What are we missing when we only think about the digital divide as this broadband access?

I think that sometimes when we think about the digital divide, we're thinking about the lack of access to the infrastructure.

Like, do you have access to high-speed broadband? But the challenge is much deeper than that.

And it gets more complicated than that.

It evolves.

The challenge evolves.

I'll tell you, I've been with Connected Nation for 20 years.

can you give us a success story there can you give us an example of an organization that you worked with you were able to translate this complicated language and then helped empower what their goals were and in doing so also furthered your goals

And Heather, why don't you start us off and then Molly can pick up.

Yeah.

So while we're doing this 25 hour event, our goal is not for it to be transactional.

It's not a one and done.

We are working very intentionally to create good content, 25 hours of good content that And so after the event, this content will be broken down and recorded and then broken down into these hour-long segments that we will continue to share and promote over the next year.

And while we are doing sharing that content, we will continue to have conversations around each individual topic covered and each individual organization that we worked with.

So this is the beginning of something really big for us that we do not intend to be one and done.

Yeah.

And click 100 free experiments.

Yeah, it's amazing.

We are so proud to be celebrating 25 years.

And as you know, with non-profits.

you know, surviving that long and thriving is an achievement that we're really proud of.

But yeah, so Connected Nations started 25 years ago at a university called Western Kentucky University.

And really what they were exploring was, The opportunity that came from technology in advancing economic opportunity and that technology, that point was high-speed internet.

it's,

Mm-hmm

... uh, to be in the workforce.

And when we're talking about foundational skills, we're talking basic things like using AI.

So even if you're working at a job where you're not necessarily sitting in front of your computer, your employer still needs you to have access to an email to be able to communicate with you or send you information, and so that is a big barrier.

So I think part of this conversation is really grounding the conversation and saying, we can't, we're not beyond needing to, um, provide basic skills, uh, uh, for people.

And you know, you and I are very well aware that-

Talk about that.

Yes.