The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) is a university-based research center focusing on strategy, management, and policy issues in telecommunications, computing, and electronic mass media.
Founded in 1983 at Columbia University, the institute is the first research center for communications economics, management, and policy established at a US management school. Its location in New York City provides a unique foundation for these activities. Research collaboration among academic, corporate, and public sectors is vital in analyzing the complex problems associated with managing communications enterprises, systems, and policy in environments of rapidly changing technology and regulation.
In 2000, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation selected the institute as its academic center for industry research on telecommunications and related industries. This enabled CITI to substantially expand its program of research on the telecommunications sector. CITI conducts research on all forms of networks, IT, and and electronic media industries.
The electronic communications and media sector is large and dynamic. Driven by technology, entrepreneurship and policy, the sector has expanded horizontally and vertically. It is converging with traditional mass media. It is becoming the marketplace for e-commerce. It is the centerpiece of a networked economy and society, requiring a complex platform for which society increasingly spends a good share of its capital, expertise, and attention.
The Institute’s research activities are determined by the University’s academic principles, and the advice of an Advisory Board drawn from industry, universities, government, and other sectors. All research is public.
The Institute is part of Columbia University’s traditionally strong role in communications research, going back to Paul Lazarsfeld (audience research methodologies), Edwin Howard Armstrong (FM Radio), Michael Pupin (long distance transmission), and Charles Townes and Arthus Schawlow (laser technology). The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information draws upon the resources of several university departments beyond the Business School and its Media Program, The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, and The Center on Global Brand Leadership. The School of Engineering and Applied Science is a technology center focusing on the integration of telecommunications networks. The School of Journalism offers a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications and also studies the impact and applications of new technology for Journalism, including in its Tow Center for Digital Journalism and The David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation. The Institute for Learning Technologies at Teacher’s College studies and develops new technology applications. The Law School is strong in issues of intellectual property. The School of the Arts has major involvement in content production such as film. And the School of International and Public Affairs deals with global policy issues.