The National Broadband Plan aims to have broadband in 90% of American households by 2020 (currently, the number is somewhere around 65%). Affordable access is only a piece of the plan, however.

The FCC recommends the creation of a three-part National Digital Literacy Program. During the America's Digital Inclusion Summit, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, at right, emphatically lauded the creation of a Digital Literacy Corps, to help tackle the digital divide locally. Face-to-face training will help ensure that Americans who do not regularly use computers or the Internet are no longer handicapped.

When asked by her daughter to enroll in computer training, Florence Pearson admits to having backed out initially. But after finally attending a class, with her daughter in tow, Pearson's fears vanished:

"I was handicapped. I had to have someone else type my work for me. [After training,] all I can see are possibilities for myself and my family. I went in with fear and came out with the motivation to tackle the computer and make my children proud," says Pearson, Education Director of Head Start in New York, NY.

Pearson, pictured above with her daughter, was one of five speakers from the Voices of Inclusion series that shed light on how broadband access and digital literacy have personally improved the lives of Americans.

The National Broadband Plan is scheduled to be presented to Congress by the FCC on Wednesday, March 17. You can read more about the plan at http://broadband.gov/.

America's Digital Inclusion Summit has concluded. Video from the Summit will be posted later. In the meantime, you can view tweets about the event by following #BBplan.

In opening remarks at today's America's Digital Inclusion Summit, Knight Foundation's President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen said:

"The FCC believes, as we at Knight Foundation do, that you cannot have a healthy American democracy with only 60% of Americans having access to modern means of commercial, civil and social communication. And that's the actual figure we live with today. That means that almost 40% of Americans are on the other side of the digital divide."

There is an increasing need for access to information via broadband. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project, the Internet has now surpassed newspapers as a primary way that American get news making it the third most popular news platform. Something must be done to narrow the digital divide.

To that end, the FCC is previewing it's recommendations for the National Broadband Plan today at the Newseum, in Washington, D.C., in preparation for delivery of the plan to Congress on March 17. The plan aims to have broadband in the homes of 90% of Americans by 2020.

Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman, said:

"In order to ensure long term American competitiveness and prosperity, we must not leave one-third of the nation behind. The National Broadband Plan provides a vision for federal, state, and local leadership and partnerships with private and non-profit communities that will bridge the digital divide and transform America into a nation where broadband expands opportunities for all."

We'll post more about America's Digital Inclusion Summit as it happens.

Knight Foundation CEO and Chairman of the Newseum Board of Trustees Alberto Ibargüen introduced Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to an audience at the Newseum today in Washington, D.C.. Secretary Clinton stated that Internet freedom should be a right for everyone, and that the United States has a responsibility in helping protect the free exchange of ideas on the world's information infrastructure.

Secretary Clinton mentioned the launch of a competition to improve information exchanges:

"... There are companies, individuals, and institutions working on ideas and applications that could already advance our diplomatic and development objectives. The State Department will be launching an innovation competition to give this work an immediate boost. We’ll be asking Americans to send us their best ideas for applications and technologies that help break down language barriers, overcome illiteracy, connect people to the services and information they need. Microsoft, for example, has already developed a prototype for a digital doctor that could help provide medical care in isolated rural communities. We want to see more ideas like that. And we’ll work with the winners of the competition and provide grants to help build their ideas to scale."

You can watch video of the speech at C-SPAN. A full transcript of the speech is available at the U.S. Department of State.

From Eric Newton, VP of Journalism, Knight Foundation:

A lot of people know Haynes Johnson. He's one of the nation's leading political journalists. You see him on TV's Meet The Press. He's got a big new book out, The Battle For America, explaining once and for all the story behind the historic election of '08.

You can read more about it in Time, The New York Times, Politico and, of course, the Washington Post, where the Pulitzer-winning Johnson worked and where his co-author, Dan Balz, works today.  A good sample of the press tour is this Newseum video.

I Googled "Haynes Johnson," and got -- in 0.15 seconds -- 96,900 hits.  There is one of particular interest to us here. Haynes is a Knight Chair in Journalism -- one of two dozen great professors in America who not only does fantastic journalism of his own but teaches the next generations.

Most of the people who have heard of Haynes -- as well as other famously-published writers such as Michael Pollan and Sylvia Nasar -- have no idea that these folks are Knight Chairs. They produce good journalism faster than their universities can brag about their teaching roles.

Haynes holds forth at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. As much the exploding digital age is changing news, he tells students, "the standards don't change: our mission is to tell the story of our time as compellingly and fairly and honestly as possible, with distinction of analysis and perspective. This has always been the lodestone of great journalism. It is even more important now at a moment when the news business is changing as never before...

The purpose Knight Chair program aims to strengthen American journalism education by infusing academia with top professionals. Virginia Dodge Fielder, our journalism program consultant, takes an independent look each year at the Knight Chair activities. Here's her latest report.

