Publications | Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab | School of Information Sciences

New Book Published on Digital Equity Ecosystems

Title of book shown against a black background, which is above a picture of blue water in an estuary surrounded by greenery and a flock of white birds seen from above.

I’m thrilled to announce that my new book, titled “Digital Equity Ecosystems: How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracy” is now available from the University of California Press. The book introduces an ecosystem approach to study and understand the role of community coalitions in promoting digital equity and social justice. In addition, the book describes how these coalitions work to protect the environment through technology refurbishing while also providing spaces for democratic communication and civic participation in public life.

The book was featured in the iSchools Book Talk series and more information about the book can be found online at the publisher’s website.

Here is an excerpt from the Introduction, which describes the main argument and goals for the book.

In this book, I highlight and uplift stories of “ordinary” people—including educators, librarians, pastors, managers, neighbors, parents, and friends— doing extraordinary things in communities to help other people and our planet. This book underscores how a sense of community can be built by listening and paying attention to these everyday social interactions focused on care. The pandemic reminded us about the importance of digital technologies in our everyday lives, as well as about the face-to-face interactions that we need to solve problems and heal our natural world. However, if we are going to continue this work, we must move beyond an embrace of individualism and towards an embrace of interconnectedness with each other and the earth. By focusing on human and community interactions such as those highlighted in this book, I believe we can learn more about the things that connect us at a basic human level, which can also inspire us to create a better world for one another. At the same time, we must continue to question the role of digital technologies in supporting or limiting the possibilities for such interconnectedness.

The Journal of Community Informatics: Advancing Engaged Information Sciences

Screenshot of the iSchools Community Informatics Group webpage, showing a description of the groups focus on using information and communication technologies to help diverse communities, with navigation links and logos at the top. (Alt text generated by alttext.ai)

It was wonderful to co-lead our iSchools Community Informatics Group session yesterday, during iConference 2026 in Edinburgh, Scotland, with my colleague and The Journal of Community Informatics co-editor-in-chief, Dr. Khalid Hossain, Research Fellow in the Department of Human Centred Computing at Monash University.

During the session, we introduced our iSchools Community Informatics Group and had a productive brainstorming session about potential topics for future special issues of The Journal of Community Informatics. There was some excitement around the idea of developing a special issue on alternative research methods, including the use of games and other forms of community-engaged and participatory design and research methods.

Here is a link to the slides from our session.

Book Talk at MSU Quello Center

Flyer for a Quello Center event featuring Colin Rhinesmith, promoting a Zoom talk on Feb. 18 at 11 AM ET about digital equity ecosystems and community coalitions. A photo of Colin, wearing glasses, is on the right (alt text by Alttext.ai).

I will be giving my first book talk on Wednesday, February 18th at 11:00am (EST) at the Quello Center at Michigan State University, where I am a Research Fellow. The book will be published in June 2026 by the University of California Press. Here is the link to the event on the Quello Center’s website.

The talk will be online and the link to register is below.

Digital Equity Ecosystems:
How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracy

a talk with Colin Rhinesmith, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Join us on February 18, 2026, from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET for a stimulating talk!

Use the link here to register for the Zoom webinar: https://tinyurl.com/47ukftct

DNHV: Report Highlights and Recommendations

The Southeastern New York Library Council released a new report today, titled “DNHV: Report Highlights and Recommendations.” I am thrilled to have played a small part in this report, which outlines the findings from research on data gathered by the Southeastern NY Library Resources Council about the Digital Navigators of the Hudson Valley program between 2022–2024.

Here’s an excerpt from the Executive Summary:

“L&G Research and Evaluation Consulting, working in partnership with the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council, analyzed data gathered by the Southeastern NY Library Council about the Digital Navigator program between 2022–2024. The research team found many benefits for public libraries, underscoring the necessity of these services for libraries and other community-based organizations in their regions. Because nationwide indicators for measuring the outcomes and impacts of Digital Navigator programs do not currently exist, we believe the findings in this report will help to inform efforts to develop indicators in the future.”

Download the full executive summary and summary of data findings to learn more about the impact of the program.

New Book Cover Design

I am excited to share the cover design (pictured right) for my forthcoming book, titled Digital Equity Ecosystems: How Community Coalitions Reduce Inequality and Strengthen Democracy, which will be published by the University of California Press in 2026.

The description of the book from UC Press is below.

“Digital Equity Ecosystems introduces readers to the groundswell of community coalitions that work to alleviate technological inequity and social injustice. Through a comprehensive review of theories and concepts across the fields of information, communication, technology, and public health studies, Colin Rhinesmith reveals how the digital equity ecosystems framework is essential for addressing urgent digital inequalities. Investigating five original case studies of digital equity ecosystems across the United States, Rhinesmith shows how community coalitions serve as vital infrastructure to tackle digital inequality and strengthen democracy. By focusing on these ecosystems as sites for community engagement, civic participation, and social justice organizing, this book helps us make sense of the current moment, arguing that it is crucial to bridge both the digital divide and other social divides more broadly at a time when democracies are in decline worldwide.”

