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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Knight Center of Digital Excellence held its first Stimulus Webcast Session for Knight communities and program directors July 23. Watch it online now.
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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.
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Posts Tagged ‘Milledgeville’
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 | 3 Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009
The Council on Foundations Fall Conference for Community Foundations in San Antonio brought together hundreds of high-profile Community Foundation representatives for a three-day event (Oct. 5-7) to discuss creating transformative change in our nation’s largest cities to its most rural communities. The Council on Foundations is a national nonprofit association of approximately 2,000 grant-making foundations and corporations that strive to increase the effectiveness, stewardship and accountability of its sector while providing members with services and support necessary for success.
Several Knight Center of Digital Excellence connected community success stories were showcased during the conference. Knight Center Community Program Consultant James Farstad featured the accomplishments of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and the Miami Dade Broadband Coalition in a presentation about the challenges and opportunities associated with meeting the information needs in large communities. Farstad spoke about Mayor Diaz’s vision for a 21st-century community and how the Knight Center’s unique approach has helped Miami-Dade accelerate efforts to achieve key broadband goals.
Other breakout sessions showcased innovative Knight Center activities in Akron, Ohio, and Milledgeville, Ga. Akron Deputy Mayor David Lieberth demonstrated his city’s commitment to exemplify strategies to meet the information needs of mid-sized cities, and Jim Wolfgang, Director of the Digital Innovation Group at Georgia College, focused on Milledgeville during his discussion on how small cities can uniquely meet their needs.
The importance of access to information and the new role of individuals as information contributors was stressed throughout the conference, with discussions focusing on how new media, libraries and broadband access are crucial to ensuring a consistent, two-way flow of information within a community.
“Informing Communities: Sustaining democracy in the Digital Age,” a report by The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, was introduced, and provided an outstanding perspective on how “information is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health.”
According to the report, “America needs ‘informed communities,’ places where the information ecology meets people’s personal and civic information needs. This means people have the news and information they need to take advantage of life’s opportunities for themselves and their families. They need information to participate fully in our system of self-government, to stand up and be heard. Driving this vision are the critical democratic values of openness, inclusion, participation, empowerment, and the common pursuit of truth and the public interest.”
Presenters were able to demonstrate how the Knight Center’s efforts in numerous communities across the nation have provided citizens with the new media and broadband technology necessary to maintain open information streams. Attendees were able to see how the Knight Center is demonstrating its ability to accelerate the creation of connected communities by helping them develop strategies and leverage information technologies to drive civic progress and economic development.
Tags: Akron, broadband, Broadband Expansion, community, Council on Foundations, David Lieberth, digital, digital divide, Digital Innovation Group, Fall Conference for Community Foundations, Florida, Georgia, Georgia College, innovation, Internet, James Farstad, Jim Wolfgang, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, library, Manny Diaz, Miami, Miami Dade Broadband Coalition, Milledgeville, new media, Ohio, rural communities, San Antonio, Texas
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, broadband | No Comments »
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
The Knight Center of Digital Excellence is dedicated to helping Knight communities across the nation develop broadband strategies that meet local challenges and help each other compete and thrive in the new economy. The communities range from large cities such as Miami and Detroit to mid-sized cities such as Akron, Ohio, and small, more rural areas such as Milledgeville, Ga.
Our key learning: Each city is unique in terms of their individual needs, but a sustainable network can be established in each one if our proven and innovative approach to digital transformation – our critical success factors – are met:
Inspiring digital visions: During the first stages of engagement awareness is key. We raise awareness of what COULD be, and what the power of information technologies can mean for the broader community and each key stakeholder group. This happens only by making the benefits of broadband tangible, real and achievable to benefit and transform areas including health care, education, government, digital inclusion, workforce development, economic opportunity and democracy.
Enabling local leadership: Once communities are inspired with a digital vision, local leadership needs to be uncovered, developed and supported. The Knight Center builds champions for each initiative, including stakeholders from multiple contingencies.
Developing sustainable community plans: Leaders of community broadband initiatives need to focus on the communities’ top priorities and interests help to help ensure short and long-term support. The Knight Center assists local leaders SEE the desired results and develop a plan, or “roadmap,” to ACHIEVE success.
Resourcing for launch: Every successful community broadband network needs sustainability strategies based on strong and continued value propositions that capitalize on both the needs and desires in a community and a community’s resources. In addition to plans that appropriately line up resources such as business skills, technical talents, financial and other project related assets, successful community broadband projects will have plans in place for continued investment, technology evolution, application expansion, community adoption and community leadership.
A sustainable network can be established in each community if our proven and innovative approach to digital transformation – our critical success factors – are properly met.
But how do you plan to pay for the network once it’s fully functional?
There’s no such thing as a free ticket – that’s the bottom line. Each connected community needs to have a plan, often developed in concert with Knight Center, that can include funding generated from initiative (self-funding), local private and public institutions, and/or national grant funding.
Cost is just one of the many challenges that need to be addressed at the program’s onset. But remember, all players – from the citizen to the highest government official – have the same basic goal in mind – success.
Tags: Akron, broadband, Broadband Expansion, community, Detroit, digital, digital divide, digital vision, Florida, Georgia, infrastructure, innovation, Internet, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Miami, Michigan, Milledgeville, network, Ohio, rural communities, stakeholder, sustainable broadband adoption
Posted in Knight Center of Digital Excellence, broadband | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
With all the attention on the benefits of broadband for rural communities, the Knight Center of Digital Excellence can point to the specific example of Milledgeville, Ga., as a community trying to leverage existing assets to grow and develop with the help of broadband.
What’s happening in Milledgeville is significant because it serves as a model for small communities across the nation looking to implement broadband connectivity for economic and social advancement.
Unfortunately, many geographically attractive communities like Milledgeville have been left out of the fast lane because they have no interstate highways running through them.
Milledgeville does have an active economic development team – but it’s a challenge to entice new companies to this small central Georgia community. The original state capital of Georgia is not without its appeal – located alongside the Oconee River and boasting lush landscapes, Milledgeville is attracting an increasing number of retirees.
Unfortunately, the economy has been hit hard in part by reductions in the need for state run facilities and the support staff that went with them. In addition, one of the community’s largest commercial employers recently announced 800 layoffs.
It’s against this backdrop that Milledgeville is looking for broadband to make a difference in the economic future of its residents.
Milledgeville’s civic leaders are hard at work putting plans in place to develop broadband strategies to create a high-tech environment that will deliver 21st century services to businesses. The hope is that the new infrastructure combined with the beauty of the area will serve as a one-two punch to attract new business.
More specifically, some of the empty buildings at the 1,200-acre state hospital campus can convert very nicely to high-tech industries related to healthcare.
A Clinical and Rural Health specialty medical education and service facility has already been proposed. And having the capacity to connect with big bandwidth to every other medical facility in the state and beyond could make it all a reality.
Tags: bandwidth, broadband, Broadband Expansion, clinical and rural health, community, digital, digital divide, economic development, economy, education, Georgia, healthcare, infrastructure, Internet, interstate highways, KCoDE, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, Milledgeville, network, Oconee River, OneCommunity, rural communities
Posted in Digital news, Knight Center, Knight Center of Digital Excellence, OneCommunity | No Comments »
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