Final Report of the Digital Future Initiative Panel Released

[SOURCE: New America Foundation]
Business, philanthropic, education and public broadcasting leaders from across the country met in Washington Thursday for the Digital Future Initiative (DFI) Summit, an invitation-only event where participants explored the future of America’s public service media. The event included the release of DFI Panel’s report, Digital Future Initiative: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Service Media in the Digital Age. It calls for major new initiatives in several areas where the public broadcasting system’s strengths coincide with pressing national needs. The panel has identified education, civic engagement, health care and emergency preparedness as areas that are critically important to the future of our nation and where public broadcasting can make a unique impact by leveraging a combination of multimedia, on-demand content with new broad-based partnerships. The report argues that public broadcasters should harness the on-demand and interactive digital platforms of the 21st century as they did analog TV and radio in the 20th century, using these new and powerful communications technologies to advance the public good in innovative ways.

* Digital Futures panel zooms in on specific services pubcasting should offer
http://www.current.org/dtv/dtv0523dfi.shtml

* Digital Future Initiative: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Service Media in the Digital Age
http://www.newamerica.net/Download_Docs/pdfs/Doc_File_2766_1.pdf

* $3 Million Grant for PBS "Citizen's Channel
http://www.pbs.org/aboutpbs/news/20051214_knightfoundation.html