Bridging the Digital Divide - Is Community Wireless the Answer?

New America Foundation and the Yale Law School, Information Society Program
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
12:15 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.

Communications technologies have continued to evolve and now increasingly provide opportunities for deploying low-cost broadband. However, conventional commercial business models for providing broadband often create bottlenecks to spreading connectivity. Over the past five years, successful community and municipal wireless networks have been overlooked and often dismissed, yet they hold tremendous promise for improving our nation's approach to building communications infrastructure, empowering local communities and addressing the digital divide. This event will launch an important report that reviews community and municipal wireless networks across the United States and Europe.

Introduction
Sascha Meinrath
Director, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

Speakers

Dr. Laura Forlano
Visiting Fellow, Information Society Project
Yale Law School

Ben Lennett
Senior Policy Analyst, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

Dr. Gwen Shaffer
Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine

Aaron Kaplan
Funkfeuer, Austria
Socrates Panoussiou
Athens Wireless Municipal Network

Dr. Alison Powell
Fellow, Media and Communications
London School of Economics

Moderator
Tom Glaisyer
Knight Media Policy Fellow, Open Technology Initiative
New America Foundation

To RSVP for the event: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2011/bridging_the_digital_divide

For questions, contact Stephanie Gunter at (202) 596-3367 or gunter@newamerica.net