Are you a geek looking to save money on your summer vacation? Well, the FCC has a few summer blockbusters for you over the next month or so -- 18 national broadband plan hearings, specifically -- that you can watch from home for the perfect geek stay-cation. (You could also spend a month in D.C. attending the free workshops, but that might be a bit excessive.)
The festivities, if you can describe as 'festive' FCC public hearings to get input on the nation's first ever national broadband plan, kick off with a seminar on E-government and Civic Engagement on August 6 at 9:30 a.m. in Washington D.C.
The series, which you can track from Broadband.gov, moves on seminars focused on deployment issues, education, public safety, health care and international lessons (a subject Wired.com readers found very interesting in their comments to the FCC).
The workshops wrap up on September 3, with a seminar on best practices and bid ideas.
The FCC has until the middle of next February to present Congress with a national broadband plan, even as the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce are starting to hand out more than $7 billion of broadband grants and loans as part of the stimulus package. Its report is expected to be a roadmap for even further investment from the government and will play no small role in determining whether the U.S. continues to lag behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to broadband or whether the country becomes an example to be emulated.
Blair Levin, the FCC staffer in charge of the national broadband plan, has complained that so far the FCC has only gotten self-serving statements full of platitudes that are short on pragmatic plans. I'm guessing he said this before reading Wired.com reader's official submissions.
So here's another chance for you to help architect the nation's broadband future.
In other words, ask not what your summer vacation can do for you, ask what you can do for the national broadband plan. Or something like that.
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