FOCUS
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs Signs Deal with Warner
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs reached an agreement to bring his Bad Boy Record label to Warner Music Group in a multiyear joint venture. The deal, estimated at $30 million, gives Warner 50% ownership in Bad Boy's catalog of past releases and allows the company to issue music in digital and wireless formats, such as ringtones.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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Industries Discuss TV on Wireless Phones
At this year's MIPTV/MILIA audiovisual and digital content trade show many questioned the possibility of delivering TV to wireless phones. A main concern is whether or not wireless users will consider TV on wireless phones a must have option and no one knows what people will really want to watch on their handsets. According to Nokia, wireless consumers want to be entertained and informed about everything, everywhere, all the time.
Source: AFP
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Samsung Reports Decline in Profit
Samsung Electronics reported a worse-than-expected 52% decline in first quarter 2005 profit, due to a decline in flat-screen prices, lower profit margins on wireless phones and losses at its credit card affiliate. Net profit fell 52% to 1.49 trillion won in the first quarter 2005, down from 3.14 trillion won in the first quarter 2004. Sales fell to 13.8 trillion won in the first quarter 2005, down from 14.4 trillion won in the first quarter 2004.
Source: Wall Street Journal, Reuters
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Sony Ericsson Reports Decline in Net Profit
Sony Ericsson reported its net profit fell 61% in the first quarter 2005, due to a continuing decline in wireless handset prices. The company reported net profit fell to €32 million in the first quarter 2005, down from €82 million in the first quarter 2004. Sales fell 4% to €1.29 billion in the first quarter 2005. Sony Ericsson sold 9.4 million wireless phones in the first quarter 2005, up 7% from 2004.
Source: Reuters, Dow Jones Newswire 1, Dow Jones Newswire 2
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Rogers Plans to Deliver Live TV to Wireless Phones
Rogers Communications announced it will be the first Canadian telecom company to deliver live TV to wireless phones. The company plans to launch the service in the current quarter with at least eight channels.
Source: Reuters
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Greek Wireless Carriers Target Data Content
Greek wireless service providers are counting on technology-savvy and deep-pocketed users to boost future growth of data content as new users begin to taper off. Latest figures from Greek wireless service providers show the country's wireless penetration rate at nearly 100%, making it one of Europe's most saturated markets.
Source: Reuters
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VimpelCom Posts Net Profit
Russia's second largest wireless service provider, OAO Vimpel Communications, posted a 28% increase in fourth quarter 2004 net profit. Net profit rose to $83.7 million in the fourth quarter 2004, up from $65.6 million in the fourth quarter 2003. The company's revenue increased 56% to $635.7 million in the fourth quarter 2004.
Source: Dow Jones Newswire
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Israeli Wireless Carriers Plan to Launch BlackBerry
Israel's three largest wireless service providers plan to launch Research In Motion's BlackBerry wireless email devices in the country. Wireless carrier Cellcom said it would initially offer the BlackBerry 7290 and 7100g wireless phones on its GSM/GPRS network. Financial terms and timing of the launch were not announced.
Source: Reuters
Friday, April 15, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
TECHNOLOGY MARKET - USA
Bush's '06 budget request boosts IT - for a few
Don't be fooled by the 7 percent increase in IT spending proposed in President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget request. Although the IT budget request of $65.1 billion boosts spending by more than 20 percent each at the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Veterans Affairs, most agencies received only modest increases, and six had their IT budgets cut.
Additionally, among the 21 agencies slated to receive increases for 2006, five -- the departments of Education, State and Treasury, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Office of Personnel Management -- remain at or below their 2004 IT budgets.
"We will have to manage as we always do, and maximize the money we have to make sure our spending makes sense," said Patrick Pizzella, the Labor Department's chief information officer. The Labor Department's IT budget was cut in 2005, and it faces a cut of $13 million to $409 million in 2006.
In contrast, DHS is slated to receive $6 billion, a $1.2 billion increase that industry officials said compensated for two years of underfunding at the agency. "Officials recognized that some of the programs at Homeland Security, such as U.S. Visitor Immigrant and Status Indicator Technology System, were underfunded, considering the scope of the effort," said Jim Flyzik, a former DHS official and a partner with consulting firm Guerra, Kiviat, Flyzik and Associates of Oak Hill, Va. "Many of these programs were underfunded at the concept stage, but as you put more meat on the bones of the business cases, you can articulate the funding levels better."
U.S. Visit is not the only program that would get a large increase. The Transportation Worker Identification Card, the Integrated Wireless Network and the Coast Guard's Nationwide Automatic Identification System would all get more than a $25 million boost in 2006.
"DHS clearly is a winner, and they might not get enough," said Robert Atkinson, vice president and director of technology and the new economy project for the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington. "I don't think the question for Homeland Security, as it is for all agencies, is really about overall funding, but it is much more about what the administration is investing in and how well they are doing it."
Veterans Affairs was another budget winner with a $485 million increase to $2.1 billion for its IT budget.
"The increase is reflective of the administration's attitude toward IT as a toolset everyone needs to use, but they need to use it wisely to make government more effective," said CIO Robert McFarland.
McFarland said more than $300 million of the increase is for the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture.
Although VA's increase, like many other agencies, is because of a planned big money need for an IT project next year, many of the department's expanded dollars are at the expense of other programs or personnel.
The Defense Department, which has an IT budget that comprises nearly half of the entire federal technology expenditure, saw a 4.9 percent increase to $30.1 billion, its largest increase in four years.
Linton Wells, the Defense Department's CIO, said he was encouraged by the 2006 budget process.
"In the battle over digits versus widgets, widgets always win. This year, digits are winning," he said.
Industry officials said it's not surprising that the departments of Defense and Homeland Security fared well in the budget request. Both departments perform missions that are top administration priorities, and both are in the middle of transformations. The IT budget requests reflect that.
"There are a lot of new capabilities and modes of operational services DOD is looking at dealing with, linking networks and getting soldiers a better picture of what is happening on the battle field," said Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies for Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "All of the modernization or transformational efforts rest on, to some degree, putting more money into IT."
Although most agencies are faced with tight budgets, they are successfully meeting the administration's IT goals. The Office of Management and Budget approved more business cases for the 2006 budget process than ever before, according to budget documents.
Seventeen of 25 agencies had all their business cases approved, according to the budget. And just 342 IT business cases of 1,087 made the Management Watch List for lacking in one of three areas: assuring security; meeting cost, schedule and performance goals; or establishing performance measures. Last year, OMB said 621 of 1,130 IT projects made the watch list. The 342 programs are worth $15 billion, down $7 billion from last year.
"We are starting to see the fruits of our labor," said Karen Evans, OMB administrator for IT and e-government. "We've been asking agencies to tell us how they are becoming more efficient and, to their credit, they have demonstrated the effectiveness of their IT programs and the metrics by which they measured it."
Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president at Federal Sources Inc. of McLean, Va., said some of the decreased spending could be attributed to OMB's emphasis on better management.
"Many public IT companies have been reporting sluggish government spending to their investors," he said. "We believe this sluggishness could be due in part to OMB's exercising its oversight of IT programs. OMB may be slowing down the apportionment on major IT programs to ensure proper emphasis on program management due to some major missteps in government IT projects over the last few years."
Written: by Jason Miller is a senior writer with Government Computer News.
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DIGITAL DIVIDE - AFRICA
Local Languages Demand More Space on the Internet
African Woman and Child Feature Service
A bid to have African languages join the likes of English and French in the Internet is being blocked by information experts from the West as lacking in commercial value.
A group of African linguistics and technology experts at a recent African Regional Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Accra, Ghana, say they have already developed special characters that can now help these languages be used on the World Wide Web.
They argue that the use of languages such as English has played a big role in the development of Western countries.
Another reason the Westerners are opposed to African languages being put on the Web, they say is their structure with some having characters and sounds in their alphabet that are not recognisable in the coding system of the Internet.
Therefore, the continent should continue expressing itself through appropriate languages in social and economic development.
According a Prof Mwasoko from the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Africa's political elites are a problem than a solution, as they too oppose, for reason well known to them, the use of these languages on the Internet, Prof Salam Diakite, Director of Research and Documentation, African Academy of Languages said the only way to make African languages accepted in the cyberspace is to transact business in those languages.
In Kenya, for instance, information on tourism and tea products should be in a local language or in Kiswahili, which Microsoft is going to launch officially on the Internet between April and May this year.
Other communities like the Maasai Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, or Turkana can also use their languages on the Internet when communicating with their family members, relatives or transacting business with the outside world.
If this happens, then those from Europe and America will have no otherwise but to learn how to use these languages. But this can only occur if special characters and sounds like those found in the Gikuyu dialects are accepted by Unicode consortium.
Based in the USA, and with organizations such as Microsoft and International Business Machines (IBM) as members, Unicode Standard defines how characters and sounds of different languages are represented in modern software products and standards.
Language experts think bantu speaking communities will be better placed to put their languages on the Internet because they can adopt the Kiswahili characters and sounds, which Unicode has approved.
Addressing participants at the Accra conference, Mark Lange, senior attorney at Microsoft, said they support the idea of African languages on the internet.
But he was fast to add that African countries need to put in place proper standards for the idea to be supported by other stakeholders in the information society.
Currently, there are plans to put in place an African standardization and certification centre for those who want to use their vernacular languages on the website.
Dr Shem Ochuodho, a computer expert, says any attempt to address over 80 per cent of Africans who live in the rural areas on how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), can, among other things, be achieved by using their languages online.
"The only problem is the existence of a few words from certain African languages whose sounds cannot be accepted by the computer," says Prof Diakite.
African linguistics at the African Academy of Languages have therefore developed special characters for these languages, and now want them accepted by Unicode.
This list of African characters is then to be officially submitted to the committee of ISO standardization so that the characters can be added to their list as pre-composed African characters.
Once this happens, letters in the African language in use will have to be mapped into the keyboards of computers. The type of fonts used will also have to change depending on the language being used.
In addition, a dictionary of the African languages has to be developed to aid those people who are going to have problems in expressing themselves in these languages.
So far, less than one percent of African languages have developed these requirements and gotten access to the cyberspace. In Ethiopia, where the local and national language, Amharic, is in use, attempts have been made to use it on the computer.
Experts there have been struggling since the 1980's to make the computer recognize the Amharic characters. Since they have been accepted by Unicode, Dr Atnafu says they have in place a Content Management System, which allows them to use both Amharic and English on the computer.
In South Africa too, local languages have been put in use on the Internet.
Whereas these two countries have made headway in placing their local languages on websites, other African countries face a double challenge.
Most of them have to find ways of ensuring their people speak and use their own language when communicating economic, social and political issues.
As a first step, the conference has recommended that each African country should introduce the teaching of an African language from the primary school level up to the university as a linguistic bilingual policy.
This language is to be taught alongside English or French and both are to be examinable subjects at both primary and secondary school levels as well as in colleges.
African Union is expected to take up the issue, and impress upon member states to implement the recommendation. Likewise, to accelerate the use of local languages in ICTs, the Union is to declare 2006 as the year of African languages.
As the momentum to use Kenyan and other African languages on the website picks up, linguistics are now warning parents who pride in their children's fluent foreing languages to start a rethink.
They argue that children instructed in their mother tongue are more likely to grasp what they are taught than when the instructiona are in English or French.
Written: by Arthur Okwemba in Nairobi
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TECHNOLOGY – OPEN SOURCE
Government moves into the Open
Perhaps the clearest sign yet that open source has gone mainstream occurred last Thursday when a group of government officials met to discuss the technology and practically nothing was said about the fact that the software is free.
Many interesting points were made Thursday in Waltham, MA, at the National Government CIO Summit on Open Source, but the most important came towards the end of the meeting when Thom Rubel of Meta Group and Debra Anderson, CIO, Novell, both emphasized that open source is a compelling technology for the public sector because of the value it brings to the business needs of government agencies. Anderson pointed out that her budget has shrunk by one-third in the past three years - much like public sector IT budgets - but because of open source her staff is able to deliver the value that Novell's business units need to succeed in a highly competitive market.
