practices and scale out net I guess so that I'll just put a plug in for the disinclusion alliance because I think we talk about partnership and collaboration We I think we we all want a partner. We all want to work together, but sometimes I feel like we don't have the framework So I feel like creating the framework and creating We know I don't know the program model the logic model that will allow for different organizations to step in at different times So as a housing authority, we're really good at providing housing, right? So as connect home we're doing the Wi-Fi and connecting people and working with T-Mobile And and in all the different partners to help on that end But when it comes to workforce development, we have our programs But as connect home, it's I'm gonna talk just about my program is connect home I don't have the expertise or the resources to do workforce development So that's like when partnerships of goodwill was so essential because that's what they do They'll workforce development and they have the track record and they have all you know everything that backs up So for for me it was really Super helpful to to connect with Angelique and the goodwill is I like hey How can we expand digital literacy and create the member of the tracks are showing you workforce development and entrepreneurship? I don't have to do that part I have a partner that we can work together and apply for grants together and create this framework that it kind of it's a Pipeline and and we can refer some people to go to goodwill and get the nurse assistant certification and Administrative assistant assistant so again what they do with those the the technology in the digital divide will provide the tool But I think the partnership is really going to provide that the impact that we were looking for I guess I have to say something else so The way we go about partnerships is Through foundations and grant writing and like dr. Fang said, you know, we're there's data that you need You can't just say hey, we want to be offer something cool for the kids. You have to have specific data So for example with our program we target Students that are in lower socioeconomic situations We don't exclude any students but about 85% of our students are designated as lower socioeconomic in addition to a lot of the STEM Fields they tend to be very male dominated So we have a minimum of 50% female participation in all of our programs and because of some of that data that we can track More corporations are interested in partnering with us So what we don't have is we don't have the students So for example in the summers a lot of students my kids for example I can afford to pay them pay for them to go to a summer camp a lot of moon today's kids at at their housing units Do not have that availability or The resources to do that so we go out and offer those summer camps those STEM camps for them by partnering with a Corporate entity who can fund it and then partnering with Saha to get the students to participate in the program Um You mentioned the 50% minimum. I mean is it harder to? Attract that audience or how where are you going to meet them? Yes, initially, and I think it really starts an elementary For whatever reason I my daughter was is very good that she's done engineering camp She's very good at it, but then she says she doesn't like it I think it's maybe kind of a maybe bully mentality of the boys network So what we've done to overcome that is we've actually had all girl camps Probably in about fifth or sixth grade and by the time they get to seventh grade We then immersed them with the males and by that time they've built enough confidence to Shrug the males off and to be honest. I've seen a lot of these projects The female stuff is actually cooler than the guy stuff to be honest. I Think you hit a really important point there confidence I mean when you're trying to bridge that digital divide and provide these things to people You're not just trying to make them Know how to log on but be confident that they'll be able to go from plan A to B to C And they'll find these things on their own any I think that's that's a very good point you make what we're trying to teach them is confidence, right? So in our student population in Palo Alto is 60 percent 60 percent of them are girls so which is a good thing the guys you're letting the side down, but that's okay But when we teach skills like you say in terms of confidence and so on what we also doing is teaching them the soft skills The soft skills that many of us employers are looking for so that includes civility You know how you're civil towards those that you meet teamwork. So when you are in a team, you know They are they are both, you know male females and how do you get along? How should you treat you're taking you're teaching them respect, you know, so these these are the sort of when you say confidence Implicitly you're also talking about skills social skills, and you're also talking about things like values You know what are the values that you should have as an individual as a student as a member of society or the workforce? that you you choose to go into the industry that you choose to go into and The company that's going to employ you and going to engage you and a kind of a contribution that you're going to make So, you know, what about that and also leadership skills? So I think those are very important things to consider for educators when we try to bridge the digital divide And actually what it also means looking beyond just the infrastructural Your barriers that might be there and how we try to bridge that what we bring to the table These are all the sort of other things that we should be thinking about that's the point I want to make wrapping up here any questions for the folks on partnerships They've made or how to keep a healthy partnership any other questions period you guys nailed it. Yeah Or we need a coffee break, but yeah for being here with us and you can find them all at the happy hour after Turn it over to her Come forward so that the panelists won't be lonely Bring your coffee stay away do it do a few jumping jacks Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. I think we're gonna go ahead and get started My name is Trisha Swannison and I'm the associate editor at the business journal With us today, we have Gabriel Garcia the senior counsel for CPS energy and a board member of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors we have Clarissa Ramon with she's the community impact manager for Google Fiber We have Michael Kennedy the government account manager with T-Mobile and we have Laura Cabanilla She's the vice president for community development with Wells Fargo So our topic today is the future of digital inclusion from home-based broadband access to making lasting change And we have want to have a discussion today about Community impact civic engagement and last mile solutions for shoring up the digital divide so I'd like to start actually with Gabriel if you don't mind could you explain to us the background of the issue and Why we are where we are as a city So we are where we are because in order to have broadband connectivity You have to have infrastructure and so it is really the nature of the infrastructure that determines the amount of connectivity that you have in in your city I Prepared a few slides in order to in order to provide kind of a strategy of how how to analyze a Situation for any city as to how can how can a city move forwards? What is the role of the city in trying to bridge the digital divide? I think I'm gonna stand up because I can't see the sure the slides So there's some fundamental questions that that one wants to ask in terms of this issue the first one is Infrastructure related to infrastructure You know has the private sector deploy fiber infrastructure in the community all the answer in San Antonio is yes In fact, we have a panelist on on on this panel who is with one of those companies? the next question is Capacity do local communications networks have adequate broadband capacity and that is an issue of How how much is the broadband how fast? And again in San Antonio, we do have companies that provide pre robust broadband The next question is usage. What is the broadband adoption usage profile of the community? Essentially is your community using broadband services and here's where you start getting into the digital divide issue because certain low-income neighborhoods are not going to you essentially you'll find that there's much lower usage than in than in other neighborhoods so that's an important kind of Question in terms of understanding the needs of the community the next one is so so what is the role of the local government? And so in order