PPDD Conferences
PPDD sponsored a Preconference on digital divide research, policy, and practice on Thursday, 22 May 2014 from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m at the International Communication Association (ICA) Annual Conference in Seattle. The PPDD Preconference was co-sponsored by the ICA Communication and Technology Division, the ICA Communication Law and Policy Division, and the ICA Mass Communication Division.
This was a major event marking the 20th anniversary of the recognition of the digital divide through social scientific research with over 100 outstanding competitively-selected presentations and more than 150 digital divide expert researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from around the world, including two important representatives from the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), coming together to create partnerships, inspire new ideas, and chart a course for the third decade of digital divide research, policy, and practice. Please see a full description of the Preconference and the Preconference Program.
PPDD’s Plans to Continue to Drive the Digital Divide Research, Policy, and Practice Agenda Forward
Given the enormous success of the PPDD 2014/Seattle Preconference and the enthusiastic feedback from the 150+ participants who found the event enriching and exciting, it is important to continue that momentum and provide a permanent home where cutting-edge scholarship is written, shared, commented upon, and published and ideas on policy and practice are envisioned, formulated, explored, and discussed as well as a venue where this community of shared interest can come together to connect, engage, and build partnerships on digital divide issues. Our entire group is passionate about our work, deeply committed to the topic, and believes there can be a world without a digital divide. Thus, the PPDD Conference community wants to move forward together on a regular basis to grow and support the next generation of high-quality efforts that will make substantial contributions to closing the divide.
As a result, starting in 2015, with an unprecedented broad multi-disciplinary coalition of co-sponsoring organizations from academic and practitioner communities, PPDD will be sponsoring a biennial Conference similar in structure and purpose to the 2014/Seattle Preconference. In addition, to create a powerful critical mass of high-quality scholarship that can serve as a deep resource and driver of future innovation, as a major outcome of the 2015 and each subsequent biennial PPDD Conference, PPDD will produce an edited volume of the top papers as well as special issues of journals on specific themes within the digital divide area.
PPDD’s 2015 Conference “Creating Connections, Building Bridges: Advancing the Digital Divide Research, Policy, and Practice Agenda” was held Wednesday, 21 October – Thursday, 22 October at Arizona State University’s high-tech SkySong in the Scottsdale area of Phoenix, Arizona, USA. This event was even more successful than PPDD 2014/Seattle with more than 200 researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from around the world, sponsorship by the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) among others, and numerous high-ranking U.S. Federal Communication Commission and NTIA representatives.
Future PPDD Conferences
PPDD will meet in conjunction with ICA’s Annual Conferences as follows:
22-24 May 2019 – Washington, District of Columbia, USA
26-28 May 2021 – Denver, Colorado, USA
25-27 May 2022 – Paris, France
24-26 May 2023 – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
May 2024 – Location and specific dates to be determined
21-23 May 2025 – Honolulu, Hawaii, USA