Alaska’s Digital Equity Ecosystem

Alaska has the worst internet connectivity in the US. The internet connectivity issue impacts the entire state, but especially rural and Alaska Native communities. There is a lack of infrastructure and monopolistic industry control, which worsen the affordability of internet and the possibility of connecting more communities. Additionally, folks who are getting broadband for the first time aren’t given the resources they need to navigate the internet safely and effectively; and electronic devices remain out of reach for many due to high costs of getting technology to Alaska.

Despite these major digital equity issues, there aren’t public numbers on how many people are being affected, and there is no public report that tells Alaska’s broadband story. Even within Alaska, it’s not common knowledge for people to know how much our schools pay for monthly internet services. AKPIRG’s broadband access program specifically addresses the lack of accessible and affordable broadband access in rural and Indigenous communities. However, without data on the severity of broadband access shortages as well as locations, communities, resources, and data, it will be extremely difficult to implement any long-term program.

Our solution consists of data collection, asset mapping, and planning in order to create the technological and digital ecosystem we need in Alaska.

First, we will collect missing data. While there are major internet connectivity and digital equity issues in Alaska, there is no public report that tells this story and no numbers available on the scale of the issue. AKPIRG will speak directly to communities to gather stories and data, meanwhile ensuring that communities own their own data and control their own narratives. From these stories and data, AKPIRG will create a public report on the state of broadband in Alaska.

Second, AKPIRG will work with the Alaska Digital Equity Coalition to conduct asset mapping related to broadband in the state. From this asset mapping, we will compile a list of broadband, digital literacy, and technology resources that we will make publicly available and spread widely so Alaskans can easily access these resources.

Third, once we have missing data and an asset map, we will use these knowledge and resources to develop a plan for a Digital Equity Center, which will fill in gaps needed to enable more Alaskans to learn digital skills (including trainings and a train-the-trainer model so these teachings can reach the entire state) and will create an electronic refurbishment system in Alaska to reduce electronic waste and make electronics more affordable for Alaskans. While development of the Digital Equity Center itself is beyond the scope of a one-year project, this planning work will allow us to move forward with the creation of the Center once long-term funding is secured.

There are 229 federally recognized tribes in Alaska, a large number of which are based in small, remote villages. Many of these villages lack jobs, educational opportunities, healthcare, broadband access, and some even lack access to running water. And, as climate change raises temperatures in the Arctic at a rate more than twice that of the rest of the world, many communities are at risk of climate disaster.

Due to these challenges, there are massive outmigrations happening both from our remote Indigenous communities and from our state entirely. AKPIRG’s Broadband Specialist Brittany Woods-Orrison (a shared staff position with partner Native Movement) was raised in the village and understands the needs that arise; when she returns to the village, she is still unable to reliably work from her home. Brittany is a recognized expert on digital equity, contributing to national reports such as the Visions for Digital Equity, and consulting for the 2023 Indigenous Connectivity Summit, an international convening of Indigenous leaders. Our organization is a key member of the Alaska Digital Equity Coalition, which we are continuing to build in order to engage meaningfully statewide and ensure that we are serving all Alaskans — especially our rural communities. Speaking directly with communities is a key part of this.

Getting broadband, technology, and digital literacy to Alaska Native villages will bring with it new job opportunities, improve telehealth systems, enable more educational tools including long-distance learning for college students, and allow online testimonials so Tribal people can advocate for their traditional ways of life and advocate against systems that compromise those ways of life.

We seek to serve Alaskans across the state, focusing on Alaska Native communities and protected populations (including rural communities and disabled, elderly, and low-income individuals). These communities and individuals, many of whom live at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities, are particularly underserved when it comes to digital equity. They lack access to internet, lack of access to affordable electronic devices, lack of education/training on safe and efficient internet use, or a combination of these issues. While there isn’t exact data right now on underserved populations, getting that data is one of the goals of our solution.

The internet is a public utility, and everyone deserves to access it. Our solution will be a huge step forward toward digital equity in Alaska — this means affordable and reliable internet, appropriate devices, and having the knowledge to safely go online. By gathering data and stories, we will inform efforts to bring broadband to places and people without access, as well as bring attention to the current deficits. By sharing out an asset map, we will build out Alaska’s digital equity ecosystem and get more people connected to the resources they need. By planning out the development of the Digital Equity Center, we will be one step closer to making it a reality, which then will provide digital literacy and access to technology to communities around the state.

As mentioned, the Broadband Specialist role is a shared position between AKPIRG and partner Native Movement. AKPIRG and Native Movement are among the first, if not the first, organizations in Alaska to create a funded full-time digital equity role in Alaska that isn’t tied to government or industry. We have been in the work since before the Infrastructure Investment and Job Act announced the $65 billion of federal funding for broadband. We are in this work for Alaskans, and were even part of the state planning group that reached out to remote communities to be included in the process.

