U.S. Federal Communications Commission member Jonathan Adelstein and several high-profile technology executives and industry advocates on Tuesday launched an initiative to make broadband access a national priority in the U.S.

At the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, Adelstein and others unveiled InternetforEveryone.org, a movement aimed at fostering a public dialogue among U.S. citizens to advise the government on how to set a national policy.

In addition to Adelstein, industry luminaries on hand to support the effort included Stanford University law professor Larry Lessig and Google Chief Technology Evangelist Vint Cerf, one of TCP/IP's developers.

Broadband advocates have complained that the U.S. government has not made widespread broadband adoption among its citizens enough of a priority. U.S. residents lag behind those of several nations in purchasing broadband access, according to a recent report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Indeed, Adelstein, who characterized himself as "a frustrated policymaker in Washington," said a lack of a national broadband policy directly contributes to the U.S. falling behind other countries in its citizens' adoption of broadband. This puts the country at risk in lagging behind globally in other social, educational and economic endeavors, he said.

"The [U.S.] government has had a policy of benign neglect and we're falling faster and faster behind," he said in an interview following Tuesday's press conference.

Lessig, known for being an outspoken critic of government policy around the Internet, called the U.S. broadband situation "abysmal" and said lawmakers have allowed a "Neanderthal policy" to govern access to broadband for the past eight years.

While he said the private business sector has a central role in ensuring that people have access to broadband, the Internet touches so many parts of American life -- including social, cultural and personal interests -- that the government can no longer take a backseat to creating policy that fosters adoption among its citizens.

Internetforeveryone.org is based on four principles, said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press and one of those who launched the initiative on Tuesday.

Those principles are: to provide access to high-speed, world-class communications infrastructure to every home and business in America; to ensure that people have sizeable choice of broadband providers; to foster openness so users have the right to freedom of speech and commerce when using the Internet; and to promote innovation so the Internet can create jobs and foster enterpreneurship and economic growth.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.