William H. Dutton

HM Treasury recently organized a consultation on the ‘implementation of the new Landline Duty to help fund the roll-out of Next Generation Access to 90 per cent of Britain by 2017.’ I’ve been critical of this proposal, which arose from the Government’s June 2009 Digital Britain White Paper. The idea was to impose a tax [...]

The Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania has teamed up with the IE University to hold an international forum on political communication that will bring together scholars and practitioners. This is orchestrated by Professor Monroe Price at the Annenberg School’s Global Communication Studies Centre, Magdalena Wojcieszak at IE and others, including colleagues at from [...]

The OII has posted a new Policy Briefing written by our Visiting Associate Tony Wales, former General Counsel of AOL International, responsible for the company’s worldwide legal affairs outside the US. He offers his insights on issues arising from the UK Government’s Digital Britain report (June 2009) and Digital Economy Bill, focusing in particular on [...]

Journal of Information, Communication & Society (iCS)
Brian D. Loader
Since 1997, the journal of Information, Communication & Society (iCS) has been charting the global diffusion and implications of digital media, communication and information technologies for individuals, households and society at large. The ubiquity of such media is a striking testimony to their influence in the contemporary [...]

The Internet enables you to watch television on your computer. This is no longer the dream of a futurist. As Web TV continues to unfold, Internet users will have increasingly worldwide stores of programs accessible at anytime from anyplace. Long-held visions of on demand television might well be realized in the near-term. However, this convergence [...]

The Internet and the Future European Information Society: Key Issues Behind the Development of Guiding Principles
A position paper prepared for submission to the European Commission’s public consultation on post-i2010: priorities for new strategy for European information society (2010-2015). INFSO-Post-i2010@ec.europa.eu
Contributors to this response include the following participants in the European Alpbach Forum Seminar 09: Bill Dutton, [...]

I attended a stimulating forum in Alpbach, Austria, from the 20th to 26th of August. The forum is well known in the German speaking regions of Europe, but less visible than it should be, in Britain, for example. The forum was launched in 1945, immediately following the Second World War, as a means to open [...]

Yesterday, we launched the 2009 Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) report, which nicely coincided with the recent release of the Government’s Digital Britain white paper. Jack Riley of the Independent caught an issue raised by our study, which questions the infrastructure focus of Digital Britain, suggesting that more emphasis should be placed on addressing the beliefs [...]

The global economic recession is focusing attention on issues of industry self-governance and trans-national coordination that could reshape debate over Internet governance. As national economies and international financial institutions continue to struggle with the consequences and implications of the global banking collapse, Internet governance may be recast in new and relatively unfamiliar contexts, creating both [...]

The UK’s House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee has published its report on ‘A Surveillance Society? Fifth Report of Session 2007-08, Vol. I.’. It has generated a wide range of press reports, which have been aggregated at: news.google.com
The full report by the committee is online and available at: publications.parliament.uk (pdf)

May I also call your [...]