The following was composed by SIPA student Shivani Desai, a first year MPA student concentrating in Economic and Political Development.
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This Saturday, February 27, 2010, The Morningside Post will host a conference titled “Policy Making in the Digital Age.” If you are not yet familiar with The Morningside Post (TMP), we are SIPA’s student-run blog. TMP aims to foster the debate you didn’t have in class and to feature the most passionate and inquisitive voices in the SIPA community and beyond.
The conference will consider how the Internet and digital technology are changing policy making and international affairs. It comes at a time when the intersections between digital technology and international affairs are increasingly evident, from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent speech on internet freedom and the China-Google censorship controversy, to the Data.gov initiative and the use of Twitter during the Haiti earthquake and the Iranian elections.
Keynote presentations will be given by Richard Boly, director of the Office of eDiplomacy for the U.S. State Department, Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, and Brian Storm, president of MediaStorm.
We will feature panels and speakers on a variety of topics, including information communication technology (ICT) and development (including a special forum on Haiti and a discussion of telemedicine strategies), new media and authoritarianism, open governance, and a roundtable discussion of how policy schools can get involved in the debate. Our high profile speakers come from the U.S. Department of State’s Office of eDiplomacy, New York City Council, FrontlineSMS, Ushahidi, and Columbia, Harvard and Stanford Universities.
The policy makers and practitioners who succeed in this landscape will be those who can adapt thoughtfully and quickly to meet the challenges – and opportunities – presented by these digital tools.
The conference is open to the public and free. We invite prospective students to attend to get a taste of some of the great events that take place at SIPA everyday. To learn more about the conference and to register, please visit the conference website.
The conference is sponsored by SIPA’s International Media, Advocacy and Communications Specialization; the Economic and Political Development Concentration; SIPA News; Journal of International Affairs; Communiqué; SIPA Student Association (SIPASA); Humanitarian Affairs Working Group (HAWG); Latin American Student Association (LASA); and the Office of Career Services.
