In this episode of Unbuffered, Chris is joined by Samantha Schartman, Director of Philanthropic Programs at Connect Humanity, to discuss the Alt Funding Field Guide: Building Sustainable Funding for Digital Adoption. 

The guide is a new resource that maps how digital skills and connectivity programs create value across six sectors: education, healthcare, telecom, workforce development, housing, and local government.

Samantha shares the personal history behind the guide. She helped lead the BTOP-funded Connect Your Community program, which trained 33,000 first-time computer users across five states, only to see its staff laid off when federal funding ended. 

She describes watching the field rebuild during the pandemic with ARPA and Capital Projects Fund dollars, then shrink again after the Digital Equity Act was canceled. That experience led her to form the Alt Funding Working Group, which has grown from six people to more than 150 leaders nationwide.

Together, they dig into the core idea of co-investment. Rather than relying on the next grant, programs can show local stakeholders the value they receive and ask them to invest in proportion to it. 

That could be a hospital system cutting emergency costs, an ISP gaining subscribers, or a housing provider seeing more regular rent payments. Samantha explains why this requires programs to move from testimonials to measurable outcomes, and to redesign their work around community goals.

Concluding with a case for government efficiency, Samantha shares findings from her Connecting Cuyahoga report. It found that serving social service clients offline costs roughly four times as much as serving them online, meaning digital inclusion programs can pay for themselves. 

Chris and Samantha also take aim at wasteful policies, like Medicaid-funded tablets locked to a single use, and preview future episodes that will dive deeper into each sector.

For more information about Connect Humanity's Alt Funding Field Guide, click here!

This show is 48 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed. 

You can also check out the video version via YouTube.

Transcript below.

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes (formerly Community Broadband Bits) or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Thanks to Whitedrift for the song Operator, licensed Creative Commons Attribution (3.0).

In this episode of the podcast, Chris is joined again by Jade Piros De Carvalho and Sean Gonsalves for a conversation about Internet access, digital equity, and how we organize society.

They begin with an article by Stefan Schüller that compares the United States, Switzerland, and Germany and tries to draw lessons about how networks are built and governed. The discussion looks at how you can “do it way wrong” in different ways, from privatizing everything to gold plating systems, and what those choices mean for competition and outcomes.  

From there, the conversation turns to a central question: how do you go back from where we are now in the United States? Working within a privatized model, they explore whether it is possible to move toward something different, and what it would take to create more competition and better results for communities.

They also talk about digital equity, including how training and local investment can change people’s lives and why those investments matter. Sean highlights the benefits of these investments in his latest story on Belinda Parker-Mendoza from San Antonio. You can find that story on our main page here. 

Along the way, they reflect on the role of federal and state policy, the limits of simply “removing barriers to competition,” and the challenges of solving problems in places with existing infrastructure.

The episode also introduces a new recurring segment, “What the Tech!?!,” and closes with a look ahead to our first Unbuffered live show on April 28th at 2:00 PM ET. For more information, check out our story here.

This show is 48 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed. 

You can also check out the video version via YouTube.

Transcript below.

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes (formerly Community Broadband Bits) or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Thanks to Riverside for the music. The song is Caveman and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license

In this urgent episode of the podcast, Chris is joined by Angela Siefer and Amy Huffman of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) to unpack a stunning announcement: President Trump has declared the Digital Equity Act “unconstitutional” and vowed to cancel it.

Angela and Amy explain what the Digital Equity Act really does, who it serves, and why this sudden political attack puts millions of Americans—and the country’s digital future—at risk.

They offer insights into what’s still unclear, how local organizations are reacting, and what’s at stake if this critical program is dismantled.

NDIA's response to President Trump's statement can be found here.

This show is 33 minutes long and can be played on this page or via Apple Podcasts or the tool of your choice using this feed.

Transcript below.

We want your feedback and suggestions for the show-please e-mail us or leave a comment below.

Listen to other episodes or view all episodes in our index. See other podcasts from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is Warm Duck Shuffle and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license

Catch the latest episode of the Connect This! Show, with co-hosts Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) joined by regular guests Kim McKinley (TAK Communications) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting) to talk about all the things we expect to see in across the broadband landscape in 2025.

Join us live for the next episode on January 24th at 2pm ET, or listen afterwards wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us at [email protected] with feedback and ideas for the show.

Subscribe to the show using this feed or find it on the Connect This! page, and watch on LinkedIn, on YouTube Live, on Facebook live, or below.