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Winter 2014 Issue 48 |
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Information
and Communications Technology Controls Report 2013–14 This audit assessed information and communications technology
(ICT) Controls in the Victorian public sector. Overview The Auditor-General is the external auditor of The five themes identified through our ICT audits were: ICT security controls need improvement management of service organisation assurance activities requires
attention prior-period audit findings are not being addressed in a timely
manner patch management processes need improvement ICT disaster recovery planning is weak. In future reports, we will perform detailed maturity assessments
of selected entities' ICT environments and examine some selected areas of
focus, such as identity and access management, software licensing and
wireless network security. From
http://apo.org.au/
Top 10 Key ICT Trends Set
to Impact Regional Market International
Data Corporation (IDC) envisions 2015 will be a year of accelerating
innovation on the 3rd Platform. “While the smartphone component of IT
spending continues to grow in Asia Pacific,” explains Shyne-Song Chuang,
Program Director, Cross-Pillar, Security and Technology Advisory Service
Research Group, IDC Asia/Pacific. “Its relative size is plateauing as
enterprises shift gears to focus on efficient workflows on both employee and
enterprise-owned devices; web scale cloud systems built by agile development
teams to enable new business capabilities and systemic improvements on the
journey to becoming a true data driven enterprise. Not forgetting
personalised digital experiences as well as branded Internet of Things (IoT)
that provide an unprecedented customer experience.” Following the Chuang’s
observations, IDC revised IT spending growth in the Asia/Pacific, excluding IT spending
growth for the rest of the 2014-2018 forecast period however is expected to
climb upwards to 6.4% in 2017. IDC expects the APeJ region to remain a most
reliable engine for growth with multinational companies (MNCs) and Asian
enterprises alike continuing to relentlessly look to 1) US$15B of
government funding in 2015 will turn ICT plans into battlefields innovators In 2015, IDC
expects government ICT investments to be focused on the consolidation and
streamlining of scarce ICT resources; the attainment of better management
tools for effective decision making; and cyber-security. In the next two to
three years, IDC expects several regional authorities to utilise new sourcing
models for transformational ICT such as 3rd platform technologies (i.e.
cloud, Big Data/ analytics, mobility and social); continued Smart City programs;
connected smart machines and intelligent sensors (i.e. edge computing); and
IoT. 2) 60% of
enterprises in 2015 will structure IT into core vs Lines of Business (LoB) IT In 2015, IDC
predicts that 60% of enterprises will structure their IT departments into two
functional groups: Core IT and a separate LoB IT function. For larger
organisations, these groups will become physically distinct entities, but for
most Asia Pacific enterprises this separation will be logical, as the two
kinds of roles will be distinctly different but the reporting structure may
not differ. 3) The software-defined battle lines will get
defined in 2015 The hybrid
cloud, or federated datacenter is still the current architecture of choice
for organisations trying to align their IT infrastructure to the demands of
the business. Looking ahead to 2015 and based on the IDC Asia/Pacific
Transformative Infrastructure (TI) Index, between 20-25% of all organisations
will already have adopted Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Software-Defined
Storage (SDS) or with Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC) to deliver on the
hybrid cloud architecture (such as automation, show back and service catalog
capabilities) across the region. 4) The agile development team will be in high
demand in 2015 with growth in DevOps adoptions IDC's IT
Services Survey found that 45% of businesses are undergoing or planning to
undergo application modernisation projects. Their ability to scale up 3rd
Platform adoption will require changes to IT operation that bring agility and
overcome siloed legacy systems. This need for speed will bring the first big
wave of DevOps adoption in the region and will make agile development the
de-facto norm. 5) The digital experience in 2015 will
separate market leaders from followers - Agility is the new business hygiene Organisations
are experimenting with “immersive experiences” and virtual brand experiences.
These initiatives attempt to drive different conversations, promote digital
channels, reduce the cost per transaction, and positively change the brand
and perception of the organisation. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the
overall customer experience. IDC predicts that in 2015, the digital
experience will separate market leaders from followers. Agility will become
the new business hygiene. 6) 3rd Platform technology mash-ups go on
steroids in 2015, driving new business models and fundamental organisational
change The mash-ups
of Cloud, Social Business, Big Data Analytics and 7) Creating new markets with branded IoT During the
past year, IDC has witnessed an explosion in the consumer wearables market
with new fitness bands, smart watches and smart clothing being launched from
traditional OEM vendors and a multitude of tech startups and 3rd
platform-born players. IDC believes that in 2015, the market will see a flux
of consumer IoT embedded into consumer retail brands/products. Partnerships
between IoT vendors (including ODM/OEM manufacturers) and non-tech consumer
goods’ brands will emerge rapidly to create a sizable market opportunity for
the IT industry. 8) Personalised businesses will thrive on
disruptive platforms in 2015 In 2015, IDC
predicts that there will be an influx of cloud-based, business-led innovation
platforms to support the growing need for personal digital services and
businesses across multiple sectors and industries. These personal services
deliver a new level of customer experience that has become the new norm. Many
of these will leverage cloud-based, business-led innovation platforms to
support this growing need. 9) Data whisperers will emerge in 2015 driving
the shift to a data-driven enterprise While
technology is a critical component of business success, becoming a
data-driven organisation is about more than just investing in the right
technologies. This transformation needs to be complemented with a cultural
shift toward analytically oriented decisions and processes. IDC predicts that
in the next three years, those who fail to adopt a data-driven strategy will
no longer be able to effectively meet consumer demands. 10) Service providers will compete
aggressively in 2015 for world dominance with the support of Big Data and
analytics Big Data and
analytics will be a major weapon for service providers in 2015. Those that
are able to attract consumer transactions and assets will have a much deeper
arsenal to work with. The service provider industry is transforming and the
self-defining entities within it will emerge from a wide variety of heritage.
The American mega-providers will continue to lead in the near term, but other
and more organisations will challenge that position. IDC predicts that the
battle for global dominance of the consumer will be defined in the coming
year. From Why
2015 will be a year of accelerating innovation on the 3rd Platform across From http://www.computerworld.co.nz
Cyberspace is often described as the fifth domain of military
activity, equally critical to European Union (EU) Common Security and Defence
Policy (C SDP) implementation as the domains of land, sea, air, and space. The
successful implementation of CSDP has been increasingly dependent on the
availability of, and access to, a secure cyberspace. Robust and resilient
cyberdefence capabilities are now required to support CSDP structures and
CSDP missions and operations. The European Council Conclusions on CSDP of
December 2013 together with the Council Conclusions on CSDP of November 2013
called for the development of an EU Cyber Defence Policy Framework, on the
basis of a proposal by the High Representative, in cooperation with the
European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA). The objective of
this document is to provide a framework to the European Council and Council
conclusions, as well as to the cyber defence aspects of the EU Cybersecurity
Strategy. The document identifies priority areas for CSDP cyber defence and
clarifies the roles of the different European actors, whilst fully respecting
the respective responsibilities and competences of Union actors and the
Member States as well as the institutional framework of the EU and its
autonomy of decision-making. From
http://statewatch.org/
China hopes to construct a global network during the upcoming
G20 summit that will track corrupt officials who had fled the country, a
Chinese foreign ministry official said yesterday.At the APEC economic leaders
meeting in Beijing earlier this week, member economies had reached a crucial
deal on tracking down corrupt officials on the run, recovering illegal funds
and denying entrance of suspects into their territories, Zhang Jun, head of
the international economy department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told
reporters yesterday."If the G20 also takes a step forward in this
respect, we would be able to form a global network in the anti-corruption
area," Zhang said.He said it was a consensus of members to put the
anti-corruption issue on the agenda of the G20 summit to be held in Brisbane
at the weekend. Zhang said 18 of the G20 members are also members of the UN
Convention Against Corruption, while the G20 has set up a work panel on
combatting corruption.China has been stepping up its fight against corruption
as it tries to bring more fugitives to justice."Under the current
situation, it's a very important part of the global anti-corruption effort to
establish a worldwide anti-corruption network," Zhang said.He cited
statistics from the World Bank that bribery worldwide costs businesses roughly
US$1 trillion every year."Just imagine if that was not in the hands of
corrupt people, how many things it could be used on and how much in economic
returns it could bring about," Zhang said.As anti-corruption work is
closely linked to the growth of the global economy, it is a legitimate item
on the G20 agenda, Zhang said. From http://www.news.cn/
This social media platform enables citizens to easily come
together for taking the cleanliness campaign forward. New Delhi: Seeking to
convert ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ into a ‘Jan Andolan’, the Ministry of Urban
Development has enabled an online platform to enable the citizens network
with each other locally and at national level to collectively take up
cleanliness activities. In this regard, the Ministry is taking the help of
‘LocalCircles’, a community social media platform. A national circle, ‘Swachh
Bharat’ has been launched and already 1,70,000 citizens have joined this
circle. This social media platform enables citizens to easily come together,
exchange ideas on cleanliness, take up appropriate cleanliness activities in
their neighborhoods, share pictures of collective efforts, engage with
elected representatives and take the cleanliness campaign forward. The From
http://southasia.oneworld.net/ The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will conduct a
detailed survey of consumption trends for 22 items such as e-books and music
sold through the Internet, according to sources. The survey is set to begin
in January next year. It is believed the results of the survey, which should
provide a more complete picture of overall consumer spending, may boost the
nation’s gross domestic product numbers. Because of the spread of
smartphones, the e-commerce market is rapidly expanding. Firms are also
expected to utilize the survey results to get a more accurate picture of the
growing market. The ministry surveys about 8,700 households every month to
determine family income and daily spending. It also surveys about 30,000
households a month to determine monthly spending and consumption trends. In
next year’s survey on household Internet spending, target households will be
asked about monthly expenditures for each of the 22 items, which include
digital contents such as music, e-books, and reservations for accommodations
and flight tickets, as well as groceries, clothes and books bought on the
Internet. According to the ministry, few people regard the purchase of
smartphone applications and digital contents as consumption, and it estimates
total online expenditures will swell to between ¥4 trillion and ¥5 trillion
when such consumption is surveyed in detail. From
http://the-japan-news.com
Six months after hosting governance conference The platform has been described as a "meeting point",
where stakeholders will be able to put ideas forward, discuss them and
attract the support to make them reality if necessary. In that sense, the WEF
support icomes in handy, given its reach within the business community. But
the initiative's "caretakers" CGI and ICANN, as well as supporter
WEF, will not be responsible for any activities regarding the selection of
financing of the projects and are keen to stress the collaborative nature of
the initiative. To that end, the organizations have started a process of
putting together the group's coordinating council and this will be done
through a nomination process, open until December 6. Some 20 individuals from
all continents - from governments and academia/technology experts to private
sector and the civil society - will take part in the Council. In addition,
the CGI and ICANN will take two seats each, while the WEF and the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) will take up individual seats in the coordinating
group for the initiative. Demi Getschko, board member at the CGI and chief executive at
the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br), highlighted that the
individuals that, as well as the organizations that kickstarted the
initiative, the Council will have no decision-making function other than
ensuring that the platform functions properly. "All Council members will
also have to support and agree with the principles that came out of the
NETmundial meeting in The NETmundial initiative follows a conference with the same
name, organized by the Brazilian government and held in Local Internet steering group CGI was responsible for a
manifesto document that described principles for Web use and governance and
was ultimately used as a foundation for The Internet pioneer adds that the fact these discussions
started in From
http://www.zdnet.com/
In the first of this three part series, Jim Love, CIO and Chief
Digital Office for IT World Canada interviews Mike Rollings, Research VP for
Gartner Inc. discuss Skills, Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age. The
move to Digital Business requires some fundamentally different skills as the
nexus of Cloud, Social, In the second of this three part series, Jim Love, CIO and Chief
Digital Office for IT World Canada interviews Mike Rollings, Research VP for
Gartner Inc. discuss Skills, Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age. We
talk about the importance of Leadership language and behaviour. We discuss
the hidden messages that we pass on to our staff and the impact that it has.
We look at what changes are necessary from recruiting and interviewing to day
to day management. Keeping the right people requires addressing more than
money – passion, contribution and purpose are as important or perhaps more
important than title and compensation. Even organizations that can’t compete
on pay can still attract great people by offering personal development and
enabling the employees to fulfil their true passions. CIOs need to take a
long look at their own skills. The skills that made us successful in the past
might not be what it takes to be successful tomorrow. From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
A new Bloomberg study of 20 civic tech groups around the world offers
tips on how to institutionalize innovation into a working framework. That's
why Bloomberg Philanthropies is attempting to put more definition in the word
by analysis. In a co-authored study with investment and research firm Nesta,
Bloomberg studied the workings of 20 civic tech innovation groups and
funneled their insights into a package of 10 tips for cities. The idea:
institutionalize some of the ingenuity of innovation, or at the very least,
assemble a kind of framework. The study sits atop numerous interviews, site
visits, surveys and a range of analysis. Strategies of the study groups,
called “i-teams,” have been evaluated, cultures have been studied, staff
skills categorized, impacts and approaches set to yard sticks. Staff sizes of
the teams ranged from as low as three all the way up to 200, with a median
staff size of roughly 42 people. In terms of public-sector investment, the
report showcased levels of government funding for the groups, starting at
$330,000 and rising as high as $151 million. In addition to the observational field study, the report
includes six months of office research about the groups that represent only
teams set inside, funded from or established by government. 1. Eye the Goal Aligned with the notion to “begin with the end in mind,” the
first tip is to craft an innovation group based on a clear goal (or goals).
Four of these goals surfaced in the study. The first was to solve specific
problems -- such as those emphasized by leadership. The second prioritized a
grab for citizen and business engagement in civic processes. A third, called
a long-term approach, sought to invest in innovative capabilities of
departments and staff. The fourth and final goal, identified from research,
was when an innovation team is tasked to refresh whole systems in policy,
business models, technology or behavior. 2. Grab Buy-in from Above Without connected and constant endorsement from leadership,
innovation teams are vulnerable. Teams can burst against bureaucratic
barriers, languish in a vacuum or wilt under a demand for “business as
usual.” The report suggests innovating departments and organizations thrive
best when yoked to“authorizing powers,” and especially, when housed inside
offices of governors, mayors and senior officials. As a cautionary side note,
it was dually emphasized that clout should be a last resort for innovators
who must lean on partnerships. persuasion and dialogue. 3. Mix Skills One of the key ingredients to innovation is having lots of
ingredients. Specifically, this means snagging skills outside of government
-- the private sector, academia, non-profits and such. 4. Funnel Money Creating a lean funding model for innovation isn’t just thrifty,
it’s strategic. And though it appears counterintuitive (for example, how can
deep pockets ever be a burden?), when put in practice the study says big
budgets are problematic. Fellow departments can point to robust innovation
funding as reason to disengage, deferring ownership or responsibility of a
project for a comparative “lack of resources.” “The point isn’t [for
innovation teams] to own programs or the associated budgets, but to help
galvanize resources, talent, and creativity across the system,” 5. Ensure Value Valuable service is best seen when it hasn’t been seen before.
For innovation teams this translates into actions that illustrate positive
contrast against current culture and expertise. Duplicating efforts and
inventing rounder wheels are pitfalls to be avoided, the report notes. If
innovation teams desire access to department budgets, they need to deliver an
inventiveness, culture, insight and forward-thinking mindset that doesn’t
already exist. It’s a critical and precautionary warning. The study
emphasizes problems that can stem from political leadership changes while
emphasizing solid communication to shield teams from naysayers and
administrative concerns. 6. Be Exact Part of breaking from the herd involves an explicit and separate
way of getting things done, whether it's through the sharpness of data, an
outpouring of community involvement methods, iterative solutions or another
method at problem solving. Specificity demystifies processes while
establishing teams. Methods can be combined, but should foster a
predicability. 7. Act and Iterate Nothing gets done if someone doesn’t do something. An admittedly
obvious statement, but not so opaque when pitted against approval pyramids,
competing goals and the daily back and forth of office work. Success, which
is to say productivity, requires a default to action, iteration and rapid
experimentation. Early wins and small successes are the mortar in the
process. One way to incentivize action is to first secure freedom for quick
action from leadership, and next, to limit a team’s initial lifespan to three
to five years. The short timeline raises stakes for a team to prove its
worth. “Some of it is about creating and maintaining momentum,” 8. Use Handoffs Innovation teams take on the role of “in-house innovation
consultants,” as they hop from one priority area to the next. Teams aren’t
meant to maintain and manage projects. They jumpstart and transition. It’s
why the study advocates clear handoffs to other departments and staff from
the start. Whether a phased approach or immediate, the transition must be
outlined in budgets, workflows and legal issues. “Clear handovers maximize
the capacity of these teams by allowing them to wrap up their work in one
issue and dive fully into another … Without handovers, we get implementation
teams rather than innovation teams and the primary purpose is jeopardized,” 9. Measure Success Tangible problem solving that's metered and monitored is a habit
that tends to keep innovation teams around -- especially when cost savings
can be shown. When impacts are quantified, innovation teams have evidence of
progress. It also acts as a gauge for pivoting if efforts go astray. 10. Share Success “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who
gets the credit.” The study quotes President Harry Truman in its final tip.
It’s a reminder to credit leadership, sponsors, partner organizations and any
other stakeholders who fit in the mix. The underlying concept, billed by the
study as the “single best guarantee” for sustainability, is that shared
success incentivizes officials to further support innovation team projects
and programs. Political leaders who can leverage success for reelection
campaigns, department and agency leaders who gain media praise to establish
departments and sponsor organizations with visible returns on their
investments are all likely to continue championing the cause of innovation. From
http://www.govtech.com/
IDC New
Zealand's recent Asia Pacific (excluding The study
makes note that the budget for mobility is coming from across the business.
Around 29 per cent of businesses now have a budget that is dedicated to
mobility. Around 35 per cent is coming from existing IT budgets and 9 per
cent from marketing. The remainder is evaluated on a case by case basis (27
per cent). "When looking at mobile as a mechanism for customer
engagement the opportunity to be personalised and referenceable in the
engagement is incredibly compelling. With 53 per cent of businesses now
saying that their 1-20 per cent of their revenue is coming online the ability
to be more insightful about the customer and their customer's environment is
a must,” says Dodds. Security remains the highest area of focus with the
enablement of mobility solutions. There is a particular focus on network
security, access and identity management. "Organisations will live and
die by the value of their information and how it is protected from others.
Customers are willing to share more information about their location,
preferences and needs but will act with ferociousness if this is not treated
with due care", Dodds says. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
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Cyberspace is often described as the fifth domain of military
activity, equally critical to European Union (EU) Common Security and Defence
Policy (C SDP) implementation as the domains of land, sea, air, and space.
The successful implementation of CSDP has been increasingly dependent on the
availability of, and access to, a secure cyberspace. Robust and resilient
cyberdefence capabilities are now required to support CSDP structures and
CSDP missions and operations. The European Council Conclusions on CSDP of
December 2013 together with the Council Conclusions on CSDP of November 2013
called for the development of an EU Cyber Defence Policy Framework, on the
basis of a proposal by the High Representative, in cooperation with the
European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA). The objective of
this document is to provide a framework to the European Council and Council
conclusions, as well as to the cyber defence aspects of the EU Cybersecurity
Strategy. The document identifies priority areas for CSDP cyber defence and
clarifies the roles of the different European actors, whilst fully respecting
the respective responsibilities and competences of Union actors and the
Member States as well as the institutional framework of the EU and its
autonomy of decision-making. From
http://statewatch.org/
NORTH AMERICA: It’s hard enough for a CIO to
develop a current IT strategy for an organization, particularly if the entity
has many diverse divisions. What about the next step? The solution, says
futurist Thornton Mays, is a having strategy for strategy — in other words, a
way to determine what IT should do next. Before you think this will end up
going down the proverbial rabbit hole to nowhere, Mays suggests you consider
this: IT publisher IDG has asked CIOs for the last five years how IT is
perceived by the C-suite. This was the first year “business game changer”
came out of single digits. “If most C-level colleagues don’t see IT as a
business game changer, it could be because most CIOs see IT strategic
planning as a matter of translating what the business decides about where
it’s going,” argues Mays. “They wait to be told what the business plans to do
next year and then figure out what that means in the way of new applications,
support costs, manpower and projects. “I know of a CIO at a major financial
institution who once told his direct reports, “If the business wanted that, I
am sure they would have asked for it.” But CIOs who see IT as a game changer
think that a strategy devised by IT can actually create new endpoints.” Unfortunately,
he says, most IT strategy focuses on how to do things cheaper better and
faster. Instead it should ask how can we create competitive advantage. It’s
hard not to see the forest for the trees — to not get bogged down in the
day-to-day problems of running a data centre and the associated staff. These
days, with IT security problems being reported almost hourly that’s even more
true. But somehow the time must be found for planning what Mays calls
“Strategy with a big S.” Let us know in the comments section below how you do
it, so your colleagues can learn. From http://www.itworldcanada.com/ The Harper government will issue a new order exhorting federal
bureaucrats to maximize their efforts to release eligible government data to
the public for creating apps if proposals issued Thursday are approved. The
idea is one of a raft of suggestions put out by the government after
consulting with the public on the next wave of its open government
initiative. The proposals — what the government calls action plan 2.0 of its
open data initiative — say federal departments would have to release plans
detailing how they will copy with the directive, issue an inventory on their
data and information holdings and only publish data in accessible and open
formats under an open and unrestrictive licence. Over the next two years the
government would also create an open data institute — what it now calls CODEX
(Canadian Open Data Exchange) — a national marketplace that would includes an online community for
those wanting to commercialize federal open data. The Harper government promised in the federal budget it will spend
$3 million over three years on the institute to work with the private sector
and academics to help realize the full potential of open data for Canadians.
“CODEX will bring together all of the pieces to enable a sustainable
market-driven, open-data ecosystem whose success is measured by
commercialization outcomes such as job creation, company creation, and wealth
creation,” says the proposed action plan. “CODEX will develop industry
standards for open data, build a national marketplace where commercialization
of open data can flourish, and support a pan-Canadian open data innovation
community that will help incubate the next generation of data-driven
companies. Through CODEX, Canadians will be able to see the measurable
economic benefits of open data in the form of job creation, investment in
data-driven companies, and the establishment of a national hub for the
commercialization of open data.” People have until Oct. 20 to comment on the proposals. The final
plan will be released at the end of this month. Since the Harper government
announced four years ago that it would officially adopt an open data policy
more than 40 federal departments and agencies have made available more than
200,000 datasets on everything from weather, to border wait times, to product
recalls, to maps and geospatial data has been released. It has insisted
application developers will want to leverage databases for a wide range of
commercial and non-commercial uses. It often quotes a 2013 study by a
research company that concluded seven industries could generate more than
US$3 trillion a year in additional value as a result of open data — although
not all of the data would come from governments. The report also cautions
that investments in technology
and expertise are required to get that dollar figure. To get the ball rolling in addition to releasing data the Harper
government has opened a central open data portal where organizations and
people can search for databases and information Ottawa is making public,
issued a new open government licence any level of government can use to frame
the reuse of their data, and held an open data hackathon where some 900
developers created over 100 apps using federal data. The proposed new action
plan would open a new open data portal with expanded services by 2016, and
create a government-wide Open Science Implementation Plan with strategies and
milestones to maximize access to federally-funded scientific data. It would
also pass legislation making it mandatory for resource companies to publicly
report how much they pay From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has prepared
new agency guidelines for screening commercial apps before federal employees
download them. Third-party Android and iPhone apps have been known to harbor
vulnerabilities -- either intentionally or inadvertently -- that could expose
government data to outsiders. At the same time, agencies increasingly are
using these apps for convenience and to enhance collaboration. So NIST this
week provided the federal community with draft recommendations for vetting
mobile apps. “Agencies and organizations need to know what a mobile app
really does and to be aware of its potential privacy and security impact so
they can mitigate any potential risks,” NIST computer scientist Tom
Karygiannis said in a statement. "Many apps may access more data than
expected and mobile devices have many physical data sensors continuously
gathering and sharing information." Last month, a potential
vulnerability in the iPhone version of Instagram was discovered that could
allow outsiders to hijack a user's account. Facebook also recently fixed
glitches on its Android app that could have let hackers execute a denial-of-service
attack or run up a victim’s mobile bill, according to Kaspersky Labs. A Few
Bad Apps: From Malicious Code to Drained As an example of the potential security holes in mobile apps,
Karygiannis cited an employee sharing a photograph on a social media app
that, unbeknownst to the user, is able to access confidential contacts. In a
more menacing situation, apps with covert malicious code can record calls and
forward them to eavesdroppers without the owner knowing. Weak apps can also
simply drain battery power. NIST’s publication is not a how-to guide, but
rather a backgrounder for agency managers who are contemplating whether to
approve an app. The draft includes common testing requirements for security,
performance and reliability, as well as tools and techniques for conducting
the tests. It takes into consideration a threat to one department office
might need to be discounted where the benefit outweighs the risk. A public
affairs office might need a social media app to engage citizens, but could
temper some potential risks by blocking sharing permissions or changing
device settings. The 43-page document provides a list of vulnerabilities
common in iPhone apps and a list of Android app weaknesses. A major threat to
both versions: libraries that an app taps for graphics or other files can
contain unexpected or malicious capabilities. Some attributes of an app
cannot be tested. For example, it is hard to examine components with which
the app communicates, such as an outside device, server or library, because
licensing often allows developers to restrict access to these technologies.
NIST is accepting public comments on the draft until Sept. 18. From
http://www.nextgov.com/
Why Large
Government IT Projects Fail Although the HealthCare.gov fiasco is the most recent example,
the problem of underperforming government projects is so pervasive that it
was described in the 2006 "Defense Acquisition Performance Assessment
Report" as a conspiracy of hope. The conspiracy of hope begins when the
government puts out requests for proposals for projects that are too large,
long-term and complex for contractors to make credible proposals. Companies
are forced to create proposals that are at best educated guesses and end up
underestimating cost and time in hopes of winning the award. The winning
proposal becomes the baseline for cost, time and capabilities. Five years
later, everyone acts surprised when the project hasn't delivered as promised
or fails completely. Although the HealthCare.gov fiasco is the most recent example,
the problem of underperforming government projects is so pervasive that it
was described in the 2006 "Defense Acquisition Performance Assessment
Report" as a conspiracy of hope. The conspiracy of hope begins when the
government puts out requests for proposals for projects that are too large,
long-term and complex for contractors to make credible proposals. Companies
are forced to create proposals that are at best educated guesses and end up
underestimating cost and time in hopes of winning the award. The winning
proposal becomes the baseline for cost, time and capabilities. Five years
later, everyone acts surprised when the project hasn't delivered as promised
or fails completely. The perils of petascale IT projects Multiple studies show that project size is the most significant
predictor of project failure. Typical multiyear projects that cost hundreds of
millions of dollars to create have statistically almost no chance of being
fielded in accordance with the initial proposal. Because big government has
the need for big projects, should they be evaluated like baseball batters,
where a one-in-three success rate is considered successful? Absolutely not!
The long line of failed government IT projects hasn't occurred because we're
stuck with big projects that are destined to fail. A 2010 report titled
"Achieving Effective Acquisition of Information Technology in the
Department of Defense" offered a clear remedy and actionable strategy.