Rubel explained that in order for open source to succeed in government, the public sector has to understand it's true worth. "It's not about lower cost, it's about business value and what it takes to achieve political outcomes," he said. Rubel reminded the audience that government first used computers to simply automate existing processes. It then used the Internet to place some of the same automated processes online. Little was done to change the value equation, he argued. But open source can change that if used in the right way. "Just don't over promise and don't make it an either-or proposition between open source and proprietary solutions," he cautioned.
Peter Quinn, CIO, Massachusetts, made the same point, emphasizing that his state's lead in understanding and adopting open source was not in reaction to the dominance of one or two proprietary vendors. Rather, it was an effort to face certain key facts in the world of IT and government. First, "the cost of government is not sustainable in its present form," he said. Second, software has increasingly become a commodity. Open source is accelerating that trend.
As a result, government no longer should be trapped into procuring expensive, customized solutions, he argued. While open source is attractive because of its lower upfront costs, the real value lies in the collaborative principles on which it has been developed. The more agencies and governments share open source applications, the less likely the public sector will end up having to pay for so many different solutions, wasting taxpayer money.
Some have branded the notion of developing and then sharing software for free as some form of communism. But Quinn argued that if one state developed a better electronic licensing system or voter registration system using open source and then shared it with other states, it was an exercise in democracy through the exchange of information in an open society underpinned by reliable technology.
As radical as that sounds, Quinn said the Government Open Source Collaborative he founded isn't out to challenge the commercial software industry but to take advantage of government innovation so that "we as technologists [can] finally break the back of the ineffectiveness, the inefficiency and the stupidity of the silos of information in government."
Legal Thorns
One of the thorniest issues government faces in regards to open source is licensing. Many assume that open source licensing is better than proprietary licensing, but that's not necessarily true, said Linda Hamel, general counsel for the Information Technology Division in Massachusetts. Open and proprietary licenses are different and both have their advantages and disadvantages.
She bemoaned the fact that few in government are familiar with open source licensing. For example, Hamel pointed out the common misconception that the general public license or GPL is the open source license. Not so. "The GPL is the most common license for all open source software, but it is not the most common license for the most commonly used open source software," she explained.
While the differences between GPL and other types of open source licenses are complex, she urged the audience to spend time familiarizing themselves with the issues and risks that can occur should a government enter the field as an open source software developer. As just one example, she pointed out that states, unlike commercial software firms, cannot give 3rd party intellectual property infringement indemnification. Bottom line: make sure your jurisdiction's general counsel is well grounded in the nuances of open source licensing and its impact on proprietary software licenses.
Growing Market Share
The summit, which was presented by the Center for Digital Government and Government Technology magazine and sponsored by Novell, attracted dozens of government officials from around the country and from Canada. They learned that open source is no longer just about Linux, the well-known operating system, but it is also about databases and other applications as well. It's even about Internet browsers. Firefox, released last year, gained market share from Microsoft's Explorer at the rate of one percent per month for the first five months of its availability, according to Matt Asay, Novell's director of Linux Business Office. Just about every popular open source product also showed significant growth curves. Meanwhile, IBM is pouring $2 billion into its marketing campaign for Linux.
Leon Shiman, president of Shiman Associates Inc., software architect for Linux and Unix and a founding member of X.Org, one of the oldest open source consortiums, pointed out that Europe and, in particular, the European public sector, has strongly embraced open source. He said the interest was partly due to Europe's desire to thwart America's sizeable lead in the technology market. It also has to do with Europe's willingness to embrace collaborative projects and support them with public money rather than let the marketplace decide which products will survive and prosper.
But Shiman sees a darker side to this trend. First, Europe's strong support for open source means that innovation is taking place overseas, not here in America. Second, the entire open source movement has been sustained by volunteers, but Shiman said many open source developers in America could no longer afford to continue to participate. As a result, they were either migrating to Europe, where the public sector is willing to pay for their work, or they were taking jobs in other fields.
Ready, willing & able?
The Center for Digital Government has polled the nation's state, city and county governments and found that less than 50 percent have set their IT standards and architectures across the enterprise. That lack of readiness will hold back adoption of open source, according to Paul Taylor, the Center's chief strategy officer. But he reminded the audience that open source isn't cool because it's free, "but because it's open." More importantly, "collaboration is the DNA of open source software." Collaboration enhances the quality of the software, he added.
But if free accessibility makes open source cool and collaboration is the genius behind it's rise, a number of government officials wondered if they had developers on staff who were ready, willing and able to participate in writing and sharing open source code on a volunteer basis. On one hand, Novell's Anderson said she was pleasantly surprised by the number of people on her staff who were contributing to open source initiatives during their off hours. But on the other hand, a government CIO pointed out that he had very few workers on staff who had the capability, let alone time, to contribute to open source development. Others agreed with that less than optimistic assessment
Quinn best summed up the attitude government needs to take when it considers realm of open source by quoting from John F. Kennedy: "There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."
Written: by Tod Newcombe
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E-GOVERNANCE/E-GOVERNMENT
Controlling Cyber Dissidents?
Blogging is not only a well-established element of pop culture, it has become a tremendously influential communications mechanism. As early as March 2002, an article in Wired discussed the blogging "revolution" and declared that blogging "could be to words what Napster was to music - except this time, it'll really work."
Although in America blogging is an essential component of political discourse, in some countries it is a crime. For example, the most recent Internet Under Surveillance report by Reporters Without Borders notes that two Internet users in the Maldives "have been sentenced to life imprisonment for criticizing a dictatorship...that has been in power for the past 40 years."
Reporters Without Borders is holding a press event to highlight their concerns "that the countries that least respect free expression are playing a dominant role in the preparation..." of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference.
To call much needed attention to the role of various dictatorships in helping set global internet policies, Reporters Without Borders will be represented at a preparatory conference being held in Geneva February 18-25 by "by a delegation of Chinese, Iranian, Tunisian and Maldivian cyber-dissidents and bloggers so that they can describe the violations of online free expression that take place in their countries."
As a Reporters Without Borders official explained, "We would like to put a face to the repression against Internet users in some of the countries that will be parading at the WSIS."
The Reporters Without Borders press conference will be held on February 17th at 2:00 pm at Charly's Multimedia Check Point in Geneva. The press conference is being held at an internet café "so the cyber- dissidents can support their presentations with concrete examples of censorship."
All internet stakeholders who value freedom of expression, including corporations, governments NGOs, and individuals, should pay close attention to both the press conference and the WSIS process and not take their freedom for granted.
Written: by LuisB
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GENDER ISSUES – TECHNOLOGY MARKET
Of Gadgets and Gender
With women buying half of all consumer electronics, retailers and manufacturers are tailoring their products and marketing accordingly.
Five years ago, Samsung Electronics wanted to test how its phones, TVs, and home-theater systems would be received by consumers. So it showed them to focus groups comprised of its target consumer: Adult males aged 25 to 50.
The makeup of these groups has changed since then -- they're now 50% women. "We now recognize that the female consumer is influencing, if not controlling, 50% of all consumer-electronic purchasing today," says Jonas Tanenbaum, senior marketing manager of flat-panel displays for Samsung Electronics America in Ridgefield Park, N.J.
Sharper on prices
Samsung isn't the only consumer-electronics company to recognize the growing power of the female consumer. In November, retailer Tweeter Home Entertainment started using female voices in its radio and TV advertising. It also changed its catalogue covers to show a woman in a home-theater setting after internal research showed that females were twice as likely to buy a flat-panel TV as males.
Indeed, companies across America that make and sell flat-panel TVs, digital cameras, and computers are rapidly rethinking how they design, produce, and market to their consumers.
Recent research from the Consumer Electronics Assn. shows that women spend $50 billion and buy almost half of all electronic goods sold in the U.S. At the same time, they're on par with men in their ability to understand gadgets and are also early adopters, according to the CEA. However, the difference is that they're more likely than men to shop around for better prices and demand reliability, ease of use, and style.
Tailored information
This has led Best Buy to adopt the "Jill Initiative," a program to target its typical female customer. "Jill" is a trend-savvy working suburban mom with a fair amount of disposable income, who's likely to shop at Target as opposed to Wal-Mart.
The consumer-electronics retailer found that women read Target's newspaper inserts for ideas about how to better design their homes and use Best Buy's inserts for research and price comparison. So, Best Buy is using scenes that depict family life in its inserts and peppering them with gift ideas for children and friends.
As Best Buy discovers more of women's wants and needs, it's rolling out newer programs and advertising in magazines like Real Simple and Better Homes & Gardens. Last year, it launched 68 concept stores in California and Nevada, where personal assistants whisk female shoppers into their domain and provide them with information tailored to their needs.
The lure of faux croc
Rather than throw numbers at the shoppers about the size of a hard drive or the number of pixels on a camera, these representatives walk them through the uses of a computer or a camera and how it meets their needs. "We're enabling her transformation into a big-time electronics buyer by talking her language," says Nancy Brooks, vice-president and segment leader for the women's initiative at Best Buy.
Some companies are catering to the female shopper even earlier in the process -- during the design phase. X2, a computer manufacturer in Irvine, Calif., observed that notebooks were often designed with a male user in mind. "Women are asking for a lighter notebook, with a better keyboard that has all the cool features and reflects their style," says Rex Wong, president of X2.
So the outfit came up with a $1,299 notebook that weighs 4 pounds, has the latest Intel processor, a CD burner, and a built-in memory card. Starting in late February, buyers will have four colors to choose from -- pink, powder blue, pale green, and silver -- and can match the computers with stylish totes that come in suede, faux croc, or leather.
Style and substance
With women in mind, Dell has jacked up the number of accessories on its site. "We started offering stylish jackets in different colors for the Pocket DJ at the direct request of our women customers," says Gretchen Miller, a director of product marketing for the PC maker in Austin, Texas.
Other products designed to meet the demands of female buyers include: Vision Art, a framed piece of art that rolls up to reveal a plasma TV at the touch of a button ($3,500), from Solar Shading Systems, and GlamCam, a high-resolution Web camera ($99.99) from General Electric that flips open to reveal a mirror on one side and a color LCD screen on the other.
"It's a top-of-the line camera that comes in a stylish red and fits into a woman's purse," says Jason Trice, director of product development at Jasco, which makes consumer-electronic products for GE.
Women clearly place a premium on the combination of style and substance, function and fashion. And companies are increasingly finding that it's a winning combination.
Written: by Pallavi Gogoi
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ENVIRONMENT - AID
Lessons from the Tsunami
There are many lessons that emerge from the tsunami that brought such devastation and loss of life to Asia. It demonstrated the power of globalization, as television brought vivid pictures of the destruction to homes around the world. Indeed, it is at times like this that the world truly does seem like a global village.
Of course, it seemed to take somewhat longer for news of the extent of the disaster to reach the Crawford, Texas, ranch of President Bush. But, in the end, he decided to interrupt his vacation and offer amounts of aid that were successively revised upwards, in a global competition which promised to benefit those who were desperate for help.
America’s aid still appeared niggardly when compared with the amounts offered by countries with a fraction of America’s economic wealth. Lightly populated Australia offered more than twice America’s assistance, Japan promised almost 50% more, and Europe pledged more than five times as much. This led many observers to reflect on the fact that the world’s richest country was in general the most miserly in foreign assistance – all the more so in comparison to the amount it spends on war and defense.
The disaster was international, so it was appropriate that the United Nations take the lead in coordinating the relief effort. Unfortunately, in an effort that was widely seen as another attempt to undermine multilateralism, the US tried to lead a “core group” driving the assistance program, ignoring ongoing efforts within the region and at the UN. Whatever America’s motive, it later wisely decided to join the UN effort. The Bush administration’s face-saving rhetoric that it had rushed to push together the core group in the absence of other efforts was quietly let to pass.
The response of some countries within the region was truly impressive, showing how far they had come in establishing efficient and effective governments. Myriad details were addressed: Thailand flew ambassadors to the affected part of the country to help attend to the needs of their citizens, helped those who lost their money and passports return home, provided health care for the injured, set up systems to identify bodies, and dealt with the difficulties posed by shortages of body bags and the lack of cold storage facilities.
