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About This Video

Gov. Jim Douglas spoke at F2C: Freedom To Connect, a 2007 conference on Internet connectivity hosted by David Isenberg and held in Washington, DC.

About Jim Douglas

Governor Jim Douglas was first elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 1972 — the same year he graduated from Middlebury College — and served continously in State government until 2002 when he was elected Governor.

About the Music

That little bit of harmonica work you hear as the video loads? That would be Howard Levy. You can learn more about him at his site.

In the Brotherhood of New England, Vermont’s a bit like Rhode Island. Sometimes forgotten against Massachusetts’ historical background, Maine’s summer coastline, whatever it was that put Connecticut on the map, and the rightiousness of New Hampshire’s Live Free or Die ethos.

This is a shame. The Green State’s beautiful. The Berkshires spike into it from the south, Lake Champlain defines its Western Border, and it has a political quirkiness that had it electing Socialists and independents while the rest of the country swung decidedly to the right.

It’s a small state as far US populations go. Impressively homogenous too. Minorities here tend to be hippies living off the grid near one postcard-pretty small town or another. The microbrews a good, the skiing’s great and if jam bands are your thing, homegrown Phish spawned a number of soundalikes that have you bopping through the night.

Vermont is a culture. It’s a state of mind. Visit the state and you feel like you’re visiting somewhere, and not just passing through anywhere. It’s a state that thinks different, acts different and does different whether its politics, agricultural policy and yes, now, technological connectivity.

While a growing number of precincts and municipalities throughout the country are taking broadband issues into their own hands, building out their own networks and fighting the big boys at the telephone companies for the right to do so, Vermont is going a step further.

As you’ll hear in this video from Freedom To Connect, the state government is pushing an initiative to provide broadband access throughout the entire state.

This is no small feat. It fundamentally involves how we percieve a citizens right to access and connectivity.