to address that you have to ask what is the appropriate government role in expanding broadband access and He's really identifying where the gaps are What are those neighborhoods where where there is not robust usage and? then and Then that's where you really get into what we're here for digital inclusion which includes Trying to expand network coverage digital literacy and then affordable access and one thing to To point out I think we've heard here before already that the goal for the community with regards to broadband it's not the technology in itself, but really it's just a means to an end and There's been plenty of discussion this morning with regards to that so this Diagram kind of Sets out Everything that I said already So any given community in terms of developing a community strategy the first thing they're going to determine is So is do we have connected? Do we have infrastructure? if you have partial infrastructure then That needs to be expanded if you have no infrastructure then it needs to be built that That right there will Help any local government in determining The size of the problem if you will and then from there everything kind of flows from there You know what what role what what what issues should a government play in terms of digital inclusion? programs well the first thing that they need to do is to understand how Broadband is being used in the community and the way to do that is to do an assessment And then once you once you know that then you know where your target audience is and Then you use your program some of which already exist with local governments or with nonprofits to target those areas those communities and You integrate that into economic development as again as some other speakers have discussed so that's kind of the strategy for any local government in terms of Trying to address what is the role of a local government in digital inclusion? Okay, so with that as our background Could each of our panelists please tell us your role in the digital inclusion alliance and What your organization's goals are? Hello. Hi everyone. My name is Clarissa Ramon, and I am a community impact manager for Google fiber here in San Antonio How many of you have heard of Google fiber? All right, cool. Okay. I always like to ask that question And the second question the first question I usually get after I say that is like well when are you coming to my neighborhood? So I lead external affairs for fiber here in San Antonio I work closely with the Alliance or have worked closely with the Alliance in the past And I also lead our local field cell strategy And so I think later on in this discussion We'll get to some of those learnings and reactions we get from different areas in terms of our product offering and the Reactions to a gig the appetite for a gig But pertaining to this question Google fiber officially announced it was coming to San Antonio in 2015 There was a we had an event We were very excited and it became a race to get to as many residents as we could in San Antonio with a standalone home fiber product Since then we've experienced a pretty fair amount of challenges both externally with The disruptive nature of our business. We are physically building a standalone fiber network. We don't use the city's fiber. We don't partner with other providers and so there was a lot of surprise from the community when it came to seeing our construction crews in their neighborhoods and not necessarily understanding our time our brand to the very real disruption they were feeling and we also had a lot of internal changes and When I first joined the team, it was all about scale We were in conversations with dozens and dozens of cities across the country And now we've really decided to pivot and focus on a few select markets San Antonio being one of them and Because the markets that we serve are also different our strategy to with regards to digital inclusion has also varied We have different product offerings in different markets. We've experimented with different affordable product offerings From providing free gigabit service to housing authorities in certain markets to launching Offer more affordable lower tier products and we've taken all those learnings and we're kind of continuing to Learn those lessons share best practices out and see how we can really show up and be a good partner To the communities in the markets that we serve. So when it came to San Antonio I would say that San Antonio was a city with a lot of really robust digital inclusion actors Practitioners specifically the library certain nonprofits that were understood that this work was valuable, but hadn't really Connected in a way that you see today through this alliance And so I'd like to think that we were a part of the development of the alliance and that we really look to Communities to inform us of the strategy locally and it's really important for us to show up as a partner and listen to other folks And just really provide resources where we can so we leverage Dollars and act as a funder in some spaces and other times It's providing best practices or sharing learnings from what's worked in other markets So we're really here to listen and to learn and to usually compliment the work that's already happening So in just the past two years since of the alliance has developed it's been really amazing to see the tremendous amount of growth all the conversations and The formulation of what I think will be a very very strong digital inclusion plan And so I'll stop there to give Michael a chance to chat That that's essentially kind of in a nutshell where what the role we've played so far and in the alliance to date Hi, good afternoon. My name is Michael Kennedy I'm a government account manager with T-Mobile and my primary role is to support all of our public sector and government customers cities counties municipalities school districts You know in South Texas and so San Antonio is my hometown and you know Have a lot of passion around helping with the initiative of bridging the digital divide Very very hot topic. So, you know really focusing a lot of our attention in some of the key areas in the education space You know providing some grant programs to some of the school districts for student connectivity initiatives is a really big priority of ours as well as participating in programs like connect home to provide connectivity for local housing authorities and so on so Just you know really excited about, you know, really what the connectivity age is bringing to the forefront and you know Bridging that digital divide is such a hot topic at this point where mobile Excuse me mobile communication and wireless technology is becoming a big part of that So it's really exciting to be be part of this and thank you all for having us. I Have been an informal advisor to the Alliance and continue to do that Short and sweet And good afternoon everyone my name is Laura Cabanella I'm vice president community relations and the community development officer for Wells Fargo here in central, Texas and Because of the work that a lot of partners have been working on these last few years in particular You know with Lila Pau She's now with Liz San Antonio a few years ago her and I had a couple of different conversations about the city's priorities And where the city was focusing on and we know for a lot of our low to moderate income Areas and households. There's a lot of barriers that individuals have in order to be successful, right? Yeah, they're always gonna be looking for a job. But what what opportunities do they have there's transportation issues? There's childcare issues And now you're bringing in the mix of internet and broadband You see internet as an issue for Education now in the lower grade levels Kindergarten first grade they're now using apps to play games. And so when you talk about how to take this into the neighborhoods and how To allow our public housing properties similar to what Mooney was presenting earlier And give them the an equal opportunity to have that education level. That's where we came in as a bank You know my job is to help understand the needs of the community To determine along with elected officials Partners such as these individuals here and and you guys in the audience What are the needs? And so we started digging a little bit and found that digital inclusion is gonna be a Need in the future we see that transitioning the bank where a lot more people who uses online banking by the way Almost everyone in this room who uses app banking? Right so imagine if you don't have a phone and you can't you can't bank with your phone You can't do your remote deposits. You can't transfer funds. You can't pay your bills So if you don't have that type of access at home