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A project of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program
The keys to a more open and transparent democracy include increased broadband access and a steady flow of government data into online communities, according to two white papers released by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.
Alex Howard, Government 2.0 Correspondent for O’Reilly Radar, provided a good wrap-up of last week’s Roundtable on implementing the recommendations for government transparency and creating community hubs.
New recommendations for improving local open government and creating online hubs
By Alex Howard · February 25, 2011
Today, the Aspen Institute hosted a roundtable on government transparency [...]
In his article, “Pubcasters on the ropes“ (Variety, January 22, 2011), Ted Johnson summarizes several of the strategies for public media reform presented by Barbara Cochran in her white paper, Rethinking Public Media: More Local, More Inclusive, More Interactive. The paper addresses ways to implement the Knight Commission’s Recommendation 2 on public media.
Pubcasters on the ropes
Stations fend off funding hook
By [...]
The Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program jointly released a policy paper on Wednesday with recommendations for federal support for public broadcasting. The report, written by Barbara Cochran of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, is entitled “Rethinking Public Media” and is available here.
Tossing money at technology in K-12 schools is hardly the answer to promoting students’ media and digital literacy. So says a new report from the Aspen Institute, “Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action,” written by Renee Hobbs, a professor at Temple University’s School of Communications and Theater.
Former FCC broadband czar Blair Levin says he has a formula for deploying broadband to 97% of the country in ten years for $10 billion. The government has just finished allocating almost $7 billion in stimulus funds to promote deployment to unserved and underserved areas, but Levin says that infusion “will not be sufficient to ensure that all people in the United States have access to and can enjoy the benefits of universal digital citizenship.”
A former FCC official who played a critical role in the development of the commission’s national broadband plan released a report Wednesday that argues that the federal government should establish a $10 billion fund over 10 years to help ensure all Americans have access to affordable broadband service. In the paper, Blair Levin, the former executive director of the FCC’s broadband initiative, noted that “current government programs to assure communication networks are available to all Americans will neither ensure that such networks are available nor encourage adoption.
Local officials know that communities depend on credible and accessible information. As technology continues to affect and change how information flows, local officials face a dizzying array of opportunities to inform — and be informed by — their communities.
The local is coming into a sharper focus for research, policy and practice. From my perspective, the local is indeed the new frontier of the global Internet.
“Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy & Citizen Participation in the Digital Age” was the opening workshop at the June 11-15 League of Women Voters National Convention in Atlanta Georgia attended by three members of the LWV of Montgomery County.
A recent study by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy found that U.S. educators are not very good at teaching digital literacy. The commission, a collaboration of the Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute, reports that “although virtually every school in the United States is connected to the Internet, many local communities have not integrated either digital or media literacy into their K-12 curricula.”
The call to action came last October in reports issued by the Knight Commission on Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. The Knight report asked the government to “direct media policy toward innovation, competition, and support for business models that provide marketplace incentives for quality journalism.”
When a big newspaper goes bankrupt — or shuts its doors for good — what’s really at stake? This year, great American cities asked themselves that question. In Philadelphia and Chicago, papers filed for bankruptcy protection. In Seattle and Denver, the “second daily” closed. But what does it really mean, for the city in question, for the greater community, for us, as consumers of news? Does it matter?
An august body of experts, everyone from a First Amendment lawyer to a software engineer, traveled the nation to answer that question.
[From Knight Foundation Press Room]
Leaders, Citizens Gather at Knight/FCC Forum to Discuss Recommendations in FCC’s National Broadband Plan
Washington, D.C. (March 9, 2010) – A diverse group of citizens and leaders gathered Tuesday in support of strategies that will provide 93 million Americans who have been left behind in the digital age [...]
The FCC announced it is responding to the calls by the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy for “new thinking and aggressive action” by appointing Steven Waldman, an online pioneer and journalist, to explore the information needs of communities and “promote a vibrant media landscape.”
In a [...]
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