By Mark T. Ansboury, the Knight Center of Digital Excellence

So we need new jobs?  To understand what a fully developed, mega-speed
communications system can do for our economy, think of what an Interstate
highway system did for commerce in the 1950s.  Today, leadership in building out an “Internet highway” could create jobs now and for decades to come.

Americans are poorer than they were a year ago.  Unemployment is about 8 percent and climbing. Numerous reports, including one from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), show the United States falling to 15th among developed countries in high-speed Internet penetration.

As President-Elect Barack Obama recognizes, technology and broadband can be a means to stimulate the economy, put many Americans back to work and help us reclaim a position of world leadership through the development of broadband networks that enable high-speed communications throughout our nation.

In a recent speech, Obama held out a vision of the future in which every child has Internet access, and all schools and libraries have the technological resources necessary to prepare tomorrow’s work force for high-skilled, well-paying jobs.

High-level research and main street anecdotes support his assumptions and demonstrate that broadband access and utilization will increase construction jobs and employment across multiple industries including government, manufacturing, finance, education, health care, information services and new industries yet to be identified. The new administration recognizes that broadband will create jobs for today and will have a multiplier effect that will create new jobs for years to come. (more…)