Official FCC Blog

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What if I told you that the world was running out of postal addresses or phone numbers, and that, in less than two months, many companies you regularly do business with will have a new system of contact information?  You’d want to learn more about this system and perhaps make a few preparations, right?  Such a big transition is not happening for postal addresses or phone numbers, but something close to that is happening for Internet addresses.

World IPv6 Launch Day is on June 6, 2012.  On that day, many Internet service providers (ISPs), manufacturers of networking equipment (such as routers) and web-based companies will permanently enable Internet Protocol version Six (IPv6) for their products and services.  As part of this event, consumers, businesses, governments, charities and anyone else that relies on the Internet are encouraged to check their computers and network equipment for IPv6 readiness.

A little background: In order for devices to find each other and connect over the Internet, each device must have an Internet protocol (IP) address.  The current IP system is Version 4 (IPv4), which makes available over four billion IP addresses.  However, the huge increase in Internet users and devices worldwide means that IPv4 addresses are running out.  IPv6, the next-generation protocol, provides approximately 340 undecillion IP addresses (that’s 340 with 36 digits after it), ensuring availability of new IP addresses far into the future, as well as promoting the continued expansion and innovation of the Internet.

On Thursday, April 26, I had the honor of speaking at the International Telecommunication Union's event marking Girls in ICT Day in New York. I joined successful, thoughtful and dynamic women to figure out how we can help get more girls and women into ICTs (information and communication technologies). You can watch the event, read about it, see the agenda, and view pictures too.

The statistics reveal how real this digital gender divide is in the United States. The ICT industry accounts for one-sixth of the United States’ gross domestic product, but between 1990 and 2005, only one in four communications jobs created were filled by women. Of all Fortune 500 communications companies, women comprise a mere 15% of top executives. Why should women be left out of a field with such opportunity?

During my panel, Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, said that ICTs could be the key to solving unemployment in Europe. She also spoke passionately about the urgent need to get girls into tech today so that they become tomorrow’s ICT leaders. I agree with her. As I told the conference participants, Dr. King had it right when he wrote from the Birmingham jail: "More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will."

The goal of our first developer day (perhaps even the first of its kind in government) was to further innovation in accessible technologies and foster citizen participation in open government. That event was well received by the developer community and many were eager for the next.

Naturally when we announced our next developer event, it was met with great excitement from the developer community and other federal agencies. The goal of the .Gov Developer Meet-Up was to expose the developer community to most of the .gov developer resources currently in production or launching in the next couple of months. “The approach today is much more of an organic nature. We really wanted to hit the meet-up style,” said Michael Byrne. We decided to go with a simple “meet-up” style event rather than a traditional code sprint because there was an expressed need for this kind of forum.

Although the FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski was unable to attend in person, he recorded video remarks which played during the first moments of the event. During his remarks he stated, “...you represent the right trend and in many ways the cutting edge in government data, finding new and novel ways to deliver transparency and greater openness.”

President Obama’s visit to Colombia last weekend for the Summit of the Americas included an exciting new broadband announcement: the Broadband Partnership of the Americas (BPA), a vital new collaboration to expand broadband access in the Americas.  The Summit of the Americas is convened every three or four years to bring together heads of state in the Americas to discuss issues critical to the region.  This year’s Summit theme -- Connecting the Americas:  Partnership for Prosperity -- focused on the role of physical integration and regional cooperation in fostering economic growth and development across the Hemisphere.  Not surprisingly, access to broadband played a lead role.

Studies show that broadband networks and broadband connectivity drive economic growth and development, and provide an important platform to address social issues including poverty, health care and education.  A study by the World Bank found that in less developed economies, every 10% increase in broadband penetration accelerates economic growth by approximately 1.38 percentage points, even grater than the 1.21 percentage points increase found in developed economies. Over the past 15 years, the Internet has enabled as much economic growth per capita as the Industrial Revolution generated in its first 50 years.