In short, large projects would be developed and delivered in small increments
and created through an iterative process known as agile development. The vast majority of government projects are now delivered
through waterfall methodology. A large project is broken into sequential
phases, starting with requirements gathering and then moving through design,
development, integration, testing and finally delivery. In a waterfall project,
the first time you're likely to know you have a problem is when integration
and user testing begin. In a three-year project, that's about two-and-a-half
years from the beginning and about 80 percent into the budget. If any
significant problems come along at the end, it's possible that the project
team will have to go back and reconsider its initial assumptions and perhaps
throw out most or all of what's already been created. That's why many large
projects end up being abandoned entirely. Fixing the problems ends up being
too costly. Agile accomplishes all of the work done in the waterfall phases,
but instead of doing pieces sequentially, they are done in small slices
simultaneously. Each week, an agile project does a little bit of
requirements, design, development, integration and testing and, most
important, delivers working code. Agile projects are developed by
implementing the most important features first. So instead of waiting five
years before a big project is delivered, agile development can often field an
initial version in the first year because the most important capabilities are
the first to be developed. A good example is the U.S. Transportation
Command's Distribute.mil portal. In August 2009, Gen. Duncan McNabb, who was USTRANSCOM's
commander at the time, directed his IT division to develop and field a new
supply chain portal that would serve as the unified platform for the
command's planners and logistics stakeholders. The project was slated to be
developed through an agile methodology. Using conventional processes, the
project would have taken an estimated 36 months to deliver an initial
operating capability. By using an agile development methodology, the initial
Distribute.mil product was delivered in less than a year. It's time to end the
conspiracy of hope and begin creating RFPs that support agile development. From
http://fcw.com/
The nation’s fourth-largest city has instituted a new open data
policy that will bring new standards for managing and publishing its datasets
and encourage collaboration among the city government, engaged citizens and
the local civic technology community. “First and foremost, this is about
increasing transparency,” Houston Mayor Annise Parker said in the city’s
announcement. “It is also about citizen engagement and increasing the pace of
innovation in our City. We want to engage the talents of our strong science,
technology, engineering and math community to help us solve the challenges of
the 21st century.” According to the city’s announcement, the new open data
policy will “establish standards and refresh guidelines” for An enterprise data officer and an open-data advisory panel will
work with various city agencies to implement the new standards and policies.
Publishing data sets is not new to Houston—the city already publishes 220
datasets—but the city’s new open-data portal is designed to encourage greater
collaboration between the city and citizens and organizations interested in
working with the city’s data. “This portal will enable civic technologists,
entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers and others to use the data to generate
new products and services, as well as build businesses and develop community
resources in partnership with government to better serve the public,” newly
appointed Enterprise Data Officer Jackie Smith said in the city’s
announcement. “We want to know what the public wants to see that isn’t
already available.” From
http://www.govexec.com/
Obama Backs
Stricter Net Neutrality Rules Verizon dismayed as "The idea of net neutrality has unleashed the power of the
Internet and given innovators the chance to thrive. Abandoning these
principles would threaten to end the Internet as we know it," said
Obama, in the video. "For most Americans, the Internet has become an
essential part of everyday communication and everyday life," he said.
"That's why I'm urging the Federal Communications Commission to do
everything it can to protect net neutrality for everyone." More
specifically, Obama said an ISP should not be allowed to block legal content,
or intentionally throttle some content or speed up access to others based on
its preferences. He also said the FCC should consider applying net neutrality
rules to points of interconnection between ISPs and transport networks to
prevent Web services being discriminated against. In addition, Obama also
called for an explicit ban on paid prioritisation. "The FCC is an independent agency, and ultimately this decision
is theirs alone, but the public has already commented nearly 4 million times
asking the FCC to make sure that consumers, not the cable company, gets to
decide which sites they use," he said. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler welcomed
the President's input. "The Internet must not advantage some to the
detriment of others. We cannot allow broadband networks to cut special deals
to prioritise Internet traffic and harm consumers, competition and
innovation," he said. Consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge applauded
Obama, and said that adopting Title II represents "the simplest and
strongest mechanism to prevent discrimination of traffic online, and promote
investment in broadband". However, the announcement received short shrift in some
quarters. "Reclassification under Title II, which for the first time
would apply 1930s-era utility regulation to the Internet, would be a radical
reversal of course that would in and of itself threaten great harm to an open
Internet, competition and innovation," said Verizon, in a statement. The
telco also warned that such a move would likely be successfully challenged in
court. Lobby group Broadband for From
http://www.totaltele.com/
Congress
Passes Bills to Reduce Duplicative Reports, Improve Access to Public Records Wednesday was a productive day on Capitol Hill. The House
unanimously passed Senate amendments Wednesday to two bills that would
eliminate duplicative agency reports and improve public access to
presidential records. Across the hall, a Senate committee approved two
critical Homeland Security Department nominees. The Government Reports
Elimination Act of 2014 (H.R. 4194) eliminates or modifies reports by certain
federal agencies that have been deemed unnecessary or redundant. It does away
with more than 40 reports from 17 different federal agencies. Among the
reports to be slashed are a DHS report on the importation of products with
cat and dog fur, and the Veterans Affairs Department's annual report on
procurement of health care items by VA medical facilities. Rep. Darrell Issa
(R-Calif.) introduced H.R. "Eliminating or modifying these outdated and often useless
reports is a simple but effective step towards cutting waste and improving
efficiency in the federal government," Warner said, in a release. "Hundreds
of federal employees spend countless hours producing mountains of these
reports each year, and in many cases no one ever reads or even refers to
those reports. Surely these agency resources could be targeted to smarter,
more productive efforts that will actually provide more direct benefit to
customers and taxpayers. Getting rid of 50 unnecessary reports is a solid
start, but we can and should go even further, and I am pleased Sen. Ayotte
and I will partner together once again to take aim at an additional 67
federal reports produced each year." In the same release, Ayotte called
the elimination of the 50 government reports "a positive first step
toward making government smaller and smarter." The Presidential and
Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014 (H.R. 1233) passed unanimously on a
voice vote. It aims to improve public access to records of the President and
their advisers. Currently, the President can restrict access to his or her
records for up to 12 years after they leave the Oval Office, and can continue
to block publication of records based on a claim of executive privilege. H.R. 1233 would maintain that 12-year period, but it would
establish a precedent that presidential records be disclosed after that time
passes. The bill establishes the procedures the Archivist of the The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs also approved on Wednesday two significant DHS nominations: Russell
Deyo for under secretary for management, and Sarah Salda?a for assistant
secretary for immigration and customs enforcement. The two nominees were
ordered reported favorably by voice vote en bloc in the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs. Salda?a has been a U.S. Attorney for the
Northern District of Texas for three years, and previously served as the
Deputy Criminal Chief for the Fraud and Public Corruption section in that
office. Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.) said ICE has gone too long without a
presidentially-appointed leader considering the current border crisis. Deyo
worked in the private sector at Johnson & Johnson for 27 years. Carper
said Deyo's management perspective will help fuse the 22 agencies of the DHS. From
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/
Resolving
Cross-Border Internet Policy Conflicts Although the Internet is a global platform, increasingly
countries want to pass domestic laws affecting how individuals and businesses
can use it. In the past few months, the United Kingdom has taken steps to
have ISPs block pornography by default; Spain is considering legislation that
would tax news aggregation websites; Canada is enacting a new law to curtail
spam; and Singapore has just passed a bill that would require ISPs to block
all websites, domestic and foreign, containing significant amounts of
copyright infringing content. Even though the importance of the Internet to
the global economy and society continues to grow each day, collectively
nations have made little progress in creating a framework for resolving the
many conflicts over Internet policy that inevitably occur between sovereign
nations. In a new report to be released at this event, ITIF President Rob
Atkinson and Senior Analyst Daniel Castro argue that the dominant approaches
to Internet policy, which typically calls for either universal rules applied
to all nations or a complete free-for-all among countries—fail to provide a
pragmatic path forward to resolve the inevitable conflicts that arise.
Instead, they put forth a new framework for evaluating cross-border Internet
policy conflicts that respects both the global nature of the Internet and
national laws and norms. From
http://www.itif.org/
Forums on
Internet Governance Reveal Tensions over How the Web Should Be Regulated How the internet is governed is no longer a matter seen fit to be
left to mere technical committees. With the extent of online surveillance, so
dramatically revealed by the Snowden files, increased content filtering and
blocking, and the issue of net neutrality, which would allow telecoms firms
to “create fast web lanes” for some companies, it is a contentious area with
major social and political implications. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF),
which has just met for the ninth time in Created following the UN’s World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005 and held annually since then, the IGF brings
together government, business and civil society to try and build consensus
around how the internet should be governed. As a forum for debate (with no
mandate for action) it complements ICANN’s decision-making executive powers
on a narrower range of critical internet resources. The IGF is an open forum,
anyone can register without a fee or other accreditation requirements. There
are a huge range of workshops, talks and meetings on issues such as bringing
broadband to the developing world, cyber-security, and freedom of expression.
The current controversies over net neutrality – which would allow companies
to discriminate between certain data on their networks based on content, or
how much the content’s owner has paid – was high on the agenda this year. The
ongoing fragmentation of the internet into national jurisdictions and
networks, each with different content limitations and legal requirements, was
also a cause for concern. But the Snowden files, whose revelations continue to expose mass
surveillance by the likes of the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), were less prominently
discussed than one might expect. Similarly the debate on content censorship
was rather mute, particularly considering the practices of host country In response activists organised their Internet Ungovernance
Forum as an alternative where the implications of censorship and surveillance
are top of the agenda. Participants from around the globe discussed how
information from dissidents is suppressed, in However, the goals and arguably the significance of the
Ungovernance Forum went beyond putting forward a different agenda. Its name
is more than just a pun on the official forum. Whereas the IGF is a so-called
multi-stakeholder process involving governments, business and civil society,
the Ungovernance Forum questions the practice of engaging or collaborating
with the governmental and commercial bodies, many of which abuse human rights
and are striving to transform the internet into space of consumption and
control. While civil society groups participating in the IGF support this
multi-stakeholder process and lobby for its continuation, the activists
outside highlight the need for clear alternatives rather than the inevitable
(and often imbalanced) compromises such a process leads to. They claim that
civil society may not be in a position to significantly make its mark on an
agenda dominated by others with diametrically opposed interests, instead only
lending it a legitimacy it doesn’t deserve. The IGF and the IUF thus
highlighted different approaches towards understanding, developing and
regulating the internet. The next IGF will take place in From
http://theconversation.com/
Media and
Foreign Policy in the Digital Age New information and communication technologies have now entered
the realm of foreign policy, and they have a direct impact on international relations
in the 21st century. The reframing of foreign policy affects diplomacy and
many key segments related to it, such as business and trade, human rights,
security, war and governance, culture, science and academia, innovation, and
all the various facets of development cooperation. The culture of politics is
changing, and so, too, are the means of international thinking and action, as
they become progressively shaped by digitization and the Internet. In the age
of globalization and contemporary media, “top-down” communications have
changed and become more lateral between people around the world. Monopolies
of power have shifted from governments to companies, smaller organizations
and individuals. "Likes", Tweets and hashtags no longer merely influence
private communications. In addition, decentralized ways of working have
increased the efficiency and reach of communications, as well as
knowledge-sharing and how information is used. In global communications, a
nation’s government is now just one of many stakeholders. The increasingly
uncontrollable flow of information has altered the existing power and social
structures of society. For foreign policy, openness and transparency present
opportunities and risks alike. Developments such as the revolutions of the
Arab Spring and debates centering on e-democracy, e-government and
e-campaigning have triggered discourse concerning what the Internet means for
political communications and democratic movements. At the same time,
disclosure of diplomatic secrets has exposed new security requirements,
calling traditional concepts of diplomacy and foreign policy into question.
How will the new, expanded media landscape and active participation by
members of civil society influence decision-makers’ scope of action? What role
do (international) media have as ambassadors and mediators? Is digital
diplomacy a harbinger of global media democracy? Should international
organizations rethink their diplomatic strategies? What consequences will
access to new communication technologies have for rapidly growing economies
in developing countries? How can new media be integrated into conventional
forms of public diplomacy? Experts from around the world will explore these
and related questions at the 2015 Global Media Forum. From
http://www.dw.de/
Information
and Communications Technology Controls Report 2013–14 This audit assessed information and communications technology
(ICT) Controls in the Victorian public sector. Overview The Auditor-General is the external auditor of The five themes identified through our ICT audits were: ICT security controls need improvement management of service organisation assurance activities requires
attention prior-period audit findings are not being addressed in a timely
manner patch management processes need improvement ICT disaster recovery planning is weak. In future reports, we will perform detailed maturity assessments
of selected entities' ICT environments and examine some selected areas of
focus, such as identity and access management, software licensing and
wireless network security. From
http://apo.org.au/
ITU Puts Information,
Communication Technology at Forefront of Global Issues Members of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) are
set to end their three weeks of discussions Friday on how the global
community can be connected online, reaffirming that information and
communication technologies (ICT) can contribute greatly to solving
cross-border issues. Some 3,000 delegates from more than 170 member countries
gathered in this South Korean port city starting Oct. 20 for the 19th
plenipotentiary conference that opens every four years. This year's meeting
opened with the backdrop of the missing Malaysian airplane and the Ebola
scare that induced member states to seriously address the sharing of
information and technology for a connected world that ensures everyone has
access to the same tools in solving problems. Specifically, ITU members
agreed to team up to use ICT in preventing the spread of Ebola and providing
support to disease-stricken African countries, focusing on rural areas. The
members also took a step forward in aviation safety by supporting a
resolution on real-time flight data tracking, deciding to discuss the issue
at the forthcoming World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015. The move
follows the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH From
http://www.koreaherald.com
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Chinese cloud services provider ChinaC is launching what it
claims is the first cloud service standard for the Chinese cloud service
industry.The contents of this standard, which read more like a marketing
ploy, include opening cloud hosting in five minutes for new users; completing
system re-installation within five minutes; and completing system reboots in
five minutes.At present, the Chinese cloud computing industry does not have
unified service standards and mainstream manufacturers have their own
criteria.According to Zhang Yinbin, vice president of the research and development
center at ChinaC, the cloud service standard represents the company's service
commitment to customers.Zhang said that starting from August 2014, ChinaC
promised to provide fast-response cloud services to users. At the same time, the company will deliver unified-standard
services in 20 data centers in 15 cities across the country. ChinaC has
nationwide and international service capacity and the company will expand its
service network to Hong Kong and From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Rules to Protect Personal Rights Online The Supreme People’s Court has outlined the liabilities of
network service providers in a document on the handling of online personal
rights violation cases.In it, the SPC calls on courts to order network
service providers to provide personal data of users suspected of committing
rights violations, including real names or user names, contact information
and IP addresses. The information should be provided as required by
investigation or at plaintiffs' requests."Rights violators usually hide
in the dark online. They post harmful information out of the blue, and
victims just can’t be certain whom they should accuse when they want to bring
the case to court," said Yao Hui, a senior SPC judge specializing in
civil cases.The document is important for the country to regulate online
activities and maintain online order, said SPC spokesman Sun Jungong. According to the document, those refusing to provide the
information without a legitimate reason will face punishments under the civil
procedure law.Network service providers should also be held accountable if
they are aware that their users have committed online violations of personal
rights but fail to take action.Meanwhile, those re-posting content that
violates others' rights and interests will also answer for their actions, and
their liability will be determined based on the consequences of their posts,
the online influence of re-posters, and whether they make untruthful changes
to content that mislead."If you are a verified celebrity, your
obligations when re-posting online information are greater than those of the
general public. An ordinary person's errors when re-posting might only be
deemed slight," From http://www.news.cn/
China hopes to construct a global network during the upcoming
G20 summit that will track corrupt officials who had fled the country, a
Chinese foreign ministry official said yesterday.At the APEC economic leaders
meeting in Beijing earlier this week, member economies had reached a crucial
deal on tracking down corrupt officials on the run, recovering illegal funds
and denying entrance of suspects into their territories, Zhang Jun, head of
the international economy department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told
reporters yesterday."If the G20 also takes a step forward in this
respect, we would be able to form a global network in the anti-corruption
area," Zhang said.He said it was a consensus of members to put the
anti-corruption issue on the agenda of the G20 summit to be held in Brisbane
at the weekend. Zhang said 18 of the G20 members are also members of the UN
Convention Against Corruption, while the G20 has set up a work panel on
combatting corruption.China has been stepping up its fight against corruption
as it tries to bring more fugitives to justice."Under the current
situation, it's a very important part of the global anti-corruption effort to
establish a worldwide anti-corruption network," Zhang said.He cited
statistics from the World Bank that bribery worldwide costs businesses
roughly US$1 trillion every year."Just imagine if that was not in the
hands of corrupt people, how many things it could be used on and how much in
economic returns it could bring about," Zhang said.As anti-corruption
work is closely linked to the growth of the global economy, it is a
legitimate item on the G20 agenda, Zhang said. From http://www.news.cn/
The House of Representatives has enacted into law a bill that is
designed to strengthen cybersecurity measures. The bill was approved Thursday
by a majority vote at the day’s lower house plenary meeting with the support
from the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, and
such opposition parties as the Democratic Party of Japan. The bill cleared
the House of Councillors on Oct. 29. The government hopes to improve its
ability to fight cyber-terrorism toward key events including the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics and Paralympics. Under the new law, the government will set up
headquarters to be led by the chief cabinet secretary. In cooperation with
the National Security Council, the new headquarters will draw up a strategy
to crack down on cyber-attacks and prevent damage from such attacks from
spreading From
http://the-japan-news.com
South Korean President Park Geun-hye called Monday for
international efforts to bridge the digital divide as thousands of senior
officials from more than 170 countries opened a conference to discuss issues
of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The comments came amid
concerns that a digital revolution could further widen the ICT gap among
countries at a time when the Internet has become a key factor that can affect
economic development and job creation. From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
ICT
Ministers Adopt Busan Declaration Top information and communications technology (ICT) officials
from across the world have adopted the Busan Declaration at the 2014 ICT
Ministerial Meeting on October Participants freely exchanged ideas during the three-hour
gathering and shared their ICT policy experiences, current agendas and future
visions. "We hope that all humanity, transcending nationality,
race, religion and sex, would benefit from ICT, thereby living in happiness
and prosperity. From
http://www.korea.net
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From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Iskandar From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
MAMPU
Piloting Policy to Secure Use of Personal Devices The Malaysian government is drafting a new policy to better
protect information being accessed by officials through their mobile devices,
the Government Chief Information Officer has told FutureGov. “The new policy
will be about protecting information, regardless of what channel or endpoint
device is accessing the information,” said Dr. Suhazimah Dzazali. It will
tier access to information, acknowledging that access from both government
and personal devices are likely. Dzazali is currently piloting this policy in
her department, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management
Planning Unit (MAMPU). The new policy will allow personal devices, but within
an environment that puts greater control on access to data. “In essence BYOD
will be allowed, but there will be some measure of control put in place in
terms of protecting data in use, data in motion and data in the storage,” Dr.
Dzazali said. At present, the government tries to restrict BYOD through
mandatory registration of personal devices being used to access data.. “We
can’t stop [them bringing their own devices]. The only way we can protect our
information assets is by deploying these [data] controls,” she said. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Big Data analytics, consolidation of data centres and improved
cyber security are the key priorities for Malaysian public sector ICT, the
Government Chief Information Officer (GCIO) has told FutureGov in an
exclusive interview. Dr Suhazimah Dzazali took over the role just two months
ago, and told FutureGov that “our immediate initiative will be looking at Big
Data,” adding that “our stakeholders have entrusted MAMPU [Malaysia
Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit] to lead the
implementation of a pilot project”. Starting in 2015, this project will cover
four different areas: sentiment analysis, in partnership with the Ministry of
Communications and Multimedia; crime prevention with the Home Ministry;
infectious disease prevention with the Health Ministry; and price watch with
the Ministry of Trade. This project is a directive from the Prime Minister,
Dzazali says. MAMPU will lead the project with support from other
departments: “The budget is allocated to MAMPU, the project support is with
MAMPU, but we are going to implement it together with other agencies”. The
budget is tens of millions of dollars. Creating clusters Datasets will also be pulled together into broader clusters that
can be shared across ministries, she said. For example, information on
immigration is held in the home ministry and the foreign ministry. “We want
to identify those clusters of information and, having identified that, we can
encourage Big Data initiatives”. The four sectors of social, economic,
security and public administration lend themselves to this project, Dzazali
believes, but “we have not really done a thorough study.” Creating these clusters
requires common information standards, she said, and this year MAMPU has
published its Public Sector Enterprise Architecture Framework. “Having this
framework will, we hope, enable agencies to start identifying their data from
a business perspective,” she says. Once these clusters have been determined,
some of the datasets may be published as open data, or used for “co-creation”
projects with the private and voluntary sectors. Data centre consolidation The second big priority for Malaysian ICT is consolidating data
centres and sharing information on the cloud, Dzazali saed. “Right now the
cloud services are mainly applications. We would like to see more
sophisticated cloud services - creating a private cloud for the public
sector.” She continued: “Agencies [should] no longer need to worry about
procuring assets. They will basically rely on MAMPU”. Consolidation of data
centres has been mandated, and departments must justify why they have their
own data centres rather than use central services. The previous leadership
made up a lot of ground, however, and many departments are now on board. Security focus The third big priority is data security, Dzazali said.
“Information security is fundamental for any success of Big Data, or even
data centres or any infrastructure initiative,” she says. “So my next
priority is to create a strong, secure platform as well as secure
governance.” MAMPU will help departments initiate security programmes, but
the agencies must take responsibility, she added. “But having said that, a
lot of security-related initiatives need to be centralised”. For example,
last year MAMPU initiated a ‘single sign-on’ project, and will do more to
create a single identify management programme across government, she said.
“Each agency has their own identity management, but there should be some kind
of federated system - there should be centrally managed access control.”
Dzazali’s background is in cyber security, having worked in information
security at MAMPU for the past 6 years. Prior to that, she was at INTAN - the
national institute of public administration, and also served for 15 years in
the immigration department creating applications to modernise immigration
processes. Challenges ahead There is one immediate challenge that From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Philippine government launched on Monday a 14-year master
plan for the transformation of the defense department. Philippine President
Benigno S. Aquino III witnessed the unveiling of the Philippine Defense
Transformation Roadmap 2028 during the 75th anniversary of the Department of
National Defense (DND) in the military's From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/ From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Taxation Department will pilot e-payments from 2015 onwards
with a view to making it easier for taxpayers. The department will pilot the
scheme in two localities before expanding it to other provinces and cities in
the following years. E-services for tax have been applied in all 63 provinces
and cities and over 300 tax offices. The e-tax declaration system provides
services for nearly 400,000 taxpayers while receiving and handling over 17.6
million tax returns. Meanwhile, e-tax payment services have been implemented
in 18 provinces and cities nationwide with nearly 4,000 businesses involved
and VND2 trillion ($95.24 million) of tax collected. From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
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This social media platform enables citizens to easily come
together for taking the cleanliness campaign forward. New Delhi: Seeking to
convert ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ into a ‘Jan Andolan’, the Ministry of Urban
Development has enabled an online platform to enable the citizens network
with each other locally and at national level to collectively take up
cleanliness activities. In this regard, the Ministry is taking the help of
‘LocalCircles’, a community social media platform. A national circle, ‘Swachh
Bharat’ has been launched and already 1,70,000 citizens have joined this
circle. This social media platform enables citizens to easily come together,
exchange ideas on cleanliness, take up appropriate cleanliness activities in
their neighborhoods, share pictures of collective efforts, engage with
elected representatives and take the cleanliness campaign forward. The From
http://southasia.oneworld.net/ Electronic
Toll Collection: A Uniform Standard of Service to Commuters With the inauguration of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) System
by the Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari on
October 27, a uniform and acceptable standard of service to the commuters
would become a reality. ETC has already been installed at 55 Toll Plazas and
their integration with Central Clearing House (CCH) operators has almost been
completed. A pilot project for Interoperable ETC system of 10 toll plazas
between Mumbai (Charoti) and The objectives of the proposed new company are collection of
toll through Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) System and to manage the
project strategically, administratively, legally, technically and
commercially, providing services of central ETC system which includes toll
transaction clearing house operations, helpdesk support and setting up of
call centres for incident management, intelligent transport systems among
others. Necessary amendments have already been made in the Central Motor
Vehicle Rules, 1989 for fitment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag
on vehicles for ETC. Apart from Rs. 2.48 crore released in 2012-13, an amount
of Rs.17.288 Crore has been released during the Financial Year 2013-14 for
implementing ETC on 51 public funded projects operated by NHAI. A Service Provider
Agreement for Central Clearing House Services for Electronic Toll Collection
(ETC) between Indian Highways Management Company Ltd. (IHMCL) and ICICI Bank
along with Axis bank, has been signed. The Government of India has embarked on an ambitious plan for
building At present there are some problems in collecting tolls. These
are by way of not having a uniform rate throughout various sections of
National Highways in From
http://pib.nic.in/ Facebook
Launches User-Friendly Privacy Policy From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ |
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The previous ICT strategy in 2003-2012 had determined the main
purposes of the activities in the coming years, including transition to the
information society. A multitude of state programs and laws, including the
state program "Electronic Azerbaijan" had been adopted over the
past period. The new program is designed to solve the problem of
"digital divide" between the center and the regions of Residents and companies operating in the park will be exempt
from the 18 percent VAT on imported infrastructural and technological goods
and services. The park participants will also be exempt from tax and customs
duty for seven years. The park's activity is expected to expand the ICT sector
of the country based on current scientific and technological achievements,
and to ensure the creation of modern complexes for research and development
of new information technologies. The park will play an important role in the
sustainable development of economy. From
http://www.azernews.az/ From
http://en.trend.az/
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A trial of
the follow-the-money strategy being pursued in the "The
authorisation we are seeking from the ACCC, if granted, would enable ISPs and
others to join the strategy without fear of breaking competition laws,"
Mr Stanton said. He said Communications Alliance had approached a number of
other Australian industry representative bodies seeking their support for the
strategy. "Already the Australian Industry Group (AIG) has expressed
in-principle support for the initiative and I hope that even broader support
will soon be in evidence. We certainly also believe that rights holders
should step up and work with service providers on this important
initiative." In the meantime, Communications Alliance has commenced
preliminary discussions with the Federal Government about how to create and
maintain an Australian list of infringing web-sites. Industry believes that
the list needs to be managed independently of service providers and rights
holders. The Government has proposed a range of measures to combat online
copyright infringement. In its submission to the Government, Communications
Alliance strongly opposed the Government's proposal to extend authorisation
liability in the Copyright Act - because industry believes this would create
damaging unintended consequences for consumers and businesses. That view has
been echoed by a large number of service providers and technology companies
from Europe and the From http://www.cellular-news.com
Australian Government Releases New Cloud-First
Policy The
Australian government has released a new cloud policy to urge departments and
agencies to consider cloud first. The new arrangement also allows them to
store certain data on the public cloud. The new cloud policy requires
government organisations to adopt cloud where it is fit for purpose, provides
adequate protection of government data and delivers value for money, states a
joint release by Senator the Hon Mathias Cormann, Minister for Finance, Senator
the Hon George Brandis QC, Attorney-General and the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP,
Minister for Communication. The government has also reduced the red tape and
streamlined the decision making process for agencies considering cloud and
other outsourced IT arrangements to encourage the adoption of cloud. Under
the new arrangements, agency heads will be able to approve proposals to place
certain information on either offshore or domestically hosted (onshore)
public cloud servers. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Government Mandates Cloud Computing The Federal
Government has released a new cloud computing policy, replacing its July 2013
version. It says Government agencies must use cloud "where it is fit for
purpose".The Government says it will reduce the cost of its ICT by
eliminating duplication and fragmentation, and that it will lead by example
in using cloud services to “reduce costs, lift productivity and develop
better services.” Fine words, but it has its work cut out. The Federal
Government is the biggest user of ICT in the country, making up nearly one
third of all expenditure, but its own document admits that there have been only
a “modest” $4.7 million in Federal Government cloud procurements since 2012.
“The Australian Government recognises that the community expects government
services to be responsive to their needs and available where and when they
want them,” says the policy’s Foreword, which is signed off by Minister for
Communications Malcolm Turnbull and Minister for Finance Mathias Cormann.
