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
|
Posts Tagged ‘Canada’
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
If there were any lingering doubts that broadband is truly the future world platform for innovation, the information technology research and advisory company Gartner Inc. put some of those to rest with their recent projections on worldwide broadband penetration.
| Knight Community broadband penetration figures |
| Gartner reports 60 percent of U.S. households have a fixed broadband connection. Curious to know how your Knight Community ranks? The following figures are from a demographics study that determined what percentage of respondents said they connect to the Internet from home using a broadband or high-speed connection:
|
| Aberdeen, S.D. |
46.9 percent |
| Akron, Ohio |
45.7 percent |
| Biloxi, Miss. |
53.0 percent |
| Boulder, Colo. |
69.7 percent |
| Bradenton, Fla. |
45.7 percent |
| Charlotte, N.C. |
58.2 percent |
| Cleveland |
38.5 percent |
| Columbia, S.C. |
55.1 percent |
| Columbus, Ga. |
50.8 percent |
| Detroit |
35.8 percent |
| Duluth, Minn. |
54.3 percent |
| Fort Wayne, Ind. |
48.1 percent |
| Gary, Ind. |
35.1 percent |
| Grand Forks, N.D. |
57.4 percent |
| Long Beach, Calif. |
49.5 percent |
| Macon, Ga. |
39.9 percent |
| Miami-Dade County |
44.6 percent |
| Milledgeville, Ga. |
41.2 percent |
| Myrtle Beach, S.C. |
48.8 percent |
| Palm Beach County, Fla. |
63.1 percent |
| Philadelphia |
45.0 percent |
| San Jose |
62.3 percent |
| St. Paul, Minn. |
53.8 percent |
| State College, Pa. |
68.6 percent |
| Tallahassee, Fla. |
57.1 percent |
| Wichita, Kan. |
51.6 percent |
| Source: Demographics Now |
Overall, Gartner projects 422 million (about 20 percent) households worldwide will have a fixed broadband connection by the end of this year, a roughly 11 percent increase from the number of households that had a fixed broadband connection at the end of 2008.
According to Gartner, South Korea is currently the leader in household broadband penetration with 86 percent of South Korean households connected to broadband, followed by the Netherlands (80 percent), Denmark (75 percent), Hong Kong (72 percent), Canada (69 percent) and Switzerland (69 percent). Gartner reports the U.S. lags behind with a 60 percent broadband penetration rate, but expects it to pass several nations in the next four years as projections have the U.S. adding 27 million new connections and raising its penetration rate to 78 percent by 2013.
Gartner also predicts several developing nations will see a massive rise in their number of broadband connections with an additional 135 million in the next four years. The firm expects Brazil, Russia, China and India to account for more than two-thirds of new connections in the developing world and nearly half of all new connections worldwide.
At the Knight Center of Digital Excellence, these numbers tell us what we already know: The cry for better broadband can be heard all over the world and it’s not being ignored any longer. Nations that have been at the forefront will continue to grow and innovate further (Gartner predicts South Korea’s household broadband penetration rate will be 93 percent in 2013.), while nations that have gotten a late start will begin to utilize the same life-changing applications many already take advantage of.
Tags: Aberdeen, Akron, bandwidth, Biloxi, Boulder, Bradenton, Brazil, broadband, Broadband Expansion, broadband penetration, California, Canada, Charlotte, China, Cleveland, Colorado, Columbia, Columbus, Demographics Now, Denmark, Detroit, digital, Duluth, Florida, Fort Wayne, Gartner Inc., Gary, Georgia, Grand Forks, high-speed, Hong Kong, India, Indiana, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, Kansas, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Knight communities, Long Beach, Macon, Miami, Milledgeville, Minnesota, Mississippi, Myrtle Beach, Netherlands, network, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Palm Beach, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Russia, San Jose, South Carolina, South Dakota, South Korea, St. Paul, State College, Switzerland, Tallahassee, Wichita
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, broadband | No Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
GIS mapping provides better insights for better decisions – plain and simple.
Communities must have a confident understanding of the actual landscape and current broadband coverage to formulate strategic plans that will enable them to achieve economic progress. One tool that helps accomplish this is GIS mapping.
 GIS (Geographic Information System) applications are tools that allow users to create interactive searches, analyze spatial information, edit data and map and present the results.
In short, GIS applications provide knowledge – address level, in-depth knowledge that documents actual broadband coverage and reveals gaps.
Michael Curri, founder and president of Strategic Networks Group Inc., which is currently providing support for the Knight Center of Digital Excellence through deployment of a number of tools and surveys in several Knight communities, was at the recent Broadband Properties Summit in Dallas presenting a grassroots approach to local economic stimulus.
His presentation focused on getting the most out of broadband investment. A crucial aspect of that was measuring broadband usage and benefits utilizing applications such as GIS mapping.
Curri said those who can measure local broadband usage and benefits can better position themselves to stimulate their local economy. While investing in broadband infrastructure to fill gaps in un-served and underserved areas is a priority, equally important is the need to have those networks fully utilized to maximize sustainability and economic stimulus.
According to a 2009 SNG study of Internet and broadband usage in 18 Canadian communities, 29.3 percent of new jobs created in the past 12 months were directly attributed to broadband use. Broadband itself created a direct employment increase of 3.1 percent.
Why are these communities seeing these benefits? You guessed it – they took a structured, best practices approach to develop effective local market broadband strategies.
This is why GIS mapping matters.
Matching broadband supply against demand can better identify un-served, underserved and underutilized areas. This focuses deployment of networks in areas with strong, existing, pent-up broadband demand. It’s the most efficient way to enable strong and sustainable economic development.
GIS also helps link people and businesses with training programs to increase demand and benefits that derive from broadband.
Again, it’s supply and demand. Matching broadband supply with demand while promoting broadband usage is fundamental to increasing productivity and competitiveness. This leads to retaining and growing businesses, attracting new ones and creating higher paying job opportunities locally.
In short, to develop sound and sustainable broadband strategies, policymakers need access to accurate, in-depth data. GIS mapping is a tool to obtain that.
Tags: bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, Broadband Properties Summit, Canada, community, Dallas, digital, economy, education, Geographic Information System applications, GIS mapping, Grassroots Approach to Local Economic Stimulus, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Michael Curri, network, OneCommunity, rural communities, SNG, SNG study of Internet and broadband usage, Strategic Networks Group Inc., Texas
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Opinion | No Comments »
|
|
