TweetWASHINGTON, November 25 2011 – As we all sit and digest post Thanksgiving, Broadband Breakfast can finally wrap up some stories that we have been interested in over the past couple of weeks but have not had time to get around to.  We wanted to draw attention to a couple of the stories below and [...]

WASHINGTON, Wednesday November 15, 2011 – November’s breakfast and panel discussion drew a packed crowd Tuesday morning as industry lawyers, lobbyists and experts filed into Clyde’s to hear from the Whitehouse, telecoms, energy management companies and utilities about the challenges and efficiencies that lies ahead with “The Smart Grid and Broadband.”

Event Highlights

“The Smart Grid and Broadband” from BroadbandBreakfast.com

Complete Program

“The Smart Grid and Broadband” from BroadbandBreakfast.com

Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor to White House’s Chief Technology Officer gave the opening remarks at the breakfast.  Sinai focused on what the Obama administration is doing to support, secure and modernize the energy system for the country.  He noted that although the current grid has expanded, it is fundamentally still an analog grid and has been that way since the beginning of the 20^th century.

September 19, 2011 – America’s unique concept of federalism – joint sovereignty between the states and the federal government – sometimes obscures some on-the-ground realities when it comes to the all-important topic of economic growth and development. The simple fact is that cities serve as the engine of life, commerce, culture and sociality.

Tomorrow, at the Broadband Breakfast Club event on September 20, 2011, at 8 a.m., we’ll engage on this subject. The discussion will feature Gale Brewer, a New York City Councilmember who has been one of the country’s leading advocates of better broadband. Gail has represented the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and currently chairs the Committee on Governmental Operations, where she has worked to make better use of technology to save money, improve city services, and bring residents, businesses and non-profits closer to government and their communities.

Gale Brewer will keynote this event, which is titled, “Making Cities of the Future Smarter Through Broadband.”

WASHINGTON, August 22, 2011 – The beauty of the internet has always been the disconnection of content and infrastructure.

Landline phone service was a one-to-one medium. It required the phone company’s infrastructure of wires and switches and telephones. Broadcast television was one-to-many. It relied upon the towers and transmitters of the broadcasters, plus a standard-issue television.

Let alone the fact that today we largely watch televisions connected to wires, and largely talk into mobile phones untethered to Ma Bell’s cords. There is the wealth of many-to-many communication through the multiplicity of applications that make the internet what it is today.

None of this, of course, is new – until one considers Washington’s subsidization schemes.

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois, August 9, 2011 – It’s very easy to take broadband for granted. People want to go online to look up answers on Wikipedia, to watch movies on Netflix, to hang out on Facebook, or to Skype cousins across the globe — or across town.

None of this can be done without broadband. Higher and higher speeds of internet connectivity are necessary to satisfy everyone’s demand to do all of these things at once.

That’s where the Partnership for a Connected Illinois comes into play.