“Key to realising this vision is the effective use of ICT by government,
including the adoption of cloud services.” To do this, government agencies
need to think and act smarter when it comes to investing in ICT. The
availability of cloud services offers an opportunity for government to
deliver services more efficiently, as well as providing services that are
more responsive to business and community needs. The policy
outlines a number of actions the Government intends to take to drive the
greater usage of cloud computing: # Evaluate
cloud services for new ICT services and when replacing existing ICT services
at ICT refresh points. To support the effective adoption of cloud services,
The Department of Finance will release a Resource Management Guide (RMG) to
reflect this policy. # Update the
Agency Solutions Database after acquiring a cloud service # Trial the
relocation of critical data to a secure government cloud using automated
tools from 2014. # Review the
Data Centre as a Service Multi-Use-List during 2014 # Establish
a Cloud Services Panel. # Streamline
obligations on entities relating to the storage and processing of Government
information. # Update
information sharing to facilitate continual learning and establish a
repository of case studies, better practice guides, practical lessons learned
and information on entity solutions. Interested state and local government
organisations will be invited to participate. # The
Government will assist entities to share experiences and best practice in
developing contracts to successfully acquire cloud services. # The
Government will report on the use of cloud services across Federal Government
entities. # The
government will continue to contribute to regional and international
standards institutions and technical committees. The policy
aims to drive a greater take up of cloud services by Government agencies by
adopting a ‘cloud first’ approach. “Under the Government’s Cloud Policy
agencies now must adopt cloud where it is fit for purpose, provides adequate
protection of data and delivers value for money. The Australian Government
procures approximately $6 billion of ICT services annually and combined with
state and territory governments, public sector expenditure on ICT accounts
for approximately 30% of the domestic market. We are committed to leading by
example, demonstrating the benefits of investing in and using cloud
services.” From http://www.itwire.com
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EUROPE:
Electronic Governance and Open Society - Challenges in The International Conference “Electronic Governance and Open
Society: Challenges in Eurasia” (EGOSE 2014) will take place in TOPICS OF INTEREST The EGOSE 2014 Conference invites paper submissions and speakers
on all topics related to e-government and the information system perspective
with special focus on Information Society and eGovernance Open Government Prospects Convergence in E-Governance Services Citizen Centered E-Government Participatory Governance Open Government Data eGovernance and Policy Modeling eGovernance and Eurasian Integration Social Media: Tools for analysis, participation and impact Smart Citizens and Quality of Life Disruptive E-Governance and Infrastructures KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Sharon Dawes, University at Ralph Heinrich, United Nations Economic Commisison for Douglas Schuler, Evergreen Maria Wimmer, University All accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings.
Best papers will be published in the special issue of the International
Journal of Electronic Governance, indexed in Scopus, Inspec, Google Scholar
etc. http://www.inderscience.com/ijeg. From
http://www.sptimes.ru/
In November the From
http://www.ega.ee/
LATIN
AMERICA: Six months after hosting governance conference The platform has been described as a "meeting point",
where stakeholders will be able to put ideas forward, discuss them and
attract the support to make them reality if necessary. In that sense, the WEF
support icomes in handy, given its reach within the business community. But
the initiative's "caretakers" CGI and ICANN, as well as supporter
WEF, will not be responsible for any activities regarding the selection of
financing of the projects and are keen to stress the collaborative nature of
the initiative. To that end, the organizations have started a process of
putting together the group's coordinating council and this will be done
through a nomination process, open until December 6. Some 20 individuals from
all continents - from governments and academia/technology experts to private
sector and the civil society - will take part in the Council. In addition,
the CGI and ICANN will take two seats each, while the WEF and the Internet
Governance Forum (IGF) will take up individual seats in the coordinating
group for the initiative. Demi Getschko, board member at the CGI and chief executive at
the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br), highlighted that the
individuals that, as well as the organizations that kickstarted the
initiative, the Council will have no decision-making function other than
ensuring that the platform functions properly. "All Council members will
also have to support and agree with the principles that came out of the
NETmundial meeting in The NETmundial initiative follows a conference with the same
name, organized by the Brazilian government and held in Local Internet steering group CGI was responsible for a
manifesto document that described principles for Web use and governance and
was ultimately used as a foundation for The Internet pioneer adds that the fact these discussions
started in From
http://www.zdnet.com/
Rift
Forms Between ISOC and WEF on Internet Governance The keyword is "bottom-up," and it refers to the ideal
of a governance system comprised mainly of stakeholders whose collective
goals and principles are carried out by an executive that is something less
than a "chief." The problem with implementing any kind of bottom-up
system, as the ICANN, the Internet's original authority for marshalling the
maintenance of its address structure, was first established by the What appears to be at issue here is the increased involvement of
ICANN in the NETmundial process, which now includes being credited as one of
the Initiative's three key partners, along with CGI.br and the WEF. In a
statement issued last November 6, in advance of the Initiative's most recent
meeting, ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehade referred to two ideal
governance structures: A "distributed Internet governance
ecosystem" and a "polycentric solution formation"--both
creating mental images of de-centralized power-sharing structures. But a
glimpse of such a structure from a higher perspective may reveal something
resembling more of a singular, if huge, organism. That perspective was
provided by ICANN board member Wolfgang Kleinwächter, in a statement
published on NETmundial's Web site:
"The NETmundial Initiative has now the great opportunity to further
enhance this multi-stakeholder approach by translating the São Paulo
Principles into actions via projects that will bring solutions to the broad
range of Internet related policy problems, make the innovative
multi-stakeholder Internet governance model more sustainable and strengthen
the IGF as the main annual discussion platform for the global Internet
community." It's that "main platform" image that resembles
most every effort by certain technology providers to form an "open"
coalition centered around their own products, services, or agendas. The most recent view we have into ISOC's current opinion of
ICANN comes from one of its most outspoken members, itinerant research
consultant Dr. Avri Doria--who actually received an award from ICANN, where
she formerly served, in June of this year. Despite this, Dr. Doria wrote the
following on Tumblr just three months later: "In terms of ICANN
processes, the various policy development processes (PDP) define the manner
in which decisions will be made.
Anyone who is paying even the slightest attention to ICANN these days
know that the PDP no longer holds sway in an environment where ad-hoc
processes, invented by the Board and the Staff, sometime known as the
Adhoceracy, replace the PDP anytime it is convenient. And while sometimes there is a need
that an existing process does not meet, when that happens, they do not work
with the members of the community to craft a new, albeit interim,
process. Instead they just invent
something, sometimes even something clever like the current Accountability
process, and then try to bluster their way through any opposition, only
stopping when the people rise up and embarrass them with letters of
non-support. The point is that
the process of ICANN has become unpredictable, something that no one could
possibly trust." Dr. Doria's words inspire this paraphrase of Pete
Townshend: Meet the new bottom, same as the old bottom. For more: - read the Internet Society statement - check out Dr. Avri Doria's Tumblr page From
http://www.fierceenterprisecommunications.com/
NORTH
AMERICA: In the first of this three part series, Jim Love, CIO and Chief
Digital Office for IT World Canada interviews Mike Rollings, Research VP for
Gartner Inc. discuss Skills, Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age. The
move to Digital Business requires some fundamentally different skills as the
nexus of Cloud, Social, In the second of this three part series, Jim Love, CIO and Chief
Digital Office for IT World Canada interviews Mike Rollings, Research VP for
Gartner Inc. discuss Skills, Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age. We
talk about the importance of Leadership language and behaviour. We discuss
the hidden messages that we pass on to our staff and the impact that it has.
We look at what changes are necessary from recruiting and interviewing to day
to day management. Keeping the right people requires addressing more than
money – passion, contribution and purpose are as important or perhaps more
important than title and compensation. Even organizations that can’t compete
on pay can still attract great people by offering personal development and
enabling the employees to fulfil their true passions. CIOs need to take a
long look at their own skills. The skills that made us successful in the past
might not be what it takes to be successful tomorrow. From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
A new Bloomberg study of 20 civic tech groups around the world
offers tips on how to institutionalize innovation into a working framework.
That's why Bloomberg Philanthropies is attempting to put more definition in
the word by analysis. In a co-authored study with investment and research
firm Nesta, Bloomberg studied the workings of 20 civic tech innovation groups
and funneled their insights into a package of 10 tips for cities. The idea:
institutionalize some of the ingenuity of innovation, or at the very least,
assemble a kind of framework. The study sits atop numerous interviews, site
visits, surveys and a range of analysis. Strategies of the study groups,
called “i-teams,” have been evaluated, cultures have been studied, staff
skills categorized, impacts and approaches set to yard sticks. Staff sizes of
the teams ranged from as low as three all the way up to 200, with a median
staff size of roughly 42 people. In terms of public-sector investment, the report
showcased levels of government funding for the groups, starting at $330,000
and rising as high as $151 million. In addition to the observational field study, the report
includes six months of office research about the groups that represent only
teams set inside, funded from or established by government. 1. Eye the Goal Aligned with the notion to “begin with the end in mind,” the
first tip is to craft an innovation group based on a clear goal (or goals).
Four of these goals surfaced in the study. The first was to solve specific
problems -- such as those emphasized by leadership. The second prioritized a
grab for citizen and business engagement in civic processes. A third, called
a long-term approach, sought to invest in innovative capabilities of
departments and staff. The fourth and final goal, identified from research,
was when an innovation team is tasked to refresh whole systems in policy,
business models, technology or behavior. 2. Grab Buy-in from Above Without connected and constant endorsement from leadership,
innovation teams are vulnerable. Teams can burst against bureaucratic
barriers, languish in a vacuum or wilt under a demand for “business as
usual.” The report suggests innovating departments and organizations thrive
best when yoked to“authorizing powers,” and especially, when housed inside
offices of governors, mayors and senior officials. As a cautionary side note,
it was dually emphasized that clout should be a last resort for innovators
who must lean on partnerships. persuasion and dialogue. 3. Mix Skills One of the key ingredients to innovation is having lots of
ingredients. Specifically, this means snagging skills outside of government
-- the private sector, academia, non-profits and such. 4. Funnel Money Creating a lean funding model for innovation isn’t just thrifty,
it’s strategic. And though it appears counterintuitive (for example, how can
deep pockets ever be a burden?), when put in practice the study says big
budgets are problematic. Fellow departments can point to robust innovation
funding as reason to disengage, deferring ownership or responsibility of a
project for a comparative “lack of resources.” “The point isn’t [for
innovation teams] to own programs or the associated budgets, but to help
galvanize resources, talent, and creativity across the system,” 5. Ensure Value Valuable service is best seen when it hasn’t been seen before.
For innovation teams this translates into actions that illustrate positive
contrast against current culture and expertise. Duplicating efforts and
inventing rounder wheels are pitfalls to be avoided, the report notes. If
innovation teams desire access to department budgets, they need to deliver an
inventiveness, culture, insight and forward-thinking mindset that doesn’t
already exist. It’s a critical and precautionary warning. The study
emphasizes problems that can stem from political leadership changes while
emphasizing solid communication to shield teams from naysayers and administrative
concerns. 6. Be Exact Part of breaking from the herd involves an explicit and separate
way of getting things done, whether it's through the sharpness of data, an
outpouring of community involvement methods, iterative solutions or another
method at problem solving. Specificity demystifies processes while
establishing teams. Methods can be combined, but should foster a
predicability. 7. Act and Iterate Nothing gets done if someone doesn’t do something. An admittedly
obvious statement, but not so opaque when pitted against approval pyramids,
competing goals and the daily back and forth of office work. Success, which
is to say productivity, requires a default to action, iteration and rapid
experimentation. Early wins and small successes are the mortar in the
process. One way to incentivize action is to first secure freedom for quick
action from leadership, and next, to limit a team’s initial lifespan to three
to five years. The short timeline raises stakes for a team to prove its
worth. “Some of it is about creating and maintaining momentum,” 8. Use Handoffs Innovation teams take on the role of “in-house innovation
consultants,” as they hop from one priority area to the next. Teams aren’t
meant to maintain and manage projects. They jumpstart and transition. It’s
why the study advocates clear handoffs to other departments and staff from
the start. Whether a phased approach or immediate, the transition must be
outlined in budgets, workflows and legal issues. “Clear handovers maximize
the capacity of these teams by allowing them to wrap up their work in one
issue and dive fully into another … Without handovers, we get implementation
teams rather than innovation teams and the primary purpose is jeopardized,” 9. Measure Success Tangible problem solving that's metered and monitored is a habit
that tends to keep innovation teams around -- especially when cost savings
can be shown. When impacts are quantified, innovation teams have evidence of
progress. It also acts as a gauge for pivoting if efforts go astray. 10. Share Success “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who
gets the credit.” The study quotes President Harry Truman in its final tip.
It’s a reminder to credit leadership, sponsors, partner organizations and any
other stakeholders who fit in the mix. The underlying concept, billed by the
study as the “single best guarantee” for sustainability, is that shared
success incentivizes officials to further support innovation team projects
and programs. Political leaders who can leverage success for reelection
campaigns, department and agency leaders who gain media praise to establish
departments and sponsor organizations with visible returns on their
investments are all likely to continue championing the cause of innovation. From
http://www.govtech.com/
3
Steps Governments Can Take to Engage Citizens Citizens, with their rapidly changing expectations, can play a
role in making government what they want and need it to be. Expectations of
citizens are changing rapidly. They want what they want -- be it information,
products or services -- and they want it now. But how does government
re-imagine itself to respond to these demands? Officials attending the 2014
California Leadership Forum held in 1. ASK FOR HELP "The first way to engage people is to ask for it,"
said panelist Greg Weber, director of the Office of the CTO at communications
and collaboration systems provider Avaya. "There are a lot of studies
out there -- [citizens] want to help and they want the recognition," he
said. "Money’s great, but they want recognition and they want to go in
and start solving problems." 2. TACKLE SMALL PROBLEMS FIRST Though the problem itself may be small, that doesn't necessarily
mean the impact will be small, Weber said. "There are some problems you
can solve on the surface and get big gains from," he said. "It
starts changing platforms tremendously when you start changing small
problems." 3. LET CITIZENS PROFIT Many people have created apps based on government data, so why
not allow them to make some money off the services they develop? Many apps
are free, and it's the enhancements that cost extra. But if you let these
citizens profit a bit, "I think you’ll get a lot of bang for your
buck," Weber said. "People inevitably start raising the bar, so
allow them a framework to do that and solve problems at the same time."
The bottom line for improving engagement: I think you start by just starting,
Jain said. As for keeping up with citizens' changing expectations, how
governments design and build their systems is key, Weber said. With the new types of architectures are out there -- shared
services, flexible platforms -- governments should design their systems
knowing they're going to replace different parts at different times.
"You don’t have to replace all of it at one time," Weber said.
"Build systems very modular and go in with a mindset that you’ll be
switching things out." Jain added that governments have these clunky
systems due to layers upon layers of laws that have been passed over decades.
"We need to look at these and say why," she said. "We need to
promote social equity policies, and ask ourselves how can we streamline that
process so we can be more agile and lean, and more responsive to this next
generation of citizens." From
http://www.govtech.com/
Today’s post is by Rudolf van dcr Berg of the OECD Science,
Technology and Industry Directorate. “Internet”, it’s a word we use daily.
“Look it up on the Internet”, “I have no Internet”, “Read it on the
Internet”, “Connect it to the Internet”, “Meet him/her on the Internet”,
“because of the Internet”. There are so many ways the Internet has changed
our lives that many of us would be hard pressed to remember daily routines
without it. Perhaps, there has never been a technology capable of pervading
our activities so much, so quickly and on such a global scale. A tram (like
the one in Iljitsch van Beijnum’s photo above), a train or a bus may already
be connected to the Internet with few of us being aware. The number of connected
devices in our homes is increasing as are the range of connected devices that
we wear or are all around us, from fitness trackers to light bulbs. A new idea for a device or
service developed in This has had an unprecedented effect on global governance. It is
no longer enough to have your national governance of a sector. Unless you cut
the cord, the governance of others is directly influencing yours. Whether it
is access to undersea cables, satellites, harmful and illegal content,
cybersecurity, health or trade, a country’s rules affect those of others. And
it is for this reason that each year the Internet Governance Forum (IGF2014)
comes together. This week, 3000 representatives of business, civil society,
the Internet technical community, Inter-governmental Organisations and
governments come together in The OECD is present at the IGF2014 since the Organisation is one
of the principal forums where its 34 member countries and partners discuss
issues relevant to Internet governance. The OECD publishes each year a number
of reports on policies and good practices on how to preserve the open
Internet, how it influences economic and social development and how to take
advantage of opportunities and address challenges. This year we are participating
in a number of sessions and presenting our most recent work on the Internet
economy. We will in particular have an Open Forum on Thursday at 14: From
http://www.i-policy.org/
The Effect of Internet and Digital Media Freedom on
Corruption Corruption is a serious problem
across the globe and it is therefore essential to find tools that can work as
means of fighting corruption. Determinants of corruption have been examined
in empirical studies for decades. However, the effect of internet and digital
media freedom on corruption has still not gained attention. Since its
emergence, internet and digital media has grown immensely and has influenced
many aspects of a society. Therefore, this paper is devoted to test whether
internet and digital media freedom has an effect on corruption at country
level. Random effects estimation of unbalanced panel covering the years 2010
to 2012 and two different indexes of corruption has been used in answering
the research question. A linear relationship between internet and digital
media freedom and corruption has been tested. One of the corruption indexes
supports a linear relationship while the other rejects it. The discrepancy
makes the linear relationship questionable. The two indexes of corruption are
in agreement with that internet and digital media freedom has to exceed a
threshold before having a positive effect on corruption. The reasoning behind
this is that not all restrictions to internet and digital media freedom are
strongly correlated with corruption. From http://pure.au.dk/
Email
Key for Government, While New Tools Still Lag Behind, Survey Finds The report - ‘Government Connectivity, Citizen Engagement and
Economic Impact in Asia Pacific’ - was commissioned by Cisco Systems, and
surveyed over 100 selected senior officials across From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
E-Government:
Gap Emerging Between Processes and the Democratic Function This week, over a thousand representatives from more than 70
countries are gathering in the Petitions and taxes Petitions are one example of how the British government is using
e-government, though Dr Harvey says this is a very low-volume activity. The
high-volume transactions are all related to tax: "The British appear to
like paying their tax and they like paying it online! From an information
architect's point of view, the petitions are pure window-dressing.
Politicians look at them, but I wouldn't see them as a key plank for
e-government in "So there's a possible education gap in IT, and I'm not
sure how to bridge it. It's not sorted out. Is this politics? Is it
information architecture?" He says that there is even a tendency to
regard all countries as 'enterprises' to be architected. "Somebody
yesterday said there's no need for ministries, but if you asked a politics
student about that, they would say a ministry is not about what it does, it's
about accountability, how the citizens communicate with government."
Therefore, he thinks there is a very interesting gap developing between the
process-orientated view of government, and the democratic function of
government. Security There are major concerns over security, he says: "The fact
that the National Security Agency in the From
http://voiceofrussia.com/
In Search of
a Governance. Who Will Win the There’s a battle going on, and it’s raging for the future of the
Internet. From net neutrality, to the so-called right to be forgotten, to the
multi-stakeholder or multilateral approach to Internet Governance, several
bodies and institutions are busy at forging the future of what is probably
the greatest human invention of recent times. Right now, there are a few
organisms which play an important role in defining and managing the
architecture of the Net. This governance is called “multistakeholder” and
involves coordinating functions performed by the private sector, policies
enacted by governments and functions performed by relatively new global
institutions like the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the W This is completely decentralized with the exception of some
coordinating functions over domain names and numbers that require some degree
of centralized oversight because each name and number has to be globally
unique. “The Others feel that a multilateral organization like the UN should
have more jurisdiction over the Internet, something which would change the
way the Internet is governed from a relative balance of powers among
stakeholders to greater government control. “I am personally an advocate of
the multistakeholder approach – DeNardis says.” The Net Mundial conference
held last April in “There is a risk of balkanization of the Internet, but not for
this reason,” Philippe Aigrain, co-founder of the website La Quadrature du
Net and member of the French Parliamentary Committee on Law and Rights in the
Digital Age, tells me. “The real risk, is that to protect authoritarian
regimes or for purposes of copyright enforcement, censorship or the
protection of some local economic interests, a growing number of states would
try to control data flows entering or exiting them.” “A legal obligation to
relocalize data may also entail risks when it is applied in authoritarian
States,” he adds. “But actually in the case of Regardless of who’s going to win the battle, one thing is for
certain: the Internet of the future should be designed around the needs and
the rights (and obligations) of the users, not of States and corporations;
but for this to be possible, there’s the need first to reach a consensus on
what these rights are. Around the world a number of commissions and
committees are exploring the issue. From the GCIG, launched in January, which
will work for two years to develop a strategic vision for the future of
Internet governance that can inform policymakers, technologists, and others
about shared international concerns and policies for a free and open
Internet; to the draft declaration on Internet Rights prepared by the Study
Committee on Internet Rights and Duties of Italy’s Chamber of Deputies; to
the work of the Bundestag’s committee on the Digital Agenda in Germany. It’s
still early to tell if their work will bear lasting fruits; to reach an
agreement on such complex issues will take time, and diplomacy. But it’s
something we can no longer postpone, if we want to keep the Internet as the
great engine of discovery and innovation that we’ve known so far. From
http://www.forbes.com/
How Will Internet Governance Change After the ITU Conference? Is the United
Nations trying to take over the internet? Read anything in much of the
western media about the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and you
might think so, especially in the lead-up to the International
Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 just wrapping
up in ITU is not taking
over the internet Member States often
presented as the foes of the internet ( These were
proposals that had the Also, back room
negotiations spearheaded by the ITU is about far,
far more than just the internet The feel-good
resolution was about using technology to combat the spread of viruses such as
Ebola. Unfortunately, none of the three countries most affected by Ebola
attended, having been asked by a panicked South Korean government to
“minimise” their participation. Another notable new resolution was passed on global flight
tracking. Malaysia’s very recent experience with flight MH370 meant that
although aviation isn’t usually part of ITU’s activities, member states found
a way for ITU to, in a small way, work with the aviation industry to help
improve flight tracking in future. Look, no vote! A present to me! The plenipot is the last meeting for the
outgoing ITU secretary general Dr Hamadoun Toure, who wanted to go out in a
blaze of glory. Toure did everything to ensure the event wasn’t a repeat of
the highly divisive World Conference on International Telecommunications
(WCIT) in 2012 - and largely succeeded. No member states pushed for a vote,
even on the Crimea and Toure described
this lack of voting as a wonderful present to himself at his last
plenipotentiary as secretary general. But it’s unlikely that More difficult
moments Intense political
negotiations about Crimea and Which states came
out on top? Not the What’s next? Discussions on
internet issues were intense, but the outcomes were fairly insubstantial. It
suggests the internet cold war is definitely thawing after the key battle at
WCIT in 2012. States will still need to posture and clearly state their
policy positions in proposals, but are more willing to let them go by the
wayside … as long as proposals by those with opposing views also aren’t
incorporated. This doesn’t mean that states don’t want to pursue their goals
- it simply means they are being more patient about how long it will take to
get there. The next big
meeting to discuss technology and internet issues in the UN world is the
General Assembly’s special high-level meeting in December 2015. That will
review a decade of activities since the World Summit on the Information
Society was held in From
http://www.theguardian.com/ ITU Steps
Closer to Internet Governance, Though Multistakeholderism Will Guide Policy The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) concluded
working-level negotiations Nov. 4 with the adoption of amendments to four
Internet-related resolutions at its quadrennial plenipotentiary conference in
• Resolution 101 on
Internet Protocol-based networks; • Resolution 102 on the
ITU's role with regard to international public policy issues pertaining to
the Internet and the management of Internet resources including domain names
and addresses; • Resolution 133 on the role
of administrations of member states in the management of internationalized
multilingual domain names; and • Resolution 180 on facilitating the transition from IPv4 to
IPv6. Finished documents are not immediately available and the
circumstances of the agreement on proposed changes are not known. Musab
Abdulla, an official of The outlook for the agreement was uncertain in the early part of
the conference because of opposition from a number of member states to the Referring to the March 14 U.S. announcement of its intention to
transition its current supervisory role over the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers' performance of key Internet domain name functions
to the global multistakeholder community, Arasteh said, “With respect to the
accountability of ICANN, with which we have established very good relations,
having all groups involved in dealing with the Internet is a very positive
point.” Decision 11 Separate from the four policy resolutions, ITU's Decision 11 on
the operation of the ITU Council's seven functional working groups has been
revised in line with the `Connect 2020' Resolution The ITU also approved a new resolution proposed by From
http://www.bna.com/
What Does
the UN Think Is the Next Big Thing for E-Government? “For the first time
in human history, all 193 [UN] member states are presenting themselves online
to their citizens,” enthuses Jonas Rabinovitch, a United Nations expert on
e-government. Rabinovitch works in the division responsible for the bi-yearly
United Nations’ E-Government Survey, which assesses and ranks country
performance across the world. FutureGov caught up with him recently to
discuss the current trends for e-government, the best ways to improve
performance, and the next big thing he expects to see public sector agencies
adopting. The big trends The UN E-Government Survey analyses the key trends that can be
seen in the regional leaders. Five clear trends presented themselves,
Rabinovitch explains: cross-agency working; e-participation; the digital
divide between old and young, rich and poor; open government; and
multi-channel service delivery. Many of the themes can be tackled together.
The leading countries are making groups across society feel more included
through e-participation initiatives and a mixed approach to service delivery.
“It’s not just about computers: it’s about how the government provides
services to people,” Rabinovitch says. Online, citizens “are becoming more and more demanding,” he warns,
with private sector developments - particularly in the banking sector -
pushing what’s expected from e-government. E-participation initiatives help
prioritise improvements, he says, and also create greater public ownership in
project management - putting pressure on politicians to continue reforms even
when governments change. How to make quick progress New approaches and technologies are helping some countries
“leapfrog” more developed nations, he notes, because they provide an
opportunity to dodge key problems. For example, The next big thing Mobile government is one big trend, Rabinovitch says, while
another is enhanced authentication - where citizens are given online
identities by the state. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Does the
Internet Need "Governance"? It's remarkable to me that there are now two powerful agencies
fighting to "govern" the Internet — the ITU and the FCC. On any
given day, it's hard to tell whether they are on the same side or different
sides. The ITU process apparently began in earnest with the World Summit for
the Information Society (WSIS) meetings, where the concept of "Internet
Governance" became an urgent goal. The FCC process began when incumbent
Internet Access Providers (IAPs) argued that "Net Neutrality" was a
stalking horse for government control and definition of the Internet,
followed by calls for regulatory definition of the Internet as a
"Broadband Service" through the Regulation of
"Broadband". I recently signed a letter referring to the
inconsistencies between the two efforts, which threaten, when combined, to
destroy the whole idea of a "network of networks", replacing it
with a "vertically integrated service" concept, in the quest to
"govern" something. But both efforts seem to have the Internet
wrong in different ways. As I've noted, the Internet is not Broadband, in my post What
the Internet Is, and Should Continue to Be. But the FCC wants to view it as a
"service" because for historical reasons, the FCC bureaucracy is
organized around the idea that every activity or application of any sort in
communications is a "service" that stands on its own. The Internet
is a unification of all communications capabilities, so it just does not fit
into the vertical integration idea that the FCC promotes by the structure of its
regulations. (a reading of the enabling legislation does not require
organization around "discrete services", by the way) The ITU also
seems to be focused on "defining the Internet" as a
"service", but they focus on trans-national issues as well. In the What is "defining the Internet" about? Well, largely
it is about creating something to "govern" by inventing a
governable entity, based on a lot of discussions with
"stakeholders" [note: I am not considered a stakeholder because I
represent myself. The technical language that defines stakeholder in both the
FCC and ITU is someone who "represents an interest”, where interest is a
governmental agency, a corporation, or an organized interest group dedicated
to influencing legislation in the interests of its members.The Internet users
themselves are not interests]. And they are trying to define it as a service
that is provided by a "provider" who owns or otherwise controls the
medium. In other words, the assumption is that the Internet is a
"vertically integrated" concept, that starts with applications, and
is supported by a variety of gear that the "service providers" pay
for, and resell to users in the form of services. This gives them a thing to
"govern". This is attractive to bureaucrats who seek power and control
over communications activities, whether the bureaucrats are in governments,
international quasi-governmental agencies, or corporations. The move is to
define the activity, and then limit the activity to a particular physical
resource (wires, fiber, switches, gateways, spectrum property rights, ...),
and then control from the bottom. This paradigm of "governance" by
creating property rights in physical media and then controlling all services
built on that property is extremely attractive, and has reached full flower
in the POTS and radio communications arenas. But as I began, the question is:
does the Internet need governance? By design and history, the answer is no. The Internet was designed as a "network of networks"
that could easily extend across all networks, merely by finding a way to
transport Internet Protocol Datagrams (IP datagrams, or IP packets) across
each network, whereupon a gateway (switch or router that understands IP
datagram addressing) then can forward the IP datagram towards the eventual
destination. Since all destinations and sources have IP addresses, the
Internet Protocol and the gateways provide sufficient glue to create a
universally connected network of networks. This design avoids the need for
any governance whatsoever in the delivery of packets. Further, the design is
such that the content and intent of the datagrams need not play any role
whatever in the gateways' function. Only the IP Datagram "header"
is used to make decisions about where the datagrams go. Part of routing the
datagrams is the ability of the gateways to decide what route to take to deliver
the datagram to the intended destination. But again, no global
"governor" is needed to carry out the function efficiently — as the
network of networks grows, a distributed algorithm for routing is both more
resilient and more effective at getting packets to where they need to be. Since content plays no role in Internet delivery, encryption of
each datagram's content may be used to further protect and to authenticate
content against forgery. A key part of the Internet's design was and is the
ability to carry encrypted content for this reason — it prevents malicious
tampering and reading of datagrams, up to the strength of the encryption
algorithm and the key management maintained by the source and destination. It
is this ability of the Internet to be a universal network of networks that
does not depend on applications that has led to its ability to serve as the
"lingua franca" that spans international and corporate boundaries,
facilitating any application that wants to use it, and also incorporating any
underlying technology for communications — starting with dedicated digital
circuits and voice-grade switched lines using acoustic encoding (so-called
"dialup"), and now including fiber, cable TV coax, wideband radio,
mesh networks, etc. So the Internet is not an application or
"service" in the sense that the ITU and FCC would like to define
it. It is not "Facebook + Google + Instagram + The Cloud + email +
Twitter + Amazon + iTunes + Alibaba" — an amalgam of current popular
services that happen to exploit the universal openness of the Internet. Nor is it Broadband or LTE or GSM. This is why the "network neutrality" discussion,
framed as "who will govern the Internet" is wrongheaded from the
beginning. As I've noted, the Internet "needs a little help from the
Law". But the key point here is that law is not the same thing as
governance. Laws are rules that humans (and "persons" like
corporations) must obey, or be punished. Not all laws come from governments.
