From Broadcast To Broadband Panel 1: The End of Scarcity?
Channel: New America
Date: 25/05/2012

From Broadcast To Broadband Panel 1: 
The End of Scarcity? What, If Any, Public Interest Obligations Are Necessary in Broadband?

In coordination with New America's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge, and the Rutgers School of Law | Camden: Institute for Information Policy & Law.

Broadcasters hold their licenses as "trustees" of the local community, with defined public interest obligations.  Although these have not always been robust or diligently enforced, there was a theory of the public interest based on values about diversity, localism, children's special needs, access, and competition.  This theory was rooted in a particular market/technological structure of scarcity.  As spectrum moves from broadcast to wireless broadband use, is "scarcity" still a relevant concept?  How is it related to theories of the public interest?  What are the public interests in wireless broadband and what kinds of policy interventions do they require? 
Panelists
Joaquin Alvarado
Former Senior Vice President for Digital Innovation
American Public Media
 
Mark Lloyd
Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer
Federal Communications Commission
 
Andy Schwartzman
Senior Vice President and Policy Director
Media Access Project
 
Kevin Werbach
Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
 
Moderator
Ellen Goodman
Professor
Rutgers  University School of Law

http://www.newamerica.net/newamerica.net/broadcast-to-broadband