Article RoundUp: Free iPaper, DC as Tech Hub, Demand-Side Policies, and Apple as Music King

Lots of exciting things happening in the world of broadband so it's time for another App-Rising.com Article RoundUp!

Convert Your Paper to iPaper
Scribd.com is a site with a nifty way of enabling any format document to be viewed on a website (see below for example). The significance of this link is that they've started a program through which you can mail in any paper documents you have and they'll scan and upload them as iPaper for free. They plan on making their money from advertising as any documents they scan have to be made available on their website. Transferring paper documents into digital formats can be a real pain and quite expensive, so if you have need to do this not only can you get it done for free but afterwards your documents will be able to be shared easily with anyone in the world.

DC Capitol Region if Major High-Tech Hub
Wow, who knew? It's not like I didn't realize there are a number of high tech jobs in the area, I just never thought of DC and it's surrounding areas as being centers for high tech jobs. What's most heartening about this study for me is this stat:

"Venture capital investments in the D.C. capital region totaled $1.2 billion in 2007, up $91.1 million from 2006. This would make the combined region the 5th ranked cyberstate by this metric."

When I first started talking to applications developers in the DC region a couple years ago I repeatedly heard tales of woe regarding the lack of VC money available in the area. To see that it's jumped by a factor of a 100 is great news. Now it's time for me to figure out where all that money's going as there must be some great things going on near me that I still have to learn about.

Experts Say Demand-Side Policies Needed to Close the Broadband Gap
Though this is a new article it details a panel from back in January at the State of the Net conference. It highlights one of the most important aspects to the Great Broadband Debate: the need to get more people doing more things online. I've been beating the drum about that message for at least a year, so it's gratifying to see that the debate is now turning to include this vitally important area. The only challenge now is making sure people understand that getting everyone online is important to the future of the Internet and our country, and that it's not a matter of trying to line the pocketbooks of major network operators by creating more customers for them, even if that is a likely result.

Apple passes Wal-Mart, now #1 music retailer in US
Now here's a bellwether of how far the Internet's progressed as the leading online distributor of music--Apple's iTunes--has taken the top spot from the leading retailer of music. Could this be a sign of things to come for video?