America's Digital Inclusion Summit has concluded. Video from the Summit will be posted later. In the meantime, you can view tweets about the event by following #BBplan.

In opening remarks at today's America's Digital Inclusion Summit, Knight Foundation's President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen said:

"The FCC believes, as we at Knight Foundation do, that you cannot have a healthy American democracy with only 60% of Americans having access to modern means of commercial, civil and social communication. And that's the actual figure we live with today. That means that almost 40% of Americans are on the other side of the digital divide."

There is an increasing need for access to information via broadband. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project, the Internet has now surpassed newspapers as a primary way that American get news making it the third most popular news platform. Something must be done to narrow the digital divide.

To that end, the FCC is previewing it's recommendations for the National Broadband Plan today at the Newseum, in Washington, D.C., in preparation for delivery of the plan to Congress on March 17. The plan aims to have broadband in the homes of 90% of Americans by 2020.

Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman, said:

"In order to ensure long term American competitiveness and prosperity, we must not leave one-third of the nation behind. The National Broadband Plan provides a vision for federal, state, and local leadership and partnerships with private and non-profit communities that will bridge the digital divide and transform America into a nation where broadband expands opportunities for all."

We'll post more about America's Digital Inclusion Summit as it happens.

Last week, Knight Foundation representatives met with Philadelphia's mayor, Michael Nutter, and community leaders to discuss what drives peoples attachments to their community.

Phillies fans celebrate victory during a parade on Broad Street in downtown Philadelphia in November 2008. Creative Commons photo by Flickr member SnakeManRob.

Katherine Loflin, lead consultant for Knight Foundation's Soul of the Community, a three-year study with Gallup, presented an overview of the project and identified three community factors that emotionally attach residents to the Philadelphia area: (1)Openness and (2) social offerings, both of which need improvement to further encourage attachment to place, and (3) aesthetics, which is seen by residents of Philadelphia as a community strength.

These findings are not exclusive to Philadelphia. In the third year the study, these three factors are consistently emerging as being key to tying residents to place in all 26 communities that are a part of the study.

Communicating findings from Soul of the Community is crucial to helping local government and community leaders better understand why residents choose to make a particular place their home.

Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Officer for the City of Philadelphia, writes in his blog:

"I think this research can serve as a persuasive new public policy tool in helping decision-makers understand the role that arts and culture play in a community ..."

Loflin adds: "It's always very rewarding to share this information with community leadership and residents because their enthusiasm and interest in the findings continue to show us that we are on to something important here."

For more on Soul of the Community, please visit soulofthecommunity.org.

Courtesy of Flickr user Paolo Màrgari

When we last wrote about Knight's Library Initiative, it was a $3.3 million effort to empower libraries in 12 communities to become true information centers for their communities, with expanded wifi access, mobile computing labs, job-hunting assistance, digital literacy training and more. Today, Knight's announcing an expansion of that effort - the Foundation will distribute $5.5 million to  20 communities around the country:

Strengthening residents’ ability to use the Internet to improve their lives, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will help libraries in 20 U.S. communities enhance digital access and training.

The effort is part of the foundation’s $5.5 million Library Initiative.  Launched in October, Knight is expanding it to eight additional communities, the foundation announced today.

In October, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy released its report, finding that libraries are critical to a community's information infrastructure. Today's grant announcement signals Knight's commitment to helping usher these institutions into the digital era.

Cross-posted from the Soul of the Community blog.

Meredith Hector, Knight's program director in Bradenton, wrote an op-ed about the Soul of the Community study that was published in the Bradenton Herald this morning. Here's a taste:

Soul of the Community is a study of perceptions. Unlike the latest unemployment figures, we can change what people think and how they feel. That is why we can be experiencing one of the worst economic declines in recent memory, and still have a large percentage of residents who love where they live.

The economy is bad everywhere. Folks don’t appear to be blaming their financial troubles on where they live. Instead, there are other community features that drive people’s perception that the Bradenton area is a place they enjoy and recommend to others.

Luckily for us, these features also happen to be ones we can influence.

Two key features are perceived as community strengths in Bradenton: our social offerings (fun places to gather and meet people) and our aesthetics (the region’s physical beauty and green spaces).

But a third feature, openness — or how welcoming a place is perceived to be for different demographic groups — merits extra attention and work.

You can read the rest at Bradenton.com. Then come back and give us your thoughts.

If you've been following this blog, you probably already know Knight Foundation is giving $3.3 million to libraries in 12 communities to transform them into digital centers for their communities. We often think of libraries as being good places to find books, and they are. But in the 21st Century, they're serving many other functions as well, and this grant is about expanding those functions.

