We're asking Congress to dedicate at least 5% of the proposed $500-700 billion economic stimulus package to support digital infrastructure and innovation.

The situation

• President-elect Barack Obama has asked Congress to create a public works bill to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
  
• Continued leadership in digital is essential for America to continue to be leaders in the global economy.
• Advances in digital products and services enrich the lives of every American by providing new ways to communicate and interact with family and friends, businesses, non-profits and government.
• Investing in digital will create jobs in the near future and help build the next generation of innovators and job creators.

We respectfully ask the Congress to allocate at least 5% of the public works bill to digital infrastructure and innovation.

We, the undersigned, are asking that the Congress allocate at least 5% of the proposed public works package to the support of digital infrastructure and innovation.

Technology breeds innovation and growth and touches every sector of our economy, public or private. Interestingly, while miles traveled in the US have nearly doubled from 1980 to 2005, in less than half that time, the number of internet users has increased by 8100% from 16 million in December of 1995 to 1.3 billion in December of 2007. The rate at which our world is becoming more and more dependent on technology continues to accelerate.

In addition, great ideas grow quickly in the digital space. Facebook opened to everyone with a valid e-mail address in September of 2006 and currently has more than 120 millions users worldwide. YouTube  took shape in February of 2005 sees roughly ten hours of video uploaded every minute. Huge strides in short periods of time have become possible with technology.

We believe that

• President-elect Barack Obama's intent in asking Congress for a public works bill is to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
• Advances in digital products and services enrich the lives of every American by providing new ways to communicate and interact with family and friends, businesses, non-profits and government.
• Continued leadership in digital is essential for America to continue to be leaders in the global economy.
• Investing in digital will create jobs in the near future and help build the next generation of innovators and job creators.

We respectfully ask the Congress to allocate at least 5% of the public works bill to digital infrastructure and innovation.

Thank you for reading our letter -- and for your support of this critical issue.