Countries, like Thailand, that felt that they could handle the finances on their own asked that assistance be directed to others. They did ask one thing: a reduction of tariff barriers and greater access to markets abroad. They didn’t want a handout, only a chance to earn income. The response, at least at the time of this column’s writing, has mostly been deafening silence.
On the other hand, the G-7 made a truly important contribution in offering debt relief. This is especially important for Indonesia, which must service a debt of $132 billion (of which $70 billion is owed to public creditors or guaranteed by government agencies). Even without the tsunami, this debt burden would have been an enormous hindrance to the country’s development as it finally recovers from the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis.
Indeed, there is a compelling case to be made for Indonesian debt relief in any case, given that much of the debt was incurred in loans to the corrupt Suharto government. Lenders knew, or should have known, that not all of the money was going to help Indonesian development. Moreover, some of the debt was incurred as part of the 1997-1998 crisis, which was aggravated and deepened by IMF-imposed policies.
No one pretends that we can prevent or alter the forces of nature. Rather, we have to learn to cope with them. There are now calls for improved tsunami early warning systems. But in one area, global warming, we have already received an early warning. Most countries have recognized this, coming together in Rio and Kyoto to do something about it - not enough, but the Kyoto protocol was intended only as a start. Sadly, global warming will likely destroy some of the same countries ravaged by the tsunami. Low lying islands like the Maldives will become submerged.
We are, however, still not a global village. After first disputing that there was scientific evidence of the problem, the largest polluter in the world, the US, is now simply refusing to do anything about it (other than preaching voluntary restraint - of which there is little evidence, at least in America). The international community has yet to figure out what to do with an aberrant member who fails to live up to its responsibilities as a global citizen.
Optimists say that technology will solve the problem. Realists observe that in the long race between the environment and technology, it appears that technology has so far been losing. Nature, as we have learned from the tsunami, has its own timetable. Unless we learn how to respect it, we will all miss the boat.
Written: by Joseph E. Stiglitz.
Note: Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is Professor of Economics at Columbia University and was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Clinton and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank. His most recent book is The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade.
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OIL MARKET - EUROPE
European Reliance on Oil Imports to Grow
By the middle of the next decade, only Norway will remain a net oil exporter from among European countries, Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Lee Raymond said during a conference late Wednesday in London.
The U.K., Denmark and the Netherlands, which are currently net exporters, will cease to be so by the middle of the next decade, Raymond said.
As the ExxonMobil executive prepared to begin his speech, some Greenpeace protesters were led away from the hotel banquet room by security guards. Outside, amid very tight security and heavy police presence, activists protested against what they said were ExxonMobil's role in global warming.
ExxonMobil later issued a statement addressing the protests. The company said, 'We take the issue of climate change seriously and are taking many real and positive actions to address the risk it causes.'
Leading off his speech, Raymond also addressed oil companies' role in communities and the environment.
'Oil companies have many responsibilities, and we affect societies in a large number of ways,' he said. 'We employ people, we help local communities, and we earn money for our shareholders, and our operations and products affect the natural environment.'
Returning to his outlook for the world oil industry and U.K. markets, Raymond said the U.K. already has among the highest costs in the world for production.
Raymond opposed tax increases on the U.K. oil industry.
Raymond projected that the U.K.'s gas production would 'go from 10 billion cubic feet a day to 7 billion cubic feet a day at the end of the decade and less than 3 billion cubic feet a day in 2020.'
By 2030, he said, four-fifths of the world's energy needs will be met by fossil fuels.
The combination of economic growth and population increases can be expected to lead to a rise in primary energy demand of about 50% over the next 25 years, Raymond said.
'This means that by 2030, overall global energy demand will be the equivalent of about 335 million barrels a day oil equivalent,' the ExxonMobil chief executive said. 'This is a rise from today of more than 100 million barrels a day (oil equivalent) - a huge figure.'
Written: by Benoit Faucon
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TECHNOLOGY – CHIP INDUSTRY
Intel brings 64 bit to desktop
Intel has rolled out its last full slate of single core Pentium 4s for the desktop as it gears up for the debut of its dual core line sometime in the second half.
Monday’s launch saw updates to the Pentium Extreme Edition line, aimed at gamers and power users, and the Pentium 4 6xx range aimed at the volume business and consumer markets.
Both lines are built on a 90 nanometre process and feature 2MB of level two cache and Execute Disable Bit technology, which should protect against buffer overruns. The Extreme Edition’s front side bus remains at 1066MHz, while volume business and consumer buyers will have to continue scraping by with an 800MHz bus.
Monday's launch finally brings Intel’s EM64T technology to the desktop, putting it on a par with AMD's hybrid platform.
Clock speed on the Extreme Edition has been cranked up to 3.73GHz from the current 3.46GHz. The 6xx line features five models, ranging from 3GHz to 3.8GHz.
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology - the power management used in the vendor’s mobile line - has also been incorporated into the Extreme and 6xx lines. Power consumption, and associated problems of heating and cooling, has been one of Intel’s bugbears as it jacked up the clockspeed of its chips.
The 6xx products will co-exist alongside the existing 5xx sequence for the first half of this year. Sometime in the second half Intel’s dual core products are scheduled to appear at the top end of the business market, along with new chipsets for the 6xx product range. Dual core will also appear in both the high-end and mainstream consumer markets in the second half, according to the roadmaps Intel showed yesterday.
Intel executives yesterday were reluctant to set a date for the demise of mainstream single core parts, saying that the single core products would be available for “some time”.
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Bush's '06 budget request boosts IT - for a few
Don't be fooled by the 7 percent increase in IT spending proposed in President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget request. Although the IT budget request of $65.1 billion boosts spending by more than 20 percent each at the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Veterans Affairs, most agencies received only modest increases, and six had their IT budgets cut.
Additionally, among the 21 agencies slated to receive increases for 2006, five -- the departments of Education, State and Treasury, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Office of Personnel Management -- remain at or below their 2004 IT budgets.
"We will have to manage as we always do, and maximize the money we have to make sure our spending makes sense," said Patrick Pizzella, the Labor Department's chief information officer. The Labor Department's IT budget was cut in 2005, and it faces a cut of $13 million to $409 million in 2006.
In contrast, DHS is slated to receive $6 billion, a $1.2 billion increase that industry officials said compensated for two years of underfunding at the agency. "Officials recognized that some of the programs at Homeland Security, such as U.S. Visitor Immigrant and Status Indicator Technology System, were underfunded, considering the scope of the effort," said Jim Flyzik, a former DHS official and a partner with consulting firm Guerra, Kiviat, Flyzik and Associates of Oak Hill, Va. "Many of these programs were underfunded at the concept stage, but as you put more meat on the bones of the business cases, you can articulate the funding levels better."
U.S. Visit is not the only program that would get a large increase. The Transportation Worker Identification Card, the Integrated Wireless Network and the Coast Guard's Nationwide Automatic Identification System would all get more than a $25 million boost in 2006.
"DHS clearly is a winner, and they might not get enough," said Robert Atkinson, vice president and director of technology and the new economy project for the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington. "I don't think the question for Homeland Security, as it is for all agencies, is really about overall funding, but it is much more about what the administration is investing in and how well they are doing it."
Veterans Affairs was another budget winner with a $485 million increase to $2.1 billion for its IT budget.
"The increase is reflective of the administration's attitude toward IT as a toolset everyone needs to use, but they need to use it wisely to make government more effective," said CIO Robert McFarland.
McFarland said more than $300 million of the increase is for the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture.
Although VA's increase, like many other agencies, is because of a planned big money need for an IT project next year, many of the department's expanded dollars are at the expense of other programs or personnel.
The Defense Department, which has an IT budget that comprises nearly half of the entire federal technology expenditure, saw a 4.9 percent increase to $30.1 billion, its largest increase in four years.
Linton Wells, the Defense Department's CIO, said he was encouraged by the 2006 budget process.
"In the battle over digits versus widgets, widgets always win. This year, digits are winning," he said.
Industry officials said it's not surprising that the departments of Defense and Homeland Security fared well in the budget request. Both departments perform missions that are top administration priorities, and both are in the middle of transformations. The IT budget requests reflect that.
"There are a lot of new capabilities and modes of operational services DOD is looking at dealing with, linking networks and getting soldiers a better picture of what is happening on the battle field," said Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies for Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "All of the modernization or transformational efforts rest on, to some degree, putting more money into IT."
Although most agencies are faced with tight budgets, they are successfully meeting the administration's IT goals. The Office of Management and Budget approved more business cases for the 2006 budget process than ever before, according to budget documents.
Seventeen of 25 agencies had all their business cases approved, according to the budget. And just 342 IT business cases of 1,087 made the Management Watch List for lacking in one of three areas: assuring security; meeting cost, schedule and performance goals; or establishing performance measures. Last year, OMB said 621 of 1,130 IT projects made the watch list. The 342 programs are worth $15 billion, down $7 billion from last year.
"We are starting to see the fruits of our labor," said Karen Evans, OMB administrator for IT and e-government. "We've been asking agencies to tell us how they are becoming more efficient and, to their credit, they have demonstrated the effectiveness of their IT programs and the metrics by which they measured it."
Ray Bjorklund, senior vice president at Federal Sources Inc. of McLean, Va., said some of the decreased spending could be attributed to OMB's emphasis on better management.
"Many public IT companies have been reporting sluggish government spending to their investors," he said. "We believe this sluggishness could be due in part to OMB's exercising its oversight of IT programs. OMB may be slowing down the apportionment on major IT programs to ensure proper emphasis on program management due to some major missteps in government IT projects over the last few years."
Written: by Jason Miller is a senior writer with Government Computer News.
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DIGITAL DIVIDE - AFRICA
Local Languages Demand More Space on the Internet
African Woman and Child Feature Service
A bid to have African languages join the likes of English and French in the Internet is being blocked by information experts from the West as lacking in commercial value.
A group of African linguistics and technology experts at a recent African Regional Preparatory Conference for the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in Accra, Ghana, say they have already developed special characters that can now help these languages be used on the World Wide Web.
They argue that the use of languages such as English has played a big role in the development of Western countries.
Another reason the Westerners are opposed to African languages being put on the Web, they say is their structure with some having characters and sounds in their alphabet that are not recognisable in the coding system of the Internet.
Therefore, the continent should continue expressing itself through appropriate languages in social and economic development.
According a Prof Mwasoko from the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Africa's political elites are a problem than a solution, as they too oppose, for reason well known to them, the use of these languages on the Internet, Prof Salam Diakite, Director of Research and Documentation, African Academy of Languages said the only way to make African languages accepted in the cyberspace is to transact business in those languages.
In Kenya, for instance, information on tourism and tea products should be in a local language or in Kiswahili, which Microsoft is going to launch officially on the Internet between April and May this year.
Other communities like the Maasai Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, or Turkana can also use their languages on the Internet when communicating with their family members, relatives or transacting business with the outside world.
If this happens, then those from Europe and America will have no otherwise but to learn how to use these languages. But this can only occur if special characters and sounds like those found in the Gikuyu dialects are accepted by Unicode consortium.
Based in the USA, and with organizations such as Microsoft and International Business Machines (IBM) as members, Unicode Standard defines how characters and sounds of different languages are represented in modern software products and standards.
Language experts think bantu speaking communities will be better placed to put their languages on the Internet because they can adopt the Kiswahili characters and sounds, which Unicode has approved.
Addressing participants at the Accra conference, Mark Lange, senior attorney at Microsoft, said they support the idea of African languages on the internet.
But he was fast to add that African countries need to put in place proper standards for the idea to be supported by other stakeholders in the information society.
Currently, there are plans to put in place an African standardization and certification centre for those who want to use their vernacular languages on the website.
Dr Shem Ochuodho, a computer expert, says any attempt to address over 80 per cent of Africans who live in the rural areas on how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), can, among other things, be achieved by using their languages online.
"The only problem is the existence of a few words from certain African languages whose sounds cannot be accepted by the computer," says Prof Diakite.
African linguistics at the African Academy of Languages have therefore developed special characters for these languages, and now want them accepted by Unicode.
This list of African characters is then to be officially submitted to the committee of ISO standardization so that the characters can be added to their list as pre-composed African characters.
Once this happens, letters in the African language in use will have to be mapped into the keyboards of computers. The type of fonts used will also have to change depending on the language being used.
