I am passionate about broadband — and the need for everyone to be connected to affordable, high-speed broadband if they so choose. It’s a necessity, not a luxury. Because of my rural location I recently blogged about the National Broadband Map. I have a big beef with the Map’s claim that I have a choice of five broadband providers because in reality I have one, which means I don’t have a choice. See that post here: http://gfem.org/node/1300.

And for those of you who scoff at the ‘broadband as a necessity’ idea here are some sobering thoughts for you from a presentation I created. In it, you’re the rural electric company claiming that electricity is a luxury as well. You are on the losing side of history, by the way.

Finally, some excellent stories (I’m all for stories) about the rural and urban digital divides. I love the one about the hog farmer. It shows the impact that a lack of broadband has on businesses so well, and nips the false argument about broadband being some elite- liberal issue in the bud. Full disclosure, I worked at Free Press when these were created though I didn’t work on them specifically.