MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC's Powell Defends Easing Media Ownership Rules
EDTECH
MIT Everyware
E-GOVERNMENT
Nigeria to Begin E-Governance in 2008
TELECOM POLICY
CFA Announces Action Agenda In Response to FCC Triennial Review
Order
Telescam: How Telecom Regulations Harm California Consumers
INTERNET
Who Will Slay the Spam Dragons?
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MEDIA OWNERSHIP
FCC'S POWELL DEFENDS EASING MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
FCC Chairman Michael Powell defended his stance on the commission's recent
media ownership rule changes, which face the prospect of a congressional
rebuff. The chairman expressed concerns over congressional proposals to
block the rules adopted in June. "I don't think they are focusing us in a
more constructive media regulatory environment," Powell said yesterday on
Fox News. He declined to predict whether President Bush would veto such
legislation, as the OMB has suggested, but he did note the rarity with which
Bush has threatened to use his veto power. Powell also discussed News
Corp.'s pending purchase of a controlling share in DIRECTV parent Hughes
Electronics, a deal that has drawn much public criticism. While noting that
he is the first chairman in 60 years to block a major media merger, ""we
don't believe we stop mergers just because there is a large public reaction
to them." A ruling on the deal is expected around mid-autumn, he said.
SOURCE: Yahoo! News; AUTHOR: Dow Jones News
http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/030826/15/3dp8j.html
EDTECH
MIT EVERYWARE
MIT's bold experiment of posting free course content on the Web, including
video lectures, class notes, tests and course outlines, has proved a
success. In September, MIT will officially launch OpenCourseWare, with 500
courses ranging from philosophy to electrical engineering and computer
science. Initially, some professors had concerns about the program creating
additional work and endangering intellectual property rights. By making the
program voluntary, most objections were addressed. Still, administrators and
professors are quick to note that the Web is no substitute for an MIT
education. Distance education students don't have access to perks such as
teaching assistants and live interaction with professors. Nevertheless,
OpenCourseWare is popular worldwide. The courseware will be translated into
Spanish and Portuguese, and similar translation requests have come from the
Middle East, Ukraine and Mongolia. Anne Margulies, OpenCourseWare's
executive director, said MIT would like to see the evolution of self-managed
learning communities through the software. Challenges to the program include
poor technology infrastructure in developing countries and profiteering
schemes.
SOURCE: Wired Magazine; AUTHOR: David Diamond
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/mit_pr.html
To view OpenCourseWare:
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html
E-GOVERNMENT
NIGERIA TO BEGIN E-GOVERNANCE IN 2008
The Nigerian federal government has announced plans to have most government
services available online by 2008. Speaking at a launch of the Bureau of
Public Enterprises (BPE) website, Vice President Alhahi Atiku Abubakar said
that the government recognizes the role of information technology in modern
business and public administration and is prepared to face the challenges.
He explained that new incentives and institutional structures would be
needed to ensure the initiative "includes new funding and sharpened
financial incentives to promote electronic service delivery, and the
creation of a government incubator to develop new service ideas." Dr. Julius
Bala, BPE's Director General, disclosed that the website was redesigned to
meet the standards of international investors and to serve as a "credible,
trusted and helpful source of information" about the Nigerian privatization
program and other issues. The site's target audience includes BPE staff,
Nigerian citizens, civil servants, potential investors, the Nigerian
diaspora, donor agencies, researchers and students. Dr. Bala said BPE would
become a paperless office by 2007.
SOURCE: AllAfrica.com; AUTHOR: Emma Ujah, The Vanguard (Nigeria)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200308260534.html
TELECOM POLICY
CFA ANNOUNCES ACTION AGENDA IN RESPONSE TO FCC TRIENNIAL REVIEW ORDER
In a conference call yesterday, Dr. Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation
of America outlined the group's strategy for a national, state-level and
legal response to the FCC's new telephone and broadband rules, which were
released last week. "While the FCC has left the door open to local
competition in voice service, as we feared, they slammed it shut on
broadband competition," said Cooper. "Unless the FCC reverses its decision
to shut competitors out of the broadband network, broadband competition will
shrivel and die as the Baby Bells install fiber in their networks and cut
competitors off." CFA intends to work closely with state regulators to
ensure that local markets remain competitive, and plans a high-level
campaign to preserve access to advanced telecommunications services through
line sharing, which the FCC order threatens to eliminate. CFA's opposition
to the broadband rules will be more intense, resulting in a legal challenge
to the withdrawal of unbundled advanced telecommunications services. CFA
also intends to push the FCC to allocate the cost of facilities supporting
such advanced services into federal jurisdiction, which should prompt states
to lower local rates.
SOURCE: Consumer Federation of American; AUTHOR: Dr. Mark Cooper
Contact Dr. Cooper for more information at mcooper( at )consumerfed.org.
TELESCAM: HOW TELECOM REGULATIONS HARM CALIFORNIA CONSUMERS
The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a conservative public policy think
tank, has released a study entitled "Telescam: How Telecom Regulations Harm
California Consumers." The study argues that California consumers are
experiencing an annual decline of $120 per average household in economic
output because of poorly crafted telecommunications regulations. Nationally,
the loss is $101 per household. "One of the greatest problems in the telecom
area is not market failure, but government failure," said Stephen Pociask,
the report's author. The report suggests that regulators should "reevaluate
current policies and encourage facility investment rather than encouraging
freeloading and widespread dependency on handouts." In particular, state
regulators should take advantage of the expanded power given to them by the
FCC and implement rational wholesale telecom prices. Proponents of these
recommendations believe that such actions would benefit consumers by
encouraging investment, creating jobs, and stimulating economic growth in
California.
SOURCE: Yahoo! News; AUTHOR: PRNewswire
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030827/sfw035_1.html
Download the report:
http://www.pacificresearch.org/pub/sab/techno/telescam.pdf
INTERNET
WHO WILL SLAY THE SPAM DRAGONS?
Despite the passage of anti-spam legislation, South African emailers are
still fighting a deluge of unsolicited messages, prompting a call for legal
action. "Someone has to put some money behind this and make an example of
someone," says Jacques van Niekerk, CEO of Internet marketing company
Acceleration. However, most organizations are leery of investing time and
money in the first real test of South Africa's Electronic Communications and
Transaction Act, which so far has produced only one stalled prosecution
attempt. That instance, in which charges were filed against a Cape Town
company which continued to send a citizen email ads after he asked to be
removed from their list, proved that local authorities "don't attach the
same priority that [the victim does] to this crime as no one was injured and
no loss or damage is visible." A bigger problem facing spam opponents is the
spammers' success rate. "The biggest problem with spam is that it works,"
says Arthur Goldstuck of Internet research company World Wide Worx. "You
need a very small response rate to make a profit and there will always be
some response." Critics argue that the law itself is full of loopholes,
since the act of sending spam itself is not illegal, only the lack of an
"opt-out" option. The law is also devoid of a provision prohibiting the
falsification of sender information.
SOURCE: AllAfrica; AUTHOR: Lesley Stones, Business Day (Johannesburg)
http://allafrica.com/stories/200308210156.html
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