I recently had the opportunity to participate in a Community Broadband Summit held by the District of Columbia to explore the many ways that broadband drives economic growth, spurs community development and opens up new possibilities in jobs, education, healthcare and other areas.

A high-speed Internet connection and digital literacy skills can provide access to up-to-date job listings and new career paths, to specialized online classes and advanced educational content, to valuable healthcare resources and cutting-edge medical expertise. But even in the nation’s capital, there are still too many residents cut off from these opportunities because they are not online.

The D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer, or OCTO, which hosted the recent summit, is working to close this divide. And it is the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, or BTOP, a Recovery Act program administered by NTIA, that makes OCTO’s digital inclusion work possible.

The District of Columbia is one of the few BTOP grantees across the country administering grant projects in all three categories of the program: network infrastructure, public computing centers and sustainable broadband adoption projects.

•        OCTO is building a high-speed, fiber-optic network that will deliver Internet connections of up to 10 gigabits per second to as many as 290 D.C. anchor institutions. These anchors include schools, libraries, healthcare facilities, public safety entities and community colleges – many of which are located in low-income neighborhoods that suffer from high unemployment rates. The new Community Access Network – or DC-CAN – will also expand the District’s existing municipal fiber network, DC-Net, by another 170 miles. When the project is done, OCTO will manage more than 500 miles of fiber.

When discussing digital literacy, most conversations center around people's initial contact with computers and learning how the Internet is relevant to their lives; the basics on how to obtain information, goods, and services online; and developing the threshold skills necessary to succeed in the digital economy.  These basic skills are building blocks for success, and are the focus of many of our Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) projects.

Digital literacy is an ongoing process, however, and “advanced” digital literacy can have tremendous economic impacts – both from the perspective of the person learning marketable computer skills necessary to compete in today’s digital economy, and from the macroeconomic perspective in helping to realize the President’s vision of a more competitive America built to last.

This week, NTIA posted the most recent quarterly reports of BTOP recipients. It’s terrific to see these projects really begin to take off – from public computer centers opening, to infrastructure project groundbreakings, to sustainable broadband adoption training beginning – the benefits are becoming more and more visible.

For example, South Dakota Network’s $21 million infrastructure project began construction at several sites already, and construction is being accelerated into 2011. Also, the North Florida Broadband Authority’s $30 million infrastructure project has taken off in the last quarter: despite initial delays, its technical work over the last few months has resulted in the project exceeding the reliability and capacity hoped for in its application – at lower cost to boot.

Michigan State University’s Round 1 Public Computer Center project is rolling into the home stretch – it is running ahead of schedule and will essentially be complete by the end of this month. The computer centers upgraded so far are showing higher usership than anticipated, which validates the University’s Round 2 award to extend the Round 1 project significantly.

And One Community’s $19 million multi-state Sustainable Broadband Adoption project is also gaining momentum – project administrators and supervisors have been hired, training curriculum was developed, outreach to 130,000 people was conducted, and digital literacy training began for 1,100 people.

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of visiting the first public computer center opened as a result of a $1.9 million BTOP grant to the City of Boston. The opening, at the Mildred Avenue Community Center in Mattapan, was attended by Mayor Menino, other city officials, and project partners the Boston Public Library, Boston Housing Authority, and Boston Centers for Youth and Families. Dare I say that it was “wicked” exciting?

At Mildred Avenue, I got to meet the center’s managers, computer teacher, volunteers, and – best of all – kids who couldn’t wait to use the computers to play educational games. The City of Boston project focuses on the “reinvestment” aspect of the Recovery Act by replacing and bolstering equipment at about 50 locations, including community centers, Boston Housing Authority sites, and libraries in many of the city’s lowest-income and lowest-broadband-adoption areas. These centers were hard-hit by funding cuts due to the economic climate, but now they will all be updated by early 2011. The BTOP investment will also support a range of training targeted to the needs of the community, including computer skills, job readiness, and GED preparation.

The project is a great testament to the power of collaboration and the determination of the city’s CIO Bill Oates and his energized team to bridge Boston’s digital divide and bring residents all the educational and job benefits that broadband has to offer.

Angela Simpson is a senior policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary.

Chief information Officer for the City of Boston Bill Oates, District 4 City Councilor Charles C. Yancey, and NTIA’s Angela Simpson join students and Mayor Thomas M. Menino as he cuts the ribbon for the new computer center.