Broadband May Help Cities Compete in Economic Recovery

President Barack Obama has repeatedly spoken about the need to fix education and deploy world-class broadband more widely to make America more globally competitive. That's the bottom line that ultimately will determine the fiscal and social health of the nation's communities as they move forward -- effectively competing on the world stage to the extent that most Americans can share in an abundance of generated wealth. So while most cities vie for a share of stimulus package money and in the meantime hope that recovery won't be too prolonged, even economists are uncertain -- if not skeptical -- about how effective the stimulus will prove to be. For years, the phrase "reinventing government" captured the challenge of harnessing IT to transform government processes. This ongoing process has been one of the success stories of the last 20 years. The question is: Does the nation need the same kind of overall approach to "reinvent our communities" for the 21st century?