Politico’s Morning Tech reports that Federal CIO Vivek Kundra launched an updated version of the IT Dashboard today.  The updated site, which enables people to go online to view details and progress of federal information technology investments, will now feature more data feeds, more sophisticated search options and mobile access.

Kundra told Morning Tech the newly launched version allows agency officials to customize their IT investment portfolio in the same way an average consumer would customize a stock portfolio. And OMB can track how those officials perform. “You can slice and dice data by bureau, investment, line items and contracts,” Kundra said. “This helps us find problem areas across the government.”

These updates reflect the latest investments by the U.S. government in embracing technology for improving efficiency and transparency.  However, it is critical for the American public to have broadband to access this information, and a regulatory environment that is conducive for deployment and access is also therefore critical.

Click here for more NextGenWeb coverage of the important ways that government is embracing broadband to engage, innovate and ensure that information is just a click away.

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Two new websites announcements came out today as the federal government continues to take advantage of the benefits of broadband to improve communications both internally and externally.

The first is a social network for federal employees and contractors by the General Services Administration.  Word first got out on the site, dubbed “FedSpace,” earlier this year.  But today Hillicon Valley’s Guatham Nagesh shared updates on the progress of the site, due to go live in the fall, from an interview with GSA’s Associate Administrator David McClure:

McClure said FedSpace will have features from several networking sites, including Facebook-style profiles, blogs and a wiki so employees can share information. Rather than building the system from scratch, GSA is pulling elements from other federal programs so it can speed the launch. The pilot project will be hosted on the cloud, which McClure hopes will help prove that cloud applications are cheaper and easier to deploy.

The other announcement was the launch of Healthcare.gov, which went live today.  The site is managed by the Department of Health & Human Services and aims to help Americans become more informed about health insurance options.  Washington Post’s Ezra Klein applauded the site today:

…HealthCare.gov is live now, and it’s a slick, easy-to-use site, which may be the best thing out there for seeing both the public and private health-coverage options for people in your situation in your area. And the obvious advantage of starting the site this early is that there’s a lot of time for the tech team to play with it, improve it, and get comfortable with it before 2014, when it really needs to be working.

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Jonathan S. Adelstein, Administrator of the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, was today’s keynote at the Broadband Breakfast on “Challenges to Rural Broadband Availability and Adoption.”  Adelstein first acknowledged the tremendous support he is experiencing given that broadband is a top agenda item at the White House and the FCC, but then went on to discuss some of the challenges with rural broadband that his agency is seeking to address.  Of course, the cost of deployment is higher, but he finds this challenge is exacerbated by lower revenue potential due to lower adoption rates in rural areas.  Some of the reasons that Adelstein cited for lower broadband adoption in rural communities include digital literacy challenges, lack of working computers in homes, and an aging population.  The rural broadband expert panelists after his keynote suggested solutions such as working with local governments, targeting support to unserved areas, and driving demand through digital literacy programs.

Adelstein is seeing broadband success with the funds invested from the Recovery Act.  He not only seeks to build further off that success with programs to help communities leverage their broadband progress, but also looks forward to the second round of investments which will be more than double the first round (a strategy so RUS could learn from the first round and improve).  As Adelstein noted, rural communities are actually some of those most in need of fast, reliable broadband for services like telemedicine and distance learning.

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One of the central themes during both the Health 2.0 conference and the Disruptive Women in Health Care Breakfast events was the growing role of the patient in their health care decisions.  Whereas once patients were limited to the information given by their doctor and perhaps an encyclopedia at home, patients now have the Internet to provide a world of new information.  And this new world of information is empowering patients with questions, solutions, research, and more, to play a more active role in their health care choices.

One of the most popular ways of gathering and sharing health information is through targeted social networks, like Patients Like Me.  More than just a social network, Patients Like Me captures and shares valuable results among patients, health care professionals, and industry organizations that are trying to treat disease. NextGenWeb spoke with the website’s Chairman and Co-Founder, Jamie Heywood, about the site and what makes it so successful.  “Simplicity of use is necessary, but the real thing you have to focus on is solving a problem for someone.”

