To: Chairman Genochowski

 

From: Frank Odasz, President, Lone Eagle Consulting

 

RE: Strategies for Measurable Mass American Innovation

 

America’s future as global leader depends on how well our nation acknowledges, celebrates, and shares the boom of innovations coming from the bottom up. These best practices are evolving at an accelerated rate along with all related technologies.

 

For over 25 years, as an instructional technologist I’ve been directly involved identifying, summarizing, and teaching “ online best practices” for community networking ( socio-economic capacity building), teacher training, train-the-trainer programs, self-directed Internet learning (digital literacy) and “Learning-to-Earn” (ecommerce and telework strategies.)

 

The question stands: “How can broadband lead to mass employment and education for low-literacy, low-income citizens?” Mining raw human potential is the new gold rush; projected to determine the competitive GNPs of nations. There is a sense of urgency here.

 

Attached is a short summary of key opportunities to accelerate mass American innovation related to authenticated “best practices” for broadband utilization at all levels. The following recommendations can be demonstrated by measurable short-term proof of concept pilot projects.

 

What Gets Measured Gets Done: Measurements Define Success

 

1. The Top Down Must Partner Meaningfully with the Bottom Up!

 

2. Motivational Messaging Needed: Redefining Digital literacy in the 21st century

 

3. Initiate a national “Call to Action” for Mass American Innovation to populate an authentic peer-evaluated best practices clearinghouse with peer mentors and more. One first short universal Train-the-Trainers online course is recommended.

 

4. Conduct multiple simultaneous pilot projects as a friendly competition showcasing new visual metrics that mirror progress back to individuals and communities for who can measurably prove to be the most “intentionally innovative.” (Metric models exist.) One good success story can change the perception of all communities as to what’s possible.

 

The many FCC pilot programs currently being planned are an opportunity to develop a true innovations acceleration national dynamic. Consider the following as a brief summary for solutions that can prove their merits in the short term.


Your Resource, Frank Odasz


 

 

To: Josh Gottheimer,

      Senior Counselor to Office of the Chairman Julius Genachowski

 

From: Frank Odasz, President, Lone Eagle Consulting

            Email: frank@lone-eagles.com

 

Cc: Jordon Usdan

 

RE: What Gets Measured Gets Done: Measurements Define Success.

        Cautions and Opportunities for FCC Digital Literacy Initiatives

 

I’d like to share a number of specific recommendations and opportunities based on my 25 years aggressively involved with digital literacy training in person and online.

 

The term broadband is too general to be meaningful to most citizens. Greater understanding is likely if you use the term; “Connectedness” as it begs the question of relevance as to whom, what, and why.

 

You asked me what’s missing? My short answer would be – A smart plan to leverage; The most scalable awareness and educational solution; self-directed distance learning, leading toward meaningful content creation and peer collaboration, related to ongoing sharing how to realize the most essential broadband benefits related to specific needs.

 

Key Points:

1. The Top Down Must Partner Meaningfully with the Bottom Up!

Ask all diverse Americans to participate in determining the most “essential broadband benefits” they know about. Conduct this assessment WITH all Americans instead of FOR them. (Nothing about us, without us!)

 

At issue is implementing smarter crowd-sourcing methods for leveraging grassroots innovations from all Americans on an ongoing basis.

 

The former Congressional Office of Technology Assessment reports "The diversity of innovative applications required to create a successful national information infrastructure can only come from the citizens themselves."

 

Federal Crowdsourcing May Solve Problems Fast

http://www.govtech.com/pcio/Federal-Crowdsourcing-May-Solve-Problems-Fast.html Kessler said another less-obvious benefit to crowdsourcing in general has to do with getting a glimpse of what truly motivates people. “Crowdsourcing proves that people aren’t only interested in money,” he said. “People are motivated by helping others and by status and recognition, in this case, by intellectual stimulation and doing something meaningful with their lives. I think that’s a huge driver of crowdsourcing’s success.”  

 

Here’s a 15 minute TED talk “How web video powers global innovation.” In short, it suggests an open peer review process sharing the best of the best, and inviting all global innovators to build on these shared innovations, as the inevitable evolution that is already functioning on a global basis. I think this video can be the basis for dialog regarding the broader C2C mission. 

How Web Video Powers Global Innovation
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/chris_anderson_how_web_video_powers_global_innovation.html   Strongly recommended viewing, it will be obvious as to why…

2. Initiate a national “Call to Action” for Mass American Innovation

 

That President Obama’s 2008 campaign successfully organized and mobilized 13,000 local action committees proved what’s possible, but we’ve yet to hear a vision or a
“Call to Action” for Mass American Innovation.  It is time for all good people to get involved to ferret out what “Real Benefits for Real People” are truly accessible, online!

