Larry Irving, a longtime executive inside and outside of government who champions equal access to the Internet and is known as an early coiner of the phrase “digital Divide,” is being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame on Friday night. He thus joins other Internet legends such as web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and execs  Vint Cerf and Marc Andreessen.

He also is the first African American to be named to the group and joins 10 other inductees at a ceremony in Costa Rica. Irving is a former head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration.

“Focus on the digital divide unquestionably has contributed to the growth and development of the internet as new and diverse populations have come online because of efforts to bridge the divide,” said  Chris Lewis, President and CEO at Public Knowledge.

“The reports Larry commissioned as NTIA Administrator were the first, and remain some of the most notable and impactful, analyses of consumer access to the internet. In his introduction to a 1999 report, Larry was among the first to note that ‘[t]he divide between those with access to new technologies and those without is now one of America’s leading economic and civil rights issues.’ That formulation has been repeated numerous times by others in the intervening two decades both inside and outside the United States, and it laid a foundation for examining emerging technologies, specifically algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence.”

The event will be live streamed.

Larry Irving bio

Here is a bio of the former Clinton administration and Obama transition team official as provided by the Hall of Fame:

Larry Irving produced the first empirical study proving the existence of the “Digital Divide.” This groundbreaking research sparked global efforts to begin bridging the divide and continues to be widely cited today by those studying Internet access around the world.

As the assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) during the Clinton Administration, Irving helped establish some of the earliest and most foundational U.S. domestic and international Internet policies, including those supporting universal Internet access, private investment, competition, open access and “light touch” regulation.

As part of this work, in 1993, he initiated hearings across the U.S. to identify opportunities and obstacles affecting development of the nascent Internet.

He subsequently commissioned a comprehensive Census Bureau survey that quantified for the first time the U.S. communities and populations that didn’t have Internet access, and diagnosed some of the causes. This research was documented in a seminal series of reports he co-authored, Falling Through the Net.

This research showed that Americans most at-risk for access inequity were communities that couldn’t afford to fall further behind, including the following: rural; low-income; single parents; the elderly; ESL speakers; and others who were otherwise economically or educationally disadvantaged, or geographically distant.

Irving’s data helped provide support for legislative initiatives such as the E-Rate program and, in conjunction with NTIA’s Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP), it also demonstrated the growing importance of the Internet for all communities. TIIAP connected schools, libraries, hospitals and other public access institutions where at-risk communities could access the web for free.

But Irving didn’t stop at connectivity. He understood that access alone wouldn’t help at-risk communities realize the Internet’s full potential: the NTIA also made provisions to provide hardware and training for Internet usage, and support the creation of digital content relevant to those communities.

Irving ensured that the data sets, which set the international standard for researching connectivity, were open to the public, and encouraged exploration of them by academics and researchers.

His work ultimately ignited global concern about the Digital Divide phenomenon, leading to international regulatory and legislative reforms and programs to promote Internet growth.