Publications and reports descriptionhttp://digitalinclusionforum.com/resource_center/publications_and_reportsThu, 24 Jul 2008 00:54:05en-usDigital Inclusion Forum - publications and reportsIssued by the NGA Center for Best Practices, this brief focuses on promoting broadband access and promotion across the United States. Broadband communication is radically transforming the way in which Americans use the Internet by providing the ability to access voice, video, and data through a single network. However, challenges remain in ensuring universal access to broadband service, as providers do not reach every person across the country. From the standpoint of economic viability, it is very costly to build the infrastructure that connects remote rural areas to broadband service, and this challenge has led to a disparity between urban (73 percent) versus rural (55 percent) broadband adoption rates.Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:54:05http://digitalinclusionforum.com/resource_center/publications_and_reports/p/id_75/productCategoryType_whitepapersThis report, Digital Justice: Progress towards Digital Inclusion in Minnesota, was produced by the Institute on Race & Poverty (IRP) with the support of the MSNet Fund in Minneapolis. The goal of the project is to assess, on several institutional levels, how well Minnesota is bridging the gap for those with the least access to high technology.Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:54:05http://digitalinclusionforum.com/resource_center/publications_and_reports/p/id_74/productCategoryType_whitepapersWritten by John Horrigan, this report discusses how half of all Americans now have broadband at home, according to the Pew Internet Project's September 2007 survey, marking the first time that as many as 50% of respondents say they have high-speed internet connections at home. This milestone in broadband adoption occurs at a time of close scrutiny of the data gathered by government agencies on broadband deployment. This backgrounder puts the rate of home broadband adoption in historical context before discussing in detail the issues surrounding broadband data collection and current legislation that seeks to make improvements. Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:54:05http://digitalinclusionforum.com/resource_center/publications_and_reports/p/id_73/productCategoryType_whitepapersImperfect or absent data are are rarely mentioned in policy discussions. Yet the communications policy debate in the United States today is inseparable from debates about the data used to make claims about policy propositions. President Bush articulated in 2004 a goal to have universal and affordable broadband available in the United States by 2007. The way data are collected by government agencies cannot answer questions about whether that goal has been met or not. International organizations – using the imperfect data – report that the United States’ ranking in per capita broadband adoption is lower today than it was a few years ago. Written by Kenneth Flamm, Amy Friedlander, John Horrigan, and William Lehr, this paper argues that the country cannot properly gauge its own progress or know how dire America’s international standing is without good data about broadband adoption, deployment, price, and quality.Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:54:05http://digitalinclusionforum.com/resource_center/publications_and_reports/p/id_72/productCategoryType_whitepapersIn the 21st Century, technology and the economy are inexorably linked. In today’s fast-paced world, access to and familiarity with the Internet is critical to economic and educational success, and high-speed Internet connections make users much more likely to utilize the wealth of online information and resources. Though the gap is closing, higher-income Americans are still significantly more likely than lower-income Americans to have in home, high-speed connections, and to integrate the Internet into their daily lives, such that lower-income Americans without technological access and skills find themselves at an economic disadvantage.Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:54:05http://digitalinclusionforum.com/resource_center/publications_and_reports/p/id_71/productCategoryType_whitepapers