UPDATE: The FCC has changed the date of its field hearing in Memphis. It will now take place on Monday, December 14, 2009. Location and time have yet to be confirmed. I was excited to learn that the FCC is holding a field hearing on broadband access at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.   It will be on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.  You can send an e-mail to fcc504@fcc.gov [...]

It’s Global Entrepreneurship Week across the globe this week. You can read all about it here. But I’m sure you all knew that already because you’ve seen the bus loads of inner city kids being taken to events to help them understand what entrepreneurship is all about or you have had to sign permission slips for them to participate in workshops to show them how easily they can create tech start-ups. (I really wish that [...]

Imagine the outrage from parents, teachers, and the community if a school announced that some of its students would have access to textbooks, research papers, and literature, but other students would be denied those resources.  Some students would be branded as worthy, while others as second class. It baffles me that broadband Internet access in our schools is not seen as such as concern. However, it is encouraging to hear that this digital divide is [...]

Between health care reform, climate bills and war-related news, some important ideas in Congress are not getting as much attention as they deserve.    I just wanted to bring a little more notice to bi-partisan draft language submitted by Reps. Rick Boucher of Virginia and Lee Terry of Nebraska “to curb waste in the Universal Service Fund (USF) and shift money from phone to Internet service in areas on the wrong side of the digital divide.” [...]

“Attend the workshop online!” I wonder exactly when that phrase entered our lives.   It is powerful.   There was a time when attending a conference meant a big investment, plane tickets, hotels, time out of the office, time away from family.   For young visionaries, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and leaders of cash-strapped communities, it was often a burden.  Broadband has changed that. I encourage everyone to attend or watch the workshop the FCC is conducting Dec. 9th [...]

Unfortunately, everything these days seems to be framed around politics and ideology, red or blue, left or right, R or D.   Some so-called pundits have already figured out the next wave of political fortunes — just based on the elections this week in New York, Virginia, and New Jersey – and what that will mean to proposed policies and ideas. Changing lives and creating hope, and embracing the full power of broadband access, should not [...]

I spend easily 50% of my time reading about technology startups. Watching them get funded, seeing what business models take off and reading the stories of how they went from idea to executed company.  There are so many new technology companies being created everyday. Some fail, some succeed but the great part is that people are taking the chance to create something. One of the things that frustrates me is the lack of African Americans [...]