Contributions to the Broadband Plan from Pennsylvania

Faculty members from the state of Pennsylvania participated in a three-day workshop to discuss the challenges that face the United States, in a conference titled “Beyond Broadband Access: Data Based Information Policy for a New Administration,” reported the Daily Collegian.

Faculty members from the state of Pennsylvania participated in a three-day workshop to discuss the challenges that face the United States, in a conference titled “Beyond Broadband Access: Data Based Information Policy for a New Administration,” reported the Daily Collegian.

The conference focused on the availability of broadband Internet access in the country, its impact on society, and the future of broadband in the U.S. The event was sponsored by the New America Foundation.

“On one level, there was the question of ‘Can people get access to broadband?’ And on the second level, we asked, ‘How do they use it? Is it useful to them, does it bring social benefits?'” said Richard Taylor, the Palmer Chairman of Telecommunication Studies and Law in the College of Communications and the co-director of the Penn State Institute for Information Policy (IIP).

In anticipation of new national broadband policy that the FCC will propose to Congress in 2010, the workshop aimed to provide information to policymakers about the necessity for and the future of broadband.