[RTC List] Broadband access = civic participation

[Sean McLaughlin]

Folks -

Research illustrates a strong correlation between broadband access and 
user generated content.
If you want to hear local voices (both here and around the world), 
broadband is key.


BROADBAND: WHAT'S ALL THE FUSS?


    The impacts of high-speed connections extend beyond access to
    information to active participation in the online commons


[SOURCE: Pew research Center, AUTHOR: John B. Horrigan]
[Commentary] Why does access to a high-speed connection at home matter? 
The easy answer to this question is straightforward. A broadband link at 
home means more information coming at the user faster. That invites a 
larger question: What are the consequences of networked users having 
access to all this information, especially when they are also armed with 
"always on" uploading capability? At the heart of the answer lies a 
defining behavioral difference among home broadband users. As the Pew 
Internet Project first pointed out in 2002 in The Broadband Difference, 
broadband users are far more likely than dial-up Internet users to 
create or post content to the Internet.3 This means having a blog, 
posting photos online, or contributing to chat-rooms. The fuss about 
broadband, then, extends beyond access to information to active 
participation in the online commons as people with shared interests or 
problems gather at various online forums to chat or collaborate.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/616/broadband

-- 
Sean McLaughlin
Executive Director
Access Humboldt
P.O. Box 157, Eureka, CA 95502
tel: 707-476-1798
dir: 707-476-2873
fax: 707-476-1702
cel: 707-616-2381
e: seanm at accesshumboldt.net
web:  accesshumboldt.net

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; 
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without 
interference and to seek, receive and impart information 
and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."  
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 (UN, 1948)


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