The candidates themselves are also embracing broadband technologies so that voters can access their messages and give donations at their convenience online.  Political ads may run once or twice on TV, but they are available on demand through candidate websites, and generating thousands of online views.   Of course, no campaign is complete without a social networking strategy, so local candidates are embracing tools like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to access voters at on the websites they visit daily.

From local to national, as politicians (and the publications that cover them) increasingly rely on broadband tools, it is critical for voters to adopt broadband to be a part of the dialogue.

“I believe Genachowski can responsibly – and with broad consensus – ensure the future of an open Internet by first taking the courageous step of withdrawing his unilateral and controversial Third Way proposal. In its place, he should explicitly recognize that a decision to fundamentally alter the regulatory landscape, especially when it directly implicates the Internet, requires legislative action, and as a result, he should encourage lawmakers in Congress to take on the hard but important work of creating a new, bipartisan and workable framework for continued American growth, investment and innovation in the Internet.”

To read Jonathan Spalter’s entire article, click here.

Castro points out that today’s big farms (egg and otherwise) are widely embracing technology already, from monitoring soil moisture to RFID tags to track livestock.  But with a larger trend of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States in recent years, Castro suggests several ways technology could be used to help with detection and prevention, even beyond the CDC’s Pulsenet, an information system used to detect foodborne illness case clusters.

In the future, better information could allow public health officials to identify and trace outbreaks more quickly. For example, if a nationwide system of interoperable electronic health records were made available in real-time for public research, this could allow epidemiologists to track outbreaks from unreported or undiagnosed illnesses by looking at data on reported symptoms. The FDA is also developing new technologies to rapidly capture, analyze and share data on foodborne pathogens through a web-based, interactive system.

Castro goes on to cite several government and private sector food safety projects in development that will take full advantage of today’s broadband technology.   He concludes by encouraging a policy framework that will best enable these potentially life-saving innovations to flourish, reminding policymakers “IT has an important role to play in monitoring, detecting and responding to public health threats and protecting the safety of our food supply.”

“The FCC stands poised to reclassify broadband service providers as content carriers, a category that would subject them to the same sort of regulation that telephone companies are saddled with, even giving the FCC the ability to set rates. The agency’s chairman says that the FCC won’t use this power — but this could change in another administration. Such a move would be a serious step backward.”

After over a decade of “understood” Internet regulation, the FCC decided it should be the new regulatory body. This stemmed from a lost legal battle where a court ruled the FCC had no authority over Internet service providers. After all the recent debate, Alden still sees a compromise playing out in this order:

“… legislative enactment of something like the Google-Verizon plan, with an emphasis on transparency about decisions that providers are making. Giving the FCC the authority to nudge things in the right direction will be a good first step.”

Click here to read the entire article

John Eggerton of Broadcasting & Cable shared more from Tauke’s speech:

Tauke pointed out that the accord included signing on to the FCC’s openness principles and adopting a fifth nondiscrimination principle “is much tougher than any other non-discrimination principle that had been put on the table publicly before.”

…. Pointing out that many businesses use virtual private networks to allow them to access benefits and services, Tauke said consumers should not be denied the same opportunity to access other services in addition to the Internet…”

The idea that Tauke had to switch his speech from addressing broadband deployment and adoption to net neutrality can be seen as a metaphor for the broadband conversation at large.  Let’s not forget to focus the dialogue on getting and keeping Americans connected!

“The communications sector is one of the few bright lights in an otherwise dismal economic picture. Facebook just reported its 500 millionth member; Droids are flying out of stores; and the iPad is the latest “must have” in technology. To enjoy the new toys, Americans are paying for more powerful mobile connections, too…

This strength signals that the broad communications sector can help drive recovery, because businesses that hire during a recession usually carry that strength into the subsequent upswing. If history is any guide, these job leaders may grow at least twice as fast as the rest of the economy during the next expansion.”

Because of this positive trend, Mandel argues, government should do everything it can to maintain a regulatory environment that promotes investment and innovation. He calls on Washington policymakers to “hitch a ride on the communications sector and find ways to stoke the jobs and spending engine a little bit.” But, Mandel states, “Proposals to regulate Internet activity now before the Federal Communications Commission would do the opposite.” So what do we need in order to continue this unprecedented growth?