There is a whole body of "common law" that is generally accepted,
transcending government. One such law is that you cannot steal a package that
you've agreed to transport from point (a) to point (b). That is true whether
or not there is a "contract". It's just not done, and courts in any
jurisdiction, no matter what the government, will hold to that principle. So reading and benefiting from a private communications that you
happen to be carrying as part of the Internet should be covered by this
standard principle. We don't need the Internet to be "owned" as a
whole, or "governed" as a whole to prevent that or to discipline
those who might do so. Similarly, discriminating at a hotel based on the
color of some guest's skin is equally noxious. There are those who think all
laws should be based on absolute property rights who struggle to find such
ideas acceptable — usually by defining people as non-persons due to their
forbears' genetic makeup. But in a modern society, we know that there is no
basis for such discrimination. There is a tendency to blame the Internet for
the kinds of communications that go over it — and to try to hold the Internet
liable. But the criminal behavior that happens over the Internet is not
caused by the Internet transport of packets. Again the idea that the Internet
is somehow a service is based on a fundamental confusion. Should we blame the
English language (or the Pashto language) because people can conspire to
commit crimes by speaking in English (Pashto)? Should we blame a culture's
literature and newspapers for the behavior of individuals who belong to that
culture? Trying to conceive of the Internet in terms of
"governance" reflects a peculiar redefinition of what the Internet
is about. The Internet is a form of universal glue. It's built by those who
use it, and based on a design concept that allows a network of networks to
scale to any size on any technology that can carry IP Datagrams. What the
Internet needs, however, is some help from the law. The help is required
largely because governments create or subsidize monopolies. Examples include
radio spectrum rights (you cannot get the right to operate a transmitter in
the US or a receiver in countries like the UK without a very restrictive
license that bars most modern communications techniques other than those of a
small set of "incumbent" providers), and local "franchise
rights" created and maintained by local and national governments (RCN
was not allowed to build out Fiber in Philadelphia, the corporate home of
Comcast, by a mayoral decision based on the claim that it would "cost
jobs"). The Internet can run fine across these monopoly platforms, but
the temptation of some of the monopolies is to claim the right to muck with
Internet packets — and this is not a theoretical claim. It is at the core of
behavior that has been documented, including products from Phorm, NebuAd,
Sandvine, Ellacoya and others that are designed to read all IP datagrams to
analyze content, modify content, act as a "man-in-the-middle" to
control connections unbeknownst to the endpoints, etc. Those companies are
doing great business selling to access providers the tools to exploit what is
inside of IP Datagrams, in most cases without disclosure, and if disclosed
there is only a mention of the possibility in a Terms of Service, and maybe
an obscure "opt-out" mechanism that can be offered when the
exploitation is discovered. If the state grants such monopolies, the state
must be responsible to police those monopolies' actions. And that's one place
where the Internet needs a little help from the law. One could argue that the Constitutional Protections in the US
for Free Speech and Free Assembly only protect against "government
action" to block free speech — that companies who interfere with speech
and assembly on the Internet do so privately, and therefore outside the
purview of the US Constitution. But that is clearly wrong for a simple
reason: the government created the monopolies! So the government is
responsible for the curtailment of free speech and free assembly by its
monopolies. That includes monopolies at the level of Towns, Cities, States,
and other jurisdictions in the This could be easily solved with a simple law: any company that
handles Internet datagrams may not read or modify the content, nor infer
intent or meaning for the purpose of deciding what datagrams to deliver or to
not deliver. That's a pretty simple principle, and it happens also to be the
design principle behind the Internet, and what has made it work. If a Cable
TV company chooses not to offer Internet service at all, that's fine. Let
them. They then would not have a "franchise" right for Internet
service, and someone else who chooses to offer full Internet service could
enter the market, which is awesomely large! There's no risk there. Similarly,
if a wireless company chooses not to offer Internet service at all, great!
Again, they would be wasting the value of their monopoly spectrum, and
someone would find a way to offer Internet service. But the law would merely
exist to protect the simple rules about IP datagrams — no peeking, no
changing, no routing some but not others based on content. We might not even need the law if the governments would get out
of the business of granting monopolies, as I have argued is possible (and
needed) in the case of digital networked radio technologies. The argument
that spectrum rights are needed for radio communications to function is
technically wrong in a fundamental way. In fact, we would have vast
improvements in wireless capability if we were to take advantage of the ability
of digital techniques (modulation, sensing, cooperation, and interoperation
as a network of networks) for radio. The major block here is that the current
incumbents control the regulatory framework, because they like monopolies
given out by the government. However, separating the necessity of monopolies
from the question — the law can easily say that the monopolists that offer
Internet access and transport must not peek, modify or discriminate, as a
condition of holding the monopoly. We might not need the law if we could
adopt a universal framework for encryption and secure routing among all the
glue parts of the Internet, such that there would be no ability to peek,
modify, or discriminate. I find this less likely to happen, because it would
require a significant effort on the part of vendors and applications that use
the Internet to ensure that all these parts get built and implemented widely. From
http://www.circleid.com/ |
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China's National Memorial launched its portal app on Tuesday
allowing users to access the museum's website via smart phones just ahead
Victory Day commemorations on Sept. 3.The National Memorial's website itself,
cngongji.cn, is fairly new, having just opened in July. It was designed to
promote the commemoration of the Nanjing Massacre in World War II, after
China's top legislature set December 13 as a national memorial day for
Nanjing Massacre victims.The Nanjing Massacre is a six week period in late
1937 which saw Japanese soldiers kill more than 300,000 people in the city of
Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu, then capital of China.One website function
allows users to log in and participate in digital candle-lighting and tree
planting as part of mourning process for the victims.The app's logo is a red
seal stamp with the Chinese characters of "National Memorial". It's
available in three languages - Chinese, English and Japanese.The memorial
hall co-sponsors the website along with the Xinhua News Agency website,
Xinhuanet.com. By Tuesday, the National Memorial website had logged more than
40 million clicks, with 1.7 million participating in digital mourning
activities, according to Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Nanjing Massacre
Memorial Hall.The launch of the website has led a series of commemoration
activities preluding the first national memorial later this year. Earlier
this year, the hall began a drive to track down descendants of survivors,
offering them a chance to register and share stories.Zhu said about 100
eyewitnesses who survived the massacre are still alive. The memorial has
organized the registration to help record their memories and those of their
families.He said so far, the memorial has registered 1,513 people. Some of
them called the memorial's hotlines from the From http://www.news.cn/
Websites Help Gov't
Catch Rumor-Mongers More than 100 Internet companies in Beijing signed an agreement
on Thursday to fight the distribution of illegal and improper information online,
promising they will punish those spreading fake messages and accept public
supervision.The companies are required to set up 24-hour hotlines to deal
with reports from residents, ensuring that problems can be addressed in a
timely manner, according to China's Internet security watchdog.Under the
agreement, if the corporations are alerted to unverified rumors, to
information involving terrorism or to the distribution of pornography, they
will clean them out and punish the troublemakers, the State Internet
Information Office said.Companies that cannot or will not respond to reports
in a timely manner will be exposed, criticized and potentially even closed,
an official of the reporting center under the authority said.The center has
received more than 4.66 million reports and exposed more than 200 Web
companies suspected of spreading improper information since it was
established 10 years ago, said the official, who declined to be named. "We also reward those who provide valuable reports, hoping
to inspire more people to join us to crack down on illegal and improper
online information," he said.The center received 680,000 reports,
including 9,000 pieces of information relating to terrorism, over the past
eight months, and paid more than 2 million yuan ($326,000) to more than 800
informants, according to an official statement."The report service can
encourage residents' efforts to purify the cyber environment, while the
Internet companies can also make use of the channel to build their
credibility and shoulder more social responsibility," he added.Li Tong,
chief inspector of Sina.com, one of the country's largest websites, said his
company has published its hotline on the website's front page and dealt with
more than 15,000 pieces of information provided by the center."We supply
a reporting channel for each product of our company, aiming to guarantee that
reported clues can be followed up," Li said, adding they have deleted
about 5 million pornographic messages on Sina Weibo, Chinese largest Twitter-like
service. Wang Yi, deputy chief editor of From http://www.news.cn/
Top Internet Watchdog Vows Governance
According to Law China's top Internet watchdog on Sunday pledged to govern online
space in accordance with the law, echoing the Party's embrace of rule of law
at a key plenum.The Party's fourth plenum spirit of law should be vigorously
applied to the Internet to ensure regulators and online users behave within
the limits of law, said Lu Wei, Minister of the Cyberspace Administration of
China.The 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held the
Fourth Plenary Session from Monday to Thursday, with the central theme of
"rule of law."Local officials in charge of cyberspace
administration on Sunday gathered in Beijing to discuss the way of protecting
the Internet security and online privacy.To govern the Internet according to
law is in essence consistent with the Party's leadership, said Tong Liqiang,
director of Beijing cyberspace information office."To regulate the
Internet in accordance with law must strengthen the Party's leadership over
Internet, in this way, right and sound development of the Internet can be
guaranteed," Tong added. From http://www.news.cn/
Chinese central government launched its online procurement
center on September 1. The website, zycg.gov.cn, has attracted 87 companies,
including Haier, Tongfang and Lenovo.More than 10 local governments,
including the governments of Shanghai, Tianjin, Chengdu and Hangzhou, have
also opened their online shopping centers.Hangzhou municipal government tried
its hand at "online supermarket" in 2009. It keeps 1,814 products
available on the official website.According to He Liming, president of China
Federation of Logistics and "But it is often accompanied by scandals of
corruption."When purchases are made online, common people could see clearly
how much money is used for a product and how many products are bought, said
Song Chunzheng, a manager with e-commerce giant JD.com. "Procurements of
the government are subject to public supervision," he said.However, some
experts see loopholes in online public procurement, like low efficiency due
to complicated procedures."The Government Procurement Law also needs
improvement," said Liu Hengbin, director of the regional procurement
center of From http://www.news.cn/
The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will conduct a
detailed survey of consumption trends for 22 items such as e-books and music
sold through the Internet, according to sources. The survey is set to begin
in January next year. It is believed the results of the survey, which should
provide a more complete picture of overall consumer spending, may boost the
nation’s gross domestic product numbers. Because of the spread of
smartphones, the e-commerce market is rapidly expanding. Firms are also
expected to utilize the survey results to get a more accurate picture of the
growing market. The ministry surveys about 8,700 households every month to
determine family income and daily spending. It also surveys about 30,000
households a month to determine monthly spending and consumption trends. In
next year’s survey on household Internet spending, target households will be
asked about monthly expenditures for each of the 22 items, which include
digital contents such as music, e-books, and reservations for accommodations
and flight tickets, as well as groceries, clothes and books bought on the
Internet. According to the ministry, few people regard the purchase of
smartphone applications and digital contents as consumption, and it estimates
total online expenditures will swell to between ¥4 trillion and ¥5 trillion
when such consumption is surveyed in detail. From
http://the-japan-news.com
From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
S’Korean
Wins UN Award on E-Govt For three consecutive years (2010, 2012 and 2014), South The e-government master plan is expected to provide a vision
that will direct From
http://www.punchng.com
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
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E-budgeting, e-catalogues and e-auditing are the three most
powerful weapons in the fight against corruption, announced Joko Widodo
(Jokowi), the incoming Indonesian President who assumes office next month.
“The system must be repaired. And people have to follow the system.
Opportunities for deviation must be closed,” said Jokowi yesterday, referring
to his successful introduction of e-governance during his short spell as
Governor of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city. During the Presidential
campaign Jokowi argued strongly for greater use of e-government systems to
improve citizen access to services, and reduce the scope for corruption. A
suite of budgeting, procurement and audit applications were introduced to the
Jakarta administration - introducing transaction traceability and automated financial
controls within city hall for the first time. “These e-government tools have
successfully reduced the chances for people to play around,” Jokowi added.
“They can be made to work at the national level as well.” From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Indonesian government has officially launched its open data portal
today, starting off with 700 datasets from 24 agencies. The portal data.id
has a clean look with a prominent search bar on the homepage, and the content
is written simply. According to the portal, it aims to promote a more
credible government, better public services and encourage innovation in the
society. The portal also features visualisations which citizens and
government agencies have made using the open datasets, so that users without
data skills can benefit from the portal as well. Another section on the
website has applications which the government and citizens have developed
using open data. Apart from making data available to communities, the portal
also aims to engage citizens’ ideas and feedback. It has a ‘Community’
section where users can also propose open datasets which they would like to
see on the portal or join a mailing list to stay connected with the open data
community. The portal is currently in beta and will later become data.go.id.
The portal is part of From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
How
Open Data Restored Citizen Trust in Indonesian Election When both presidential candidates claimed to have won the July
election, Indonesian citizens got together online and used open data to
verify the votes. The General Elections Commission had earlier published
scanned tallies from close to 500,000 polling stations on their website.
Ainun Najib, an IT expert based in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Tax
Agency Cautious About Using Open Source on Critical Systems The open source community in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Three
E-Government Challenges for Indonesia’s New President He called for longer-term planning and investment. The academic
said that the new President, Joko Widodo, should make citizen satisfaction
the measure of his success in e-government. “Our president is concerned about
IT. If the stakeholders - citizens - are not satisfied with these services,
he can consider that e-government has failed. The indicator of the success of
e-government is user satisfaction.” Sensuse also called on the President to
do more for mobile phone users. “We don’t yet think about mobile applications
- we talk about desktop applications, which we consider a priority,” he said.
There are two notable success stories that the new President Widodo inherits,
however. The e-procurement system was mandated by central government for all
agencies, ensuring that they will all use the same system by 2015. Sensuse
also praised officials for providing a high level of technical support to
develop IT skills in local government. Second, he said, is a mobile system
that allows citizens to report problems on projects. People can complain if
there is slow progress on a large project, potentially flagging corruption. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Indonesian government is planning to ultimately use information
technology to run its government by adopting the e-government system used in From
http://www.globalpost.com/
Sharing data across agencies is a priority for Malaysian
government officials because it will reduce duplication, increase value for
money and create “seamless integrated services,” chief secretary Ali Hamsa
has told FutureGov in an exclusive interview. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Information and Communications Technology Ministry is set to
expand its role and restructure its operation to serve the government's
policy of promoting a digital-based economy. To that end, ICT Minister
Pornchai Rujiprapa said yesterday that the ministry was considering
approaching the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre to have
it placed under its control. The centre is currently under the Science and
Technology Ministry. However,
Pornchai declined to comment on reports that the ICT Ministry would change
its name to the Digital Ministry.This week MR Pridiyathorn Devakula, the
deputy prime minister for the economy, said the government would create
long-term plans, including a new focus on the digital economy. Pornchai met
with Thares Punsri, chairman of the National Broadcasting and
Telecommunications Commission, yesterday to discuss a collaboration between
the ministry and the NBTC that aimed to steer the ICT industry. He said it
also aimed to solve the ministry's and NBTC's problems, including their
redundant roles, and possibly amend laws. Both bodies would soon set up a
joint committee to work out possible areas of collaboration. Pornchai said
the ministry would set up a joint committee with the NBTC to amend the
Frequency Allocation Act and have the roles of the two bodies defined more
clearly. His other priorities included amending computer and
e-commerce-related laws and improving the financial performance of state
telecom enterprises. From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
The 132nd General Assembly of the Inter-parliamentary Union, to
be hosted by From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
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The IUF website, organised by a group of Turkish activists,
states the issues thus: "We see that at IGF the most urgent problems of
the Internet do not get the right attention. Due to the
'multi-stakeholderism' format, the main perpetrators of many of the
Internet's problems, governments and corporations, are getting representation
in IGF they don't deserve. Given these circumstances, we decided to take
initiative to defend the Internet as we know it and to create a space to
raise the voices of civil society initiatives, activists and common
people." Anja Kovacs, who heads the research and advocacy platform
Internet Democracy Project, agrees that issues of censorship "could have
more detailed treatment" at the IGF. However, she says the blame can't
be put squarely on the IGF. "Last year, surveillance was put on the
agenda of one of the main sessions of the forum. Yet when comments were
invited from the floor, these surprisingly remained relatively mild,"
points out Kovacs, who will also be attending the "ungovernance"
forum. "What we want to achieve is the creation of alternative forums
where states and corporations do not have a dominant position. We would
regard ourselves as successful if forums like ours become institutionalized
in future," says Melih Kirdilog, one of the IUF organisers, adding that
the internet is "fast becoming a dystopia of censorship and surveillance
and governments and large corporations are responsible for this." From
http://www.i-policy.org/ 'Digital
Other important components of Digital India, all of which
contributed to the improved access mentioned were: Cradle to Grave Digital
Identity to every person, mobile phone and bank account to everyone, creation
of digital resources in Indian languages and setting up of Common Service
Delivery Centres in each panchayat. This will allow transparent and efficient
electronic service delivery. In this regard regulations related to Electronic
Service Delivery are being prepared and will be implemented in the near
future. Additionally, post offices will also be used as Common Service
Delivery Centres. Many countries have appreciated From
http://www.i-policy.org/
Online
Tracking of Government Officials From
http://www.siliconindia.com/ Prez, PM Ask
People to Use Technology to Fight Corruption From
http://www.siliconindia.com/ The government has set a strategic goal for the sector which is
to achieve US$ 1 billion worth of IT exports by 2016. ICT authority bodies
such as the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology,
Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and
SLASSCOM have worked tirelessly over the last five years with other
stakeholders in the industry to make this US$ 1 billion target a realistic
goal. Global companies such as ATKearney, Gartner and IBM have already put These numbers are going to affect several global rankings such
as Network Readiness Index (NRI), Doing Business Index (DBI) and Global
Competitive Index (GCI). ‘UN E-Government Survey’ is considered as a feeding
tool for these rankings and the progress we have made here from 2012 to 2014
as a country would contribute to these global rankings to elevate the
country’s position in the coming years. The country should utilize
e-government and innovation to offer momentous opportunities to convert
public administration into a tool of sustainable growth. E-government is ‘the
use of ICT and its application by the government for the provision of information
and public services to the people’ (Global E-Government Readiness Report
2004). In a broader aspect, e-government is the idea of using information
technology tools in public administration to simplify and integrate processes
to administer data and information in an effective manner to improve public
service delivery, engage people using versatile communication channels and
empower them. The opportunities offered by the digital development of recent
years, whether through online services, big data, social media, mobile apps,
or cloud computing, are expanding the way we look at e-government. Through e-government innovations, public administrations around
the world can be more competent, provide better services and respond to
demands for transparency and accountability. E-government can help
governments go green and promote effective natural resource management, as
well as stimulate economic growth and promote social inclusion, particularly
of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. ICTs have also proven to be effective
platforms to facilitate knowledge sharing, skills development, transfer of
innovative e-government solutions and capacity-building for sustainable
development among countries. E-government can generate important benefits in
the form of new employment, better health and education. The measurement sticks
of government services are reliability and productiveness. When the services
are electronically implemented, reliability and productiveness should
increase with great discipline. Each and every person in the country finds
benefits and their lives have been made easier by e-government services. This
was the brainchild of ICTA whose main objective is to serve, fulfill and
empower Sri Lankans through their e-government service. On a final note, let
me congratulate ICTA on their tremendous effort and finish by saying that ICT
is the bedrock upon which we can dream of building a society with equitable
distribution of opportunity and knowledge through robust e-government
platform services. From
http://www.i-policy.org/
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The Azerbaijani Ministry of Taxes has informed taxpayers of the
temporary suspension of the portal of e-services e-taxes.gov.az in connection
with the ongoing maintenance work, the ministry said Aug. 23. The maintenance
work started at 20:00 on August 22 and will last until 20:00 on August 24,
according to the ministry. The portal includes more than 50 services. One can
be registered with the tax bodies, open a bank account, fill in electronic
applications through the resource. The entrepreneurs can suspend their
activity, as well as carry out the registration as a VAT payer.
E-taxes.gov.az portal has extensive information base for the taxpayers. A
taxpayer can quickly get all the necessary information, use the updated
legislative base, submit electronic declarations, etc. with the help of the
resource. From
http://en.trend.az/
The Kyrgyz Finance Ministry and the State Personnel Service are
examining From
http://en.trend.az/
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Senior IT
officials in Another
added: “How do you break down the silos limiting inter-connectivity between
departmental agency systems and processes?” The survey also asked officials
to rate the importance of economic impact to their agency, and the level of
economic impact that their organisation is having. Australian officials gave
a score of 81% to the importance of having an economic impact - higher than
the regional average of 77.3% - but rated their current level of economic
impact at 64.8% - lower than the regional average of 65.6%.Asked why he
believes that Australian officials expressed the greatest regional concern
about connectivity and economic impact, Andrew Thomson, Cisco’s Director of
Public Sector Strategy, said: “Australians recognize that the global economy,
and their place in it are changing. There is increased expectation that new
technology will open up new means of driving jobs, economic growth and
development.” He continued: “As one of the most developed economies in the
world, we are seeing Responding
to officials’ concerns about breaking down silos, he said: “Within government
and between departments we see new connectivity tools improving efficiencies
and driving greater inter-departmental co-operation. With the advent of more
cloud and big-data information sources coming online, I would expect that Thomson said
that “Although there is a strong interest in multi-channel service delivery,
policy makers are really looking for how tools provide better quality and
more transactional services, as opposed to just more information about those
services.” He added: “I think policy makers are rightly sceptical about the
incremental value of IM and social media as tools for service delivery, but
at the same time understand the value in citizen engagement.” From http://www.futuregov.asia
The
framework introduces two new types of performance information - corporate
plans and annual performance statements - “to improve the standard of
planning and reporting for Commonwealth entities, especially regarding the
delivery of public services and programmes”, the Department of Finance has
said in its proposal - Enhanced Commonwealth Performance Framework -
published this week. The performance framework will be implemented over time,
starting from 1 July 2015. Currently there is no single document to guide the
government’s performance management, the proposal said, leading to a
performance management system that is “incomplete and lacks overarching
coherence”. The new corporate plan will be the key planning and operations
document for government organisations. The framework also proposes improving
portfolio budget statements which will include information on resource
allocation and programme monitoring. These two documents will be produced at
the start of the financial year. The
end-of-financial year annual reports will be adjusted to incorporate the new
annual performance statements and will be the main performance reporting
document for Australian government organisations. The new elements of the
performance framework will be integrated into the existing documents used -
“we are seeking to build on, rather than disrupt existing good practice”, the
proposal said. The Department of Finance paper also mentioned a longer term
goal to create an integrated performance reporting system, which will include
monitoring and evaluation, and help the government make decisions about where
to best invest scarce public resources. From http://www.futuregov.asia
The
Australian government will soon publish all of its intellectual property (IP)
rights data online so companies can easily search and find partners. The
information being made available comprises more than 350 million data points,
including rights to patents, trademarks, designs and rights granted to the
breeder of a new variety of flora. The data will be updated annually. The
government expects that the open data will help companies find each other
more quickly to collaborate, build their product and get it to market, said
Bob Baldwin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry in a
release. “Placing IP rights data on the web in a way that is easily searchable
will make it easier for business to come together to innovate, create jobs
and boost our economy,” he said. “The data includes information about IP
rights applications that can be matched to individual firms along with
information about their size, their technology and their geographic
location.” This
location information also allows the government to map innovation and
pinpoint exactly where new ideas have been developed in From http://www.futuregov.asia
The
Department of Education in the From http://www.futuregov.asia
Australian Government Moves to New govCMS
Digital Government Platform Australia.gov.au
is going Drupal through the Acquia Platform, with the site launching ahead of
the official govCMS launch in February 2015. Acquia bills itself as ‘the
digital experience company’, and is a company created by the founder of
Drupal, with clients such as Pinterest, Mercedes Benz, Warner Music Group,
and Today’s
press briefing saw the Australian Government’s Chief Technology Officer, John
Sheridan, announce that ‘the first site to use the innovative govCMS platform
has gone live on the Acquia Cloud, the cloud-based platform innovated by
Acquia to support some of the world’s most sophisticated and ruggedly resilient digital
experiences.’ ASADA, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority will also
‘be among the first external agencies to adopt govCMS; the full migration of
the authority’s site to govCMS is planned for early 2015.’ Acquia says The
Department of Finance is working with it ‘to provide govCMS, an open cloud
platform for the development and continuous delivery of its Drupal-based
govCMS service.’ Acquia is working with the govCMS team to ‘create common
themes and templates that may be used by a variety of government Departments,
Agencies, official blogs, and policy microsites. Together they’re also
developing a range of procurement options and pricing plans to provide
greater value and flexibility to agencies that adopt govCMS.’ The
Australian Government will also offer ‘free Get Ready for govCMS training
courses on Friday 14 November in The platform
features Acquia’s Digital Experience Cloud, which supports DevOps best
practices by helping engineers create and manage high-quality applications
faster. The Digital Experience Cloud simplifies the management of a complex
portfolio of sites for engineers and architects, helping them build, govern,
and scale the continuous delivery of many experiences across an organisation
while administering them from a single administrative dashboard. The Acquia
Platform also empowers government agencies to tap into the innovation of the
global Drupal community, connecting new applications, modules and
technologies to their sites as they emerge. Chris
Harrop, Acquia’s Asia Pacific Regional Director said: “Acquia’s Digital
Experience Cloud and world-class professional support is enabling the
Australian government to go to market faster with a solution that delivers on
the promise of eGovernment to agencies all across the Commonwealth.” From http://www.itwire.com
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The European Commission should carry out a whole review of the
digital sector regulatory regime as soon as possible, because of the
following reasons: 1) The telecom industry is a strategic sector for 2) The current regulatory regime was designed and thought of for
liberalization. Market context has changed. US and Asian companies are in
good health, especially internet players in the 3) The review should be carried out first of all by means of the
publication of a white paper or a communication, to be released for public
consultation, that gives straight away positive signals for investors, for
companies and for citizens. Positive signals are needed because the policy
debate is now centred around a draft regulation that, after Parliament first
reading, serves no objectives of growth and is reduced to a mere draft law
regulating roaming and net neutrality. The Parliament and the Council, which
are stuck in such discussions, should be brought on board as from the very
beginning in the building of reasons in favour of a general review, while now
this is not the case. The review should take into account the following areas
/ lines of proposals, that must be further developed and deepened with a new
approach and out of the box thinking: 1) The relationship between ex ante rules and competition rules.
