Silicon Flatirons

A Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado

The Digital Broadband Migration: Confronting the New Regulatory Frontiers

@ the University of Colorado at Boulder
February 19-20, 2006

The transformation of telecommunications from an analog, narrowband network optimized for voice to a digital, broadband network optimized for data traffic has created a myriad of challenges for businesses, policymakers, and academics alike. The questions range from those involving what institutions--courts, agencies, standard setting bodies, or international treaty organizations--can address technology policy questions to those involving the emerging structure of the telecommunications industry and whether it is an effective response to or possible barrier to continued innovation. Similarly, the development of video content over the Internet is emerging as a challenge that will potentially transform the video programming industry, both respect to the re-thinking of regulatory strategies and the role of digital rights management systems.

This conference will examine the above set of pressing regulatory challenges that policymakers have yet to fully grapple with. With a thoughtful array of leaders from academic, industry, and governmental circles, we believe that this conference will continue the Silicon Flatirons' tradition of encouraging "bolder thinking" in Boulder. Like its predecessors, the proceedings from this conference will be published in the fifth volume of the Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law.