growing up, there's a lot of unbanked customers that are out there There's still individuals that are saving their dollars and putting it under the pillow under the mattress put it in jars So how do we go out there and talk to them a little bit more about? The safeguard of having a bank The safeguard of saying, you know, we want to partner with you and help you financially And so that's how we we got invested in this partnership And it was more of understanding the needs with the city and the priorities were from a workforce development aspect Not a job creation, but a workforce development, right? Because a lot of times now more jobs are you have to go online and submit an application No longer are you going to be seeing a lot of paper applications. So in partnering with the San Antonio housing authority That's how we got into The digital inclusion Conversation and provided the initial grant for us to step into the conversation in 2016 for the amount of $75,000 for connect home to pilot who I see moving in the back me too. I'm the same way To see how we can help make a difference that are from an education standpoint, but Providing access if they go through the program and there's peer-to-peer learning then they receive some sort of device to take home And and go ahead and connect or the opportunity to come up with what they presented in California As as a mobile test to try and provide Wi-Fi connectivity For us it's trying to stay relevant in the community with community needs And so we're going to continue that conversation and see in the future how we can continue to support digital inclusion So Laura because you brought it up. I'd like for the panelists. Can you tell us why? The city needs a digital inclusion plan as part of their economic development plan. How do those two things work together? I'll go first Well as as I indicated in on this diagram over here the significant the significance of the city is Very important because the city can play a role that a lot of nonprofits cannot And also because it's really important And I think it's becoming even more important to integrate digital inclusion with economic development For a lot of the reasons that you're hearing in this panel and that you've heard already earlier in the day That is the key role that a local government can play that it's very difficult for other players in the community to play The other thing is that the city is also an entity that can bring together All of those profit and non-profit organizations that are doing something in this space because there's a lot of them Bring them together So that you can create alliances you can cooperate You can find answers to some of the questions that I that I mentioned earlier that that is That's why it's so important for for the local government to develop a Digital inclusion is not for the purpose or for the sake of just saying you have a plan It's about integrating it with economic development so that your citizens have economic opportunities based on access to technology again The infrastructure and the technology is a means to an end that end could be education That end could be a job that end could be coding that end could be being an entrepreneur Etc. It that's what that's what the digital inclusion plan and integrating with economic development for its a city So I'll say a couple of things First of all, I think it's helpful and that as a new provider to the market You're coming into a community that You might have some data about and we know what the data says about San Antonio We know that the digital divide here is Significant and it was actually not only San Antonio the biggest market that fibers committed to it Also had the greatest digital divide So we know that the plan that is developed by local stakeholders will reflect that Appropriately and then sort of set a baseline for us to work from and so I think it's important to have that guidance from not only the city But local stakeholders to let us know where can we have the most impact? We have a finite amount of resources whether that's through a product investment or through dollars I want to make sure that we're making the most of that investment and that we're putting it where it counts and where We can help move the needle And so I think we've received a lot of that guidance from local organizations We talked with the city a lot. We've talked to partners. We work closely with CPS and saws when it comes to our deployment But at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we are helping to move the needle forward and not necessarily Then makes it sort of going rogue right with what we might think is it might be more of a cookie cutter solution That might not appropriately reflect the needs of San Antonio So I think a plan is one of the many tools in a toolkit that a local community can have and it's really important I think we're getting there and just to set some context When we launched in Austin, Texas Austin, Texas was the second or third market the fiber committed to The city of Austin has an office of digital inclusion. There are full-time digital inclusion program managers there's a city funded fund for this work and so This work was able to sort of start at a different place and I'm not saying that they're better or we were worse, but Different cities have come at this from a different place other cities like Kansas City's developed digital inclusion coalitions and so those really help drive and direct us in a way that Again, San Antonio has been very helpful, but I think the more guidelines that you can provide With regards to this investment the better Just just one more point to add to the plan also helps provide Guidance for or removing barriers of entry for new providers or innovation to take place So there's a lot of things that come into play when trying to integrate new technologies and provide better You know bandwidth or capabilities as it relates to connectivity And so permitting and some of those things, you know can sometimes Create, you know significant delays so partnership with the city I think is is is a very important piece of that and having that plan put together to make the process a little bit more Streamline and easier to navigate so that it can bring those resources to the community And I'll just plus one that because the the ability to innovate is is really really important especially as a new entrant and the city of San Antonio has been incredibly helpful and flexible and allowing us to stretch in Different directions and we've been able to remain committed to San Antonio and reach Subscribers customers residents because of that flexibility, so I appreciate that you you brought that up Yeah, I think I just wanted to add it To what glidesa said right now in terms of partnerships Having you guys here attend and continue the conversation your data and your team is is very important because I'm sure Michael and glidesa you see from an enterprise-wide standpoint There's conversations of what happens in other markets and this may not be top of mind in a lot of different cities But like a city of Austin or a Kansas City it is for them And so I was in a chamber meeting a couple of months ago when the city manager presented The fiscal budget and a question came up. What about digital inclusion? What about access to broadband? That's not something that is in the budget. Is that something you're gonna come up with? If individuals are not keyed in to this information and they're not listening and having those conversations in some of these key meetings It may be it may not come up and so the more people that Talk to their council members talk to the city and say in the more partnerships that we have I'm taking off my Wells Fargo hat by the way I'm taking on but on my my south side first chair had To to have these type of conversations with key partners is important because you know in the area for The south side first that's south of highway 90. There's a lot of need in that area And you go into certain zip codes The unemployment rate is high. It's 14 percent 16 percent, right? Whereas overall city unemployment rate is what? 3.5 somewhere around that benchmark And so there's there's big pockets of need in different parts of the city So you still need to continue that advocacy work and and so I applaud you guys for for being here today And continue this conversation from the bank standpoint, you know We want to support that and obviously from a CRA standpoint You got a lot of other banks that want to support it as well So y'all have led perfectly into my next question, which I see the digital inclusion Alliance as part of the solution, but what other things can the city do to continue moving us forward? What where do we need to