Information Policy

Internet Domain Names Grow to 177 Million in 2008, Latest VeriSign Industry Brief Shows

The Internet added 24 million new domain names in 2008, according to the fourth quarter 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.

https://press.verisign.com/easyir/customrel.do?easyirid=AFC0FF0DB5C560D3&version=live&prid=475067&releasejsp=custom_97

The Future of Internet Regulation

by Phil Weiser [University of Colorado Law Legal Studies]

Policymakers are at a precipice with regard to Internet regulation. The FCC's self-styled adjudication of the complaint that Comcast had violated the agency's Internet policy principles (requiring reasonable network management, among other things) made clear that the era of the non-regulation of the Internet is over. Equally clear is that the agency has yet to develop a model of regulation for a new era. As explained in this Article, the old models of regulation-reliance on command-and-control regulation and market forces subject only to antitrust law-are doomed to fail in a dynamic environment where cooperation is necessary to effective competition and continued Internet connectivity by a range of actors. Thus, this Article calls for a new model of regulation built around the concept of co-regulation-a self regulatory body subject to public agency oversight and backstop-as the best strategy for Internet regulation going forward.

http://ssrn.com/abstract=1344757

Turkey's New eGoverment Portal Launched

The E-Government Gateway aims to provide Turkey's 70 million citizens as well as the business community with a single point of access to eGovernment services. In addition, it will facilitate public sector agencies to interact with each other and exchange information.

At present, the E-Government Gateway includes a total of 21 services as well as information on administrative procedures. Secure transaction is currently provided through electronic signature, mobile electronic signature or password offered to users upon request. Future enhancements will facilitate users to access the portal with smart cards. In addition, the system will be extended to serve additional communication devices like cell phones and Pocket PCs.

Furthermore, the implementation of a payment/banking module is also in the pipeline and will provide each electronic service with a central mechanism to enable payments and money transfers between the government agencies and users.

The project's responsibility lies with the government company Turksat, Turkey's main provider of Satellite and IT infrastructure services. The portal can be accessed at http://www.turkiye.gov.tr.

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=sa&id=1562

German Government Introduces National Broadband Strategy, Pledges to Auction Digital Dividend

All homes in Germany should have broadband access by the end of 2010—a target which is supported by, for example, the government's decision to auction off the frequencies no longer needed for analogue TV broadcasts.

The strategy has two phases: connecting all households to broadband internet by end-2010, and bringing 75% of the households under the coverage of 50 Mbps broadband by 2014.

Germany has, rightly, chosen not to distort the market by massive deployment subsidies. The supply-side measures, such as frequency liberalising and mediating cooperation between the operators, are in the key role.

Germany's federal government has presented its national strategy for the development of broadband infrastructure.

The strategy's first target is to ensure that all German households will have access to broadband Internet at the end of 2010 at latest. The second phase is to bring broadband access of or above 50 Mbps to 75% of the households by 2014. The government had also earlier hinted to include a third phase—to cover all households by 100 Mbps by end-2018—yet this has been dropped from the final version. During the public consultation there was willingness to define the first-phase target as broadband access of at least one megabyte per second, but this mention does not seem to have made it to the approved strategy either.

Firstly, the government urges the operators to cooperate in broadband deployments—pointing out that typically some 70% of fixed-line roll-out costs consist of excavations and other civil-engineering works; it estimates that by coordinating the works and sharing civil infrastructure, companies can accumulate savings of three billion euro (US$3.8 billion) in the medium term. The government promises to help partnerships for example by opening public infrastructures relevant to deployments—such as sewers—and by setting up a new database platform through which the carriers can share the information of their plans.

Secondly, the government sees wireless frequencies as necessary for the adoption of the strategy. It supports telecoms regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNA)'s plans to free up the 900-Mhz GSM concessions for data services, pledging also liberalise the radio spectrums previously used for analogue TV broadcasting and auction them to internet service providers. Both measures are European Union (EU)-wide goals, and we expect most, if not all, member states to follow the suit. As for the distributing the 790-862 MHz frequencies, which became vacant as Germany switched off its analogue TV broadcasts, the government wants to push the federal liberalisation measures through before the parliament's summer break, which would allow the BNA to start preparing auctions possibly during the second half of this year. This "digital divide" created by the analogue switch-off—which in the EU has been thus far completed also in Finland, Luxemburg, Sweden, Belgium (Flanders), and the Netherlands—is regarded as one of the most immediate incentives for connecting the rural and suburban areas currently without broadband coverage.

