There’s no cookie-cutter method to entrepreneurship. One thing that’s become increasingly clear is that the Internet is a vital tool in promoting small businesses. However, with so many tools and resources to take advantage of, it’s easy for a new business owner to get caught in the latest new thing rather than what’s best for them. So how can a person determine what to use and what to ignore? If you’re going to be in the Washington D.C. area on March 30, you should check out an informative panel that can clear up any questions you might have about leveraging the web to promote your business.

Google has teamed with Howard University, to present “Digital Empowerment: African Americans, Small Business and the Internet,” a panel designed to assist African-American entrepreneurs grow their businesses online via social media, online advertising and cloud computing. Moderated by President and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Ralph B. Everett, Esq., attendees can expect to receive helpful tips and first-hand experience from the prestigious members of the panel including Bryndan Moore, CEO and Founder of Alumniroundup.com, Marcus Evans, Owner of Military Brats Movers and Black Web 2.0′s own Angela Benton.

Read more at Blackweb.

Media and Technology Institute scholars Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee and Dr. Jon Gant release a report entitled Government Transparency: Six Strategies for More Open and Participatory Government at an Aspen Institute Roundtable on Government Transparency and Online Hubs on February 25, 2011.

Video from the roundtable can be viewed at the Aspen Institute website.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today hailed the launch of DigitalLiteracy.gov, the U.S. Commerce Department’s online digital literacy portal, as an important step toward helping more Americans gain not only computer and Internet skills but also critical access to the job market.

On the first anniversary of the Federal Communication Commission’s highly anticipated National Broadband Plan, 33 percent of Americans still do not have broadband access. While broadband is an indispensable component of President Obama’s innovation agenda, individuals who have not adopted broadband will be left out.  In his State of the Union speech, President Obama set his expectations on providing 98 percent of Americans with wireless services. The National Broadband Plan is the U.S. government’s first genuine articulation of broadband deployment best practices that are most likely to spur economic development and democratic participation.  One year later, the Joint Center's Media and Technology Institute asked whether these goals are being accomplished, assessing the plan’s successes and failures. MTI and a panel of experts, including Broadband Plan architect Blair Levin, discussed what the National Broadband Plan means to under-served and under-connected communities.

This paper presents three case studies in the state of South Carolina, and the cities of Chicago, IL, and Los Angeles, CA, with in-depth analyses of wireline and wireless access in high minority, low-income communities. The findings of the study concluded that broadband service is becoming much more ubiquitous in high minority, low-income communities, yet levels of adoption still remain relatively low. The study also concluded that race is not a significant explanatory variable for disparate broadband deployment, and despite the availability of mobile broadband in low-income, high minority areas, wireless coverage is still inconsistent within regions.

Available in PDF Format Only.

To download this publication, click the file icon below.

A supplemental appendix for this publication is also available here.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies today praised the appointment of former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell to be President and CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Two scholars from the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies released a white paper on Friday aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy.
 

Lifeline is a Universal Service Fund (USF) program designed in the mid-’80s to accomplish a straightforward task with clear-cut benefits. As part of USF reform, the FCC wants to make changes to Lifeline so the program encourages broadband adoption by low-income individuals. But will those changes mainly benefit telcos and service providers without provided broadband benefits to constituents?

---

Joseph Miller, deputy director/senior policy director for the Media Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies states, “If your program only shows people how to go online and find information, this is purely consumption. You can’t generate as much progress as you would teaching them how to code, develop applications and do other things that generate an income. Or help them become entrepreneurs. It comes down to more than an adoption program. It’s creating a community business plan and showing how broadband is used in that plan.”

Continue reading at The New York Times.

Media industry experts and representatives will examine whether the National Broadband Plan has affected change in underserved communities at an event organized by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Media and Technology Institute on Wednesday, March 2, in the Holeman Lounge at the National Press Club.

Nearly a year after the issuance of the National Broadband Plan (NBP), the plan’s lead architect told a policy gathering on Wednesday that the Federal Communications Commission did not take the right approach to increasing broadband adoption among low-income households, and that it should be changed.

Blair Levin, who was Executive Director of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative at the FCC during the NBP’s formulation and now serves as Society Fellow at the Aspen Institute, said that the plan should not have counted on transitioning the Universal Service Fund (USF) as its core strategy for expanding broadband access in for poor and rural households in underserved areas.  The USF currently provides subsidies to support basic monthly telephone service and initial installation or activation fees through the Lifeline/Link-up programs.