LISTA and ADE partnership will work to facilitate digital advocacy, digital literacy,
job creation and economic development in regards to digital empowerment initiatives
Today, Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA), the nation’s leading organization of Latino technology professionals and the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), a nonprofit organization that provides broadband solutions and broadband related services to underserved and un-served communities, are excited to announce a partnership to facilitate digital empowerment initiatives.
The strategic alliance of ADE and LISTA combines the collective skills, knowledge and experience of two diverse technology-based organizations, enabling them to work together to facilitate digital advocacy, digital literacy, job creation and economic development in regards to digital empowerment initiatives. In particular, the MSI Wireless Technology Act, the Workforce Investment Act, the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA), among others.
“We are forming this partnership right now because this is a pivotal time in the race to close the digital divide. Access to affordable high-speed Internet and broadband technology is a stepping stone to the opportunities of economic prosperity,” said Julius H. Hollis, Chairman of ADE. “As we focus on turning our economy around, we must make sure that those Americans currently in un-served and underserved communities are not left behind and further marginalized in this economy.”
“Both LISTA and ADE have worked hard individually to provide and enhance digital empowerment opportunities for communities of color, now as LISTA joins ADE’s Board of Directors we will combine our unique strengths and expand our reach,” said Jose Marquez, President and CEO of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association. “This will strengthen our ability to make a difference. I am very excited to work with the ADE leadership team to further these important goals.”
Together, ADE and LISTA will pursue initiatives in order to increase Latino and African American employment opportunities within American based information sciences, telecommunication, and technology industries. The partners will target project opportunities that make technology applications available to communities of color for educational purposes, for job training and development, and to enable fuller participation in the learning, civic engagement and cultural opportunities afforded jointly or separately by ADE-LISTA utilizing online technologies.
“As part of the LISTA/ADE Partnership, we will conduct a series of surveys of African Americans and Latinos in the tech sector to measure which tech companies are leading the way in corporate responsibility relative to their Latino and African American inclusion in higher management within their company. While Latinos have made strides there are areas in the tech industry we still have little to no representation, boards, upper management and key decision making positions are still scarce at some of the most successful tech companies, we can’t ignore Latinos in high tech anymore, it is just bad business,” said Marquez.
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About Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) (www.a-lista.org)
Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) promotes the utilization of the technology sectors for the empowerment of the Latino community. We are an organization that is committed to bringing various elements of Technology under one central hub to facilitate our partners, members and the community with the leverage and education they need to succeed in a highly advanced technologically driven society. LISTA Mission is to educate, motivate and encourage the use of technology in the Latino community and empowering them to bridge the digital divide.
About The Alliance for Digital Equality
The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), headquartered in Atlanta, GA, is a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization that serves to facilitate and ensure equal access to technology in underserved and un-served communities. The Alliance also serves as a bridge between policymakers and minority individuals in order to help the public understand how legislative and regulatory policies regarding new technologies can impact and empower their daily lives. For more information on The Alliance for Digital Equality, please visit www.alliancefordigitalequality.org
New York, NY, June 14th, 2010 – Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association’s President and CEO, Jose A. Marquez-Leon proudly announced today that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will deliver remarks on the National Broadband Plan at LISTA’s upcoming 3rd Annual National Tech-Latino 2030 Legislative Forum on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC at 6:00 pm – 8:30pm on Tuesday June 22nd 2010.
“It is a great honor to have Chairman Genachowski address our members at our 3rd Annual National Tech-Latino 2030 Legislative Forum,” said Tony Jimenez LISTA National Board of Directors Chairman. “Chairman Genachowski has been an advocate for the Latino community and understands the critical role broadband plays in developing businesses and improving the economy for all Americans.”
“We are extremely pleased to have Chairman Genachowski address our members at our 3rd Annual National Tech-Latino Legislative Forum,” said Jose A. Marquez Leon. “Chairman Genachowski recognizes the role of the nation’s Latino technology sector and how broadband will help the Latino community continue to develop businesses and our positive impact on the economy of the United States. He understands that closing the digital divide once and for all will give all Americans the chance to achieve the American Dream of financial independence and economic empowerment.”