 

Engage All Americans in the challenge for assessing and sharing the “best they can learn to do” with broadband via diverse assigned roles and competitions. A short train-the-trainer self-directed online course can teach literally anyone the four essential skills for how Everyone can become both learner, and teacher, consumer and producer, all the time. This can include incentives of additional free online training in return for local mentoring services and how to easily create online videos to show others their “best practices.”  Creating thousands of new local “Instructional Entrepreneurship” businesses is viable.

 

3. Defining Digital Literacy in the 21st century: 

    Motivational Relevance Messaging is Needed:

Noting the Ad council will launch a three year national broadband campaign this Fall I’d like to suggest the FCC take caution confusing marketing sizzle and general promises of broadband benefits with statements that suggest basic digital literacy training will deliver the high end potential benefits.

 

The first C2C announcement and many of Genochowski’s public statements allude to promises for which no one is taking responsibility… to provide the necessary training to deliver these much needed outcomes.

 

Chairman Genochowski and the C2C have stated digital literacy is necessary to be able to engage in the $8 trillion digital economy, and enables saving up to $7,000/year by low income families. BUT, this is only true if the appropriate training is explicit and delivered. What gets measured gets done!

 

America’s End Goal is everyone actively learning to grow their individual and community capacity; the new gold rush. Everyone involved in learning, sharing, creating meaningful online content, encouraging others, expanding everyone’s capacity for imagination and innovation.

 

This means literally everyone engaged in effective collaboration in an appropriately defined role for contributing to the socioeconomic local capacity-building of their local community, neighborhood, and/or demographic group of preference.

 

The challenge is mass participation by stimulating a new democratic dynamic creating a sustainable national learning society where Everyone is both learner and teacher, consumer and producer, all the time.

 

Digital Literacy Redefined as 21st Century Workforce Readiness:

1. Learner: Self-directed Internet learning skills have become essential.

 

2. Teacher: Teaching others via peer mentoring and collaborative group learning is how most people learn, and new tools allow anyone to easily create self-directed learning resources to share with peers, locally, and nationally, across all vulnerable populations.

 

3. Consumer: Smarter consumerism using smartphone apps, shopping comparision sites, groupon and similar new tools have become mainstream.

 

4. Producer: Producing meaningful content is an essential part of creating value in a knowledge economy, and growing a marketable digital identity in the relationship economy.  New tools make it so easy everyone can be successful!

 

Here’s a simple short video showing use of several free web tools for local collaborative engagement and sharing meaningful resources, already in practice across Alaska. Anyone can create similar videos easily with free software, no camera needed, to show how they are benefiting from broadband.

 

Digital Inclusion Strategies for Measurable Mass Innovation Across America 

- A 3 minute overview of What's Working for Others Like You!

http://www.screencast.com/users/montanan-stories/folders/Jing/media/abc20b70-50eb-41e6-9c9f-0b852852a6cf

 

4. Engage “intentionally innovative” local communities and neighborhoods

in a video competition on “Why Broadband?” SHOWING what’s measurable and replicable.

 

Conduct multiple simultaneous pilot projects showcasing new visual metrics that mirror ongoing progress back to individuals and communities as a friendly competition for who can prove to be the most “intentionally innovative.” (Metric models exist.)

 

Ownership of the “promise of broadband” has everything to do with what communities can do for themselves and each other.

Chairman Genochowski recently stated “We’ll make or break it at the local level.”

 

Identify where federal responsibility ends and local responsibility begins.

 

Assign the responsibility for local action by identifying the characteristics of intentionally innovative communities, with the explicit goal of establishing regional cross communications among intentionally innovative communities of communities, to generate the exponential benefits of broadband-enabled collaboration. “If we all share what we know, we will all have access to all our knowledge.”  “No one knows as much as all of us.”

 

Asking the hard questions in these times of dire needs is the leadership the nation needs; In the past 3 years, WE have lost all the economic progress of the last 2 decades.

1:2 Americans are now in poverty, the middle class having lost 40% of their assets.

 

The question stands: “How can broadband lead to mass employment and education for low-literacy, low-income citizens?”

 

The article below states digital educational and economic opportunities are wasted if minimal digital literacy is provided. That C2C begins with the goal of truly empowering 25 million low-income households – amplifies the potential important benefits, and the real risk of missing the mark.

 

New Digital Divide Seen in Wasting Time Online
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen-in-wasting-time-online.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all

There is a global challenge before all of us; to identify from global sources, specifically to share locally, the best solutions, resources, and tools, to fuel the home fires of local innovation. Why not make this the mission of Connect 2 Compete? I.E. American as global leader teaching the world “How-To.”

 

John Horrigan, contributing author of the NBP, suggests instead of the Lifeline pilots focusing on “ Carrier to Consumer,” that the proper emphasis be on “Community to Consumer.”

 

In Closing: The Internet has created an indisputable boom in bottom up innovations. The sheer volume of which has outperformed universities, corporations and governments. At issue is the opportunity to devise a truly open process to identify and disseminate authenticated best practices for motivating engagement in broadband training, with emphasis on entrepreneurship and 21st Century Workforce Readiness, which produces measurable outcomes with the least cost, time, effort, and prerequisite literacy.


