Internet2 argues that universities should give shape to national broadband strategy, and they want $$ to do it

In an interesting turn of events, higher ed is making a play for some of the 4.7$ billion that will be paid out by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). This agency is under the Commerce Department, and the money is from a new grant program.

According to today's Chronicle of Higher Ed, the purpose of these grant funds are to provide broadband to all communities in the US. (I live in a rural area where there is no broadband available - so this idea is appealing, but I've heard it discussed for several years now with no apparent progress).

[begin quote] "Several higher-education information-technology groups are now working to influence the national broadband strategy through private conversations with agency officials and a white paper, "Unleashing Waves of Innovation: Transformative Broadband for America's Future," filed with the NTIA.

One of those groups is Internet2, a high-speed networking consortium with more than 200 universities as members. Its vice president for external relations, Gary R. Bachula, reminded The Chronicle this week that universities helped give birth to the Internet and were instrumental in its development. For those and other reasons, he said, "the right way to construct a national broadband strategy is to have higher ed lead it." [end quote]

I am very interested in how higher ed gets its ideas in the public agenda, and how higher ed finds ways to shape law and policy. Therefore, this story is interesting and one to follow.

http://chronicle.com/free/2009/04/16710n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en