Information Policy

Egovblog

Egovblog scans the world for those trends, concepts, projects, events, technologies, ideas and people that will shape the governments in this new century.

http://www.egovblog.com/

US Broadcast TV Makes Cell Debut

Watching TV on a cell phone usually involves either downloading short video clips or tuning into a live feed of cable channels that approximates radio more than television, the ''moving picture'' stuttering along in fits and starts.

Now, two rival services are taking a different approach: broadcasting video to your phone from wireless networks separate from those that handle calls. Both show early promise, at least relative to the jitter-fest that's the current state of cell TV.

http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/23512?7649

Changing Faces of Open and Distance Education in Asia

The Volume 8 of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) shares a set of interesting papers focusing on the development current status of Distance Learning in Asia. Country Case studies and research papers discuss issues such as quality insurance, open and distance learning in higher education or impact of ICTs on Open and Distance Learning in a developing country such as the Philippines. According to Insung Jung, Professor of Educational Technologies at the International Christian University of Japan, "It is no incident that IRRODL begins the year of 2007 with this regional focus edition on “Changing Faces of Open and Distance Learning in Asia.” Over the recent years, there has been tremendous growth and diversity in open and distance learning (ODL) in Asia. With over 56 percent of the global population, Asia has over 70 universities that are dedicated to open access to education, including seven out of 11 of the world's mega universities". This Volume 8 of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) is published under Creative Commons License and available on IRRODL official Web site.

http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/issue/view/26

EU: Third European eGovernment Awards

The European eGovernment Awards 2007 will soon be open for submissions. The prizes for this third European eGovernment challenge will be presented at the Ministerial eGovernment Conference to be held later this year in Lisbon.

The particular theme of this year's awards is the promotion of good practice in eGovernment in EU Member States. The call for submissions will be open from 1 April to 1 June 2007 and, in order to help interested parties to prepare entries for submission, the European Commission is inviting all eGovernment stakeholders to an Information Day in Brussels on 11 April 2007. Registration for the Information Day is open until 30 March.

This year, there are five award categories. The first is ‘Better public services for growth and jobs’, which will go to the on-line public services best reflecting the Lisbon Agenda – that is, contributing most to the EU's economic growth and jobs creation strategy. The next category is for innovations or reorganisations in services and processes which lead to more ‘Effective and efficient administration’.

The interactive initiative with most influence on open government, policy-making and the operation and delivery of public administration will win the ‘Participation and transparency’ category, while the ‘Social impact and cohesion’ award will go to public service initiatives improving the social environment and social cohesion. Finally, initiatives that provide creative solutions to common challenges inspiring others will be eligible for the ‘Most inspiring good practice award’. This last category will be decided after a public vote, at the Good Practice Portal.

Submissions will be evaluated by independent experts and a jury, using a range of criteria including: impact; evidence of or potential for sharing good practice; understanding of multi-channel aspects; innovation and management efficiency; overall impression and communications capacity. The winners in each category will be announced at the eGovernment Ministerial Conference in Lisbon on 20 September 2007.

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/6786/194

Economists' Statement on Network Neutrality Policy

Network neutrality is a policy proposal that would regulate how network providers manage and price the use of their networks. Congress has introduced several bills on network neutrality. Proposed legislation generally would mandate that Internet service providers exercise no control over the content that flows over their lines and would bar providers from charging particular services more than others for preferentially faster access to the Internet. These proposals must be considered carefully in light of the underlying economics. Our basic concern is that most proposals aimed at implementing net neutrality are likely to do more harm than good.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=976889