To close digital equity gaps, US should endow a private Digital Futures Foundation

In the Boston Globe, Wireless Future Project director Michael Calabrese and Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies director Lester Salamon outline why revenue from auctions of government-owned airwaves should be used to fill digital equity gaps.

A Digital Futures Foundation, endowed with a meaningful portion of spectrum auction revenue, could fund the development of innovative digital software, such as new low- or no-cost interactive learning tools. It could pioneer applications of emerging artificial intelligence and augmented reality technologies for health care, energy conservation, smart city services, and more. And it could foster robust public-service digital media applications and content.

Experience in this country and abroad suggests that an endowed, independent, private charitable foundation would best have the flexibility, research focus, long-term perspective, and ability to engage other partners that such a mission will require.