Gregory Pranzo, Founder and CEO of PranzoTech Solutions, is calling for urgent, community-led action to close the digital divide, a problem he says is being overlooked by both the private and public sectors. Pranzo emphasizes that the solution requires people on the ground showing others how to use existing tools, rather than announcements about broadband expansion. His work in Baltimore has revealed the hidden costs of digital exclusion, from small business owners unable to access affordable automation tools to families left out of city services due to a lack of basic digital literacy.
Data underscores the scale of the issue. According to the Baltimore Civic Tech Survey (2024), 35% of households in underserved Baltimore neighborhoods still lack reliable internet access. The Pew Research Center (2023) reports that 43% of adults in low-income U.S. households do not have home broadband. Additionally, the National Skills Coalition (2022) notes that more than 30 million Americans lack basic digital skills, such as creating a spreadsheet or sending a professional email. Pranzo argues these gaps impact not only individuals but also city budgets, workforce pipelines, and healthcare systems, representing a broader systems failure.
While Pranzo's company builds advanced tools like dashboards and smart infrastructure, he stresses that solutions aren't always high-tech. Sometimes, helping someone sign up for email or use a shared document can initiate meaningful change. In 2024, he helped launch a citywide digital skills accelerator, training over 300 Baltimore residents in basic tech fluency, many of whom had never used a computer before. He also volunteers with Code B'More, a youth organization teaching coding and robotics in underserved neighborhoods, emphasizing that smart cities cannot be built if entire communities remain digitally invisible.
Pranzo urges individuals, businesses, and civic groups to take local ownership of digital access and education. Recommended actions include donating working laptops or tablets to community organizations, hosting free tech literacy workshops, mentoring someone learning digital skills, advocating for city budgets that support community technology staff, and designing tools and websites with non-experts in mind. He asserts that innovation should focus on ensuring the bottom 30% of users can participate, rather than catering only to the top 1%. For more information on digital equity efforts, visit https://www.baltimorecivictech.org.
