Communications policy and information technology : promises, problems, prospects / edited by Lorrie Faith Cranor and Shane Greenstein.

"29th Research Conference on Information, Communication, and Internet Policy, Washington, D.C., 2001"--Preface.

"Published in association with the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference"--Preliminary page.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface / Lorrie Faith Cranor -- Introduction / Lorrie Faith Cranor, Shane Greenstein -- I. Regulatory conundrums and the Internet -- ICANN, "Internet stability," and the new top level domains / Jonathan Weinberg -- ENUM: the collision of telephony and DNS policy / Robert Cannon -- On target? The shifting standards for determining Internet jurisdiction / Michael A. Geist -- II. Digital democracy: prospects and possibilities -- Security considerations for remote electronic voting over the Internet / Avi Rubin -- Signing initiative petitions online: possibilities, problems, and prospects / Walter Baer -- Efficient choice, inefficient democracy? The implications of cable and Internet access for political knowledge and voter turnout / Markus Prior -- III. Monopoly and competition in communications markets -- Assessing the effectiveness of section 271 five years after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 / Daniel R. Shiman, Jessica Rosenworcel -- Competitive analysis of international long distance calling / Sean Ennis -- Ownership concentration and product variety in daily newspaper markets / Lisa Megargle George -- IV. Future of wireless communications -- Best effort versus spectrum markets: 802.11 versus 3G / Lee McKnight, William Lehr, Raymond Linsenmayer -- Property rights, flexible spectrum use, and satellite v. terrestrial uses and users / Douglas W. Webbink -- V. Expanding the understanding of universal service -- Stronger than barbed wire: how geo-policy barriers construct rural Internet access / Kyle Nicholas -- Telecommunications and rural economics: findings from the Appalachian region / Sharon Strover, Michael Oden, Nobuya Inagaki -- Universal service in times of reform: affordability and accessibility of telecommunication services in Latin America / Martha Fuentes-Bautista -- Bringing the Internet to schools: the U.S. and E.U. policies / Michelle S. Kosmidis.

Print version record.

New technologies, although developed with optimism, often fall short of their predicted potential and create new problems. Communications technologies are no different. Their utopian proponents claim that universal access to advanced communications technologies can help to feed the hungry, cure the sick, educate the illiterate, improve the global standard of living, and ultimately bring about world peace. The sobering reality is that while communications technologies have a role to play in making the world a better place, the impact of any specific technological advance is likely to be modest. The limitations of new technologies are often not inherent in the technologies themselves but the result of regulatory or economic constraints. While the capability may exist to deliver any information anywhere in the world, many people lack the money to pay for it, the equipment to access it, the skills to use it, or even the knowledge that it might be useful to them. This book examines the complex ways in which communication technologies and policies affect the people whose lives they are intended to improve. The areas of discussion include Internet regulation, electronic voting and petitioning, monopoly and competition in communications markets, the future of wireless communications, and the concept of universal service.

English.

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