Following in the footsteps of other successful application competitions, such as Apps for Democracy and the recently launched Apps for the Army, this is sure to encourage numerous developers to create innovative solutions to improve online access to government services and information.  The Knight Foundation is committing $100,000 in prize money and a panel of experts will pick a winner (including a “people’s choice”).

Click here for more information.

Nathan Newman, Executive Director of the Progressive States Network, said that broadband can reduce energy in various ways, including smart meters in homes and businesses, telehealth, teleconference and telecommuting, and e-commerce. Newman also stressed the immense cost savings that broadband would bring in these same sectors. See NGW’s interview with Newman below.

Annie Hill, Executive Vice President for the Communications Workers of America, carried a jobs message and said that increased broadband deployment brings with it immense opportunity for gainful employment. “Investment in the green economy is the job creator of the 21st century, and broadband is part of that investment,” Hill said.

Allison Chin, President of the Sierra Club, discussed broadband and smart meters. Chin stressed the importance of ubiquitous broadband so that all consumers can track their energy usage, and in turn be more energy efficient. Check out NGW’s interview with the Sierra Club President below.

As the event drew to a close, Congressman Ed Markey, Chairman of the US House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, congratulated the organizations for their work on the report. He stressed the importance of the transition to a new green economy, and the fundamental role broadband will play in that transition.

PROGRAM NOTE: Verizon’s Kathy Brown will be a panelist at tomorrow’s joint event hosted by Silicon Flatirons, Public Knowledge and ITIF (live streamed on NextGenWeb) and will also be discussing some of these issues.

Of course, with innovation being such an important theme that rings throughout the broadband policy and net neutrality dialogue, Dr. Larry Darby, the moderator of the panel, noted that really we have no clear definition of the term itself, from the FCC or otherwise.  He suggests the broad definition of innovation as “anything new that creates value for consumers,” which seemed fitting as many of the panelists echoed that consumers need to be a top focus in discussions going forward.

Jeff Campbell, Senior Director of Technology and Trade Policy for Cisco, spoke strongly on behalf of the consumer constituency.  He believes that with the broadband dialogue shifting to net neutrality, which is really an economics and market structure discussion, we have lost focus on the consumers.   He shared his experiences with potential customers who are hesitant to buy video transmission tools because they are afraid regulators are going to inhibit network investment and efficiency so then the application itself won’t work.  And he points out that this is only one of many “edge” applications that benefits from the ongoing investments in broadband networks.

A new voice on the panel was Matthew Hussey, Legislative Assistant to Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).  Hussey has an electrical engineering degree and extensive background in broadband and telecommunications.  He believes that it’s important not to infringe on the fundamental rights of end users, but said that when you have voice and video, that you need to consider the deliverability of these things.  “The complexities of the Internet are not rocket science, but they’re close,” he said noting that it takes significant coordination already among the private and public sector to make the Internet work.

NextGenWeb will be posting footage of the event in its entirety.  And be sure to check out these interviews with some of the panelists. Economist, Dr. Hal Singer, talked about his recent op-ed that ran in The Hill and moderator Dr. Larry Darby discussed his recent study on broadband and job creation.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was the first speaker and didn’t miss the opportunity to congratulate the Joint Center on what she described as a “thoughtful and thorough report of value.”  Clyburn noted that the report accurately reflects that different communities have different needs and interests and that the study is a key piece of the puzzle as the FCC finalizes the National Broadband Plan.

The FCC’s National Broadband Director Blair Levin spoke next, acknowledging the role of USTelecom and the broadband providers as soon as he took the stage.  Levin believes that although price can be a factor, people need to have the skill set to really embrace broadband for all of the purposes that broadband offers, from applying for jobs and social services online to the using the latest e-reader.  The issue of making sure non-adopters understand the relevance of broadband to their everyday lives was a message that resonated loudly during another event last week that looked at a recent broadband survey conducted by former Obama campaign pollster Cornell Belcher.

Dr. Jon Gant, a Fellow with the Joint Center and lead researcher on the project, spoke next to present his findings, noting the use of a longitudinal database to analyze findings and statistically compare minorities.  Overall, Dr. Gant found the following factors most influence whether minorities use broadband:

• Relevance
• Ease of use
• Social Influence
• Resources to support use

Of course, much like the recent report by FCC Consumer Research Director John Horrigan (who was also on hand to discuss both studies),  Dr. Gant finds that among minorities, there is indeed a gap in adoption by education levels, a heavy dependence on public access to computers, and that some non-adopters are unaware of broadband availability.

NextGenWeb livestreamed the event and you can watch the archive here.  Also, click below to watch our interview with Dr. Jon Gant and a reaction from Niambi Jarvis, a leading advocate for connecting minority women with power of technology.

Aside from home technologies, the AT&T Innovation Center featured demonstrations of how the company is embracing Second Life, augmented reality on mobile phones, assistive technologies like voice recognition, and so much more.

As you’ll see below in my interview with Dr. David Belanger, AT&T Labs Chief Scientist and Vice President for Information, Software and Systems Research, AT&T is not only bringing broadband to consumers, but an entire array of next generation technologies.  In this interview, Dr. Belanger explains how AT&T scientists work diligently to produce creative and innovative research, tools, and network technologies, which then combine to form the products that consumers enjoy.

The lunch session featured a discussion between Adam Thierer, President of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, and Ben Scott, Policy Director at Free Press, both leading (and effective) voices in the debate over whether or not the government should regulate the Internet. Neither one took long to get into the crux of their arguments. Thierer effectively broke down what he described as the “Five Cases Against Net Neutrality,” that included legal, economic, engineering, practical, and philosophical arguments.

To see Thierer describe these five cases in more detail, click on his interview with NextGenWeb following the debate.

Horrigan started off by sharing some positive trends in adoption, including that 78% of Americans are Internet users and 65% use broadband at home, with increases among communities like Hispanics and rural-Americans.  However, the 35% of those without broadband at home are the real concern, and as Genachowski said in his introduction, “there is no silver bullet to solving adoption.”

Horrigan took this survey as an opportunity to delve deeper into the non-adopter community.  He had respondents list reasons for non-adoption that included general attitudes about broadband use to better understand and therefore address those issues.   He also took the additional step of categorizing those people as “Digital Hopefuls,” “Near Converts,” “Digitally Distant,” and “Digitally Uncomfortable” to indicate their likelihood of conversion.

Watch the interview below with John Horrigan for more information and click here to read the results report in its entirety.