“… and communication for all”

Amit Schejter and a group of really impressive colleagues just released a new book titled “…and Communications for All: A Policy Agenda for the New Administration“.  Today (Monday) they held a one-day conference in Washington DC where they presented the book and discussed its chapters.  I really wanted to be there, but couldn’t.  Gladly, the technologies, regulation of which they were discussing, made it possible to watch the conference and even share it with you.

The first video includes some introductory comments from Sascha Meinrath and Amit Schejter, followed by a keynote from an FCC commissioner, Jonathan Adelstein.

The first panel included the following speakers:

• Marvin Ammori (University of Nebraska) – Competition and Investment in Wireline Broadband;
• Richard Taylor (Penn State) – U.S. Cable TV Policy: Managing the Transition to Broadband;
• Sharon Strover (University of Texas) – America’s Forgotten Challenge: Rural Access;
• Heather Hudson (University of San Francisco) – The Future of E-Rate: U.S. Universal Service Fund Support for Public Access.

The second panel included:

• Jon Peha (Carnegie Mellon) – A Spectrum Policy Agenda;
• Rob Frieden (Penn State) – The Way Forward for Wireless;
• Ellen Goodman (Rutgers) – Public Service Media 2.0;
• Kathryn Montgomery (American University) – Creating a Media Policy Agenda for the Digital Generation

I think this video covers both panels.

I watched substantive parts of the conference and it sounds really interesting.  According to Amit, the four commonly shared points in the book are:

1. There is a need for deliberative government policy and for clear goals for telecommunication policy;
2. The new policy direction should be technologically neutral, the segregation of media, information, and communication technology for regulation purposes has proved itself inefficient and obsolete;
3. Telecom infrastructure should serve both, the commercial aspiration and the public interest; connectivity alone is not enough, it is important that people know how to use the technology in order to be able to acquire knowledge, innovate, and take part in pubic life;
4. Telecommunication policy should be based on equal opportunity and non discriminatory practices; i other words, the idea of fairness is important for telecommunication policy.

To me it looks like an interesting reading.  Also, the New America Foundation’s YouTube channel seems to have some interesting talks, so it is worth checking out.