In addition, a dictionary of the African languages has to be developed to aid those people who are going to have problems in expressing themselves in these languages.
So far, less than one percent of African languages have developed these requirements and gotten access to the cyberspace. In Ethiopia, where the local and national language, Amharic, is in use, attempts have been made to use it on the computer.
Experts there have been struggling since the 1980's to make the computer recognize the Amharic characters. Since they have been accepted by Unicode, Dr Atnafu says they have in place a Content Management System, which allows them to use both Amharic and English on the computer.
In South Africa too, local languages have been put in use on the Internet.
Whereas these two countries have made headway in placing their local languages on websites, other African countries face a double challenge.
Most of them have to find ways of ensuring their people speak and use their own language when communicating economic, social and political issues.
As a first step, the conference has recommended that each African country should introduce the teaching of an African language from the primary school level up to the university as a linguistic bilingual policy.
This language is to be taught alongside English or French and both are to be examinable subjects at both primary and secondary school levels as well as in colleges.
African Union is expected to take up the issue, and impress upon member states to implement the recommendation. Likewise, to accelerate the use of local languages in ICTs, the Union is to declare 2006 as the year of African languages.
As the momentum to use Kenyan and other African languages on the website picks up, linguistics are now warning parents who pride in their children's fluent foreing languages to start a rethink.
They argue that children instructed in their mother tongue are more likely to grasp what they are taught than when the instructiona are in English or French.
Written: by Arthur Okwemba in Nairobi
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TECHNOLOGY – OPEN SOURCE
Government moves into the Open
Perhaps the clearest sign yet that open source has gone mainstream occurred last Thursday when a group of government officials met to discuss the technology and practically nothing was said about the fact that the software is free.
Many interesting points were made Thursday in Waltham, MA, at the National Government CIO Summit on Open Source, but the most important came towards the end of the meeting when Thom Rubel of Meta Group and Debra Anderson, CIO, Novell, both emphasized that open source is a compelling technology for the public sector because of the value it brings to the business needs of government agencies. Anderson pointed out that her budget has shrunk by one-third in the past three years - much like public sector IT budgets - but because of open source her staff is able to deliver the value that Novell's business units need to succeed in a highly competitive market.
Rubel explained that in order for open source to succeed in government, the public sector has to understand it's true worth. "It's not about lower cost, it's about business value and what it takes to achieve political outcomes," he said. Rubel reminded the audience that government first used computers to simply automate existing processes. It then used the Internet to place some of the same automated processes online. Little was done to change the value equation, he argued. But open source can change that if used in the right way. "Just don't over promise and don't make it an either-or proposition between open source and proprietary solutions," he cautioned.
Peter Quinn, CIO, Massachusetts, made the same point, emphasizing that his state's lead in understanding and adopting open source was not in reaction to the dominance of one or two proprietary vendors. Rather, it was an effort to face certain key facts in the world of IT and government. First, "the cost of government is not sustainable in its present form," he said. Second, software has increasingly become a commodity. Open source is accelerating that trend.
As a result, government no longer should be trapped into procuring expensive, customized solutions, he argued. While open source is attractive because of its lower upfront costs, the real value lies in the collaborative principles on which it has been developed. The more agencies and governments share open source applications, the less likely the public sector will end up having to pay for so many different solutions, wasting taxpayer money.
Some have branded the notion of developing and then sharing software for free as some form of communism. But Quinn argued that if one state developed a better electronic licensing system or voter registration system using open source and then shared it with other states, it was an exercise in democracy through the exchange of information in an open society underpinned by reliable technology.
As radical as that sounds, Quinn said the Government Open Source Collaborative he founded isn't out to challenge the commercial software industry but to take advantage of government innovation so that "we as technologists [can] finally break the back of the ineffectiveness, the inefficiency and the stupidity of the silos of information in government."
Legal Thorns
One of the thorniest issues government faces in regards to open source is licensing. Many assume that open source licensing is better than proprietary licensing, but that's not necessarily true, said Linda Hamel, general counsel for the Information Technology Division in Massachusetts. Open and proprietary licenses are different and both have their advantages and disadvantages.
She bemoaned the fact that few in government are familiar with open source licensing. For example, Hamel pointed out the common misconception that the general public license or GPL is the open source license. Not so. "The GPL is the most common license for all open source software, but it is not the most common license for the most commonly used open source software," she explained.
While the differences between GPL and other types of open source licenses are complex, she urged the audience to spend time familiarizing themselves with the issues and risks that can occur should a government enter the field as an open source software developer. As just one example, she pointed out that states, unlike commercial software firms, cannot give 3rd party intellectual property infringement indemnification. Bottom line: make sure your jurisdiction's general counsel is well grounded in the nuances of open source licensing and its impact on proprietary software licenses.
Growing Market Share
The summit, which was presented by the Center for Digital Government and Government Technology magazine and sponsored by Novell, attracted dozens of government officials from around the country and from Canada. They learned that open source is no longer just about Linux, the well-known operating system, but it is also about databases and other applications as well. It's even about Internet browsers. Firefox, released last year, gained market share from Microsoft's Explorer at the rate of one percent per month for the first five months of its availability, according to Matt Asay, Novell's director of Linux Business Office. Just about every popular open source product also showed significant growth curves. Meanwhile, IBM is pouring $2 billion into its marketing campaign for Linux.
Leon Shiman, president of Shiman Associates Inc., software architect for Linux and Unix and a founding member of X.Org, one of the oldest open source consortiums, pointed out that Europe and, in particular, the European public sector, has strongly embraced open source. He said the interest was partly due to Europe's desire to thwart America's sizeable lead in the technology market. It also has to do with Europe's willingness to embrace collaborative projects and support them with public money rather than let the marketplace decide which products will survive and prosper.
But Shiman sees a darker side to this trend. First, Europe's strong support for open source means that innovation is taking place overseas, not here in America. Second, the entire open source movement has been sustained by volunteers, but Shiman said many open source developers in America could no longer afford to continue to participate. As a result, they were either migrating to Europe, where the public sector is willing to pay for their work, or they were taking jobs in other fields.
Ready, willing & able?
The Center for Digital Government has polled the nation's state, city and county governments and found that less than 50 percent have set their IT standards and architectures across the enterprise. That lack of readiness will hold back adoption of open source, according to Paul Taylor, the Center's chief strategy officer. But he reminded the audience that open source isn't cool because it's free, "but because it's open." More importantly, "collaboration is the DNA of open source software." Collaboration enhances the quality of the software, he added.
But if free accessibility makes open source cool and collaboration is the genius behind it's rise, a number of government officials wondered if they had developers on staff who were ready, willing and able to participate in writing and sharing open source code on a volunteer basis. On one hand, Novell's Anderson said she was pleasantly surprised by the number of people on her staff who were contributing to open source initiatives during their off hours. But on the other hand, a government CIO pointed out that he had very few workers on staff who had the capability, let alone time, to contribute to open source development. Others agreed with that less than optimistic assessment
Quinn best summed up the attitude government needs to take when it considers realm of open source by quoting from John F. Kennedy: "There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."
Written: by Tod Newcombe
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E-GOVERNANCE/E-GOVERNMENT
Controlling Cyber Dissidents?
Blogging is not only a well-established element of pop culture, it has become a tremendously influential communications mechanism. As early as March 2002, an article in Wired discussed the blogging "revolution" and declared that blogging "could be to words what Napster was to music - except this time, it'll really work."
Although in America blogging is an essential component of political discourse, in some countries it is a crime. For example, the most recent Internet Under Surveillance report by Reporters Without Borders notes that two Internet users in the Maldives "have been sentenced to life imprisonment for criticizing a dictatorship...that has been in power for the past 40 years."
Reporters Without Borders is holding a press event to highlight their concerns "that the countries that least respect free expression are playing a dominant role in the preparation..." of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference.
To call much needed attention to the role of various dictatorships in helping set global internet policies, Reporters Without Borders will be represented at a preparatory conference being held in Geneva February 18-25 by "by a delegation of Chinese, Iranian, Tunisian and Maldivian cyber-dissidents and bloggers so that they can describe the violations of online free expression that take place in their countries."
As a Reporters Without Borders official explained, "We would like to put a face to the repression against Internet users in some of the countries that will be parading at the WSIS."
The Reporters Without Borders press conference will be held on February 17th at 2:00 pm at Charly's Multimedia Check Point in Geneva. The press conference is being held at an internet café "so the cyber- dissidents can support their presentations with concrete examples of censorship."
All internet stakeholders who value freedom of expression, including corporations, governments NGOs, and individuals, should pay close attention to both the press conference and the WSIS process and not take their freedom for granted.
Written: by LuisB
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GENDER ISSUES – TECHNOLOGY MARKET
Of Gadgets and Gender
With women buying half of all consumer electronics, retailers and manufacturers are tailoring their products and marketing accordingly.
Five years ago, Samsung Electronics wanted to test how its phones, TVs, and home-theater systems would be received by consumers. So it showed them to focus groups comprised of its target consumer: Adult males aged 25 to 50.
The makeup of these groups has changed since then -- they're now 50% women. "We now recognize that the female consumer is influencing, if not controlling, 50% of all consumer-electronic purchasing today," says Jonas Tanenbaum, senior marketing manager of flat-panel displays for Samsung Electronics America in Ridgefield Park, N.J.
Sharper on prices
Samsung isn't the only consumer-electronics company to recognize the growing power of the female consumer. In November, retailer Tweeter Home Entertainment started using female voices in its radio and TV advertising. It also changed its catalogue covers to show a woman in a home-theater setting after internal research showed that females were twice as likely to buy a flat-panel TV as males.
Indeed, companies across America that make and sell flat-panel TVs, digital cameras, and computers are rapidly rethinking how they design, produce, and market to their consumers.
Recent research from the Consumer Electronics Assn. shows that women spend $50 billion and buy almost half of all electronic goods sold in the U.S. At the same time, they're on par with men in their ability to understand gadgets and are also early adopters, according to the CEA. However, the difference is that they're more likely than men to shop around for better prices and demand reliability, ease of use, and style.
Tailored information
This has led Best Buy to adopt the "Jill Initiative," a program to target its typical female customer. "Jill" is a trend-savvy working suburban mom with a fair amount of disposable income, who's likely to shop at Target as opposed to Wal-Mart.
The consumer-electronics retailer found that women read Target's newspaper inserts for ideas about how to better design their homes and use Best Buy's inserts for research and price comparison. So, Best Buy is using scenes that depict family life in its inserts and peppering them with gift ideas for children and friends.
As Best Buy discovers more of women's wants and needs, it's rolling out newer programs and advertising in magazines like Real Simple and Better Homes & Gardens. Last year, it launched 68 concept stores in California and Nevada, where personal assistants whisk female shoppers into their domain and provide them with information tailored to their needs.
The lure of faux croc
Rather than throw numbers at the shoppers about the size of a hard drive or the number of pixels on a camera, these representatives walk them through the uses of a computer or a camera and how it meets their needs. "We're enabling her transformation into a big-time electronics buyer by talking her language," says Nancy Brooks, vice-president and segment leader for the women's initiative at Best Buy.
Some companies are catering to the female shopper even earlier in the process -- during the design phase. X2, a computer manufacturer in Irvine, Calif., observed that notebooks were often designed with a male user in mind. "Women are asking for a lighter notebook, with a better keyboard that has all the cool features and reflects their style," says Rex Wong, president of X2.
So the outfit came up with a $1,299 notebook that weighs 4 pounds, has the latest Intel processor, a CD burner, and a built-in memory card. Starting in late February, buyers will have four colors to choose from -- pink, powder blue, pale green, and silver -- and can match the computers with stylish totes that come in suede, faux croc, or leather.
Style and substance
With women in mind, Dell has jacked up the number of accessories on its site. "We started offering stylish jackets in different colors for the Pocket DJ at the direct request of our women customers," says Gretchen Miller, a director of product marketing for the PC maker in Austin, Texas.
Other products designed to meet the demands of female buyers include: Vision Art, a framed piece of art that rolls up to reveal a plasma TV at the touch of a button ($3,500), from Solar Shading Systems, and GlamCam, a high-resolution Web camera ($99.99) from General Electric that flips open to reveal a mirror on one side and a color LCD screen on the other.
