L I R N E . N E T

The CPRsouth3 conference, Transformation Strategies for Telecom Operators, offers researchers the opportunity to discuss their work on information and communication technology (ICT) regulation and policy in the South with a policy-oriented, international audience. Alongside the conference, tutorial sessions will be held on the fundamentals of technology, markets, regulation, and policy.

CPRsouth3 is organised by LIRNEasia & the School of Economics and Management (SEM), Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication (BUPT), supported by the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC)

For more information: info [at] cprsouth.org
Click here for conference information.
Click here to go to the CPRsouth website.

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It is naturally assumed that evidence based research and indicators feed into policymaking. However, the degree to which these do enter into policy process discourses and influence policymaking is rarely documented. This week, LIRNEasia had a big win in their attempts to introduce the issue of lowering intra-SAARC call charges into the agenda of inaugural session of the 15th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC). Although they were told it was too late to introduce the issue via the technical committees, LIRNEasia appears to have succeeded not only in getting it into the agenda, but into the SAARC Chairman’s speech! As part of a multifaceted strategy, in addition to documenting and making price benchmarks available online, LIRNEasia also worked to ensure that the story was covered in the media of different SAARC countries. As noted by LIRNEasia, the real success will be when the rates are actually lowered to levels that are not above extra-SAARC rates.

Click here for LIRNEasia pricing benchmarks.
Click here for LIRNEasia post with links to media coverage on this issue and here for the post on the SAARC agenda.
Click here for the full text of the speech by Sri Lankan President and SAARC chairman Mahinda Rajapaksa.

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LIRNEasia has released a report on the challenges and benefits of being a virtual organisation (VO). In order to be able to undertake research in a number of different countries and also to have policy influence across the Asia Pacific region (and beyond), it was imperative that LIRNEasia adopt virtual organisation strategies. To make their experiences useful for others, LIRNEasia has documented their efforts, outcome and lessons learned. The report is intended for any research/civil society (or even private sector or government) organisation, with limited staff, and which intends to work from geographically distant locations. It is also useful for project-based organisations with limited overhead budgets.

Click here to download the full report.

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[17 May 2008] LIRNEasia’s Executive Director, Rohan Samarajiva, will speak at the International Conference on Information, Communication and New Media & the First Annual Convention of the Information and Communication Association of Taiwan, being held in Taipei.

Samarajiva’s presentation will be made available on the LIRNEasia website.

[13 May 2008] Natasha Udu-gama will conduct a Colloquium on the LIRNEasia Disaster Project, which will elaborate the SMS module for this project.

The Colloquium will begin at 4.00 p.m. Sri Lankan time and will be blogged in real time via the LIRNEasia website.

To participate in this event via Skypecast, please register in advance with Lara Alawattegama.
Contact: alawattegama [at] lirne [dot] net