The NYTimes featured a story in its July 9 edition regarding the Broadband deployment resulting from the Stimulus package. It’s worth a read for the inspiration alone. The point and purpose of the effort is to bring high-speed connectivity to areas of the country, typically but not always rural, that have lacked for anything beyond dial-up for accessing the Web: “The types of Internet activities that most Americans take for granted — watching videos, downloading songs, social networking — are out of reach for millions of homes across the United States. These people — many in poor, rural pockets — either have outmoded dial-up Internet service or have no affordable high-speed service. Sometimes the nearest high-speed connection is at the local library, 10 miles away.”

The digital divide has cleaved a clear path between, quite literally, the have’s and the have not’s. If ever there was a positive need for stimulus dollars, solving this challenge is it. The plain fact of the matter is that without solid, fast Internet connectivity many Americans are marooned; and we’re not just talking about Facebook status updates. We’re talking home-based businesses, critical medical information, and online education.

I was a member of the citizen advisory board that reviewed and selected among the hundreds of vendor submissions for deploying broadband. Based on that I can tell you this process was exhaustive and resulted in truly selecting best of breed suppliers, some with innovative wireless methods for stretching connectivity out over miles of land to others with tried-and-true, simple wired methods. It was an honor to participate and proved to me just how serious this Administration, including the FCC and its chair Julius Genachowski, are about bringing broadband to every American, not just those of us lucky to be on the carriers’ path. (Not only that, but for you doubters out there who think stimulus money isn’t well-spent, I have hours upon hours of vendor reviews to prove otherwise.)

For broadband Internet is the 2010 equivalent of the railroad or the telegraph; without it, towns and families aren’t on equal footing to thrive. This revolution truly will be broadcast… online.

The New York Times editorial board ran a spot-on piece about the Revolution, the mobile revolution that is. It’s a must read for anyone who communicates with the public to influence public policy.

The Revolution Has Gone Mobile

New York Times Editorial, Sat., Feb. 20, 2010

By mid-2010, there will be 6.8 billion humans on this planet. According to United Nations estimates, there also will be five billion cellphone subscriptions. These are astonishing numbers. What is still more astonishing, and hopeful, is the breadth of change this number reflects.

The United Nations says that right now 80 percent of the world’s population has available cell coverage. The fastest adoption of cellphone use is occurring in some of the world’s poorest places.

Cellphones are cheap, their batteries can be easily recharged with solar power and they are creating nothing short of a revolution: knitting rural communities together, sowing information, and altering the most basic assumptions about health care and finance. Anyone who has traveled to Africa recently can vouch for these changes.

In nearly every sizable town or city, there are dozens of tiny kiosks where phones can be rented or repaired and subscriptions can be purchased. In regions where communications used to be nearly impossible, cellphones are essential to social innovation. This means everything from microfinance and electronic credit, via SMS, to better networking among health care workers and their patients.

Another revolution is following close on the heels of the cellphone revolution. This year, the number of mobile broadband subscribers — people who access the Internet via laptops or mobile phones — is forecast to pass one billion, up from 600 million at the end of 2009. That number will almost surely skyrocket, too — and the developed world should be doing everything it can to encourage it.

That means increasing the reach and lowering the cost of broadband and pressing for political and commercial openness across the Internet. Mobile communication and access to digital information are powerful development tools and aids to self-sufficiency. And we, in turn, have a lot to learn from the innovative way those tools are being used around the world.

Via CNN:

In the 2004 election, “new media” was defined by blogs. In 2008, it was defined by Facebook and Twitter. In 2012, those social media tools will move from your computer screen to your pocket, as mobile technology helps define the new terms of campaign engagement.

Political strategists are getting ready for the new era - testing new uses for mobile technology, and generating massive contact lists. Last week, Harry Reid’s re-election campaign launched a text messaging program surveying constituents on their feelings about health care. Those results were then sent out for all to see on Reid’s campaign Twitter account.

Via NPR:

Scott Goodstein was in charge of then-Sen. Barack Obama’s social networking strategy during the presidential campaign. This week, he’s a panelist at the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. He speaks to guest host Jacki Lyden about the future of marketing, media and music in the Internet age.