It’s going to be a busy week. The National Broadband Plan is expected to be released on Wednesday. (Did they not know that March 17 was St Patrick’s Day?!) The Minnesota broadband bill may make it to the legislative floor this week – although that’s not set in stone and next week may be more likely. And it’s Sunshine Week!

According to the Sunshine Week web site…

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.

Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of News Editors and is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami.

Though spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger.

I know that’s kind of long but I wanted to fit in the part about enlightening and empowering people to play an active role in government at all levels – because I think that ties in so closely with one of the basic reasons that the government is and should be interested in broadband. Because as more and more government information is being made available online (sometimes avialble online only), it is important that every citizen have equal access to that information – brodband is the medium. Also broadband can give voice to the citizenry that was previously hard to hear – but only those with broadband have that advantage.

Locally, Sunshine Week will be celebrated on March 16 when the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information awards Reed Anfinson, recipient of the 2010 John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award. (Get details on event.)

Anfinson is publisher and owner of the Swift County Monitor-News, based in Benton, MN. According to the MN COGI web site…

In this role he has published frequent editorials and articles on open government, including articles on the state’s Data Practices Act, open meeting regulations and discussions of the impact of video and digital technology on public access.

The keynote speaker is Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson. He will be speaking on the open approach used in the contentious Senate recount and the impact on the public perception of the outcome. He will also address the Court’s decision to initiative a new test of cameras in the court in Minnesota. I think of the impact The Uptake had on the recount – filming and posting the recount online. It’s just one aspect of the importance of broadband.