I often talk about the promise of ultrafast, ubiquitous broadband connections. What kind of innovation might it unleash? How can it be applied to benefit society? Now Verizon’s poised to take part in a bold new experiment to find out.

The US Ignite Partnership, a public-private initiative launched just this week, will showcase how next-generation applications built to operate on ultrafast networks can transform what is possible for American science institutions, businesses, and families.

Health care, online safety, economic development…

These are all big issues to tackle. Today, I am writing about how we're innovating and exploring ways to apply our broadband and wireless technologies to these and other challenges.

First, you engage with your heart; then your mind is provoked; suddenly outrage erupts. Once the emotions subside, you ask, “how did it come to this and what can I do to help?”

At least that’s how I’ve felt this week as I listened to, and engaged, in debates and dialogue surrounding the buzz coming from our Nation’s Capital and elsewhere on education reform.

(This post also can be found on our policy blog)

My colleagues, Jackie Ruff, Leslie Martinkovics and I,  with an able assist from Lindsay McQuaid of the Verizon Foundation, have just returned from Uganda where Verizon co-sponsored with the Internet Society (ISOC), the Uganda Communications Commission and the Uganda Martyrs University, a highly successful Symposium on ICT for Higher Education in East Africa . 

My opening remarks are attached below.  Read more about the symposium . . .

Attachments:

Opening Remarks - Kathryn C Brown - Chancellor Clay Biography.pdf ‏113 KB

The leader of our Corporate Responsibility group at Verizon, Kathy Brown, gave one of the important speeches of the year recently about the “value” of sustainability as a core attribute of good corporate citizenship and a means of creating long-term growth. She delivered the speech on June 17 at the Conference Board in New York.

Kathy makes the point that careful stewardship of natural resources by corporations can bring social and business value. 

Attachments:

2010-06-17 - Kathryn C Brown - Conference Board -final -TL.pdf ‏26 KB

I'm leaving this evening for Uganda to participate in a first-ever symposium that Verizon helped organize to find ways of improving Internet access between East Africa and the rest of the world—particularly for the region's universities.

Why East Africa?  The arrival of undersea cables to the shores of this region presents a terrific opportunity to build out a national backbone infrastructure.

Over the past two years Verizon has been part of a collaborative effort to address the technology needs of persons with disabilities through legislation in Washington D.C.

Recently the Senate held a hearing on important legislation called the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act.

The goal of this legislation is to ensure that no matter what the platform – wireline, wireless, Internet or video – the experience will be universally accessible. 

I'm happy to announce that PBS and Verizon have arranged to make the Frontline documentary, Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier available via the FiOS Video On Demand* line-up, starting March 22.

You may have seen the debut of Digital Nation on Feb. 2 and if you did, you know what a terrific piece of journalism PBS' Frontline created.   Read more about Verizon's sponsorship of this groundbreaking documentary about life in our digital age.

This week we have a guest blogger to the Responsibility Blog. 

Link Hoewing, assistant vice president for Internet and Technology Issues at Verizon, normally hangs out on Verizon’s Policy Blog, but this week he participated on a panel at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in Washington, D.C. He was invited by the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Broadband Omnibus Initiative team, which outlined its recommendations to ensure the accessibility of high-speed Internet to people with disabilities.  

PBS' award-winning FRONTLINE program focused last week on our Digital Nation. It was an excellent look at the complexities of our virtual world. It was provocative and far reaching in its look at how all of us have been affected by technology and it's given us the tools and resources to continue talking about this. Whether you are a student, a parent or a teacher you'll want to read more...

I’ve blogged in this space before about a terrific piece of journalism undertaken by PBS’ FRONTLINE program.  For the past year the FRONTLINE producers have been collecting and studying stories of a digital nation. 

They have gone out and explored the online world.  They’ve gone into households and asked parents, grandparents, young adults and children how they are using technology to establish a culture for a safe environment online.

This special presentation follows hundreds of people who have shared their stories with PBS over the past year.

It is an outstanding piece of journalism from the producers at the PBS series FRONTLINE and one you won't want to miss.