“Having Chairman Genachowski participate in LISTA’s Tech-Latino Legislative Forum is a testament to the recognized impact Latinos will have in our nation’s high-tech future,” said Danny Vargas. He added, “We sincerely appreciate the Chairman’s interest and dedication to ensuring that the FCC continues to engage all segments of American society and encourages Latinos to take a leading role in not only telecommunications but all aspects of innovation.”
The 3rd Annual National Tech-Latino Legislative Forum will provide Latino IT professionals an opportunity to dialogue with members of Congress about key concerns in the industries of Science, Technology Math and Engineering. It will also provide LISTA an opportunity to continue to raise awareness of the digital divide and how to bridge it, develop ideas on how to stimulate the growth of technology business, and be a catalyst of change in the high-technology and science sectors.
Event Information
3rd Annual National Tech-Latino Legislative Forum is generously sponsored by MicroTech, Capitol Wire PR. Uber Operations, Broadband for America, NTIA, ADE, State Farm, Aetna and Comcast
Date: Tuesday, June 22 2010
Time: 6pm – 9 pm
Opening Reception Venue:
Rayburn House Office Building,
Room B-338, Basement, Washington, DC 20515
To Attend Please Visit: www.techlatino2030.org
About Chairman Genachowski
Julius Genachowski was nominated by President Barack Obama as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on March 3, 2009, and sworn into office on June 29, 2009.
Chairman Genachowski has two decades of experience in public service and the private sector. Prior to his appointment, he spent more than 10 years working in the technology industry as an executive and entrepreneur. He co-founded LaunchBox Digital and Rock Creek Ventures, where he served as Managing Director, and he was a Special Advisor at General Atlantic. In these capacities, he worked to start, accelerate, and invest in early- and mid-stage technology and other companies. From 1997-2005, he was a senior executive at IAC/InterActiveCorp, a Fortune 500 company, where his positions included Chief of Business Operations and General Counsel.
Genachowski’s public service spanned broadly across government. His confirmation as FCC Chairman returns him to the agency where, from 1994 until 1997, he served as Chief Counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, and, before that, as Special Counsel to then-FCC General Counsel (later Chairman) William Kennard. Previously, he was a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice David Souter and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. , and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for Chief Judge Abner Mikva. Genachowski also worked in Congress for then-U.S. Representative (now Senator) Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and on the staff of the House select committee investigating the Iran-Contra Affair.
Genachowski has been active at the intersection of social responsibility and the marketplace. He was part of the founding group of New Resource Bank, which specializes in serving the needs of green entrepreneurs and sustainable businesses, and has served on the Advisory Board of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). He also served as a board member of Common Sense Media, a leading non-partisan, non-profit organization seeking to improve the media lives of children and families.
Genachowski received a J.D from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), where he was co-Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received a B.A. from Columbia College (magna cum laude), where he was Editor of Columbia Spectator’s Broadway Magazine, re-established Columbia’s oldest newspaper (Acta Columbiana), and was a writer and researcher for Fred Friendly. He was also a certified Emergency Medical Technician who served on the Columbia Area Volunteer Ambulance, and taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
About Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA)
LISTA (www.a-lista.org) promotes the utilization of the technology sectors for the empowerment of the Latino community. We are an organization that is committed to bringing various elements of Technology under one central hub to facilitate our partners, members and the community with the leverage and education they need to succeed in a highly advanced technologically driven society.
New York, N.Y. – Today Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) President and CEO, Jose Marquez-Leon released the following statement in response to the May 24, 2010 letter to the Federal Communications Commission on the importance of broadband adoption and deployment over regulation.
LISTA is pleased to see 74 members of Congress join together and speak with one voice on the importance of broadband technology to transform the communities where we live and work. Broadband technology can revitalize the Hispanic community – providing access to first class schools and job training for high-paying American jobs.
Members of Congress have shown the Federal Communications Commission the importance of broadband – and the importance of focusing on policy goals before implementing net neutrality rules that threaten delay and deter broadband investment. We simply can not afford to keep high-speed Internet out of reach from the communities with schools and businesses that need to be online.
Congress has shown the Commission that there is much work to be done to bring broadband to all of America – I hope they will take the leadership to promote access and adoption with sensible policies that encourage investment, innovation, and collaboration.
