About
This study honors the work that has been done to address the digital divide in San Rafael.
A Brief History of Local Efforts to Address the Digital Divide
In 2016, the City of San Rafael began exploring ways to “bridge the digital divide” in San Rafael—to expand high-speed internet access and computer literacy in the Canal neighborhood so that “digital” is available to all San Rafael residents. For the purposes of this project, “digital” refers to access to high-speed Internet (also known as “broadband”) and digital literacy.
When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic, and particularly when schools closed, the City’s approach to the digital divide pivoted to focus on education. When schools moved to an online learning model, an immediate need arose to better connect students to the Internet and provide them with laptops. The City of San Rafael began working with local and regional government partners, including the County of Marin and San Rafael City Schools, along with a local community service non-profit organization, Canal Alliance, on a multi-pronged approach to the problem of unequal access to Internet and computers. Some of the immediate solutions that this coalition implemented included the following: providing families with personal Wi-Fi hotspots, promoting low-cost or free home internet programs, and providing Chromebook computers to students.
In the summer of 2020, stakeholders launched Canal Wi-Fi, a mesh Wi-Fi network for the Canal neighborhood—San Rafael's most densely populated neighborhood. With Canal Wi-Fi, community members living and working the Canal neighborhood have access to free Internet service.
Canal Wi-Fi is made possible by the support of partners at County of Marin, City of San Rafael, San Rafael City Schools, and Canal Alliance. Canal Wi-Fi is generously funded by the County of Marin and Marin Community Foundation, and thanks to pro bono and volunteer services from MarinIT, DC Electric, and Cisco Systems.
Where We Are Today
Canal Wi-Fi has been up and running since June 2020 and according to publicly available network metrics, the Internet service is primarily being used for school (43% of users), work (25% of users), general Internet browsing (29% of users).
Stakeholders (including officials from the County of Marin, City of San Rafael, San Rafael City Schools, and Canal Alliance) are working to continue exploring the digital divide in Marin County. For example, the County of Marin is spearheading the Digital Marin project to develop a digital infrastructure strategic plan.
Where We're Headed
In San Rafael, the Canal Wi-Fi project is a great start—and yet, there is still much more work to do. The hopes of this study is to help better inform San Rafael's local government officials and other community stakeholders of the digital divide that exists in the city by using an academic university-backed research study to produce meaningful data.
The data collected from this study will be shared in the aggregate (in summary form, with no personally identifiable data) with San Rafael officials to help them be in a better position to make recommendations for continued work on bridging the digital divide.