February 2022 Net Inclusion Conference Report

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Katherine Lato

After a hiatus of two years due to COVID-19, NDIA’s Net Inclusion live conference reconvened in February at the Portland State University campus. Maryanna Milton and Barry Glicklich from Partners Bridging the Digital Divide (PBDD) were among the 327 in person attendees and Katherine Lato (also from PBDD) was among the 500 virtual attendees. Detailed notes (30+ pages) from the sessions attended by Barry, Maryanna or Katherine is available in this google document. Recordings of the video are available at this YouTube playlist.

Main Take-aways


  • The digital inclusion community is vibrant and growing.
  • There are large sums of federal money coming for broadband and digital equity.
  • Organizations should establish relationships with state and local broadband offices, and help them to help us help our clients.
  • NDIA did a wonderful job addressing the requirements in the age of COVID-19, and the Dine Around was a great program that helped create new connections in a friendly informal setting.

Recurring Themes, Phrases, and Language

  • “Lived experience”
  • “Human centered design”
  • A lot of visibility for Northstar training classes with many organizations using it
  • Use the word houseless or unhoused, rather than homeless
  • Digital skills rather than digital literacy 
  • Pending federal funds for broadband & digital equity 

Fun Quotes

  • “With digital equity, we all win.” 
  • “Participatory action research is when traditional research & activism have a baby”
  • “Digital Inclusion is local; Federal data is not.”
  • “We don’t need better locks, we need to understand why people break-in.” 
  • “We are putting the toothpaste back into the tube. Kind of messy but necessary. “
  • “That’s Barry’s. Barry’s awesome. We have a lot of rock stars. If you don’t know them, let me know and I’ll point them out to you.”
  • “Bureactivist”
  • “Moving at the speed of trust”
  • “This is our moment!”

Detailed notes (30+ pages) from PBDD board members are available in this google document.

All sessions were recorded by NDIA and will be available in a few weeks at https://www.digitalinclusion.org/net-inclusion-2022/ 

Stephanie Stenberg encouraged attendees to add notes to a google document that they were sharing with the Internet2 Community Anchor Program (CAP).

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