Two faculty members from the College of Communications have been invited to address foreign regulatory bodies this spring and update them on the new American National Broadband Plan -- a topic that is garnering worldwide interest.
Richard Taylor and Amit Schejter, the co-directors of the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, will make presentations in China and the Netherlands, respectively.
Taylor, the Palmer chair of telecommunication studies and law, was invited to make a presentation at the State Council Advisory Committee for State Informatization in Beijing. The State Council is the chief administrative authority of the People’s Republic of China. During his trip to Asia, Taylor also will deliver a paper at the biennial conference of the International Telecommunications Society in Tokyo and lecture at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu.
Schejter, an associate professor in the Department of Telecommunications at the College, will address OPTA, the Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority of the Netherlands, at its headquarters in The Hague. Schejter will also present his research during his visit to Europe at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and at the University of Hamburg in Germany. He has been appointed as a "Mundus Scholar" in both these institutions for the academic year 2010-11.
The Institute for Information Policy, created in 1997 and housed in the College of Communications, has conducted sponsored research and self-funded programs on the social implications of information technology, with an emphasis on the potential of information technologies for improving democratic discourse, social responsibility and quality of life.
Most recently it has published " ... And Communications for All: A Policy Agenda for a New Administration," an edited volume that was presented to U.S. President Barack Obama's administration upon his inauguration. The book addresses many of the issues outlined in the National Broadband Plan and is cited in the plan.