Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the Alliance for Digital Equality. I knew nothing about them – but apparently they held a conference this week “to discuss the potential socio-economic impact of affordable broadband deployment in the areas of job creation, public health, public safety, urban and economic development and educational advancement. The event, attended by various civic, religious, business and education leaders, marks the launch of the Boston Digital Empowerment Council (DEC)” – as reported by GovTech.

They promote access to technology (especially broadband) in metro areas and to minority communities. They started in 2007. Their Advisory Council includes AT&T, BET, Northup Grumman (a global defense and tech company), AGL Resources (a natural gas company), and Hollis & Company (could only find out they/he consults). They seem to be working on getting branches in various metro areas. There web site includes pictures of the some democratic big wigs (such as Obama and Bill Clinton).

It looks as if one of the big issues was increasing competition in cable television – but there issues page really focuses on access to broadband.

They don’t spear to necessarily promote one road or another to broadband availability – but I like their mission:

In many instances, minority communities are left out of public policy discussions regarding the advancement and implementation of new technologies because consumers are not sufficiently informed about the policy implications, and may not closely follow routine regulatory issues and processes. The Alliance will serve as a bridge between the policymakers and those who may not always follow technology issues in order to help the public understand how legislative and regulatory policies regarding new technologies affect them.