(as posted on Blandin on Broadband)

Broadband is in the news these days. Stimulus funding, the state broadband task force, municipal networks, new technologies are all topics for discussion – not just for techies anymore. Some skeptics are right to ask, “What’s the point?”

My answer is, “The point is to become more intelligent, as individuals, communities, regions and countries.” This morning, I cast my vote as a jury member for the international Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org) awards. I was privileged to review the applications and community reviews for seven communities around the world. Casting my vote was both difficult and exciting. All of these communities are combining efforts to develop robust networks and create a culture of use. Strategies for broadband development included a blend of private, public and private-public networks. Strategies for increasing use focused on schools, senior citizens, entrepreneurs, research universities, health care and government administration and citizen participation.

The international rankings for broadband deployment have had the U.S. falling in recent years. As I read about how these communities are using broadband for community and economic development, it seems clear that we are also falling behind in application development and usage. At the recent MHTA Spring Conference, Marc Lautenbach, IBM’s North American General Manager, talked about a smarter planet and how the world is changing. His primary question to the audience was “How are you changing?” It was a definite wake-up call that we all need to think smarter and act more quickly to keep up with the global pace.

We need advancement, not just on broadband infrastructure. We need better services over the infrastructure. We need more people using broadband. We need those people to be doing more and more sophisticated applications over the network. I ask you and your community’s leadership, “How are you changing?”