"It's a top-of-the line camera that comes in a stylish red and fits into a woman's purse," says Jason Trice, director of product development at Jasco, which makes consumer-electronic products for GE.
Women clearly place a premium on the combination of style and substance, function and fashion. And companies are increasingly finding that it's a winning combination.
Written: by Pallavi Gogoi
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ENVIRONMENT - AID
Lessons from the Tsunami
There are many lessons that emerge from the tsunami that brought such devastation and loss of life to Asia. It demonstrated the power of globalization, as television brought vivid pictures of the destruction to homes around the world. Indeed, it is at times like this that the world truly does seem like a global village.
Of course, it seemed to take somewhat longer for news of the extent of the disaster to reach the Crawford, Texas, ranch of President Bush. But, in the end, he decided to interrupt his vacation and offer amounts of aid that were successively revised upwards, in a global competition which promised to benefit those who were desperate for help.
America’s aid still appeared niggardly when compared with the amounts offered by countries with a fraction of America’s economic wealth. Lightly populated Australia offered more than twice America’s assistance, Japan promised almost 50% more, and Europe pledged more than five times as much. This led many observers to reflect on the fact that the world’s richest country was in general the most miserly in foreign assistance – all the more so in comparison to the amount it spends on war and defense.
The disaster was international, so it was appropriate that the United Nations take the lead in coordinating the relief effort. Unfortunately, in an effort that was widely seen as another attempt to undermine multilateralism, the US tried to lead a “core group” driving the assistance program, ignoring ongoing efforts within the region and at the UN. Whatever America’s motive, it later wisely decided to join the UN effort. The Bush administration’s face-saving rhetoric that it had rushed to push together the core group in the absence of other efforts was quietly let to pass.
The response of some countries within the region was truly impressive, showing how far they had come in establishing efficient and effective governments. Myriad details were addressed: Thailand flew ambassadors to the affected part of the country to help attend to the needs of their citizens, helped those who lost their money and passports return home, provided health care for the injured, set up systems to identify bodies, and dealt with the difficulties posed by shortages of body bags and the lack of cold storage facilities.
Countries, like Thailand, that felt that they could handle the finances on their own asked that assistance be directed to others. They did ask one thing: a reduction of tariff barriers and greater access to markets abroad. They didn’t want a handout, only a chance to earn income. The response, at least at the time of this column’s writing, has mostly been deafening silence.
On the other hand, the G-7 made a truly important contribution in offering debt relief. This is especially important for Indonesia, which must service a debt of $132 billion (of which $70 billion is owed to public creditors or guaranteed by government agencies). Even without the tsunami, this debt burden would have been an enormous hindrance to the country’s development as it finally recovers from the aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis.
Indeed, there is a compelling case to be made for Indonesian debt relief in any case, given that much of the debt was incurred in loans to the corrupt Suharto government. Lenders knew, or should have known, that not all of the money was going to help Indonesian development. Moreover, some of the debt was incurred as part of the 1997-1998 crisis, which was aggravated and deepened by IMF-imposed policies.
No one pretends that we can prevent or alter the forces of nature. Rather, we have to learn to cope with them. There are now calls for improved tsunami early warning systems. But in one area, global warming, we have already received an early warning. Most countries have recognized this, coming together in Rio and Kyoto to do something about it - not enough, but the Kyoto protocol was intended only as a start. Sadly, global warming will likely destroy some of the same countries ravaged by the tsunami. Low lying islands like the Maldives will become submerged.
We are, however, still not a global village. After first disputing that there was scientific evidence of the problem, the largest polluter in the world, the US, is now simply refusing to do anything about it (other than preaching voluntary restraint - of which there is little evidence, at least in America). The international community has yet to figure out what to do with an aberrant member who fails to live up to its responsibilities as a global citizen.
Optimists say that technology will solve the problem. Realists observe that in the long race between the environment and technology, it appears that technology has so far been losing. Nature, as we have learned from the tsunami, has its own timetable. Unless we learn how to respect it, we will all miss the boat.
Written: by Joseph E. Stiglitz.
Note: Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, is Professor of Economics at Columbia University and was Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Clinton and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank. His most recent book is The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade.
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OIL MARKET - EUROPE
European Reliance on Oil Imports to Grow
By the middle of the next decade, only Norway will remain a net oil exporter from among European countries, Exxon Mobil Corp. Chief Executive Lee Raymond said during a conference late Wednesday in London.
The U.K., Denmark and the Netherlands, which are currently net exporters, will cease to be so by the middle of the next decade, Raymond said.
As the ExxonMobil executive prepared to begin his speech, some Greenpeace protesters were led away from the hotel banquet room by security guards. Outside, amid very tight security and heavy police presence, activists protested against what they said were ExxonMobil's role in global warming.
ExxonMobil later issued a statement addressing the protests. The company said, 'We take the issue of climate change seriously and are taking many real and positive actions to address the risk it causes.'
Leading off his speech, Raymond also addressed oil companies' role in communities and the environment.
'Oil companies have many responsibilities, and we affect societies in a large number of ways,' he said. 'We employ people, we help local communities, and we earn money for our shareholders, and our operations and products affect the natural environment.'
Returning to his outlook for the world oil industry and U.K. markets, Raymond said the U.K. already has among the highest costs in the world for production.
Raymond opposed tax increases on the U.K. oil industry.
Raymond projected that the U.K.'s gas production would 'go from 10 billion cubic feet a day to 7 billion cubic feet a day at the end of the decade and less than 3 billion cubic feet a day in 2020.'
By 2030, he said, four-fifths of the world's energy needs will be met by fossil fuels.
The combination of economic growth and population increases can be expected to lead to a rise in primary energy demand of about 50% over the next 25 years, Raymond said.
'This means that by 2030, overall global energy demand will be the equivalent of about 335 million barrels a day oil equivalent,' the ExxonMobil chief executive said. 'This is a rise from today of more than 100 million barrels a day (oil equivalent) - a huge figure.'
Written: by Benoit Faucon
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TECHNOLOGY – CHIP INDUSTRY
Intel brings 64 bit to desktop
Intel has rolled out its last full slate of single core Pentium 4s for the desktop as it gears up for the debut of its dual core line sometime in the second half.
Monday’s launch saw updates to the Pentium Extreme Edition line, aimed at gamers and power users, and the Pentium 4 6xx range aimed at the volume business and consumer markets.
Both lines are built on a 90 nanometre process and feature 2MB of level two cache and Execute Disable Bit technology, which should protect against buffer overruns. The Extreme Edition’s front side bus remains at 1066MHz, while volume business and consumer buyers will have to continue scraping by with an 800MHz bus.
Monday's launch finally brings Intel’s EM64T technology to the desktop, putting it on a par with AMD's hybrid platform.
Clock speed on the Extreme Edition has been cranked up to 3.73GHz from the current 3.46GHz. The 6xx line features five models, ranging from 3GHz to 3.8GHz.
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology - the power management used in the vendor’s mobile line - has also been incorporated into the Extreme and 6xx lines. Power consumption, and associated problems of heating and cooling, has been one of Intel’s bugbears as it jacked up the clockspeed of its chips.
The 6xx products will co-exist alongside the existing 5xx sequence for the first half of this year. Sometime in the second half Intel’s dual core products are scheduled to appear at the top end of the business market, along with new chipsets for the 6xx product range. Dual core will also appear in both the high-end and mainstream consumer markets in the second half, according to the roadmaps Intel showed yesterday.
Intel executives yesterday were reluctant to set a date for the demise of mainstream single core parts, saying that the single core products would be available for “some time”.
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Friday, November 19, 2004
ENERGY - USA
In the United States of America energy remains the driver of prices
In October, price indices markedly increased. The CPI (consumer price index) gained 0.6% over the month, the monthly gain of the PPI (producer price index) was 1.7% while import prices jumped by 1.5%. On a year-on-year basis, the CPI accelerated to 3.2% (after +2.5% in September), the PPI to +4.4% (after +3.3% in September) and import prices to +9.7% (after +8.1% in September).
However, energy was the main source of this marked acceleration. Excluding this component, the monthly gain was limited to +0.3% for the CPI, +0.7%, while non-petroleum import prices declined by 0.2% in October. On a year - on - year basis, the non-energy CPI was up by 2.2% (same as in September), the non-energy PPI by +1.9 % (after +2.1 % in September) and non-petroleum import prices by +2.7 % (after +2.8 % in September).
In short, there is currently just one source of inflation: oil prices. In October, they gained 16.2% m/m (as measured by the monthly average in the West Texas Intermediate), driving their year-on-year rate of growth to almost 76%.
Recently, oil prices dramatically calmed down. After fluctuating above USD 50 per barrel in October, they were "just" USD 46 per barrel yesterday. If they were to remain at that level until the end of the month, it would be translated into 11% drop in November.
All in all, I still think inflationary pressures remain limited in the US, with the volatility in oil prices being the main story behind monthly developments
Write: by LuisB. November 2004
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ECONOMY - EUROPE
Euro zone: Inflation surged in October, industrial output softened in Q3
In spite of a slight downward revision, inflation markedly accelerated in October. It reached 2.4% after 2.1% in September. This surge is linked to the energy component (+9.8% y/y). Core inflation remained moderate, stable at 1.8%. As long as households’ inflation expectations remain contained, the increase in headline inflation will not be a sufficient motive for the European central bank to change its monetary policy stance.
In spite of a 0.5% m/m increase in September, industrial output lost ground during the third quarter (0.2% q/q against 1.0% in the previous quarter). Output in investment goods was quite dynamic. This tends to confirm my hypothesis that the slowdown in GDP growth during the third quarter was, in part, attributable to an increase in imports, itself generated by a nascent recovery in investment.
Even if the different leading indicators for the industrial sector (orders, PMI and European Commission surveys, OECD leading indicator) are currently depicting a mixed picture, we believe that the sector should pursue its expansion next year, but on a more moderate pace.
Inflation at 2.4% in October following the surge in energy prices
Eurostat’s initial “flash” estimate was slightly revised downwards (by 0.1 percentage point). Nevertheless, the increase in inflation remains quite significant. In fact, inflation jumped from 2.1% in September to 2.4% in October. The surge in oil prices which, in September and in October was only marginally alleviated by the appreciation of the euro, pushed consumer prices upwards.
The energy component accelerated by 9.8% y/y, the highest since the end of 2000. Transport fuels contributed by 0.45 percentage point to the inflation rate.
On the other hand, core inflation, excluding energy, alcohol, tobacco and food products, remained stable at 1.8%, reflecting the absence of fundamental inflationary tensions. As long as households’ inflation expectations – and thus their wage demands – remain contained, the increase in headline inflation – due to an exogenous energy shock – will not be a sufficient motive for the European central bank to change its monetary policy stance.
As expected, industrial output softened in Q3 2004
Industrial output rose 0.5% m/m in September, which corrected its previous 0.6% m/m decline. Still, during the third quarter, industrial output markedly lost ground, with a gain limited to 0.2% q/q compared with 1.0% during the previous quarter.
The analysis of the components reveals that output in investment good was quite dynamic: +5.3% y/y in September, the third consecutive acceleration. This tends to confirm my hypothesis that the slowdown in GDP growth during the third quarter was, in part, attributable to an increase in imports, itself generated by a nascent recovery in investment. Moreover, output of non-durable consumer goods continued to improve, with a third consecutive increase in September.
Yet, perspectives for industrial output do not seem to favour strong growth in the sector during the coming quarters. Industrial orders have been declining since June. Their year-on-year growth rate, expressed in terms of a 3-months moving average, was limited to 8.6% in August, whereas it had reached a 12.2% high in July. According to the Reuters purchasing managers index, this softening should, to a large extent, be attributed to weaker foreign orders. The “Euro zone” export orders index, obtained by a weighted average of the indexes for the four major Euro zone economies, dropped to 52.0 in October against 53.7 in September and a 56.5 high-point in May 2004. The strengthening of the euro against the dollar should, in the medium term, even further contribute to a softening in extra-EU exports.
