The Alliance for Digital Equality, a non-profit dedicated to ensuring equal access to technology in underserved communities, assembled some of their leading champions who are bridging the digital divide in Newark, NJ, for their most recent Digital Empowerment Summit.  Guest speakers, moderators, and panelists featured people who are making a difference in communities most prominently in the areas of civic participation, public health, public safety, economic development, and education, all through the power of broadband.

The day kicked off with opening remarks by ADE Chairman and CEO Julius Hollis who sees broadband as a tool to rectify economic inequalities, but reminded participants that achieving universal broadband will cost money.  “Private investment is essential and will be encouraged,” urged Hollis.  Throughout the day, overtones of hope and opportunity ran through presentations by such notables as FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Former President of U.S. Conference of Mayors and Former Mayor of Miami Manny Diaz, and Author and Activist Hill Harper, to name just a few.

Mario Armstrong, CNN Contributor and Talk Show Host, served as a de facto ambassador for the education community.  He wants to get information out of textbooks (and those heavy backpacks that kids carry them in!) and move the information onto more mobile devices.  He urged the room to imagine a world where every child had an iPad-like tablet that housed all of their curriculum throughout their education.  And another role of children?  To teach adults to be more digitally literate.  What if parents were required to sign off on homework online?  We’d see a lot more parents getting connected, he insisted.

NextGenWeb was fortunate to catch up with two of the day’s keynote speakers, Mayor of Newark Cory Booker and President and CEO of the National Urban League Marc Morial.  Watch the video interviews below to learn more about how these leaders are embracing technology in their lives and what they say to their constituents who have access to broadband, but have not yet chosen to adopt.  A sneak peak – Marc Morial says, “It’s like green eggs and ham; Try it and you’ll like it!”

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