Information Policy

Bangladesh: Website of child news agency launched

www.shishuprokash.com, the website of Shishu Prokash, a news agency consisting child journalists, was launched during the 1st Child Journalist Convention 2009 at the Bangladesh Shishu Academy auditorium yesterday. Mass-Line Media Centre (MMC) with the help of United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) organised the convention. MMC have trained up 1,235 child journalists since 2005 under its Children's Express project. A total of 1,024 child rights based bimonthly reports by these child journalists were published in Shishu Prokash since its inception. All those reports were published in the local newspapers and 512 reports were published in the national newspapers. A total of 1200 reports of these child journalists were also published in several local and national dailies. These journalists work for ensuring child rights and they work in a group of ten (five boys and five girls) with one team leader in each district. All the 640 journalists and their 64 team leaders were present at the convention.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/bangladesh_website_of_child_news_agency_launched/

More websites blocked including RFI and Deutsche Welle

Reporters Without Borders condemns the wave of censorship that has hit many Iranian and foreign Farsi-language websites since 24 January. Most of the sites contain articles critical of the government and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose term expires on 12 June. International news media websites have also been blocked since 26 January.

After directly targeting human rights activists, the authorities are now stepping up their control of the Internet, one of the few areas of freedom for Iran's citizens,” Reporters Without Borders said. Internet filtering is not new in Iran but we are worried about the scale it has assumed and the fact that it is affecting all the main cities. We call for an end to the sanctions against these websites, which are sources of news and information.

The Farsi-language site of the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,641,00.html) has been inaccessible since 26 January, as has the Farsi version of the Radio France Internationale site (http://www.rfi.fr/actufa/pages/001/accueil.asp) and the Arabic-language site of the satellite TV station Al-Arabiya (http://www.alarabiya.net/persian/) (see screen captures).

According to the tests conducted by Reporters Without Borders yesterday and the day before, the blocking is affecting the cities of Tehran, Qom, Ahvaz, Karaj, Tabriz, Bousher, Meshedd and Shiraz (see map).

Bahman Hedayati, the editor of the Parsine website (www.parsine.com), described the blocking of his site as illegal in an interview on 26 January for the Iranian news agency ILNA. The literary website Haftan (www.haftan.com) was blocked the same day by certain Internet Service Providers without any explanation. Iran's leading literary critics have for the past three years been writing for the site, which is very popular with young Iranians.

Several news websites that criticise the government or belong to potential rivals of President Ahmadinejad have also been rendered inaccessible by ISPs since 24 January. Farda News (www.fardanews.com) and Parsine (www.parsine.com/), sites that support Tehran mayor Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, a future Ahmadinejad rival, are among those that have been blocked.

Cyber-feminists Parvin Ardalan, Jelveh Javaheri, Maryam Hosseinkhah and Nahid Keshavarz were meanwhile summoned before a Tehran appeal court again yesterday. Calling for their convictions to be quashed, their lawyer, Masomeh Sotoudeh, said posting articles defending women’s rights did not constitute “subversive activities” or “anti-government propaganda.”

The four cyber-feminists were sentenced last September to six months in prison for contributing to the online newspapers Zanestan (“Women’s City” - http://herlandmag.net/) and Tagir Bary Barbary (“Change for Equality” - http://we-change.org/).

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30131

Filipino school teachers get ICT training from Koreans

After the English proficiency training was given by Filipino public school teachers to their counterparts in Busan, South Korea in 2008, Korean volunteers are now conducting a two week-training for Filipino teachers on Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Department of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said the symbiotic exchange of expertise on teaching trends among Asian teachers is very relevant in further strengthening regional cooperation. 'This gesture of the Korean people will endow our teachers with relevant skills that will enable them to meet the needs of 21st century teaching,' Lapus added.

The Joint E-learning Training and Education Exchange Program – under the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Internet Volunteers Program (AIV) – will be conducted on January 18 to 23, 2009 at different venues in the National Capital Region and Region IV-A. It will be co-sponsored by the Institute of APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Collaborative Education of the Republic of Korea. AIV aims to support the ICT needs of APEC member-economies by dispatching volunteers from different levels of education. This initiative is in support of DepEd-initiated ICT for Education or ICT4E. This partnership ensures that Filipino school heads and teachers will be well-versed with e-learning and the Problem-based Learning method or PBL. This is also part of the preparations for the implementation of a full-scale APEC Education Exchange Program later this year.

http://www.digitallearning.in/news/news-details.asp?Title=Filipino-school-teachers-get-ICT-training-from-Koreans&newsid=15955

Media Law And Freedom Of Expression

The Media Law and Freedom of Expression website brings together a community of media lawyers for mutual support and topical discussion. Get details of which local and global organisations are working in the sector, and access to the latest free expression news and media law cases.

Individuals and organisations are also encouraged to contribute their own resources, and to promote upcoming events and news items.

"Lawyers in many countries across the world do not have access to resources or specialist training in media law," said Mark Stephens, chair of IBA's media law committee. "We hope that this site will enable legal professionals to share their knowledge and learn from each other, helping them to overcome the challenges they may face and build a strong network of knowledge and support."

The Media Law and Freedom of Expression website is hosted by Pro Bono Net, a non-profit organisation dedicated to increasing access to justice through volunteer lawyers and technology, and is funded by the Open Society Initiative. Join for free

http://www.probono.net/medialaw/

European Commission earmarks €1bn for investment in broadband – Frequently Asked Questions

The European Commission aims to achieve 100 % high-speed internet coverage for all citizens by 2010 as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan. € 1 billion has been earmarked today to help rural areas get online, bring new jobs and help businesses grow. On average, 93 % of Europeans can enjoy a high speed online connection but in some countries broadband covers less than half of the rural population (see the table in the annex). Broadband internet connection is expected to create 1 million jobs and boost the EU's economy by €850 billion between 2006 and 2015.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/35&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Improving Internet Access on Trains

Giving reliable, fast and low cost Internet access to passengers on both commuter and long-distance trains has been an elusive goal. But electronics researchers at England's University of York say they have overcome two of the major technological challenges that severely the limit the level of Internet service currently provided on trains.

