L I R N E . N E T

Alison Gillwald, director of the Research ICT Africa (RIA!) network, in her article published in Business Day observes “the significance of the communications ministry’s decision to appeal against a recent high court ruling setting aside certain prohibitions in the telecommunications sector and the upholding of the automatic conversion of rights into the new licensing regime may have been lost.”

With the bottom three quintiles of South Africans paying close to 20% of their income on communications, according to a recent national survey by Research ICT Africa!, against 5% in peer economies, consumers and businesses may well ask what drives the continued defence of the policy of “managed liberalisation”, of which high prices and poor access are the outcome.

Click here to read the full Business Day article by Gillwald.

Click here to download the RIA policy brief: South Africa - Policy vs. Performance, ICT Access & Usage in South Africa (in .pdf)

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The organizers of the 3rd IEEE/ ACM International Conference on ICT and Development, ICTD2009 Conference (17-19 April 2009 at the Carnegie-Mellon campus in Doha, Qatar), would like to spur reflective dialogue among researchers and between researchers and development practitioners. Therefore a small number of panels will be chosen to be added to the program.

Panel proposals are invited that will add to the emerging ICTD discipline by having multiple points-of-view reflect on issues that affect the practice of ICTD research and its relationship to development practice. Therefore key assessment criteria we will use to evaluate the panel proposals are:

1. Does it reflect on a novel or unresolved issue in the practice of ICTD research?
2. Does it reflect on a novel or unresolved issue in disseminating or scaling the results of ICTD research into general practice?
3. Does it introduce challenges in the practice of development that ICTD research has yet to address adequately?

Deadline for proposals: 2 November 2009.

Click here to go to the ICTD2009 conference website.
Click here for author instructions.

See also post on Richard Heek’s IEEE Computer article on ICT4D 2.0.

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During the ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 (Bangkok, Thailand, 2-5 September), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) launched the new Asia-Pacific Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report - “Broadband in Asia-Pacific: Too much, too little?” The Report focuses on broadband connectivity as a vehicle for content to drive development and build a knowledge-based information society.

• Click here for the Asia-Pacific Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report press release
• Download the flyer (pdf format)
• Presentation at ITU Telecom Asia 2008

The ITU has also released its first statistical report on the Use of Information and Communication Technology by the World’s Children and Youth, which the ITU expects to update every four years.

Click here to download [free] report on Use of ICT by the World’s Children and Youth.

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The 6th Annual Caribbean Internet Forum will be held in Trinidad from 29-31 October at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port of Spain. The Main theme of the event is Mobile Internet for Development.

Dr. Kim Mallalieu (University of the West Indies and DIRSI member), will chair two sessions, Caribbean Innovations for the Mobile Internet, and Next Generation Policy and Regulation. Dr. Hopeton S. Dunn (Director, TPM Programme, Mona School of Business and DIRSI member), during the latter session will present, Next Generation Policy and Regulation: Key Challenges.

LIRNE.NET founder and advisor, Professor W.H. Melody, will present the conference keynote address.

Click here to go to the CIF 2008 website.

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The University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication research seminar by Joe Straubhaar and Jeremiah Spence (both of University of Texas at Austin) is available for online viewing.

“This talk will trace the waves of thinking in Brazil about digital inclusion in terms of social thinking, policy choices, technology choices and programs, as well as the adoption of technology at local and national levels. We will compare Brazilian thinking about digital and social inclusion with that of the U.S. and Europe. We will examine the impact of social networking in Brazil, including how it has accelerated Internet use deeper into society. We will also look at how some very new technologies, like virtual worlds, are being used to address concrete social problems like distance education for teachers.”

This talk is part of the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication speaker series.
Click here to view the presentation From digital inclusion to social networks and virtual worlds in Brazil.

Click here for the USC Annenberg School for Communication Event Calendar.

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The Graduate School of Public & Development Management and the LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Afreica are proud to inform that applications to join the January 2009 Master of Management in ICT Policy and Regulation degree programme are now open.

Click here for the programme brochure.

Contact Sue-Ellen Donough at the Admissions Office on +27 11 717-3698.

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LIRNEasia seeks self-motivated and quality-conscious individuals to fill the following two vacancies: Researcher / Project Manager and a Junior Researcher.

Click here for more information about the two open positions.

Deadline for applications: 5 October 2008.

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