Representatives from each of these ‘mini Silicon Valley’s spoke at South by Southwest Interactive to discuss the challenges and opportunities they’ve encountered so that they can serve as models for other cities to follow.  The result?  New capital, jobs, mentorships, and increased visibility in the national business and technology landscape.

Panelists included Jeremy Tanner (Boulder, CO); Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist (Portland, OR), and Jeff Slobotski, Silicon Prairie News (Omaha, NE). Here are some of their tips for building and growing a technology community in your city:

• Have people become storytellers for your technology community via blogging.
• Host unconferences called “Camps” to gather people around different technologies and goals.
• Don’t take on too much as an individual. Delegate!
• Use local universities, if available, for finding talent (interns) and venues for events.
• Use even small dollar awards for competitions around innovation.
• Make technical events social, like “Blogging and Beer” nights and “Ignite.”
• Find mentors to help you grow and people with other areas of expertise (like marketing and PR) to help promote your products.

NextGenWeb interviewed the FCC’s Elana Berkowitz, Director of Economic Opportunity for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, and Mohit Kaushal, Digital Healthcare Director, immediately following their panel titled ” FCC Broadband Plan: Apps, Innovation and Inclusion” at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX.

The Broadband Plan can be broken down into three distinct sections – deployment and infrastructure build-out, adoption, and what they call “National Purposes.” The majority of the presentation was centered around this third section. National Purposes can be explained as various key policy issues where broadband intersects, and where broadband can be used utilized to find solutions. These include healthcare, education, energy and the environment, government performance, economic opportunity, and public safety – all issues that NextGenWeb has been intimately involved in over the years.

Two other interesting portions of the presentation focused on the importance of data as a driver for informed decisions and citizen engagement, and the newly formed “Digital Literacy Corps”. Kaushal stated, “Data liquidity will unleash innovation and application development.” While specifics of the plan were hard to come by (remember, it hasn’t officially been released yet), the plan will have elements included to drive increased digital data collection. This means everything from broadband speeds to tax returns to freedom of information requests. More data needs to be digital, interoperable and available.

The “Digital Literacy Corps” is a play off Americorps. The goal is to find young people who are willing to go into digitally illiterate communities and teach them about the benefits of broadband. Berkowitz stated, “Increasing access and digital literacy skills means more opportunity, more content creators and more customers.” According to a recently released FCC-commissioned study on broadband adoption, “relevance” remains a big factor for those who choose not to adopt high-speed Internet services. The National Purposes aspect of the broadband plan hopes to address that.

NextGenWeb has been following the National Broadband Plan process since the beginning, and we are excited to see the final product. If this presentation was any indication, the plan is sure to include the aspects of transparency and collaboration that were commonplace during the nearly year-long process. The goal for everyone is broadband ubiquity, and we hope this plan plays an important part in reaching that goal.

Panelists tackled questions ranging from defining what makes a blogging rockstar, to what trends they see in the blogging space, to advice for once you hit the big time.

Here are the top takeaways (applicable to bloggers no matter what your race):

• Success is about quality, not quantity. “Everybody is a blogging rock star, as far as I’m concerned … to your audience, you’re a God, to all 25 of them.” – Gina McCauley
• We watched every blog become a political blog during the 2008 election.  This demonstrates the power of bloggers to influence any discussion.
• Don’t devalue your audience.  It should be based on influence, not web traffic.
• Be realistic with yourself if you’re in it for fun or money.  “I’m a big advocate of personal blogging. Sometimes you just want to talk to other people.” – J. Smith
• Producing content does bring you access to capital.  It’s okay to ask for ads and sponsorship.
• Network with influencers in your community.  Make sure you have a seat at the table with your counterparts from other communities.
• Many bloggers start for fun, but once you get attention, then you need to take it seriously.

South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) has evolved over the years into a massive must-attend for people in the technology and media sectors, totaling 12,000 registrants.  In fact, this year, registration for the Interactive part of the festival (there is also Film and Music) is up 40%!  We look forward to bringing the action directly to you via our Twitter, blogging, photos, and video coverage.  Just some of the activities include panels, parties, the 13th Annual Web Awards, and the trade show and exhibition.  And of course, there are the people, all of whom are embracing the broadband network in unique and innovative ways.

We caught up with Mr. Hultquist after the event for his overall thoughts on the discussion and how sees the debate trending. Click below to watch the interview.

Susan Gendron, the President of CCSSO and the Maine Commissioner of Education began with her state’s new motto for education: “A personal digital device, at the point of learning, as defined by the learner.”  Gendron sees tremendous benefits in students being increasingly connected and shared that even when the budget was cut in her state, Maine still continued funding technology.

Doug Levin, the Executive Director of SETDA, seeks to address the following questions through his work:

1)   What are the ways we can address longstanding goals for education through technology?

2)   Due to large societal shifts in technology, how are expectations for education changing?

He sees large-scale trends and opportunities changing the education landscape.  He believes that rising student expectations, the need for new learning models and processes, and the potential to improve teacher and administrator effectiveness can all be addressed through technology. “None of this is possible without the technology infrastructure and policies that enable them.”

Karen Cator, the Director of Education Technology at the U.S. Department of Education talked about how she is going to utilize technology to make sure the U.S. is the highest nation per capita in college grads by 2020.  She recited the following ways technology will achieve a 21^st century model of learning.  Also, watch our video below for more on her agency’s efforts including the site www.ed.gov/technology.

1)   Learning (tech changing how people learn)

2)   Assessments (real time identification of what is working)

3)   Teaching (help teachers be as effective as possible – connect them to data and experts)

4)   Infrastructure (every student needs broadband at school, at home, in their community)

5)   Productivity (cost effective methods to meet education goals)

Finally, Steve Midgely, the Education Director for the FCC, discussed his agency’s approach to better integrating technology in education.  To do that, he gave attendees a sneak peak at some of the education related recommendations that we can expect to see in the National Broadband Plan next week.  Here are some of those:

• Streamlined the application process (simple application for small institution won’t have the same process as big project)
• Copyright adjustments (new educational notice, with an “e” in a circle instead of ©, to indicate free for use by teachers in classroom
• Fostering adoption of electronic education records so that data can securely and privately move between institutions
• Standards for financial data systems.  (What are financial strategies for effective learning?)
• RFP broadcast for services (to improve access to cost effective solutions and better connect buyers and sellers)

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.