Issues in Determining αs from Hadronic τ Decay and Electroproduction Data

We discuss some key issues associated with duality-violating and non-perturbative OPE contributions to the theoretical representations of light quark current-current two-point functions and relevant to precision determinations of αs from hadronic τ decay and electroproduction cross-section data. We demonstrate that analyses with an explicit representation of duality-violating effects are required to bring theoretical errors in such extractions under control, motivating the accompanying paper in these proceedings, which presents the results of such an analysis.