Public Infrastructure

In his State of the Union Address President Obama warned of a “Sputnik moment” in terms of the need for a wake-up call for the nation to confront our international competitiveness and innovation challenge.  The President stated, “We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time.

In his 2011 State of the Union, President Obama outlined a sweeping program for economic transformation, resting on innovation, education, infrastructure, deficit reduction, and governmental reform. The New America Foundation asks whether these are the right “pillars” of a national agenda.  

One of the little-noticed elements of the deal on taxes agreed upon by the Obama administration and the Republican congressional leadership is the decision of the White House and the GOP not to renew an obscure program known as Build America Bonds. This decision threatens to hurt American economic growth for decades to come, by eliminating one of the most successful methods of modernizing the vital infrastructure on which American businesses and workers depend.

We in the developed world are preoccupied with the consumer technologies of the 21st century -- ubiquitous high-speed Internet, the iPad, and the Wii Fit. We forget that vast swaths of the developing world have yet to be transformed by a technological upheaval we experienced more than a century ago: the advent of electric lighting. But the latest illumination innovation could change that, bringing not just greater efficiency to the well-wired West but also better quality of life to everyone else.

This paper, developed by the Open Technology Initiative of the New America Foundation at the request of the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), offers a policy framework that responds to the situation ACM finds itself thrust into and recommends actions to secure the future of community media.

The New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (“NAF”) respectfully submits these comments in response to the United States Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) Request for Information (RFI) entitled “Addressing Policy and Logistical Challenges to Smart Grid Implementation.” NAF will address the following sections in the RFI:

• Definition and Scope

• Interactions With and Implications for Consumers

• Assessing and Allocating Costs and Benefits

• Utilities, Device Manufacturers and Energy Management Firms

I am very excited that Paul Glastris and the good folks at The Washington Monthly have published my latest piece, co-authored with my colleague Chris Leinberger of the Brookings Institution. It's called The Next Real Estate Boom: How housing (yes, housing) can turn the economy around.

For Immediate Release

New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative announced that the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition (DDJC) is receiving approximately $2 million in federal stimulus funds to expand its community organizing and economic development efforts in Detroit, Hamtramck, and Highland Park, Michigan. The Open Technology Initiative has supported the DDJC since its inception in 2009. The federal grant comes through a partnership between the DDJC and Michigan State University.

The Great Recession has put enormous strain on the American social contract, exposing not only the many holes in our social safety net but also the weaknesses in its basic design and philosophy.

The International Housing Coalition (IHC), Foreign Policy magazine and the New America Foundation's Global Assets Project sponsored an interactive discussion on The Challenges and Opportunities of an Urban World, in celebration of World Habitat Day 2010.