Date: Monday, 29 September 2008 to Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Venue: University of Technology, Sydney

Interest areas include ICT, digital media, telecommunications broadcasting, communications culture, Internet and e-commerce.  It is a research-oriented forum open to all viewpoints;  a co-operative effort by policy and research centres.  It is also a national meeting-place for researchers in all sectors. 

Please click here to download the Record of the Communications Policy & Research Forum 2007.  It is a 370-page volume in PDF format containing the published papers.  It is a 4.1MB download.

As the program for 2008 will not be available for some months, you way wish to look at the program from 2007 to gain some idea of how the Forum works and what it will be like.

Please feel welcome to submit a proposal or abstract to be on the platform.  The closing date is Friday 23 May 2008.  Click here to download the call for papers and proposals. 

Areas to be featured include:
•    Digital television, radio and online media
•    Telecoms and media economics, structures
•    Quality of journalism in new and old media
•    Mobile and wireless networks and cultures
•    User-led innovation and DIY media forms
•    Internet communities, worlds, blogs and wikis
•    Broadband, uses, users and infrastructure
•    Consumer preferences and needs among the new platforms

Most of the speaking slots will be filled by papers and presentations submitted by interested people.  We shall also invite some leading thinkers and innovators, to add an extra dimension to the program.  We want the Forum to be as open to all viewpoints as possible.  The full program will be announced in July 2008, following the late May deadline for proposals

Submitting proposals for papers or presentations
The deadline for submitting proposals and abstracts is Friday 23 May 2008, after which the program committee will select the papers to be presented in September.  Click here to downlaod the call for papers and proposals.

There is no required length for proposals or abstracts, but 500 words might be an average.  What the Program Committee needs is enough information to rank your proposal against others.  Criteria are the usual, such as innovation, policy importance and analytical strength.  One strength of the Forum is that academic, professional, government and industry people mix and interact throughout.  To support this, two forms of papers and presentations follow different paths to the platform:

• Academic papers can be refereed in accord with DEST-friendly rules, to ensure that you receive full research recognition. Please request refereeing only if you need it, because it is a time-intensive process. 
  
• General papers and presentations are equally welcome.  They need to be proposed by 23 May 2008 like the academic papers.  They do not conform to any convention or format, academic or otherwise.  Proposals for slide-based presentations or talks without a paper will be considered equally.  What matters is  intellectual rigour, clarity and policy value.

Proposals for multiple-paper sessions
The Forum also welcomes proposals for groups of three papers with different authors, forming a complete session.  The typical multiple-paper session addresses a single topic area, and maintains the CPRF's spirit of diversity by presenting different viewpoints or perspectives.  Each of the three papers needs to be proposed by 23 May 2008, following the same rules as individual papers. 

Registration
The registration fee of $450 covers all sessions on both days of the Forum, plus lunch and refreshments on each day.  The lowest possible fee has been chosen to make the Forum as accessible as possible to scholars and community groups.  Unfortunately, we can't offer a further discount, because it is already built into that low price.  Please do not ask for a concession. The rate is already non-profit, as low as we can make it. 

How to contact us
For inquiries about registrations and attendance: c.abad@networkinsight.org
To submit proposals, or to make suggestions for the program: cprf@canberra.edu.au
To leave a phone message (if your question really cannot fit into an email): 02 9230 4262.

How you can help
One practical way to help the Forum is to register now.  That will really help with the planning and funding. 
Another way is to help it to tell your friends, by directing them to this web page or by downloading and sending the call for papers.   We update people who have been in earlier years, but we depend on the research community to spread the word to new people.

Custodians of the Forum
A group of seven people from different places and backgrounds act as Custodians of the Forum, to underwrite its independence and diversity: 
Mark Armstrong, Director, Network Insight Institute;
Professor Trevor Barr, Media and Communications Unit, Swinburne University;
Emeritus Prof. Reg Coutts, Electrical and Electronic Eng., University of Adelaide;
Lesley Osborne, Manager, Strategic Research, ACMA
Professor Franco Papandrea, Director, Comms and Media Policy Institute, University of Canberra;
Debra Richards, CEO, ASTRA
Dr Christina Spurgeon, Queensland University of Technology.

The Academic Review Panel
Chair:  Professor Franco Papandrea, University of Canberra;
Professor Trevor Barr, Media and Communications Unit, Swinburne University;
Associate Professor Terry Flew, Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology;
Associate Professor Andrew Kenyon, CCML, University of Melbourne;
Professor Don Lamberton, Queensland University of Technology;
Professor Julian Thomas, Director, Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University.

Centres and Institutes Supporting the Forum
ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation
Centre for Media and Communications Law, University of Melbourne
Communication and Media Policy Institute, University of Canberra
Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University
Network Insight Institute
Smart Internet Technology Co-operative Research Centre
         
                          
Note
The Network Insight Institute provides this Forum web page, and management support for the Forum.  The Institute's own sponsors shown on the right-hand sidebar of this site should not be confused with the separate sponsors of the Forum.

Click here for full sponsors list.