Click here to follow the Knight Center of Digital Excellence on Twitter.
According to a Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project study, "The Mobile Difference," nearly 40 percent Americans have positive and improving attitudes about their mobile communication devices, thereby further immersing themselves into a more robust digital lifestyle.
Read more
We'll find answers to as many of
your questions as possible and
publish answers in a future issue.
Ask Us
How will broadband affect burgeoning controversies over health care? The answers to this question and more came courtesy of a Broadband Cenus-hosted, hour-long panel discussion. View a video of the discussion.
View Now
President Obama on Innovation and Sustainable Growth. President Barack Obama has new plans to strengthen the economy that will all favor people with hi-tech educations.
View Now
Elevate Miami, a comprehensive Digital Inclusion program launched by the city of Miami, aims to serve youth, low-income families, minorities, seniors and residents facing barriers to digital inclusion.
View Now
The Knight Center of Digital Excellence held its first Stimulus Webcast Session for Knight communities and program directors July 23. Watch it online now.
View Now
By pushing hard on broadband, lawmakers hope to close the "digital divide" that has long separated rural America. In doing so, they hope to give rural consumers access to the same sorts of high-speed services and opportunities - think telemedicine, distance-learning and Web-based commerce - that city dwellers have enjoyed for years.
View Now
|
Archive for March, 2009
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
From William “Garn” Anderson III, vice president of Business & Community Intelligence at the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, writing from the Freedom to Connect conference in Washington, D.C.:
“There is one consistent theme from everyone: ‘Pace of changes and forecast of things to come in the next two to three years is going to be impacted by social media, networks and electronic devices.’ Hold on for the ride of our lives!”
Tags: electronic devices, Freedom to Connect, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, networks, OneCommunity, social media, Washington D.C., William "Garn" Anderson III
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
From The Knight Center of Digital Excellence to you: Freedom to Connect 2009 Day 2 highlights. We’ll continue to post updates as available:
Broadband Success Story: Lafayette, La.
Today’s speakers at F2C09 included Terry Huval, director of Lafayette Utilities System (LUS). Huval presented a history of the initiative to build a fiber ring around the city and provide fiber-to-the-home services. After years of lawsuits, fiber-to-the-home is now considered the “fourth utility.” The city will offer high-speed cable, internet, and digital phone to residents and businesses through a fiber optic network. Connections to homes will even include battery power, allowing subscribers to receive information by fiber even during a hurricane.
Broadband Success Story: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Herman Wagter, CEO of CityNet Amsterdam, shared how his city has built its fiber-to-the-home system to reach thousands of homes and businesses. CityNet has faced unique challenges, including a diverse customer base; deployment issues caused by building design and a lack of poles; and competing providers that have threatened the business model. He stressed the value in sharing network infrastructure and the importance of eliminating legal, economic, social and other barriers to enable connectivity.
Tags: Amsterdam, broadband, CEO, CityNet Amsterdam, community, digital, F2C, fiber-to-the-home, fourth utility, Freedom to Connect, Herman Wagter, high-speed, infrastructure, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Lafayette Utilities System, Netherlands, OneCommunity, Terry Huval
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
With broadband’s emergence as a national priority, it’s been an exciting year so far for those in the business of connectivity. Vendors, customers, regulators, legislators, analysts, financiers, and involved citizens are gathering at Tim Karr positioned that we are at a critical juncture of technology and politics with two distinct value systems competing - mass media (one directional & centralized) vs. social media (active participation & social networks).
• Tags: access, Austria, broadband, Dewayne Hendricks, digital, Ellen Miller, F2C, Freedom to Connect, FunkFeuer network, government transparency, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, L. Aaron Kaplan, mass media, Media and Democracy Coalition, Nathaniel James, Net politics, New America Foundation, OneCommunity, openness, privacy, Sascha Meinrath, Silver Spring, social media, Sunlight Foundation, The Dandin Group, Tim Karr, Vienna, Wireless Futures Program
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
While much of the world knows Detroit as the Motor City it may soon change its moniker to the Broadband City based upon the plan for reinvention developed by many of its community leaders at the March 19 Connected Communities Workshop.
