Toward Healthy Informed Communities: The Knight Commission Report One Year Later

Toward Healthy Informed Communities:
The Knight Commission Report One Year Later

Communications and Society Program
Aspen Institute
The Newseum - Knight Broadcast Studio
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Marking the one year anniversary of the report of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy with a discussion among key leaders and the unveiling of a new report on the policy reforms needed to achieve universal broadband access in the United States.

The Symposium will begin at 10 a.m. with opening remarks by Alberto Ibargüen, President of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and follows with a discussion on the impact of the Knight Commission report Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, along with video comments by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Immediately following, the Aspen Institute and Knight Foundation will unveil a new policy paper by Blair Levin, former executive director of the FCC's Omnibus Broadband Initiative. Levin has laid out the next steps necessary to ensure affordable broadband access for all Americans, a key recommendation of the Knight Commission. A panel of communications policy leaders will then further discuss the paper's findings and the task of achieving universal broadband in the United States.

Featured participants include Alberto Ibargüen, Jon Leibowitz (Chairman, Federal Trade Commission), Larry Strickling (Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, Department of Commerce), Patricia Harrison (President, Corporation for Public Broadcasting), Nancy Tate (Executive Director, League of Women Voters) and Rey Ramsey (President, TechNet). A detailed agenda is forthcoming.

This event will be webcast live at www.knightcomm.org from 10 a.m.-1:00 p.m. (EST). Join the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #knightcomm.

We hope you will be able to join us for this important event. The event is free of charge but registration is required. Please RSVP to senior project manager Erin Silliman at erin.silliman@aspeninstitute.org or 202-736-5818.

*Light refreshments served immediately following the event