NEWS Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D. C. 20554 This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974). News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: September 11, 2009 Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253 Email: mark.wigfield@fcc.gov FCC CONTINUES E-GOVERNMENT PUSH WITH CROWD-SOURCING LAUNCH Web 2.0 Tools Increasing Public Participation at FCC Washington, D.C. – Continuing its use of new media to increase public participation, the Federal Communications Commission has launched on the crowd-sourcing platform, Ideascale, at http://broadband.ideascale.com/ Crowd-sourcing allows the online community to discuss, evaluate and rank ideas. The platform will be especially useful as the Commission develops a National Broadband Plan, which will provide a strategy for reaching all Americans with robust broadband. The FCC will also be launching on social media sites Facebook and YouTube, which will be linked through www.fcc.gov/connect. These tools will both allow increased communication with the public. Finally, the FCC is also launching www.fcc.gov/rss as a central repository of data feeds from the agency. Though the FCC launched a general RSS feed in August, the addition of 48 feeds provides more robust access. As part of its commitment to opening government data and furthering transparency, the FCC will continue to grow the catalog of data feeds available at www.fcc.gov/rss. Yesterday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski posted his first video blog on the FCC’s Blogband page, http://blog.broadband.gov/?page_id=185. The FCC created Blogband, along with a Twitter site, in August. The blog has helped explain the process of developing the National Broadband Plan and provided an accessible forum for public discussion. -FCCNews about the Federal Communications Commission can also be found on the Commission’s web site www.fcc.gov.