put our efforts to to close the digital divide? I'll go first Okay, well, it's already been said it has to be in the budget If it's not in the budget, it doesn't exist. That's really where the rubber meets the road. So It doesn't exist in San Antonio City budget today That's that means there is no digital inclusion planning for the city So where do we go? You go and talk to elected officials to make sure that next year and the year after that There is an office of digital inclusion that there are programs that are thoughtful about how to make that office meet the needs of the city and That this Area is in the budget That's really the bottom line I mean you that's really the bottom line You have to convince those that have the power of the purse That this is important and that it is a good investment for the city so I touched on this a little bit earlier, but um, I Would say the ability to really be flexible and open-minded when it comes to last mile deployment efforts so we again I mentioned we committed in 2015 and the the The methods of our deployment were what had worked for us in other cities And we learned very quickly in San Antonio that certain pieces of that plan were we're not the best strategy And so we took we took that internally We did a lot of thinking we did a lot of research and came back to the table with the city and said There's a method of deployment Called micro trenching it as a technique that's used in other dense markets and it basically is Way less disruptive It's cost-effective and it allows us to get in and out of neighborhoods much more quickly and the city was like Let's let's do our research. Let's get together and talk about this they gave us permission to do a pilot in November of last year and The pilot went really well and then we were given permission by the city council to scale that out that Sort of flexibility and open-mindedness was really really critical to the fact that I mentioned again that we're still here It allowed us to ramp up our deployment efforts start to provide service to residents and Essentially be another competitive provider, you know the original one of the original motivations for getting into this business was that as a country we pay a lot for broadband access high-speed access and in many markets There is a really a lack of competition and one is directly related to the other and so in every market that fiber has launched in Even before we provide service. We've seen competitors improve speeds and lower prices. So we know that there's an immediate value add to encouraging competition and being open to new entrants to the market and so I'd say that that sort of attitude is really really good for consumers at the end of the day and So I really can't state stress that enough, right? We're being open to and I'm sure Michael has some more thoughts on last mile deployment and the flexibility there, but It has been something that I can say in the over the past year We've seen the real impact and felt the real impact of that flexibility So just a couple of points so one To continue to think creatively to Clarissa's point and outside of the box to attack the problem And I think part of that also goes back to Gabe's point is is having a dedicated team That is there to to do that and having the budget for that team I think is a big challenge and you know It's just trying to tie all of those things together being innovative and trying to focus on the problem of The digital divide and where it's gonna impact the most of the community Or the greater part of the community is is really important in that piece. So Let me make one more point before I pass I'm not trying the city is investing in technology for example the library There is great connectivity in the library the point. I was trying to make and trying to make is that with regards to digital inclusion By not having that as part of a city You know line item It means that the nonprofit World is meeting that need and meeting that need in the community. So it's a decentralized model As opposed to a centralized model that could be And that's a great point because there's a lot of partners that are working on this, right? You have UTSA say stepping up with IT SA works and Scientist Economic Development Foundation looking to do some partnerships. You have Port Authority working on it So you have a lot of different folks that are working in different pockets But I think to Gabe's point you need somebody there on the top to help manage and maneuver and try and determine Where the next steps are and so I think we're there. I think people at the city understand that and they see and there may be Different individuals in different departments that are taking lead on different projects But you don't have a single point of contact as probably the question so to keep this conversation alive for next year That may be something to do Perhaps before the budget session as an opportunity to continue to advocate for digital inclusion So so while we you know work toward that and we look toward the future Can you tell us a little bit about some projects or some successes within your organizations that you feel are sort of fueling that? Momentum and at least keeping us on the on the path to digital inclusion so at CPS energy we have been working for the better of two years now with the wireless industry very carefully and thoughtfully in terms of Developing standards for small-cell equipment to be installed on our poles. In fact, CPS energy is is Leading the industry in terms of developing such standards. We're developing best practices that have already been adopted by other utilities the significance of this work is that When he comes to the deployment of next generation technologies like 5g They're they're gonna need to use utility poles And it's it's not just access to the poles for the small-cell equipment They also need fiber backhaul all of these small cell Mall cells require fiber to get back to to the company's network all of these Issues fall under pole attachments and you know, it's a topic. That's kind of boring But very very important in terms of deploying infrastructure So so in the last in the last two years or last two years CPS energy has developed a new set of Standards we have now pole attachment standards and they're available on our website to address both wire and wireless wireline installation so In effect what I'm you know see CPS energy and the city we we are ready for the deployment of small cells in our community so we Officially acquired signed up our first San Antonio resident in November of 2017. So we're approaching our first year anniversary and That is significant in a lot of different ways I think there was a lot of anticipation about where we would go who'd we would serve what our product mix would look like in San Antonio we experimented with a Single skew product so right now in San Antonio for certain residents are eligible to sign up for a $55 a month product stand alone for one gig of service thousand megabits up and down and That provided a lot of learnings for the business and it's been a very very Successful product. We've seen a lot of really good reception to that And I bring that up because it allows us to continue to build and invest in San Antonio So when it comes to digital inclusion, I really do believe that our best investments and partnerships are right in front of us They're ahead of us We needed to do some work to prove our business model internally and then also just prove to the city that yes We can do this right we can be less disruptive. We can get in and out of neighborhoods The road won't stay bumpy forever And and I think that we're there and so in in addition to that I think being part of the alliance part of these conversations and again funding projects like connect home SA youth co-jam Organizations that are really helping to cultivate that digital inclusion ecosystem it are also important to this work and so This has become a very interesting role because and one hand I'm very focused on our short-term deliverables and that's getting to as many neighborhoods in San Antonio as possible But in the long term we know that this issue is not going to be solved overnight, right? So we need to make these investments that maybe we're not going to feel in the short term but connecting those connecting the students that have been referenced to brought to broadband at home to providing laptops to making the The case for digital inclusion as an economic development issue all of these conversations that are happening in real time And they're they're conversations that we participated in so That that is that is where we are right now, and I'm just really really excited about 2019 2018 is almost over goodness