He’s working to close the digital divide in Kansas City

For nearly two decades, Rick Deane has focused his time and talents around addressing the digital divide.

His commitment to this issue began in 1998 when he worked for a nonprofit and was tasked with building a website for neighborhood leaders to be more effective in their work. Later, Mr. Deane founded his own tech company to support nonprofits, providing a service usually available only to for-profit companies with tech budgets.

So when Google announced in 2011 that it had chosen Kansas City, Kan., for an initiative to bring ultra high-speed broadband to communities, Deane was excited – but his optimism was tempered by concerns for those who would not be able to afford such a cutting-edge service.

“That gap is going to get so much bigger,” he recalls thinking at the time. “The ‘haves’ were going to have