No more lengthy procedures and reduction of the litigation and appeals. Times
are mature, after 16 years of liberalization, to really rethink the way rules
are applied to networks. Too much regulatory effort is being spent with no
clear results of the positive effects in terms of market growth and rise in
investments. Such a brainstorming needs also to take into account the overall
role of Regulatory agencies as they are defined in the current Directives and
their relationship with competition law authorities. We need a new
liberalization: the liberalization from rules that are not fit for purpose
and only justify regulatory functions per se. 2) More consumers attention: no more roaming (for example) but
more needs to be done. High value content should be made available over
networks and new agreements must be encouraged (see e.g. Netflix agreements
with Comcast, Verizon and ATT). This requires a review of copyright and the
regime of protection of content owners. TV over fibre should be encouraged.
All players of the content distribution chain should be brought into the
discussion as well. Happy and satisfied consumers will be ready to pay more
for better services. We must get out of the regulatory cycle that has brought
prices down over years in favour of for free services. Such developments has
benefited US companies to the detriment of declining revenues for EU
companies (telcos, broadcasters, publishers). 3) A new model of market development: consolidation of players
throughout the EU. No other comparable markets have such a high number of
fixed and mobile players. More efficient companies will likely generate a new
wave of revenues and keep the debt under control (difficult to finance on the
capital markets), again generating with more confidence for investors. Such
moves can keep under control the risk of massive foreign market access and
all related dangers and threats. Can the EU afford foreign control of the
information and communication networks? A strategic analysis should be
carried out. 4) Privacy and data protection: because of the reasons
explained, European citizens and member states’ governments are very
concerned about the protection of data. Legislation in favour of better
protection has limited effects but more can be done if companies are put in a
position to manage traffic and keep data flows under control. From
http://www.i-policy.org/
LATIN
AMERICA: But there are drawbacks. Digital money may be cheaper to
disseminate and use without having to invest heavily in infrastructure and
logistics, but it’s also more difficult for people to wrap their heads around
and trust, according to Jeremy Bonney, product manager at Coindesk, a digital
currency news site. “It may benefit some people but it’s going to be hard for
them to get a really strong adoption rate,” Bonney told Quartz. And there are
hidden costs. A centralized digital currency (one controlled by a state’s
central bank rather than market forces) may be easier to replicate and
counterfeit, says Bonney, so it requires investing in protection from cyber
attacks. For example, Bitcoin, the world’s largest digital currency exchange,
relies on powerful computers and sophisticated cryptography to stay secure.
For now, the Ecuadorian government has banned Bitcoin in favor of a digital
currency it can regulate. But if it can’t, a giant pile of physical dollars
will be waiting in the wings. From
http://www.nextgov.com/
NORTH
AMERICA: Canada Post has released its list of finalists for its E-Commerce
Innovation Awards, naming 25 contenders with a shot at winning almost $1
million in prizes. Divvying up its finalists into seven categories, Canada
Post has made room for not only From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
Credit card giant MasterCard has shared plans to do away with
passwords in online payments, with an all-new authentication standard to eventually
replace 3D Secure. 3D Secure is the extra layer of security placed on many
online card payments, underlying systems such as MasterCard SecureCode,
Verified by Visa, and American Express SecureKey. Originally developed by
Visa, the 3D Secure protocol has been widely disliked for years, recently
described by media celebrating its potential downfall as "hated"
and by academic researchers as "a textbook example of how not to design
an authentication protocol." Its requirement for complex passwords and
erratic behaviour patterns irritated end users, while the use of pop-ups and
later iframes from third-party sites worried security experts. Development of
the new system is being jointly led by MasterCard and Visa, and promises to
"utilise richer cardholder data", opening up opportunities for all
sorts of second-factor authentication options. Exactly how it will work and what sorts of second factors may be
supported remains to be finalised, but MasterCard's news release mentions
one-time passwords and fingerprints. It also notes that it's been looking at
face and voice recognition, and even heart-rhythm-reading wristbands. Using
aspects of your body to identify you would make authentication processes
smoother, although the wisdom of using something you cannot change is
regularly questioned. One-off passwords, coming from a code-generating dongle
or app or sent to your phone as an SMS, interrupt the flow of things a little
more but also provide decent security. The problem with most of these in the
past has been their reliance on additional technology. While you can carry
passwords around in your head, fingerprints and heartbeats need to be read by
something, and computer-generated codes need to be generated by something.
You'd then need that something to hand anytime you wanted to make a payment
online. This problem is slowly being overcome by our mobile devices. The
most basic cellphone can provide SMS-based codes, smartphones can handle
code-generating apps easily, and higher-end models now all have inbuilt fingerprint
readers, so many of these options will be available to many people much of
the time. Still, of course, there's the issue that not everyone will be on
board. Not everyone has even a "dumbphone", and those who do don't
always have charge or signal. Not everyone would be willing to deal with
one-off codes, and for now at least, only a small minority would want to wear
a bio-sensing device at all times. So the death of passwords may still be
some way off. As MasterCard puts it, the system "could be adopted in
2015" and will "gradually replace" the existing model, meaning
the change will take some time even if it's adopted soon. It even says it
expects "far fewer prompts for passwords", rather than none at all.
The new model is expected to run alongside the current one, for a while at
least, and adoption is likely to be led by the wealthier and more tech-savvy,
who tend to be less at risk from fraud in the first place. So, it's unlikely
that the cybercrooks will be rethinking their target list any time soon, but
it's good to see some signs of progress towards retiring an old and
sloppily-implemented security paradigm. From
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/
Global
Smartphone Connections to Hit 6bn by 2020 GSMA Intelligence predicts 80% of smartphone connections will
come from developing markets. GSMA Intelligence on Thursday predicted that
the number of smartphone connections worldwide will reach 6 billion by 2020,
accounting for two thirds of all mobile connections excluding
machine-to-machine (M From
http://www.totaltele.com/
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While Chinese consumers do much of their shopping with the click
of a mouse or a fingertip, some foreign products aren't so easily
obtained.Chinese and foreign e-commerce insiders gathered at the China
International Fair for Investment and Trade, which runs Sept. 8 to Cai's optimism was shared by Nigel Sims, director at a British
company Union Jack Marketing, which provides logistics and support for
e-commerce businesses in the So far, over 20 British brands have established flagship stores
on China's major business-to-customer platforms.At the same time, a growing
number of foreign online retailers, such as Mothercare and Wiggle, are now
running Chinese language websites.Along with foreign big names "looking
east," Chinese e-commerce companies have already started targeting overseas
customers.Lightinthebox.com is a Beijing-headquartered retail website that
sells and delivers products directly to consumers around the world. More than
90 percent of the company's revenue comes from overseas sales.Lightinthebox
Vice President Jiang Yong said the company has built warehouses overseas and
hired locals for after-sale services."Customers around the world can
easily buy high-quality, low-price products on our website," Jiang said. "Chinese products are competitive, as the production costs
in China are still well below Western levels," said Li Yansheng, senior
vice president of Shenzhen 4PX Information Technology Co., Ltd., which
specializes in helping foreign e-retailers set up platforms in
China.Moreover, China's middle class families have enough money to buy
European-made products and luxuries, said Li, making e-commerce between China
and the rest of the world profitable.Prospects for cross-border e-commerce
may be bright, but insiders warned much should be done to tap the market's
full potential.Building a presence in foreign e-commerce markets typically
requires trusted local partners for technical and logistics support. " From http://www.news.cn/
Alipay, Huawei Team for
Fingerprint Payment Development Alipay and Huawei announced that the two parties have worked
together in the launch of standard solutions for fingerprint payment in China.In
this partnership, Alipay is responsible for creating more convenient payment
experience to users, while Huawei provides devices and payment
technologies.The new fingerprint payment function was officially available on
September 4, 2014.Alipay's fingerprint payment is to determine personal
identity by human biological fingerprint features and connect it with Alipay
accounts. It is secure and fast to implement transactions and payments with
the fingerprint identification technology. This new function will be first
installed on Huawei's Mate7 smartphone.According to Alipay, fingerprint
payment is only one category of biological identification and others include
iris identification and facial identification. However, fingerprint
identification is currently the most mature technology. Alipay said that the
company is establishing a fingerprint identification system, which will be
opened to more phone makers in the future.Huawei's senior vice president Li
Xiaolong said that the fingerprint information will be saved locally instead
of uploaded to servers. So that will hopefully assuage users' worries about
privacy and security. From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
'Made in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has been in
the limelight recently with its much-anticipated initial public offering of
shares in According to a recent study conducted by McKinsey Global
Institute, the business and economics research arm of global consulting firm
McKinsey & Co, the Internet sector could add 0.3 to 1 percentage points
to China's GDP growth rate from 2013 to 2025.This could fuel some 7 to 22
percent of the incremental GDP growth through 2025, translating into 4
trillion yuan ($650 billion) to 14 trillion yuan in China's annual GDP by
that point.Whether the Internet sector and other high-tech emerging
industries are going to become China's new weapon to help win more global
market share is still too early to tell, but it is clear that some of China's
leading firms have already had the capacity to provide services outside the
country and are starting to put overseas expansion into high gear.Apart from
launching a Portuguese search engine in Brazil, the Beijing-based Baidu also
signed a strategic agreement with Brazil's Ministry of Science and Technology
to jointly develop Internet technology in Brazil.Baidu will offer tailor-made
solutions to help with Brazil's Internet innovation and build a technology
innovation center in Brazil to cultivate local talent and startup
companies.Alibaba has been even more aggressive in the overseas markets. From
May to July, it had teamed up with the official postal departments in Neil Flynn, head equity analyst at Shanghai-based
Chineseinvestors.com, a leading financial analysis firm of US-listed Chinese
companies, said that he has seen Chinese firms focusing on domestic markets
because they understand their customers, and it is often difficult for
foreign firms to enter the market."However, understanding the Chinese
consumers can be very beneficial for expanding overseas. For example, Baidu
has search engines specifically for the Thai and Brazilian markets. This is
because these countries are emerging economies, and consumer behavior tends
to be similar to that in "But what we've seen is that these Chinese products have
transformed from imitations to innovations. In particular, if we look at
WeChat, its services are much more advanced than WhatsApp, and Western tech
firms are looking to the Chinese market to understand the innovation and
change that is happening," said Flynn, adding that the Internet sector will
be a key driver for China's outbound direct investment.Yu Yongfu, CEO of
UCWeb Inc, which is China's largest mobile browser by market share, said in
an earlier interview that unlike the personal computer-based Internet sector,
which was pioneered by Western companies—US companies, in particular—Chinese
firms can be leaders instead of followers in the mobile Internet
industry."The mobile Internet has a lot to do with lifestyle. For
example, people in the US and Europe spend a lot of time driving to work,
while the majority of Asian people use public transportation. That means that
Asian smartphone users on average spend more than two hours every day on the
mobile Internet."The strong reliance on the mobile Internet leads to
innovation. What is more, the PC-based Internet is an industry with a unified
world standard, while the mobile Internet industry varies among regions, he
said.But Ren sees many challenges for Chinese Internet companies to be
successful in the global arena."Becoming an established global business
requires strong institutional support from its home country: Its financial,
legal (particularly those related to intellectual property), taxation and
education systems all need to function well so companies can thrive. In this
respect, From http://www.news.cn/
Lenovo Launches New
Cloud Computing Program Chinese technology company Lenovo announced a new cloud
computing program during its enterprise business strategy and ThinkServer
Gen5 launch meeting.The company also published its self-developed cloud
platform management solution named ThinkCloud.Gerry Smith, Lenovo Group's
executive vice president, head of enterprise and head of Lenovo's North
America operations, said that apart from PC, enterprise business is another
major profit contributor for Lenovo. By acquiring IBM's X86 server business,
Lenovo aims at the top of the global server market.Chen Xudong, Lenovo Group's
senior vice president and president of Lenovo's China and Asia Pacific
emerging markets, revealed that under the new cloud computing program, Lenovo
will build 50 cloud computing centers across China; train over 1,000 cloud
computing infrastructure experts; establish an open cloud ecosystem; recruit
100 channel partners which focus on cloud computing solutions; and support
the transformation of existing channels. For its underlying hardware support, Lenovo currently has
ThinkServer products, Lenovo-EMC enterprise storage, private cloud all-in-one
machine ThinkCloud AIO, and the to-be-launched new product System X. On the
application level, Lenovo's enterprise cloud can provide storage, push,
distribution and video services to small- and medium-sized enterprises. In
addition, the newly launched ThinkCloud will be able to provide private and
mixed cloud platform solutions to hyper-scale data centers.For the next step,
Lenovo will implement in-depth cooperation with partners like Microsoft,
Intel, Citrix, and Aliyun. In the future, Lenovo will fully participate in
the consulting, planning, deployment, and operation and maintenance of cloud
platforms of all sizes. From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
From http://www.news.cn/
Alibaba Moves to Tap From http://www.news.cn/
Renren Kills Non-core
Chinese Internet Businesses Chen Yizhou, chief executive officer of Renren, says the company
is planning to sell some non-core businesses to improve their profitability
and they are also considering investment and expansion opportunities in In the second quarter of 2014, Renren realized net profit of
USD31.3 million. However, its operating revenue was only USD25 million and
its earnings of USD86 million were from short-term investments. The company
suffered operating losses of USD30.4 million during the reporting period.The
third quarter is even worse. Renren predicted that its operating revenue will
decrease to between USD19 million and USD21 million. Chen attributed the
situation to the severe competition from Tencent and other Chinese Internet
companies.Chen refused to disclose which business the company plans to dump.
Prior to this, Renren sold its e-commerce business to Baidu in August 2013.
With exception of its social networking core business, Renren holds an open
attitude towards cooperation with large technology companies. From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
BTCChina Forges Bitcoin Deal with Chinese
E-commerce Sites Chinese Bitcoin exchange website BTCChina has reached a
strategic deal with e-commerce providers, including online game service
provider Shenzhoufu.com; Internet P From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Websites Pledges to
Tighten Comments Management Twenty-nine major Chinese websites have promised to better
manage the comments of their users as authorities call for a clean
Internet.Representatives from the 29 web portals, including Tencent.com,
Sohu.com, 163.com and the official website of Xinhua News Agency, signed the
letter of commitment at a meeting organized by the Cyberspace Administration
of China (CAC) on Thursday.These websites promised to ensure that "their
users register, post and write comments with their real identity,"
according to the commitment letter.They also "promise to and sincerely
ask all users to consciously abide by the 'seven bottom lines' -- law and
rules, socialist systems, national interests, citizen's legitimate rights,
social public order, morality and authenticity of information -- when
posting. "The letter asks them to remind web users not to release 18
categories of information that "are against basic principles established
by the Constitution," such as information jeopardizing national
security, leaking national secrets or instigating ethnic hatred or
discrimination.Web users will be warned, suspended from releasing content,
and may have their posts deleted and accounts shut down if they violate
regulations. They may also face judicial investigation if their release of
information is deemed criminal."The management of posts and comments in
line with the law concerns the guidance of online public opinion," said
deputy CAC director Ren Xianliang, adding that it is key to "administering
the Internet according to law."Websites are responsible for users' posts
and comments, said Ren, adding many foreign websites have formulated detailed
rules for online release and made the rules and other management measures
conspicuous to users. From http://www.news.cn/
The international shopping website Gilt announced that the
company formally introduced Alipay as a new payment channel.This makes Gilt
the latest overseas shopping website partner of Alipay following recent
additions iHerb, My Bag, and Rakuten.Founded in 2007 and headquartered in the
From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Alibaba's 11.11
Shopping Festival Sets High E-Commerce Benchmarks Alibaba Group is rolling out the sale worldwide this year.
Globally, the company says the strongest overseas traffic was coming from
Hong Kong, the U.S. and Taiwan.Last year's 24-hour sale saw USD5.8 billion
worth of goods transacted over Alibaba Group's Tmall.com and Taobao
Marketplace platforms, making it the biggest shopping day in the world,
topping the sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.Previous 11.11
Shopping Festivals have been limited mostly to the mainland. But for the
first time this year, AliExpress, Alibaba Group's English-language consumer
shopping platform will be participating, offering 50% off on one million
products to customers overseas. From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Jumei.com Forms
E-commerce Partnership with Beijing Daily Group Chinese cosmetics B There are normally two models in e-commerce distribution for
Chinese firms: third-party and self-built. Third-party distribution is
completed via express delivery companies; while self-built distribution is
established and operated by the e-commerce providers themselves and the goods
are delivered by the employees of the e-commerce companies.However, Jumei.com
developed a new self-built distribution model. Under this model, Jumei.com
provides a stable amount of orders and its third-party delivery partners serve
the company with self-built standards by using Jumei.com's self-developed
distribution system and POS terminals. In addition, those delivery companies
will share related logistics resources, including transportation lines, site
stores, and delivery staff, with Jumei.com. From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Apple Pay Signs App
Store Deal with Chinese iPhone and iPad users now have a new method to pay for
App Store products.Apple announced that the App Store has added China
UnionPay as a payment option for Chinese customers. China UnionPay is the
most popular payment card in From http://www.chinatechnews.com/
Premier Li Pledges
Government Support for E-Commerce From http://www.news.cn/
A total of 198 million was stolen from corporate Internet
banking accounts in From
http://the-japan-news.com
Convenience,
Points Fuel Spread of E-Money Electronic money is being used more and more often since the
consumption tax hike in April, as consumers seek to reduce the amount of
small coins in their wallets and take advantage of point services. Companies
operating e-money services are competing to widen the range of stores where
their cards can be used. Credit card use is also on the rise, indicating a
shift in Japanese consumers’ longstanding preference for cash payments.
Nanaco, an e-money system operated by Seven & i Holdings Co., was used
about 347 million times from April to June this year, an enormous 48.9
percent increase from the same period in 2013. Nanaco users put money into
prepaid cards in advance, and receive one point for every ¥100 they spend at
Seven-Eleven and other stores under the holding firm’s umbrella. One point is
worth ¥1, and the points can be applied to later purchases. “People
appreciate not having to deal with small change,” a Seven & i Holding
spokesperson said. The Aeon group saw the number of times its WAON e-money
system was used rise 26 percent in the April-June quarter, and the nine cards
issued by public transportation service companies, such as East Japan Railway
Co.’s Suica card, saw a total increase of about 16 percent. The traffic companies’ cards can be used at many different
railway companies and other businesses nationwide. According to the Economy,
Trade and Industry Ministry, the amount of money spent through credit cards
in the April-June quarter increased 8.5 percent. According to forecasts by
Nomura Research Institute, the amount spent through e-money services in
fiscal 2018 will be ¥7.1 trillion, more than double that in fiscal 2013.
Credit card use will rise 22.5 percent to ¥53.2 trillion, the institute
predicted. Institute analyst Etona Ueda said, “[E-money and credit card] use
will also increase in nonurban regions, where only a small number of people
use them now.” As of June, the Aeon group had increased the number of
locations where WAON can be used to about 187,000, or about 22,000 more than
a year before. This included gyudon beef bowl restaurants and large
electronics retailers, as well as about 2,500 cabs belonging to taxi
companies in the The Aeon group receives commissions from businesses where WAON
is used. More users of its e-money system could eventually mean more
customers for the Aeon group overall. About ¥447 billion was spent in the
April-June quarter through WAON. A spokesperson for the Aeon group said,
“We’re aiming to raise the amount to ¥2 trillion for this entire fiscal year,
and to ¥3 trillion in fiscal 2016.” Seven & i Holdings is speeding up
expansion of the range of places, including dry cleaners, where its e-money
system can be used outside its group companies. There are also a growing number
of newcomers to the e-money market. KDDI Corp. launched its au Wallet e-money
system in May, and had about 3 million user applications as of the end of
June. UNY Group Holdings Co., a major retailing company that owns the Circle
K Sunkus convenience store chain, has also launched an e-money system, which
a group spokesperson said was “essential to attract customers because the
demand [for such a system] from our customers is so strong.” From
http://the-japan-news.com
Online
Growth Prospects Help Staffing firm Recruit Holdings Co Ltd surged in its market
debut in Its shares closed at 3,330 yen, compared with an IPO price of
3,100 yen. Its IPO, the second-largest in The bigger market cap for Recruit may lie in its higher profit
margins. Its margin for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortisation in the last financial year was 15 percent, compared to around 5
percent for Adecco. Founded in 1960 by Hiromasa Ezoe, a From
http://finance.yahoo.com
Japan's SoftBank, owner of a third of NYSE-listed Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba, has said it proposes to invest about $10bn in
India's fast-growing e-commerce sector after agreeing to buy a stake in
Indian online retailer, and eBay investee, Snapdeal. SofBank boss Masayoshi
Son revealed a ten-year investment plan for Meanwhile, in a separate statement, SoftBank said it will lead a
$ From
https://sg.news.yahoo.com
President Park Geun-hye discussed with Alibaba Group founder and
CEO Jack Ma how to cooperate in the cultural sphere and how to develop
e-trade between From
http://www.korea.net
Trade
Minister Urges More Investment in IT Products From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Gov't
Further Eases Online Shopping Procedures for Foreigners From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Samsung
Develops 5 Times Faster Wifi Technology Samsung Electronics Co., a South Korean tech giant, said Sunday
that it has developed a core technology for a faster wireless fidelity (WiFi)
network, whose Internet access it claims is more than five times faster than
the current WiFi access. Samsung, the world's largest manufacturer of
smartphones, said the new WiFi technology allows users to download and upload
data at speeds of up to 575 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to the
currently available 108 Mbps. From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
ICT
Ministry Presses From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Over
Half of IT Firms to Post Profit Gains in Q3: Report More than half of South Korean information technology (IT)
companies are expected to post gains in operating profit in the third quarter
compared to a year earlier, a report by a local market researcher said
Sunday. The findings, based on an assessment of 44 listed firms on the
benchmark KOSPI and tech-heavy KOSDAQ markets by FN Guide, showed 23 likely
to post better profits in the July-September period than the same period a
year earlier. From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Adobe Cloud
Services Aim to Help Small Firms Market Digital Content Adobe Systems seeks to help South Korean entrepreneurs and small
and medium enterprises make a complete transition from analog to digital in
the way they produce and market content through its integrated platforms. The
multimedia software company, which is renowned for its creative applications
such as Photoshop and Flash, has two platforms ― Adobe Creative Cloud and
Adobe Marketing Cloud ― based on a “Software as a Service” cloud-computing
model. The platforms will enable enterprises to use its creative tools on the
Creative Cloud and data analytics solutions on the Marketing Cloud to produce
digital content and provide “personalized experiences to consumers,” said
Paul Robson, president of Adobe Systems Asia. The platforms are aimed at
supporting users to make their entire workflow not only efficient but also
help them become digitally mobile in line with Adobe’s founding motto ―
“Change the world through digital experience.” “Consumers react to compelling
content, not data. Data analytics is part of the digital workflow that helps
position your content ― tells you what, when and how to best offer things to
customers,” Robson said in a news conference in From
http://www.koreaherald.com
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The CIO’s main challenge is to handle the changes in business
processes needed to enable the one-stop portal. In the new portal, users will
be driven by the system from one step to another, without them having to know
the steps themselves. “For example, if a customer wants to register a
business, at the moment they must know what forms they have to fill up. We
want to change that … [so that] the forms are transparent at the back,”
Yahaya said. The agency is also working on a framework or “enterprise
architecture” to ensure that IT projects meet business requirements, he said.
The agency will first need to document the business requirements, then map
how the applications will support these requirements. The team will then
figure out how the data will be stored, and finally, decide on the technology
that will support all these requirements. Companies Commission has also
standardised its financial reporting so that businesses can now lodge their
audited accounts online, Yahaya said. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Singapore Post announced enhancements to its online service and
self-service parcel stations on Wednesday, one day after it unveiled plans to
build a modern e-commerce logistics hub. SingPost, which has been making
efforts to grow its e-commerce logistics as it faced challenges in
traditional services, said that it has launched a mobile app for its
self-service parcel stations which is known as POPStation. The application
will allow users to unlock the parcel lockers with a swipe on their gadgets,
and track their parcels and receive alerts. SingPost launched the POPStations
services in April 2013 and has since expanded them to more than 70 locations
across the island. The self-service parcel stations, monitored with cameras,
can be accessed round the clock. Consumers can now purchase parcel services
through a booking service website. It is also partnering with e-commerce
companies to allow consumers to pay for their purchases with stored-value
cards and return parcels to sellers. Separately, SingPost announced on Tuesday that it is building an
e-commerce logistics hub at the cost of 182 million From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Online shopping is now becoming more popular in VECITA's report on online consumers' preferences in paying their
purchases showed that 74 percent of the survey respondents said they would
prefer to pay in cash, 41 percent would use wire transfers, and 8 percent
would pay via e-commerce websites. Those who preferred paying through
e-commerce websites accounted for 61 percent of online transactions made
through the seller's sites. Group-purchase sites followed as the next most
trustworthy mode of payment, with 51 percent of deals completed via this
method. Social networks and e-commerce trading floors followed, accounting
for 45 percent, and 19 percent of payments made by respondents. Nguyen Thi
Kim, 58, a retired primary teacher in Go Vap District of southern Ho Chi Minh
City, told Xinhua that she has purchased things for her five-member family
through e-commerce websites for a couple of years. Her purchases included
books, clothes, household utensils, travel tickets, cosmetics and milk
products. Kim said she selected three or four creditable websites for her
online shopping, from which she found the needed items and compare prices set
by each site before she made an order from them. "When the shop's
employee deliver the items to my house, I check the quality of the products
first before paying in cash. If the quality is not the same as those set
online, I will phone the shop 's manager to correct the problem, otherwise I
will not buy them," Kim said. Among online shoppers, women accounted for 59 percent, office
managers and employees 41 percent, and students 37 percent, according to
VECITA. VECITA said that e-commerce in From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
Under a Vietnamese government decree taking effect from Monday,
organizations and individuals are allowed to auction or transfer the right of
using internet domain names, which is believed to boost the country's
fledgling domain name market. "Before Sept. 1, sales and transfer of
Vietnamese domain names took place unofficially, privately, posing many risks
to buyers. Now, transactions will be conducted publicly via trading floors;
participants will know price ranges as well as real values of domain names,"
Ms. Nguyen Thi Quyen, Sales Manager of Hanoi-based Nhan Hoa Software Company,
one of Vietnamese domain name registrars, told Xinhua on Sunday. If
Vietnamese domain name registrars and relevant entities such as the A 37-year-old local man named Nguyen Trong Khoa, who currently
lives in "Government agencies should pay due attention to this
issue, because the money needed to maintain domain names each year is less
than two million dongs (around 950 U.S. dollars), while many domain names are
of importance, such as those resembling names of lands and seas," he
said. The From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
VN
Co-Operates with A workshop focussing on fostering cooperation between From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
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Meanwhile, the Norwegian premier Erna Solberg has highly
appreciated From
http://southasia.oneworld.net/ Releasing its fourth annual sustainability report in Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone Group, said that mobiles have
truly transformed the way people engage and interact over the last twenty
years. Mobiles have provided exemplary assistance in various fields such as
education, healthcare, agriculture and financial inclusion, he said. Colao
asserted that communication was the basis of development of society. “We can
do a lot on developing good health solutions. Technology and health can go
together for developing solutions,” he elaborated. Releasing the report,
Colao said, “Seamless connectivity and easy availability have made mobile
services the engine for accelerating inclusion and propagation of information
across sectors. Importantly, the social development sector has also
significantly benefited from advances in both mobile reach and technology,
“he said. On this occasion, Colao also presented a cheque of Rs 12 million to
Safeena Hussain of Vodafone Foundation’s NGO partner, Educate Girls. According to Vodafone India, over 12,000 of its employees along
with their family and friends participated to raise funds for 8 weeks across
the country as part of the ‘giving championship’ to enable more than 47000
young girls in the 6-14 age group in Ajmer, Bundi and Rajsamand districts of
Rajasthan to go back to school for one academic year. The sustainability
report, titled, ‘Footprints IV- Steps Today for a Better Tomorrow’,
chronicles the developmental initiatives undertaken and supported by Vodafone
in From
http://southasia.oneworld.net/ Catty
Rivalry in As "Most e-tailers are out there, trying to shore up their
shopper traffic and sales volume. With no visibility of profitability, the
game in e-tailing is being fought on the volume of transactions and
traffic," he said. The festival season begins in late-September and ends
early-December. It's critical for the overall retail sector, when up to 40
percent of the year's sales are generated, according to Technopak. Despite
Snapdeal's mocking response, Flipkart, the country's biggest online retailer,
reached its target of $100 million in gross merchandise value (GMV), or the
value of goods sold, within ten hours. From
http://www.cnbc.com/ Tech,
Telecom Firms Roll Out Freebies for Diwali "As the entire region gets into festive mood, we hope to
add to their joy through this exciting customer connect initiative and make
this the festive season even more memorable for our subscribers," Subrat Padhi, business head - Delhi, Vodafone
India, told. South Korean electronics major Samsung has introduced exciting
promotional offers on home appliances and audio visual products. These
include assured gifts, instant cash back, free installation and service schemes. "We are offering
complimentary gifts such as free tablets with premium Samsung Smart TVs for
customers to get a state-of-the-art interactive experience. During this high
footfall period, we have also deployed additional manpower and trained
our entire workforce across our retail network to give a world-class brand
experience to our customers," Ranjivjit Singh, senior vice president,
corporate marketing, South West Asia, Samsung Electronics, told. From
http://news.siliconindia.com/
MUMBAI: Maharashtra Government will soon launch an 'e-platform' to
give speedy permissions required for setting up industries in the state.The
Chief Minister told this to a delegation of European Union (EU) that met him
today at the Sahyadri guest house in south Mumbai."We have initiated
steps to provide all facilities to the investors willing to set up industries
in the state. It would be our endeavour to reduce the number of permissions.
