Openness will prove more effective for the military

Reversing a decision it made last summer, the U.S. Marine Corps has decided earlier this week to allow Marines to use Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to keep in touch with family and friends.  The service now encourages “responsible and effective...

Children a key element of National Broadband Strategy

The Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Strategy is an ambitious ten-year plan to bring the benefits of broadband to all citizens in the country. Just prior to the Strategy’s submission to Congress last week, FCC  Chairman Julius...

We need better broadband, and soon.

The power of the Internet.  In the small town of Diller, Nebraska, Blue Valley Meats doubled its employees and saw 40 percent growth by setting up a Web site and selling its beef online.  But this happened only after Diller got broadband. Which is why the Recovery Act...

Google raises the bar

It’s been interesting to watch the reaction to Google’s announcement of open access Internet service to select American homes at a jaw-dropping 1 Gbps. That’s roughly a 100-fold increase in bandwidth from the maximum speeds offered by most of the larger internet...

Digitizing Davos

Notwithstanding that some very good things will likely happen at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, it’s tough to solve the world’s problems in a week. A couple of years ago the Forum’s founder, Klaus Schwab, launched, to say the least, a rather bold...