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| Below are the stories from this month’s issue of Community Connection.
Key to this goal is making Americans see - giving them that “Aha” moment - so that there is a clear understanding how broadband can advance our economy in the same radical way that telephone service and electricity did a century ago. As an essential utility service of the future, broadband can change how we do business, deliver health care, educate our children, provide safety services in our communities, and in short, how we conduct our daily lives. This is why broadband plays so prominently in federal plans to stimulate our economy, with proposed spending of up to $10 billion on broadband infrastructure. Click here to read more >
With the economy in turmoil, it’s not surprising that U.S. mayors are looking for fresh ideas to jump-start local economies. It was in that spirit that the U.S. Conference of Mayors invited the Knight Center of Digital Excellence to deliver a keynote address on the potential of broadband and the promise of a “connected community” at its 2009 winter conference on Jan. 18 in Washington, D.C. (See video from Conference of Mayors broadband discussion) One person who knows how the Knight Center can help communities is Manny Diaz, mayor of Miami, Fla., and president of the conference of mayors. The Knight Center has been working with Mayor Diaz and other Miami leaders to develop a community broadband strategy, so he asked the Knight Center to explain the tangible impact broadband infrastructure would have on creating jobs and helping local economies. Click here to read more >
An example of how Akron is achieving cost efficiencies is the city’s utilization of funds from its public safety budget for building broadband infrastructure. By installing surveillance equipment in conjunction with the construction of a free public wireless Internet corridor, Akron will be able to deliver enhanced public safety services at reduced costs. Click here to read more >
The thought of a child being left behind is bad enough. But America being left behind in a flat global economy could have devastating long-term effects on the entire nation. A landmark report from the Benton Foundation raises that notion with startling findings about how far America is falling behind other industrialized nations in Internet access, capacity and speed. For the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, that is, unfortunately, old news. The question is – what do we do about it? First we must understand why this issue is so important: Our future competitive advantage is at stake. Consider the Interstate highway system developed in the 1950s under the Eisenhower Administration. Click here to read more > |
We know we need to put people back to work. We also know that a key component of the Obama-Biden Plan is to stimulate our economy through the development of a next-generation broadband infrastructure.
Akron, Ohio, is developing a strategy for sustaining its new broadband infrastructure that spreads costs across a wide spectrum of services. The city’s model can serve as a guide for other communities looking to implement broadband and drive down the cost for delivery of city services.