Our broadband team works with multiple Tribal consortiums in Alaska, as well as the Alaska Digital Equity Coalition, and has years of experience bringing together the voices that need to be heard with the interests that need to hear them. Our broadband team is led by a Tribal person trying to improve internet in Alaska so that she can live and work on Tribal lands in the future, and so all Tribal people in Alaska have access to the wealth of opportunities, connection, and knowledge that the internet brings.

On this project in particular, so far, we have formed the Alaska Digital Equity Coalition to bring together groups around the state on broadband and related issues. We have also initiated relationships with other organizations that provide resources to the public, in hopes of working together to grow our collective resources and increase reach.

In our broadband work over the past few years, we have been able to include hundreds of Alaskans in critical comment periods influencing the future of all Alaska broadband, in return educating them on the systems that control these issue areas. We are gathering the addresses of these individuals to send them materials on the next steps of how to engage in the digital equity ecosystem.

We have met with a variety of partners, including electronic recycling organizations, electronic repair shops, and Tribal Telecom entities — to share this idea along with learning how to better support their work. 

Additionally, we have begun some data collection. The Broadband Specialist’s work is funded by both AKPIRG and Native Movement; one of our grants at Native Movement allowed us to do phone surveys with rural Alaska Native villages to begin data collection, coming out of horrifying stories such as the 911 services being down for 6 months.

Alaska’s problems are complex and challenging with a lack of capacity. We are by far the largest state with the most extreme weather in the nation while having one of the smallest populations. We are the least connected people in the nation with only a handful of us in the state who work on digital equity, many people having other full time jobs added onto this work — a common practice in Alaska. Our solution is dynamic with multiple moving parts, and we are in need of technical support to ensure we are going about this the most effective way possible: the best way to go about community- collected community-owned data, to have equitable and powerful partnerships, and eventually learning how to financially sustain future job roles along with services. 

Broadband Specialist Brittany Woods-Orrison is the only one at AKPIRG or Native Movement that works on broadband full time, but this last fall had the privilege of hiring for a temporary fellow position. That extra capacity, along with having a thought partner, made a world of difference with how much was accomplished. Having guaranteed mentorship during the MIT Solve Program duration would be a huge honor.

Brittany grew up in Rampart, and has deep family ties to the nearby villages of Tanana, Stevens Village, and Manley Hot Springs. What makes our state Tribal identities unique is the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that gave our peoples both Tribal Governments (that are split up by communities, not cultural groups) and Native Regional Corporations instead of reservations. Our people gather at our cultural events, regional non-profit meetings, regional Native corporation meetings, and annual state-wide meetings such as the Alaska Federation of Natives conference. Brittany has gathered with our Alaska Native people at the local, regional, and state level for all of her life. Specifically with broadband, Brittany has a relationship with many Tribal Broadband Coalitions in state from the multiple regions; including Salmonnet of Bristol Bay, Akiak Technology on the Kuskokwim, Tidal Network in the Southeast, and Tribal Advocacy groups that work together to testify. 

As for both of the organizations Brittany works for; Native Movement is a Native-led organization that works on many issues in our community such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Environmental Justice, and Community Education with classes like Untangling Colonialism. AKPIRG works on many state issues such as economic justice, energy justice, and language access — our strongest work for Native communities is our Alaska Native language panelists that represent most of our Indigenous languages and have created Translation Protocols that outline best practices. Brittany’s position working for both of these organizations strengthens her ability to tackle broadband issues through trusted networks and through strong work being done for our communities in other realms.

This type of solution has yet to be tried in the broadband landscape in Alaska. There are many organizations and groups working toward positive change in our state, and this project will bring many of those groups together to make an even greater collective difference. The sustainability of any individual, business, project, or corporation in Alaska takes dynamic solutions to survive. We are leading this solution with the refurbisher because this pathway is beginning to be outlined by the existing electronic recycling industry, but we are going to add onto it by re-using the electronics. Since we will need to reach out to individuals who need computers, we want to pair this with programs that teach digital skills so they can learn to use the devices along with being able to navigate online safely. Since we are going to be working with people, we want to teach them how to do speed tests and collect important community data (such as services going down) so they can file complaints and demand they get the service they deserve. Much of this exists, and we want the efforts to become collaborative so we are not working in silos.

Our data and story collection will provide greater understanding of the current state of broadband in Alaska, which in turn will lead to increased investment and infrastructure to target areas and communities that are being left behind. The Alaska Broadband Coalition’s asset mapping will connect more individuals and communities to resources that are needed to get folks safe and affordable access to the internet. Lastly, our planning work on the Digital Equity Center will help the Center get closer to becoming a reality: and once it is, it will directly provide digital literacy trainings across the state and increase affordability of technology. Having internet connectivity has become a health indicator, exasperated during the COVID epidemic, proving that the internet is no longer a luxury.