We will soon start an e-platform through which investors can get permissions
in a quick way," Devendra Fadnavis said.Our endeavour would be to ensure
that the state remains numero uno under Centre's 'Make in " From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ Bengaluru Is
Home to 27 Percent of Top 30 Indian IT Product Firms BANGALORE: The total venture value of top 30 B2B software
product companies in India is $6.2 billion,according to a new index launched
by Bangalore-based software product thinktank, iSpirt, reports Times of India
iSpirtThe companies are Eka, Pubmatic, Freshdesk, Druva, Zoho and Quick Heal,
among other e-commerce companies are raising billions of dollars in funding
and disturbing the domestic retail market. According to iSpirt's India
Software Products Industry Index, as many as 27 percent of the top 30 most
valued companies were headquartered in Bengaluru, while 20 percent were in
Delhi NCR and the remaining in Mumbai, Kerala, Pune, Silicon Valley, London
and Singapore. At the moment, the iSPIx index will only track how valuable
these product companies are, every six months. Khare said while many of them
do not share revenue data because they are privately held, "some are
likely to hit billion dollars in annual revenue in a few years". About 37 percent of these companies are startups without any
institutional funding and were started in the 1990s and 2000s. Most of the
funded companies got growth and over 50 percent of the ventures provide
end-user business applications in segments such as CRM, trading, business
intelligence and banking, while 20 percent are advertising tech companies,
said the report by iSpirt. "After the IT wave came the internet and
e-commerce companies. However, now the value creation will happen in the
software product sector. The size of the US market alone for enterprise
software products is estimated at $500 billion, so there is a huge potential
for creating many billion-dollar companies in this space," said Dev
Khare, MD of Lightspeed Venture and fellow at iSpirt. He said there is also a
huge opportunity to develop India-centric applications and software
businesses that control on the production of smartphones. Almost 85 companies
are part of the index. Whereas mobile ad network InMobi, chose not to
participate Delhi-based Wingify, a website-optimizing firm that is part of
the top 30, is a startup venture. The company expects to make$9 million in
revenue this fiscal. "We recently doubled our engineering team strength
to 20 and hired many product managers. We are exploring partnerships in From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ Connecting
Product Discovery Behaviour with Content Marketing Of late I have observed two product discovery behaviours in my
circle-One of my friends updated her Facebook status seeking suggestions on a
good shampoo “Folks, suggest a good shampoo. I am sure my other friends in Once a prospect indentifies his/her needs, their product
research and discovery starts via consuming relevant information (medium
could be online or personal sources).
In today’s internet era, a typical product discovery process starts
researching on multiple search engines, checking out product sites/ blogs
/forums, online product reviews, friend’s recommendations on social networks
and so on. Now it’s up to brands how to facilitate these potential customers
in their product discovery journey and enhance the experience. If you are not
providing the helpful information, you are missing out a great opportunity in
early product discovery phase of these prospects. Here content-led-marketing
plays an important role. A company must make available relevant information,
insights, expert advice, guidelines and recommendations to potential
customers. Brands should deliver the type of information that prospects are
seeking, aligned with their needs/ interest. Great content also creates a
powerful word-of-mouth and spreads fast on social networks. Once the customers buy the product and are happy, they are more
likely to share their good experience with others. Brands should ensure they
are able to get feedback on time, respond faster to any concerns and able to
engage with the customers. In order to be part of prospect’s product
discovery journey, brand must ask these 3 questions as part of their content
marketing strategy- •What information could help a prospect in his buying
process and could build trust in my brand? •What kind of customer
problems/challenges are in my industry? Can I be resourceful to those people
who researching solutions around these problems? This can put your brand in
position of Thought Leader. •Is my job over once I’ve created the endless
content? No. Very important piece is the content distribution. Nail down the
relevant content destinations where prospects are able to find you. Wish you
a great day! From
http://ebusinessgroup.in/ |
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International Bank of From
http://en.trend.az/
Azerbaijani
Azerbaijani mobile operator Bakcell Ltd. will continue to invest
in the development of the third generation network ( From
http://en.trend.az/
E-Signature
of From
http://en.trend.az/
From
http://en.trend.az/
Azerkosmos Signs Two Contracts on IT Supplies Azerkosmos has signed two contracts on IT supplies. According to
Ministry of Communication and High Technologies, the contracts were signed
with Bestcomp Group and Maybo companies, Fineko/abc.az reports. The contract signed with Bestcomp
Group with the total worth of AZN 49,000 includes supply of Azerkosmos with
computer and computer equipments.
Contract with Maybo includes procurement of reserve equipments for
surface systems of From
http://news.az/
Two Azerbaijani state-run telecom enterprises - Aztelecom and
Baku Telephone Communication - will undergo property form change and become
open joint-stock companies in the first half of 2015, Communications and High
Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov said Sept. 5. The minister told reporters that
active work is currently underway as part of the pre-privatization evaluation
of these communication enterprises.
"In the near future it is expected to attract a consulting
company to conduct an audit. We expect that the change in the ownership form
at these enterprises will take place by late 2014 or early 2015," the
minister said. At the initial
stage the state-run fixed network operators are expected to be merged into a
single telecom company - a joint stock company, fully owned by the state. At a later stage a share at the future
joint stock company will be subjected to privatization. This will contribute
to the emergence of private companies and the bodies regulating their
activities in the market. The
Communications and Information Technologies Ministry estimates that the cost
of Aztelecom may exceed $1 billion.
The ministry's long-term plans include the privatization of all
enterprises under its jurisdiction. Following this the ministry will act
solely as a regulator in the telecom market of From
http://en.trend.az/
Azerbaijani
IT Companies to Present on EU Markets Hungarian DBH Group will help to establish investment
opportunities and also to support startup companies expand internationally in
both Europe and the Caucasus according to the two memoranda signed Nov. 11,
during the Hungarian-Azerbaijani Business Forum, the High Tech Park under the
Azerbaijani Ministry of Communication and High Technologies told Trend Nov.
12. Hungarian investment and
business services company DBH Group signed two memoranda of understanding
with State Fund for Development of Information Technologies in Memoranda were signed by Elchin Zeynalov, Executive Director of
the State Fund for Development of Information Technologies in From
http://en.trend.az/ |
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The
Australian Government has signed a deal with Acquia to deliver an open source
content management system, govCMS, for its websites, John Sheridan,
Government CTO has announced. GovCMS will use open source software Drupal and
will be hosted on a public cloud, which will be provided by Acquia. Drupal
was selected after the team assessed 18 other CMS systems. Acquia will also
partner with local businesses so that govCMS can provide end-to-end services
from website design and development to support and management. GovCMS will
remove the “burden for entities of having to own and manage software or
infrastructure” and so “allow them to focus more on their core business”, It is not
mandatory for all departments to use the new CMS, From http://www.futuregov.asia
Australian
Government Launches US$17.7 Million Big Data Innovation Centre The centre
will focus on areas such as “data modelling of the heart to improve our
healthcare system; new data-based solutions, through smart phones and the
internet, to manage traffic; and integration of data models to produce
reliable tools for reef management” according to a release by the Australian
Research Council. A massive amount of data is being generated in various
forms and from many sources. This has made data too large or complex to
process and analyse using traditional tools, said the Council’s CEO,
Professor Aidan Byrne. As a result, current Big Data projects have been
ad-hoc, noted Professor Peter Hall, Australian Laureate Fellow at the
Council. The centre will help better coordinate and align Big Data research
with national priorities to deliver real benefits to From http://www.futuregov.asia
ACS
Weighs into Victorian Election, Wants Focus on Digital Economy Just two
weeks out from the Victorian election, the Australian Computer Society has
called on the major political parties to give greater recognition and support
for the state’s digital economy as a driver of economic growth. The ACS has
urged whichever party wins government to establish a digital advisory council
to focus on improving digital skills development for students, and to deliver
effective digital literacy education for SMEs. The society has highlighted five
core areas which it says require reform and which will support the sustained
growth of Victoria’s Digital Economy, topping the list with its proposal
proposes for the Digital Ministerial Advisory Council and an industry and
government exchange program for key staff to develop better mutual
understanding of challenges and opportunities in the digital area. According
to ACS Victoria chairman, Michelle Beveridge, digital careers contributed
more to GDP than mining and she says the Federal and State governments must
pay attention to the impact of this burgeoning area of the economy. “While the
focus in recent years on improved technology infrastructure is welcome, it is
time to now focus more on how we best use that infrastructure. Over many
years the Victorian economy has been undergoing structural reform with a
greater emphasis now needing to be placed on digital skills and
knowledge. Like our regional
partners, we must recognise that the Digital Economy has become the key
driver of the economy, and we need the Victorian Government to support this
vital growth area.” Five key areas where the ACS wants reform by the incoming
government are Quality Advice to Government, Support for Digital Skills,
Improved Digital Literacy, Better Data on the Digital Economy and Open Data.
Beveridge says urgent action is needed to reverse the declining trend of
people choosing tertiary education for a Digital Career, with the ACS
recommending a need to change “misconceptions and attitudes” around digital
careers and education. The ACS also
wants to see government support for programs to develop far higher levels of
digital literacy for SMEs and NFPs in particular. In its call for better data
on the digital economy to be made available, the ACS makes the point that accurate,
relevant and comprehensive data is a critical element of planning and
decision making for government. It urges the incoming Victorian Government to
ensure that the development of its digital related strategies is done so on
the basis of “as accurate, up to date and complete data sets as is
available”, including the ACS’ own Statistical Compendium. The ACS gives
recognition to successive Victorian Governments on their commitment to open
data in recent years, but now wants an even stronger focus in to the future
as an important element of driving innovation and productivity growth in the
Victorian economy. “We believe an incoming Victorian Government needs to
address these five issues as a priority to help ensure the Victorian economy
remains nationally and internationally competitive and grows in a sustainable
manner,” Beveridge said. “As the
impact of technology on our work and lives continues to increase, our
Governments must place a higher priority on digital literacy and, in
particular, growing our pool of skilled professionals. The digital
professional workforce is now being recognised globally as the key ingredient
to sustaining a prosperous, modern economy. The ACS believes that if these
five key issues are not addressed as priorities, there is a real danger that
the digital economy will suffer, and the health of the entire Victorian
economy along with it.” From http://www.itwire.com
Australian
schools will be able deliver tests more tailored to students’ ability, thanks
to the new online national literacy and numeracy platform that will be
launched in 2016, the government announced today. The government has set
aside AU$24.7 million (US$21.8 million) to build an online platform to be
used by all Australian schools. The move from paper to digital will allow the
questions to be varied in difficulty based on the ability of the student. It
will also provide more data on individual students’ capacity and also give a
“national snapshot”, said Christopher Pyne, Education Minister. Online tests
will enable students with disabilities to access them more easily and will
deliver results of tests faster to parents and teachers. It also has the
potential to increase participation rates and broaden the range of students’
capabilities measured by the test. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Opposition
IT spokesperson Clare Curran said the government must guarantee that the new
fund is truly contestable and not just a "slush fund" for large
telcos. "Today’s new fund is an admission that the RBI has failed and
undershot the ambitions of New Zealanders," she said. Broadband
connections in rural From http://www.zdnet.com
Majority of
NZ Firms Investing in IDC New Zealand's
recent Asia Pacific (excluding The study
makes note that the budget for mobility is coming from across the business.
Around 29 per cent of businesses now have a budget that is dedicated to
mobility. Around 35 per cent is coming from existing IT budgets and 9 per
cent from marketing. The remainder is evaluated on a case by case basis (27
per cent). "When looking at mobile as a mechanism for customer
engagement the opportunity to be personalised and referenceable in the
engagement is incredibly compelling. With 53 per cent of businesses now
saying that their 1-20 per cent of their revenue is coming online the ability
to be more insightful about the customer and their customer's environment is
a must,” says Dodds. Security remains the highest area of focus with the
enablement of mobility solutions. There is a particular focus on network
security, access and identity management. "Organisations will live and
die by the value of their information and how it is protected from others.
Customers are willing to share more information about their location,
preferences and needs but will act with ferociousness if this is not treated
with due care", Dodds says. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
The
Government is pouring $139 million into 48 of 1.
Keratin-based wound dressings. AgResearch. Derived from
sheep wool, keratin-based dressings are a gift to chronic wound sufferers
around the world, with scientific research showing they are effective in
healing seven out of 10 cases. AgResearch scientists Dr Stefan Clerens and Dr
Sonya Scott have been approved $1.6 million over a four-year period for a
project investigating what makes the bandages so effective. "Sheep wool
is composed of keratin proteins and it's a really complex mixture," Dr
Clerens said. "We have a big mixture at the moment, thousands of them.
We are looking to identify one, probably several, that are particularly good.
We're going to separate them out to little bits and look to see which ones
work ... and how we can get more of them to get improved healing," Dr
Scott said. Throughout the research, several techniques would be used to
identify which proteins and peptides encouraged cell growth or cell migration
- both of which improved healing. From there, once we work out what it is
that is doing it, we can look at how can we get more of this, and how can we
deliver it in a way to maximise healing properties," Dr Scott said. When the new
and improved dressings were ready for testing, researchers from the
University of Miami School of Medicine - who were working on the project with
Dr Clerens and Dr Scott's team - would see how they worked on selected
patients. A similar trial could eventually be carried out in 2. Food
safe: real time bacterial count. Meat is "We use
a [fluorescent] dye that attaches to bacteria and then we measure the
intensity very accurately. [From it] we can tell how much bacteria you have
in your sample." Currently, the device the team was working with was
"quite big, like one of those electronic boxes", Dr Vanholsbeeck
said. "We don't exactly know what the final shape will be but it will be
something ... small enough to carry in your pocket." The aim was to have
it return a bacterial level result for a sample in five minutes, she said. It
also needed to be available at a cost similar to that of the plate count. The
project has received $2.71 million in funding for four years. 3.
Functional Formula. Professor
Gerald Tannock's "Functional Formula" project is now in its second
phase of research. The University of Otago microbiologist launched into the
project, which looks at a particular type of bacteria living in the gut of
babies, with Victoria University Ferrier Research Institute scientist Dr Ian
Sims two years ago. "In the gut of babies - whether they're breast
milk-fed or cows' milk-fed - the kind of bacteria with the greatest abundance
are called bifidobacterium," Professor Tannock said. They are useful
because they keep disease-causing bacteria out of the gut. However, in
formula-fed babies, their abundance is about 20 per cent less than in
breast-fed babies. This difference was due to a special carbohydrate
contained in breast milk, known as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). HMOs
encouraged the growth of bifidobacteria, and in the initial two- year phase
of Functional Formula - which received $789,900 of funding from the MBIE -
Professor Tannock and Dr Sims identified a carbohydrate not from human milk
which did the same job. Now the pair
were in their second research phase, which received $1 million in funding
over two years, it was all about scaling up production of this
"candidate carbohydrate"."We'll be doing some more laboratory
and other experiments here at Otago to validate the results of what we did in
phase one. "The end aim is to have the production technology worked out,
the laboratory experiment validated so we can parcel this information on to
interested companies in New Zealand," he said. "We're not trying to
supplant breast feeding ... because that is the best way to go. Our way of
looking at it is, why shouldn't every child get some kind of formula that
mimics this bifidobacterial effect in the gut?" Professor Tannock is
based at the 4. Bioactive
gels for skeletal repair. Recovering
from a bone fracture can be a painful process. Each year, about 86,000 New
Zealanders suffer from one. Of these, between 8 and 20 per cent fail to heal
properly. The Auckland University Bone and Joint Research group, headed by Dr
David Musson and Dr Jill Cornish from the university's school of medicine,
are developing a special gel aimed at aiding these cases. "In situations
where the bone fails to heal ... they'll put in some graft material to help
bridge the gap between the fractures and act as a structure around which the
new bone can form," Dr Musson said. Using graft material, which is
either taken from the patient themselves in a painful procedure or from
cadaver samples, has a high complication rate. It is also expensive, he said. The gel
being developed by Dr Musson's team contains lactoferrin - a protein which
aids in bone healing - and would be used instead of bone grafts. "As
well as providing the structural support in the form of a gel, the
lactoferrin ... would increase the bone formation, so increase bone healing.
It's also been shown that lactoferrin is anti-microbial and
anti-inflammatory, so that should help reduce the instance of
infections." The project has received $617,988 over two years. Once the
gel had passed tests in the lab, it would need to be go through clinical
trials, Dr Musson said. From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
NZ Market
Set to Dip as R&D Spend Slips The big
question, in the eyes of Kane, is how to make this happen? “The Government
does not seem keen on a tax rebate incentive as it believes this is open to
abuse,” he claims, “and while it does have its own grant and incentive
schemes through the likes of the Callaghan Fund, the fund does have
limitations, often requiring more upfront capital than a business may have.
Perhaps we need something like the large innovation funds that From http://www.computerworld.co.nz/
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EUROPE:
Report Proposes Releasing 700 MHz for The 700 MHz band (694-790 MHz) should be repurposed for wireless
broadband by around 2020 give or take two years, providing sufficient lead
time to ensure a stable period of transition for broadcasters. This is one of
the findings of a report submitted to European Commission vice president
Neelie Kroes by former commissioner Pascal Lamy on how to use the Ultra High
Frequency (UHF) spectrum most effectively in the coming decades. As part of
his "2020-2030-2025" plan that aims to fulfil the broadband targets
set out in the EU’s Digital Agenda, Lamy also proposed that regulatory
security and stability for terrestrial broadcasters in the remaining UHF
spectrum below 700 MHz should be safeguarded until 2030, with a review
carried out by 2025 to assess technology and market developments. "For
too long the broadband and broadcasting communities have been at loggerheads
about the use of the UHF spectrum band. There have been many different views
and perspectives. On the basis of discussions with the two sectors, I have
put forward a single scheme that could provide a way forward for The report was broadly welcomed in an initial reaction from the
GSM Association, although the organisation - which promotes the interests of
mobile operators globally – called for the process to be carried out even
sooner than set out in Lamy’s report. “To close the gap with North America
and Asia, we believe it is essential that Member States have flexibility to
move sooner, preferably between 2018 and 2020 and potentially earlier, to
respond to the sustained growth in mobile data traffic,” said Anne Bouverot,
Director General of the GSMA. The GSMA was also concerned that the report’s
recommendations on the sub-700 MHz (470-694 MHz) band “could put From
http://www.totaltele.com/
Connected
In rural areas across the EU, over 4 homes in 5 do not have fast
internet connection. We need new, fresh ideas and open discussions to push
investments. This is a digital age. People want to shop, skype, download
music and videos instantly and not have to wait because of a slow internet
connection. Fast broadband is crucial
for our future prosperity, essential for our economic and employment
prospects. Yet, many Europeans do not have broadband at all.In rural areas
across the EU, over 4 homes in 5 do not have fast coverage.Many millions are
unable to enjoy the latest digital innovations. It is part of my job to worry
about the interests of those Europeans. Our goal in the European Commission
is to have, by 2020, every citizen with fast broadband coverage, above 30
Megabits per second. That is no straightforward task, needing investment of
tens of billions of euros. On the other hand, Europeans need to enjoy competition and
choice: meaning a better deal for the consumer, and stimulating providers to
offer continually better services. As in any policy area, the Digital Agenda
challenge is to find the right balance; including between those with
broadband, and those still waiting for it to come to their door. The rules
which apply to broadband contracts are a case in point. On the one hand, EU
rules protect consumers, so they don't get "locked in" with one
supplier. On the other, those needing to invest to provide more broadband
need a degree of predictability about revenues, and incentives to do so. The
European Parliament and Council of Ministers are currently discussing how to
strike that balance. The Commission's proposal that would offer consistent
protections across the EU, including the right for broadband consumers to end
their contracts after a few months. At the same time, the proposal has other
important provisions to promote investment, and I am working to make sure it
will soon become law. But this is just one piece of the puzzle. Of course there is also public money.
Hopefully part of the �300 billion package currently being assembled by my
Commission colleague Jyrki Katainen will go into broadband; there is European
Investment Bank (EIB) financing in areas where market financing needs a
helping hand; and there is EU structural funding worth over �5 billion. But
much more is needed to connect every village in Of course broadband is not energy; and different tools are
appropriate for different situations – the needs of a dense city with rich
competition may be different to those of an unserved rural area. In the first
case, consumer choice is the issue; in the second it is having broadband at
all. In a village – wouldn't it be better to have the option of broadband
with a longer contract, than not to have broadband at all? It should not be a
"taboo" to ask such questions and start a public discussion on
them. We have to find the right balance between investment predictability and
consumer choice. Finding that balance to get every European digital, wherever
they are and whatever their circumstances, will be a major challenge of my
mandate. From
https://ec.europa.eu/
NORTH
AMERICA: Revenue Tax man offers a way for CFOs to set reminders on their smart
phones. Some CIOs have trouble talking to chief financial officers about
technology — those routers, IP addresses, software licences, service-oriented
architectures, virtual machines do have a way of making the eye glaze over.
So here’s a piece of technology the finance guys can relate to: a mobile
business tax reminder app from the Canada Revenue Agency. Yes, the gang that
always has their hands out for corporate tax dollars has found a way to get
into a smart phone. Aimed at small and medium businesses that don’t have
complex tax structures, the free app for BlackBerry, Apple iOS, and Android
platforms lets CFOs create custom reminders and alerts for installment
payments, returns and remittances. Alerts can be customized to be either pop
up or calendar messages. To download the app (in English or French), go to an
app store and search “Business Tax Reminders.” This site also includes help
files on how to configure the app. From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
Government Looking for ISPs to Provide Rural
High-speed Internet Government aims to extend
high-speed Internet service to 280,000 households in rural areas. The federal
government is looking for Internet service providers that will provide
high-speed Internet service to rural areas in the country and it is willing
to fund up to 75 per cent of the cost of project. Under its Connecting
Canadians program, the government intends to bring high-speed Internet
service to 280,000 homes in rural and northern regions of the country. Connecting
Canadians is part of Digital Canada 150, the Harper government’s vision to
extend digital technologies and opportunities to Canadians by 2017, “This call for application
marks the next important phase in our plan to bring the nenefits of
high-speed Internet to more than a quarter-million Canadian households, some
for the first time,” said Industry Minister James Moore in a statement.
“Providing Canadians with access to high-speed Internet for learning,
business opportunities and so much more is key to a more connected, digital Successful applicants can
receive up to 50 per cent of eligible project cost from Connecting Canadians.
Providers serving very remote or Aboriginal communities could be funded up to
75 per cent of eligible costs under the program. Interested ISPs should
review the application tool kit found on the Connecting Canadians website for
help with their application. ISPs are asked to propose projects in areas
where they can provide services to households that currently do not have
Internet access or have slow access. Currently 99 per cent of Canadian
households have access to basic broadband with speeds of 1.5 Mbps. However,
newer online technologies typically require faster speeds and higher data
transfer rates. The first projects will be decided and announced in the
spring of 2015. The government aims to have at least 98 per cent of Canadian
households to have access to five Mbps Internet service by the end of the
Connecting Canadians project. From http://www.itworldcanada.com/ Three
Canadian Cities Make Long List for Smart Communities Three Canadian cities are among the 21 regions in the running
for the 2015 Smart Communities competition. Selected from 300 entries, the
winner will succeed This year’s competition has the theme of Revolutionary
Community, which organizers of the competition said in a release is perfect
for this group. Not all of them are cities, towns or regions that people
immediately think of as ‘tech cities,’
the release noted. “Tech is not all there is to a great community.
Some are aspirational but all have launched programs that are innovative, and
will do something that most cities, towns and regions have been attempting
since the broadband economy emerged: launch a successful and full-scale full
revolt against brain drain and the creation of industries that will produce
jobs.” Broadband, digital inclusion, innovation, skilled workforce and
advocacy are some of the criteria used to pick the winner. The 21 nominees
will give judges more detailed information about themselves through an
extensive questionnaire, which is evaluated by an independent research firm.
The seven highest-scoring cities or regions will then be named finalists on
January From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
Canadian
Cloud Services with Skyrocketing Revenue Every year Toronto-based professional services firm Deloitte
lists the winners of its Technology Fast 50 program. Known as the “Fast 50″
list, companies are ranked by revenue growth over a five-year period. For
2014, that growth rate was an astounding 4,746 per cent – much higher than
last year’s average of 832 per cent. Each year the list is dominated by
innovative technology firms that are quickly building a market for their
solutions. This year, the list is also noticeably dominated by Canadian firms
offering cloud services. Out of the top 20 firms, 11 are in the business of
delivering software as a service in one form or another. We take a look at
them in this round-up. ChangoChango ( Rank: #1 Revenue growth: 69,800% Chango is a real-time-bidding advertising platform that
marketers can use to target prospects in various ways. Chango can deploy
programmatically-bought ads to video, Twitter, Facebook, and web sites.
Founded in 2008, its platform is now making more than 100 billion algorithmic
decisions every day. HootSuiteHootSuite (Vancouver) Rank: #2 Revenue growth: 56,514% Founded in 2008, HootSuite offers a web-based social media
management dashboard. It’s mostly used by marketers and customer service
professionals to monitor Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and other
social channels and engage with customers. Users can schedule their posts,
automate posting with RSS feeds, and receive analytical reports on their
activity. ShopifyShopify ( Rank: #3 Revenue growth: 16,759% What began in 2004 as software intended to serve as a way to
sell snowboards online is today used by thousands of merchants around the
world for inventory management and e-commerce. The e-commerce platform has
launched its own app store that features hundreds of add-ons from third-party
vendors and has processes billions in sales for its clients. DejeroDejero Labs Inc. ( Rank: #4 Revenue growth: 14,299% Dejero solves the problem of broadcasting live video to a
cross-platform audience with its streaming platform, Live+. Its cloud server
can handle the intake of video feeds or clips and output it simultaneously at
three different resolutions and audio bitrates so viewers can comfortably
watch no matter what their device or bandwidth limitations. Dejero also sells
the hardware needed to broadcast live from on-location. ScribbleLiveScribbleLive ( Rank: #9 Revenue growth: 5,857% This real-time content engagement platform has become a popular
choice for news organizations delivering real-time event coverage to the web.
Its conversation platform combines text updates with interactive features
such as polling, social media posts, photos, and video. The company was
founded in 2008. ClioClio ( Rank: #10 Revenue growth: 5,499% Clio is a cloud software for legal practice management. It helps
lawyers track their time, bill clients for their time spent on projects, and
collaborate with secured document transfers. Every day lawyers using Clio
complete a combined 6,000 tasks, create 25,000 contracts, and receive 5,000
payments. 360 incentives360incentives ( Rank: #11 Revenue growth: 5,339% 360 is a product that manages incentives and rebates that a
company offers for its product sales. Vendors use custom portals to issue
incentives and spread awareness of them. Sales people and channel partners
then submit their sales, which are audited, and then paid out automatically.