Thirdly, although the strategy is predominantly market-driven, the deployments in the areas where they would not otherwise be economically feasible will be partly-financed by public subsidies. Up to now the government has approved a total of some 180 million euro for these purposes, adding that it is ready to direct more should the market fail to deliver.

Fourthly, the government wants to secure an investment and growth-friendly regulatory environment for the telecoms industry, acknowledging that the broadband expansions require both necessary incentives and a predictable market framework. Most notably, the report says that the BNAs market analyses—which have been up to now taken in two years' intervals—would be in future conducted every three years. The government promises also to ensure that charges the operators pay each other for instance for leasing broadband cables and the civil infrastructure accommodating them will be reflect the owner's investments.

The government has chosen the right priority in its strategy—a market-driven approach with frequency liberalising and self-incentivised partnerships as key means to achieve the first-phase target. It has also decided not to direct substantial handouts for VDSL and other high-speed roll-outs, which is in line with IHS Global Insight's view that the main priority should be given to expanding basic broadband rather than enhancing the existing infrastructure; connecting the whole country has the potential to bring greater productivity gains than boosting access speeds in locations which are already connected. The industry's reaction to the initiative has generally been also positive, with the sector's main interest group, Bitkom, lauding particularly the aim of increasing the predictability of the regulatory framework. Both the government and the association estimate that achieving the strategy's targets will require investments worth up to 50 billion euro during the coming years.

https://communicationsdirectnews.com//do.php/110/34476

IAB Reaches for Web Video Ad Standards

By Daisy Whitney

Underscoring the urgent need for advertising standards in the online video business, the Interactive Advertising Bureau is launching its first effort this week to develop best practices for ads in TV shows on the Web.

The IAB effort centers on “long-form” Web programs, including full episodes of TV shows that run online such as ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” or Fox’s “House.”

The IAB’s latest initiative reflects the growth in online video viewing. According to comScore, Internet users in the United States are watching more than 14 billion videos each month. TV series are a relatively small portion of that total, but they command the bulk of online ad dollars. Research firm eMarketer predicts online video advertising will grow 45% this year to $850 million.

At its initial meeting this week, the IAB’s digital video committee will tackle issues surrounding best practices for the number and placement of ads in online TV shows, said Jeremy Fain, VP of industry services at the IAB.

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/02/iab_reaches_for_web_video_ad_s.php

The February 2009 issue of ‘Information Technology in Developing Countries’ is now available at:

The current issue of Information Technology in Developing Countries includes articles that discuss the use of an innovative business model in an e-government project to make it self-sustainable, the impact of computerisation of agricultural markets in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India on farmers and traders in the state, information dissemination to farmers via a telephone, problems and hurdles faced in establishing community radio projects, a practical guideline for setting up a rural telecenter, a few news articles and announcements of forthcoming conferences.

The first article is a case study on the Janchetna ("Public Consciousness") project implemented in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh, India. The article illustrates how important it is for the governments to share information with citizens and at the same time, to provide citizens a public grievance redressal mechanism to give feedback to the Government on governance issues such as implementation of development schemes and utilization of public funds. The project facilitates citizen-centric services through an online grievance redressal portal accessed from Janchetna kiosks. Janchetna has brought about a well appreciated transparency to the working of the district administration, and its success demonstrates how widespread awareness combined with a strongly formulated public opinion can go a long way in the fight against corruption. The project is also an outstanding example of a highly cost-efficient, economically self-reliant and user-financed community network that works on an innovative operational model requiring no investments and operational support from the government, generates its own funds from the citizens, and contributes to the earnings of the kiosk operators.

The second article “ICTs as Enablers of Process Change in Agriculture" by V. Shunmugam and Sarita Bahl advises that for an ICT initiative to succeed in driving development of agriculture, it is necessary to make the service delivery holistic and two-way. Instead of simply replicating the piecemeal initiatives that have already been taken up in rural areas by several entities and have largely focused on agricultural knowledge dissemination and providing price information, there should be an attempt to reduce costs of implementation, improve access to technology, inputs, capital and markets, and to leverage these initiatives and integrate them towards the common national development goal.

