Coordinators
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| Richard Taylor Palmer Chair of Telecommunications Studies and Law; Co-Director of the Institute for Information Policy 313 Willard Building |
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Richard Taylor
J.D.: New York University School of Law
Ph.D.: Columbia University
Richard D. Taylor holds the prestigious Palmer Chair and is Professor of Telecommunications Studies, and Affiliate Professor of Information Sciences and Technology. He is Co-Director of the Penn State Institute for Information Policy and a Fellow of the E-Business Research Center. He has directed major research projects and published widely on the implications of investment in information technology on economic development in the Asia Pacific region. He has some 35 years of experience in the telecommunications field. His scholarly work has primarily been in understanding the impact of investment in information technologies. In 2002, he was honored by appointment as an IBM Faculty Partner for his work in the area of information metrics.
Prof. Taylor is active nationally and internationally in research, publishing and consulting. He is co-author of the book, Technology Parks of the Asia Pacific: Lessons for the Regional Digital Divide (M.E. Sharpe 2003), sponsored by The Ford Foundation. He was invited to present the findings of that study at the World Bank InfoDev Conference in Chongqing, China. For the period August 2003-August 2004, he was a Visiting Scholar at the East West Center in Hawaii. In 1995, he served as a USIS Visiting Expert in India on telecommunications liberalization.
He has been a speaker at academic, governmental, legal and corporate meetings in the telecommunications, cable television, broadcasting and publishing industries, as well as a consultant to non-profit groups including regulators, educators and librarians. He has organized and chaired a number of major conferences on topics relating to information technology and development and electronic commerce.
Prof. Taylor is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Federal Communications Bar Association. He is a past member of the Boards of the Pacific Telecommunications Council and the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State in 1989, he was Vice President and Corporate Counsel for Warner Cable Communications, and from 1993 to 1998 was an outside member of the Board of PrimeStar Partners, Ltd., a satellite television broadcasting company.
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| Michel J. Menou Graduate Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Public administration) Ph.D. Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 (Information science) Phone: +33 (0)2 41518165 Email: micheljmenou [at] gmail [dot] com |
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Michel J. Menou
Graduate: Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Public administration)
Ph.D.: Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux 3 (Information science)
Michel J. Menou, born in France, is an independent consultant in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) policy, Knowledge and Information Management and a Visiting Professor and associate researcher at the School of Library, Archives and Information Services, University College London (U.K.).
Since 1966 he has worked in more than 80 countries (mostly Africa, Americas, Europe, Latin AMerica and the Caribbean), generally under contract of international co-operation agencies (e.g. UNESCO, FAO, IDRC), on information and ICT policies, development of national and international scientific and technical information systems, knowledge and information management, curriculum development and teaching of information science, sensitisation and training of information users .
With Professor Harold Borko (then GSLIS, UCLA), he produced under contract of UNESCO's General Information Programme, one the first comprehensive and modular system of indicators to depict the information society (Index of Information Utilization Potential, 1980-1983). He played a key role in the international research program on the impact of information on development, sponsored by the International Development Research Centre of Canada (1992-2000) and continued work related to monitoring and evaluation of ICT for development. He is one of the founders of the association of community telecenters of Latin America and the Caribbean and special adviser to its board of directors.
He authored or co-authored 2 books, 140 journal articles and conference papers and some 150 technical reports. He is currently a member of the editorial board of 12 scholarly journals and a member of various scientific and professional societies (American Society for Information Science and Technology - ASIS, Association of Internet Researchers - AoIR, Computer Professionals for Social responsibility - CPSR, Internet Society - ISOC, International Center for Information Ethics - ICIE, French Association of Information and Documentation Professionals - ADBS). He currently chairs the International relations committee of ASIS. He was the co-founder and first chair of the ASIS Special interst group on International Information Issues (SIG/IIII) and ASIS European Chapter.
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| Jorge Reina Schement Dean School of Communication, Information and Library Studies Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street |
Jorge Reina Schement
Master's degree: University of Illinois
Ph.D.: Stanford University
Dr. Jorge Schement was appointed Dean of the School of Communication, Information and Library Science at Rutgers University commencing August, 2008. Previously, he was Distinguished Professor and co-Director of the Institute for Information Policy at the Pennsylvania State University.
