4/10/2008
Akron is about to become a digital superstar.
The city will become the national headquarters of a multi-million dollar think tank that will help communities bring the on line world to more people.
And at the same time, Akron will be a model of universal, free access to the World Wide Webwith the creation of a wireless Internet access corridor covering about 10 square miles in the central part of the city.
Those plans were shared today by officials from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the city of Akron, and the nonprofit group OneCommunity during a press conference at Akron's Knight Center in downtown Akron.
The foundation announced it will spend $15 million during the next five years - including $4.5 million this year - to establish the Knight Center for Digital Excellence in Akron, likely somewhere in the downtown area. The center will employ 16 people, officials said.
The center is part of a $25 million initiative by the Knight Foundation during the next five years to accelerate digital access projects in 26 Knight Foundation communities, including Akron.
In addition, the Knight Foundation said it would provide $625,000 of the $2.2 million needed to create the wireless corridor in Akron.
When the Akron corridor is up and running by the end of this year, people with wireless-ready computers will be able to tap into the Internet for free within the district.
The district includes downtown, the University of Akron, museums, all three downtown hospitals and neighborhoods in North Hill, East Akron and Highland Square, along with Goodyear and Lockheed Martin, the Helen Arnold School and the Urban League, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said.
Plusquellic said he has signed a ''memorandum of understanding'' with OneCommunity and will recommend that Akron City Council approve a five-year commitment of about $800,000 toward the design, deployment and operation of the wireless corridor in Akron.
The University of Akron has pledged another $350,000 to the corridor because the University Park area is part of the district, Plusquellic said.
The city's six-term mayor said the free wireless corridor will cover about 80,000 to 90,000 residents and about 31,000 workers.
''Universal access will improve the quality of life, create new economic opportunities for Akron's citizens, enhance health and education, improve public safety, and drive economic development,'' he said.
Akron attorney Rob Briggs, vice chair of the Knight Foundation, co-chair of OneCommunity and president of the Akron-based GAR Foundation, said the announcement Thursday was of enormous significance.
''Cities across the country would pay millions of dollars to have this center right there in their downtown because this is probably going to be the single most important factor in bridging the digital divide across the country,'' he said.
The digital center will be staffed and run by OneCommunity, which works in 22 counties in Northeast Ohio, said OneCommunity President and Chief Executive Scot Rourke.
OneCommunity is a nonprofit organization that serves Northeast Ohio by connecting public and nonprofit institutions to a fiber-optic network.
''With this public-private partnership, the city of Akron will serve as a role model for communities around the country,'' Plusquellic said.
The digital center in Akron is expected to have a staff in place this summer and a Web site offering a library of online resources operational by fall.
Included in the $25 million initiative will be $10 million for a Digital Opportunity Fund that will offer challenge grants to Knight Foundation communities.
The Akron Beacon Journal was the first paper owned by the Knight family. The paper later became part of the Knight Ridder chain that was sold in 2006 to the McClatchey Co. The Beacon Journal later was sold to Black Press of Canada.
The Knight Foundation was not affiliated with the newspaper chain but was the charitable foundation set up by the Knight brothers.
Plusquellic said the city is proud to be the home of the digital center and to be the first city ''to benefit from Knight's commitment to universal access.''
At the Thursday press conference, Plusquellic praised the Miami-based Knight Foundation for its long-term commitment to projects in Akron and he spoke of the legacy of John S. Knight and how the digital projects fit into his philosophy.
''He loved Akron,'' the mayor said. ''He talked about this community. He tried to do everything he could . . . He worked his entire life to make sure this city was competitive and stayed ahead of the curve.''
Paula Ellis, the Knight Foundation's vice president of strategic initiatives, said: ''This is a significant investment for us because we want to insure that no one is left out of access to what we sometimes think of as the digital square of yesteryear.''
Rourke said there will be a team in each of the 26 Knight communities, including Akron, and that the Akron digital center Knight Center headquarters will ''aggregate the best practices from OneCommunity and our colleagues around the world and lessons learned throughout all those interesting experiences.''
Ellis said the goal of the newly announced initiative is to ''make sure there are no second-class citizens barred from participating in the digital world as more and more information and function are transformed to a digital platforms.''
She called the idea of universal access the ''digital town square of the 21st century.''
In American history, she said, ''there was this town square where people used to show up to talk about their political views, to trade ideas, to trade ways to make things happen,'' she said. ''It seems like a good metaphor for us that it is in this digital world where a lot of our community life is taking place . . . More news is coming from there.''
Ellis said there is a great kinship between the Knight Foundation and the city of Akron.
''It is a delight for us that we can help support the evolution of the digital square . . . in Akron, Ohio, where our roots are so deep,'' she said.
Ellis said the digital investment here fits in with the mission of the Knight Foundation - to promote excellence in journalism and to focus on ideas and projects that create transformational change.
The projects, she said are at the core and ''heart of what we do.''
Promoting universal access to the Internet, she said, ''is right at our sweet spot. The Knight brothers stood for information and news that enables communities to act in their individual and group best interest.''
She compared the revolutionary change of the Internet with the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg.
The goal, she said, is to ''make access ava