• Proportion of covered population communities, especially Alaska Native, spoken with compared to overall number of communities in the state (measured via counting)
• Proportion of communities reached out to that participate in the project (measured via counting)
• Creation of public-facing report on digital connectivity in Alaska (measured via whether completion and publication are reached)
• Number of groups, organizations, corporations, etc. involved in asset mapping (measured via counting)
• Collecting of needed data with communities that will be owned by communities

This entire project in itself is a crowdsourced service that is relying on strengthening social networks. The Alaska Broadband Coalition has done data asset mapping, and this has been paired with the stories that have come from all over Alaska. Having data with shared stories will lead to great change when shared widely and in the right places. The knowledge and tools required to fix up computers will be another source of technology. Finally, connecting Alaskans to the internet will be the pandora’s box of technology that must be paired with digital skills training. Alaska Native people are some of the most innovative people in the world to survive some of the harshest conditions known; we continue to thrive in these conditions without the internet. We are hoping the internet creates safer living conditions with stronger communication technology, healthcare technology, and technology to strengthen our struggling school systems to name a few things.

Alaska

3 full-time staff (though not all focus entirely on broadband work)

AKPIRG’s executive director, Veri, began this work around 2017 when Alaska’s Net Neutrality was being voted on. Starting in 2020 Veri and Enei, the executive director of Native Movement, began working together to create the Broadband Specialist role as both organizations had all their issue areas impacted by lack of broadband connectivity. In 2021 Brittany was hired as the broadband specialist.

A large part of AKPIRG’s work is done at the community level and in partnership with BIPOC, and especially Indigenous-led initiatives. In addition to our broadband work, our other organizational focuses include native language access and revitalization, economic justice, energy, and good government. We remain guided by and accountable to BIPOC communities, through the AKPIRG team, staff, organizational partnerships, and community-based relationships. AKPIRG is an advocacy community for individuals with many lived experiences and backgrounds to work towards a common ground we all agree on: a more just and thriving Alaska.

AKPIRG is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all qualified individuals and believes a diverse workforce will enhance our ability to fulfill our mission. Our staff’s diversity is representative of the vast diversity of Alaska, including age, race, sexuality, gender, transgender status, neurodiversity, and experience. AKPIRG is currently in the process of board recruitment, particularly seeking to increase the diversity of our board in terms of race, experience, and more. AKPIRG values justice, community, trust, and accountability, all factors that are evident at each stage of our work. We organize using the Jemez Principles, as well as decolonization and Just Transition frameworks.

While AKPIRG is the organization applying for this solution, our Broadband Specialist is a shared position with our partner, Native Movement. Native Movement is an Indigenous-led Alaska-based organization that envisions a world that embraces Indigenous values of reciprocity and respect with all beings. Their actions are grounded in ceremony, justice, and love in support of regenerative communities for all, and they work throughout the state to build people power and support grassroots-led projects that ensure social justice, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and the rights of Mother Earth. Their five-person board consists of all Indigenous women, their twenty-two person advisory board is entirely Alaska Native representing all parts of the state, and their staff of thirty-eight are dynamic and passionate builders of all genders and backgrounds – 80% identifying as BIPOC, 60% Indigenous, 75% women identifying.

As a small nonprofit organization formed to protect the public interest, the value that AKPIRG provides to the populations we serve is generally information-based. A large part of our work is providing the public with information and guidance in regards to how they can make their voices heard, such as with public comment periods on vital legislation like the Governor’s Taskforce on Broadband that influenced how federal funds spent, saving the Alaska Universal Service Fund that prevented phone bills from tripling, the Affordable Connectivity Program that tens of thousands of Alaskans used, the Alaska’s Digital Equity Plan, and the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the Alaska Connect Fund which is worth a billion dollars over 10 years. We also advise the public about issues that affect them that may be technical or not well-known: overall, we want the public to be aware of what policies (governmental or corporate) are affecting them and be able to have a say in those policies.

In other aspects of our work, we provide translations and messaging in both Alaska Native and migrant languages on key issues; we advocate directly with policymakers for bills that will benefit the public (and against bills that will hurt the public); and more. We rely on donations and grants in order to do our work.

AKPIRG brings in money to fund our work through a combination of donations and grants. We are incredibly grateful to the individuals and organizations that have contributed to our work; a few of these organizations include:

Tortuga Foundation

Solidaire Network

Alaska Community Foundation’s Ruud–Mjos Fund

Movement Voter Project

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund

Native Movement & the Alaska Just Transition Collective

Rural Democracy Initiative