Moreover, latest market survey’s results have been painting a somewhat mixed picture. The manufacturing PMI, for instance, has not ceased to decline since July (but it still remains in expansion zone). On the other hand, the picture depicted by the European
Commission’s industrial confidence survey, is much more favourable, with an index increasing since the summer. At –2 in October, it reached its highest level since February 2001. In addition, if the current conditions index indeed softened, output expectations rebounded. The OECD leading indicator, which had badly fallen in August, marginally increased in September. Overall, I believe that the sector should pursue its expansion next year, but at a more moderate pace.
Write: by LuisB. November 2004
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E-LITERACY - UNITED KINGDOM
British Library goes Wi-Fi
The British Library has launched wireless Internet connectivity in the public areas of its building at St Pancras.
The new service offers Wi-Fi access throughout the 11 reading rooms, the 225-seat conference auditorium, the café and restaurant and the outdoor Piazza area.
It will enable readers, researchers and business-people to connect to the internet and access email using either their existing service provider or by using the Library’s own pay-as-you-go service.
The Library, which receives around 3,000 visitors a day, commissioned consultants Building Zones to undertake a user study to gauge demand for the new service.
The study revealed that Laptop ownership amongst visitors was 86%, and users were leaving the library to go to a nearby Internet café to access their email
Building Zones partnered with The Cloud and Hewlett Packard (HP) to roll out the building infrastructure, network and user support services. The trial service went live on the 31 May this year and by the end of that period the service was registering 1,200 sessions per week.
Source: Netimperative. November 2004
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ENERGY - FINANCE
EnCana Confirms Plans to Sell Ecuador Assets Archived Story
EnCana Corp. (ECA) said it plans to sell its Ecuador and U.S. Gulf of Mexico assets in order to focus on its North American onshore natural gas and oil sands businesses, confirming what has long been rumored.
At an investor presentation here Tuesday, EnCana president and chief executive Gwyn Morgan said he expects to have deals in place within a year to sell the Ecuador and Gulf of Mexico assets. He later declined to disclose specifics of the proposed transactions.
Morgan indicated that the proposed asset sales could together be valued at around $1.8 billion. He projected that the combined value of EnCana's asset sales since 2002 will reach $8 billion by the end of next year, up from an expected $6.2 billion following the closure of the company's recently announced deal to sell its North Sea assets to Nexen Inc. (NXY) for $2.1 billion. He said the company has no immediate plans for further substantial sales of Canadian assets.
Morgan also predicted that, by the end of next year, EnCana's oil and natural gas production will return to levels reached prior to the expected sale of its North Sea assets.
He said the company doesn't plan any further acquisitions of oil and gas properties to replace the North Sea production, but will instead add production by developing its remaining properties.
During the presentation, Morgan predicted that EnCana's natural gas production next year will increase by about 14% compared with 2004, offsetting a decline in conventional oil production due to the North Sea asset sale.
Afterwards, he told reporters EnCana also expects to add 30,000 barrels a day of oil production from its Alberta oil sands projects in 2005, almost doubling output from about 38,000 b/d in 2004.
Morgan told reporters that EnCana's oil sands production in the short-term may increase more rapidly than its natural gas production "because it is growing from a smaller base." Long-term, he predicted that oil sands could account for up to 15% of EnCana's total output.
Morgan told investors EnCana plans to buy back up to 10% of its oustanding shares over the next year.
Beyond 2005, EnCana is aiming for steady but more moderate growth in oil and natural gas output, and to strike a balance between investing its cash flow in drilling, futher share buybacks and debt repayment, Morgan said.
EnCana is an oil and natural gas producer.
Write: by Tamsin Carlisle. November 2004
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DEFENSE INDUSTRY - ISRAEL
Israel to export $255 million worth of military equipment to Poland
An agreement for military industrial collaboration between Israel and Poland is to be signed Wednesday during a meeting in Warsaw between Israel's Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the Polish Economy Minister, Jerzy Hausner.
According to the plan, Poland's ground forces will be equipped with 2,765 Israeli missile and 264 personal launchers over the next 10 years, at a total cost of about $255 million.
The missiles will be sold in two models: personal launcher and a vehicle-mounted one, Haaretz reported. In addition, the Polish army intends to mount the launchers on armored cars manufactured in Finland.
Mofaz signed an agreement for strategic dialogue between Israel and Poland in his meeting in Warsaw Monday with Poland's Defense Ministry, Jerzy Szmadjdzinksi.
Mofaz and Szmadjdzinksi signed the agreement at the end of the meeting, and Mofaz invited his colleague to visit Israel. Mofaz later visited the landed forces headquarters, and delivered the first Israeli produced LR Spike anti-tank missiles, which were purchased by the Polish army, through an industrial collaboration with the Mesko Company of the Bumar group.
Source: MenaR. November 2004
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TOURISM - IRAN
Tourism revenues amount to US$ 500 million per year
Head of Iran Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) Hossein Marashi said on Monday that Iran's revenues from tourism amounts to some US$ 500 million per year. Speaking to reporters, he added that it is estimated that the figure will stand at US$ 2 billion by the end of the fourth five-year development plan (March 20005-2010). According to IRIB, he added that currently, Iran's share in the world tourism revenues is a merger 0.0001 percent. Marashi said the average growth of the tourism in the third five year development plan (March 2000-2005) stood at 6.5 percent.
Source: IRIB. November 2004
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ENERGY - ITALY
Eni Denies Report of Talks To Buy YUKOS Assets
Italian oil and gas giant Eni S.p.A (E) Wednesday denied a report that it is close to clinching a deal to acquire a key asset from troubled Russian oil titan OAO YUKOS (YUKO.RS).
"No talks are under way, and Eni hasn't submitted any bid" for YUKOS' assets, a spokeswoman for Eni said.
News agency Adnkronos reported that Italian Industry Minister Antonio Marzano has met Russian counterparts in Moscow to get approval for a transaction between the two companies.
Under the terms of such an agreement between Rome and Moscow, Eni would acquire YUKOS' unit Yukosneftegaz, the agency said, citing sources close to the deal.
Eni Chief Executive Vittorio Mincato could fly to Moscow before Christmas to ink the deal, the agency reported.
The Russian government has said in the past it plans to sell off all or part of Yuganskneftegaz, which pumps 1 million barrels of oil a day, or 60% of Yukos' oil, to pay a multi-billion dollar tax bill.
Eni had denied an interest for Yuganskneftegaz in October, but speculation about a move by the Italian state-controlled energy company persisted.
Write: by Vittorio Alessio. November 2004
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - CHINA
China vs Taiwan on IT
China is developing the means to electronically blockade rival Taiwan with attacks to the country's vital utilities, the Internet and other communications networks, a high-ranking US defense official has said.
The stern warning was issued by Richard Lawless - deputy undersecretary of defense - during a closed-door meeting with business leaders last month in the US. A copy of Lawless' speech was obtained by The Associated Press yesterday under the US Freedom of Information Act.
Lawless cautioned that if a war broke out between Taiwan and China, the first casualties might not be "brave men and women in uniform." He said China might first target things that keep Taiwan's high-tech society running.
"China is actively developing options to create chaos on the island, to compromise components of Taiwan's critical infrastructure:
Telecommunications, utilities, broadcast media, cellular, Internet and computer networks," Lawless said on Oct. 4 to the US-Taiwan Business Council.
``Taiwan could be electronically blockaded, isolated from the world, creating a kind of perfect storm in which the US could not communicate with Taiwan or Taiwan with the world,'' Lawless said during the council's meeting in the south-western city of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Lawless said such a strategy could be called an "acupuncture" attack aimed at "the destruction of a national will" with "the insertion of a hundred needles."
Beijing insists that self-ruled, democratic Taiwan is part of China and has repeatedly threatened to attack if the Taiwanese seek a permanent split or delay too long on unification.
Much of the debate over whether China will invade has focused on China's growing arsenal of destroyers, jets, submarines and hundreds of missiles aimed at Taiwan, just 160km off China's southern coast.
But in recent years, analysts have touted the possibility that China could be developing new high-tech weapons that could give the Chinese an edge over US forces -which are widely expected to help defend Taiwan.
Lawless said that several recent incidents have exposed vulnerabilities in Taiwan's critical infrastructure and communication systems and that China is aware of these weak spots.
In 1999, the loss of a single transformer station on Taiwan "left thousands without power for weeks," while a massive earthquake the same year "left Taiwan dependent on satellite communications to the outside world for more than a month."
"Many feared China would attempt to take advantage of Taiwan's ill fortune," Lawless said.
Taiwan must do more to safeguard telecommunications, fiber optics, energy supplies and major transportation arteries, and should consider allowing private agencies to assist in national defense, he said.
"Taiwan is one of the most technologically advanced societies in the world, but the expertise and wealth of experience that exists in the private sector remains largely untapped," he said.
Source:AP. November 2004
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SOFTWARE - LINUX
Four Linux Vendors Band Together
Conectiva, Mandrakesoft, Turbolinux, Progeny Form Group
Four Linux vendors have joined together to develop technology that would potentially make it easier for software makers to build products for multiple distributions of the open-source operating system.
The Linux Core Consortium, announced Wednesday, plans to develop a runtime environment and software development kit that would standardize programming of software to the interfaces of the Linux kernel. The LCC's founding members are Linux distributors Conectiva S.A., Mandrakesoft S.A. and Turbolinux Inc., and Linux services provider Progeny.
The LCC software layer would ensure that applications built for certified Linux distributions would be compatibly programmed for the Linux Standard Base 2.0 interfaces defined by the Free Standards Group.
A business application built today targets Linux distributions supported by the independent software vendor. While the software may work on other distributions, the ISV may not provide support for those products, Ian Murdock, chairman and chief strategist for Progeny, said.
A Linux distribution is the operating system's kernel, plus the open-source software a vendor will add on top. As a result, distributions differ considerably.
Rather than a software maker supporting just a couple of distributions, the LCC project looks to expand that support to any certified distributor, which would potentially give customers more flexibility in choosing and swapping vendors.
"We increase the choices that customers have in which distributor they use without sacrificing compatibility," Murdock said.
The LCC plans to release its technology and reference implementation in the first quarter of next year. The software will be incorporated in the founders' following product lines: Conectiva Enterprise Server, Mandrakesoft Corporate Server, Progeny Componentized Linux and Turbolinux Enterprise Server.
The group plans to eventually expand its work to encompass Linux standards developed by the Open Source Development Labs.
Organizations that have announced support for LCC include Computer Associates International Inc., Free Standards Group, Hewlett-Packard Co., Novell Inc., the OSDL, Red Hat Inc., the leading Linux distributor; and Sun Microsystems Inc. Despite the support, it's unclear how active the organizations will be in the effort.
Despite its inclusion as a supporter, Red Hat has not decided whether it would dedicate development resources to the LCC effort, or whether the group's technology would be integrated into Red Hat products.
"Our participation in the press release was mainly around our support of LSB," Day said.
Two of the founding members of the LCC were members of UnitedLinux, a consortium of second-tier Linux vendors that sought to pool resources around a single distribution to better compete against market leader Red Hat. The group, which included SuSE, the SCO Group, Turbolinux and Conectiva, is no longer active.
Missing from the LCC announcement is tech giant IBM, which has invested more than a $1 billion in research and products related to Linux. IBM did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: Techweb News. November 2004
Write: by Antone Gonsalves
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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - MANAGEMENT
Cisco to buy mgmt. start-up, with eye toward network unity
Cisco this week announced plans to acquire Jahi Networks, a start-up that makes network management appliances for enterprise firms.
The $16 million deal would give Cisco products and technology designed to tie together various network devices and manage them as a single system.
Closely held Jahi Networks, based in San Jose and Hyderabad, India, makes products aimed at tying together disparate network gear and providing a common management interface for switches, routers, security products and other hardware, Cisco says. Whereas enterprise network administrators commonly write custom scripts, or even whole applications, to manage different devices, the Jahi technology lets users view network gear as “virtual devices” and configure these devices through one application.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2005. Jahi Networks’ 20 employees will become part of Cisco’s Network Management Technology Group, which develops CiscoWorks network management software and other management technologies.