If every American went to the Newseum in Washington, D.C., would the First Amendment be in better shape?

Every year, the First Amendment Center issues a State of the First Amendment report based on telephone interviews. In 2008, 40 percent of respondents—the greatest percentage thus far—were not able to identify one of First Amendment freedoms.

Visitors to the Newseum respond to similar kinds of questions on kiosks as they exit the First Amendment Gallery. More of the Newseum visitors, by that poll, appreciate the First Amendment than do members of the general public, by the State of the First Amendment survey.

Just 12 percent of Newseum visitors say the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees, but 20 percent of the public says the same. Similarly, 39 percent of the public and 18 percent of Newseum visitors say the American press has too much freedom.

Here are some other examples:

It’s not a scientific comparison, but it appears people at the Newseum have the kinds of attitudes about the First Amendment that its supports would love to see in the general public surveys. Why? It is because the Newseum, which has the world’s largest copy of the First Amendment on its facade, simply attracts freedom-lovers? Or is there something special they learn inside? Or both?

The issue of First Amendment education has been in the news for years, since a major national study showed more than 75 percent of high school students did not know about or care about all of these fundamental freedoms.

Check out these educational programs focusing on the First Amendment and Constitution Day.

A recent Christian Science Monitor article profiled “News Games” – the emerging genre of non-fiction games that expose players to the news-making process and help them understand the complexity of issues in the news.

Ian Bogost, the head of Persuasive Games, is an associate professor at Georgia Tech who classifies the roles and uses of news games on his blog. Among these are serious, complex games and quick and easy “tabloid games.”

Some games help the public understand how a newsroom works. The Newseum in Washington, D.C. has released two games via News University, Be a Reporter and Be an Editor, and anyone can play them online. Link TV’s interactive Global News Literacy modules show players how news is covered in different countries and allow users to remix their own clips.

Link TV's News Remixer

Games can also make complicated problems easier to understand and solve. Knight News Challenge winners have received grants to create games for community engagement.

Paul Grabowicz’s Remembering 7th Street allows players to explore the history and demise of the Oakland, CA jazz scene in the 1940s and 50s.

Remembering 7th Street

Gotham Gazette’s games about New York City like The Garbage Glut and Budget Maze let players become policymakers.

Budget Maze

Nora Paul, director of the University of Minnesota’s Institute for New Media Studies, modified the Neverwinter Nights game to create “Playing the News”, starting with games about using ethanol as fuel. Angela Anthony’s game will turn energy conservation into a friendly competition among neighbors.

Playing the News' Ethanol Issues Board Game

The Knight News Game Awards were presented in May at the 6th annual Games for Change Conference. Check out Best News Game winner Play the News; Lifetime Achievement Award winner September 12^th, a Toy World; and honorable mentions Budget Maze and Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City.

A Play the News game called Israel-Iran Enrichment Faceoff

Knight News Challenge winners blog about their games on PBS’s Idea Lab.

In the below video from May 14th, Knight Foundation consultant Matthew Bohrer asks S. Derek Turner (Research Director, Free Press), Leonard Downie (former Executive Editor, Washington Post), Michael R. Nelson (former Director for Technology Policy, FCC), and Bernie Lunzer (President, Newspaper Guild) their thoughts on news consumption, business models, and the future of news at this Free Press Summit, sponsored by Knight Foundation.

Find more video of the event, including opening remarks by Knight Foundation president and CEO Alberto Ibargüen, in the Free Press Summit archive.

Do you agree with Michael R. Nelson that "governments almost never pick the right technology and they very rarely pick the right business model"?

Yesterday, the Knight Foundation Journalism Advisory Committee (JAC) and guests met at the Newseum.

Video from the meeting is below; the full Flickr (a photo-sharing service) set of images and video is here.

Follow the conversational threads about broccoli, business models, and content markets with JAC members Marty Baron, Dianne Lynch, Rosental Alves, Michael Maness, Eduardo Hauser, Geneva Overholser, meeting guests, and Knight Foundation staff:

What do you think the JAC should discuss at their next meeting?

Today, the fifteen members of the Knight Commission on Information Needs of a Community in a Democracy meet for the first time at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. to discuss democracy, economics, human behavior, and technology.

A joint project of Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, the meeting will be webcast live from 10 am to 5 pm ET from the Commission Web site. Go to the webcast >

Yesterday, Michelle P B Ferrier of MyTopiaCafe wrote a post for Poynter Online's E-Media Tidbits about social capital and research she hopes the Commission will build on:

I hope that this commission examines the groundwork already done by the Saguaro Seminar folks, as well as research by the Saguaro short-form survey instruments could be adapted to be deployed on hyperlocal online communities and blogs to test whether the content, functions, design, architecture and personalities create a rich exchange -- and growth -- of social capital.

What do you think the Commission should discuss today on the topics of democracy, economics, human behavior, and technology?

(The next meeting, August 9th, will focus on journalism.)