As for company culture, 360 says it’s all about happiness. FirmexFirmex ( Rank: #13 Renvue growth: 1,268% Firmex offers virtual data rooms that targets the financial
sector. Its solution is all about secure document sharing and collaboration
for confidential files that pertain to big corporate transactions such as
mergers an acquisitions, loans, and regulatory compliance. The company was
founded in 2006. SecurefactSecurefact ( Rank: #14 Revenue growth: 1,135% Another cloud solution for financial transactions, Securefact is
focused on placing liens, managing workflow, and reducing manual processes.
Its services include a Legal Entity Validator that provides the legal name
and status of a corporation, partnership, government body, or association.
Attestanet is a solution that allows banks to more easily onboard commercial
clients by automating compliance requirements. MiovisionMiovision Technologies Inc.
(Kitchener, Ont.) Rank: #19 Revenue growth: 749% Miovisions offers solutions all focused on doing one thing –
monitoring traffic. The real kind with cars too, not web traffic. Its data
platform allows the upload of video and traffic data, then access to it using
a map interface. Users also have the option to share reports and data with
clients and colleagues on the platform with a custom-branded portal. AchieversAchievers ( Rank: #20 Revenue growth: 727% Achievers is HCM cloud software that goes beyond onboarding,
training, and benefits allotment. Its platform contains social features to
allow for collaboration, introduced gamification elements to encourage
engagement, and tools to measure it all in real-time. Companies can quickly
run employee surveys using the software too. From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
In our recent online training, Spreading the Word: Data-Driven
Marketing for Government, we spoke with Sean Shoffstall, Vice President of
Innovation and Strategy at Teradata Interactive, about the way government’s
marketing strategies are changing. He admitted upfront that the topic itself
is surprising for many public servants. Most agencies and many nonprofit
organizations don’t have a dedicated marketing team; nor is marketing
incorporated into the agendas of many departments. However, Shoffstall
challenged our audience to think of themselves not just as public servants,
but as marketers for their organization as well. Luckily this training was
virtual, so we weren’t able to hear the audience in uproar after Shoffstall
said this. Public servants already have a full plate of responsibilities,
which they are now asked to fulfill with fewer resources. However, Shoffstall
emphasized that the demand for better, organization-wide marketing in
government is critical. What’s more, this marketing focus may actually
alleviate some of the burdens on our public servants. How so? The point of marketing is not only to expose your
mission to the public. It’s about changing customer behavior. Shoffstall
asserted, “It’s more than just marketing. Really, it’s data-driven
engagement.” If you market your services successfully, you can teach your
consumers to use them effectively. By altering the habits of your consumer,
you can save resources while improving your customer service. Shoffstall
offered an example of how data-driven marketing can produce these results.
When someone needs help with a service, they most often turn to a call center
for troubleshooting and support. This creates a deluge of calls that are
time-consuming and largely avoidable. To mitigate this problem, Shofstall
suggested targeting customers with the preference and ability to access
self-help resources, and then marketing these services to them. To target
effectively, your support team must first leverage collected data about what
issues customers are facing, how they are resolved, and how satisfied
customers are with their method of troubleshooting. This data can pinpoint
which customers could be better served outside the call center, and who might
be most receptive to a marketing campaign advocating for self-help resources. Using this example, Shoffstall also highlighted how using
data-driven marketing approaches can help your team provide better customer
service. By using data to understand which consumers are inclined to use
self-help or online resources, you’ll be compelled to create pathways that
match those consumer preferences. At the same time, deflecting unnecessary
calls to self-help resources will create more time for your support staff to
help those consumers with complex technical issues. Thus, those customers who
require call center support will be better served, while customers capable of
troubleshooting themselves will avoid using unnecessary resources. And by
serving your customers better, Shoffstall pointed out that you also serve
your organization’s goals better. Any agency’s mission is reliant on getting
necessary information in front of its audience. Data-driven marketing allows
agencies to tailor their campaigns to specific segments of the public,
thereby increasing the likelihood that your audience will be receptive to
your message. At the same time, this specificity in messaging minimizes
marketing investment. Rather than dedicating resources to an extensive
marketing campaign that may or may not have real impact in your target
demographic, marketers can use data to engage targeted consumers. As a
result, marketing investment is diminished while your message is more
effectively conveyed. Altogether, the benefits of data-driven marketing allow
you to do more with constrained resources. Shoffstall lamented, “We are
always being pushed to stretch the dollar further.” For that reason, he often
faces pushback when encouraging government and nonprofit agencies to create
more robust marketing strategies. But if you use data to inform marketing
across your organization, you can actually enhance your impact on the public
without burdening your employees with more work. From
http://www.govloop.com/
Top
10 Ways the Internet of Things Will Impact Our Cities The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly growing movement of
Internet-enabled devices and people who are intelligently connected
throughout our communities. It is leading to many new intelligent use-cases,
and is poised to make our communities more efficient, sustainable and livable
in the future. Here are the top 10 areas where the Internet of Things will
impact our cities in the future -- view our slideshow above for more detail
on the ways each of these areas will be affected: - Retail - Infrastructure - Transportation - Education - Governance - Homes - Environment - Health care - Industry - Energy From
http://www.govtech.com/
UN
Internet The United Nations will soon be convening the ninth Annual
Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a gathering that is bound to
have a profound impact on freedom throughout the world. A profoundly negative
impact, that is, unless the U.S. Congress is activated to stop the Obama
administration’s moves to support the UN’s designs for “global governance” over
cyberspace. Despite proclamations of commitment to transparency, openness,
inclusivity, privacy, human rights, and freedom of expression, the IGF is
stacked from top to bottom with communists, socialists, and globalists who
represent the antithesis of those commitments. That is hardly surprising,
since that is standard procedure for events sponsored by the UN, which is
itself stacked from top to bottom with communists, socialists, and globalists
who represent the antithesis of those commitments. The Internet Governance Forum will take place September 2 Hongbo will be joined in Among those representing Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin at the
IGF/Istanbul is Robert Aleksandrovich Schlegel, a member of Socialist International: Elephant Under the Doily The danger of the Internet becoming an Orwellian tool of
oppression does not, however, emanate only from the schemes of Prominent Socialist International members have dominated many of
the UN’s agencies, departments, commissions, and conferences for decades.
Yet, there is virtually no coverage in the mainstream media of this
organization and the tremendous power it wields. Currently, former Swedish
Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson serves as deputy secretary-general at the UN,
second only to Ban Ki-moon in the organization’s hierarchy. Eliasson is a
member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which is a member party of the
Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International. Estonian
President Toomas Ilves is chairman of the aforementioned High-Level Panel on
Global Internet Cooperation and Governance Mechanisms. His Estonian Social
Democratic Party is a member party of the Socialist International, and when
Ilves served as a Member of the European Parliament, he sat with the Party of
European Socialists group. Also on the Panel is Thorbjorn Jagland, former
Norwegian prime minister and leader of the Norwegian Labour Party, a
Socialist International member party. Perhaps the most significant person in the Socialist
International orbit regarding “global governance” of the Internet is
High-Level Panel member Nitin Desai. A former UN under-secretary-general and
former secretary-general of the UN’s World Summit for Sustainable Development,
he has been in the forefront of the globalist effort to place the Internet
under “international” control. Desai, who was appointed in 2004 by the UN
secretary-general to chair the Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG),
has been an active participant in many Socialist International activities.
During the 2012 Rio+20 Earth Summit on sustainable development, Desai penned
an op-ed attacking the United States for failing to jump on board the UN’s
global warming bandwagon. “The American way of life — and, for that matter,
the way of life everywhere — has to be up for negotiation,” opined Desai.
“This is because climate change is the mother of all externalities — global,
long-term and potentially catastrophic in its impact.” The dangers posed by the likes of Nitin Desai, Wu Hongbo, Toomas
Ilves, and the rest of the Communist/Socialist UN claque at the Istanbul
conference are multiplied several fold by the organized globalists of the
World Economic Forum (WEF), Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA),
and Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), who are also pushing for similar
“global governance” goals, as we have reported in a recent article entitled,
"UN Grabs for the Internet: CFR, Chatham House Lead Toward “Global
Governance." From
http://www.thenewamerican.com/
Internet
Governance Forum Topics Include Human Rights, Network Neutrality and Child
Protection As we have for the past several years, my ConnectSafely.org
co-director Anne Collier and I are attending this year’s Internet Governance
Forum (IGF) to talk about child protection, child rights and digital
citizenship, including children’s access to social media and other Internet
resources. The ninth annual IGF takes place in Network neutrality There will be several sessions on Network Neutrality, which has
become a major topic in the Censorship Open access has long been a theme at IGF, with most participants
agreeing that the Internet should be open to all ideas and not censored by government
or ISPs As always, there will
be sessions on freedom of speech,
including one entitled Online Freedoms and Access to Information Online. But
any discussion of free speech has to include a critique of countries that
have restricted access to some parts of the Internet including the host
country, Ungovernance forum Akdeniz and Altiparmak will be boycotting the IGF but will be
participating in the Internet Ungoverance Forum that will take place in Child protection and youth rights There are several workshops on child protection including the
ones that Anne Collier and I are speaking at. Anne is moderating a workshop entitled
Empowering Global Youth Through Digital Citizenship with the goal of moving
beyond protection towards a better understanding of youth perspectives,
including ”how they use digital tools and spaces to promote and support
causes, make change and participate in civil society or even political life.”
The panel I’m moderating, Protecting Child Safety AND Child Rights, focuses
on how adults can help young people remain safe online without jeopardizing
their rights of access, free expression and participation. From
http://www.i-policy.org/
Internet
Governance Forum: A Missed As you read this on your laptop, smart phone or tablet, 3,000
government leaders and representatives from companies and civil society are
meeting in Governments’ failure to even acknowledge some of the most
pressing issues when it comes to online freedoms was shockingly clear at the
forum’s opening press conference. A journalist asked the question on
everyone’s mind: isn’t it ironic that Also in the past year, the US and UK governments have undermined
online freedoms with the mass surveillance programmes run by the National
Security Agency (NSA) and General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) which
are invading privacy globally.Their continued failure to address the massive
violation of privacy by their security agencies makes a mockery of their
professed interest in promoting freedom of expression online. How can they
stand up and tell other governments that they shouldn’t be seeking to build
their own surveillance programmes? Companies based in western countries such
as the UK, Germany and Italy are even exporting software that allows
governments in countries such as Ethiopia to access the computers of human
rights activists, bloggers and journalists and persecute them. It’s
pernicious that these and other countries claim to protect privacy on the one
hand but fail to stop their companies from selling technology that will be
used to abuse human rights. But not one of these important issues were discussed at the
forum, and as I prepare to leave, what is clear to me is that this summit
will not improve Internet governance for users. While every official I have
seen in Istanbul will be happy to stand up and say that the Internet is good
for innovation and economic growth, governments across the world are, each in
their own way, making it less open, whether by blocking websites, banning
Twitter or monitoring everything you do online. The fact is that governments
want to control our Internet and in the process restrict your online
freedoms. But the power to stop them lies with you. We must all keep an eye
on what our governments are doing. Hold them to account and take control of
our Internet. From
http://www.i-policy.org/
Civil Rights
Leaders Against Internet Freedom? In recent weeks, citizen reporting on the Internet illuminated
the situation in ADVERTISEMENT This feels like the norm now – but we shouldn't take it for
granted. The FCC may soon allow the phone and cable companies to end net
neutrality. If this happens, the Internet will be transformed into something
much less open, diverse, and powerful. Net neutrality has always defined how
the Internet works. Internet users and content providers pay to send and
receive data at certain speeds – but in between, no one can interfere with
how that information travels. Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner are already
charging consumers for Internet access – but now they want to also get in
between consumers and Internet content, prioritizing information from some
sources based on who can pay the most. Ending net neutrality would turn the
Internet into something more like cable TV. Smaller voices, companies, and
organizations would be locked out and unable to compete. Ordinary citizens
would be less able to document what is happening in their communities, spread
information, and engage in activism together – as many now are in President Obama made a campaign promise to protect net
neutrality. But his pick to chair the FCC, Tom Wheeler, is pushing a proposal
that would destroy net neutrality while claiming to protect it. Wheeler is a former
top lobbyist for the cable and telecom industry, so it shouldn’t surprise
anyone that he might work in the interests of his former employers. What
comes as a greater shock is that ten black members of Congress, and some of
the country’s best known civil rights organizations (including the NAACP and
Urban League), are undermining net neutrality. They pay lip service to net
neutrality, but are attacking the only approach the FCC could use to truly
protect it: reclassifying Internet service as a public utility. At the same
time, they have taken large donations from the telecom industry. In recent years, these groups and members of Congress have
advanced a false narrative about net neutrality and people of color.
Protecting net neutrality, they say, would hurt efforts to expand Internet
access in underserved communities and close the digital divide. They claim
that unless we allow the big Internet providers to increase their already
huge profits – by allowing them to discriminate for profit online – they won’t
be able to invest in expanding access. This argument is a form of trickle
down economics – it says that if we give more to big corporations, it will
somehow benefit citizens and consumers. There is no reason to believe that if
the telecom companies make more money, they will suddenly invest in better
connections for communities of color. In fact, history has shown that they
don’t. In reality, there is no conflict between net neutrality and
expanding Internet access. In fact, reclassifying Internet service as a
public utility would help the FCC in its efforts to close the digital divide.
Even if it were true that ending net neutrality could expand Internet access
– which it isn’t – the tradeoff would not be worth it. The idea that less
regulation and oversight of big corporations will benefit underserved
communities is false and dangerous. There is a long history of discriminatory
and predatory practices in many industries, and a lack of strong regulation
to protect consumers is what allows these abuses go unchecked. In this case, the stakes are very high. Allowing big telecom
companies to end net neutrality would severely damage the ability of black
people and other disadvantaged communities to organize for justice and
equality. Civil rights organizations should consider how far the voices of
citizens from It is very possible that such relationships could impact –
whether subtly or obviously – the flow of information about these industries
on Verizon’s networks. If the telecom industry succeeds in compromising the
Internet in this way, it will be a sad day for activism and civil rights.
Everyone who cares about civil rights should fight to protect our ability to
communicate and organize on a free and open Internet. Robinson is executive
director of ColorOfChange.org, the nation’s largest online civil rights
organization. Follow ColorOfChange.org on Twitter. From
http://thehill.com/
On the Path
of Global E-Government Forum: Saving Time for Hyperconnected Society First of all, I did not expected this, really, for The pre-Forum day included a city tour, in which we visited all
the important parts of Astana,
including the Aquarium, Bayterak Tower, The Independence Palace, Pyramid –
the Palace of Peace and Accord and Towers of Golden Loveliness, which was
followed by a showcase tour where we visited E-Government Public services in
Astana, including the “ordinarian” the singular and special office for the
registration of vehicles and driving licenses. And, yes, the system works so
good that visitors are able to get within a few minutes any kind of needed
document, and free of charge, and even more impressive is that not only does
the system work, but it is possible within 90% of the cases to find documents
that are needed for everyday life. Imagine. Instead of spending days in a
line in front of a bureaucratic box, you just press couple of buttons and you
actually get whatever you want. Additionally, there is a special intranet
that has been installed to avoid hackers. And to top that, they even have special mobile teams for remote
cities. What is inspiring is that this is not just a single endeavor on the
part of the Republic of Kazakhstan, indeed the country has more than 160
public services offices of this kind — and more than 700 all together in the
country, and which since the beginning of 2014 have provided 22 million
(22,000,000) different public services for the nation’s citizens, among which
16 million of them were made in electronic form. Mobile public services
completed 8,000 requests in 2014, as well as providing 230,000 different
public services for the citizens. But, on the back of this apparent success,
I find myself pondering: what if we have the best car that has ever been
made, and yet there is no highway on which to drive that car? Is it the same
when we are talking about the outcomes for the citizens, in a way, besides
making their lives easier, we are also giving them the possibility to enjoy a
freedom of existence: free expression, thoughts and behaviours – vote for and
to be voted for, among many other things? Because otherwise, it is as if we just assume that individuals
will have at least ten days every year to do nothing but to stand in a line to
get certain document. And if we remove that waiting period? What then
will individuals do with the
“free” time? Serve the government or will the government finally start to
serve the individual (having in mind that the word Minister means SERVANT).
Will it, could it be? Finally? Answers might be given here today – visible
online in live streaming due to Agenda schedule. From
http://www.eurasiareview.com/
Alternatives
to Tor for Web Anonymity The Tor Project protects your privacy by bouncing Internet
traffic anonymously around the world. Why might anonymity matter when
browsing the Web? The Tor Project explains: “It prevents somebody watching
your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents
the sites you visit from learning your physical location.” The hunger for
anonymity solutions is only underscored by the recent saga of Anonabox,
described by Wired as “a tiny $45 router that would run all a user’s online
traffic over the anonymity network Tor.” But Tor’s not the only solution.
Here’s a look at some free and paid Tor alternatives. VPNs As with Tor, VPNs or Virtual Private Networks create a private
tunnel through the Internet. However VPNs and Tor don’t work the same way.
Tor uses encrypted relays that create a hard-to-follow route. That convoluted
route coupled with encryption masks the sender. On the other hand VPNs send
encrypted Internet traffic through a server that acts as a proxy. It connects
to the website on your behalf. Both Tor and VPNs hide your IP – or computer –
address. Trust Unsurprisingly VPN service providers will tell you that their
pay service is better than the free Tor. “For users who merely want to surf
anonymously, Tor would be fine,” said Francis Dinha, Chief Executive of
OpenVPN’s Private Tunnel. Dinha said a client/server tunneling model like
that of VPNs has advantages over Tor’s peer-to-peer connections because with
VPNs you’ve only got to trust the operator. “With Tor you have to trust all
your peers, leaving you vulnerable since a hacker could set up a Tor exit
node and perform a man-in-the-middle attack.” The exit node is the last step
in the Tor chain – the bit where the Tor traffic is decrypted. A competing
VPN provider agrees. “The problem is that many of the people running those
nodes may be hostile,” said Lance Cottrell, Chief Scientist at Anonymizer.
“The exit node has particular visibility into the contents of the
communications, and many attacks allow the actual user to be
identified.” Cottrell said his
product too, doesn’t allow that. Own servers “With Tor you have to trust all your peers, leaving you
vulnerable since a hacker could set up a Tor exit node and perform a
man-in-the-middle attack” Additionally, VPNs like OpenVPN’s Private Tunnel
let you deploy your own server and use any hosting provider network. This
gives the enterprise more control. Another argument in favor of VPNs is that
a client/server model speeds up the connections. There are fewer hops to
make, so a VPN is better for applications like video and gaming where
so-called “latency” issues, or data packet delay, can occur. VPN Costs While Tor is free, Private Tunnel’s VPN pricing model is based
on data transfer. A 100MB block is free and a 50GB chunk is $12. Cottrell’s
Anonymizer VPN costs $ Public proxies Public proxies are the poor man’s VPN. As with VPNs the proxy
also acts as an agent for your web browsing. But it does it in a more
cumbersome way. Essentially, you
browse to the public proxy web page, and then enter the web address of the
webpage you want to visit. The proxy goes to the website for you, hiding your
IP address, and delivering the resulting page for you to view. Downsides
include the elaborate interaction. There are two browsing steps for each web
page visited, first to the proxy, and then to the web page that you want to
see. Proxies are generally free. They’re not encrypted, and can have
bandwidth issues. Encrypted calling While Tor and its ilk are geared towards web browsing, Silent Circle Silent Circle’s voice calling app for iOS and Android is called
Silent Phone. It provides encrypted voice, video and conference calling.
Another app called Silent Text lets you send files, pictures and locations.
If your correspondent is also a Redphone Whisper Systems’ Redphone provides end-to-end encryption for
calls made with Android devices. There’s an iOS version too, called Signal.
Messages are also encrypted. The project is open source, and is free at
Google’s Play store, and Apple’s iTunes. And the future? If built, Anonabox will be an open-source router that squirts
all of your Internet traffic through Tor. It uses hardware rather than Tor’s
current web-browser-based software. The idea is that Anonabox’s
cigarette-packet-sized kit installs between your regular router and PC or
other device. Anonabox had been looking for money on crowd-sourced funding
platform Kickstarter, but was recently suspended for wrongly saying it had
developed the project from scratch. The developer plans to continue work on
it. From
https://openstandard.mozilla.org/
An Open
Internet Doesn't Equal Freedom Since the story goes that the fax machine hastened the fall of the
old Soviet-controlled Eastern Bloc 25 years ago, you’d think the Internet and
cellphones would be flushing all of the world’s autocrats and fanatics down
the commode of history. The fax is to today’s global, mobile and social
networks what a rubber ducky is to an aircraft carrier. The Internet in all
its forms is ubiquitous in developed nations and growing fastest in the
least-developed nations. Some governments try to block or constrain the
global network but increasingly find they can’t. And the planet is going to get only more connected. The
trajectory suggests that in a decade, you’ll be able to reach almost anyone
anywhere. We’ll be some 8 billion people, networked together, all sharing the
same damn cat videos. What will that mean to the world’s societies? On
November 10, when President Barack Obama released a message in support of Net
neutrality, he said that an open Internet is crucial to But that’s not how things are playing out. The list of ongoing
armed conflicts is still long. Vladimir Putin’s This is fundamentally different from the pre-Internet days, when
you had to mingle with your neighbors and colleagues and soak up all their
various opinions and points of view. So at the macro level, an open and free
Internet encourages a vast and cacophonous diversity of thought. At the
individual level, it can foster a narrowing of thought and a deepening of
conviction—dangers to dialogue, peace and freedom. We see signs of this in
the U.S. Political echo chambers are getting worse, not better. Polls this
year show that partyism has become more divisive than racism. Republicans and
Democrats don’t want to tolerate each other, and online they don’t have to.
Social media are throwing gasoline on that fire. Back in the 1980s, a repressive empire like the Soviet Union
could do a lot to seal off outside information from its populace—controlling
newspapers and TV, keeping people from traveling abroad, all while pumping
out its propaganda. (Only We can still hope that Obama is right, that hyper-connectedness
is the fax machine times a zillion and will act as a counterforce to tyranny.
On free and open networks, Iranians and Cubans and Chinese can hear the
West’s best ideas, and vice versa. Certainly we’re not going to stop the
progress of networks. The world will be a completely connected one. We just
have to remember that technology is always neutral. Humans are the X factor.
As Jon Stewart said when describing how the Iranian government used a Daily
Show skit as a reason to arrest journalist Maziar Bahari: “You can’t control
what idiots will weaponize.” From
http://www.newsweek.com/ Internet
Society Statement on the NETmundial Initiative The Internet Society Board of Trustees today issued the
following statement: Recently, the “I* Group” [1] was invited to participate
in the NETmundial Initiative, which is different from the one-time NETmundial
meeting in which we participated in April 2014; we endorsed the outcomes of
that meeting. This new and different NETmundial Initiative has been organized
by the partnership of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the World Economic
Forum (WEF) [2]. This announcement has resulted in considerable discussion
and concern amongst various stakeholders regarding the purpose, scope, and
nature of the proposed activity or organization. The Internet Society Board discussed this proposed NETmundial
Initiative in depth during its meeting November 15 – 16, 2014. As a result,
the Internet Society Board first emphasizes that the main priority facing the
Internet community right now is the IANA Functions’ Stewardship Transition
and recommends that all organizations in the Internet community should be
highly focused on effectuating a successful transition. The Internet Society remains fully
committed to the September 2015 milestone set for completing a plan that will
meet the criteria set by U.S. National Telecommunications & Information
Administration (NTIA). With respect to the need for new groups, such as the NETmundial
Initiative and its Coordination Council, the Internet Society Board
reiterates that the Internet Society’s longstanding position is that there is
no single, global platform that can serve to coordinate, organize or govern
all the Internet issues that may arise. At its heart, the Internet is a
decentralized, loosely coupled, distributed system that allows policies to be
defined by those who require them for their operations and that ensures that
issues can be resolved at a level closest to their origin. The ecosystem
draws its strength from the involvement of a broad range of actors working
through open, transparent, and collaborative processes to innovate and build
the network of networks that is the cornerstone of the global economy.[3] Based on the information that we have to date, the Internet
Society cannot agree to participate in or endorse the Coordination Council
for the NETmundial Initiative. We are concerned that the way in which the
NETmundial Initiative is being formed does not appear to be consistent with
the Internet Society’s longstanding principles, including: Bottom-up orientation Decentralized Open Transparent Accountable Multi-stakeholder The Board has asked the Internet Society’s CEO, Kathryn Brown,
to convene a dialogue within the Internet Society community. This includes
Internet Society Chapters from around the world, Internet Society
organization members, the IETF, the IAB, partners from the Internet technical
community, and others. The dialogue should consider whether any new
initiatives or groups are needed at the current time and, if so, to define
the objectives for any such effort. In addition, Bob Hinden, Chairman of the
Internet Society Board of Trustees has initiated a dialogue with the Chairman
of the ICANN Board, given ICANN’s leading involvement in the NETmundial
Initiative. The Internet Society remains committed to a vision of the
Internet that is open, inclusive, decentralized and for the benefit of all
people throughout the world. From
http://www.internetsociety.org/
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Tencent, China's largest Internet company by market value, said
yesterday that it has invested US$70 million in online pharmaceutical and
healthcare website DXY.cn, suggesting the company has spotted an opportunity
in the healthcare management sector.DXY will use the capital to develop
software and services for healthcare specialists to provide them with
information and offer general consumers basic healthcare knowledge.Other
goals include a database for medicines and diseases and to bridge the
information gap.DXY also plans to be a platform for medical practitioners to
exchange academic ideas and experience.DXY said it aims to serve mass
consumers as well as doctors and pharmaceutical industry
professionals.Tencent hopes to tap DXY's industry expertise to serve its more
than 600 million active users of its popular smartphone chatting tool WeChat.
Meanwhile, DXY hopes to better connect doctors and medical practitioners with
patients through WeChat and Tencent's mobile QQ platform."We hope to
combine medical related data and expertise with hundreds and millions of
users, and this will make health-related knowledge more easily accessible for
ordinary Internet users," Tencent President Martin Lau said in a
statement. From http://www.news.cn/
Internet Finance Boosts
IT Hiring Financial companies in China have recruited more information
technology professionals in the first half of the year due to booming
Internet financial services, online recruiter highpin.com said in a report
yesterday.Recruitment in the financial sector nearly doubled in the first six
months from the same period last year, led by some of China’s largest cities
including Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, said the website, an affiliate of
recruitment portal zhaopin.com.The five most competitive positions in the
financial sector include mobile application developers and senior software
engineers.Each opening for a mobile application developer attracted 81
applicants and each software engineer position drew 75 applicants on average,
according to the report.But accountancy and backroom jobs involving settling
of credit invoices and export and import documents were also highly
sought-after, with the number of applications exceeding 100 for each
opening.The report found that overseas candidates with one to five years’
financial experience commanded an average monthly pay that’s 4,000 yuan
(US$650) higher than for locally-trained candidates. Separately, fewer employees in China expect their employers to
give a bonus for the Mid-Autumn Festival as companies have slashed incentive
plans amid the government’s call for frugality, another survey found
yesterday.Only 23.5 percent of employees think they will get a bonus from
their companies this year, a fall from 38.7 percent who received some bonus
last year, China’s largest online recruitment portal 51job.com said in a
survey yesterday. The survey covered 1,415 employees and 253
employers.Meanwhile only 15.6 percent of employers said they plan to offer
cash or gift cards to employees as a festival bonus, a sharp decline from
36.2 percent last year.“Companies’ decision to cancel Mid-Autumn gifts is a
result of the government’s campaign against unnecessary spending,” said
Jennifer Feng, chief researcher of 51job.com.She added that as employees
nowadays are not keen to get mooncakes as a holiday gift while giving cash is
not quite a tradition of the festival, many employers simply decided to cut
such practices when companies have to face tight budgets. From http://www.news.cn/
China's phone users numbered 1.53 billion at the end of
September, including 1.27 billion mobile phone users, the Ministry of
Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday.Mobile broadband
subscribers reached 525 million at the end of September, including 43.06
million From http://www.news.cn/
The government intends to apply “big data,” the massive
collection of digital information, to patients’ medical expense statements
starting next fiscal year to reduce medical spending. Some municipalities
have already attempted innovative approaches to using the data in managing
the health of patients. But the government’s aim of using the data as a
diagnostic tool to cure bloated medical expenses is already facing opposition
from doctors and other individuals. “I refrain from eating between meals and
drink coffee without sugar. I also go for walks about four times a week,” a
woman suffering from diabetes told a health nurse at the Higashiyamato city
hall in western Aiming to cap medical care expenses that continue to rise each
year by reducing the number of patients requiring artificial kidney dialysis
treatments, the city provided instructions to 19 patients, including the
woman who went for walks, in fiscal 2013. It plans to give such advice to 25
this fiscal year. By analyzing the medical expense statements, the city also
found that there were residents who visited hospitals too often or received
too much medication. For example, some visited the same hospital eight times
or more or received a 60-day or greater supply of drugs with the same effects
in a single month. The city then arranged for health nurses to better advise
such patients on the situation. In fiscal 2013, health nurses instructed 28
patients and 24 of them agreed to review their hospital visits or
medications. The city of Since 2008, the city government has encouraged diabetic patients
to improve their lifestyle habits. It also identifies patients who frequently
use expensive brand-name medicine and sends them a letter suggesting generic
alternatives that are cheaper but contain the same active ingredients. As a
result, the city’s annual national insurance medical costs, totaling about
¥20 billion, were cut by more than ¥100 million. Similar efforts can be seen
in other municipalities, including The Cabinet of then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi created a
policy in 2006 to automatically cut social security costs by ¥220 billion
every year at a time when the cost was annually increasing by nearly ¥1
trillion. But the policy drew such criticism as “It will make the medical
system collapse” and “It resulted in a serious shortage of doctors.” At the
time, medical expense statement data was not computerized, and there was
scant objective data to urge medical institutions to cut down medical costs.
