Introduction to essays on the future of digital communications.

• Author: Laguarda, Fernando R.

1. STIMULATING DISCUSSION: THE ROLE OF THE TIME WARNER CABLE RESEARCH PROGRAM ON DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS II. OVERVIEW--POLICY PERSPECTIVES III. OVERVIEW--TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVES I. STIMULATING DISCUSSION: THE ROLE OF THE TIME WARNER CABLE RESEARCH PROGRAM ON DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS

   The Time Warner Cable Research Program on Digital Communications is pleased to have supported the five essays in this Federal Communications Law Journal symposium. We launched the research program with the goal of encouraging debate and discussion on ideas of importance to the future of our industry and its role in the communities we serve. We hope to do so by providing a new forum for scholars to engage with the community of stakeholders who make and influence policy. We want to encourage increased dialogue and generate new ideas that bring us closer to solving the challenges we face. The research program will award stipends to scholars to produce twenty-five- to thirty-five-page papers that increase understanding of the benefits and challenges facing the future of digital technologies in the home, office, classroom, and community.

   For this symposium, we invited five noted scholars to write an essay discussing a major challenge they anticipate arising as we debate and set digital communications policy during the next decade. Their Essays are published in this symposium. While each author chose a different challenge, they all raise interesting questions that deserve further discussion and debate.

2. OVERVIEW--POLICY PERSPECTIVES

   The first three policy papers are by a law professor, a sociologist, and an economist. John Palfrey is a professor of law at Harvard Law School and codirector of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Palfrey writes about the connection between law and social science and the challenge of incorporating current research into policymaking. He uses the example of youth media policy, specifically privacy regulation, to frame a challenge to policymakers: learn how young people actually use digital communications or risk making public policy that is irrelevant to (or poorly meets the needs of) the digital generation. Palfrey recommends establishing "mechanisms that enable collaboration between those who set policy ... and those who best understand youth media practices."

   In her paper, Dr. Nicol Turner-Lee, vice president and director of the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, discusses the...