TPRC annual conference on communications, information, and Internet policy and its online resources

I guess one of the best ways not only to study the history of any academic discipline but also to follow its current tendencies and development is to monitor the conferences. At least it seems true for communications. And at least for somebody who is still out of the real academic life, like me.

Thus, last week my continuous internet searching brought a solid fruit. A blog about law, technology, and society (medisonian.net) brought me to a home page of Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (an annual conference on communications, information, and Internet policy) and its wonderful archives with programs for the last 13 conferences (beginning with the 1994) and free PDF format papers for the last 5 (from 2002) (can be found on the archive-search page).

The nearest, 36th research conference is taking place on the 26th through 28th September 2008 at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia and has the following themes announced:

1. Network Competition, Policy and Management
2. Next Generation and all-IP Networks: Policy, Regulatory, Architectural and Societal Issues
3. Spectrum Management and Wireless Futures: Anywhere, Anytime Communications and its Implications
4. Societal Issues: Universality and Affordable Access; ICTs for Development and Growth
5. The Transformation and Future of Media in an Age of User- and Community-Produced Creativity
6. The Transformation and Future of Intellectual Property and Digital Rights
7. Privacy, Security, Identity and Trust
8. Internet Governance and Institutional Strategies for Information Policy

Who knows, maybe I'll be able to use the Student Paper Contest opportunity next year when I'm going to have a full time student status... I'd be so happy to try to write something that meets its standarts, let alone to attend the conference to see what this kind of conferences looks like in an American reality...

Meanwhile, I'm thankful to the organizers of the conference for the opportunity to explore its informative web page and study its plentiful content, and have a subject to write about on my blog today and an event to add to the calender I put at the bottom of this blog page :)