Extending the Digital Opportunities Compass Toward a Verifiable Policy Learning Machine

A Project Compass Working Paper — Abstract

Abstract

The Digital Opportunities Compass introduced a holistic, six-dimension framework — Contexts, Governance, Connectivity, Skills, Applications, and Outcomes — to help states and communities monitor, evaluate, and guide broadband and digital equity policy beyond access and affordability alone. Its companion contribution, the policy-learning approach presented at TPRC 2023, reframed policymaking as an iterative, evidence-driven cycle — a “policy learning machine” in which measurement, feedback, and stakeholder input continuously refine strategy.

This paper proposes a practical extension of that vision. The DOIN Provenance Framework, developed within the Digital Opportunities Intelligence Network (DOIN) as an open-source output of Project Compass, addresses a question implicit in any learning system: how do we know that the evidence driving the cycle can be trusted? We argue that provenance — the documented chain of evidence connecting data, observations, contributors, analyses, and outcomes — is the missing mechanism that makes the Compass operational as a living, auditable knowledge system rather than a static measurement schema.

Building directly on the Compass’s six components and the policy-learning architecture, the framework treats provenance as a first-class element within a community knowledge graph. Each of the six dimensions becomes a set of traceable, attributable, and verifiable relationships, allowing indicators to be linked back to their sources, methods, contributors, and confidence levels. Drawing on emerging Graph RAG and Spatial Graph RAG practices — where relationships carry embedded evidence and source attribution — the framework operationalizes the feedback loops the original authors described, closing the gap between empirical evidence integration and adaptive governance.

We ground the framework in the Michigan digital equity research ecosystem and in place-based community practice, illustrating provenance through use cases in broadband planning, workforce development, school connectivity, and citizen science that reflect the Compass’s own emphasis on community capacity and broader outcomes. We further show how provenance strengthens competitive grant applications and reporting by converting community knowledge into audit-ready evidence aligned with IIJA and DEA measurement requirements.

Ultimately, this work is offered as a complement to — and continuation of — the Compass research agenda: a proposal that the next step beyond a shared measurement framework is a shared standard of trust. Every indicator should be traceable, every recommendation explainable, every contributor recognized, and every policy learning cycle grounded in verifiable evidence.

Acknowledgments

The Digital Opportunities Intelligence Network (DOIN) and this provenance framework build directly upon the foundational work of the Digital Opportunities Compass research team, whose intellectual contributions made this extension possible. The author gratefully acknowledges:

  • Dr. Colin Rhinesmith — Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council, Research Fellow with the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy at Michigan State University, and corresponding author of the Digital Opportunities Compass.
  • Dr. Pierrette Renée Dagg — Director of Technology Impact Research at Merit Network (University of Michigan) and Digital Opportunities Fund Fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.
  • Dr. Johannes M. Bauer — Professor and Director of the Quello Center at Michigan State University, whose work provides continuity from empirical evidence through measurement to policy.
  • Greta Byrum — Digital equity practitioner and researcher, founder of Community Tech NY and the New School’s Digital Equity Lab, and expert in community-owned broadband and collaborative ecosystems.
  • Aaron Schill — Director of Research & Programs at the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), with expertise in data analytics, visualization, GIS, and digital inclusion programming.

The author further acknowledges the collaborators recognized in the original Compass working paper, including Roberto Gallardo (Purdue Center for Regional Development), Hernan Galperin (University of Southern California), John Horrigan and Revati Prasad (Benton Institute for Broadband & Society), Megan Knittel (Michigan State University), Anna Read and Jake Varn (Pew Broadband Access Initiative), Alexis Schrubbe (Merit Network), Sharon Strover (University of Texas at Austin), and Brian Whitacre (Oklahoma State University).

This work also draws on the policy-learning framework advanced by Bauer, Dagg, Rhinesmith, Byrum, and Schill at TPRC 2023, which reframed broadband and digital opportunity policymaking as an iterative “policy learning machine” driven by feedback loops, empirical evidence integration, stakeholder engagement, and adaptive governance. The DOIN Provenance Framework is offered as a complementary contribution intended to operationalize that vision through verifiable, trust-anchored community intelligence.

The intellectual and institutional homes of this work — the Quello Center at Michigan State University, Merit Network, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Digital Equity Research Center, and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance — are gratefully recognized.

Suggested Citation of the Foundational Work

Rhinesmith, C., Dagg, P.R., Bauer, J.M., Byrum, G., and Schill, A. (2023). Digital Opportunities Compass: Metrics to Monitor, Evaluate, and Guide Broadband and Digital Equity Policy. Working paper. Ann Arbor, MI: Merit Network, Inc.; East Lansing, MI: Quello Center.