Announcement of the sixth PhD summer school on
The Political Economy of Information and Communication Technologies
Dates: 16-21 August 2011
Place: Skagen, Denmark
Organizer: Center for Communication, Media and
Information technologies (CMI), Aalborg University, Denmark
Deadline for registration: 15 May 2011
Information and registration:
<http://phdsummerschool.nordict.aau.dk/>http://phdsummerschool.nordict.aau.dk/
The topic of the 2011 PhD summer school is ?ICT
and the media: New architectures and value configurations?
During the past couple of decades,
telecommunications, IT and the media have gone through fundamental
changes technologically, economically and
politically resulting in new challenges and
crossroads. Convergence of telecommunications,
IT and the media has reached a stage where
entirely new value configurations are taking
shape. The role of users is also changing with
the widespread growth of social networks and
other user centered and user generated applications.
Among the outstanding developments is the
increasing focus on platforms not only in a
technological sense of the concept but also
market-wise. Multi-sided platforms have a long
history but have gained prominence with the use
of ICT in different business areas. Cloud
computing is another important development
trend. Cloud computing is not only a ?hot topic?
but raises a range of technological,
business-oriented and regulatory issues so far
only little explored in-depth. Furthermore, the
media have witnessed serious challenges
regarding their traditional business models and
content. This applies to the written media as well as video and audio media.
Such developments raise questions regarding
technological architectures as well as value
configurations and content and services. The
summer school puts focus on these interlinked
developments examining the relationships between
network issues and business, content and service
issues. Attendants to the course will be PhD
students with a technology background as well as
students with a business or media background.
Specific topics included:
? Convergence of telecommunications, IT and the media
? New technology architectures
? Changing value configurations
? Multi-sided platforms
? Cloud computing
? Social media
? New media business models
? The interrelationships between technology,
market developments and regulations
The summer school is organized in cooperation
with CTIF (Centre for TeleInFrastructure), the
CAMMP project (Converged Advanced Mobile Media
Platform), and is part of the activities of the
Mobile and Wireless Cluster CWMC (Copenhagen
Wireless and Mobile Consortium) located at CMI.
Aim and objectives of the summer school
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
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. This
theme is explored at a company (micro), sectoral
(meso) and/or societal (macro) level. This will
depend on the specific topics chosen in the
course. 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.
Best regards
Anders Henten, <mailto:(henten /at/ cmi.aau.dk)>(henten /at/ cmi.aau.dk)
Reza Tadayoni, <mailto:(reza /at/ cmi.aau.dk)>(reza /at/ cmi.aau.dk)
CMI, Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark
