On Wednesday POTUS broke out his iPad and spoke about the critical need to ensure internet access for all in the U.S. As a preview to his State of the Union address, he wants to “clear away the red tape,” and “help communities succeed in our digital economy.”
The President highlighted two cities as models of progress: Kansas City and Chattanooga. Two places that are at the center of Mozilla’s Gigabit Community Fund effort . Through generous support by the National Science Foundation, this fund provides grants and resources for local innovators exploring the use of next-generation gigabit technologies in Kansas City and Chattanooga and are emerging as active communities of practice.

In 2014, Mozilla’s Gigabit Community Fund invested in 17 educational projects that were piloted in more than 40 learning spaces. On the ground, these projects leverage the network for learning in classrooms and other spaces across communities, put next-generation technology into the hands of learners and push innovation forward while also building critical web literacy capacity among our teachers, informal educators and students. All of this leads to improved connected learning experiences, in and out of the classroom, by providing young people and adults with skills to explore, build and collaborate on the web in meaningful ways.
Access Isn’t Enough
The President is absolutely on target with pushing broadband access for all. However, it’s only one part of the success equation that needs to ensure that all people have access to digital literacy. Through our work with the Gigabit Community Fund, our Hive Learning Networks and Webmaker, we are committed to combining access to technology with skills that are integral to modern society: the ability to read, write and participate in the digital world.
One of the goals of Mozilla’s literacy efforts is to grow the scope and scale of our education and empowerment efforts. To reach more people. We also want to increase the diversity of how people learn with Mozilla: building opportunities for people to get together to learn, hack, invent and innovate in cities on every corner of the planet. We need to take the seeds of what is being started in places like Chattanooga and Kansas City and bring it to more people in more places.
Join Us
It’s up to us to take the next step. To make sure all the citizens of the web have the skills they need to help shape the future of the web. To learn more about our work in education on next-gen networks, visit the Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund blog or join the conversation on twitter @MozillaGigabit