John Horrigan

The great thing about bringing people together to talk about broadband adoption data is that you always get new ideas for questions to pursue in the future. At the "Building the Fact" base workshop last week, this dynamic played out as expected.

An April 2009 survey shows that 56% of adult Americans have accessed the Internet by wireless means, such as using a laptop, mobile device, game console, or MP3 player.

An April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project shows 63% of adult Americans now have broadband Internet connections at home, a 15% increases from a year earlier.

Some 39% of Americans have positive and improving attitudes about their mobile communication devices, which in turn draws them further into engagement with digital resources - on both wireless and wireline platforms.

Investment in broadband has become part of the broader discussion about President Obama's economic stimulus package. Although job creation is the main topic in this debate, there are really three policy goals associated with broadband in the stimulus package: creating new jobs, creating new broadband subscribers, and improving the broadband experience for all subscribers through faster networks.

There is no shortage of suggestions to the incoming Obama administration about what to do about communications policy in the United States. Online Americans might have one more suggestion: Make sure the Internet remains a place where users define what it means to be digitally connected.

Half (48%) of tech users need help from others in getting new devices and services to work, and many experience tech outages when there is a glitch with their home Internet connection, computer, or cell phone.

There are indications that the growth rate in home high-speed adoption is slowing. Two factors jump to mind as reasons for this slowdown. First, high growth rates become more difficult to sustain as society marches up the adoption curve. Second is the economy.

"Broadband is not just an information source for news and civic matters, but it's also a pathway to participation."
-- John Horrigan, Pew Internet & American Life Project

The text of John Horrigan's keynote speech to the Progress & Freedom Foundation's Aspen Summit. The Summit's theme was "unlocking innovation" and the speech talks about what user behavior tells us about the current climate for innovation.