The National Broadband Plan (pdf) being presented to Congress today is an important foundational document in the future development of the Internet in this country -- which is our way of warning you that we're going to be boring you with some of the details in the days ahead. But as promised yesterday, here are two more aspects of the plan that particularly touch on the ideas of open government, interactivity citizen participation:

• The National Broadband Plan proposes that the Federal Communications Commission should create an online database containing information it collects on the broadband speeds and services available to Americans, searchable by Internet service provider (AT&T, Verizon, Joe's Wireless), street address, so on and so forth.
• The plan also proposes that the federal government should structure the data it collects with the goal in mind that third-parties will use it to build decision-making apps to help citizens and businesses figure out which broadband service option best suits the way they actually use the Internet -- whether they're night-only light users, hard-core gamers, video watchers, or whatever the case may be.

The bigger problem is that, in many cases, people in the U.S. have one or two broadband providers to choose from. Three is considered an embarrassment of riches. But solving that is what the rest of the plan is for.

Bonus: Now that we have a PDF version of the plan, we can get a peek at what the online Spectrum Dashboard we talked about yesterday will look like. The FCC promises that this is the beta version:

Credit: The National Broadband Plan, FCC

As the New York Times' Brian Stelter reports, C-Span is declaring victory over the creation of a comprehensive online library of government-related video going back, in full, to the Reagan years, and with caches of content from even earlier. C-Span reports that they've digitized and uploaded nearly half a million videos since 1987, comprising about 160,000 hours of video footage. Fire up the archive when your kid is a baby, sit down and watch non-stop, and you'll be done when she's ready to leave for college. It's all online now at C-SpanVideo.org.

Good news for bloggers: a great deal of the C-SPAN clips are embeddable. As for copyright, a perennial question when it comes to what C-SPAN provides, it appears to remain the same for this resource. In other words, whatever happens on the floor of the House and Senate is public domain. Whatever happens at non-floor government events, including congressional hearings and White House events, they're claiming copyright over -- and they're generally cool with that copyright protection being honored by leaving the C-Span logo on the footage. They claim full copyright over documentaries and other original productions.

There's enough in there to keep a history teacher (or history geek) busy for quite a while. I'd never seen Al Gore's concession speech to George Bush from 2000, for example, but that's in there. There's quirkier fare too; C-Span has visited the gravesite of every deceased American president, and that's in there too. Dive in.

Standing in line, pulling a lever, filling in bubbles -- voting in America isn't exactly on the cutting-edge of technology.

But with just a video camera, a simple question and an internet connection, one small organization is transforming Election Day itself.

How can your organization use online video to change politics?

Join the PdF Network on Thursday, March 18 as Jacob Soboroff, Executive Director, Why Tuesday, shows us how a camera and an idea can spark a national conversation.

Thursday, March 18th at the PdF Network
Reform by Video: How to Build an Organization Using Online Video
1-2 p.m. EST

Join the call!

Check out our upcoming PdF Network calls...

Credit: The White House

• While conceding that America has not yet had its first "full up geek" President, Barack Obama is diagnosed as a geek sympathizer by the director of Hayden Planetarium, who knows from such things. This, it seems, is a debatable pronouncement. Sure, he dabbles in astronomy on occasion. But there haven't been signs that Obama possesses the Al Gore-like obsession with details that could be said to be the one immutable quality of a true geek.
• A correspondent points out that the FCC's release of the executive summary of its new National Broadband Plan is a scanned-in non-text PDF where you can see the three-ring binder holes.
• Another year, another batch of countries restricting Internet access.
• A look at how OFA is aging in Pennsylvania.
• And Neiman Lab's Megan Garber reports out the State Department's Opinion Space app.

(With Micah Sifry and Nick Judd)

At an FCC briefing this morning, I got my hands on a copy of the long-awaited National Broadband Plan that was set to be released tomorrow morning. And as it appears that Politico has broken the midnight embargo, instead of a leisurely, contemplative lunch before heading back up to New York, I'm in a Capitol Hill Cosi type-type-typing away. Thanks Politico! Anyway, we'll be digging through the plan for parts relevant to what we do here, but here's a taste. As part of their national broadband strategy, the FCC is soon going to be releasing a beta version of an online Wireless Spectrum Dashboard:

Concurrent with the National Broadband Plan, the FCC is launching a beta release of a spectrum dashboard. This Internet-based software enables user-friendly access to information regarding spectrum bands and licenses, including those that may be suitable for wireless broadband deployment. The initial version includes general information about non-federal use of spectrum bands in the range of 225 MHz to 3.7 GHz as well as more detailed information about bands of particular relevance to broadband.

