2010 Annual Report
Opening the digital future to all Americans
With partners around the country, we are seeking solutions that ensure the fastest Internet possible for everyone.
For those who have access, the Internet offers new opportunities to learn and work in the global economy, expand civic participation and bring new voices into conversations about the future. Yet millions of Americans still lack broadband that is both fast and affordable—the two components of the basic service every American requires.
We believe that affordable, high-speed Internet is an essential part of our national infrastructure—as important to the health of communities as clean water, highways or the electrical grid. We therefore work with partners around the country to ensure that reasonably priced, high-speed Internet develops as a right and a resource for all Americans and all communities, affluent or low-income, urban or rural.
Explore community broadband map »The stakes on this issue are high, and the questions are complex—making the involvement of philanthropy especially important. Questions are emerging, for example, about the lack of market competition, and what appears to be the resulting failure to provide good service to rural and working communities. Some localities are responding by establishing municipal broadband networks that meet the infrastructure needs of their citizens and ensure that local businesses and families are not left behind. Our grantee partners are informing debates on issues like these, where the real future of Internet rights is being determined—and where the public interest can easily get lost.
Learn about our Advancing Media Rights and Access initiative »
Visionaries Awards
To mark our 75th anniversary, we are honoring extraordinary leaders working on the frontlines of social change.
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Yochai Benkler
Co-Director
Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.
A leading thinker on technology and the law, Yochai Benkler is working to create a more open Internet.
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