But 2019 in the terms that like we've I feel really good about where we are as a business and our ability to scale in San Antonio So as you know T-Mobile, I mean we operate nationwide I'm gonna bring things back here to hometown San Antonio as it relates to impact to digital divide So we've worked hand-in-hand with a lot of organizations across the city to provide connectivity to economically disadvantaged families and students Primarily, we've worked with San Antonio Housing Authority as an official connect home partner at the national level to help them with connectivity for some of their folks Through the program that they have to provide digital literacy. So we're excited to be a partnership in that We've also partnered with several district organizations throughout San Antonio to provide Connected devices to students through a grant program that T-Mobile has That helps subsidize equipment cost and provide low-cost broadband Unlimited data connectivity to students that are economically disadvantaged that have no connectivity at home. So In addition to Gabe's point, I mean 5G is a hot topic in the wireless world right now You know as we start to Look to the future in what connectivity is going to do to help bridge everybody's lifestyle to how they like to communicate and Travel and do all of the things that they do day-to-day what that technology and communication is going to help them do 5G is going to be a very integral part of that But I think what what an important point to make now as it relates to digital inclusion in just broadband access is that the connectivity through a wireless network now as it stands is More than adequate as it relates back to the bandwidth and capabilities You know that most consumers would need to access digital content And so I think one important thing that that we try to do a better job at is the education To you know consumers as to what available resources are currently available You know and yes 5G is going to be great when it's here But the reality is is that what we're what we're needing to do is connect to the resources we have today and Available resources are out there. We just need to be able to communicate that to our our consumers Thanks, and just to talk about banking in general and thank you for Wells Fargo We continue to see and want to help serve our customers Whether they go in the branches or whether they visit us online Through their tablets through their phones and so virtual channels is going to be a big investment for us and will continue to be a big investment for us And into also provide that one-on-one Assistance to our customers in the branches, you know for students and for those that are older A lot of times that they got used to their banker and they want to go in but they're not used to Looking on their phone or developing an app or access in an app to do online banking So, you know number one we want to make sure our customers are financially sound and successful And number two for our customers in a community. We want to make sure that we're investing in the right projects You know so looking again with connect home talking to Project Quest they have an IT workforce a program that they've developed that we've invested in that so they can continue to serve the community Looking at the San Antonio ISD. We're providing grants to them To help support innovative grants to their teachers at the school district level You know, we were out at a few schools earlier this school year Giving out those mini grants and they were just to purchase tablets so they can access some technology To take into the classroom simple as that You know talking to the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation and looking at their overall strategy for technology and how that correlates to our local universities and then transitioning into our high pockets of Transition for Port San Antonio or Brooks, you know, how can we continue to support those Programs that the city has invested in so for us is being and staying connected to what the needs are and trying to look ahead and strategize along with partners as to What they think is needed so relationships is big for us If we can continue those relationships and have those conversations as to what your needs are That'll better help us serve our community And looking at the future and a couple of you have mentioned 5g. What what role do you see that playing in? the future for bridging the digital divide so Unfortunately, I I don't think that 5g is going to address the issue of digital divide and it might actually make it worse and let me explain but before Before that, let me try to explain what 5g is 5g is a set of two standards that have not been issued yet The first standard is a fixed wireless standard, which is to be released in 2019 and that is in order to have a true wireless broadband connection from a fixed point like a pole into a home That's the first part of the standard the second second part of the standard, which is to be released in 2020 is the ability for a broadband a heavy use broadband application to coexist with a very low use intermittent type of applications such as a sensor The significance of this is that once you have both of those standards in place after 2020 Now this wireless network will allow for the internet of things to really expand That's what 5g is about okay now with regards to what role will it play in terms of Meeting the digital divide We let's go back to fundamentals one of the basic fundamentals of deployment deploying networks is that In this country, there is no law that requires an ISP or a wireless provider To deploy their infrastructure Throughout an entire community They're going to deploy it where the market dictates essentially where you have demand and you have Subscribers that can afford the service That means that Based on market functions There's not going to be any incentive for any firm, you know firms private firms to deploy network in low-income Neighborhoods and that is why I say that it's likely that 5g is it's only going to make the problem worse So therefore that's going to leave it up to the wireless providers working with With local organizations as Michael explained already in order to meet that digital divide, but that's a voluntary You know activity They are not required by law to do so and The other thing to understand about these this these 5g frequencies is that they don't travel very far They will go essentially from the pole Depending on the particular frequency that there being that's being used maybe a couple of blocks, you know from that point so even if the equipment if the small cells are deployed close to a Low-income neighborhood that signal is not going to bleed into the low-income neighborhood so That's what 5g is. I hope it's demystified a little bit and We'll see we'll see we'll see how the deployments go, but Those standards are not have not been released yet. So there is no 5g yet some providers have Have deployed or are deploying kind of proprietary 5g standards, but that's not that's not what 5g is in the industry So we are focused first and foremost only right now on the fiber network and As you mentioned earlier, you need fiber. You need the backhaul to provide the 5g service So whether that comes from private the private sector or that's public fiber That's all to be determined The question of wireless has been something that is in this category I would put it in the category of innovation for Google fiber A couple of years ago. We acquired a small company in San Francisco called webpass and webpass was in is an internet service provider that basically They created a way to install nodes on different apartment buildings in the city of San Francisco and then essentially create a Wireless mesh network, so it's cost-effective and it helps service a lot of residents very quickly Now whether or not that's a project that will be scaled out to other markets is is TBD, but we don't necessarily see these two Forms of reaching the customer is like they're not conflicting, right? They're complementary. You need one to provide the other So while 5g is not necessarily like in our current business model it we know it's in the air, right? It's there's this where we're I guess to take a step back the moment in time that we're living in is Policy-wise 5g potential infrastructure bill. How do these things all fit together? What role does a private sector have to play so it is a question that we are thinking about and TBD on whether that wireless piece of our business model continues to get scaled out But when it comes to the fiber This is a long-term investment and I would say in a lot of the conversations I have with residents Presented a lot of homeowners associations