Communications Futures Program (CFP)

The Communications Futures Program conducts research on industry dynamics, technology opportunities, and regulatory issues that form the basis for communications endeavors of all kinds, from telephony to RFID tags. The program operates through a series of working groups led jointly by MIT researchers and industry collaborators. It is highly participatory, and its agenda reflects the interests of member companies that include both traditional stakeholders and innovators. It is jointly directed by Dave Clark (CSAIL), Charles Fine (Sloan School of Management), and Andrew Lippman (Media Lab).

Major Focus Areas: CFP engages in four important sets of activities:
(*) Invent and demonstrate technologies that create discontinuous innovation.
(*) Identify and understand enablers and barriers to industry transformation, using focused study of topics picked jointly by MIT and our partners.
(*) Align members across the communications value chain to speed innovation
(*) Develop awareness around big opportunities from emerging technologies
Operating Structure

OPERATIONS:
CFP Working Groups -- The CFP operates primarily on the basis of working groups (In person and via WebEx). This structure allows Industryparticipants to engage closely with faculty and guide the direction of the program. Working groups provide a forumfor presenting research and generating collective insights, with the goal of producing white papers andpresentations. All work In progress is available exclusively to members on our wiki. Final results are publiclyavailable, and are often published outside CFP, by agreement of the authors and their sponsors. Working groupswill occasionally run daylong live workshops and support remote participation. Members are not obligated tocontribute specific deliverables, however, the success of the program, and the value derived by our membersdepends on their participation-the more they contribute, the more value they get.

CFP All-Members' Meetings -- The CFP holds an all-members' meeting annually at MIT and occasionally at a sponsor site. The plenary meetingsare an occasion for our members to meet each other in person and share ideas. We also bring in outside speakers,including both academics and industry leaders. The plenary meetings are an excellent networking opportunity. Allconference materials are available to our members on our Web site.

Interaction with CFP Faculty -- In addition to the group activity and meetings, members can engage various CFP faculty and students on anInformal basis. This interaction may lead to a directed research engagement if It goes beyond the scope of CFP ordemands supplementary attention, as determined by CFP.