Our fun news of the day is Blandin Foundation President, Jim Hoolihan’s Op-Ed piece in the Pioneer Press.

Jim praises the leadership in the state for their recent decision to create a Broadband Task Force. He offers some advice for the yet-to-be-name task force members:

We commend these principles as a starting point for the state’s broadband task force:

Affordability: Find innovative ways to make broadband affordable in order for all to experience Internet advantages;

Collaboration: Establish public-private collaborations;

Competitiveness: Increased customer choice and innovation are positive outcomes; encourage competition among service providers;

Interoperability: Regardless of the technology used for ultra-high-speed delivery, all systems must seamlessly interoperate with all other technologies;

Neutrality: Ultra-high-speed broadband policy should be promoted regardless of the technology platform that delivers it;

Research: Reward ongoing broadband innovation and continued research;

Symmetry: Provide symmetric speeds (same speeds upstream and downstream) to improve people’s ability to share information;

Ubiquity: Support the concept that eventually ultra-high-speed broadband should be available to every person, business and institution in our state

World class: Settle for nothing less than a world-class ultra-high-speed broadband system.