for example, and I would like jump right into like this is the speed And we're gonna come in and we're gonna do this and then people would be like They'd be like one person in the back that would be like well, so what are you like fiber? Why and I'm like, oh, okay? let's start there and One of the big bigger questions I get was like why fiber like why are you investing in this? What isn't there gonna be something else that's coming out right behind you? That's gonna be the next big thing and then by the time you've done with fiber You're gonna be coming back with something else and my response was no actually fiber is it? You know this is what we need to invest in to future proof of community and prepare them for The things that come after that so whether that's wireless Or other competitors and small-cell technology is coming it's here And how that will scale out who that will impact is I think is all under currently under consideration So we're watching that conversation closely, and I think that there's an opportunity there for partnership I don't necessarily see it as like a competition So gave it a great job of kind of bringing all that you know to an understanding on 5g So there's a lot of things that are going on from a technological perspective spectrums perspective millimeter wave perspective there's a lot of a Lot of new changes that are gonna take place But how much they will up you know impact or affect The average consumer You know is not what everybody thinks it's gonna be yes It's gonna provide better capacity faster speeds But it's more about the efficiency of the network and ultimately that efficiency is gonna tie back to to Gabe's point The internet of things and the sensors and things that are gonna be coming about you know You hear a lot of talk about smart home connected home That is really what is gonna be impacted You know the greatest by the 5g development and the push for 5g technology now that being said as a wireless provider, you know our strategy is to Have two networks coexisting for g lte in addition to 5g technologies so that again they can Impact specific things for specific customers, but I think one thing that 5g will do is it is gonna bring greater Competition, you know there's been some discussion around some of the other broadband You know providers in San Antonio and and there being a limited number of providers 5g is going to open up that marketplace to provide More options for the average consumer which in turn will ultimately bring down the cost and that's exciting When you think about having a wireless provider like t-mobile to be able to come into your home and provide you an unlimited data connection You know for a much more cost-effective price than what you would see with someone like a spectrum as an example So again, I think there's a lot of really exciting things that are gonna come from the 5g transition But bringing it back to the digital divide and what's really important to connecting You know families and the economically disadvantaged, you know, there's a ton of Connectivity options available and it's really about the education of what's gonna impact those individuals right now Let me make a couple of points in response to some of the some of the comments that were made The first thing is I want to dispel the myth that wireless networks are wireless Wireless network is 99% wired the only wireless part of the network is the signal between this device and the closest antenna And that is essentially getting shorter and shorter The other point I want to respond to is in terms of what's Exciting in you know in in these in this space in the wireless space There's still great use for Wi-Fi and that is that is not a licensed spectrum That is a an unlicensed spectrum. That means that anybody can use it. So local governments non-profit entities can play a huge role in terms of developing Wi-Fi hotspots in neighborhoods creating mesh network networks in neighborhoods for example And that's really where the banks come in Thanks, we're gonna finance it for you. I Think Small businesses is something that you know is key here for us You know our economy in San Antonio and larger scale Texas is run by small business right and so how are we helping scale up our small businesses to take advantage of Technology to the degree that they could be more successful and increase their revenues and so for us I think our focus right now Is really holding in on small business? I came earlier from a small business captives meeting at my astral Entrepreneur's Center We've invested some dollars in that organization because we realize where the growth is and where the needs are and so for us As a bank not only to help finance some of these projects, right? But you know we're continuing to look at what the pulse of the community is in terms of need and access to credit But it's really access to some of those other conversations that include merchant services, you know Provide payroll all in Encompassing so that it's easier for a small business to be profitable And that all comes back down to technology and access to what they have available for them Okay, and then I think we're close to our time to yes I just gave you've said just so many great things I don't want to I think it's important to have a healthy level of skepticism is what I wanted to say I think with any new technology the point you made to start off is that there is always potential for exacerbating that divide and I think it's important to look at a technology and think is this going to serve the have not as well as the haves and The Alliance I think has a very critical role to play in that this education is really important Like we've thrown a lot of terms out there 5g spectrum There's so much potential in spectrum I think we could walk we probably have a separate panel on spectrum everyone to be asleep in like five minutes But it's really important and so it's like that education and these these convenings are so important because The recommendations the hard questions Those are things that need to be posed to providers because providers listen we listen and At the end of the day It's about reaching consumers and consumers have power And so I think that the more educated and empowered that consumers are the more of these sort of conversations that happen You can then inform us right so it doesn't have to be this tops down. These are your choices It's 5g or that it's you know that I think I think that there's there's so many more diverse options there And I'm really happy that you guys brought up all of these different methods Thank you. Thank you Clarissa and thank you to all of our panelists. I think that's it for today buddy We're gonna go ahead and get started with our closing remarks So first of all, thank you to all of y'all for being here if you were here since the morning raise your hand Yeah Thank you. Give yourselves a round of applause way to go I'm a clapper so I clap a lot Thank y'all very very much for sticking with us. Did somebody learn something new today? Raise your hand. I did Was somebody surprised by something they learned today? Yeah, did somebody make a new friend today? Let's see. What else what else? Did somebody take public transportation here today? Bonus question. No, all right. We're not there yet. We're not there yet. That's the next summit. Oh, we got what yep public transportation Carpool did somebody carpool here today? Scootered. Oh Just seeing what we got just seeing what we got Well, first of all, I want to say I have to acknowledge My two other tri-chairs. So thank you to Jordana Barton. Thank you to Dianne Cuellar Both y'all are amazing rock stars and I look up to both of you So thank you for including me in this tripod of awesomeness. Thank you And so now that we're at the end of the day, I feel like we have a lot of homework We have a lot of work to do We have a lot to get done, but before that we have some closing remarks from a special guest So I'm gonna read off her bio because I want to make sure that I properly Do this? And of course the mess of the paid so first elected to City Council in 2013 Rebecca Villagran has been a tireless advocate in the effort to create equity opportunity and prosperity for all San Antonians Born and raised on the south side of San Antonio Councilwoman Villagran has deep ties and a deep passion for her community, which is obvious because she's here with us today with this important topic From an early age Rebecca's family instilled into her the value of serving others She was taught that there is nothing more important than helping to build opportunity to ensure everybody Everybody has the ability to reach their fullest potential Councilwoman Villagran graduated from Texas