Calendar | Thursday, November 1, 2012

Join the New America Foundation for this critical discussion on the day after the election. We will consider how Congress can seize new opportunities to improve on the government's basic knowledge management and how we can enable governments to succeed in the global communications revolution.

This unique time and place will give startups and corporations the opportunity to grow their networks while discussing innovative solutions to help spur business and economic growth in America.

Prominent leaders will discuss the impact of Capitol Hill's racial disparities on policymaking and potential pathways to improve the representation of people of color in the communications policy community.

It is a time when pressure on spectrum allocations keeps growing due to the drumbeat of new broadband wireless applications, a crowded dance floor with a growing diversity and density of conflicting radio operations, and a crescendo of technologies such as smarter radios and heterogeneous networks. This presents an opportunity to look back at lessons learned, and prepare for challenges of the next four and ten, if not a hundred, years.

The focus of the board meeting will be the role of libraries and museums in early learning. President Obama has made early childhood learning a priority and IMLS is promoting policies, analyzing data and making grants to help integrate libraries and museums into community-wide early learning strategies. The board will hear from foundation, government, library and museum experts to help inform future IMLS activities in this area.

The United Nations has its eyes on the Internet. A summit next month could lead to a telecommunications treaty granting a U.N. agency jurisdiction, and control, over the online universe.