Read This Report: Knight Commission Sets a Public Media 2.0 Agenda

We started out today at the Newseum, in a high-octane crowd of Washington, D.C. movers and shakers, including not only the current head of the FCC (Julius Genachowski) but a dizzying array of former FCC heads, with some Administration officials and media executives in the mix as well. We were all there to celebrate the release of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy’s report "Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age". The report calls for "new thinking and aggressive action to dramatically improve the information opportunities available to the American people, the information health of the country's communities, and the information vitality of our democracy." Its central conclusions include ones highlighted in the our whitepaper, Public Media 2.0: Dynamic, Engaged Publics, especially the importance of public engagement. Public Media 2.0 is highlighted and quoted in the Knight Commission's report. It’s a great feeling to see our shared vision of a multiplatform, participatory information ecosystem, focused on the challenges of making democracy work.

Some of the day’s nuggets: Ex-FCC chair Michael Powell savoring the term “information-healthy community”; One Economy’s Rey Ramsey reminding us that many people—especially those who are poor and already disconnected—don’t know why they should or how they could use broadband; Microsoft sociologist danah boyd on the “culture of fear” that keeps people from wanting to engage with people who don’t look or act like them; Ex-FCC chair Reed Hundt calling on government to publish all its data, to “put windows where there are now walls;” Corporation for Public Broadcasting chair Ernest Wilson III celebrating “public media 2.0” and telling people in the room that they will carry either the glory of seizing this opportunity or the blame for ignoring it.

There was lots more, which you can follow online, and this is only the beginning. The Commission will continue, and we’ll all have a chance to contribute to the discussion. Can’t wait!