Ranjan Vaidya's case study on "Computerization of Agricultural Marketing Board" describes and compares the process of selling produce that a farmer has to undergo in a typical mandi (agricultural market) and one in which certain operations have been computerised. The article is based on observations gathered during the author's field visits to certain mandis administered by the Agricultural Marketing Board (also referred to as the Mandi Board) in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The author concludes that end-to-end computerization of processes, process reengineering and appropriate legislative reforms are necessary in order to harness the full potential of an ICT intervention.

The next article by Anusha Lall and Swati Sahi describe the LifeLines India Initiative launched by OneWorld International in collaboration with British Telecom and CISCO. The project was originally designed to deliver critical information pertaining to agriculture and animal husbandry to farmers in rural India via a digital platform, using the telephone as a primary medium for information access and use. But its success in these areas have led to the project being extended to the field of education, and its replication in Nepal and Sri Lanka is also being explored. This article is followed by Mahesh Acharya's piece on Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), which attempt to make best use of the most widely available but least explored communication technology - the radio - to offer radio broadcast services for farming communities. The article describes the cumbersome government procedures and the content creation guidelines that KVKs have to follow for setting up a community radio, which limit their widespread growth and affect their sustainability in the long run. Ron Hebert's article discusses the 'Economics of Health Informatics' in developed and developing countries, replication of Health Information Systems in public and private hospitals of developing countries, and highlights a few lessons from ICT based health initiatives functioning in different countries.

Arvindd Narayanan and Gaurav Chakraverty's article is an abstract of the unpublished manual compiled by the authors on “Running ICT Telecenters in Rural India”. The manual attempts to lay down guidelines to be followed by professionals handling operations of these networks, so as to enable a better success rate and low burnout. It has been compiled on the basis of the authors’ understanding of hurdles faced by community and telecenter operators gained through their field experience of working with them. This is followed by a report on the two-day "Workshop on Impact Assessment of e-Governance Projects" that was jointly organised by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). The workshop was attended by 68 participants including senior officials from state governments and the Government of India, academicians, and representatives of market research agencies that had been involved in the impact assessment study undertaken by DIT.

The conference report is followed by a brief note on the launch of a portal by the UK Department for International Development's Knowledge and Research programme in coordination with the Centre for Development Informatics at the University of Manchester. The project focuses on providing useful material in the form of books, audio-visual presentations and case studies that could help women-based ICT enterprises to gain comprehensive knowledge on how to start, manage and evaluate the project. Other news articles announce the launch of new e-government initiatives in India such as the E-Gram Vishwa Gram project in the state of Gujarat, and the introduction of a facility for property tax payment via mobile phones by the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai.

Conference announcements include the annual International Conference on E-government and E-governance to be held in Turkey in 2009, followed by the IT Web eGovernment 2009 conference to be held in South Africa. These two conferences will focus on the fundamental shift that is taking place in governments across the world, with the need for governments to be adaptive to a virtual, global, knowledge-based digital economy. The other conferences include the 3rd International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2009) to be held in Qatar, the 10th IFIP Conference whose theme is "Assessing the Contribution of ICT to Development Goals", eLearning Africa 2009 to be held in Dakar, Senegal and eINDIA 2009.

http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/current.htm

ENISA First Report on the Status of Network and Information Security in 30 European Countries

The EU Agency ENISA [European Network and Information Security Agency] today launched its first, comprehensive 600 pages ‘Country Reports'''' on the status of Network and Information Security [NIS] in 30 European Countries, including mapping of stakeholders and trends.

The Country Reports are an assessment of the ongoing and planned activities of NIS in each Member State. As such, they provide a unique overview of the "state of the art" in NIS in 30 European countries: the 27 European Union Member States and the 3 EEA countries [Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway]. Each country chapter contains eg; Country Highlights, Key Stakeholders Overview, Activities, and Current Trends, eg, focusing on the status of national electronic ID schemes, and major incidences of security breaches involving loss of data.

The categorization and mapping of stakeholders and their mutual relations was one of the most important aims of the report. The most important areas in which national-level organizations have an impact on NIS was charted, i.e: Policy Development: the drafting of, or assistance in the process of drafting, governmental policies relating to NIS, NIS Policy Implementation, Privacy and Data Protection, Electronic Communications, CIP/CIIP: Critical Infrastructure Protection / Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, and [CERT]s: Computer Emergency Response Team.

