With the all excitement around social media and the latest trends in how people are interacting online and through what medium, today South by Southwest Interactive dedicated some time to the National Broadband Plan. With the plan coming out this week, the topic couldn’t have been more timely. Two representatives from the FCC’s Broadband Purpose Team, Elena Berkowitz, Director of Economic Opportunity for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative, and Dr. Mohit Kaushal, Digital Healthcare Director, both presented a bird’s eye view of the plan to a curious audience.

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.

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