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
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.
Colin Rhinesmith is Associate Professor and Director of the Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Lab in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is also a Research Fellow with the Quello Center at Michigan State University and Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Community Informatics.
Rhinesmith’s research is focused on the social, technical, and policy contexts that shape people’s access to and use of information and communication technologies in local communities. His research contributes to the fields of community informatics, engaged scholarship, and information policy. Rhinesmith has worked with civil society organizations, government agencies, and philanthropic organizations to advance digital equity through community-engaged and participatory research projects.
Previously, Rhinesmith was Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council. He has been a Google Policy Fellow and an Adjunct Research Fellow with New America’s Open Technology Institute, Senior Advisor with the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, Senior Fellow with the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, and Faculty Associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Rhinesmith received his Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he was a U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services Information in Society Fellow, a Researcher with the Center for People and Infrastructures, and a Research Scholar with the Center for Digital Inclusion.