The researchers claim that their work could soon transform on-board entertainment and Internet access services. "Our research should make it far easier for train operators to offer a broader range of Internet and live media services in many more locations and at a lower cost," says research team leader John Thornton, a research fellow at the University of York.

In order to offer Internet services in any location, trains need to be equipped with a dish, or "reflector," that both transmits to and receives signals from an orbiting satellite. This is currently only possible on a relatively small number of routes where there is sufficient headroom between the train cars and tunnels or overhead cables. Using alternative technology to satellites results in reduced bandwidth and patchy geographical coverage.

A dome-like "lens" structure, which is much lower in height, is an alternative to a dish, but the technology's use is limited by both its cost and reduced effectiveness at receiving signals. Thornton claims that his team has developed a much simpler lens model that uses common plastics and outperforms existing versions. He adds that the team has also devised a system that will allow a single lens to track a variety of satellites simultaneously, giving train operators increased reliability and the opportunity to offer passengers a much broader range of services.

"There is a growing expectation among consumers that they should be able to enjoy access to the Internet and other media wherever they are," Thornton says. "Providing these services on a moving vehicle such as a train ... is a huge technological challenge and that is reflected in the limited number of routes where they are currently enjoyed by passengers." Thornton adds that the team's research should make it far easier for train operators to offer "a broader range of Internet and live media services in many more locations and at a lower cost."

The research conducted at the University of York has been supported by a grant from the European Space Agency. The school is now looking for a commercial partner to move the project forward.

http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/34187?7649

Blogs and Online Sources Influencing Tech Buyers

Telecom service providers need to be monitoring what is said about them on the Web and learning from what they read in order to reach out to technology buyers in a positive way, said one author of Hill & Knowlton’s annual Tech Decision-Makers Study. That study, now in its fourth year, shows that consumer-generated content increasingly influences other tech buyers’ purchasing decisions.

“That is our number-one recommendation for telecom providers,” said Joshua Reynolds, global technology practice director for Hill & Knowlton. “What they read online might not be true, but it is true perception.”

While superior products and services (cited by 94%), superior customer service (91%) and a positive reputation (91%) remain key influences in determining which customers make a buyer’s short list of prospects, more than one third of tech decision-makers either always or frequently turn to blogs or online discussion boards before making a purchase, the study shows. The Tech Decision-Makers study also found that word-of-mouth and industry analyst opinions finish second only to prior personal experience when it comes to making buying short lists.

http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/34184?7649

UK launches Google film search engine

Fancy checking out the classic 1960s Japanese horror flick 'Onibaba,' or indulging in a bit of old-fashioned British comedy with 'The Lavender Hill Mob?' The UK Film Council is launching a search engine that will help movie goers track down their favourite films, from the mainstream to the obscure. The website ( http://www.FindAnyFilm.com) is free to use and contains records of more than 30,000 films, or roughly seven years' worth of viewing, and they come in 20 genres and over 60 languages. The site tells visitors how they can watch the movie of their choice, whether at the cinema, on television, DVD, Blu-ray, online or by downloading it from legal websites. One aim of the site is to crack down on illegal downloads, which have been the thorn in the side of the music industry for years.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/uk_launches_google_film_search_engine/

10 Cloud Computing Predictions for '09

Vendors are rushing to join Amazon, EMC/VMware, IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce in the cloud, offering businesses new ways to do more with less

In some respects, the cloud computing market arrived in a big way in 2008. Amazon, EMC/VMware, IBM, Google0, Microsoft, Salesforce, and a dozen other vendors introduced products and services for on-demand, pay-as-you-go computing.

In other ways, however, cloud computing is still nascent. Google's "platform as a service" App Engine is only in preview mode, Microsoft's Azure Platform Services have yet to be delivered, and Oracle and SAP are watching and waiting from the sidelines. In addition, businesses adopting cloud services are still in the minority, as IT pros mull the security risks, governance implications, and data-integration challenges of this new IT delivery model.

http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/34159?7649

Editorial row engulfs Wikipedia

The online user-generated encyclopaedia Wikipedia is considering a radical change to how it is run. It is proposing a review of the rules, that would see revisions being approved before they were added to the site. The proposal comes after edits of the pages of Senators Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy gave the false impression both had died. The editing change has proved controversial and sparked a row among the site's editors. Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, is proposing a system of flagged revisions, which would mean any changes made by a new or unknown user would have to be approved by one of the site's editors, before the changes were published. This would mean a radical shift from the site's philosophy that ostensibly allows anyone to make changes to almost any entry. In a blog entry, Mr Wales said the "nonsense" of the false reports would have been "100% prevented by Flagged Revision" and said he wanted the changes to be implemented as soon as possible. "To the Wikimedia Foundation: per the poll of the English Wikipedia community and upon my personal recommendation, please turn on the Flagged Revisions feature as approved in the poll," he said in a statement. Flame war However, this posting caused a storm of comments on his site, with many editors saying the proposal was unworkable. One user posted that "Enabling Flagged Revisions will undoubtedly create backlogs that we will be unable to manage" while another said that there were "gaping holes in what you propose to do". Mr Wales has now offered a compromise, asking those who were opposed to the changes to make "an alternative proposal within the next 7 days, to be voted upon for the next 14 days after that." A system of flagged revisions has been used by the German Wikipedia site for almost a year. However critics say that the process is labour intensive and some changes can take days, if not weeks, to appear.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7851400.stm