Stuart joined Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) in July, 2004 as Business Development Manager for IT & Digital Media. He spent three of his five years at EDC focused on broadband technology and the industry through his work on the RI-WINs project. Prior to his move to RI in 2004, Stuart spent over 20 years in the high tech industry, where he held senior-level marketing and product management positions both in New England and Silicon Valley for companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Apple Computer and various startups.

In an endeavor that is probably no surprise to any geek or techie, President Obama and his administration have identified broadband infrastructure and use as a key factor in Economic Development to stimulate the creation and sustainability of higher paying jobs in a 21^st Century economy. No surprise because anybody reading this post knows that our lives are dependent on the Internet and access to broadband. We couldn’t live without it.  

Although other presidents have talked about it, Obama is the first President that has actually raised it to the level of public policy and is investing significant capital to fill in and expand the broadband infrastructure of the United States.  

To that end, the Federal Government has created several programs to support the mission. Last year Congress appropriated $7.2B in a combination of grants and loans that will pay for the build out of broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved communities across the United States, as well as publicly accessible computers in places like libraries, community centers and public housing. These programs are known as the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration out of the US Dept of Commerce) Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) and the RUS (Rural Utilities Services out of the US Dept of Agriculture) Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP).

In addition to the BTOP and BIP programs, the government invested $350MM in a program also managed by the NTIA called the Broadband Data and Development Program (BDDP). The goal of the program is to create a map of all the broadband infrastructure and assets in the United States and six (6) territories. All fifty (50) states (and six (6) territories) are participating in the BDDP and will contribute their data to a massive database and map supported by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and accessible to the general public.  

Just before the New Year, RIEDC received a grant award for $1.5MM in Federal Stimulus money to manage the development of the RI piece of the map. The grant consists of $1MM for Broadband Mapping over a two (2) year period and $500K for Broadband Planning over a five (5) year period.  

The Mapping portion of the grant ($1MM over 2 years) will mostly be contracted to a professional engineering firm that we selected through a competitive bidding process, as well as the URI GIS department (aka the URI-EDC or Environmental Data Center).  

We are fortunate in Rhode Island to have a strong broadband infrastructure but using hackneyed sports analogies, we are still in the rookie seasons with regards to the changes that broadband access and the Internet are and will bring to our lives. The grant has created an opportunity to develop a planning process to assess current usage and knowledge of broadband in our state and figure out where we need to get to with regards to broadband across all aspects of our lives including healthcare, education and homeland security. 

The Planning portion of the grant will be retained by RIEDC and used to undertake broadband planning activities for the state which include: 

• Develop and provide a baseline assessment of broadband deployment for the state and create a geographic inventory map of broadband service
• Identify and track the areas with low levels of deployment and the rate at which residential and business users adopt broadband service
• Identify barriers to the adoption of broadband service and information technology services in underserved areas
• Collaborate with broadband service providers and information technology companies to encourage deployment and use
• Facilitate information exchange regarding use and demand for broadband services between public and private sector users 
  

The mapping project team includes the RI Dept. of Information Technology (Jack Landers, CIO), RI Statewide Planning (Shane White, State GIS Coordinator) and URI Environmental Data Center (Greg Bonynge, GISP) and the planning activities which will commence in the spring will include all sectors of our economy including the private sector, public sector and education.  

I look forward to reporting here on the progress of the project as it unfolds.