Join us for a lunchtime chat with Colin Rhinesmith, author of Digital Equity Ecosystems. Colin, an associate professor and director of the Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, will join us to talk about how community coalitions—in which libraries can play an essential role—serve as vital infrastructure to tackle digital inequality and strengthen democracy.
This discussion will be moderated by Becca Quon, METRO’s Program Manager for Research & Education, and we’ll welcome questions from the audience as well.
From the publisher:
Digital Equity Ecosystems introduces readers to the groundswell of community coalitions that work to alleviate technological inequity and social injustice. Through a comprehensive review of theories and concepts across the fields of information, communication, technology, and public health studies, Colin Rhinesmith reveals how the digital equity ecosystems framework is essential for addressing urgent digital inequalities. Investigating five original case studies of digital equity ecosystems across the United States, Rhinesmith shows how community coalitions serve as vital infrastructure to tackle digital inequality and strengthen democracy. By focusing on these ecosystems as sites for community engagement, civic participation, and social justice organizing, this book helps us make sense of the current moment, arguing that it is crucial to bridge both the digital divide and other social divides more broadly at a time when democracies are in decline worldwide.
About the author:
Colin Rhinesmith (he/they) is an associate professor and director of the Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Rhinesmith studies the social, technical, and policy contexts that shape people’s access to and use of information and communication technologies in local communities. He has worked with civil society organizations, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations to advance digital equity through community-engaged and participatory research projects. Rhinesmith is a faculty affiliate with the Social & Behavioral Sciences Institute at Illinois, a research fellow with the Quello Center at Michigan State University, and an editor-in-chief of The Journal of Community Informatics. Previously, Rhinesmith was the founder and director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council.