The workshop, sponsored by the Knight Center for Digital Excellence and held at Wayne State University, focused on creating a platform for communication for Greater Detroit, and more specifically, the Woodward North End and Osborn Northeast neighborhoods. In addition to creating a conduit for discussion the breakout sessions facilitated the identification and prioritization of broadband projects crucial to each community as well as Greater Detroit.
While many projects were suggested it became abundantly clear that community technology education (in schools and in continuing education settings), safety, and healthcare were top priorities in leveraging broadband to reinvent Detroit—the most important of which was education.
Denise Glover, Program Manager for Detroit Wayne County 4C and Director of The Family Place expanded on the need for community training as a first step, “How can we expect our citizens to understand the impact broadband can make on their lives when they don’t even know how to turn on a computer and open a web browser.”
Click here to watch video highlights from the Connected Communities Workshop.
Tags: broadband, Connected Communities Workshop, Denise Glover, Detroit, Detroit Wayne County 4C, digital, digital divide, education, healthcare, infrastructure, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Osborn Northeast, public safety, The Family Place, Wayne State University, Woodward North End
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
At the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, we’re advocates of broadband expansion, in part because we believe it can empower individuals, and especially those who most need help.
A recent eMarketer study shows how this can happen. In this tough economy, 18.8 million people conducted online job searches in December, a 51 percent increase from the year before.
The study further found that among those with lower income and education, more people are going online for economic news, job information and education.
We feel these numbers not only demonstrate the impact broadband technology is having on our lives, but shows how important Internet access can be in bridging social and economic divides.
Tags: access, broadband, digital, digital divide, economy, eMarketer, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, online job search, workforce development
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion | No Comments »
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
As we move forward in the development of broadband, we continue to see unanticipated benefits that come as added bonuses. One benefit of broadband deployment is greater government transparency and easier access to public records.
A recent 50-state survey shows the need for government agencies to make more information accessible online.
The study looked at categories of information and whether the public could assess timely information in of each those categories free of charge.
Only one state, Texas, provided information online in all 20 categories surveyed. New Jersey came in second with information available in 18 categories. North Carolina was third with 17.
Mississippi ranked last.
Meanwhile, in Seoul, South Korea, residents have access to over 300 government services through their TVs and an HD cable box/modem/video player. Push a button on a remote control, renew a driver’s license.
In the U.S., we should be doing better. Consider yourself lucky to live in a state where you can find a death certificate online.
At the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, we see feel broadband technologies as can be a great catalyst for free and widespread access to public records online. Freedom of information, and democracy itself, can only be advanced when public records are freely available without cost or hassle.
Tags: broadband, democracy, digital, digital divide, government transparency, information, Internet, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, OneCommunity, public records, Seoul, South Korea, Texas
Posted in Digital news, Opinion | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009
At the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, we believe an investment in broadband technology has the power to not only provide short-term economic solutions, but also create long-term economic benefits.
One of those long-term benefits has been increased productivity.
A survey conducted by the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future found an additional 14 percent of working Americans surveyed between 2000-07 believe Internet access at work has increased both their performance and productivity.
Without question, the incorporation of the Internet as a workplace tool is one of the most important productivity advances in the last 15 years. But don’t think our international competitors haven’t been seeing those productivity benefits as well - on systems that are significantly ahead of ours.
Global business applications are becoming both faster and smarter, and the need for the U.S. to develop a national broadband infrastructure to keep up with them is increasingly apparent.
Studies show we’re becoming a more productive workforce as more workers gain access to Internet tools. If this leads to extra time, we’ll need it. We have plenty to do while playing catch-up with our global competitors.
Tags: broadband, digital, global business, infrastructure, international, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, productivity, USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future, workplace
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Opinion | No Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2009
For the first time ever, the World Equestrian Games will be held outside Europe, with Lexington, Ky., as host, in 2010. As Lexington prepares for this world stage, the city will be drawing on an expanded broadband network to keep event-goers in touch with up-to-the-minute happenings at the races – not just from the stands, but via the Internet from shops, restaurants, hotels and elsewhere downtown.
