E-GOVERNMENT
UK E-government Services on Track
TECHNOLOGY
Experts Reflect on Open Source for IT Growth
For the World's A B C's, He Makes 1's and 0's
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
Govt, Media Reach Deadlock at WSIS
Book Highlights Priorities for WSIS Conference
EVENTS
Cable Franchise Policy Conference
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E-GOVERNMENT
UK E-GOVERNMENT SERVICES 'ON TRACK'
The plan to make most public services available online by 2005 is on track
in the UK, according to officials. Ninety percent of services will be online
by the deadline, says E-Envoy Andrew Pinder, who is responsible for ensuring
the deadline is met. During a meeting of local government executives, he
said that good work had been done to provide access through libraries and
Internet centers, but the issue now is coming up with the services people
want and are willing to use. Furthermore, a key issue is encouraging the
public to use e-government services. The public sector should borrow
techniques from successful businesses like Amazon, which builds services
around the customer, he advises. When the e-government targets were
identified, available cheap dial-up was key, but now accessible high-speed
broadband is the target. The e-government movement in the UK is part of a
regional strategy for European Union member states to have half of
government transactions online by 2005. Critics of the UK's rush towards the
2005 target suggest there has been a slow and patchy push of online
strategies at the local government level.
SOURCE: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3139816.stm
TECHNOLOGY
EXPERTS REFLECT ON OPEN SOURCE FOR IT GROWTH
Utilizing existing resources is key to successful IT growth in Africa, and
Open Source Software (OSS) seems to fit the bill. The African information
technology (IT) resource community gathered at the Highway Africa conference
in South Africa to advocate the use of OSS for both public and private
institutions to engage in fast-paced IT growth. One of the major advantages
of Open Source is that the software fits the peculiar environment of Africa
where access to computers is poor, said Joris Komen, who runs Schoolnet in
Namibia. He contends that the software runs effectively on refurbished
computers, which currently play a major role in efforts to increase
technology access on the continent. "I am a great believer in open source
software and WiFi (Wireless Fidelity). I think it is one of the technologies
that will create significant change because of its ability to connect
anywhere," says Jeffrey Cole, director of the UCLA Center for Communication
Policy in the United States. South Africa and Tanzania have already started
to implement OSS to save costs. Uganda, Ghana and Zambia are also
fast-tracking toward OSS.
SOURCE: Vanguard (Lagos); AUTHOR: Godfrey Ikhemuemhe
http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/features/fe124092003.html
FOR THE WORLD'S A B C'S, HE MAKES 1'S AND 0'S
For the last 10 years, typographer Michael Everson has been instrumental in
developing Unicode, an international standard for character encoding.
Unicode takes the individual letters and symbols in a language and converts
them into strings of 0's and 1's that can be read by computers. Because of
Unicode, "you can plunk down a vanilla off-the-shelf computer into a cafe
anywhere in the world and have any user in any language walk up to it and
use it for accessing the Web," said Rick McGowan of the Unicode Consortium.
Currently, Unicode Version 4.0 contains some 96,000 letters and symbols, of
which approximately 70,000 of them are Chinese characters. Unicode supports
54 other writing systems, from Mongolian to Thai to Gothic to Cyrillic.
However, Mr. Everson is haunted by the prospect that Unicode may never be
finished, as nearly 100 writing systems remain to be encoded. Now that the
writing systems of the major computer markets are encoded, it may be more
difficult to find continued funding for the project.
SOURCE: New York Times; AUTHOR: Michael Erard
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/technology/circuits/25code.html?ex=106...
099&ei=1&en=a6d4162588c819d9
WORLD SUMMIT ON THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
GOVT, MEDIA REACH DEADLOCK AT WSIS
Disagreement over the issue of free and independent media has created an
impasse at the third Preparatory Committee Meeting (PrepCom3) of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Paragraph 51 of the current draft
Declaration of Principles contains the following statement: "The existence
of free and independent communication media, in accordance with the legal
system of each country, is an essential requirement of freedom of expression
and a guarantee of plurality of information." The Media Caucus, an
organization of journalists, academics and media owners, has recommended the
removal of the phrase "in accordance with the legal system of each country,"
to be replaced with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which emphasizes freedom of expression. The governments of Egypt, China,
Cuba and Russia insist on retaining the disputed text, while Botswana, Latin
America, North America and Germany demand reference to Article 19. Alain
Modoux, the chairperson of the Media Working Group, says one of the key
problems has been the lack of understanding of the history of communication
rights by the government representatives.
SOURCE: SABC News; AUTHOR: Chris Kabwato
http://www.sabcnews.com/sci_tech/computers/0,2172,66314,00.html
BOOK HIGHLIGHTS PRIORITIES FOR WSIS CONFERENCE
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has released a book
entitled, "Involving Civil Society in ICT Policy: the World Summit on the
Information Society." The book was compiled by APC and the Campaign for
Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) as part of their
combined efforts to ensure that communication and Internet rights are upheld
and protected as fundamental rights throughout the world. This publication
highlights the principal issues on the agenda for the World Summit on
Information Society and suggests ways for civil society to get involved.
According to APC, access to information and communication technologies is
expanding, but the majority of people in developing countries are still
excluded. At the Summit in Geneva in December, governments will discuss
issues, agree on a declaration and develop a plan of action.
SOURCE: APCNews
http://www.apc.org/books
(Free download in English, Spanish or French)
EVENTS
CABLE FRANCHISE POLICY CONFERENCE
On October 25, 2003, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is
hosting a conference entitled "Getting the Technology You Deserve: Community
Participation in Regional Cable Franchise Policy" to be held in Seattle,
Washington. The conference will feature a series of interactive discussions
and presentations from the top practitioners in the field and will focus on
focus on teaching participants how to take back the media in their own
communities. Attendees will participate in a mock public hearing on our
technology future and come away with strategies and tools to improve cable
franchises and get the technology infrastructure their communities need.
SOURCE: Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; CONTACT: Mike
Weisman
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/annmtg03/index.html
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