People are also able to take better control of their health with broadband-enabled tools designed around general health and wellness.  Although many websites geared towards diet and exercise offer information, there is a movement of innovation around taking the next steps to motivation, tracking and sharing. NextGenWeb spoke with Nicholas Tolson, the CEO of FitFeud, an online fitness competition site while at the Health 2.0 Conference.  See how his company is embracing broadband for wellness below.

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Blair Levin, former director of the FCC’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative and now a Fellow with the Aspen Institute, spoke this week at a Broadband Breakfast event.  Levin shared his pride in the creation of the National Broadband Plan and also his secret inspiration for it (which is no longer so secret).

Levin referred to an old Apple ad from the late 80’s in which one office executive asks another “which computer do you think is the most powerful?”  The other responds “I think it’s the one people actually use.”  Levin’s point, which is well – taken, is that the important thing is not the numbers, but how people use broadband.

The conversation continued with a panel of key industry officials representing Canada, Korea, the UK, and other parts of Europe, moderated by Lynn Stanton, Senior Editor of TR Reports.   The panelists echoed support for the plan and shared their respective countries’ stories of broadband success.   You can watch the Broadband Breakfast, titled “International Perspectives on the U.S. National Broadband Plan,” in its entirety below.

International Perspectives on the U.S. National Broadband Plan from Broadband Breakfast on Vimeo.

Today, Phoebe Yang, General Counsel for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC, joined a panel titled “The Future of Broadband” that was hosted by the CQ-Roll Call Group.  Yang wanted to focus on two calls to action in the broadband plan.  First, she believes the national priorities are key because of how they will benefit Americans. Yang cited that 62% of American workers rely on the Internet to do their jobs, and then touched on just some of the opportunities broadband creates in the education and public safety sectors.  Her second focus is making broadband ubiquitous, which led to the establishment of the Connect America and Mobility Funds to help with access to the unserved.

NextGenWeb will continue to follow the challenges and successes as the FCC continues to move into the implementation phase of the National Broadband Plan.

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The Georgetown Center for Business & Public Policy took to the Hill yesterday with a line-up of experts to discuss future job opportunities that will have the most impact on economic growth.   What are they you ask?

Green Jobs – As we transition to a greener economy, the increased demand for greater energy efficiency creates incredible potential for growth in the green jobs sector.  Mark Doms, a Chief Economist at the Department of Commerce, says that although the green economy is currently just 1-2% of the economy, with the right policies and investments, this could be an important area of growth.  Supporting this trend, fellow panelist Bob Nelson, President of CWG Midwest cited data from the growth of his e-waste recycling company, like the 20% increase in the recycling of cell phones.

Smart Jobs – Panelists were quick to note that often our job concerns focus on manufacturing, when the real opportunities for growth are in services and other “skilled, high wage” businesses.  Georgetown Business Professor J. Bradford Jensen says the smart business service sector is 25% of all jobs (vs. only 10% in manufacturing), suggesting this is where we need to focus.  Paul Delaney, a representative from FedEx Express concurred, even noting that IBM 20 years ago was about 80% manufacturing and 20% services now is 80% services and 20% manufacturing.

Broad(band) Jobs – Robert Shapiro, a Senior Policy Fellow at the Georgetown Center, brought to light the economic reality that job creation has now declined relative to economic growth, and therefore, we can no longer be complacent about job growth. He believes that broadband deployment will be key to new jobs, generating job growth in infrastructure, devices, and applications.  Fellow panelist Nicol Turner-Lee agreed noting that with increased digital literacy opportunities, minority and low-income communities could benefit from economic success.

Shapiro also noted that communities with broadband had more job growth than those without, demonstrating the increased labor value of those who work with these technologies.  He says we need policies that support investment in broadband and cautioned the Administration and Congress about policy changes that could weaken these investments.

Read more about broadband and jobs in this report from the Brookings Institute and this report from ITIF, and watch the video below for more from Robert Shapiro.

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The Broadband Properties Summit introduced a new partner this year, the Rural Telecommunications Congress (RTC), to host a one-day forum alongside the main conference focusing on rural community opportunities and challenges.  The RTC track presented over 24 speakers with rural expertise, including Director of Deployment for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC, Rob Curtis.  Speakers addressed important topics like the benefits of broadband access in rural communities, how to successfully bring broadband into rural communities, and once it’s there, how to maximize the use of it, both individually and institutionally.

