Fractals of change: Vermont’s broadband recommendations

Which broadband grant applicants does Vermont like or not like? That's the question the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is the part of the US Commerce Department and is charged with distributing some of the stimulus funding for broadband, asked the Economic Stimulus and Recovery (ESR) office, which has the responsibility for answering such questions in Vermont.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or "the stimulus bill") requires NTIA to consult with the states. Originally NTIA said it would do a preliminary screen of applications, then give the screened list to the states. When they saw how many applications there were, however, they decided to give the whole unscreened list to the states – which is what we'd asked them to do in the first place. Trouble is we're not sure how much attention they'll pay to our recommendations. They made clear that they would neither accept nor reject an application purely on our say so...