The facilitation cohort selected broadband access as one of the priority issues because lack of access to broadband impacts economic growth, educational opportunities, healthcare access, and people’s ability to connect with one another and to information. Throughout the Regional Dialogues, Participants used this difference in access to secure, reliable Internet to describe the urban rural divide, calling it the “digital divide.”
When the Broadband Committee came together at our May 2019 retreat to meet their fellow committee members, their charge was not to develop a plan to establish broadband access across Oregon but to do something that might advance this effort or illuminate the impact that weak and insecure access to the Internet has on communities.
The committee recognized that, despite our reliance on the Internet, the actual Internet infrastructure and access to it is not well-understood with policymakers, community leaders, decision-makers, and even those on the committee. To that end, a committee member used a whiteboard to draw out the systems, connections, and parts behind a broadband network.
This white board explanation inspired the Broadband Committee, with their team name, “Broadband Equity” to develop “Broadband Explained in Four Minutes,” a short video animation. Committee member Cameron Camp took the lead in writing the script will the committee responded with edits and changes. BP Media, based in Roseburg, did the animation.
Watch using the links below!
This video animation is for anyone and everyone wanting to have a better understanding of how broadband networks work.
To ensure that this video is accessible to Spanish speakers, the same video animation was produced in Spanish. This Spanish version is a little longer, thus the title is "Broadband Explained in Five Minutes."
