PhD Summer School at Skagen
The Center for Communication, Media and Information Technologies (CMI) is hosting its yearly Political Economy of Information and Communication Technologies Ph.D. Summer School, in Skagen Denmark. The course includes lectures by researchers from Aalbourg University and the other universities in the NordICT network and by invited lecturers from other research institutions. The topic of this year’s course is: Political Economy of Information and Communication Technologies. The summer school will take place from Sunday 24 August to Friday 29 August 2008.
Deadline for registration: 1 June 2008.
Click here to go to the CMI Skagen summer school webpage.
The aim of the course is to refine the level of knowledge of the participating Ph.D. students on the economic and political structures and mechanisms affecting technology development in the information and communication technology (ICT) area. It also considers the impact of the implementation and application of ICTs on the economy and broader social developments. It is a course in the political economy of technology development with a disciplinary point of departure in economics and social science.
The course targets Ph.D. students with a technology background combined with an economics and/or social science approach and students with an economics and/or social science background focusing on technology development.
The theme of the 2008 PhD Summer School is the implications of intellectual property rights (IPR) on innovations in information and communication technologies, services and content. It will examine the interrelations between technical, economic, policy and legal issues that are shaping both the evolution of IPR and the environment for innovation. It will encompass research issues relating to technology infrastructure development, as well as media and content development, and distribution and sharing.
The major categories of IPR that the Summer School will examine are copyright and patents. The copyright focus will be on the implications of Internet developments – fixed and mobile – on content distribution (including peer-to-peer file sharing and multiple platform distribution), and new business models (including Internet-based content distribution and user created content platforms). Issues relating to digital rights management (DRM) systems and conditional access (CA) will also be covered.
Concerning patents, the emphasis will be on the role of patents in the innovation strategies of companies in the manufacturing and services sectors, as well as on patent policies and the evolving international patent system. The much debated issue of software patents will be taken up and the debates around software patents will be reviewed in light of economic theory, empirical evidence and legal interpretations.
In examining all these issues the focus will be on the implications for innovation. This includes the innovation strategies and business models of companies as well as the policy and regulatory framework institutionalised by public authorities, including national and EU innovation policies and programs.
Click here to go to the CMI website.
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