Making various boxes on a network behave more like a unified system has been a focus for Cisco in the last few years. Cisco says such networks would be less expensive to manage for enterprise customers, and provide greater reliability and security.
This has been the focus of Cisco Chief Development Officer Mario Mazzola, who has previously stated that Cisco is taking more of a system approach to building products, as opposed to concentrating on just feeds and speeds in network devices. "This will be necessary in the shift from [product-level] resiliency to system resiliency," he said at the company's analyst meeting late last year.
Of course, no other vendor is in a better position to do this, as Cisco owns more than two-thirds of the LAN switch and WAN router markets, according to the Dell’Oro Group. Observers say Cisco’s systems approach to network gear is aimed squeezing more revenue out of the low-growth router and switch markets by selling premium services - such as its NAC security architecture, or AVVID convergence technology - that ride on top of an end-to-end Cisco infrastructure.
And customers are buying it, analysts say. A survey in August of 100 CIOs by Goldman Sachs showed that more than 53% plan to increase their spending on Cisco gear in the next 12 months; 35% said they would spend the same, and only 12% said they would buy less Cisco gear.
Write: by Phil Hochmuth. November 2004
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LOGISTICS - FRANCE
French problems grow for TNT Logistics
According to reports in the French press, TNT Logistics has not ruled out leaving France due to the continuing poor performance of its business unit in the country. The previous country manager, Reynald Huck, has been replaced by Georges Ruiz from TNT Express in another attempt to turn around the struggling division. The decision to sack the manager had been made due to continuing problems at the unit.
Management has stated that many of the problems for TNT in France have stemmed from difficulties in integrating the three acquisitions it had made in the country, one of the biggest being Transport Nicolas. It has been indicated that TNT Logistics revenues in France are between €200-250m, of which Transport Nicolas, focused on the weak retail and consumer goods sector, accounts for around half. Whereas TNT Logistics operations throughout the rest of the world are based on higher value supply chain management, France’s operations are largely oriented around commoditised transport provision, and therefore have been particularly vulnerable to the weak economy and falling volumes.
The French operation was one of the primary reasons why the company initiated its Transformation through Standardisation turnaround strategy. However whilst the other problem units it identified (Germany, Italy non-automotive) have apparently responded well to the initiatives, the French operation has remained a challenge. At its latest third quarter presentation, management of TPG went so far as to say that France would be responsible for the division missing its profit margin targets for the year.
Write: by LuisB. November 2004
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E-BUSINESS - TRAVEL
AOL, Yahoo and MSN expanding travel offerings
AOL, Yahoo and MSN have all announced their plans to offer travel shopping comparison and booking tools on their web sites.
This is a major reversal from their prior policy not to compete with Travelocity.com and Expedia who pay each tens of millions yearly for exclusive travel bookings on AOL, Yahoo and MSN sites.
AOL is making a minority investment in interactive services company Kayak Software to get the travel search site off the ground.
"Travel is a sizable and growing area and a primary category of focus for AOL Media Networks, especially as we build out our suite of travel products both on the AOL service and the Web," said David Lebow, executive vice president of AOL Media Networks, in a statement.
The deal also further validates the travel search engine model and puts AOL on an equal footing with Yahoo, which recently launched its own travel search site, reports Dow Jones Newswire. Travel search engines allow users to type in travel destinations and dates, and then scour multiple travel Web sites for the cheapest prices. The engines then direct users to those sites to make the actual bookings. Travel vendors, like airlines or hotels, pay the search engines a marketing fee to be included in the searches.
Travel search tools differ from online travel agents, such as Travelocity and Expedia because a few popular, low-cost airlines - such as JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are available through search engines, but not travel agents.
Travelocity spokesman states that they are not overly concerned with these events and they doubt travel search engines are good for vendors or customers. And, believe that the search engines are commoditizing travel at a time when they are working hard to go in the opposite direction.
AOL says they are in close touch with Travelocity, exploring new opportunities.
Source: Media
Write: by LuisB. November 2004
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AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - CHINA
Hyundai on target to double sales
Hyundai Motor should double its sales to $US2.2 billion from a car-making venture in China this year, despite a downturn in the world's fourth-largest vehicle market.
Xu Heyi, chairman of Beijing Hyundai Automotive Corp., a 50-50 venture set up in 2002, told Reuters the company should earn revenue of 18 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in 2004 and remains on track to move 150,000 vehicles.
It will also next year start making Mercedes sedans in China with DaimlerChrysler AG, the report noted.
Reuters said Hyundai, currently fourth in the market, has said previously it wanted to sell 200,000 vehicles in China in 2005 but Xu declined to elaborate on that target.
Hyundai and its partner sold 110,862 vehicles in China in the first 10 months of this year and the car maker has said it hoped to sell 60,000 Sonata sedans and 90,000 Avantes in China in 2004, the report said.
"We haven't any unsold inventory. In fact, sales are so strong that our dealers are clamouring for product and paying for it up-front," Xu told Reuters. "We'll certainly hit our sales target for the year."
Source: Reuters. November 2004
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Wednesday, October 06, 2004
DIGITAL DIVIDE - ICT
UN task force reviews adequacy of global funding for information technologies
A United Nations task force today began examining the adequacy of funding worldwide for information and communication technologies (ICT), particularly in developing countries.
Chaired by the Administrator of the UN Development Programme, Mark Malloch Brown, the Task Force on Financial Mechanisms was born out of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) last December in Geneva.
At the event, financing of ICT for development was one of two key issues left unresolved, the other relating to Internet governance. President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal had proposed the creation of a Digital Solidarity Fund to bolster ICT in developing countries, while numerous western countries favoured using existing funding mechanisms instead.
The task force was set up to probe the matter further with a view to making a recommendation to the Summit's second phase, to be held from 16 to 19 November 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia.
Consultations during the one-day meeting in New York will involve representatives from the private sector, civil society, regional banks and commissions as well as individual experts. Inputs will also be mobilized through virtual discussions on WSIS-online.
Write: LuisB. October 2004
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E-GOVERNANCE/E-GOVERNMENT - COMMUNITY
Towards a Neo-Apartheid System of Governance in Latin America – Implications for the Community Informatics Guild
Governance today is being reconfigured by the evolving global demand for unskilled labor in the North and elite intransigence linked to limited capital inflows in the South. The emerging profile is one of dual economies wherein the wealthy dominate decision-making systems and strategic sectors while struggling to sustain a return on their investments, and the poor either emigrate or administer meager resources in the informal sector of their respective national economies. Remittance transfers now sustain this growing corpus of diaspora communities throughout the region.
This grim scenario is now widespread in the context of States under reconfiguration, moving toward a “ritual and virtual fiction” of e-governance orchestrated by shrewd and skilled elites who have responded adaptively to the challenges that information technologies represent to their historical leadership and hegemony while astutely orchestrating an “apertura democratica” that is more form than substance. Latin America with its pronounced income distribution inequities is the region where this process is quite visible. And its current intensification should belie illusions about enhancing democracy via top down, “government as online citizen administrative chores and tax payment systems” and kindred supply side information technology initiatives. E-government programs in this context may only exacerbate the current class and ethnic polarities.
Students and practitioners of “community informatics” need take this scenario into account when either designing research protocols or consulting with activist ICT non-governmental organizations who are committed to a rustic, ingenuous “better connectivity=enhanced democratic culture” strategy. The latter today too often ignores the power of national elites who have configured their regulatory regimes to favor quasi-monopolistic market dominance in cahoots with foreign IT hardware and software interests. At the same time, this innocence fails to lead to a critical perspective on the design and impact of official connectivity programs too often tailored without critical, public input in the Ministries’ chambers and much attuned to the interests of corporate hardware and proprietary software suppliers.
Today, many government subsidized connectivity projects languish in schools, libraries and public health centers where community “buy-in” is scarce, training limited, maintenance infrequent and content often irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of the local, young IT consumers. This growing population has already been weaned at the town or village cyber cafe, a regional network of mom and pop connectivity shops whose self-sustaining human and technical resources are largely ignored by the State programs. This profile of the Latin American connectivity and ineffective use pattern, suggests community informatics in this region of the South requires distinctions and caveats in any general arguments meant to apply globally, an urgent priority for forthcoming conferences on the topic.
As we slouch toward the second World Summit on the Information Society (Tunis, November 2005), Latin American States emerge from a lengthy and costly reconfiguration of public assets. Now largely privatized, these resources allow national and regional elites and capital groups (plus their foreign allies) to sustain their historical controls via modern IT-anchored mechanisms, whereby partnerships with “privatized” public entities and foreign capital partners effectively concentrate power in the key media, telecommunications and energy sectors of the respective national economies; such societies already being dramatically polarized between rich and poor. As a result, the emerging privatized Latin American State may be a ritualized fiction that sustains a democratic drama while power is increasingly concentrated and constrains any radical democratizing process (recent events in Venezuela are indicative).
In these States there is no civil service, little or no due process, limited transparency re public contracts and government budget disbursements, an elite-controlled media and telecommunications sectors, and the remittance economy has become the social safety net for the poor. The scale of the latter today permits these same elites to applaud the growing remittance flows while attenuating pressures on national social service budgets whereby “the poor appear to be able to pay their own way”. Add to this the discourse about decentralized municipal authority and it is not difficult to perceive the ruse that camouflages the concentration of effective power in these countries. Plans for the delivery of key government services via online portals may portend a “virtual State” where the programming protocols of the servers remain in the discretionary hands of a few. This is not the model of e-governance some of us may have in mind.
Write: By Scott S. Robinson. Universidad Metropolitana, México, D.F. October 2004
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E-GOVERNANCE/E-GOVERNMENT - ACTIONS
Hackers re-invent political protests
The fashionable city of Milan has become the staging area for a new breed of online social protests. Via della Pergola is only a 15 minute walk from the centre of Milan. But in a sense the street could not be farther away from the glitz that you find downtown. Here, you can find Pergola Move. It is a rambling old set of buildings that is part cafe, part restaurant, and part youth hostel. But it serves mainly as a meeting point for a loose collection of Milan's social activist groups.
Activists have been squatting in these buildings since 1990. Now, they pay rent and use the facilities for their work. Among those working here is Blicero, a computer hacker with a group called Reload. He says the members of Reload decided early on what they meant by hacking.
"For us it meant basically dismantling stuff, reducing them to components, and trying to put them back together in a way that looked like something we liked more.
"We thought that this was perfectly parallel, perfectly integrated with the idea of people who were involved with social struggle," said Blicero.
"We felt that social struggle was about taking apart social reality and building it up again in a way that is socially more interesting, or socially more right for what we think."
Social points
Reload calls it Reality Hacking. The group uses the internet, for example, to stream its own radio content.
It used the online station to get people to participate in this year's May Day marches.
Reload then teamed up with another hacker group named Molleindustria, which means soft industry.
Together, they created an online May Day march. Virtual activists could march by choosing their own character complete with different hair colours and outfits.
But predictably, many had their characters march naked.
Molleindustria also supplies simple computer games for Reload's activist projects.
The games are politically and socially charged
In Tamatipico, you try to keep your assembly line worker happy by making sure he gets enough rest, enough food, and enough time in front of the television. If your workers not satisfied, he will go on strike.
Blicero says that games like Tamatipico are first and foremost, fun.
"If you have fun, it tends to drive your attention to the thing that you're doing, and maybe stop and think about a couple of things that are happening," he said.
"I think the whole point is to make people aware of what they're actually living.
"And to have this, you have to create images, fantasies, idea, fun, things people can recognise easily and interact with easily and get near to you, talk to you, and then decide whether you're talking bullshit, or things that make sense.
Growing up
For some, like computer game expert Matteo Bittanti sips, what Reload and Molleindustria are doing is a new way of thinking about games.
Mr Bittanti is the driving force behind a series of books on video games currently being published in Italy.
To him, Molleindustria games work like a great film - you're entertained, but you come away with something more.
"I got a feeling the video game industry doesn't want to grow up," he said.
"They keep making very lame games. I mean the medium is so powerful, you can do so many things with it.
"And yet, you always end up with the same games, shooting people. I think you can do smart games that actually sell well, you have a whole generation of new game designers that have great ideas.
