InternetPolicy.net

Internet Database To Track FCC Spectrum Proceedings

The FCC's Spectrum Policy Task Force (SPTF) has launched a new Internet tracking tool that will allow users to access information on the Commission's spectrum-related proceedings. The tracking tool is part of the SPTF's efforts to improve access to information on the Commission's ongoing spectrum-related proceedings and initiatives. The measure is aimed at providing the public, industry researchers and other interested parties with one place on the FCC's Web site where these proceedings and initiatives are listed, with one- or two-click access to public comments, Commission documents and other related materials.
To access the tracking tool, go to the link on the SPTF's homepage at http://www.fcc.gov/sptf/ and click on the "Proceedings & Initiatives" hyperlink. Currently, 30 ongoing proceedings are listed. From http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/9105?7649

UK gov investigating E-Bay-style ''service'' marketplace for unemployed

The British government is considering the creation of an online marketplace modeled on E-Bay, but oriented towards the trading of services rather than goods, with the aim of reducing unemployment.
http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=2751

Ireland: Report On R&D Spending

Yesterday Global E-Law Alert informs a report entitled
'Building Ireland's Knowledge Economy' from a Government committee claims that Ireland trails the leading economies when it comes to spending on R&D.

UK Distance marketing of financial services: Regulations published

Thanks out-law.com - legal news and business guides
The UK Government has published Regulations to implement the EU Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services Directive. The new rules will govern the sale of pensions, mortgages and other products on-line, by telephone, fax or mail.http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=distancemarketingo1092046406&area=news

Who benefits from the digital divide?

New information and communication technologies are seen as a potent source of advancement for many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and have increasingly featured as topics of discussion in international fora. Who benefits from the rapid rise of this issue on the international agenda? This article argues that the promotion of the digital divide as a policy issue benefits four major groups: information capital, developing country governments, the development "industry," and global civil society.

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_8/luyt/index.html

e-development? Development and the New Economy

The truly revolutionary aspect of modern ICT is that it allows information to be unbundled from its physical carrier. In short, this means that the economics of information can be separated from the economics of physical objects. This weightless or dematerialized economy means that an increasing fraction of GDP comes to reside in economic goods with little or no physical manifestation. In the new economy, a poor country is not burdened necessarily by the object gap . A lack of raw materials or physical capital is no longer the barrier to development as it was in the traditional economy.

http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/pb7.pdf

Internet woes in Ghana

Joseph Coomson attended a news conference in Accra convened by the Ghana Internet Service Providers Association and wrote an article summarizing their many complaints. Ghana Telecom's "deliberately killing indigenous Internet Service Providers (ISPs)" topped their list of grievances.

Microsoft putting their store on "start" menu

Some may consider this an abuse of their dominant position in operating systems, but Joris Evers tells the IDG News Service that Microsoft "is working on a new shopping Web site for software, hardware, and peripherals that it plans to advertise in the Windows XP Start Menu and the Internet Explorer Web browser. Called 'Windows Marketplace,' the Web site is slated to go live for US Windows users by year's end, according to Microsoft... The link in Internet Explorer will be made through Windows XP Service Pack 2, which is expected out in the coming weeks... Windows Marketplace is a US-only initiative for now, however plans for international expansion are in the works, the spokesman said."

EU blueprint for broadband mobile services

"Accessing everything you need at [the] head office from a computer in the field is fast becoming vital to the efficiency of both private enterprise and public services. A policy blueprint to ensure that data can be accessed anytime, anywhere across the EU, and that the EU retains its lead in this area, is set out in Mobile broadband services, a Commission Communication issued today. The challenges ahead include ensuring that services can be supplied seamlessly to a variety of devices, making the technologies and networks that carry them interoperable, and providing adequate intellectual property protection for services with high value-added content. [In addition, these problems need to be solved:...]

• E-payments – prudential rules governing the use of 'e-money,' where relevant to mobile payments, need to be applied in a proportionate and risk-sensitive manner;
• Base stations and masts – action is required to address regulatory barriers to their establishment in some Member States;
• Spectrum policy - a co-ordinated European approach towards availability and flexible usage is needed."

[From an EU news release.]

Mideast: boom in online advertising

AME Info in Dubai reports that "advertising spending online has doubled in the [first half of 2004]. This makes online advertising and sponsorship the fastest-growing media in the Middle East, albeit from a low base."