InternetPolicy.net

MARID fighting spam

"The Internet's premier standards-setting body is making its first attempt to develop messaging technology aimed at reducing the amount of spam," writes Carolyn Duffy Marsan in ComputerWorld (Singapore). "Having researched spam for more than a year, the Internet Engineering Task Force recently formed a working group that will develop a standard mechanism to eliminate spam that uses a spoofed sender address. 'Identifying the sender of email won't eliminate 100 per cent of the spam problem, but (it) may get 50 per cent to 80 per cent,' says Paul Mockapetris, a former IETF chair and the inventor of the Internet's DNS...

"The IETF's new working group plans to develop a DNS-based mechanism for storing and distributing information that authorises an email server to send messages from a particular domain or network. The group is dubbed MARID... MARID could be controversial, as it is expected to choose between authentication schemes backed by email giants Microsoft, Yahoo and others... Microsoft says it will submit to the IETF its Caller ID for Email Specification, which outlines a scheme for thwarting email address spoofing. Yahoo is expected to submit an alternative proposal called DomainKeys, which use digital signatures to authenticate email servers...

"Even MARID supporters say this approach is not likely to be the ultimate solution for spam. MARID only addresses spam that comes from a spoofed email address. And it will only work when email servers activate new features that would let them determine the source of email that contains spam. That's why the [Internet Research Task Force's] Anti-Spam Research Group is exploring other ways to eliminate spam..."

Internet reviving US libraries

From Slashdot: "The New York Times' Steve Lohr reports on the effects of the Internet on public libraries, namely that the installation of Internet-connected computers have been largely responsible for a rebirth in public libraries and increasing attendance, particularly by 'teenagers, people age 50 and older and members of ethnic minorities' as well as low-income patrons without computers at home. According to a University of Washington study, 'A year after computers are put in libraries that do not have them, visits rise 30 percent on the average and attendance typically remains higher'. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - which funds PC-based Internet library projects - features prominently in the article, including the criticism that it is 'a Microsoft marketing exercise masquerading as philanthropy.'"

Statement on US net tax

The US Consumer Internet Access Coalition (CIAC) issued a statement yesterday "urging the Senate to support compromise legislation sponsored by US Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) that will extend the moratorium on taxing Internet access for four more years..." Most of CIAC's members are trade associations, ISPs, consumer groups and major corporations. See their website for details.

Can we connect every village?

Run - do not walk - over to First Monday and read Larry Press' "The Internet in developing nations: Grand challenges."

Ethiopia: racing on one leg to catch up

"Although Ethiopia was active in developing a national ICT policy for sometime, it has remained one of the slowest in terms of translating policy efforts into concrete actions," says the UN's Economic Commission for Africa. But things are starting to change, now that a National ICT Development Authority has been created.

Quoting The Daily Monitor, a newspaper in Addis Ababa, Balancing Act's News Update #205 says: "A nationwide broadband infrastructure aimed at reaching over 600 woredas is under construction throughout the country, officials of the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) disclosed at the Addis Ababa Hilton last Thursday. The officials said that the multimillion dollar project is being constructed using the latest satellite communications technology. 'We at ETC say "Dream No more!!"...

"Ato Asfaw Haile Mariam, IT and Data System Department Head at ETC said that the broadband infrastructure being constructed in the country is a three-pronged initiative encompassing Broadband VSAT, Broadband Multimedia and Broadband Internet... He said that the currently being constructed technology will help Ethiopia to have a town-to-town network infrastructure even in remote areas... Asfaw also indicated that using the latest satellite communication technology, 454 high schools, 620 woredas and 36 Agricultural Research Centers across the country will benefit from this network."

AllAfrica.com then picked up a related story: "Neuronet, a local private IT company, has successfully accomplished the first ever held nationwide basic computer training programme given for over 3,000 high school teachers and government employees across [Ethiopia], company's Project Office Manager Getachew Wolde told The Daily Monitor... UNDP had awarded the project for Neuronet, after screening technical and financial proposal of about twenty two IT companies... Sirak said that the training program will extend up to 2006, where the trainees who took the basic training will also be given advanced courses.... The 35 day, eight hour long training, carried out by Neuronet was finalized last Sunday..."

This is wonderful, but other questions remain: when will ISPs other than ETC be allowed to own and operate VSAT links? and will access to foreign net sites continue to be filtered? (Teklemichael Tefera, head of the Library IT Centre at Addis Ababa University, acknowledged last year that all Internet data "goes through a central government proxy...at Ethiopia Telecom" to stop VoIP connections and block access to "unwanted sites.")

DMCA a problem for search engines

Following up our item on search service liability for helping users find illegal content, Slashdot and BeSpacific both point to an essay by Craig W. Walker in the current issue of the Virginia Journal of Law & Technology - "Application of the DMCA Safe Harbor Provisions to Search Engines":

"Unfortunately, applying the DMCA safe harbor provisions to search engines is problematic. Key portions of the statute refer to 'subscribers' and 'account holders,' making their application to search engines unclear because search engines typically do not have subscribers or account holders. The lack of a subscription relationship also seems to make search engines more likely than other types of service providers to remove content overzealously after notification. Finally, the combination of the unique importance of search engines for most Internet users and the availability of other means for copyright owners to protect their interests suggests that the burden of complying with the safe harbor procedures should not be placed on search engines. A better alternative would be for Congress to grant search engines complete immunity from contributory liability for infringing activities by third parties..."

