CABLE
Ruling Opens Cable Lines
E-GOVERNMENT
Study Touts E-Government
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
Sharpen Skills to Keep US Tech Edge
EDTECH
Tech is Key to Rural School Success
SPECTRUM
An Alternative Spectrum Auction Design for the FCC
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CABLE
RULING OPENS CABLE LINES
A US Court of Appeals has banned the FCC from completing its plan to allow
cable companies to exclude rivals from selling competing brands of Internet
service over their lines. This decision could lead to more choices for
consumers as well as more competitive pressure for the cable industry.
"Cable-modem users deserve choice in high-speed Internet providers," said
Dave Baker of EarthLink Inc. FCC Chairman Powell vowed to appeal the
decision, saying the ruling 'effectively stops a vitally important policy
debate in its tracks,' producing 'a strange result' which will throw a
monkey wrench into the FCC's efforts to develop a vitally important national
broadband policy." The FCC adopted its deregulatory framework to encourage
cable company investment in fiber-optic networks. The court said that cable
Internet service should be classified as a telecommunications service, which
subjects it to same regulation governing high-speed Internet access. The
decision could help companies such as Earthlink and America Online because
they are moving their customer base from slower-dial up to higher-speed data
services. Though cable companies are not required to open their networks,
some have voluntarily done so in some markets.
SOURCE: Washington Post; AUTHOR: Christopher Stern and Jonathan Krim
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52839-2003Oct6.html
E-GOVERNMENT
STUDY TOUTS E-GOVERNMENT
Deloitte Research has released a study entitled "Citizen Advantage:
Enhancing Economic Competitiveness Through Government," which examines the
time and effort required to comply with regulatory and reporting
requirements in conducting government transactions. The study suggests that
public sector organizations should evaluate information technology (IT)
investments not only by the cost savings they generate for government, but
by the financial benefits they create for citizens and businesses. For
example, the Small Business Association's Business Compliance One Stop Web
site saves US businesses about $526 million a year by helping them find,
understand and comply with regulations. "We believe that the success of
government programs should be measured by the true advantages they create
for citizens, communities, and industries," said Greg Pellegrino of Deloitte
Consulting. According to the report, the key is to employ technologies more
widely and effectively by looking at government systems and processes from
the citizen's point of view. To this end, Deloitte has developed a Citizen
Advantage Calculator that demonstrates systematic ways to measure
constituent time and resource savings.
SOURCE: Consultant News
http://www.consultant-news.com/Article_Display.asp?ID=953
For a copy of the report, visit www.dc.com
21ST CENTURY SKILLS
SHARPEN SKILLS TO KEEP US TECH EDGE
Panelists at a discussion organized by the Information Technology
Association of America (ITAA) emphasized that IT professionals need to
invest regularly in training, whether they are employed or job hunting. With
the increasing trend towards outsourcing comes lost jobs, lost tax revenue
from laid-off employees, and potential security problems, particularly in
the handling of sensitive government data, said Bruce Mehlman of the US
Department of Commerce. But instead of lobbying for protection of domestic
jobs, US companies and universities should focus on leading-edge technology
to take advantage of emerging opportunities, argued the panel. "We don't
know the new technologies that will come (but) they will come, they will
always come. Our challenge is to make sure that we are positioned in terms
of our educational system, in terms of our economy to jump on board those
technologies," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight.
"There is no safe expertise and there is no safe skill," Mehlman said. "It's
incumbent upon individuals as well as companies trying to maintain their
work force to constantly learn."
SOURCE: CNET; AUTHOR: Martin LaMonica
http://news.com.com/2100-1011_3-5086181.html?tag=nefd_top
EDTECH
TECH IS KEY TO RURAL SCHOOL SUCCESS
The Rural Education Task Force and US Secretary of Education Rod Paige
hosted a virtual town hall meeting, which showcased how technology is
helping schools in remote areas of Montana, West Virginia, New Mexico, and
Iowa. Presenters said technology could play a key role in addressing
barriers faced by rural schools, from the need for more teachers who are
highly qualified to higher-level instruction and more accurate assessment of
student achievement. Paige stated, "[The Internet] brings unlimited
information, entire libraries, courses, and instruction to anywhere you have
a modem and a server." Innovative uses of technology that were presented
include: using personal digital assistants (PDAs) for real-time assessment
of reading scores, providing online courses through several content
providers, and delivering foreign language and upper-level math courses via
videoconferencing. Undersecretary of Education Eugene Hickok says the
problem is no longer a lack of access to technology; instead, it's a lack of
creativity on the part of schools in how they choose to integrate technology
into the classroom.
SOURCE: eSchool News; AUTHOR: Corey Murray
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/ssunreg.cfm?ArticleID=4698&ul=%2Fnews%2F...
Story%2Ecfm%3FArticleID%3D4698
SPECTRUM
AN ALTERNATIVE SPECTRUM AUCTION DESIGN FOR THE FCC
The latest working paper from New America's Spectrum Policy Program is
called "Interlicense Competition: Spectrum Deregulation Without Confiscation
or Giveaways." The paper presents an auction design that could help the FCC
accomplish its goal of facilitating spectrum flexibility and secondary
markets, without granting massive windfalls to incumbent licensees. The
right to use US radio frequency spectrum is extremely valuable. Economic
efficiency suggests that existing license rights should be expanded to give
users the flexibility to redeploy spectrum to its most valuable use and to
trade licenses or unused capacity on secondary markets. This paper proposes
"interlicense competition" as a more balanced and equitable auction
mechanism than the "two-sided auction" proposed by the FCC. Interlicense
competition grants license relaxation rights using competition, while
ensuring that the government still obtains the fair value of the licenses it
is granting. The availability of this auction mechanism means that it is not
necessary to give away spectrum to incumbents to gain the advantages of
fully flexible license rights.
SOURCE: New America Foundation; AUTHOR: Michael H. Rothkopf and Coleman
Bazelon
http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&pubID=1329
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