As New York City’s first chief digital officer, Rachel Sterne’s primary task would be to assess city government’s digital strategy. She and her team spent the first 90 days compiling a report, and the result is the Road Map for the Digital City, a 60-page dossier on the city's digital reach, what the team plans to achieve, and how to get there.
Mashable recently spoke with Sterne about the Roadmap and what she plans to implement in New York.
Greater Access to Digital
The first area of emphasis is information access, which addresses the digital divide. One of th e more obvious actions is to simply provide free wireless access in more public places. This process has already begun, with three parks receiving wireless Internet last week, and 17 more across all five boroughs due in 2011. The city also plans to experiment with wireless connections on the subway, starting with six stations. But Sterne acknowledges that it's not so simple. "People have asked in the past, ‘Who's your target user?’ And the truth is, it needs to be accessible to every single New Yorker. There is no target, it's everyone."
This is why the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT), the city's IT agency, is administering a federally awarded Broadband Technology Opportunities Program grant for high-speed Internet access and training. Through this grant, the city will introduce broadband connectivity to 18,000 sixth graders from low-income households, both in the home and at school. This will provide not only the requisite hardware but also...