One theme that ran throughout the discussions was that of economic opportunity.  Brent Legg of Connected Nation pointed out that broadband doesn’t get a lot of attention in communities where technology is a topic of discussion. He suggests making it a tangible issue by asking “What do you want to accomplish in the next 25 years?”  Generally, he finds, the answer revolves around economic development.

Greg Laudeman, President of the RTC and longtime manager of programs to facilitate the adoption of broadband technologies, shared his advice on bringing broadband to rural communities, noting that many rural community leaders “think broadband is for someone else, by someone else. “ He suggests looking at organizations that really embrace it, to demonstrate the fundamental differences of those really maximizing technology.  And then how do you get local leaders on board?  Laudeman suggests 1) Demonstrate success of other like communities and 2) Do training on the technology and what it will do.

NextGenWeb caught up with several speakers from the RTC track.  Watch the interviews below to see how Jane Patterson, RTC Director and Executive Director of the e-NC Authority, Greg Laudeman, President of the RTC, Brent Legg, VP of State and Local Initiatives for Connected Nation, and Harry Roesch, RTC Board Member, are all facilitating broadband access and use in rural areas!

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I caught up recently with Camsie Matis, who is leading a new campaign called National Lab Day that is meant to inspire children to pursue STEM careers.  She describes the efforts as a sort of e-Harmony to connect Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teachers with real world practitioners in order to bring more professional experiences into the classroom.  So when an educator posts a project, the National Lab Day system will connect them with ideal participants, resulting in truly unique science experiences for students in grades K-12.  Learn more below!

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Mark A. Jamison, Director of the Unviersity of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center, and Janice Hauge, Associate Professor of the Department of Economics at the University of North Texas collaborated on an opinion piece in today’s South Florida Times to paint the picture of a one-dimensional network. They point out the harm to innovation and consumers that such regulations could in fact create.

The authors use the highway analogy, pointing out how much value today’s transportation system would offer without options like high occupancy vehicle lanes, car-only lanes, and toll road alternatives.  It’s these types of competitive choices that drive innovation and confer increased options for consumers, on roads and online:

“Today’s successful Internet sites face greater competition if we move beyond net neutrality principles. That probably explains why they are net neutrality’s strongest advocates. But moving beyond a dumb network is better for customers, sites that find new opportunities and networks.

It should be no surprise that dumb isn’t better. In an innovation-driven economy, restrictions don’t make us better. They hold us back.”

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In light of the upcoming FCC Broadband Workshop: Economic Issues in Broadband Competition, Senior Fellow of American Consumer Institute Dr. Larry Darby shared his perspectives on broadband competition and the economy this week.  Dr. Darby is not only a scholar with ACI, but also a trusted advisor to the technology sector, a former FCC bureau chief and a long time demand-side economist.

Dr. Darby began by stating that although the FCC maintains that there is not enough competition in the broadband space, this does not, in fact, translate into market power for broadband providers.  He believes that our growing wireless networks (3G, 4G, etc.) are leading to substantial competition and that the main constraint for wireless is in government, not the marketplace.

Particularly if the goal of the FCC is to improve entrants into the broadband market, Dr. Darby believes that FCC should not increase regulation.  He believes the best thing the FCC can do is to create a regulatory climate that will lead to an increase in risk capitol in technology and innovation.  Based on Pew data, he also noted that barriers to entry are computer ownership and digital literacy, and so attention should focus on maximizing consumer welfare, and not on broadband supply.

In the Q&A portion of the call, I asked Dr. Darby to share his thoughts on the role of broadband in improving our economy as a whole.  Dr. Darby was grateful for the question, as he believes that the government will need to look beyond traditional fiscal and monetary policy to fix our recession to broadband.  His response:

“The third path for the economy would be to make certain government policies spur growth of sectors that create wealth, income, and productivity – like broadband.  Lots of studies show that investing in broadband will create jobs, a better environment, and more efficiency.  Most [economic] gains in the past can be attributed to the growth of the communications industry.”

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