 

 

ADDENDUM

 

About Lone Eagle Consulting

Frank Odasz has formally presented for NTIA on these issues for APEC, twice, Calgary 2006, Tokyo, 2008, and formally advised BTOP prior to the ARRA initiative. (See links to whitepapers below) He presented for the FCC Tribal Telecom Initiative which posted Lone Eagle’s examples of broadband training best practices. He created the Big Sky Telegraph, one of the first online educational networks in the U.S., 1988-1998, and has been teaching teachers, librarians, homeschooling parents, and citizens online courses for 25 years.
Learn more:

Lone Eagle’s 2012 Update on National and International Activities
http://lone-eagles.com/expertise.htm

Lone Eagle’s Online Curriculums; http://lone-eagles.com/guides.htm

 

As a member of the FCC C2C curriculum committee Frank contributed recommendations (linked below) which includes a free web tool that allows all Internet users to post online video captures for peers sharing step-by-step what they have learned to do with broadband that produces measurable outcomes.

http://lone-eagles.com/C2Chomework.doc 

http://lone-eagles.com/C2Chomework2.doc

 

Key Whitepapers from Lone Eagle Consulting

 

Lone Eagle’s Original Advice to the BTOP Initiative

http://lone-eagles.com/getitright.htm
America’s Historic Challenge to Fund Mass Innovation
without the risks of political backlash due to lack of documented results

 

Lone Eagle’s Whitepaper for APEC 2008 in Tokyo, presenting for NTIA

http://lone-eagles.com/social-engineering.htm

Global Best Practices for ICT Capacity-building

 

Strategies for Efficient Ongoing Identification and Sharing of Best Practices

http://lone-eagles.com/RTCletterofinquiry.docx
The Rural Telecommunications Congress best practices clearinghouse proposal.

 

Recommendations on Best Practices Clearinghouse Models
 
http://lone-eagles.com/bestpractices.doc

 

Pilot Project Recommendations to Google’s CEO

http://lone-eagles.com/larrypage.doc

 

What Gets Measured Gets Done  http://lone-eagles.com/measures.docx

Sample Trends Report – Demanding Immaculate Integration

 

The headlines below are suggestive of trends to inform our next steps. These were gathered over only a few days last week and someone needs to be tasked with keeping up and integrating the best of what’s already happening.
(From Headline aggregators at Benton.org and www.matr.net)

 

Understanding and using Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics is Everyone's New Job Requirement http://www.matr.net/article-50529.html

One way to raise awareness about the power of new analytics comes from articulating the results in a visual form that everyone can understand. Another is to enable the broader workforce to work with the data themselves and to ask them to develop and share the results of their own analyses.

 

The City as a Start-Up

http://matr.net/article-50793.html
"You need to build stuff that people want. You need to attract quality talent. You have to have enough capital to get your fledgling ideas to a point of sustainability. And you need to create a world-class culture that not only attracts the best possible people, but encourages them to stick around even when things aren’t going so great."

 

Federal Crowdsourcing May Solve Problems Fast

http://www.govtech.com/pcio/Federal-Crowdsourcing-May-Solve-Problems-Fast.html

 

Top ten ways broadband saves low income households money
http://www.internetinnovation.org/library/special-reports/access-to-broadband-interent-top-ten-areas-of-saving   If this is true, why is no one teaching it as the #1 good reason for broadband adoption?

Why Every School in America Should Teach Entrepreneurship

http://www.matr.net/article-50495.html

As an educator of at-risk youth for over thirty years, and NFTE's founder, I've seen only one thing consistently bring children raised in poverty into the middle class: entrepreneurship education. 

Here's an article on what low income Internet users are really doing and not doing. Begging the issue of serious training and ongoing assessments. People are either growing their capabilities and knowledge or remaining static. We can't make any assumptions.

 

New Digital Divide Seen in Wasting Time Online
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/us/new-digital-divide-seen-in-wasting-time-online.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all

Free Tool Gauges Website Engagement Effectiveness 
http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Free-Tool-Gauges-Website-Engagement-Effectiveness.html

Six stages of digital community engagementhttp://www.digitalcommunityengagement.com/

In Support of Community Driven and Responsive Digital Literacy Training
http://oti.newamerica.net/blogposts/2012/in_support_of_community_driven_and_responsive_digital_literacy_training-67158

PBS Stations Need to Become the Youtube of Local Communities http://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2012/05/pbs-stations-need-to-become-youtube-of.html?spref=tw

Fundamentals of Social Media Support for Learninghttp://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/831/fundamentals-of-social-media-support-for-learning

How can we raise the profile of innovators in our community?
 http://www.matr.net/article-50718.html

A new way to make six figures on the Web: Teaching

http://benton.org/node/123470