Offshoring: the most attractive countries

An article in the current edition of Knowledge@Wharton drew our attention to A. T. Kearney's 2004 Offshore Location Attractiveness Index, issued at the end of last month. Definitely worth reading as it explains why lower costs are no longer the only consideration:

India remains the star performer in the 2004 offshore index. It once again captured the top spot by a comfortable margin, due to its strong mix of low costs and significant depth in human resources...

China's vast labor pool and low costs secured it second place in the index, although it lags behind India in terms of experience and other key factors such as IT and management education, language skills, concerns about intellectual property and overall country risk.

Malaysia and the Czech Republic, third and fourth in the index, had almost identical scores. While offering costs competitive with other Asian locations, Malaysia is a rising alternative to India and China, benefiting from a well-developed, low-cost infrastructure and strong government support. The Czech Republic offers European clients low costs, good language skills and cultural similarities, competitive infrastructure, and a stable political and economic environment. It is well-positioned for companies that have a growing interest in regional or near-shore outsourcing in Europe.

Fifth place in the index went to Singapore. Although not typically considered a low-cost location, Singapore remains a favored destination for regional service functions due to its excellent education and language skills, superior infrastructure and pro-business tax and regulatory environment.

Next on the top 10 offshore location list is the Philippines, reflecting the continuing attractiveness of emerging Asia as an offshore destination. The country provides experienced and talented low-cost labor.

Brazil ranks highest among Latin American countries in terms of people skills and availability...

Canada ranks eighth in the Index. Compared to the United States, Canada is a lower cost, low-risk environment, with similar or even superior education and infrastructure...

Chile has Latin America's best business environment score and is focusing on improving its workers' English language skills.

Rounding out the top 10 is Poland (with Hungary in close contention at number 11), demonstrating the increasing attractiveness of Eastern Europe as an offshore location, thanks to its highly educated, scientifically oriented and relatively low-cost workforce..."

Even though the way this year's Index was calculated is different from last year's, some changes in leadership are worth noting: China jumped from 11th place to 2nd, even before the Ministry of Science and Technology launched its drive to win outsourcing contracts from the US and Europe. Meanwhile Mexico, Hungary, Ireland, Australia and Russia fell out of the top 10 altogether. Competition for back-office jobs is certainly heating up.

EC: 21m euros for African ICT

From PublicTechnology.net: "A € 21 million [European] Commission programme aims to cut the costs of trade and investment, and thereby stimulate economic growth and promote integration, in Eastern and Southern Africa, by investing in information and communications technologies (ICT). The programme builds on several ICT initiatives already undertaken by regional bodies in West, Central and Eastern Africa (including COMESA, EAC, IGAD and IOC)... Funds will be devoted to:

• providing high-speed internet connectivity to key regional stakeholders;
• establishing regional internet portals, information clearing houses and database-driven websites for use by both businesses and policy-makers;
• funding ICT training for employees in small- and medium-sized enterprises; and
• developing ICT policy guidelines through working groups co-ordinated at a regional level."

DARPA looking beyond TCP/IP

Over at CommsDesign.com, Rick Merritt writes: "In a handful of high-level programs, the [US] Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is pushing beyond Ethernet and Internet Protocol to hammer home the message that peer-to-peer networks—intrinsically more efficient than end-to-end topologies—are the future, and the future is now. DARPA is pushing toward a world of ultralow-cost, low-power, ad hoc mesh networks. The programs are part of a broad military drive toward ubiquitous computing based on next-generation networks, including RFID and wireless sensor nets.

"At the Wireless Ventures conference here last week, Preston Marshall, a program manager in DARPA's Advanced Technology Office, moved the spotlight away from the rise of today's 802.11 networks in the business world, saying in keynote that an improvement of five orders of magnitude is needed. 'We get trapped by the vision of Internet Protocol like it's some sort of theocracy when in fact there are much better models,' he said...

"DARPA is doing its part in at least four major programs now under way. One program is developing so-called connectionless networks using new physical layer chips and protocols that could reduce the energy requirements for communications three-hundredfold. The program includes experiments using silicon-on-sapphire technology to reduce energy requirements in oscillators and mixers.

"Another program aims to create systems that automatically scan the airwaves in real-time for available spectrum in which it can set up and tear down ad hoc networks in hundreds or even tens of milliseconds. The project includes development of a machine-readable policy language as the basis for its software. 'This opens up hundreds of megahertz of new spectrum without new licensing,' said Marshall, adding that the DARPA program is working in conjunction with the Federal Communications Commission's efforts in so-called cognitive radio.

"A parallel project is exploring delay-tolerant networks based on work at NASA. In this scheme individual nodes collaborate to form complex relationships forwarding data reliably but without knowledge of the overall topology of the network...."

Bush for "permanently tax-free" broadband

According to Reuters, "US President George W. Bush on Monday [today] will call for making high-speed Internet access more affordable... Bush will use a speech in Minneapolis to promote his high-tech agenda, including plans to provide universal access to high-speed Internet, known as broadband, by 2007. He will order federal agencies to make it easier for companies to deploy the service and he will prod Congress to make access to broadband permanently tax-free..."