The report found, not surprisingly, that institutions and responsibilities vary substantially from country to country. However, some general trends were identified:

* The most important actors for defining NIS policies are Governmental Organizations and Bodies: eg; the Ministry of Communications, the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications (where established), the National Office for Data Protection, the Ministry of Interior, Defence, or having shared responsibilities for different areas of NIS.

* Public Network and Information Security Bodies: Public NIS bodies with broad responsibilities exist in about one third of the countries. Their main tasks are eg. information gathering for IT security issues and scientific advice. Many also approve and certify the security of national information systems.

* CERTs: There are over 100 CERTs active in the EU, but their geographical distribution is very uneven. Almost all countries have 1 or 2 public sector CERTs. Most CERT acts as the national NIS point of contact and coordinate crisis response.

http://www.enisa.europa.eu/doc/pdf/deliverables/enisa_country_reports_2009.pdf

First Shorty Awards highlight the best micro-blogging on Twitter

From the announcement: An international breaking news service based in the Netherlands and the space agency NASA were recognized Wednesday night as two of the 26 winners of the first Shorty Awards, which highlight the best micro-blogging on the site Twitter.

Also receiving an award was Carri Bugbee, a Portland, Oregon PR executive who created a following among ad execs while blogging anonymously as the character Peggy Olson, a junior copywriter on the AMC TV series Mad Men. Bugbee’s identity was revealed at the Shorty Awards ceremony at New York’s Galapagos Art Space.

“Twitter has emerged as powerful platform for covering news, politics, entertainment and more – but it would be nothing without talented writers,” said Gregory Galant, CEO of Sawhorse Media and co-founder of the Shorty Awards. “The Shorty Awards recognize those who excel on Twitter at covering a certain beat.”

The winners in total received more than 50,000 nominations and votes for the awards, created in December by Sawhorse Media. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation co-sponsored the event, awarding travel money to the winners to attend the ceremony. Special guests included event host and CNN Anchor Rick Sanchez (@ricksanchezcnn) and performer MC Hammer (@MCHammer.) NBA star Shaquille O’Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) appeared via video.

The winners are the kind of innovators Knight Foundation seeks as it looks for new ways to experiment with news and information, said Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of Knight Foundation.

“@shortyawards winners, how will you use Twitter to innovate? @ everyone, all future of news and info ideas welcome. /A.Ibarguen, pres@knightfdn,” Ibargüen said in a live tweet to those gathered at the ceremony.

All acceptance speeches were delivered in 140 characters or less, the maximum allowed for a Twitter post. “We love that a book recommendation site, a site dedicated to so many words, is recognized for the use of so few. It’s an honor. Thank you!” said @FLWbooks, operated by FlashlightWorthyBooks.com, a winner in the entertainment category.

Other winners include:

* @MarsPhoenix, which posted 600 updates during the 152 days NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander was on its mission last year. The account has more than 41,000 followers.

* @BreakingNewsOn, one of Twitter’s most popular news services, created by Michael van Poppel, a 20-year-old from the Netherlands

* @Yiying Lu, in the design category, for creating the Fail Whale, an icon that rose to popularity as Twitter’s error message when the fledgling service struggled to keep its servers running. Yiying Lu traveled to the ceremony from Australia. First Shorty Awards highlight the best micro-blogging on Twitter

http://www.cyberjournalist.net/first-shorty-awards-highlight-the-best-micro-blogging-on-twitter/

Web traffic in India grows by 50 per cent in 2008 news

India registered a 50-per cent growth in web site traffic, as the total subscriber base for broadband (net speeds exceeding 256 kbps) reached 5.45 million by the end of December 2008. ... In support of this effort, VeriSign has joined ICANN and others in the Internet community to pursue development of Internationalized TLDs.

http://www.domain-b.com/infotech/itnews/20090221_web_traffic_india_grows.html

Vint Cerf: We Still Have 80 Per Cent of the World to Connect

"By 2010 we will have run out of IP addresses if we don't do something about it," Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and the man commonly referred to as "the father of the Internet," told ReadWriteWeb last month.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/vint_cerf_we_still_have_80_per.php