FCC Blogs, Twitters Broadband

"Blogband" initiative to chronicle national plan

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/18/2009 12:30:29 PM

The FCC has launched a new "Blogband" initiative, to "chronicle the national broadband plan," with broadband czar Blair Levin and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski its first two contributors.

There will also be a Twitter site to follow the plan's progress.

"What better time to start blogging than now? With just 183 days before our deadline to send the National Broadband Plan to Congress, we need as many people involved as possible," wrote Genachowski on the Blogband site. "As this blog demonstrates, the Internet is changing and expanding the way Americans communicate, providing them with unparalleled access to information."

In his posting, Levin looked for portents of success, or at last confirmation of the FCC's approach to the plan, in a couple of fortune cookies staffers had opened during a dinner break: "No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking" and "statistics are no substitute for judgment."

"[D]ata means nothing if we don't exercise good judgment about what it all means," said Levin, "But that will require sustained thinking, and our broadband team is leading an assault of sustained thinking by the entire FCC on the stubborn problem of bringing broadband to unserved and underserved areas, increasing the number of Americans using broadband, and maximizing how broadband can be used to help address significant national issues. Expect the unexpected. Nothing is pre-baked but the fortune cookies."

The FCC will also keep the twitterati up to date at http://www.twitter.com/fccdotgov, a new microblogging platform that will include progress reports on the plan. It had four followers at press time, but the FCC wasn't following anyone.