Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama announce campaign for nation’s first Public Internet Channel with One Economy Corporation
One Economy, joined by its Honorary Co-chairs Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, announced a campaign to create the nation’s first Public Internet Channel (PiC).
Washington D. C. (PRWEB) June 16, 2006
One Economy, joined by its Honorary Co-chairs Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama, announced a campaign to create the nation’s first Public Internet Channel (PiC). The Public Internet Channel will be an online network of information and resources, in both English and Spanish, designed to serve the public with a particular focus on low income individuals. Content offerings will include safety/emergency services, education, health, economic livelihood and civic engagement. The campaign will be a 24 month drive to raise resources and awareness and will include the launch of prototypes in several cities. “With the growing number of Americans using the Internet, it is time for this country to have a 21st century information resource like the Public Internet Channel,” stated Rey Ramsey, CEO and Chairman of the Board, One Economy Corporation.
"The Internet is the single most important invention of this century. I am pleased to support the launch of One Economy's Public Internet Channel. It will ensure that all Americans have the same easy access to information and resources they need to prosper in our global economy without getting lost in the World Wide Web,” said Senator John McCain.
“If we do this right, the Public Internet Channel can do for accessing social services what Yahoo! has done for accessing entertainment or what Craigslist has done for accessing local goods for sale. It can be a place on the Internet where people go to easily find services and opportunities in education, employment, civic engagement, and health care that the physical isolation caused by being poor or living in rural communities currently make inaccessible or difficult to find,” said Senator Barack Obama.
In addition to Senator McCain and Senator Obama, One Economy has built an Advisory Committee of twenty distinguished leaders to guide this unprecedented initiative, as well as a growing list of more than 500 individual and organizational endorsers for the Public Internet Channel.
Mayor Martin O’Malley of Baltimore, Maryland joined the event today to announce that the City of Baltimore will be one of the first municipalities to use the Public Internet Channel to provide information and resources to its citizens. “As Mayor of Baltimore, technology has been at the heart of our strategy to make city government more responsive to its citizens and to ensure that Baltimore remains an economically competitive city."
The Public Internet Channel will build upon One Economy’s five years of experience in operating the Beehive (www. beehive. org), their bilingual consumer website that provides resources and information for low income Americans. To date, the Beehive has received more than eight million visitors with 20% of that traffic in Spanish.
“Our experience with the Beehive has taught us about the needs and potential of the American consumer and we are excited to embrace a national network of partners to make this happen,” said Mr. Ramsey. One Economy has already received financial commitments for the Public Internet Channel from The Allstate Foundation and The Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation, with other commitments pending.
About One Economy Corporation:
One Economy Corporation is a national nonprofit organization that helps bring access to technology into affordable housing around the United States, and uses that technology to connect low income people to information and tools that help them improve their lives. One Economy’s strategy is to bring technology into the home, provide online multilingual content through the over thirty Beehive websites (www. thebeehive. org) and help people gain the comfort and training needed to use technology to raise their standard of living. Over eight million Americans have used the Beehive to date. Through its Bring IT Home campaign, One Economy has helped bring broadband into the homes of 200,000 low income people. The organization has youth and on-the-ground programs in a dozen cities in the United States, as well as South Africa and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www. one-economy. com.
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June 9, 2006
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Bandwidth: 36 MHz
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