Spectrum of Greed

Slip slidin' away.... to 19th place now!

A Fast Company blog by Chris Dannon today highlighted the depressing fact that the US has recently dropped to 19th in a recent study on global internet broadband connectivity.  I found it on Digg.  The article was an interview with Emily Green, CEO of the Yankee Group, a Boston-based consultancy that specializes in connectivity.  Several interesting facts were touched on in the article, and while I can’t agree with every point, no one can argue the overall fact that our US leadership does not understand the true potential that the internet holds for our economy.  Why else would they use ’shovel ready’ as the measurement of where to spend money to create jobs instead of ‘digital ready’, as our rapidly morphing service economy really needs?

When you look at the dollar amount allocated to enhancing our countries broadband connectivity in the stimulus package and realize that the total amount is less than 1% of the approved stimulus package, the meaning could not be more clear - we have leadership that is clueless about what really has the potential to turn the country around.  The fastest growing segment of our economy is the online one.  If it were properly supported, it could explode!