Voqal

May 20, 2016 As fans of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance and the work Angela Siefer and others do to promote digital inclusion nationwide we were excited about attending the recent Digital Inclusion Summit. When it was announced that the FCC’s Gigi Sohn, Counselor to the Chairman, was going to be the keynote, well that

May 18, 2016 Voqal Fund program officer and manager of the Voqal Fellowship, Leah Pryor-Lease will moderate a panel titled Effective Civic Tech: Getting Beyond Bubble Gum + Paper Clips at the 2016 Funders Committee for Civic Engagement Convening on Wednesday, May 25. The panel will focus on a survey New Media Ventures recently conducted

April 11, 2015 Sometimes we all try things that despite our best intentions don’t work out. For Voqal, Independent Public Media was one of those things. We’re big fans of public media here at Voqal and we wanted to help preserve at risk community-based public TV stations. Thus Independent Public Media, an initiative dedicated to

Dec. 14, 2015 The clock on the 90-day injunction stopping Sprint from cutting Internet access is ticking. And even with the courts stepping in to stop Sprint from shutting off the Internet, Sprint is dragging its heels and filing appeal after appeal. We need to hold Sprint’s feet to the fire and push them to

Dec. 7, 2015 MIGIZI Communications is a nonprofit organization that has been serving the Twin Cities American Indian community for more than 35 years. A recent initiative, Media Mentors for Social Justice, engaged 26 American Indian youth in new media production training and social justice issues. The students produced 11 media projects promoting and investigating healthy food

November 23, 2015 Acknowledging “it is critical that the Internet continues to be an affordable tool for those working toward a better life,” Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) urged FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler to closely monitor Sprint’s WiMAX shutdown in a letter dated Nov. 20, 2015. Senator Casey commended the FCC for its efforts to maximize broadband access

Nov. 19, 2015 This just in: In an another attempt to subvert the orders of Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders, Sprint asked an appeals court to suspend her decision and force the nonprofits that run Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon to pony up a $65 million bond despite her ruling that this was excessive

November 17, 2015 Philadelphia residents met outside a downtown Sprint store this afternoon to protest Sprint’s shutdown of broadband access to 300,000 Americans, including more than 10,000 Philadelphians. Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon currently provide unlimited broadband service for $10 a month to 429 schools, 61 libraries and 1,820 nonprofit organizations across the country on

November 17, 2015 Several museums across the country, including the Field Museum of Chicago, recently announced they have divested their financial portfolios from fossil fuels, with some implementing gift policies preventing them from accepting funding from fossil fuel companies. Earlier this spring, The Natural History Museum, a Voqal USA grantee, coordinated a letter from 30 climate scientists,

November 16, 2015 In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission’s Chairman Thomas Wheeler, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison urged the FCC to work with Mobile Citizen and Mobile Beacon to prevent the shutdown of broadband access to 300,000 Americans, including 11,000 individuals in Rep. Ellison’s 5th Congressional District of Minnesota. “All Americans deserve equal Internet access