State University Where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning So this obviously is why we need your brain to help us because you have the experience She then attended St. Mary's University earning a master's degree in Public Administration Please help me welcome Councilman Rebecca Villagran. Good afternoon everyone Thank you all for staying with this all day It is my honor to be here with you all today at the first ever Digital, I'm sorry the second digital inclusion summit here So my first ever digital inclusion summit So thank you all very much for having me on this extremely important topic and even the theme Connect todos with digital inclusion and upward mobility is something that we've been talking a lot Economic and upward mobility for all San Antonio. And so thank you all very much for having me My name is Rebecca Villagran. I do have the great honor of serving on the city council Representing district three the south and the southeast side of San Antonio. That's right. The south side is here So I want to thank all of our our tri-chairs today and all of the sponsors and all of you who are out here Sharing the information who showed up because half of the battle actually the majority of the battle is showing up And what we are doing here today, too Is continuing to learn from one another and have that creative collaboration? That needs to happen as we continue to move the needle in our city To reach and to move these disparities that exist in our city I know this morning. You heard from one of my colleagues a council member Pellias, and I'm glad I heard he was he always is very Animated and so I'm very happy that he was here this morning to share a lot about what we have been doing At the city level and with the council, especially with our new Innovation and Technology Committee at the city of San Antonio I am very appreciative of our office of innovation who is doing a lot of the legwork and Legwork grunt work carrying the water for the work that we are doing with our smart city initiatives But with our innovation zones, too One of the things we try to do in all of this at the city is seeing where are the ties? Where's the interconnectedness that exists here? I know it was brought up because I saw something online This morning and then the last week we're doing some work on an inclusive growth strategy I am the chair of the Economic and Workforce Development Committee for the city of San Antonio and one of the things that I wanted to make sure that we did at The city for economic and workforce development is as we grow we grow and give economic opportunity in a more inclusive way So we are looking at an inclusive growth strategy for businesses and business retention and expansion in the city of San Antonio So that when companies come to the city that they are not just necessarily looking at the north side of the city But they're looking at all parts of the city as they come to to make their case or San Antonio pitches to them and One of the things that we just discovered as we did is we used we did a distressed index survey distressed community index in Our city and so when you looked at the distressed communities in our city you see how the map is laid out and That map I don't have it on here But that map of distressed communities is very similar to that map that you saw earlier today of Where the digital inclusion of the digital disparities exist? it's almost identical as well to the health inequity standards that exist in the city of San Antonio and As was pointed out by Ms. Pat Haso It's almost exactly as the voter turnout in the city of San Antonio as well So we have all of these connections that are happening And there's this interconnectedness that we as a city are trying to create work with This the the digital inclusion alliance and others to see where are these inner? Where can we? collaborate creatively together We're trying to do that at the city level as well when you look at what we're doing with our essay tomorrow plan and We want one of the things why it's so important for me to move forward with the essay tomorrow plan is Because we can't have this plan sit on a shelf We have to plan it in the income in collaboration with the other things that are happening in the city of San Antonio Transportation development We're seeing the growth that's happening But we have to make sure that all of our community is connected and included as we grow now I know So district 3 is is the south side. It's one of the largest districts in the city and It is I always say it is representative of the past the present and the future of San Antonio Yes, I have four of the five missions in my district. So it's also the beginning of the the the city I have the wonderful mission reach in the community and one of the things that I'm very proud of too is that we also have Pre-k for essay the first pre-k for essay the south center there. We also have Texas A&M San Antonio out in district 3 as well And we also have the University of Incarnate Ward School of Osteopathic Medicine The second medical school in the city of San Antonio and you all may have heard I think it was last week or the week before SAISD is doing their new cast med high school out there on the Brooks campus as well So you have all of this great innovation and all of this great Growth that is happening and we also find the pockets This infrastructure that exists throughout the area. I do want to give some I do want to give kudos to Deanne and One of my predecessors who did make sure that they put wireless in Southside Lions Park Wireless connection in Southside Lions Park to make sure that we had that wireless connection in a city park One of the largest regional parks in our community to especially in district 3 and then that's kind of started this whole Connection of we need to do this more. How can we do this more our? Libraries as was mentioned earlier too Is a great area of where my community comes and reaches out and gets involved now? I know you have the total numbers here But why there is this this the disparity and there is a disparity and there is a need for inclusion I have three public libraries in my district McCreely's library Mission library and Pan American library in my mission branch library I this in 2017 the usage highlights in just one of my branch libraries 223,371 patrons that we had come through that library computer hours there was 28,251 computer hours used at the library that one library and 79,265 hours of Wi-Fi were used at that library Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas has given a donation from a Creelis library for more for more Wi-Fi hot spots to be checked out and to put more Laptops there because this is where my residence and my community is going to use the internet Because the affordability is not there for them in their in their house in their neighborhood or in their multi-family Up in their apartment complex now I think part of the issue that has to do is the education and connecting with the community and our Providers need to make sure that they reach out to our Neighbors and our community to let them know what is actually Available and what is affordable for their family and maybe even what it is that we need to do to budget this way Now in total in district 3 the computer hours for all three libraries for 2017 was 165,410 libraries, I'm sorry hours used computer hours used the hours of Wi-Fi was 165,431 hours used for Wi-Fi These are residents who are coming to apply for jobs Because most of the jobs you have to go online now These are students finishing up their Their homework and doing their research This is people who want to serve on district 3 boards and commissions Who have to come to the library to fill out an application? For serving on a boarding commission and if they do not have this access in their home They can only come to a library or they can go to one of our senior centers If they are senior center if they are senior because that is another thing that we have been investing in as a city to come forward and to put those Access into our senior centers because there is that feeling of what we're talking about isolation of living by themselves without that inner interaction with People but the only interaction they have is on their wire is on their wireless Mobile phone, but they need to have that connection and that education Someone said earlier today. It's about connectivity Affordability and the skill sets and to knowing those skills and I couldn't agree more because that's what we need to do in our In our city and in our community Now I want to talk I wanted to share more details about district 3 Because I think as I mentioned district 3 is the past the present of the future and