Our friends from the technology community helped us to celebrate the new site at our re-launch party last week.  Not only did attendees get a view of the website, but a Twitter stream about the event was displayed as well.  Check out some highlight photos below and the entire catalogue on Flickr.  Thanks to Pulse & Signal, Capitol Communicator, East Coast Blogging, and others for helping us to get the word out about our new site!

Neal Neuberger is the President of Health Tech Strategies and was recently selected as the first executive director of the HIMSS Foundation’s Institute for e-Health Policy. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Foundation launched the new Institute for e-Health Policy in May 2008 to provide critical educational opportunities in the Washington, D.C., area for public- and private-sector stakeholders who both make, and are impacted by, e-health policy decisions.

To listen to Neal’s Interview with NextGenWeb, click here

To read the full Health Tech Strategies NOI filing to the FCC, click here

Alec Ross, Senior Advisor for Innovation in the Office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, began his discussion of 21st Century Statecraft by looking back.  He noted that it was a longstanding principle that those with access to information have access to power.  But now that the Internet is putting information in the hands of the people, power can devolve from structures of the few, like a government, to those of the many, like citizens themselves.

Crediting the wide reach of the Internet, Ross identified three primary categories of sweeping communications changes:

1) Government to People
The U.S. can engage directly with people in other nations. Ross used the example of a recent speech by President Obama in Cairo that was translated into more than a dozen languages and posted on the Internet, so it could be broadly shared with the Muslim world and beyond.  The positive reception has inspired similar distribution plans for future speeches abroad.

2) People to Government
Thanks to technology, there is growing potential for citizens to access information, organize or take action individually to influence their government.

3) People to People
Modern communications as an organizational tool has become the rule, rather than the exception.  Ross even noted that you don’t need a central charismatic figure, just citizens taking action.  “Everyone with a cell phone has a global distribution network.  Everyone can be a citizen diplomat.”

It’s too soon to gauge the success of these new communications models, but the excitement around them at PDF was palpable. Ross acknowledged that it’s early in 21st Century Statecraft, but Secretary Clinton is eager to experiment and engage.

This is not something lost at the FCC. Remember last year the Commission rolled out a $400 million grant program to improve broadband-enabled health care in rural America. Today FCC Commissioner Michael Copps and former Commissioner (now President Obama’s nominee to run the Rural Utilities Service) Jonathan Adelstein kicked off a series of national visits to health care facilities to review how increased broadband capabilities can improve the delivery of health services.

NextGenWeb attended the tour of the Healthy Babies Project, a non-profit community based organization in Washington, DC whose goal is to aid in the reduction of the dangerously high rates of infant deaths, illnesses, and low birth weight, as well as improve the health outcomes for at-risk mothers and infants. During the tour, Dr. Linda A. Randolph said, “Broadband helps resolve crisis conflict, ease communication and increase efficiency. We have a marriage between people and technology. The more accessible technology the more unified everyone would be and there would be a decrease in chances for human error.”

The second part of the program included a Press Conference at the Family and Medical Counseling Service. During the press conference, Dr. Flora Terrell Hamilton, Executive Director of the Family and Medical Counseling Service, discussed the benefits of broadband to delivering more efficient, higher quality care. “Broadband would effectively improve health care in a number of ways, including making billing, the spread of information and management all more efficient and improved. Broadband also allows for more security and a faster turnaround time in every area.” Jonathan Adelstein closed the press conference by suggesting “that a broadband literacy program needs to be started in our schools to give future generations the ability to effectively use broadband.”

We applaud Mr. Adelstein and Mr. Copps for taking the initiative to embark on an educational tour to highlight the exciting ways that broadband and technology are being used to improve healthcare, and the folks of the Healthy Babies Project and the Family and Medical Counseling Service for demonstrating the life enhancing programs they are currently using that help deliver better quality healthcare to Americans.

