Network Insight Institute

2006 Communications Policy & Research Forum

The Communications Policy & Research Forum is an annual meeting of people interested in policy and research.  This page gives you links to all the available papers and slides, after the name of each speaker below.  The links from the name of each speaker provide biographical information.   'Ref paper' means a paper which was selected under the academic refereeing process.  More information about the Forum, and how it is organised each year, is at the end of this page.

Keynote Speakers
Eric Beecher, Editor, Journalist; and Crikey publisher
The future of media in a convergent age: connecting the dots

Chris Chapman, Chair, Australian Communications and Media Authority
Between two worlds - doing research in an evolving communications environment (speech)

   1A - Broadband Policies
Trevor Barr, Crisis of innovation: looking elsewhere (ref paper)
John de Ridder, Catching–up in broadband: What will it take?
Greg Flavel, Government support for broadband networks (slides)

   1B - Media Democracy
Mark Balnaves, Media activism and democracy in Australia (ref paper)
Jean Burgess, Marcus Foth & Helen Klaebe, Everyday creativity as civic engagement: a cultural citizenship view of new media (ref paper)
Ellie Rennie & Julian Thomas, Youth radio, participation and social policy

   2A - International Issues
Vicki MacLeod, International trends in convergence policy and regulation (slides)
Marcelo Grosso, Broadband penetration in OECD nations: determinants (ref paper)
Sophie Killen, Advertising regulation & new media services: How does Australia compare with the EU? (slides)

   2B - Media Features
Debra Adams, Journalism, citizens and blogging (ref paper) (slides)
Virginia Nightingale, Convergence and new media commodities (ref paper)
Rhonda Breit, Uniform defamation laws in Australia: Have they struck a better balance? (ref paper)
  
   3A - Broadband Demand
Peter Adams, Is choice a bad thing for broadband consumers? (ref paper)
Marat Fainstein, Forecasting broadband demand in Australia (paper) (slides)
Darren Sharp, The digital services economy: understanding next generation Internet users (ref paper)

   3B - Media Content Regulation
Nick Herd, The diversity question: Does regulation matter? (paper)
Andrew T Kenyon & Robin Wright, Digital free-to-air broadcast: How is content protection an issue? (slides)
Lesley Osborne, Children’s TV in Australia: perennial issues - new research (slides)
  
   4A - Next Generation Networks
Ross Kelso, Access to Next Generation Broadband (slides)
Glenn Gilmour & Joshua Saunders, Next Generation Networks and the Internet (paper)

   4B - International Trade
Rob Nicholls, Digital is different: how Australian audiovisual services were transformed from culture into commerce (paper) (slides)
Danny Kotlowitz, Credibility of US monitoring and enforcement of trading partners’ obligations on telecoms services market access (paper)

   5A - Diversity
Jeff Brand & Georgie McClean, Connecting diversity: paradoxes in multicultural Australia (paper)
Kerry McCallum & Franco Papandrea, Community business: uses and requirements for Internet services in remote indigenous communities (ref paper)
Peter Gerrand, Linguistic diversity on the Internet: critique of estimation techniques and published trends (slides)

   5B - Services and Access Policy
Peter Darling, The technologies of access (paper) (slides)
Chris Law, The technology in your cell phone wasn’t invented for you (ref paper) (for slides, please email author)
Alex Varley, Managing access during a convergent era (slides)

   6A - Content and Audiences
Marion McCutcheon, Who is watching what on subscription TV? (ref paper)
Simone Murray, Servicing ‘self-scheduling' consumers: public broadcasters and audio podcasting (ref paper) (slides)
Shilo McClean, Children of the e.volution: the curator’s role in the user-led content revolution (ref paper)

   6B - Policy Implications
Reg Coutts, Spectrum auction design: the next phase (slides)
Jerome Fahrer, Competitive implications of telstra’s fibre-to-the-node network (slides)
Peter Morris, The long (roo) tail: strategic implications in global markets for content industries in peripheral regions

Panel on new media channels
Experts with different viewpoints looked at some big changes to media, including:
- New broadcasting channels: new and different or more of the same?
- What will be new in information, culture and journalism after 1 January 2007?
- What is the role of non-traditional channels such as: YouTube, MySpace, Podcasts, mobile platforms.
- Who can win and lose eyeballs  among the current freeTV and subscription players, and how are they responding?
- What will be the effect of the government's current media law proposals on new channels?
Panelists included:
Bruce Meagher, Director of Strategy & Communications, SBS
Mike Game, COO, Fairfax Digital
Chris Gilbey, Executive Chairman, Perceptric Media

Click here to download the full program.

The IIC Dinner
The IIC Dinner at WatersEdge, was kindly provided by the IIC Australian Chapter in the interests of encouraging research, forward thinking and international contact.

Sponsors
These organisations supported the Forum with cash or help in kind: IIC Australian Chapter; Communication and Media Policy Institute, University of Canberrra; Telecommunication Society of Australia; Smart Internet Technology CRC; Gilbert + Tobin; Network Insight Institute.

                                                                  

The Network Insight Institute provided the Forum website.  The Institute sponsors shown on the side bar of the site should not be confused with the Forum sponsors.

Behind the scenes
This was a co-operative, non-profit initiative shared among researchers.  A group of five people agreed to be custodians of this year's Forum, to underwrite its independence and diversity:
- Mark Armstrong, Director, Network Insight Institute
- Professor Trevor Barr, Media and Communications Unit, Swinburne University
- Emeritus Professor Reg Coutts, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Adelaide
- Professor Franco Papandrea, Director, Communication and Media Policy Institute, University of Canberra
- Debra Richards, Executive Director, Australian Subscription TV and Radio Association (ASTRA)
- Christina Spurgeon, Lecturer, Media & Communication, Queensland University of Technology.

The Network Insight Institute provided the basic management of the Forum, such as online registration and the event organising.  The program was planned by Professor Franco Papandrea, University of Canberra in consultation with other volunteer assessors,
- Assoc Professor Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology
- Professor Don Lamberton, Queensland University of Technology
- Professor Julian Thomas, Swinburne University.

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