"And the technology's cheap, you can do very easy games that have a global view and can actually influence people."
Cyber-hippies
Others, like Noah Wardrip-Fruin, co-editor of the computer game book First Person, say these games are just that, games.
He argues that people who march in a virtual May Day parade are not involved in serious political activism.
"They aren't actually putting their physical bodies online. In a way, it's just a more dramatic way of them signing an online petition.
"And the same with people who are doing things like cyber-hippie work or things like that where they do these sort of minor attacks on military computers and things like that.
"But I think there's definitely more potential than that."
And the Reload collective is thinking ahead. It is offering workshops, and courses on hacking and on creating online radio stations that need just one microphone and one computer.
It is also exploring ways to use the internet to link up with other social activist groups, not just in Italy, but across the globe.
Source: BBC News. October 2004
Write: Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production
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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY - EVOLUTION
South Gains Ground in Intellectual Property Debate
Countries of the developing South successfully lobbied the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to incorporate development goals and consumer rights, to counterbalance the interests of powerful nations and corporations, in a resolution adopted Tuesday.
The decision by the WIPO general assembly”is a breakthrough move by the U.N. body, which has been often accused of caring more for the rights of intellectual property owners than of users, especially those in developing countries,” said a statement by Consumers International, the worldwide federation of consumer organisations.
The proposal that was approved with a few modifications was introduced by Brazil and Argentina with the backing of Bolivia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Iran, Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Venezuela.
The resolution by the general assembly not only represents a victory for the developing South, but also ”a change in culture and direction for WIPO...(which) will never be the same,” said U.S. activist James Love with the Consumer Project on Technology.
WIPO, which did not become part of the U.N. system until 1974, administers the international treaties on intellectual property and copyrights. It is unique in that it is made up of representatives of the private sector as well as the member states.
”For generations WIPO has responded primarily to the narrow concerns of powerful publishers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, plant breeders and other commercial interests,” more than 500 prominent scientists and intellectuals from around the world stated two weeks ago in a document titled ”The Geneva Declaration on the Future of the World Intellectual Property Organisation”.
Consumers International observed that the resolution that was approved by the WIPO general assembly contains many of the ideas expressed by the Geneva Declaration.
The member states cannot ignore certain complaints that have been made public, said Argentine representative Alfredo Chiaradía, who called for WIPO to become a more receptive, transparent and inclusive forum for all of its members and all sectors of civil society.
The final resolution adopted by WIPO includes the developing nations' proposal to establish a ”development agenda”.
The organisation also decided to set up a working group to examine how the new guidelines can be applied, which will hold meetings open to observers from inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations, and is to present a report on Jul. 30, 2005, to be submitted to the next general assembly, scheduled for September 2005.
WIPO also committed itself to organising a joint international seminar on intellectual property and development with other multilateral organisations like the U.N. Trade and Development Conference (UNCTAD), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.N. Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
In the final version approved by the general assembly, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was also included in the list of international bodies that will help organise the seminar, although it did not figure in the original proposal set forth by Argentina and Brazil.
Industrialised countries were initially hesitant in their reaction to the proposal, arguing that WIPO already deals with development issues through cooperation programmes with specific countries or regions, to which it has earmarked around 500 million dollars for the 2004-2005 period, 85 percent of which is covered by revenues from patent registration and copyright systems.
But Uruguayan representative Guillermo Valles underlined that the development focus advocated by the countries that backed the initiative is not limited to technical assistance or cooperation.
”A WIPO development agenda would obviously need to take into account any possible negative impact on the users of intellectual property, on consumers at large, or on public policy in general, not just the promotion of the interest of intellectual property owners,” said a delegate from India.
The group of developing nations argued that it is essential to reform the existing intellectual property treaties to ensure that they favour real transfer of technology to developing countries, and especially to those defined by the U.N. as ”least developed countries”.
Anna Fielder, Director of the Consumers International Office for Developed and Transitional Economies, said”The WIPO decision to move on this resolution is good for creators and consumers alike. We particularly welcome the willingness to look at increasing access to knowledge and technology in developing countries.”
The resolution also proposes an evaluation of the possibility of suspending negotiations on new treaties that would strengthen protection of intellectual property and place a burden on the fragile bureaucracies of developing countries.
James Love said that”For years, WIPO has pushed to expand the scope and level of intellectual property rights, and told developing countries that this would help their development.”
But ”Today WIPO supported an entirely different approach, which emphasised free and open source software, public domain goods like the human genome, patent exceptions for access to medicine, the control of anti-competitive practices, and other measures that have been ignored by WIPO for years,” he added.
Write: By Gustavo Capdevila. October 2004
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TELECOMM/INFRASTRUCTURE - AFRICA
African countries ‘denied ICT investment'
Half-hearted attempts at ICT liberalisation have denied African countries investment dollars from within and outside the continent, says Ernest Ndukwe, chief executive of the Nigerian Communication Commission.
Speaking today at the Telecoms World Africa Conference in Cape Town, Ndukwe, along with other delegates, said Africa needs to deregulate the ICT sector and called for a uniform plan to ensure a common regulatory regime and to set standards.
“Governments should never be protective of the incumbent operators to the detriment of new entrants that will establish a more competitive environment,” he noted.
Akossi Akossi, secretary general of the African Telecommunications Union, said several attempts at drafting a master plan have been made in the past, but they “came to nothing”.
“In the mobile arena, we already have one standard across Africa, namely GSM. However, this has not been emulated in other ICT areas. We need to improve infrastructure, particularly supplying broadband for Internet access and interconnection of telephone systems.”
Akossi said there needs to be a policy forum whereby regulators, governments and the private sector can come together on a continental basis to create the mechanisms that will allow a standardised telecommunications framework to be put in place.
“One obstacle has been the arbitrary changing of communications ministers and their departments in many countries. Often when these staff changes take place there is little in the way of continuity to ensure that policies worked on will be completed,” he said.
“Technology knows no geographic or political boundaries,” said Yvonne Muthien, MTN's executive director for corporate affairs. “Base stations in SA can be used for making phone calls in Botswana and those in Rwanda can be used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and parts of the Sudan.”
Muthien said a common policy framework for Africa would help to alleviate some of the confusion around using services that are based in another country.
Yasmin Carrim, MTN's group executive legal affairs, said an efficient regulatory framework helps attract foreign and domestic investors as it allows them to predict the future value of their investments.
“An inefficient framework leads to court cases and other forms of legal action that are costly and this is a big deterrent to investors. The regulator must also be perceived to be fair and that perception is vitally important,” she said.
Write: By Paul Vecchiatto. October 2004
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POVERTY ALLEVIATION - INTERNATIONAL
Battle between cultural diversity and 'Free Trade' takes shape at UNESCO
The intergovernmental conference finished early, at noon on Friday 24 September, with the rapporteur's summary of the debate. Governments are invited to submit their formal comments by 15 November. It is not fully clear whether NGO comments will also be accepted and included in the Secretariat report. The next intergovernmental will be two weeks long, commencing 31 January 2005. Clearly this will be the critical meeting for negotiation on the text and the one around which CRIS should mobilise.
Governments have appointed a bureau and a drafting committee; the latter will be an important focus for lobbying. It includes USA, France, Switzerland, Finland, Japan, South Africa, India and others. The oral report of the rapporteur was a rather bland summary and seemed to ignore all of the NGO interventions. Main points were that the draft formed a good basis for discussion that the preamble and the principles need to be fine tuned, the definitions section is rather wordy and there were differences of opinion on how this should be approached included the definitions of culture. Some delegations wanted greater attention to language and/or religion. In the main issues of the draft there were different views on Options A and B and an aspiration to find a "third way" that would achieve greater consensus. The relevance of Annexes A and B were questioned; these could well be dropped entirely. There was a tension between countries that see the convention as primarily asserting a right to defend their national culture in the face of globalisation and those that see the convention as significantly about cultural diversity within countries. Many delegations spoke positively about the importance of involving civil society. There were several reservations about creating new institutions such as the proposed observatory however others noted that the absence of any dedicated monitoring mechanism would substantially reduce the effectiveness of the treaty.
A final list of participants was distributed and should be available electronically shortly. It has full contact details, including emails, for most delegates including government representatives. This will be important for lobbying. 132 governments were represented at the meeting. International organisations listed as present were UNESCO, WIPO, UNCTAD, WTO and UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, plus 4 regional bodies. 20 NGOs were listed although a smaller number took part in the daily NGO meetings convened by the UNESCO-NGO Liaison Committee.
The UNESCO-NGO Liaison Committee took the lead role in convening NGO meetings. In addition to focusing on issues of procedure the Liaison Committee see itself as having a role in developing substantive common position statements. It issued two sets of amendments during the week and will revise and refine these before submitting formally to the UNESCO Secretariat. The UNESCO-NGO Liaison Committee is elected from the 300 or so NGOs with consultative status at UNESCO although it seems to have consulted with a smaller selected list in developing its pre-conference position. Its position was rather closely based on INCD drafting.
At the final meeting of the NGOs we agreed a number of issues around process and tactics. NGOs are strongly encouraged to submit their own proposals to the UNESCO Secretariat by 15 November (although they should be published earlier if they are to influence government positions). The Secretariat will be asked to include NGO responses as an Annex to the compilation document for the next conference. There is a need for an open list for NGOs to share papers and proposals. I offered to assist with getting this set up. Decision to be taken by the Liaison Committee next week, it was also agreed to call on the sponsoring governments (Canada is sponsoring the January/February 2005 meeting) to provide financial support for south participation.
As a general conclusion I would say civil society participation was rather weak and rather narrow - few participants, lack of experience among many, predominance of artist/producer groups, and almost complete absence of south participation. Even INCD were not sure they would get into the meeting since they don't have formal consultative status with UNESCO. The UNESCO-NGO Liaison Committee has a very broad constituency including business perspectives such as that of the Independent Publishers Association. INCD is also trying to bridge civil society interests with the small producer end of the private sector. There is certainly an opening for CRIS to play at least an equal role with groups like INCD and the Coalitions and I am sure a communication rights perspective will broaden the basis of debate.
On the substance of the convention it seems to me the outcome will be significant but it could as easily be negative as positive. A weak convention, subsidiary to other treaties, with no powers of sanction and no monitoring and enforcement bodies could still provide the diplomatic fig leaf to bring culture into GATS. This, as the International League on Human Rights state, would be worse than no convention.
Write: by LuisB. October 2004
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TECHNOLOGY - MARKET
PalmOne licenses Microsoft Exchange for mobile e-mail
PalmOne Inc. has licensed technology from Microsoft Corp. to make its devices work directly with Microsoft's Exchange e-mail server, the companies said Tuesday.
With the support for Microsoft's Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol, users of PalmOne devices will no longer need to install third-party client and server software to be able to access e-mail, calendar and contact information on a server running Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003 software, said Steve Janiak, a senior product manager at PalmOne.
The first PalmOne device to include the Microsoft technology will be a new Treo smart phone, scheduled to be available before the end of the year, Janiak said. PalmOne's license is not specific to one device or type of device, and the company may include the technology in other future products aimed at business users, he said.
Janiak does not expect PalmOne's support of Exchange Server ActiveSync to drive the vendors who currently link PalmOne devices with Exchange servers out of business.
"We think that Exchange ActiveSync is going to expand the market more than that it is going to shake other people out," he said. Users of Good Technology Inc. and Seven Networks Inc. products will probably continue to use those products because of the additional management, security and other features, he said.
The agreement with PalmOne marks the first such licensing deal for Microsoft. Support for mobile devices, previously a separate product, was included in Exchange Server for the first time with the release of Exchange Server 2003 in October last year. PalmOne and Microsoft are rivals in the handheld operating system (OS) space: PalmOne sells devices running Palm OS while Microsoft backs its own Windows Mobile software. For Microsoft, PalmOne is just another company with which it both competes and partners, albeit through different parts of the giant software company, said Chuck Sabin, a senior technical product manager at Microsoft.
"Even though PalmOne may compete with some of the manufacturers that are delivering Windows Mobile devices, from an Exchange Server perspective we have the need to support a broader range of devices," he said. Terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed.
Source: IDG News Service. October 2004
Write: by Joris Evers
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