Digital Future of Public Media

...and Communications for All?

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
01/26/2009 - 10:00am

Fiber to the Home: Ideal Economic Stimulus? | CircleID

Communications — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:52:00 -0500

I stumbled across a really interesting paper this week, written by Derek Slater and Tim Wu, and it set me to thinking. Slater is a policy analyst for Google ...

Groups Urge Obama to Adopt National Broadband Strategy | CongressDaily/Nextgov

Communications — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:31:00 -0500

Underscoring the adage that politics makes strange bedfellows, AT&T, Cisco, Free Press, Google, New America Foundation, National Cable and ...

Telecoms, Other Groups Draw Up National Broadband Strategy | CNET News

Communications — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:30:00 -0500

The group, which includes Cisco, Verizon, Google, the New America Foundation, Public Knowledge, the American Library Association, and others, ...

Obama Urged to Implement Broadband Plan | CBC.ca

Communications — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:35:00 -0500

The BB4US coalition, which has 55 members including consumer groups Free Press and the New America Foundation, technology companies such as Google Inc. and ...

FCC to Mull Free Internet Plan at Dec. Meeting | Reuters

Communications — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:35:00 -0500

"I don't know of any other major players" that would bid with such an approach, said Sascha Meinrath, research director at the New America Foundation. ...

High Tech Celebrates White-Spaces Victory | EDN.com

Communications — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:15:00 -0500

... the FCC approve the use of white spaces, according to Michael Calabrese, VP and director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation. ...

Could Consumers Own Their Internet Connections? | CBC.ca

Communications — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:48:00 -0500

Tim Wu, the Columbia Law School professor and Toronto native who first coined the term, has a simple suggestion: customer ownership of internet connections. ...

Homes with Tails: New America Foundation Releases a New Working Paper on Customer Owned Fiber Connections

Communications — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:38:00 -0500

America's communications infrastructure is stuck at a copper wall. For the vast majority of homes, copper wires remain the principal means of getting broadband services. The deployment of fiber optic connections to the home would enable exponentially faster connections, and few dispute that upgrading to more robust infrastructure is essential to America's economic growth. However, the costs of such an upgrade are daunting for private sector firms and even for governments. These facts add up to a public policy challenge.

Last week the New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program released a new working paper proposing a novel idea to solve this problem: consumer-owned fiber connections.

In Homes with Tails: What if you Could Own your Internet Connection?, New America fellow, Tim Wu and Google Policy Analyst, Derek Slater, proposed a model that encourages consumers to purchase and own the "last-mile" connection that runs into their home. By purchasing their own fiber optic connections, consumers would be able to connect to a variety of service providers. This model holds the potential for higher broadband speeds, greater competition, and lower Internet service prices.

New America also hosted a companion event where the authors discussed their proposal. Additional speakers included Wireless Future's Research Director, Sascha Meinrath; the President and Founder of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Robert Atkinson; and Link Hoewing, Assistant Vice President for Internet and Technology Issues at Verizon.

You can download a copy of the paper at:http://www.newamerica.net/publications/policy/homes_tails

You can watch the authors' presentation at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqRBzjhnLc8&eurl=http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/homes_tails#t=6m45s

And visit the event page at: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/homes_tails

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New America's Wireless Future Program develops and advocates policy proposals aimed at achieving universal and affordable wireless broadband access, expanding public access to the airwaves and updating our nation's communications infrastructure in the digital era. For more information, visit http://www.newamerica.net/programs/wireless_future.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. Headquartered in Washington D.C., New America also has offices in California.

OneWeb Day 2008

Communications — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/22/2008 - 10:30am

On the third annual "Earth Day for the Internet", communities across the country are holding events to learn about and advocate for that marvel of modern infrastructure, the Internet. In the nation's capital, advocates, experts and government representatives will honor OneWebDay, September 22, with a tribute to the Internet's role in politics and the politics of the Internet.

Organizers in DC are embracing OneWebDay 2008's theme of participation in democracy. They launched an e-Democracy time capsule on August 22, 2008 and… more