Fordham University Press Beyond Broadband Access: Developing Data-Based Information Policy Strategies (Donald McGannon Communication Research Center's Everett C. Parker Book Series)

After broadband access, what next? What role do metrics play in understanding “information societies”? And, more important, in shaping their policies? Beyond counting people with broadband access, how can economic and social metrics inform broadband policies, help evaluate their outcomes, and create useful models for achieving national goals? This timely volume not only examines the traditional questions about broadband, like availability and access, but also explores and evaluates new metrics more applicable to the evolving technologies of information access. Beyond Broadband Access brings together a stellar array of media policy scholars from a wide range of disciplines―economics, law, policy studies, computer science, information science, and communications studies. Importantly, it provides a well-rounded, international perspective on theoretical approaches to databased communications policymaking in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Showcasing a diversity of approaches, this invaluable collection helps to meet myriad challenges to improving the foundations for communications policy development. Review "Making communications policy is difficult because policymakers are constantlyforced to select one among multiple policy alternatives when neither principles nor theory can provide a definitive answer. Ideally data-based analysis could be used to resolve such uncertainties, but all too frequently the data available and empirical methods employed to analyze it are not up to the task. Beyond Broadband: Developing Data-Based Information Policy Strategies tackles this problem head-on. Chapters by leading communications policy scholars identify problems with the data and empirical methods currently employed to address communications policy problems, offer suggestions for improving both, and recommend process improvements to improve the way data-based analysis is used to inform policy decisions. Communications policy scholars and policy officials should both find this book to be a helpful resource." -----Steven Wildman, Michigan State University About the Author Richard D. Taylor holds the Palmer Chair at Pennsylvania State University, where he is professor of Telecommunications Studies, Affiliate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, and codirector of the Penn State Institute for Information Policy. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State in 1989, he was vice president and corporate counsel at Warner Cable Communications, where he had overall responsibility for the Law Department of the nation’s second largest cable television operator. Subsequent to his arrival at Penn State, he was appointed to the board of Primestar Partners Ltd. as one of two independent directors. He is cofounder of the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, which undertakes 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. At Penn State, his projects have received funding from Verizon, IBM, Microsoft, and the Ford Foundation, among others. Dr. Taylor is active nationally and internationally. He was a member of the Obama campaign’s Technology/Media/ Telecommunications Advisory Group, and is a former member of the boards of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference and of the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC). He was co-chair of the PTC’s annual conference in 2009 and 2010. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Federal Communications Bar Association. He holds a doctorate in Mass Communications from Columbia University and a law degree from New York University School of Law. Amit M. Schejter is associate professor of Communication Studies at Ben- Gurion University of the Negev and associate professor of Communications and codirector of the Institu