Bringing Internet Speed Data Online Part 2

How Stae and M-Lab Can Help Communities Bridge the Digital Divide

Good internet speed data is hard to find. Using Stae’s Civic Intelligence Platform, we can change that by making internet speed data more accessible to public officials, community advocates, and others working to correct digital inequities.

In Part 1 of this blog, I explained the shortcomings of the FCC’s internet speed data and introduced M-Lab as a better alternative for trustworthy, real-time data. But there are two lingering barriers: 1) M-Lab’s data can be hard to access, and 2) M-Lab’s data has limitations in terms of how granular it can get along certain dimensions (such as geography and price). Stae can help on both fronts.

In Part 2 of this blog post, I show some of the work that Stae and M-Lab have begun to include M-Lab’s data as a ‘community source’ on Stae’s Civic Intelligence Platform — a data layer that makes it easy to import, maintain, visualize, and make accessible a variety of data sources. I also discuss how Stae can help local decision-makers use M-Lab’s data in combination with other open-source tools to get even more granular internet data to drive improved policymaking and grant writing

Importing M-Lab Data onto Stae’s Civic Intelligence Platform

After the folks at M-Lab sent me sample county-level internet speed data for North Carolina (covering January 2020 to June 2020), I set about importing that data onto Stae’s platform. I first defined a data type that would serve as the specification for the data. The data type gives metadata about 1) the fields included in the data source, 2) the data type for each of those fields, and 3) other notes and constraints. That information is important for future users of the data source, who might need additional context to understand what it contains and how it is structured. It also allows me to ensure that the data is stored in a format that adheres to prevailing data standards.

Data Specification for M-Lab Speed Data (available here).

Once your data is on the platform, Stae’s dashboarding tools make it simple to derive actionable insights. For example, I was able to create a dashboard of visualizations with M-Lab’s data using the platform’s built-in “Insight” generator, which allows users to make compelling charts and graphs without writing a single line of code. Check out the dashboard that I made here.

The dashboard that I made with M-Lab data (available here).

With Stae’s Map feature, users can also visualize their data geospatially. The Civic Intelligence Platform stores all your data sources in one place, so users can map their data in the context of those other sources as well. For example, the figure below shows a map that I created to display M-Lab’s internet speed data alongside ArcGIS data of public Wi-Fi hotspots in North Carolina, which I was able to pull into the platform using Stae’s ArcGIS import template — again, without writing a single line of code. The map below shows average median download speeds for counties that contain at least one hotspot.

A map I created with Stae’s Map feature. The map shows the average median download speeds (Mbps) for counties that contain at least one public Wi-Fi hotspot. Check out the Map feature here.

It’s nice to look at maps and visualizations on a dashboard, but what if I want to pull the data into my own data system and workflows? Any dataset can be filtered and exported out of Stae’s platform via an API endpoint. Data can also be directly exported into other services (such as Carto, Tableau, and Power BI) and file formats (such as JSON and CSV).

The export page for the M-Lab data (available here).

Users can then pull their data into other systems or applications to facilitate further data collaboration. For example, with Stae’s exporting tools, anyone can download the imported M-Lab data to explore further on their own.

Combined with Other Open Source Tools, Stae’s Civic Intelligence Platform Can Help Communities Dig Deeper into Internet Performance and Affordability

M-Lab data combined with Stae’s API layer provides a powerful tool that communities can use to gain a fuller understanding of local internet performance. But what if public officials want to combine that performance data with other valuable data, such as the location of internet connections and the price that consumers pay for them? How can Stae help communities go even further with their local internet initiatives?

Some inspiration can be drawn from the efforts of governments in Louisville, San Jose, and Lane County (to name a few). One noteworthy initiative that these governments deployed is the crowdsourcing application, SpeedUp America.¹ SpeedUp America is an open-source web app that allows residents of a community to test their internet connection using M-Lab’s tools and participate in surveys that collect additional information about the respondent’s cost of service and location.²

SpeedUp America Web App.

Integrated with Stae’s Civic Intelligence Platform, initiatives like SpeedUp could be made even more valuable, empowering civic leaders to design policies and request grant dollars that will provide quality internet service to all residents and give them the tools needed to thrive in a digital world. Stae, as a flexible data tool designed to make context-rich insights accessible to non-technical users, is well-positioned to make it easier for users in government and academia to layer M-Lab’s connectivity data with other data, such as internet survey data, demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau, public Wi-Fi locations, and FCC data. The simplified process of accessing these holistic system-level connectivity insights will drive more robust grant applications, more targeted program deployment, more transparent ISP-government relationships, and a clearer understanding of the ROI on connectivity initiative dollars spent.

Next Steps

Moving forward, Stae and M-Lab will continue to collaborate on the development of M-Lab’s API, which will enable integration with M-Lab’s speed data in near real-time on Stae’s Civic Intelligence Platform. Local decision-makers will be able to use that data both for their own planning and in grant applications, possibly alongside other relevant data sources. In the spirit of open data, the same API will be available for communities who may wish to leverage M-Lab’s data in other workflows.

If you are a city or local government that wants to better understand internet connectivity in your community, Stae would love to support your implementation of local broadband initiatives. Stae supplies tools that help civic leaders collect, manage, and operationalize data to drive the important work of finding solutions to pressing community challenges like equitable connectivity.

If Stae can support your local connectivity initiative with granular connection quality data, or if you are facing challenges working on another data-driven public-sector problem, please reach out to us at we@stae.co — we may be able to help.

Endnotes:

1. SpeedUp America originated in Louisville (a Stae client) at a hack-a-thon focused on broadband issues.
2. The application’s GitHub page includes documentation on how to deploy a local instance of the application for your community.