On Thursday July 30th, 2009 in a Law office uptown Manhattan, members of the Digital Expansion Initiative interviewed Christopher Libertell who manages government affairs at SKYPE. According to Christopher Skype is a little piece of software that runs on a peer to peer network that allows each person that downloads the software on their computer or mobile phone, to make free calls to anyone else who is running the software .

Read more: Interview with Christopher Libertelli

Last week the Digital Expansion Fellows explored some of the key concepts in an interview we conducted with Laura Forlano. After listening and editing we shortened the interview to a 4 minute piece consisting of the following key points:

The interview starts with Laura discussing how the language of "Anytime, Anywhere" encourages people to communicate through mobile technology. Laura explains how advances in technology allows people to do things in new ways. These new trends have also permitted people to spend more time on the move, and makes it easier to access their friends and family through their mobile phones essentially carrying our friends and family in our pockets.

Read more: Digtal Expansion Fellows Speak to Laura Forlano

Creating open data standards is key to helping People's Production House fulfill our mission of public participation in journalism. As a reformed blogger myself, I can tell you that access to government documents in a timely manner and in a useful format makes it much easier to do solid local reporting. That is true whether you are an unpaid citizen journalist or a professional beat reporter for a local daily...

People’s Production House spurs broadband adoption by showing people how they can use the Internet to build community and improve their lives, especially through digital media production. This bill supports that strategy and we believe it would stimulate demand for broadband in our city.  Policymakers now widely understand that compelling content is key to increasing broadband adoption, but some still approach it as if they were adding more channels to the TV. The Internet is a two-way medium; the power comes not merely from the ability to find what you want, but from the ability to shape what you find.  Having open data standards makes that possible.  The bill paves the way for what the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) referred to as “value demonstration” in its recent request for information on broadband adoption programs.

Click through for complete testimony.

Read more: Testimony on Intro.991 Creating Open Data Standards