The Benton Institute for Broadband and Society is hosting a conversation…
Communications policy is entering a new era. The technologies, markets, and institutions that defined the last three decades are changing rapidly. At the same time, policymakers face fundamental questions about competition, affordability, resilience, accountability, and the public obligations that should accompany essential digital infrastructure.
On September 24, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society will bring together leaders from industry, government, academia, and the public-interest community for A New Compact for Connectivity: Internet Infrastructure in the Public Interest, a one-day convening exploring the future of connectivity policy.
The day will begin by asking how enduring technical principles and public-interest values apply to today’s internet infrastructure. We will examine how the broadband marketplace is evolving; the tools available to the public sector to achieve universal connectivity; and, finally, who can provide meaningful oversight of essential digital infrastructure.
Details:
Thursday, September 24th, 10:00am – 4:00pm ET
Barbara Jordan Conference Center, 1330 G St. NW. Washington, DC
The event will be live-streamed on the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s YouTube channel if you cannot attend in person.
Benton recently featured an article from one of the presenters, Dr. Amelia Acker, called, How Public is the Public Cloud. Here’s a taste of it…
I want to end where I began. Public institutions have obligations that their infrastructure providers do not. These obligations are measured in decades, possibly centuries, while IT firms are driven by quarterly business earnings and three-year contract cycles.
We crafted policy for telecommunications, electricity, railroads, banking, and broadcasting because Americans became so dependent on these services that they had become emblematic of what it means to participate in public life and belong to society. Public interest regulation should focus on dependencies, because dependence creates obligations to users that extend beyond any contract.
What “public” really means is the question underneath all of this. Writing in 2006, the philosopher and librarian Ed D’Angelo warned that markets, when left to govern information on their own, tend toward “the monopoly capitalism of a few major players.”[19] A market can coordinate consumption. But it cannot decide what a society owes its members.
For decades, telecommunications policy has confronted how Americans should be connected to networks. The next compact must focus on what happens after they connect.