The Institute on Race & Poverty (IRP) has just released its latest report, Digital Justice: Progress Towards Digital Inclusion in Minnesota, which makes the connection between access to the Internet and access to life opportunities such as living-wage jobs. The report highlights many instances in which institutions are striving to bridge the digital gaps and bring opportunity to more people.

While the report is heavily focused on Minneapolis and does not exclusively look at the impact of broadband, there are some very interesting points for the Get Broadband communities. The report follows closely the process that Minneapolis has gone through to provide wireless access throughout the city, pointing out that community organizing and leadership from the City has led to Internet benefits that have not necessarily been provided in communities where there was no concerted effort from the city (or local community) to provide access. (Minneapolis elected to contract with a private vendor to provide Citywide services. Learn more from the Minneapolis Wireless web site.)

The report also takes a look at access on reservations, which may hit upon some of the issues that other rural communities have. One astute observation that certainly describes other rural areas, “As a result of the variation among different reservations, there is not one fixed solution to improve access on all Minnesota reservations.”