The games will demonstrate how a world-class sporting event can benefit from world-class technology, made possible in part through support from the Knight Center of Digital Excellence.
For example, advanced, high-speed communications will mean tighter security, greater ease in ticketing and even in finding the right bus from one point to another at the event. New technologies will also notch up operations in the press box and in keeping race statistics.
And when the World Equestrian Games are over?
Lexington will enjoy lasting benefits. Its leaders envision applications in areas such as healthcare, education and equestrian pursuits.
Watch this space for updates on Lexington and other Knight communities around the U.S.
Tags: broadband, digital, education, equestrian, Europe, healthcare, infrastructure, Internet, KCoDE, Kentucky, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Lexington, network, OneCommunity, World Equestrian Games
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity | No Comments »
Friday, March 13th, 2009
Since expanded broadband networks will allow telemedicine – meaning you can see a doctor via Internet – The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is hearing questions about how this will save money and improve health services.
Here’s an example:
At the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, 85 heart failure patients use high-tech scales (the kind you weigh yourself on) to transmit potentially life-saving information to nurses. They even prompt patients by voice – through a digital monitor – to report potential symptoms of heart failure.
The result:
• Nurses can monitor nearly twice as many patients as before;
• At the earliest sign of trouble, the nurse in touch with the patient;
• For participants, time in the hospital is reduced by 50 percent.
This and other similar initiatives demonstrate the value and cost savings broadband investment brings to industries we rely on in life and death situations. Finland has one of the world’s best telemedicine programs, allowing patients to communicate with their doctors via television and remote control.
We don’t.
Unfortunately in the U.S., we don’t have the broadband networks in the rural areas that would most benefit from telemedicine services.
That’s about to change. The federal stimulus plan earmarks $19 billion for the expansion of health care information technology. That’s in addition to broadband investments in rural communities.
Advances in telemedicine and the benefits seen by the select few that have access to it yet again show how broadband development - and the innovation that comes with it - will better our quality of life.
Want more information on how broadband expansion can benefit telemedicine services and impact our healthcare industry? Read “Broadband expansion is just what the doctor ordered.”
Tags: American Recovery & Reinvestment Act 2009, bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, broadband investment, community, digital, digital divide, doctor, Finland, health insurance, healthcare, hospital, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Montefiore Medical Center, New York, OneCommunity, rural broadband, stimulus, telemedicine
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity, Opinion | 2 Comments »
Friday, March 13th, 2009
One of the benefits of broadband Internet is that it can be a catalyst for bridging the divide between those with health insurance and those without it.
Here are some examples of how healthcare can be more affordable for the uninsured:
• Based in Boston, American Well went live in January with a web service that allows people to communicate with doctors through online video, chat rooms or by telephone. Keep in mind, this is a consultation with a doctor, not your doctor.
Currently, the service is only available in Hawaii through the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the state’s Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate. HMSA insured patients pay $10 for a 10-minute consultation, while uninsured or non-member patients pay $45.
• On the East coast, SwiftMD allows patients in New York and New Jersey to request a consultation online. After an assessment to ensure a patient’s condition is not a medical emergency, an emergency-trained physician returns the call within 30 minutes, day or night.
The site also allows members to refill prescriptions, access extensive health information and much more, for a monthly membership fee of $5. (Consultations cost $55.) There are both individual and family plans.
The possibilities don’t stop here. Similar services in other states are emerging as telemedicine continues to provide low-cost alternatives for the uninsured.
While there are skeptics, analysts and experts believe telemedicine could result in huge savings by keeping individuals and the uninsured from having go to hospital emergency rooms for unnecessary or inappropriate reasons.
The ranks of the uninsured can only swell with the rise in unemployment. Creative solutions drawing on investments in technology can be just what the doctor ordered.
Tags: affordable healthcare, American Well, Boston, broadband, chat rooms, digital, digital divide, Hawaii, Hawaii Medical Service Association. Blue Cross Blue Shield, health insurance, healthcare, infrastructure, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, New Jersey, New York, OneCommunity, SwiftMD, telemedicine, video
Posted in Digital news, Opinion | 2 Comments »
|
|
