Welcome to BroadbandCensus.com

Editor’s Note: This is the one of a series of panelist summary articles that BroadbandCensus.com will be reporting from the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, September 25-27, at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va.

By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, Broadband-Census.com

ARLINGTON, Va., September 25, 2009 - In a panel about the socio-economic impacts of broadband, panelists all agreed that the overwhelming limiting factor in proving the benefits to broadband was the lack of solid broadband data. James McConnaughey, chief economist at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said that “Having good data leads to good policy making,” but currently that policy-makers currently lack the necessary data to allow for effective cost-benefit analysis or even general societal implication analysis. McConnaughey also said that broadband data collected must come from reliable and neutral sources. The Census Bureau has recently reinvigorated its efforts in this field, but it cannot be the only source. Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, called for a National Broadband Data Warehouse.” Such a warehouse would house all the data on availability and usage which was collected by the government, and any organization which is getting federal funding to aid in broadband expansion or mapping. The data warehouse was...

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Editor’s Note: BroadbandCensus.com will be co-hosting a special session, with the Benton Foundation and the New America Foundation, on “The State of Broadband Data & Mapping,” immediately following dinner on Friday night at Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. See below for details. Information and Registration for TPRC.

By Rahul Gaitonde, Reporter, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, September 25, 2009 - The annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, a must-attend event for academics focused on broadband-related topics, begins at Friday at 2 p.m. ET at Geoge Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Va. The conference continues on Saturday and Sunday, and is likely to be particularly noteworthy this year. With the recent broadband stimulus plans, including grants for broadband, increased funding for health information technology, and the national broadband plan being developed by the Federal Communications Commission, the academic community will have the opportunity to weigh into these debates. This conference, the 37th Annual Research Conference, is broken down into four distinct subtopics: Network Competition and Broadband Policy, Next Generation Internet and its Management, Spectrum Policy and Wireless Applications, Universal Access and ICT for Development, and Media, Digital Rights and Privacy/Security. The Network Competition and Broadband Policy sessions revolve around how broadband policy differentiates globally. One noteworthy session...

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The Broadband Census for America Conference welcomes the nation’s foremost broadband policy-makers and experts on broadband data collection, distribution and mapping. Also see the official conference web page at http://broadbandcensus.com/conference.

Conference Bios and Key Resources:

• Art Brodsky, Public Knowledge
  • Art Brodsky has been the communications director of Public Knowledge since February 2004. He is a veteran of Washington, D.C. telecommunications and Internet journalism and public relations.Art worked for 16 years with Communications Daily, a leading trade publication. He covered Congress through the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and other major pieces of legislation. He also covered telephone regulation at the the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and at state regulatory commissions. In addition, he has covered the online industry since before there was an Internet, coming in just after videotext died but before the World Wide Web. Art was later an editor with Congressional Quarterly, with responsibilities for the daily and Web coverage of telecom, tech and other issues. Art’s freelance work has appeared in publications as diverse as the Washington Post, Huffington Post, TomPaine.com, TPMcafe and the World Book encyclopedia....

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Blog Entries

By Drew Clark, Editor, BroadbandCensus.com

WASHINGTON, September 22 - Today is September 22, 2008. Happy One Web Day and Happy One Web Week! BroadbandCensus.com has been involved in the preparations for One Web Day since the beginning of summer. We believe that this day marks an opportunity for all internet users to pause, take stock, and ask themselves: what are my broadband internet options? BroadbandCensus.com, a free web service, can help you answer that question. The message that BroadbandCensus.com brings to One Web Day is three-fold:

1. 1. Take the Broadband Census! As part of One Web Day, we encourage everyone to go to http://broadbandcensus.com/census/form, and answer a seven-question survey. You will then have the opportunity to take our free speed test, which allows you to compare your promised with your actual internet speeds.

1. 2. We are wishing you a One Web Week because of our Broadband Census for America Conference THIS FRIDAY, September 22, 8:30 a.m. at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. See http://broadbandcensus.com/conference.

1. Sponsored by Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Texas at Austin, Virginia Tech and BroadbandCensus.com, the Broadband Census for America Conference will be the first major event about publicly-available data about broadband connections. Featured...

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Key Academics, State Officials and Broadband Data Collectors to Speak

Embassy of Ireland to Give Luncheon Keynote Address on Publicly-Available Broadband Data

Coverage of the Broadband Census for America Conference

• Broadband Census for America Conference Web Site
• Tvol's Flickr photostream of the Broadband Census for America Conference
• "Propriety Data Cited as Challenge for Broadband Mapping," by Lynn Stanton, TR Reports
• "Regulators, Officials Debate Need for National Broadband Policy, Fund," by Carrie DeLeon, TR Reports
• "Service Providers Should Report Better Metrics, Panelists Say," by Scott Sleek, Broadband Advisory Services, Pike & Fischer
• "U.S. Copes with Broadband Statistics Void," IP Democracy
• "Guessing at data," Susan Crawford's blog
• "Experts call for broadband transparency,"by Maya Prabhu, ESchool News
• American Library Association District Dispatch

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, September 8, 2008 – Many of the nation’s foremost broadband policy-makers and experts will analyze and discuss best practices for improving the collection and sharing of public data about high-speed internet access at the Broadband Census for America Conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 26, 2008. Panelists at the half-day conference include Rachelle Chong, California Public Utility Commissioner; broadband data pioneer Professor Kenneth Flamm...

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