Mark Ansboury at the NTIA meeting Tuesday morning.

Today is an important day for the Broadband Initiative in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Both Karen Archer Perry and I started the morning waiting in lines that began forming at 8:00 A.M. for the 10:00 A.M. meeting.

The morning’s agenda included remarks from Anna Gomez, Acting Administrator, NTIA, Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, Michael J. Copps, Acting Chairman, FCC, and Mark Siefert, Senior Advisor, NTIA.

Mr. Copps shared his viewpoint that creating a central infrastructure is the greatest challenge of our time. The U.S. has fallen behind in national rankings and Copps says we need to provide value laden, high-speed broadband to all of our citizens – stressing that ALL means EVERYONE. Some of the areas Copps focused on where smart grids, higher education, more efficient agriculture, better housing and public safety.

The group was also informed of the Broadband Initiative statutory requirements and timelines by Dr. Bernadette Mc Guire-Rivera, Associate Administrator, NTIA; David Villano, Assistant Administrator for Telecommunications Programs, USDA Rural Development and Scott M. Deutchman, Acting Senior Legal Advisor to Acting Chairman Copps, FCC.

Dr. McGuire-Rivera began the instruction for the statutory requirements and timelines by sharing the breakdown of the grant opportunities including 350 million for mapping, 200 million on public computer centers, 250 million for programs encouraging sustainable broadband use, 10 million for audits and oversights, and 141 million for administration. She also focused on the fact that projects must be in process by Sept. 30, 2009, and completed within two years. More coming…

Mark T. Ansboury is chief technology officer of the Knight Center of Digital Excellence.