His research interests focus on the social and policy consequences of the production and consumption of information. A Latino from South Texas, he maintains a special interest in policy as it relates to ethnic minorities, and is author of the telecommunications policy agenda for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. His research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Markle Foundation, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Walter Kaitz Foundation, Schumann Foundation, Rainbow Coalition, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, National Science Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Bell Atlantic, PacTel, Lockheed-Martin, and Bush Industries Inc. He has received awards for his scholarship from the International Communication Association, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Pace University, the University of Kentucky, and UCLA. Schement has served on the editorial boards of seven academic journals, and has edited the Annual Review of Technology for the Aspen Institute. He is editor-in-chief of the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Communication and Information.
His policy research contributed to the Supreme Court's decision in Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. F. C. C. et al. In 1994, he served, at the invitation of the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, as director of the Information Policy Project and conducted the original research that led to recognition of the Digital Divide.
He introduced the idea of “Universal Service” as an evolving concept, a view adopted in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He has served on advisory and steering committees for the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and the Centers for Disease Control.
He has been chairman of the board of directors of TPRC Inc., and has served on the boards of the Media Access Project, Libraries for the Future, and the Benton Foundation. He is also a member of advisory boards to the Advertising Council, Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, Center for Media Education, Internet Policy Institute, and the Open Society Institute, as well as an advisor to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and member of the Minority Media Telecommunications Council.
His book credits include, Global Networks (1999), Tendencies and Tensions of the Information Age (1995), Toward an Information Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (1995), Between Communication and Information (1993), Competing Visions, Complex Realities: Social Aspects of the Information Society (1988), The International Flow of Television Programs (1984), Telecommunications Policy Handbook (1982), and Spanish-Language Radio in the Southwestern United States (1979).
He annually leads seminars at the Aspen Institute. His interest in the history of printing led him to discover a discrepancy in chapter and line numbers between the 1667 and 1674 editions of Paradise Lost as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary. He reads histories of World War II, and of information technologies.
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| Amit Schejter Co-Director Institute for Information Policy The Pennsylvania State University 314 Willard Building |
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Amit Schejter
Ll.B.: Hebrew University
Master's degree:: Boston University
Ph.D.: Rutgers University
Amit Schejter's research focuses on identifying regulatory responses to technological change; highlighting social inequalities and communication distortions created by them; and prescribing theoretically informed approaches to policy-making that enhance fairness and equality. His studies have been widely published in both communication and law journals, cited in congressional and Knesset hearings and have dealt with the challenges raised by television, cable, the Internet, mobile phones and digitization in Israel, the U.S., Korea, the E.U. and across wide international comparative settings.
His background includes a decade of holding senior executive positions in the telecommunication industry in Israel, including general counsel for Israeli public broadcasting and vice president of Israel's largest mobile operator. In addition, he served on and chaired a variety of public committees, counseled media and telecommunication entities in Israel and the Palestinian Authority and held the post of assistant professor at Tel Aviv University.
His books include "The Wonder Phone in the Land of Miracles" (co-authored with Akiba Cohen and Dafna Lemish, Hampton Press, 2008) and "Muting Israeli Democracy" (forthcoming, University of Illinois Press). He teaches courses on telecommunication regulation, the media and information industries, comparative and world media systems and media activism.
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| Bin Zhang Professor Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications People's Republic of China |
Bin Zhang
Bin Zhang is a Professor at the School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT). Her research focus is on telecommunications policy and telecommunications network and service management. She has previously been a visiting scholar at the Pennsylvania State University, funded by the China Scholarship Council.
She has authored or co-authored five books in China on telecommunications policy and telecommunications management published numerous professional journal articles and presented papers at leading international conferences. In China, her research has been primarily funded by the National Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Information Industry (formerly Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications).
She holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering, an M.S. in Management Engineering, and a B.S. in Telecommunications Engineering, all from BUPT.