Bellisario College of Communications

IIP leads program about broadband access, policy in D.C.

Several Penn Staters will play prominent roles when the Institute for Information Policy (IIP), housed in the College of Communications, serves as a lead co-organizer for a program in Washington, D.C., which will address ongoing U.S. policy issues regarding broadband access.

Three faculty members and one alumnus will serve on panels during a workshop that will take place Sept. 22-24 at the New America Foundation, titled "Beyond Broadband Access: Data Based Information Policy for a New Administration." The event -- featuring an international panel of experts from Asia, Europe and the United States discussing the future of broadband and outlining possible policy approaches for the future -- includes 10 separate roundtables during the three-day period.

Penn State participants include Rob Frieden, the Pioneers Chair in Cable Telecommunication; Amit Schejter, an associate professor and co-director of the IIP; Richard Taylor, the Palmer Chair of Telecommunication Studies and Law and co-director of the IIP; and alumnus Scott Forbes, who earned his doctorate from Penn State in 2000 and serves as vice president of technology ventures for General Electric.

The Institute for Information Policy, created in 1997, has conducted sponsored research and self-funded programs on the social implications of information technology, with an emphasis on the potential embodied in information technologies to improve democratic discourse, social responsibility and quality of life.

Co-organizing the event with Penn State are Michigan State University, Rutgers University and the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Among the international participants will be Hongren Zhou, China's executive vice minister of the advisory committee for state information.
 

Last Updated September 17, 2009

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