Dear Colleagues The Oxford Internet Institute (OII), in association with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, plans to hold its 2005 Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) in Beijing from 7-21 July. The SDP is designed to support advanced doctoral students engaged in dissertation research on the economic, political, legal and other social aspects of the Internet and related information and communication technologies. The Beijing SDP will not only be of greater value to students from Asia, but also students from around the world who wish to better understand the growing role of Asia, and China in particular, in shaping the development of the Internet and its social implications. The programme will be conducted in partnership with: The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania; The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at the Harvard Law School; the Center for the Digital Future at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California; the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology; the School of Informatics at SUNY Buffalo; the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; and the Singapore Internet Research Centre at Nanyang Technological University. All of these institutions will contribute to the teaching faculty. A press release, with more information about this year’s programme in Beijing, is available at: www.oii.ox.ac.uk/teaching/?rq=sdp Please feel free to post this release, or pass it on to other colleagues as appropriate. I would encourage doctoral students who are interested in this programme to e-mail the OII at sdp@oii.ox.ac.uk to register their interest and to begin speaking with their advisors about the potential value of this programme to the successful completion of their dissertations. Thanks to the support of the Higher Education Funding Council for England and OII’s collaborating partners, a limited number of bursaries (scholarships) will be available. I would greatly appreciate your help in bringing this opportunity to the attention of doctoral students who might benefit from working with other advanced doctoral students and researchers in the field of Internet studies. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Bill Dutton Director Oxford Internet Institute