Personal Democracy Forum co-founder and digital divide activist Andrew Rasiej made a passionate case to revive the digital divide as a major policy issue. He asked how many people in the audience felt the digital divide was still a problem, and few of us did. Andrew went on to talk about poor Internet access in low-income schools and communities, and how inequitable access is hampering civic participation and democracy.

Rasiej then announced that the Personal Democracy Forum will launch an online petition to elect "the first tech president." He's challenging the public to sign onto the petition and forward it to presidential candidates to get them to sign on to these basic principles:

• Declare the Net a public good. Bring broadband to everyone.
  
• Wireless public spectrum must be available and expanded.
  
• We need to support Net Neutrality.
  
• Go from No Child Left Behind to Every Child Connected
  
• We need to create a connected democracy, where people can actually hear public hearings and participate. We need to use this to create transparency and accountability.
  
• We need a national guard of technologists to work during Katrina-like emergencies.

I'll see if I can dig up more about the initiative. -andy