NextGenWeb caught up with Briana LeClaire, a member of the National Coalition for Public School Options, while she was out talking with parents about the coalition. In the podcast, Briana, whose children are enrolled in the Idaho Virtual Academy, talks about the benefits of online learning and why broadband is so important to making this education option available to more students.

Click here to listen to a podcast interview with Briana

Pike and Fischer Broadband Policy Summit
Sheraton Crystal City
Arlington, VA
Times TBD
June 18-19, 2009

Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet (IPDI) Politics Online Conference
805 21st St., NW
Washington, DC
Times TBD
April 20-21, 2009

Click here to participate in a webinar hosted by the Business Roundtable discussing Health Care Reform

Clinical Information Technologies and Inpatient Outcomes: A Multiple Hospital Study
By Ruben Amarasingham, MD, MBA; Laura Plantinga, ScM; Marie Diener-West, PhD; Darrell J. Gaskin, PhD; Neil R. Powe, MD, MPH, MBA
Archives of Internal Medicine
Volume 169, Number 2, January 26, 2009

• A 10-point increase in the automation of notes and records was associated with a 15% decrease in the adjusted odds of fatal hospitalizations

• Clinical information technologies hold great promise as a tool to improve hospital medicine. We found that, for certain conditions, greater automation of a hospital’s information system may be associated with reductions in mortality, complications, and costs, suggesting that information technologies that are properly designed and executed around clinical workflows could meet that promise.

Click here to read the full study: www.ama-assn.org

“Stim-Novation”: Investing in Research to Spur Innovation and Boost Jobs
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
By Daniel Castro and Rob Atkinson
January 27, 2009

• Spurring additional investment in research will modernize our nation’s research laboratories and facilities, spur additional research, and provide an immediate boost in employment for our economy. Federal support for R&D is critical to innovation.

• 20 billion investment in our national research infrastructure will create or retain approximately 402,000 American jobs for one year.

Click here to read the full study: www.itif.org

Click below to view archived footage as CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent and Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer hosted a panel discussion titled “Taking Steps Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The panel featured Sam Nunn, former senator and current co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Schultz, New York Times Chief Washington Correspondent David Sanger and Sidney Drell, senior fellow, Hoover Institution and emeritus professor of theoretical physics, Stanford University. The panel is part of the CSIS-Schieffer School Dialogues, a monthly policy series on the United States’ approach to global challenges.

The Internet helped elect him. Now will it allow ordinary citizens unprecedented access and influence in President Obama’s Administration? How will online advocates both help and challenge the new government? The Internet Advocacy Roundtable (along with Netroots Nation and Think Progress) hosted a recent event on using new media in governance (stream should be available soon).

Panelists included:
Cheryl Contee (moderator), Partner at Fission Strategy and blogger at major African-American political blog Jack & Jill Politics
Sam Graham-Felsen, Content Director at Blue State Digital and former Director of Blogging and Blog Outreach for Obama for America
Michael Lux, Obama-Biden Transition Team and President of Progressive Strategies
Ari Melber, Net movement correspondent at The Nation
Amanda Terkel, Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and Managing Editor, The Progress report and ThinkProgress.org

The event celebrated technology and the powerful force it can be in a modern democracy. Lux remembered entering the White House 16 years ago and not having email, while Melber commented that this year, the most-watched videos about the presidential contest weren’t made by the campaigns. According to Graham-Felsen, user-generated video hasn’t fully arrived yet because it’s harder to make good video than to write well. But he said popular content does get through to decision-makers: “We saw everything during the campaign.”

Since the campaign ended, the panelists were uniformly impressed with the strides made by the Obama team. But they suggested some areas for improvement: Terkel pointed out that official YouTube videos and the new White House blog often don’t allow comments, and that the transition team refused to answer a question supported by many users, meaning there’s progress still to be made in fostering genuine interactivity.

Lux noted that every era of significant change has involved creative tension between a progressive president and the progressive movements of the time. Terkel suggested that bloggers could be a valuable asset to the Obama agenda and one that shouldn’t be taken for granted by the new Administration. He added that bloggers will have more journalistic opportunities, producing investigations as well as activism and opinion. And to make citizens’ voices heard, Graham-Felsen promised that there would be an announcement sent out shortly to the campaign’s online legions. We’ll look forward to that development from this connected White House.

Click below to view archived footage from the Communications Forum hosted by the Media Institute featuring FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. The Communications Forum is a luncheon program held in Washington eight times per year that gives newsmakers from government and the communications industry an opportunity to address an audience of media, corporate executives and journalists on key policy issues.

HIMSS 2009 Annual Conference
McCormick Place
Chicago, IL
April 4-8, 2009