Please see the orginal post on Broadband for America’s Web site.

There has been a good deal of coverage lately about the need to update state laws as they pertain to technology generally and to broadband access to the Internet in particular.  This is an important and necessary discussion.

However, while we update the legal underpinnings of broadband, which typically will have to do with the major network providers’ obligation to provide universal copper-wire service in an increasingly wireless world, we should not lose sight of the value to our citizens and our economy of making Illinois a haven for tech start-ups and for providing a fertile environment for start-ups to grow. [Authors note, you can let your Illinois State Legislators modern policies increase access to broadband by visiting ModernTelecomLaws.com]

With the national unemployment rate stuck at above 9.5 percent (and the Illinois rate nearly two percentage points higher) we should have a structured set of programs to attract the best and the brightest to Illinois in order to create our own “Silicon Prairie”.

It is axiomatic that small businesses are the foundation of job growth.  As the 21st century matures, it is becoming clearer that a small business based on technology may be the best of the best foundations.

One of the reasons is the barrier to entry is low.  The ability to write an app for a smart phone sitting at a kitchen table is the modern equivalent of the “two Steves,” Jobs and Woziniak, building Apple I computers in borrowed garage space.

A second reason is, scaling up is fairly simple.  If a start-up company is successful at selling apps or developing content and need to hire employees, they no longer have to search for space, buy furniture, and add everything from printers to coffeemakers.  Today, with more widespread broadband availability, small businesses can add “employees” by utilizing the collaborative functions which are all but built-in to modern broadband networks.

A third reason is spin-offs.  As small tech businesses become larger tech businesses, some of the employees will split off to form new companies and the process will repeat itself.

This process need not be based in Chicago or DuPage County.  A tech-based startup can be located any place where there is a high-speed connection to the Internet.  Everyone who has used the Internet over the past 20 years owes a debt to Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina who developed Mosaic – the first modern web browser – at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.

As the legislature looks at replacing our outdated telecommunications laws, it should multi-task by looking for creative ways to attract and support new tech-based businesses so that the next “killer app” is born right here in Illinois.

Lindsay Mosher is Executive Director of the Illinois Tech Partnership, a project of Midwest Consumers for Choice and Competition

Author’s Note: Please visit ModernTelecomLaws.com and encourage your legislators to pass The Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act this year!

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