Universal Broadband, Policy and Blogging with Digg

There are two posts below this one. They are actually two articles that I "dugg" over at Digg about something that I find very important. Broadband access. It's a theme that was discussed at the e-State conference I was at back in May, and it is clear it is an issue that is gaining more and more attention nationally.

In the first article, note that Google has joined a group of other businesses, activists, individuals and policymakers to bring the Internet to everyone. Check out the Internet For Everyone website at http://www.internetforeveryone.org.

The second article is from "The Social" blog from CNet and it's about...well the same thing. We need to stop getting razzle-dazzled by tools (shiny objects) and focus in on what is important. The next "big thing" in policy and politics isn't about social media and getting people to spend their money...it's getting access to the internet for every citizen in this country.

I've blogged both posts to add to the buzz and I've joined the internet for everyone campaign. You should too.

There's a nifty little widget on their home page that lets you see how your state "stacks up". Here in Vermont as of 2007 326,700 people did not have Broadband. Um...guess what folks...that is more than 50% of Vermonters who do NOT HAVE Broadband access. In this case the glass is half empty for sure.

So Vermont policy-makers...what do you think? Who will lead the charge and push this "e-State"?

Micro-blogging with Twitter at the e-State Symposium with my BlackBerry

As I posted earlier today, I attended the e-State Symposium at Champlain and decided to take my new Blackberry for a spin and really use Twitter as a micro-blogging tool.

My results I think were good. At least from my perspective. I was able to text about many of the main themes, a former student twittered back to see if he could use the quotes in a social networking session he was conducting today and I picked up three more followers, got picked on by Bill Simmon at CandleBlog (yes, Bill, that "woman" behind you was me!), and had a great chat with Cathy Resmer which ended up on Blurt.

Neat results.

By the way, you can see all my "Twits" or is it "Tweets" in the sidebar here in my blog. You be the judge...useful or just annoying?

Ask my sister about it and she will say that when she got to her phone this afternoon, it was a bit crazy -- 30+ twitter alerts would make anyone lose their minds. Her text to me that stated "ENOUGH ALREADY" clearly pointed out that I must consider the importance of "Twitiquette". Netiquette is just not enough anymore.

Perhaps I should have sent out a warning last night via Twitter: "Warning, I will be using Twitter to live micro-blog at a conference tomorrow. If you do not want 30+alerts, you might want to turn notifications off!" Hmmm...lesson learned.

As to my take aways from the symposium?

Well it was an interesting group of people -- diverse in age and background, but I don't really think enough was done to pull in a larger group of people who would really add to the discussion. I would have liked to see representation from other stakeholders to add depth. Where were the community activists, the African American community members, refugee groups, rural advocates, etc? At the end of the day I'm not sure we had good enough cross cultural and diverse socio-economic points of view to really get at the opportunities and challenges. It felt very "Chittenden County" and "Montpelier" to me. Not really representative of the state as a whole.

It was also too much, too fast. But I won't write more than that. Bill Simmon summed that part up quite nicely.

What I did like was the passion that everyone brought -- people really care about creating community -- and see the opportunity that technology can have to help enhance and support community building efforts. And, the Snelling Center has created a WIKI where they will provide updates.

My final thought on this was the continuing challenge to EDUCATE. It's not just about educating high school students and college students. It's about each of us embracing the fact that learning never ends, that our jobs are to learn and help others learn -- especially when it comes to integrating different forms of technology into any type of process. Case in point was the fact that there were people who didn't know what Twitter was. Not surprising. Many people don't know what it is -- perhaps more know now because of what I did today (and for those of you who are unsure -- check out this video from my favorite "how-to" site, CommonCraft):

http://www.commoncraft.com/Twitter

In my small way I have provided a learning opportunity for myself AND for other conference attendees.

But that does beg the question -- do all of the people who really need to be involved in the process of helping Vermont to become an "e-State" (in other words a community that is connected through many means, including technology) even know what a WIKI is? AND...do they understand how to use one?

CommonCraft to the rescue!

Conference Posting: Vermont's e-State Potential -- Building Community in a Connected Age

I'm about ready to head into the Welcome session for the e-State Conference sponsored by the Snelling Center for Government and my own Champlain College.

Check out the agenda!

I won't be "live blogging" since my computer (in it's current state of ready to explode at any time) can't handle it, but I might be using my new "crackberry" to micro-blog via twitter -- certainly a fun time to give it a try!

However, several others WILL be blogging.

Bill Simmon has already started with this first posting from last night. Cathy Resmer from SevenDays will also be live blogging at Blurt -- here's her first post from this morning.

The twitters have already begun...everything kicks off in about 10 minutes...I'm off!