Mission

We recognize Information Communication Technologies as powerful tools enabling communities, institutions and ordinary people to pursue desired futures not otherwise available to them. Simply providing access to technology, however, is not enough. We are focused on empowering people with the ability to apply technology with imagination and in ways that build community and create opportunity. The CBDD facilitates collaborative partnerships, provides educational outreach, research and policy guidance resulting in expanded access to necessary telecommunications infrastructure and critical information technologies among underserved populations.

Overview

Five years ago, the Center to Bridge the Digital Divide (CBDD) was a mere concept drafted as a two-page memo. Today we are a team of seven professionals with diverse backgrounds in economics, anthropology, psychology, education, leadership, information design, business management and other fields with a shared common goal.

Our mission and driving motivation is to make a difference in the lives of ordinary people around the world through enabling them to more effectively access and utilize modern information technologies. We accomplish this mission by working directly with youth in understanding and using digital technologies. We support key institutions such as schools to more fully engage with the needs of rural communities struggling with new approaches for viability and sustainability in a shifting global economy. We partner with the business community to pursue new options by expanding both markets and workforce resources through utilizing web-based technologies. We are advisers to governments both locally and globally helping shape public policy to improve the access and beneficial utilization of information technologies among citizens.

How we are Financed

Organized within the WSU university-wide Extension initiative, the CBDD is required to generate funds from external sources and be fully financially self-sustaining. From its formal inception in FY 2001, The CBDD has attracted to WSU an average of 3 million dollars of annual project support with 80 percent of those funds disseminated to Washington state community-based organizations or international partners through sub-grants and subcontracts. The CBDD has received support from over 20 funding sponsors including multi-million dollar grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Agency for International Development.

The CBDD is also creating a new line of direct services to diversify our approach in fulfilling our mission as well as to provide an additional financial source for longer-term sustainability. Examples include Ethnographic Futures Research to help both public and private clients better position strategies to expand adoption of information technology tools by ordinary people or by their organizations for a more sustainable future in the digital age. Our information design services help organizations be more effective while saving time, money and energy through the redesign of forms, the creation of knowledge management tools, and the promotion of strategies to encourage shared on-line publishing. We are also developing teaching/training workshops aimed at the needs of school leaders, universities building e-learning systems, or businesses engaged with telework.

How We Are Organized

The CBDD is a project-driven and financially self-sustaining organization within WSU Extension. Our projects are organized around three thematic workgroups staffed by diverse and interdisciplinary team of professionals: Global Networks, Digital Futures Network, and Rural Networks.

Our Networks

Our diverse local and global networks are among our greatest assets. The CBDD has particularly deep networks in three communities of practice including youth, rural leadership, and developing nations. There of course are many organizations that have deep networks within each of these three communities. However, the CBDD is unique in its ability to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and the development of synergies among these diverse networks. As an illustration of synergy, the CBDD will soon bring a team of 4H youth to Rwanda to share and pilot the implementation of a 4H computer build curriculum that was initially developed to create public access computer labs in underserved communities in Washington State.

The CBDD accomplishes the majority of our work through ongoing relationships with project partners. Our partners include over 20 African universities participating in our Nettel@Africa initiative, six schools and communities co-leading the Connecting Schools and Communities initiative, and various other individuals and groups with whom we collaborate. Within WSU, we currently collaborate with a growing list of academic faculties, research and service centers, and organizations, such as: WSU 4-H; the WSU Division of Intergovernmental Studies; the CAHNRS Information Department; the WSU Center for Entrepreneurship; the College of Education; the Department of Rural and Community Sociology; The WSU Center for Entrepreneurial Studies; WSU Learning Centers; The WSU Virtual Reality Laboratory; the WSU Center for Teaching and Learning and others.

How You Can Help

The future success of the CBDD depends on our ability to attract investment, engage clients for consulting services, and build partnerships among a broad constituency. The CBDD needs and values contributions of time, money and energy from all who share our goals. We look forward to exploring ideas with you regarding possibilities for collaborating in research, outreaching, training, or consulting.