TPRC

As the main drivers of the digital divide evolve, digital inclusion efforts that seek to increase digital skills, build consumer trust in digital technologies, and promote information about affordability plans and other broadband availability programs have fast become key to getting everyone online. This report argues for the creation of a national digital skills framework and explains the immediate policy context.

The period from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s saw the transformation of information and communication infrastructure. In the same period, TPRC evolved from a narrower focus on conventional telecommunications and information policy to “The Research Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy.” Through the lens of interdisciplinary work on Internet policy and intersecting TPRC activity, this retrospective describes an arc of change that began at the 1994 TPRC and continued for about a decade.

TPRC is the preeminent annual interdisciplinary conference on communications, information, and Internet policy that convenes researchers and policymakers from law, economics, engineering, computer science, public policy, data science, social sciences, and related fields working in academia, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations around the world. TPRC is seeking submissions for its 52nd conference, including papers, posters, panels, tutorials and the Student Paper Competition. Paper and poster proposals can be submitted through March 15, 2024.

As broadband becomes more and more important for students to be successful, we need to know how differences in availability affect their achievement. How do some students’ achievements compare to their more well-off peers with fancy 1 gigabit fiber connections? Suppose we could randomly build out fiber-optic broadband to different parts within a neighborhood and then compare a student’s test scores before and after fiber became available to the students that didn’t get access.