Following the release of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan yesterday, Chairman Julius Genachowski sat down for an interview on YouTube National Broadband Plan Wrap-Up By Brad
A sampling of online chatter following yesterday’s release of the National Broadband Plan. First up, the Huffington Post:
Among the cornerstones of the plan is a ‘shoot for the moon’ goal of connecting 100 million U.S. households to 100 megabits per second broadband service over the next decade. Goals of this ambition require an unshakable policy foundation that is unequivocally supportive of investment. This means the many rule-makings that likely flow out of this plan must be cohesive in nature—pulling in the same constructive and unifying direction and staying true to the Chairman’s early and firm commitment to fact-based, data-driven decisions.
From Business Week:
If the U.S. military ranked 17th in the world, you can bet that as a nation we would make strengthening our armed forces a national priority. Yet that’s just how the U.S. stacks up against the rest of the world in terms of access to high-speed Internet connections. The vital communications systems that make our economy work and serve as a platform for business innovation and social interactions are second-class. Sadly, many of us have accepted that.
It’s time to overcome our broadband complacency. The national broadband plan sent to Congress on Mar. 16 by the Federal Communications Commission is critical to our economic and national security. Without a plan, we simply cannot compete.
The L.A. Times:
The FCC’s plan calls for a dramatic expansion of affordable, high-speed Internet. A chief goal is to ensure that at least 100 million homes have access to networks that allow data downloads at speeds at least 20 times faster than what most networks now deliver.
The bulk of the recommendation can be enacted by the FCC, such as diverting money from a fund for affordable phone service to rural areas to be used for increasing broadband access.
But Congress would have to act on others, particularly changing rules for federal auctions of federal airwaves to entice some broadcasters to give up their spectrum so the airwaves could be used for wireless Internet access.
USA Today:
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn criticized the recommendation to coax, and possibly force, television broadcasters to give up some airwave spectrum. The plan aims to increase broadband competition by boosting the amount of spectrum for wireless Internet services to 500 MHz from 50 MHz.
She said that “it is certainly possible, if not likely” that the few minority-owned stations likely would be among the first to sell their spectrum. She says she would find a policy that further diminished that number to be “untenable.”
The Wall Street Journal:
The FCC report suggests that 100 million U.S. homes—of a total 112 million—should have “affordable access” to 50 megabit per second Internet service in five years. That’s about 10 times faster than most homes get today. But the plan doesn’t define affordable.
Nor does it offer a specific recipe for its aim. The FCC says it will ultimately propose dozens of new rule changes to enact some of the ideas in Tuesday’s report.
The New York Times:
The broadband proposal, which the agency sent to Congress on Tuesday, “is necessary to meet the challenges of global competitiveness, and harness the power of broadband to help address so many vital national issues,” the agency chairman, Julius Genachowski, said in a statement.
President Obama said the plan recalled the way “past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the transcontinental railroad and the Interstate highways.”
Statement from the President on the National Broadband Plan
America today is on the verge of a broadband-driven Internet era that will unleash innovation, create new jobs and industries, provide consumers with new powerful sources of information, enhance American safety and security, and connect communities in ways that strengthen our democracy. Just as past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the Transcontinental railroad and the Interstate highways, so too must we harness the potential of the Internet. Expanding broadband across the nation will build a foundation of sustained economic growth and the widely shared prosperity we all seek.
I commend Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Commissioners, and the FCC staff for their hard work in developing the National Broadband Plan.
My Administration will build upon our efforts over the past year to make America’s nationwide broadband infrastructure the world’s most powerful platform for economic growth and prosperity, including improving access to mobile broadband, maximizing technology innovation, and supporting a nationwide, interoperable public safety wireless broadband network.
### FCC Chairman Announces The National Broadband Plan.
What is Broadband?
The term broadband commonly refers to high-speed Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access.
How is broadband different from dial-up service?
Broadband service provides higher-speed of data transmission. It allows more content to be carried through the transmission “pipeline.”
Broadband provides access to the highest quality Internet services—streaming media, VoIP (Internet phone), gaming, and interactive services. Many of these current and newly-developing services require the transfer of large amounts of data that may not be technically feasible with dial-up service. Therefore, broadband service may be increasingly necessary to access the full range of services and opportunities that the Internet can offer.
Broadband is always on. It does not block phone lines and there is no need to reconnect to network after logging off.
Less delay in transmission of content when using broadband.
