Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

These days, the crux of the online world is about many-to-many collaboration, or user co-creation. Users create and share information with their peers in almost real time. Wireless and broadband access are pervasive. It is these two platforms that the Pew Internet project says the incoming administration should focus on.

As for wireless strategy, Pew recommends a commitment to open platforms.

The Pew Internet Project has found that 42 percent of cell phone users, on the average day, use their device for a non-voice data application. The most frequent users of these applications are found in minority groups -- African Americans and English-speaking Hispanics. This diversity in the user base suggests there could be a distinct brew of creativity as people tinker with wireless applications in unexpected ways...

Pew goes on to say that the administration should encourage user innovation, as we've seen with iPhone Apps and Google Android.

Technology-users behavior suggests that they would take advantage of policies that make sure openness is one of the rules of the wireless road -- whether that takes the form of formal rules or watchful oversight of an industry that is moving toward openness on its own.

The other major policy initiative Pew suggests Obama commit to is closing the gap between the connected and the disconnected. Some 75 percent of Americans are Internet users and 57 percent have broadband at home. That leaves 9 percent of American Internet users with dial-up access at home and 25 percent of Americans without access at all, due to geographic, technological, or financial roadblocks.

In his campaign and during the transition, Obama has promised that e-government services will continue to be expanded and upgraded. As this is done, his team might consider guidelines for contractors serving less tech-oriented population segments. Not only will this widen the scope of efficiencies e-gov may bring about, but our research suggests it could also draw some Americans into deeper engagement with communications technology and its social benefits.

Some argue that the willingness of American consumers to try new things is a source for an innovative culture. We write a lot about how an innovative culture can help drive company success and profitability. Imagine what it can do for an entire nation.