The latest social networking effort from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to solicit opinion on what a national broadband plan should include is beginning to gain some traction.

Ideascale, a Web 2.0 crowd-sourcing tool, is giving users an outlet to discuss, evaluate, suggest and rank ideas on a rolling scale.

And users are taking advantage of it.

Since Ideascale’s launch Sept. 11, 109 different ideas have been voted on 4,294 times. The top-voted idea (201 for, 25 against) is “Bring the United States mobile broadband pricing in line with the rest of the world.” Categories receiving the most attention from users are “Best Practices/Big Ideas,” “Deployment,” “Wireless Broadband” and “e-Government/Citizen Engagement.” In addition to suggesting and commenting on proposed ideas, Ideascale also keeps track of how different issues are voted on through an Activity Chart, and measures how heated a topic becomes with a Controversy Meter.

The FCC is also using Ideascale in conjunction with its other social networking outlets – Facebook and Twitter. It has its own tab on the FCC’s official Facebook page, which allows visitors to link directly into any topic. Twitter users can share topics with others and receive Ideascale-specific notifications when available.

The FCC stated that Ideascale is a “platform that will be especially useful as the Commission develops a national broadband plan, which will provide a strategy for reaching all Americans with robust broadband.”

We at the Knight Center of Digital Excellence couldn’t agree more. These social networking applications – along with the FCC’s official blog, Blogband, are allowing for a more robust discussion on key components of a national broadband plan as well as a higher level of government transparency.