L I R N E . N E T

The Association for Progressive Communication (APC), the Third World Institute (ITeM), and Dutch development organisation Hivos, launched the watchdog report Global Information Society Watch (GISW 2008) at the Third Internet Governance Forum in India. It is the second edition of this landmark report and focused on “access to infrastructure”.

Click here to go to the GISW 2008 report.

One of the characteristics of the ‘Information Society” is the abundance of information. The key is finding ways to navigate, to sort the wheat from the chaff. And so it is with information about the Information Society. That is why the arrival of GIS Watch is so welcome. No other publication, to my knowledge, is dedicated to monitoring the ongoing evolution of the Information Society from the perspective of civil society, and particularly the growing movements for people’s empowerment rooted in the global South.

Marc Raboy – Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications at McGill University (Canada)

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Alison Gillwald, Research Director for the LINK Centre and Research ICT Africa!, and Helani Galpaya, Director of Strategic Development for LIRNEasia, both attended the recent 2008 Global Event on Measuring the Information Society in Geneva, Switzerland on 27 – 29 May. Galpaya acted as Facilitator for the session Advancing the ICT Agenda.

Gillwald presented a first glance at the data of the just completed 2008 E-access and Household Survey of 20 African countries. The presentation can be downloaded here.

Click here to go to the event agenda, with links to all of the presentations.

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Alison Gillwald, Director of Research ICT Africa! and Helani Galpaya, Director of Strategic Development for LIRNEasia are participating in the 2008 Global Event on Measuring the Information Society of the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development.

Click here to download an Information Note on the event.

Click here to go to the Measuring ICT for Development website.

See also LIRNEasia posting for this event.

Ewan Sutherland, Research Fellow at the LINK Centre has just completed a draft study, “Counting mobile phones, SIM cards & customers.” This paper discusses the challenges of counting the number of mobile subscribers in context of the reality multiple SIM card ownership. This has implications for counting the unconnected, for roaming and mobile termination rate regulation, among others.

Click here to download the full paper in .pdf format.

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[14-15 June 2008] An Expert Forum on ICT Sector Indicators and Benchmark Regulation for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Regulatory Authorities is being organized by LIRNEasia, CONNECTasia FORUM and the International Development Research Centre of Canada (IDRC), 14-15 June 2008, Changi Village Hotel, Singapore. The focus of the Expert Forum is on using specific indicators to benchmark performance of the sector as well as the regulatory authority, and using indicator data to improve the performance of both. The latest results from LIRNEasia’s Asian Regulatory Web-site Survey, the Mobile and Broadband Price Benchmarks research and the Broadband Quality of Service Measurement research will be presented at the forum, and will set the background for broader discussion on benchmark regulation. The Asian ICT Indicators Database, developed by LIRNEasia funded by IDRC, will be introduced and hands-on training on using the database will be provided.