Digital Infrastructure: Increasing Internet Access through Community Technology
November 10, 2025
People
Seon Britton
Presidential Research Fellow
eon Britton is a sociology PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. He uses an organizational lens in studying social issues across race, urban studies, and technology. Seon is currently working on his dissertation, Nodes of Innovation: Community Organizations and the Fight for Digital Equity. Seon is excited to join the Center for the Humanities as a Presidential Research Fellow.
If you’re reading this, you’re most likely connected to the internet. And that connection is brought to you by an intricate tapestry of fiber-optic cables that run underground. This layer of interconnected wiring is considered a type of digital infrastructure, and in New York City, this infrastructure does not serve everyone. According to a 2024 report, Broadband Availability, Access and Affordability in New York City, about a quarter of NYC’s population goes without a stable broadband internet access at home.
The ERI/PS2 fellowship supported my dissertation research of community technology organizations (CTOs) in New York City. Even in 2025, a digital divide persists in which not everyone has access to or skills around internet technologies. As a researcher of community organizations, I am interested in how local communities in NYC are finding their own solutions in bringing themselves online. One of the case studies for my dissertation is Silicon Harlem, a non-profit organization whose mission is “to transform Harlem and other urban markets into technology and innovation hubs to fully engage in the digital economy.” Within their work of promoting digital equity and teaching digital literacy, Silicon Harlem is also one of the few non-profit organizations that has access to fiber-optic cable in which it can provide internet service to surrounding users in Harlem. In fact, Silicon Harlem was chosen as one of the community internet service providers (ISPs) by the NYC government under the former internet master plan.
My research over this past summer included reviewing academic literature on topics such as the digital divide and digital equity and how this plays out, specifically in NYC as a leading city of technology. Research for my dissertation also considers how race and class factors into the efforts of CTOs’ work of digital equity. The work I was able to undertake this summer will help in connecting issues of the digital divide and digital equity to the organizational work of Silicon Harlem in educating Harlem residents not only on the progress of digital technology, but also its impact on local communities and society at large. Through the innovation lab it opens up to local students and the community programming events it holds, the work of Silicon Harlem is a central part of my dissertation in presenting the CTO as a new type of organization that can help in providing internet access to currently underserved communities. The goal of my research is to show that local communities can organize to be legitimate participants in NYC’s technology ecosystem and also work to bring technological solutions to all communities in New York City.
