I know this doesn’t necessarily involve broadband, but the Pioneer Press just wrote a nice profile of E-Democracy, an initiative to bolster online discussion at the local level to build community and promote civic engagement. The article focuses on E-Democracy’s St Paul-based communities, but I know that they have also been active in rural Minnesota – and all over the world. Also I think that with the MN Broadband Task Force and others talking more about adoption that it makes sense to shine a light on low-barrier, high-return digital inclusion activities, such as email-based community building. (Although I should probably admit that I’ve been involved with E-Democracy for at least.)

The article does a nice job of painting a picture of who is currently using online communities…

Nationally, households with income of more than $75,000 per year are about five times as likely to belong to a neighborhood forum or social network as Internet-connected households with less than $30,000 per year in income, according to PewInternet.org.

“If you look around the country, there’s a huge divide between, essentially, upper-income homeowners and everybody else in terms of using this technology,” Clift said. “And we think everybody should.”

And who isn’t…

Clift said people of color make up 44 percent of St. Paul’s population, and 17 percent of the residents are foreign-born, but his best guess is that only 10 percent of his St. Paul forum members are ethnic or racial minorities. Community surveys will give him a more accurate outlook.

E-Democracy has received a $625,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to support efforts to increase participation in the lists. E-Democracy Founder, Steve Clift believes that a critical mass for the lists if about 10 percent; once one in ten residents joins the conversation the list becomes self-sustaining and grow organically. The increased outreach will help the lists grow in all directions and hopefully add a new dynamic to the online conversation.