“The Michigan Moonshot survey is well-designed, easy for users to complete and provides critical information for community influencers and decision-makers.”
– Bernadine Joselyn, Blandin Foundation
LEVERAGE CITIZEN SCIENTISTS IN YOUR COMMUNITY!
The Michigan Moonshot data collection process provides accurate, granular connectivity and resident sentiment data, which can be leveraged by municipalities, broadband task forces, county governments and those working to expand connectivity for the purposes of broadband planning and to support grant applications.
A thorough understanding of address-level broadband access, the speeds of that connectivity and citizens’ attitudes regarding service plans and price points is critical in the early planning and engagement process of a community network journey.
The Michigan Moonshot Citizen Scientist platform provides municipalities and broadband task forces with turnkey data collection services that include:
- Streamlined survey design and deployment
- Broadband speed test measurements
- Resident awareness and engagement campaigns
- Parcel level connectivity maps
- Data visualizations
- GIS files and data analysis and reporting
WHY IS LOCALLY-SOURCED CONNECTIVITY DATA NEEDED?
When seeking to address the broadband gap, understanding which households have access to broadband, and at what speeds they are currently connected, is critical. All state and federal grant programs rely upon coverage data for funding eligibility. The primary existing source of coverage data, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Form 477, is self-reported by service providers and aggregated to the census block level. This data is unreliable and lacks the granularity needed for accurate coverage inferences. Furthermore, recent studies from the Michigan Moonshot and the Quello Center at MSU have found that localized data can differ greatly from state averages, further identifying the need for regionally collected information.
CROWDSOURCED DATA COLLECTION TURNKEY SERVICES
DATA COLLECTION
During the citizen-driven data collection process, a website (branded for your municipality or organization) provides direction to encourage completion of both an online survey and internet speed test. This survey is designed to understand connectivity, address and demographic information, as well as sentiment regarding ISP and competition preference and price sensitivity. Companion surveys, in the form of mailed surveys and text-messaging, can be included in this process.
RESIDENT AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT
The Michigan Moonshot has developed a robust in-community communications package that includes all the deliverables needed to inform and encourage resident participation in the survey. The team can guide your community through deployment, or can provide marketing and communications services to purchase media channels, execute the logistics and provide analytical support.
The Resident Engagement Package includes templates for social media posts, flyers, newsletter and website copy, a press release and more. Each template is formatted for easy customization, requiring minimal updates prior to deployment.
INFORMATION VISUALIZATIONS AND DELIVERABLES
Once data collection has been completed, the Michigan Moonshot and Quello Center research teams will clean, interpret, and analyze the data from your study. Your municipality or organization will be provided with more than 20 data visualizations that include street-level upload and download speeds, broadband density per census block, speeds per price point, broadband penetration to k-12 households, maximum monthly price preferences and more. An executive-level summary report of all interpreted data, along with raw GIS files will be provided.
The Michigan Moonshot is a collective call to action which aims to bridge the digital divide in Michigan. Stakeholders include Merit Network, the nation’s longest-running research and education network, the Quello Center at Michigan State University and M-Lab, the largest open Internet measurement platform in the world. The goal of this initiative is to expand broadband access to all citizens through policy and funding, data and mapping, education and resources. Learn more about the Michigan Moonshot at Merit.edu/moonshot.
The Quello Center is a multi-disciplinary research center affiliated with the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. The Center seeks to stimulate and inform debate on the economic and social implications of media, communication, and information innovations in the digital age.
The Measurement Lab (M-Lab) platform is run by the scientific community. We make all test results publicly available via the MeasurementLab.net website to help promote Internet research. M-Lab’s Network Diagnostic Tool collects a number of measures of different facets of your Internet connection. The information published includes each device’s IP address, but does not include personal identifying information about you as an Internet user.