The allocation of broadband stimulus funds are being widely debated, and it seems like a lot of people are weighing in on how those funds are being used. I came across an article that talks about a program to offer discounts for broadband service to all the children that qualify for the National School Lunch program. I applaud the idea, but consider this: the odds that these children have a home computer are low, so in order for this to work, someone needs to figure out how to get hardware makers involved as well, because broadband access without a computing device of some sort creates yet another missed opportunity for progress. I still say the subsidized cell phone model would work here as well. Take a read and give me your thoughts. You can read about these two stories below

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356532,00.asp <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2356532,00.asp

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=185302&site=cdn&f_src=lightreading_gnews

What about Content Neutrality?

All the discussion around Net Neutrality focuses on keeping the internet open and not allowing content to be segregated. Well then, what about when the content host forces you to go to certain search engines to find the content you’re looking for? Well that’s what Rupert Murdoch wants to do. He’s accused Google of “stealing his content” and asking consumers to pay for the clicks to access Murdoch’s sites. This story is one of the many reasons why I believe there cannot be a rush to judgment on the net nuetrality issue. Acting too quickly will open a pandora’s box of problems. I’m also wondering why this story was not featured on any of the open internet campaign sites? You can read about it here

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/techtonicshifts/archive/2009/11/24/rupert-murdoch-is-quitting-google-leaving-readers-with-only-millions-of-other-web-sites-to-choose-from.aspx

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/03/google-newspaper-industry-dont-shoot-gift-horse/