Speaking on behalf of Ning was co-founder Gina Bianchini, who used the popular Push.Pickensplan.com to demonstrate best practices of building an independent online community.   The Pickens plan strategy for digital and social media was what Bianchini described as the “hub and spoke model,” where members and actions are driven to and from other social networks.

So how successful was Push.Pickensplan.com?  200,000 people signed up to be field lieutenants and then organized 1.9 million people to take action.  People in the community were organized by Congressional district and an astounding 65% involved met in person with their representative.

But the real key to success, claims Bianchini, is the ease of use of the Ning tool.  Another win for technology connecting people!

We know broadband provides an economic boost to communities and opens doors to new educational opportunities, but today’s discussion offered new thoughts and ideas on how educators are using technology to cut costs. One educator said his school is having people work from home during the summer break, so they can save money on energy costs. Another administrator mentioned how his school is working to reduce textbook costs by using resources available on the web. He also noted the important role a robust network plays in making these options possible. Another panel participant addressed the amount of time and resources used to develop emergency preparedness and contingency plans. She stressed how virtual learning options can overcome many of these challenges during emergencies, citing schools that were forced to close because of the swine flu this spring.

Economic challenges often drive innovation, and these educators are looking to broadband-enabled technologies to save costs and still meet student needs.

The mayor talked in great detail about how New York City is utilizing technology.  In fact, Mayor Bloomberg urged the audience to move to the city – citing the need for more taxpayers but also touting the fact that NYC has a longer life expectancy than the national average!

Mayor Bloomberg said that in years past, citizen participation in the democratic process meant going to city hall or joining a club.  And while you can still do that Bloomberg said, the Internet is making government more accountable and making it easier for people to get and send information.

He then got into the city’s 311 technology – which is available in over 70 languages.  He shared a story to highlight how 311NYC works.  While driving one day he saw some trash on a city street.  He called 311, reported the problem, and the city immediately sent someone to clean it up.  The mayor again had the audience in stitches when he said the operator asked who the caller was, he said, “Michael Bloomberg” and she asked how he spelled that.  Never let notoriety go to your head, the mayor said.

Mayor Bloomberg also highlighted other ways NYC311 is improving how the city does business, citing progress reports on schools and citywide performance measures, all through the use of technology.  The mayor shared a fundamental principle he uses in business, saying that better information shared faster means people do things better.  He is bringing that philosophy to city government.

The mayor shared 5 new “technology” initiatives that New York City is embarking on.  They include:

1.    Sykpe connection – NYC311 (the mayor used this to join #pdf2009 today)

2.    Twitter: @311NYC

3.    311 online, NYC.gov

4.    The city is partnering with Google to monitor traffic patterns on NYC.gov – so they can figure out what content and services people are really interested in.

5.    Bigapps – if you get the innovation bug, you might just win dinner with Mayor Bloomberg.  This is a contest to develop new applications that utilize technology to improve the quality of life in New York City.

For more information on how Mayor Bloomberg is utilizing broadband-enabled technologies to improve the quality of life in NYC, visit NYC.gov.

DeepDebate.org is a tool that seeks to improve online conversations by providing a neutral debate structure for a more collective discussion.   Topics are broken out into single statements that people can agree or disagree with and then share their reasoning.  People can add their opinions to points, as well as rate the reasoning of others.  Data is organized by topic, ratings, authors, and points, and can be analyzed to identify trends, majorities, and more.

Even if you missed DC Media Makers, you can still see a demo of DeepDebate.org by clicking on the video below!

Create your own conversation map from DeepDebate on Vimeo.

It’s a diverse line-up of speakers and PDF 2009 stands to be a terrific event with many important dialogues.  Stay tuned on NextGenWeb for updates throughout the next two days!

NextGenWeb congratulates the new leadership and looks forward to the work ahead as we inform more Americans about the ways broadband can strengthen the economy, improve health care options, open doors to new educational opportunities and more. As this awareness grows among consumers, so does broadband adoption helping us overcome a key obstacle to universal access. Be sure to check back as we follow their progress!