Community intermediary strategies and tactics to close digital divides and enhance equitable technology use in everyday life

Online technologies are required for accessing essential services, such as healthcare, transportation, and education. Challenges to online technology access can prevent resource‐constrained communities from connecting to these services. Human intermediaries who act in the middle space between technology and the person using the technology may help to enhance access and use. Prior information science research has investigated formal intermediation offered by staff at community technology centers and public libraries. However, there is a lack of empirical and theoretical insight into how intermediaries help resource‐constrained communities with technology in the informal and semi‐formal settings of everyday life. Therefore, this study investigated how community intermediaries (i.e., friends, family members, and volunteers from resource‐constrained communities) assist with accessing and using technology. Interviews with community intermediaries (n = 9) and those who received intermediary support (“beneficiaries,” n = 30) in a resource‐constrained American city were conducted. Results show that intermediary strategies address four digital access levels: relating to sociocultural and psychosocial motivators; acquiring basic internet and technology; developing and updating skills for ongoing use; and problem‐solving tasks for diverse use of evolving technology. Multiple tactics were used to implement these strategies. Findings can inform future training and infrastructure‐enhancement initiatives for informal and semi‐formal intermediaries from resource‐constrained communities.