we are representative of the city so district 3 We have about a hundred and thirty eight thousand residents and the household the median household income for my district is 36,000 $280 that is the median household income and our population consists of 82 percent Hispanic 12 percent white and 4 percent black and 9 percent of residents as of now 9 percent of residents in district 3 have bachelor's degrees and More and 63 percent has a high school degree or less Now district 3 we also I have the great opportunity I'm saying I have the great opportunity To work with four different school districts I have East Central ISD Southside ISD SA ISD and Harland Dell ISD So that's four different school districts four different superintendents four different school boards that work in the community And I also have The opportunity to work with three different congressional representatives Dogget heard in Castro So we have to work I'm not saying anything about gerrymandering, but that's gerrymandering so but that is just talking about the need for creative collaboration and willing to put whatever Ideological issues that you have to the side to work together for solutions to close that gap of that digital To have that digital inclusion for our entire community One of those areas that we're trying to that is a proving ground for the district and you hear us talk about it a lot Because we have a lot of opportunity there is at Brooks and the Brooks campus is very interesting Because it has the high school because it has the medical school because it has high wage earners that live there and Because it is also a former Air Force base that happens to have some great Underground fiber a ducts there that we can tap into and use in that area And we also have the opportunity it is an innovation zone for the city of San Antonio now And because we have so much space there it is going to be one of our proving grounds for whatever new Technology or little things that we want to try for the city that then we can replicate in other parts of the city if it works there We have to be available and for that opportunity and I want to thank you all for being here at this location at this and having this conversation because there are different views there are Issues that come to mind and their creative ways We all think that we know the right way of doing things or not But I think we need to just work creatively and again collaboratively and I have to say too as we're meeting in the In the innovations and technology committee and we're talking about these the FCC rules And what's coming up at the federal level we go to to Washington DC as a community to talk about what these rules mean What that means for our city and what that means for access what that means for our For everything and as I talked about it and As we listen to it and we see the different maps it just comes down to it's a matter of justice for me It's a matter of social justice for me to have this digital inclusion and this cop topic of digital inclusion Kind of paint all of our planning as we move forward in the city as we move forward in the topic of essay tomorrow This has to be a part of our and it is a part of our planning discussion as we move forward with Essay tomorrow. Well, then what are we going to do with who are our providers of of fiber or high-speed internet? Who are the nonprofit partners who are doing things for education and skills who are we have to have Everybody sitting together willing to work to have these conversations of Closing this gap on the digital or to create this digital inclusion Because if we don't then we're short-selling our entire city of San Antonio our workforce our Education and our growth as a city and our ability to recruit businesses To this city if we don't have this all over Equitably divided amongst our city because I I will say I'm tired of seeing maps that look like this as a daughter a native daughter of the south side of San Antonio as one who I'm tired of seeing maps like that. We need to be willing To put that in all of the in the areas that need the most resources Some people talk about you know if we put more money on one side of town It'll it's the what is the term a rising tide lifts all boats Well, not if the boats aren't all the same type of boat Not the boats are all fixed if there are some boats that have holes in them then a rising tide doesn't lift all boats So we need to make sure that everyone is starting at the same Level, but we already know that's not the case So your participation and your work and your continued engagement This is nice to come to a summit and I'm very proud and I know many of y'all are practitioners and engaged But I Welcome you all of you to come to our next innovation and technology committee meeting To come to our next economic and workforce development committee meeting because we're going to be talking about the our inclusive growth strategy, but when we're talking about economic and workforce development inclusive growth that has to be talked Digital inclusion has to be a part of that vernacular as well as we talk about it all so Again, it is it is my joy to be here I thank you for the to the three strong women who are Bringing this together and bringing this forward I look forward because I do have some we do have some great members on the council Who are committed to this who are wanting to see something done and wanting to talk about policy But how inclusion digital inclusion needs to be talked about in this whole conversation of Our budgeting of our policies and what are we going to do even with our essay tomorrow plan? But you all have to be a part of that because if we don't have your input, I mean, yeah I I was part of urban a jog for an urban planning But you all are the practitioners who see it every single day and who know what works for banks What doesn't work for banks? What is working for our seniors? What's not? So your participation is key And with that I want to thank you for having me I know I'm the only thing between you and your happy happy hour or happy connecting time So again, thank you all so much and I look forward to seeing all of you Further engage with the city and I look forward to hearing what you all have to deliver as we move forward Thank you all very much thing. I forgot to thank some really important people besides other folks But if you are part of the Digital Inclusion Alliance of San Antonio steering committee, can you please stand up so we can recognize you? Also for everybody in the room, these are the people you have to talk to to get involved So make sure you join one of their committees before you leave today or else you don't get any snacks. Also, so That's real if Jordanna and Dianne want to join me on stage too So we can kind of just wave and close out and then send people off because we're a team So it happens when you have a millennial as a triture by the way Thank you all for coming for sticking with us through today We had some of the most incredible panels in the afternoon So I'm glad that that we were all here to discuss these important issues together join the Digital Inclusion Alliance We're gonna we made a lot of progress This this year in one year establishing our our our code of how do what do you call it governance and Bylaws and all of that so we have a wonderful structure right now we're under the library foundation the the San Antonio Public Library Foundation and There's there's more to come. We're gonna be setting the agenda for the year We have opportunities for leadership in the steering committee. We'll have elections soon so please Join us and let's stick together to make real change we're gonna try to pick some key projects that we can focus in on and really show results really bring all the power of of all the pieces that that Councilwoman Viagran just talked about and show the impact that we're having change people's lives and Bring San Antonio, you remember we started with that with that ranking of cities We want San Antonio to be on the right side, right? literally on the side with the highest connectivity In equally higher incomes that that goes with it So let's let's commit to that and None of us could do it alone Certainly we realize that at the Federal Reserve for sure But we can be a resource in the way that we can just like all of your organization all of your organizations bring a piece of the answer and it helps us to to make the the kind of Advancement that it's very bold. We're trying to do something very bold. We're trying to say, you know This is a failure a market failure We're gonna correct this because we can as a community. So let's join together join the Alliance and I'll turn it over to my co-chairs That's it. Let's drink and eat