fbpx

Main Navigation

Sections

Social Media Connect
Our Other Brands
SFBW
South Florida Business & Wealth
Publisher's Letter

Editor’s Note

| 2ton

Here’s a stunning fact about today’s hyper-connected world: An estimated 30 percent of Americans aren’t connected to the Internet.

This digital divide has a major impact on education and ultimately developing our workforce. I was happy to learn that Comcast is addressing the issue with its Internet Essentials program. The program is designed for homes with children in the National School Lunch Program and makes high-speed Internet available for $9.95 a month, plus tax; a desktop or laptop with Microsoft Office costs them only $149.99. The program currently connects more than 500,000 low-income families to the Internet and involves a network of 1,500 volunteers.

Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen, who is based in the corporation’s Philadelphia headquarters, was recently in West Palm Beach to expand Internet Essentials with a pilot program to help low-income seniors. Among high-income seniors, 75 percent are connected to the Internet, but the figure drops to 25 percent for low-income seniors, Cohen says.

Cohen says that the business community is very engaged in the digital divide issue. After a talk at the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, he received over 50 emails of support from business leaders. 

Dr. Robert Avossa, superintendent of Palm Beach County Schools, is supportive of the program because he was familiar with it as school superintendent in Fulton County, Georgia, Cohen says.

Last year, Comcast announced a partnership with the Overtown Youth Center in Miami, which was founded by former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning.

Patrick Franklin, president and CEO of the Urban League of Palm Beach County, is supporting the program by working with Comcast on the pilot program at a senior citizen center.

Want to help out? Visit internetessentials.com and click on the “Become a Partner” button at the bottom.

I want to end this column with a personal note of thanks to our readers, advertisers and sponsors. It seems like we just started SFBW, but this issue marks our one-year anniversary. It has been very gratifying to see such positive feedback about our publication. Chairman and CEO Gary Press and the entire SFBW and Lifestyle Media Group team would like to thank all of you for your support.

Have feedback? Email me at kgale@sfbwmag.com or call 954-377-9566.

 Kevin Gale

You May Also Like

And Justice For All
July 20, 2020
Lessons learned
June 1, 2020
The era of retail-tainment
February 3, 2020

More Publisher's Letter Posts
Don’t take cruise industry for granted
 |  Kevin Gale

When you think of iconic South Florida industries, its hard not to put the cruise industry at the top of the list along with its broader family of the marine industry. According to Ship-Technology.com, PortMiami was the busiest cruise port in the world for 2017, handling 5.6 million passengers. That was followed by Port Canaveral

Innovation Central
 |  Kevin Gale

“Innovate or die” is the mantra in today’s world of business. This issue offers an array of examples of the innovation percolating throughout the South Florida economy. But, first, let’s take a little walk down memory lane for a case study. In the mid to late 1980s, I was an assistant business editor at the

Up the River
 |  Kevin Gale

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text] To look at the history of the Miami River, is to look at the history of Miami itself. According to historian Jerald T. Milanich, the world “Miami” is a derivation from “Mayaimi,” which referred to the vast size of Lake Okeechobee. (Another interpretation is that Miami

The resilience of golf
 |  Kevin Gale

I’ve read more than a few articles in recent years that have made me wonder about the future of golf, which is sometimes stereotyped as a game for stodgy old white guys. The story line is that the game is dying out because of changing demographics, such as kids playing video games instead of hitting

Other Posts

Boat show growth
 |  Kevin Gale

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text] The Marine Industries Association of South Florida likes to say the economic impact of the Greater Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show is like having a Super Bowl each year. I might add after watching the New England Patriots play the Los Angeles Rams that it’s a

Affordable housing hits the crisis stage
 |  2ton

A couple of weeks ago, the topic of affordable housing came up over lunch. I was appalled at what I learned. In South Florida, it’s become so bad that we are now in a crisis, leading the nation in the highest wage-to-housing discrepancy gap. More than half of our workforce cannot afford to pay their

South Florida is hedge fund heaven
 |  2ton

A few months back, I was contacted by April Klimley, a financial writer who had relocated from New York City to Delray Beach. With a background of working for major banks in New York and writing for an array of financial publications, she was rapidly scoping out the size of the financial services industry in

No Time For Complacency
 |  2ton

It has been 10 years since Hurricane Wilma wreaked havoc on South Florida. That means there are plenty of newcomers here who haven’t been through a hurricane. Even those of us who went through Wilma may not understand the worst case scenario for a hurricane in South Florida. The closest in recent decades was Hurricane