Advise the Advisor: What Do You Think?

Good afternoon,

I want you to know about a new opportunity to connect with the White House called "Advise the Advisor." It’s a pretty simple idea: one of the President's advisors posts a short update about what’s going on here at the White House and poses a question for anyone to answer. 

So earlier this week, I took the first shot. My question was about how innovation impacts the economy in communities across the country and what barriers to innovation should be on our radar.

We've already received some great feedback. Take this response from Chuck in California:

“Our community is rural. We need better access to high-speed Internet...I know that there are many pressing needs in our country, but I hope that, in the long term, some provision will be made to include rural and remote communities in the digital surge that is sweeping the world.”

Communities like Chuck’s are why President Obama is travelling to Marquette, Michigan tomorrow.  Marquette is a small town that's using high-speed wireless Internet to help businesses grow and students gain access to a wider array of education opportunities through distance learning.

In Marquette, the President will talk about his plan to win the future by out-innovating, out-educating and out-building the rest of the world.  Part of that plan is a new National Wireless Initiative that will help extend the next generation of wireless coverage to 98 percent of Americans and help businesses ship their goods, products and ideas anywhere in the world. This initiative will help address a broader problem: today only 65 percent of American households have broadband access compared to 90 percent in South Korea.

Our team here is going to review all of the answers we get in by the end of the day Friday and pull together a report we’ll publish to WhiteHouse.gov.  So if you have thoughts about innovation in America, take a moment to share them:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/advise

Thank you,

David Plouffe

Senior Advisor to the President