Here are five ways these grants will help communities:

• They'll create and expand wifi access.Increased bandwidth and new hardware in communities such as Wichita, Kan., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., will allow libraries to better meet a vastly expanding need for Internet access. Wichita's public library system has seen demand for Internet access increase by 25 percent (pdf) over the last year alone.
• They'll allow the libraries to purchase new equipment. In places such as Tallahassee, Fla., and Conway, S.C., money from these grants will cover the costs of updated equipment, including dozens of laptops for patrons to use all throughout the library. These additional capacities will greatly increase the ability of the library to serve patrons. In Tallahassee, for example, the new computing power is expected to mean an additional 380,000 hours of Internet access a year.
• They'll bring the capabilities of the library to under-served communities. Libraries are more than physical buildings. In places such as Lexington, Ky.,, Knight's grants will go towards the creation of mobile computing labs, enabling libraries to reach rural areas, retirement complexes and neighborhood centers.
• They'll help people find jobs.Lacking Internet access to search for jobs and correspond with prospective employers can leave job-seekers at a profound disadvantage. To help provide relief from a severe recession, Knight's grants will allow libraries to beef up their services for the unemployed. In Charlotte, S.C., for example, our grant will fund the creation of a Job Help Center, projected to assist 22,500 residents in its first year of existence. As a reminder of how powerful this assistance can be, don't miss this video featuring a patron of the library system in Charlotte.
• They'll help train people on using digital technologies. In many communities, the local library is the chief hub for continuing education. As digital skills become increasingly vital for citizens to actively participate in their democracy, these grants will allow libraries to give patrons critical training in digital technologies.

One of the outcomes of the Knight Commission's exploration into the information needs of communities in a democracy was a $3.1 million grant to libraries in 12 Knight communities across the country, including the Freedom Regional Library in Charlotte, NC. At the event to announce the grant in Charlotte, a library patron delivered this touching testimonial about how the library helped put her back on her feet:

Video of the grant announcement at Freedom Regional is below the jump:
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This week, Knight Foundation and Gallup announced the second year of results from the Soul of the Community study - a three-year survey of almost 28,000 residents of the 26 Knight communities exploring what attaches people to where they live.

Two years of research have reinforced the finding that the top three community characteristics that connect to the passion and loyalty residents feel for a place are openness (how welcoming a place is), social offerings (fun places to gather) and aesthetics (an area's physical beauty and green spaces). These qualities rose to the top in both years of the study, despite its occurrence against the backdrop of the U.S. financial crisis.

The study also found that community attachment is tied to local GDP growth - communities with higher attachment saw the largest growth in their economies. In the third year of the study, researchers will explore this connection further.

At the Soul of the Community site, you can dig into the findings from the study - compare results from all 26 communities on an interactive map, add your thoughts and insights to the perspectives posted on our blog, view detailed reports from all the communities, read coverage from news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and even download the actual data, if you'd like.

A few weeks ago, Duke University's Sanford Institute of Public Policy convened a small group to explore nonprofit media ownership models.

Knight Foundation's Director of Evaluation Mayur Patel spoke with Stanford Knight Fellow Andrew Haeg about networks, philanthropy, and assets:

Do you agree that networks of people are as valuable as traditional financial assets?

How do you think philanthropies and nonprofits could best nurture these assets if so?

Please join us at Knight in welcoming a new colleague and congratulating two of our own for a lifetime achievement award and a new elected position.

Welcome to Dennis Scholl, the new Miami Program Director for Knight.

From the press release,

Scholl will work with local leaders to identify opportunities for investing in innovative ideas and programs. His efforts will include leading the Knight Arts Challenge, a $40 million initiative to unite South Florida through the arts.

An art collector for more than 30 years, Scholl has lead local and national philanthropic efforts in the visual arts. He served as founding chair of the Guggenheim Photography Committee, of the Tate Modern American Acquisitions Committee and of the Miami Art Museum Collectors Council. He has also served on the boards of the Aspen Art Museum, the North Miami Museum of Contemporary Art and the alternative art space Locust Projects, of which he was chair.

Congratulations to Damian Thorman, National Program Director for Knight Foundation on his election as Vice Chair of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

Congratulations to Susan Patterson, Charlotte Program Director for Knight Foundation, on receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Hornets Nest Girl Scout Council's 4th annual Women of Distinction Award Luncheon. Here she is with her mother, who was her first Girl Scout leader.