First FCC national broadband plan workshop Thursday

This Thursday August 6, the FCC will hold the first of many National Broadband Plan Staff Workshops. The workshop will kick off a series of gatherings lasting through the end of September. At 9:30am at FCC headquarters in Washington, DC, a panel of regional experts will discuss how broadband can promote civic engagement and government services.

The panel of experts will include:

• Vivek Kundra, U.S. CIO and former CTO of Washington, D.C.
• Beth Noveck, U.S. Deputy CTO for Open Government
• Graham Richard, former Mayor of Ft. Wayne, Indiana
• John Wonderlich, Policy Director of the Sunlight Foundation,
• Norm Ornsteinof, American Enterprise Institute
• Ellen Goodman, Professor at the Rutgers School of Law
• Andrew Rasiej, Personal Democracy Forum
• The Chicago Committee for 2016 Games

This workshop will focus on civic engagement and e-government and include an open mic segment, during which members of the public may voice their thoughts and questions to the panel.

The stimulus package directed the FCC to submit a national broadband plan to Congress by February 2010 that would "ensure that all people of the United States have access to broadband capability and shall establish benchmarks for meeting that goal."

The fundamental idea behind these workshops is to allow as many people as possible to contribute to the plan. This two-month "listening tour" aims to do that by promoting an "open dialogue between the FCC and key constituents on matters important to the National Broadband Plan."

The workshops will be open to the public at the FCC headquarters and viewable online via webcast here.

FCC announce participants in first staff workshop for National Broadband Plan (FCC)

The Broadband Stimulus (Speed Matters)

Workshop: E-Gov/Civic Engagement