Transforming the Last Mile State

Monday, March 22, 12:30 pm
Berkman Center, 23 Everett Street, second floor
RSVP required for those attending in person (kglemaud@cyber.harvard.edu)
This event will be webcast live at 12:30 pm ET and archived on our site shortly after.

Speaker: Matt Dunne, Head of Community Affairs at Google, Inc. and former State Senator

Vermont is currently the least connected state in the country and has been ranked among the bottom three states for government transparency and use of the Internet to deliver services.  Yet, the state’s size and tradition of participatory government may make it the perfect state to model fiber to the home, distance learning, new economy jobs, smart meter deployment, electric car grids, and active 2.0 engagement in state government that could approximate town meeting.  Matt Dunne, former State Senator, Head of Community Affairs for Google and current candidate for Vermont Governor will share his vision for Vermont becoming the first truly 21st Century state.

About Matt

Matt Dunne has focused his life’s work on bringing together the worlds of entrepreneurship, service and politics.  Elected to the Vermont House at the age of 22, he served 7 years before joining the Clinton Administration as the Director of AmeriCorps*VISTA overseeing 6000 full-time people working in the fight against poverty.  In 2002 he returned home to Vermont and was elected to two terms in the Vermont Senate. Outside of the legislature, he worked in high-tech marketing and before joining Google was the Associate Director of the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, creating programs to support students who wish to pursue careers in the nonprofit and public sector. Now the Head of Community Affairs at Google, Matt supports the company’s local corporate social responsibility activities in the 25 communities where Google has an office or data center as well as helping guide larger corporate partnerships with the nonprofit and public sector. These activities include assisting the company with directing carbon offsets and renewable energy investments, and using technology to increase energy efficiency.  Matt currently lives on the small farm where he grew up in Hartland, VT with his wife Sarah Taylor and his sons Judson and Abraham.

Links

• Matt's website
• Full bio

Additional Resources from Matt

Vermont is dead last among all US states in broadband connectivity coverage (47% of Vermonters have speeds under 678 kbps, which is the speed that constitutes "broadband" as defined by the FCC): http://cwafiles.org/speedmatters/state_reports_2009/CWA_Report_on_Internet_Speeds_2009.pdf?nocdn=1
Vermont is 49th in government transparency according to the Better Government Association: http://www.bettergov.org/IntegrityIndexRelease.aspx
Vermont ranked 48th in transparency of state stimulus funding: http://www.vpirg.org/node/236
Vermont's legislative website was just named "worst" of all state legislative sites by Congress.org: http://www.congress.org/news/2009/12/22/the_best_legislative_web_sites?p=2
Vermont ranked #44 among the states in E-government according to Brookings Institute: http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/0826_egovernment_west.aspx

Additional materials from Speed Matters (http://www.speedmatters.org/content/resources/ ) include:
"Broadband Initiatives: Enriching Lives and Transforming Communities": http://www.speedmatters.org/page/-/SPEEDMATTERS/Publications/case_study_final%20021208.pdf?nocdn=1
"Affordable High Speed Internet For All" Policy Paper: http://www.speedmatters.org/page/-/SPEEDMATTERS/Publications/SpeedMattersCWAPositionPaper.pdf?nocdn=1

Federal Communications Commission Report, "Broadband Adoption and Use in America": http://www.congress.org/news/2009/12/22/the_best_legislative_web_sites?p=2
Brookings Institute's "An International Look at High-Speed Broadband": http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/0223_broadband_west.aspx

Fiber-to-the-Home Council: http://www.ftthcouncil.org/ EC Fiber: http://www.ecfiber.net

Citizens Guide to Vermont Town Meeting: http://www.sec.state.vt.us/TownMeeting/citizens_guide.html

Download media from this event here.