Open Technology Initiative : Recent and Upcoming Events

On November 19, 2009, Native Public Media and the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative will release New Media, Technology and Internet Use in Indian Country: Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses, one of the most extensive studies of on the ground technology use, access, and adoption in Native American lands. Demonstrating the great need to include Native Americans in the discourse around the National Broadband Plan, the report combines both a survey of Native American technology

The New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative is hosting The Washington DC Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery Fall Lecture series.

The New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative is hosting The Washington DC Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery Fall Lecture series.

From September 22 to 24, the New America Foundations Open Technology Initiative hosted Beyond Broadband Access: Data Based Information Policy for a New Administration. An experts workshop, Beyond Broadband Access created an opportunity for small group of highly skilled experts from around the world to seek breakthrough insights which can be applied to current policy challenges.

On September 21, Dr. Jonathan Lazar discussed current issues in computer-human interaction and public policy. Dr. Lazar described how government policy impacts the work done in human-computer interaction, and will discuss the current status of policy initiatives in a number of areas.

As the FCC begins its year-long process to recommend a National Broadband Plan, one starting point is to unlock publicly-owned assets that can facilitate ubiquitous, affordable broadband access. Wireless spectrum remains the most cost-effective and rapid means to deliver broadband access to rural and unserved urban residents. But as mobile broadband use continues to increase exponentially, demand for spectrum will rapidly outpace availability under current spectrum management policies.

Please join us on Wednesday, June 10 to officially launch the Open Technology Initiative (OTI) and to learn more about its current projects, including M-Lab, an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools; Building the 21st Century Broadband Superhighway, an initiative to deploy middle-mile fiber infrastructure across the country; and other ways OTI promotes affordable, universal, and ubiquitous communications networks through partnerships with communities, researchers, industry, and public interest groups.

Viral Spiral is the term David Bollier coins to describe the almost magical process by which Internet users can come together to build online commons and tools. From free and open-source software, Creative Commons licenses, Wikipedia, remix music and video mashups to peer production, open science, open education, and open business - the world of digital media has spawned a new "sharing economy" that increasingly competes with entrenched media giants.

As the Internet has evolved -- moving from a relatively small set of networks used by researchers to a worldwide platform used by over a billion people -- its performance has become harder to analyze and understand. Researchers lack access to critical data about the current state of broadband networks, and users can find it difficult or impossible to understand the performance and characteristics of their Internet connections.

Both President-Elect Barack Obama and Congressional leaders have discussed including government support to promote high-speed broadband access as part of the upcoming economic stimulus package. This has prompted a flood of proposals and ideas from advocates of all sides of the broadband debate. Economic stimulus should be timely, temporary and targeted. But who should this stimulus target and how can we spur investments that will create both short-term economic growth and long-term economic prosperity in the 21st century?

Technology evangelists believe that Barack Obama has the potential to fundamentally alter communication between the presidency and the people. Wikis in the White House? Online public comments on legislation? A real-time two-way conversation between citizens and their elected officials?

For better or worse, however, nothing is as easy as it might seem. Federal regulations, First Amendment issues, and just plain common sense are going to slow -- and potentially stagnate -- technological innovation in Washington.