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. "We don't need another press release about broadband expansion plans," says Pranzo. "We need people on the ground showing others how to use the tools we already have. It's local, it's urgent, and it's everyone's job."
In a recent in-depth interview, Pranzo shared how 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. "When a resident can't apply for a housing program because the form is online, that's not a tech failure—it's a systems failure," he said.
The 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. Nationally, the Pew Research Center (2023) found that 43% of adults in low-income U.S. households do not have home broadband. Furthermore, the National Skills Coalition (2022) reported that more than 30 million Americans lack basic digital skills, such as creating a spreadsheet or sending a professional email. "These gaps don't just impact individuals," Pranzo adds. "They impact city budgets, workforce pipelines, healthcare systems—everything."
While Pranzo's company builds advanced tools like dashboards and smart infrastructure, he stresses that solutions aren't always high-tech. "Sometimes the most important thing you can do is help someone sign up for email or show them how to use a shared document," he said. "That's how change starts." In 2024, Pranzo 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. "We can't build smart cities if we leave whole communities digitally invisible," Pranzo emphasized.
Pranzo is urging 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 with non-experts in mind. "Innovation isn't about building for the top 1% of users," he says. "It's about making sure the bottom 30% can still participate."