“What’s needed from regulators now is some creativity and humility — in the form of “countercyclical regulatory policy.” This gives innovators a bit of breathing space at the start of an economic recovery, but sets the stage to tighten regulations later on if excesses develop…

This approach does not mean regulators can go to sleep nor does it mean they can raise the flag of laissez-faire. What’s needed is the nuanced judgment of sentries posted at a tense border spot. With watchful eyes, regulators must practice thoughtful restraint that allows space for job leaders to innovate and hire, while remaining ready to aggressively confront violations of law or abuses of consumer rights if they take place.”

“Although the rise in home broadband usage among African-Americans seems surprising in light of the current recession,” said Aaron Smith, senior research specialist at Pew, the fact that a greater percentage of African-Americans say lack of broadband access is a disadvantage, particularly for obtaining career information, “speaks to a recognition within the African-American community that digital connectivity is essential, even — and perhaps especially — during hard economic times.”

As broadband delivers job skills, research, and opportunities, it seems that our current economic downturn could be a trigger for further broadband adoption.

In the newest of Downes’ documents, he takes an even closer look at the proposals in the FCC’s Notice of Inquiry (NOI) finding some rather alarming details for an even broader agenda to regulate the Internet. He calls the FCC proposal the “most dangerous expansion of federal power since the end of the Civil War.” Below are the “Seven Deadly Sins of Title II Reclassification (NOI Remix)”:

Pride: As the FCC attempts to define what services would be subjected to reclassification, the agency runs the risk of both under- and over-inclusion, which could harm consumers, network operators, and content and applications providers.

Lust: The agency is reaching out for additional powers beyond its reclassification proposals — including an effort to wrest privacy enforcement powers from the Federal Trade Commission and putting itself in charge of cybersecurity for homeland security.

Anger: The “Third Way” may dramatically expand the scope of federal wiretapping laws, requiring law enforcement “back doors” for a wide range of products and services.

Gluttony: Reclassifying broadband opens the door to state and local government regulation, which would overwhelm Internet access with a deluge of conflicting, and innovation-killing, laws, rules and new consumer taxes.

Sloth: As the FCC looks for a legal basis to defend reclassification, basic activities — such as caching, searching, and browsing — may for the first time be included in the category of services subject to “common carrier” regulation.

Vanity: Though wireless networks face greater challenges from the broadband Internet than wireline networks, the FCC seems poised to impose more, not less, regulation on wireless broadband.

Greed: Reclassification of broadband services could vastly expand the contribution base for the Universal Service Fund, adding new consumer fees while supersizing this important, but exceedingly wasteful, program.

The Digital Learning Council will “create a set of best practices that would cover a range of digital learning issues, including: online and virtual schools, classroom technology, equity, security and privacy, and digital content,” noted a blog post from EdReformer. The second phase of this plan will encourage states to adopt these new and innovative technologies to help push education to the next level.

Online learning is one of the fastest growing segments in education today. Companies such as K12 Inc and Apex Learning have been in the forefront of this type of technology based education. K12’s online public school program offers a high quality curriculum using online lessons and hands-on education materials for kindergarten through high school students. Apex Learning provides digital curriculum for secondary education to school districts using comprehensive, standards-based online courses to help schools engage students in coursework.

Check here to read the Digital Learning Council’s full release.

Two afternoons a week, Dr. Alison Semrad, an endocrinologist, sits at a desk and consults with patients over a broadband video conference.

In a recent conference, Laura McKewan sat in a chair in front of a camera at a clinic 300 miles away in Eureka. She has Addison’s disease, a rare condition that affects the adrenal glands. McKewan would have to drive six hours to San Francisco to see an endocrinologist, so she jumped at the chance to consult with Semrad.

This comes on the heels of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s recent trip to a Seattle Children’s Hospital for a demonstration of their video conferencing system, which is improving their patient care.  Of course, this is just the beginning.  As facilities and patients adopt broadband at greater rates, more people in rural areas will be able to embrace video conferencing as a standard part of their health care.  In fact, the vice president of information systems of Kadlec, the company that demonstrated at this event, predicts that eventually “they’re going to become as commonplace as telephones.” Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/08/14/1301149/kadlec-talks-to-specialists-via.html#ixzz0wyUELyfm