Dona Ana County in southern NM is trying to gather more data on the state of broadband connectivity there. As is true in many counties in the US, part of the demographic pie lives in a fairly well connected urban area of Las Cruces, and part lives in a more rural, less connected, “outside the city” area.
The survey faces the challenge of most surveys today, people are survey averse after years of requests from all corners. “Answer a short survey at the end of this call” etc.
One might presume that participation by those who are most in need of help with connectivity will be less than those who already have it, without specific incentives that induce participation. And of course some will have a hard time participating because they lack the connection to do so. Perhaps Dona Ana County is making provision to address those challenges.
But if not, it would be one reason among many why “governmental programs” might start out sounding like problem solvers, but end up handicapped by their own process. For example, what might happen if a large number of ads were inserted into NFL local broadcasts offering incentives for those who “call in” to take a “short survey”?
Or what if the local ISPs were incentivized to collect and share data about their systems and customers connectivity? No doubt some areas in the country are trying new ways to support quality data about what the need is in various local communities, and perhaps Dona Ana County is working on just those efforts too. Or will be soon.
INTERNET CONNECTIVITY - English