Investing in Communities

Broad Spectrum of Organizations Endorse FCC’s Broadband Adoption Recommendations; Civil Rights, Housing, and Media Groups Representing Millions Sign On

San Francisco, California — The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, One Economy and ZeroDivide submitted a letter in support of the broadband adoption and utilization recommendations issued this morning by the FCC. The Commission is preparing to deliver the first-ever National Broadband Plan to Congress on March 17th.

Has the availability of social networks and the internet changed the frequency of engagement of citizens? What is media’s role in engaging the public in civic life? At ZeroDivide, we believe one of the major functions of media is to create a public forum and a sufficiently informed public for democracy.

On Twitter and You Tube, the recovery efforts following the tragic earthquake in Haiti continue to be the main subject of interest. Online communication sites, such as Twitter, have played an especially large role as they quickly filled with Haiti-related information and ways to offer aid. Social media became central to the fundraising effort that raised millions of dollars.

In the 48 hours since a devastating earthquake ripped through Haiti, the American Red Cross has received over $35 million in donations - more than $5 million of which came through text messaging, setting a new record for the Red Cross for mobile technology-based giving.

Predictions abound as the year draws to a close and a new one begins. Reflecting back nearly a decade ago, the state of the Internet and technology was vastly different than it is today. Thanks to the work of thousands of collaborators over the final four decades of the 20th century, today's Internet is a continually expanding worldwide network of computer networks for the transport of myriad types of data.