The spectrum dashboard will allow users to browse spectrum bands more easily, search for spectrum licenses, produce maps and download raw data for further analysis. For the first time, through a single FCC portal, users may access basic information on the licenses (e.g., license name, contact information, frequency bands) as well as descriptions of allocations. Further, the dashboard includes information not previously available through the FCC website, such as the capability to search for licenses based on commonly recognizable names of companies (e.g., AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.) and the amount of spectrum held by licenses on a county-by-county basis for many types of licenses.

The wireless spectrum is a national resource owned by the people, even if it isn't always treated as such. And this is one instance where the Obama administration's affection for online dashboards (see, IT Spending Dashboard, Open Government Dashboard) is potentially pretty significant. Applying the principles of open government -- raw data, visualizations, and the rest -- makes that spectrum more knowable, shifting the balance a power of bit between those who currently license and make money off the spectrum, and upstarts, innovators, and the American people.

The Washington Post's ombudsperson Andrew Alexander has an apology to make. He's super sorry that the Post doesn't do a better job exposing its readers to government data:

[T]he era when paper records were kept in dusty file rooms is fading. Today, "freedom of information" has been expanded to encompass the right to instantly tap vast quantities of public information in electronic form. The contents of these databases, from restaurant health inspection reports to toxic waste citations, help citizens improve their communities and their lives.

The Post has a journalistic obligation and a business imperative to provide easy online access to the data through its Web site. But it's fallen far behind at a time when its readers have a growing number of alternatives.

It's intriguing that some people within the Washington Post enterprise are interpreting the organization's mission these days as being a portal onto minimally-processed government data, and doing it with a thinly-veiled reference to the good ol' days of Watergate. That's reinterpreting "newspaper" to be a news organization, yes. But it's also rethinking "news organization" to include acting as a go-between between the stuff that government produces and the stuff that citizens might like to know about. But hey, as Alexander points out, today kicks off Sunshine Week across the country. No time like the present to start getting better at serving up to readers the source materials of government.

If not for the good of the country, then for the good, says Alexander, of the Post:

The Post should help its readers by becoming a robust online gateway to digitized information. If not, readers' loyalties will shift to another brand.

I think the government really regrets the Internet... Originally, they thought it would be like the newspaper or the television -- just another way to get their view out to the people. What they didn’t realize is that people can type and talk back. This is giving them a really big headache.

-- Chinese racecar driver, novelist, and all-around heartthrob Han Han who has been tweaking, with humor and sarcasm, what he sees as the failings in Chinese culture and government on his his widely-read blog, as quoted in a piece by the New York Times' Andrew Jacobs. "With more than 300 million hits to his blog," writes Jacobs, "[Han] may be the most popular living writer in the world."

Credit: BarackObama.com

Organizing for America, the field wing of the Democratic National Committee, has just emailed supporters with what is at least its third survey since last January asking allies and fans how they feel about the direction of the organization. This survey, though, is extra-heavy on Internet questions, suggesting that OFA might be putting some renewed focus on revamping -- or at least reinvigorating -- its online strategy, something the Obama campaign, of course, was particularly known for.

"How would you rate the quality of the emails you receive from Organizing for America?," reads one question on the 18-question survey, and another asks whether OFA is sending out their missives too infrequently, not often enough, or at just the right clip. One often-heard critique of OFA's early days is that while the Obama campaign's emails had a certain style, eloquence, and passion, Organizing for America's early email blasts read like those of a dozen other organizations at least -- and were a bit heavy on the fundraising asks. Supporters here are also asked to rate how likely they are to participate in "Organizing for America’s next *online* activity," like signing a digital petition or sending a letter to the editor.

Finally, Organizing for America is curious just how well its supporters are connecting with them/the President's persona online. "Are you a fan of Barack Obama on Facebook?," the survey asks. "Do you follow @BarackObama on Twitter?"

Credit: iTunes Store

We noted on Friday that the Federal Communications Commission had released an official version of a web app designed to tell Americans just how fast and stable their broadband Internet connects are. Also worth noting is that there's now a mobile version of the FCC's Broadband Speed Test, too -- an iPhone app that uses your phone's built-in GPS capabilities to figure out where in the U.S. you are, and then tell just how robust your mobile Internet connection truly is.

If you're reading the tea leaves for policy clues, the FCC's iPhone Broadband Speed Test app is just one more reminder that this Federal Communications Commission intends to have its say over mobile broadband, not just the land-based stuff.

• Iceland | The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative
  Iceland is a country with huge economic problems but also with an ambitious idea in development to save freedom of expression: The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative. It is a cross-party proposal (19 out of 63MPs are making the proposal) aimed at adopting the strongest press and source protection laws from around the world: "The goal of the IMMI proposal is to task the government with finding ways to strengthen freedom of expression around world and in Iceland, as well as providing strong protections for sources and whistleblowers. To this end the legal environment should be explored in such a way that the goals can be defined, and changes to law or new law proposals can be prepared".