Goal 1: At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.
Goal 2: The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.
Goal 3: Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose.
Goal 4: Every community should have affordable access to at least 1 Gbps broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals and government buildings.
Goal 5: To ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder should have access to a nationwide public safety wireless network.
Goal 6: To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.
FCC Chair Admits U.S. is falling behind in being digitally literate.
The Internet has transformed America with its power to generate innovation and opportunity and by its ability to connect, inform and entertain us like no technology in history.
But we are not even close to realizing the full potential of high-speed Internet, or “broadband,” access. Universally deployed broadband networks can be America’s engine for enduring job creation, economic growth and tremendous improvements and savings in education, health care and energy conservation.
This vision of world-leading 21st-century broadband networks and their benefits will not occur spontaneously. While the United States invented the Internet, when it comes to broadband we have fallen behind as other nations have raced ahead. Some studies show us to be as low as 15th in the world in broadband adoption; others have us higher, but none puts us even close to where we need to be.
Our nation is at a high-tech crossroads: Either we commit to creating world-leading broadband networks to make sure that the next waves of innovation and business growth occur here, or we stand pat and watch inventions and jobs migrate to those parts of the world with better, faster and cheaper communications infrastructures.
This, of course, is not a choice — which is why, this week, at the behest of Congress and the president, the Federal Communications Commission is delivering the first National Broadband Plan: a comprehensive strategy for dramatically improving our broadband networks and extending their benefits to all Americans.
The bad news is that we have a long way to go to meet this generation’s great infrastructure challenge:
– Millions of Americans can’t get broadband today. Period. With so many of our daily interactions moving online — including job listings and job training during the worst recession in decades — that’s unacceptable.
– Tens of millions of Americans with access to broadband have not signed up. Our surveys show that they aren’t connected because they can’t afford it, don’t know how to use it or aren’t aware of its potential benefits.
– The vast majority of us don’t have broadband that’s fast enough to take advantage of remote video learning or medical diagnostics, or dozens of other existing and emerging applications.
– An entrepreneur can’t run a small business today without broadband, but 26 percent of rural business sites don’t have access to a standard cable modem, and more than 70 percent of small businesses have little or no mobile broadband.
– Just as mobile broadband becomes ever more important, we face a looming shortage of spectrum — the electromagnetic oxygen on which our mobile networks run.
The starting point to solve these problems is a set of goals that are ambitious but achievable with a national commitment.
– First, to ensure opportunity, every American should have access to all essential broadband services at home.
– Second, to ensure that we have the advanced networks we need to empower American businesses, we must substantially increase the capabilities of our networks. This means driving toward one gigabit to every community in America, through libraries, schools and community colleges; and creating the world’s largest market for affordable, very high-speed broadband — a “100 Squared” initiative of affordable 100 megabits per second to 100 million households — so that inventors around the world will flock to our platform.
– Third, to ensure that we capture the next wave of change, we must lead the world in the speed and reach of our mobile networks.
– Fourth, to ensure the safety of Americans, every first responder must have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network.
With smart policies, we can enable and accelerate the private investment necessary to achieve this future. If we have the political will, we can reclaim the licensed and unlicensed spectrum our wireless networks need to thrive. We can transform the multibillion-dollar fund that supports the universal availability of traditional voice communication to one that supports universal broadband. We can promote competition, for example, by removing barriers, encouraging investment and empowering consumers with the information they need to make the market work. And we can offer every American the tools to be digitally literate — a prerequisite to participating in the new economy.
If we adopt these and other good ideas, we can harness the power of a technology with the greatest potential to advance our economic and social welfare since the advent of electricity.
Imagine a world where children in low-income neighborhoods can have access in their classrooms to the best teachers in the world and access at home to the most up-to-date e-textbooks. Picture a time when diabetic seniors living in rural areas without ready access to doctors can get nutrition counseling on home computers.
History teaches us that nations that lead technological revolutions reap enormous rewards. We can lead the revolution in wired and wireless broadband. But the moment to act is now.
The writer is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
Today, Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA), the nation’s leading organization of Latino technology professionals and the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), a nonprofit organization that provides broadband solutions and broadband related services to underserved and un-served communities, are excited to announce a partnership to facilitate digital empowerment initiatives.