New Article in Journal of Information Policy

Thrilled to have another journal article published this year, titled “Beyond Access and Infrastructure: Evaluating the Impact of Local Contexts on Digital Equity Strategies Through the Lens of the Digital Opportunities Compass.” The article was co-authored with my wonderful colleagues Dr. Pierrette Renée Dagg, Dr. Megan Knittel, and Joon Oh revised from an earlier version originally presented at The Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy (TPRC) 2024.

Here is the abstract:

“This article presents a multiple case study of context in shaping local digital equity policies in three communities in Michigan, United States. Few studies have systematically investigated local context to understand its potential impacts on the development of sustainable information policies in rural communities. By applying the Digital Opportunities Compass, a framework for examining contextual factors that impact community-based digital equity programs and policy, the study found that local context can both positively and negatively impact the development of policies and programs. These findings have implications for local and state policymaking, particularly for considering the community assets and invested champions.”

New Article Published in Journal of Participatory Research Methods

Sangha Kang-Le and I have a new peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of Participatory Research Methods. The article, titled “Understanding the Value of a Digital Equity Researcher-Practitioner Collaboration Using Participatory Action Research,” presents an in-depth analysis of the participatory approach we used to produce our (2023) white paper, “Developing a digital equity theory of change with Tech Goes Home” while I was at the Digital Equity Research Center at METRO and Sangha was at Tech Goes Home.

Here’s the abstract from the article:

Digital equity has been defined as a social justice issue. However, there is currently a lack of scholarship that describes how participatory action research (PAR), as a scholar-activist approach, has been used to advance digital equity and social justice through researcher-practitioner collaborations. In response to this gap in the literature, this study presents on an in-depth reflection on how we used PAR in a research project with findings that were previously published in a white paper in 2023. This current paper seeks to respond to the following research question: What is the value of a researcher-practitioner collaboration using PAR to advance digital equity as a social justice issue? To answer this question, we used our project team’s meeting minutes as a source of evidence. More concretely, this thirty-three-page meeting minutes document provided the evidence that we used to respond to the list of thirty-five questions from Cornish et al.’s (2023) six “prompts for designing a PAR project.” This approach provided us with a structured approach to reflect on and articulate the value of using PAR to guide our work together over an eleven-month period. The purpose of this current study is to address a gap in the existing digital equity literature and to more deeply reflect on our collaboration using PAR as a research/practitioner team. As researchers and practitioners working together to advance digital equity, our study found tremendous value in using PAR to create a theory of change, particularly in the context of the current $65 billion investment in universal broadband infrastructure and digital equity in the United States over the next five years, particularly to ensure that those most impacted by the digital divide are represented in solutions to the problems identified by the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act of 2021.

Investing in the Human Infrastructure of Broadband

I’m excited to announce that our collaborative final report, co-authored with Dr. Revati Prasad (Benton Institute for Broadband & Society) along with significant contributions from Dr. Caroline Stratton (National Digital inclusion Alliance) and Larra Clark (American Library Association) on the Human Infrastructure of Broadband is out today! The report, titled “From the Ground Up: investing in the Human Infrastructure of Broadband” features findings from our case studies, focus groups, and expert convening with leaders in the broadband and digital equity fields to understand how to sustain this work well into the future.

As we describe on the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s website,

“This report looks to the future, bringing together insights from previous research and convenings, to craft recommendations for how we can strengthen and sustain the human infrastructure of broadband.

Section I presents our recommendations for how to sustain this work going forward, informed by our research and the policy and expert convenings we conducted.
Sections II and III draw on case studies we commissioned and the three expert working groups we convened to present the dynamics of the human infrastructure of broadband at work.
We close by reiterating the ongoing, universal need for a human infrastructure of broadband and call on our field to build on the current momentum now.

While we outline potential actions at the national level, we are focused on local and state actions, too.

This report is written for policymakers at all levels of government, philanthropic and nonprofit organizations, and other stakeholders. We look forward to working with project partners and others on implementing the recommendations to sustain the human infrastructure of broadband even after current federal investments have ended.”

New Article in Public Library Quarterly

My new article, titled “Public Libraries, Digital Equity Coalitions, and the Public Good” was published this week in Public Library Quarterly. The article features findings from a 2024 study of U.S. public libraries. The goal was to gain a deeper understanding of their role in digital equity coalitions, as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has recognized that coalitions will play an important role in the success of their Internet for All initiative.

Here is a bit from the abstract:

“This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature by presenting findings from a pilot study of public libraries working with digital equity coalitions in the U.S. The findings from the survey revealed that public libraries support the public good through: (1) convening and leading digital equity coalitions; (2) participating in coalition action planning and advocacy to advance digital equity; and (3) actively centering equity, as opposed to equality, and social justice in their efforts to create and sustain healthy digital equity ecosystems. These findings suggest that if public libraries are to effectively lead and actively participate in digital equity coalitions they must not take a neutral stance to librarianship.”

I hope the findings from the article will be useful to public librarians, digital equity coalitions, policymakers, and others interested in learning more about how public libraries support digital equity through local, regional, and statewide coalitions.