There has already been backlash against the government’s aim to cut medical
expenses. “Setting a numerical goal first could cause excessive cuts in medical
expenses. As a result, we are concerned we may become unable to provide the
treatments that patients really need,” said a Japan Medical Association
spokesperson. Even if administrators think they have identified unnecessary
medical expenses, they cannot take action over the issue if a doctor insists
the spending is necessary. From
http://the-japan-news.com
Analyze,
Utilize ‘Big Data’ to Ensure Appropriate Medical Costs, Quality While continuing to enhance the quality of medical services,
curbs should be placed on swelling medical expenses. This is a challenge that
our super-graying society cannot avoid tackling. Utilizing vast amounts of
medical service-related data has drawn attention recently as a reliable means
of helping achieve cost-efficient services. The data include those contained
in medical treatment expense statements or detailed breakdowns of medical bills
issued to individuals by hospitals, pharmacies and related institutions. The
Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is in charge of administering “big data”
such as those relating to medical treatment expense statements and findings
in medical checkups. This amounts to 8.2 billion pieces of information. To examine specific ways of utilizing
the data and methods of analyzing them, the government has set up an expert
study panel under the Headquarters for the Promotion of Social Security
System Reform. The panel started deliberations on the issue in August. Analysis of the big data will make it possible to ascertain
regional trends in illnesses and medical services. Based on such findings, it
may also become possible to prevent illnesses from developing or keep
symptoms from becoming serious, while helping rein in excess provision of
medical services. In addition, analysis of big data will make it possible to
predict future needs in health care services and the number of hospital beds
necessary, through estimated demographic changes and projected morbidity
rates. The studies’ findings are expected to motivate adjustments in the
number of hospitals and hospital beds in different areas. It is reasonable to
use objective data to prompt medical institutions to provide appropriate
medical services. Based on the law enacted in June for comprehensive
promotion of medical and nursing care services, prefectural governments,
including those in Some municipal governments and health insurance associations
have already started utilizing data, including medical treatment expense
statements and results of medical checkups, to slash excessive medical
services and prevent lifestyle-related diseases from developing or their
symptoms from becoming serious. It is concerning that the government is poised to set
prefectural ceilings for medical expenses, by projecting regional needs for
medical services. Medical bills per capita differ significantly among prefectures.
Expenses in the costliest From
http://the-japan-news.com
EU,
The European Commission and More than 40 partners from Europe and The EU-Japan collaboration will provide potential business opportunities
for participating companies in both regions. The EU and From
http://www.rttnews.com
From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
A survey shows that 94 percent of South Korean company employees
have smartphones, the highest rate among major countries. In the survey
on eight-thousand-556 employees across 25
countries conducted by online travel agency From
http://world.kbs.co.kr
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The incoming Governor of Jakarta, Basuki Purnama Tjahaja, has
said that recent incidents of vehicle malfunction by TransJakarta, the public
operator of the city’s buses, highlight the need for stronger oversight of
public contracts and the adoption of e-procurement. While work continues on
building the first mass transit network in Southeast Asia’s biggest city, 3.7
million people travel on TransJakarta buses each month. However inconsistent
vehicle purchasing, lacking proper maintenance and support contracts,
contributed to a bus catching fire at the end of August - the latest in a
spate of incidents where buses caught fire. Edi Nursalam, Chairman of Jakarta
City Transportation Council (DTKJ), which advises the Governor on public
transport issues, said that one of the ways to reduce the high mortality risk
of accidents involving TransJakarta buses is to more effectively manage the
procurement of new vehicles and service contracts. “For this to happen we
encourage policy agencies of From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Makati City in the Philippines has been using geographic
information systems (GIS) for urban planning for almost a decade now, and
plans to further improve its use of the technology, Merlina Panganiban, Head
of Urban Development has told FutureGov. “By using maps, decisions are always
objective, accurate and prompt. As a result, basic services are delivered to
the people on time,” she said. The city is planning to upgrade its GIS
platforms, she added: “This will be done through benchmarking with other
advanced countries and participating in different international conferences
about ICT.” From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The
The Use of Geographic Information System The department is also using geospatial technology to track the
performance of its reforestation programme. Gervacio told the Philippine
Information Agency that the geo-tagging technology has resulted in a more
accurate and effective monitoring of the programme, even in remote and
conflict-affected areas. It is particularly useful “when validating
monitoring reports and eliminates possibilities of ghost plantations".
The department plans to launch a mobile app to provide the public with
geohazard maps and disaster alerts and information. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Farmers
Could Use Drones to Boost Filipino Food Supplies The Philippine Government is researching whether drones can help
increase the country's domestic food supplies, by training farmers to use the
devices to monitor the health of their rice fields. The From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
IDA
to Crowdsource Data on Public’s Broadband Experience The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the
country’s telecoms regulator and central government IT agency, launched a
pilot for a mobile app yesterday that aims to engage consumers to obtain
better insights into consumers’ mobile broadband usage experience. “We hope
consumers will download the MyConnection SG app and volunteer as NIMI testers
to help IDA improve their broadband service experience,” explained Jacqueline
Poh, Managing Director, IDA. ““As part of From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Singaporeans
Want More Digital Police Services, Poll Finds 85 per cent of Singaporeans expect to their police force to use
digital services, but only 57 per cent are happy with the current level of
provision, a survey by management consultancy Accenture has found. “The use
of websites and mobile apps fall short of citizens’ expectations,” the survey
said, while 91 per cent of Singaporeans said that digital technology improves
police services. Accenture also asked about the specific technologies that
citizens would like the police to use. It found that 96 per cent of
Singaporeans are comfortable with police officers using predictive
technologies, 94 per cent with mobile devices, and 91 per cent with CCTV.
Citizens are least comfortable with their police wearing body-worn cameras,
although it was still accepted by 81 per cent. Further, 84 per cent of
citizens in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Open
Door Portal Makes Job Search Easy for Disabled Valerie Loy, Vice president of Human Resources at RWS, said:
"We have in place a network of support structures to integrate them into
our workplace, such as classroom training. We also have on the job training.
On top of that we assign mentors to these individuals." Job seeker Ivan
Lin said his aim was to upgrade himself and get a career: "To get a
decent opportunity, that's what I really hope for, because I'm always at the
training level. But now with age I have sufficient training." Since
early 2014, SG Enable said it has been working with various Voluntary Welfare
Organisations (VWOs) to help place 230 persons with disabilities into various
job positions. These include rank-and-file positions to those which require
higher or more specific skills such as accounting, graphic design and
engineering. It said at least two in 10 people it helped were placed in
higher level jobs. SG Enable said close to 70 companies have come on board
the Open Door Programme (ODP) since it was launched in April this year. From
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/
Tourists visiting From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Thai
Government Launches The Ministry of Science and Technology in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
FutureGov caught up with Dr Nguyen Hoai Duc, Manager of the
Information Technology Division and head of the Smart City Programme, to find
out more about these challenges and how the city is overcoming them. Teaching with TVs “It takes a lot of time to raise the awareness of citizens so that
they are open to new technology, especially in rural areas,” he said. To
tackle this problem, the government broadcasts IT training courses on
television to reach areas that are difficult to access and also organises
free training courses in villages. Officials also needed to be persuaded of
the benefits of new systems, and “this [change] does not happen overnight,”
Nguyen said. Officials started receiving IT training seven years before the
launch of the e-government system - some of the training courses are
mandatory to get as many officials as possible to attend them. Talk to your colleagues The city annually assesses the use of IT by every government
agency, and this encourages officials to make sure they have the necessary
skills for their job. Although officials are often eager to pick up new IT
skills for their jobs and understand the benefits of using technology, it is
hard for them to take time out of their day-to-day jobs, Nguyen added. So
aside from assessing their performance, the IT department must constantly
talk to them and listen to their issues. “It has to be a two-way
interaction,” he said. City migrates to e-government All 90 public agencies in the city government migrated to a new
e-government system in July. The government has implemented new internal IT
systems including, a database of the city’s residents, and systems for
organisation and public services management. Traditionally, the city had
relied on manual processes to carry out its business, explained Dr. Duc Nguyen
Hoai. “When citizens wrote to a government agency, they would need to go and
submit a form, and wait for many days until the request was processed.” The
government is now automating its services to reduce the cost of service
delivery and make it less time-consuming for citizens to transact with the
government, he said. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
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The government is close to sign an agreement with a contractor
to develop two blocks of the proposed hi-tech park in Gazipur under the
Public-Private Partnership initiative. The deal would be signed with an
India-based international developer firm SIMCL-INFINITY subject to approval
by the cabinet committee on economic affairs, officials said. The Ministry of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is scheduled to place the
proposal at a meeting of the committee scheduled tomorrow. Already delayed by
16 years due to bureaucratic tangles, the deal for the development of two
blocks (2 and 5) would be signed for 40 years. The park will have a total of
five blocks. “At long last, we are going to select one firm for beginning the
development works,” Project Director ANM Shafiqul Islam told the Dhaka
Tribune yesterday. “Now, a proposal will be sent to the cabinet committee for
approval.” He said: “Initially the contract will be signed for 40 years,
which might be extended further if both parties agree.” According to the proposal, the two blocks will be developed
under Design, Build, Finance, Operate, Own and Transfer (DBFOOT) basis under
PPP initiative. The areas of two blocks are 62 acres and 29 acres
respectively in the total coverage of 132.8 hectares of land. Sources said
local company Summit Communications Limited owns 75% of the consortium and
25% goes to the Indian partner, Infinity. The proposal also revealed
SIMCL-INFINITY will invest $114.56 million for developing the block 2 and
$93.33 million for block There is a little option to impose penalty if the company fails
to complete the project work within the stipulated time of 10 years, he
added. Sources in ICT Ministry also said development of block 3 and 4 are
also going to be awarded to another local firm Fiber@home while block 1 will
be awarded for Fiber@home and Summit Communications Limited jointly. The
development of the project had seen little progress in last 15 years, with
officials concerned blaming the sluggish pace on frequent shifts in
government decisions and interference from the World Bank, which was
providing Tk200 crore for the project taken in 1999. In 1999, Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina decided to establish the park on 232 acres of land at the
Kaliakoir Surface Satellite Station. However, the then BNP-led government did
not carry on with the project, while its Science and ICT Ministry initiated a
new project at Kaliakoir in 2004, where they did nothing other than acquiring
land. From
http://www.dhakatribune.com/ From
http://www.siliconindia.com/
IITians
to Help Modi Build Smart Cities The students who will be indulged in this process would also be
mentored by a qualified panel of over 50 members, including Anand Singh Bhal,
economic advisor, ministry of urban development, government of India; S K
Jain, deputy director-general, ministry of communications and IT; Prem
Narayan, director Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and among
others. Apart from the government officers, the students will also get inputs
from professors of IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Kharagpur, IISC Bangalore and
other institutions and corporates throughout the process. IIT-Bombay said,
“Techfest aims at providing a strong sharing platform and offers a unique
opportunity to get involved in the development of smart cities to exchange
ideas and foster the new integrated approaches in From
http://www.siliconindia.com/
Govt
to Kickstart Next Phase of Cable TV Digitization: Javadekar The Centre is mulling to complete the third phase of
digitization of cable television by 2015. Addressing a press conference at
Vigyan Bhavan in New Dehi, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for
Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, said the Indian cable TV
digitization is the biggest such exercise in the world. "It will change
the face of Indian television," he added. The fourth phase of
digitization is expected to happen in 2016. Around 12 to 15 crore of TV sets
are expected to be benefitted from this mammoth exercise. Stressing that
consumers will be the top priority in cable TV digitization process, Mr
Javadekar said, "stakeholders should be sensitive to consumer
interests." On the debate on whether consumers should pay for a channel
and still with advertisements, Mr Javadekar's response was: "Why should
consumers pay?... This isn't done. We'll resolve this." Mr Javadekar
also said the free-to-air channels will not have to adhere to 12 minute advertisement
cap anymore. From
http://www.southasianmedia.net/ IT
Will Help Balance Environment, Development: Javadekar "Such projects would be balanced with compensatory
afforestation programmes," he said. The minister also said that in order
to decentralize the process of granting of forest clearances, the ministry
had constituted empowered committees at regional levels and delegated decision-making
powers to these committees for issuing forest clearances to projects like
railway lines, transmission lines, highways, and pipelines. In a similar
vein, development processes had been expedited in Left wing extremism
affected areas. Giving the future course of action, Javadekar said that
information on Eco Sensitive Zones would now be made available through the
newly launched web-based decision support system. From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ Aircel,
Reliance Comm Tie Up for MUMBAI: Telecom service provider Aircel has partnered with
Reliance Communications to launch high-speed third generation ( From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ Phones, Best Mode of Communicating for Those in Love: Survey From http://news.siliconindia.com/ 8 Million
Follow Modi on Twitter BANGALORE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi now has over 8 million
followers on Twitter and is only behind U.S. President Barack Obama and the
Pope in popularity on the micro blogging site.“Prime Minister Narendra Modi
(@narendramodi) crossed the 8 million follower mark on Twitter,” the popular
social networking site said in a statement. U.S. President Barack Obama leads
the popularity chart with over 43 million followers, followed by the Pope
Francis, who is followed by over 14 million people on social site
Twitter.“Since his (Modi) election win in May earlier this year, the Prime
Minister’s Twitter account (@narendramodi) has doubled in followers adding
more than 4 million followers,” the statement said.“His election victory
Tweet remains the most retweeted Tweet of all time from From
http://www.siliconindia.com/ An App to
Help Infants with Heart Defects From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ Infosys to
Design Stanford Course for Grooming Executives BENGALURU: Global software major Infosys Ltd. is partnering with
the U.S.-based Stanford Graduate School of Business to develop a tailor-made
course for grooming its next-generation executives in the global technology
space."Our senior executives will team up with Stanford B-school to
design a customised strategic leadership development course for training our
executives, clients and partners," the IT bellwether said in a statement
here. The course will have business management skills and corporate
innovation process to help the outsourcing major balance business discipline
and entrepreneurial spirit. "We want to empower our people to help
clients explore opportunities and unfold new solutions. The novel initiative
mandates a step change in our thinking," Infosys chief executive Vishal
Sikka said in the statement. Sikka is a product of From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ |
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PASHA Bank, one of the leading financial institutes of the
country, has integrated ‘Asan İmza’ mobile e-signature solution into its
Internet Bank portal. Starting
from September 8, 2014, ‘Asan İmza’ mobile e-signature has been available on
the Internet Bank portal of PASHA Bank at https://ib.pashabank.az, a message
from the bank said on Sept.29.
PASHA Bank offers a wide range of financial services to its clients
via its Internet Bank portal. So, clients of the bank may carry out the local
and international payments and currency conversion through the system,
exchange of information, obtaining information about account balances and
exchange rates, archiving of conducted transactions and etc. through private
messaging system with the representative of the bank. “The use of digital signature will be
compulsory for the bank sector of the country soon. We are striving to keep
pace with time, apply the newest technologies and are sure that digital
signature will provide the clients of the bank with greater comfort and
security in conducting operations,” Leyla Mammadova, director of
direct-banking department of PASHA Bank said. “Until recent times there have been discrepancies between the
technological capabilities of identification of the bank’s clients and
legislation of the country. But creation of such service as ‘Asan İmza’
enables using bank services as well as signing contracts without prejudice to
security of the clients of the bank, without coming to the bank. So, PASHA
Bank, being in vanguard in the bank market from technological point will
please its clients with the application of contemporary solutions of this
type in the future also,” Fuad Aslanov, director of Department of development
of bank systems of PASHA Bank said.
‘Asan İmza’ technology offers a number of important advantages
enabling to expand the online banking services. The most important of these
is that ‘Asan İmza’ is the only legal mobile electronic signature solution
from the point of view of legislation of the Currently more than 350 e-services on E-government Portal
(www.e-gov.az), more than 50 e-services in the Internet Tax Office of Ministry
of Taxes (www.e-taxes.gov.az), and various e-services on Bankım.az, Hesab.az
and other Internet portals are available for the users of ‘Asan İmza’ mobile
e-signature. It is worth noting
that online registration feature offered by Ministry of Taxes for the
individuals to register as an entrepreneur in just 5 minutes via ‘Asan İmza’
has gained a special popularity among the users. ‘Asan İmza’ mobile e-signature – is a
technology that enables to use a mobile telephone as a digital identity card
and signature tool. The main advantage of ‘Asan İmza’ technology is no
requirement of using additional devices and software for reading a smart
card. A mobile telephone and a SIM card which stores authentication and
e-signature digital keys are sufficient for starting using this service. For
more information, please visit: www.asanimza.az Authentication and digital signature
certificates used in ‘Asan İmza’ technology are issued by Asan Certification
Services Centre (ASXM) of the Ministry of Taxes. ASXM, established jointly by the State Agency for Public Service
and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and
the Ministry of Communication and High Technologies and accredited at the
Ministry of Communication and High Technologies, is empowered to issue
qualified certificates to the employees of state and municipal authorities,
legal entities and individuals. For more information please visit:
www.asxm.gov.az PASHA Bank is a
leading corporate bank in From
http://en.trend.az/ Tourists to Be Able to Get E-Visas to Tourists will be able to receive electronic visas to From
http://en.trend.az/ From
http://en.trend.az/ From
http://en.trend.az/ Around 4 million subscribers use mobile services of Altyn Asyr
(TM Cell) CJSC - the only national operator in From
http://en.trend.az/
The mobile operator Beeline In December 2008, Unitel launched From
http://en.trend.az/
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Regional Governments Have Insufficient
Economic Impact, Connectivity, Officials Believe The report -
‘Government Connectivity, Citizen Engagement and Economic Impact in Asia
Pacific’ - was commissioned by Cisco Systems, and surveyed over 100 selected
senior officials across Only Indian
officials believe that they have higher connectivity than is required: they
scored its importance at just 76%, but rated their connectivity at
81%.Officials were also cautious about their level of economic impact
compared to its relative importance. The average importance of achieving
economic impact was 77.3%, while the average success of achieving economic
impact was 65.6%.All countries had a capability gap, where the importance of
the area was higher than their current level of achievement. From http://www.futuregov.asia
In an
interview with Adam Bryant of The New York Times in June last year, Google's
senior vice president of people operations Laszlo Bock said that grade point
averages and test scores were "worthless" as criteria for hiring by
a company like Google. Bock instead cited five hiring attributes the company
looks for across the board, including general cognitive ability,
non-traditional leadership skills, humility, ownership, and responsibility.
"The number-one thing we look for is general cognitive ability, and it's
not I.Q. It's learning ability," Bock told NYT columnist and author Thomas
L. Friedman in a subsequent interview early this year. "It's the ability
to process on the fly. It's the ability to pull together disparate bits of
information. We assess that using structured behavioral interviews that we
validate to make sure they're predictive." The least important attribute
Google looked for in a candidate, according to Bock, was expertise.
Creativity is innate in humans, said Bock, but logic often needs to be
learned. Those people with a natural serving of both will have more options,
he said. It's not
your average traditional desired skill-set, but then Google's not your
average traditional business. However, Bock's perspective seems to be gaining
traction in the technology industry, and his blunt dismissal highlights not
just Google's view of the hiring landscape, but the changing requirements
among tech companies in general. If what's good enough for Google is good
enough for the rest of us — and it probably should be — then the tech
industry can expect to see this recruitment trend continue spreading
throughout the industry's global landscape. Sure, good grades can help, as
can niche technology knowledge. It's just that those traits are now being
weighed up with an increasingly broad and holistic set of skills and
abilities. All-rounders required Darragh
Kennedy, online platform manager of iconic travel guide publisher Lonely
Planet, suggests that the emergence of this new multi-skilled,
multi-disciplined all-rounder has become a necessary inhabitant, specifically
in the area of DevOps. DevOps, the ongoing software delivery approach
incorporating development and operations, brings together software developers
and IT operations in a bid to align development goals with organisational
needs. By Kennedy's estimation, Lonely Planet came to the DevOps table
comparatively early, in 2007 beginning the process of shifting its operations
away from the traditional siloed structure with large, intermittent software
releases, to a continuous integration and delivery model. But the company's
IT overhaul required no small amount of retraining, rehiring, and workforce
shuffles, with many of the company's tech team required to substantially
broaden their skills palette. "Certainly,
all of our operations engineers are DevOps engineers; they're all very
proficient now with scripting and coding, with automation — whether it's for
integration deployment or monitoring — so, certainly I think that skill-set
is vital," Kennedy told ZDNet. "Around the world, of the people who
had those traditional infrastructure skills, it's the ones that have adapted,
that have gone and learned some new tools, that are doing well," he
said. The company initially shifted to a VMware environment to deliver on its
DevOps approach, but has since settled into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud
infrastructure. That move to the cloud required further integration of a
multi-skilled toolkit for Kennedy's team. "When we had our VMware
environments, we very much had an automated ability to create environments
and to deploy code across them," said Kennedy. "Then when we
decided to move to the cloud, it probably pushed it even further and
certainly, we got a lot of developers to learn infrastructure. Because we
were building it all as code, they were really good at knowing how to use the
API and the various SDKs." These days, Lonely Planet is much more than
just a publisher of guidebooks. It has made leaps and bounds into the
consumer interactive digital space over the past several years, and now
offers a smorgasbord of online services for consumers, in addition to its
book and e-book publishing. Kennedy's
DevOps push to build up automation, continuous integration, and continuous
delivery has no doubt enabled that transition. The transformation hasn't been
entirely without its growing pains, according to Kennedy, but as his team's
skill-set broadened, the company was able to move with relative ease. Now,
Kennedy sees the up-skilling process — both for individual employees and for
enterprises as a whole — as a key part of remaining relevant in a fast
changing environment. "If you want to be in technology, you have to do
all this learning and improving yourself, to keep yourself relevant," he
said. "Some people will embrace that and see it as an opportunity, and I
see it as an opportunity to drive companies. It doesn't matter what industry
it is now, if you don't have an IT strategy and a technology strategy, you're
going to get left behind." Doing IT startup-style Perhaps
nowhere has the true value of the IT industry's multi-skilled polymath been
showcased more profoundly than when US President Barack Obama called in
Silicon Valley's finest to fix the tech behind the federal government's
disastrous Healthcare.gov website launch in October last year. It took a remarkably
small and nimble team headed up by Google's former 'site-reliability
engineer' Michael 'Mikey' Dickerson — also of the Obama for America 2012
election campaign website alumni — to get the troubled site working by
December 2013. One of the things most of those in the team had in common was
a background in highly agile tech companies such as eBay and Twitter, along
with a notably broad skill-set, and a startup-style approach to software
development. In fact, one member of the group, Gabriel Burt, CTO of Chicago
firm Civis Analytics, even boasts a resume that includes work as a rocket
scientist, according to Time journalist Steven Brill. So effective was the
team that in early August this year Obama hired another team of digital
experts. Once again headed by Dickerson, the US Digital Service team will
handle an overhaul of US government websites in a bid to avoid future
disasters similar to the Healthcare.gov scheme. Although the tech startup
sector may have fostered the rise of the tech all-rounder, Glenn Gore,
solutions architect manager for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Asia Pacific, sees
the enterprise end of the market making plenty of moves in that direction as
well. "It's
been growing at both ends," Gore told ZDNet. "It grew a lot faster
in the startup community, though, because they can execute a lot faster. But
the enterprise end of things has been aware of it for a while, even if an
enterprise looking at things from a startup perspective does take a bit
longer to get there." While Amazon is definitely much too large and
established now to be called a startup, the company still seems to take a
startup-like approach to many of its operations, focusing on customers,
agility, DevOps, new ideas, and innovation. Consequently, the company also
takes more of a startup-style approach when it hires new employees, with
candidates often selected for their attitude over their specific technical
expertise, according to Gore. "Technical skills can be taught, but
attitude is more innate and quite hard to change," said Gore. "So,
the second thing we look for is the tech skills. The first component,
attitude, is the important one in finding technologists that fit the Amazon
mould." While Gore
does not dismiss expertise out of hand, as does Bock, he believes that if expertise
comes into the hiring equation, it should encompass a number of fields.
"In the tech skills arena, particularly in architecture, we're looking
for someone with a rare skill-set that takes in infrastructure skills,
datacentre, and storage skills, along with network knowledge," he said.
"The same person should have a development software background — and to
make it more difficult, we're looking for application expertise. Finding
someone with just one of those skills is tough, and to get all three is very
rare, but finding them is very, very valuable." The trend towards this
growing desire among technology companies to scope out multi-skilled
applicants has been growing for a while now, not inconsequentially with the
rise of cloud infrastructure migration and the emergence of DevOps as the
go-to approach for enterprises and startups alike. "It's been happening
for a couple of years, and it's really hitting the mainstream now," he
said. "They used to hand over these things to another team, but that's
now being mixed up, and you're seeing that with the rise of DevOps,"
said Gore. "It's been blurring the lines, and with the rise of cloud
now, it's making everything API driven. They have to learn to interact with
APIs. Merging DevOps and cloud together has created a perfect storm of
requiring all four attributes," he said, referring to infrastructure,
application, software development, and a candidate's fit into a company's
culture and leadership model. Gore
revealed that AWS's hiring process can be quite "robust" in its
quest to pin down the best candidate for the company's cultural fit. Most
candidates will see at least four or five interviews, each with multiple
interviewers. Each of those interviews will usually take on a different
focus, and the interviewers can dive into a lot of detail with the candidate.
These interviews also give applicants a good chance to get to know their
employer — a factor that has the potential to be more important than an
applicant's specialist skill-set, according to Gore. In fact, Gore said that
AWS was redefining what the term 'specialist' means, with the company looking
for people with a very strong knowledge base in one area, supplemented by
skills outside of that specialty. This is an increasingly important element
in an industry that's seeing a rapid growth in cross-discipline
collaboration. "If you are just one skill-specific, you can't work with
other teams," said Gore. "There are side effects of collaboration.
You build trust within the team. When you get that trust element you get
scale appearing in your knowledge-base." For those in
the industry that don't possess a generalist skill-set or knowledge base,
there is always the opportunity to upskill, according to Gore. AWS often
conducts follow-up interviews with applications that missed out first time
around, but went out to broaden their skill-set. "We find great
candidates who have got some really good skills in a specific area," he
said. "We give some feedback, encourage them to do some training and reading,
and if they can show they've made progress, and have broadened their skill
base, that's promising. Just being able to use skills in different way can be
really enlightening. It's like a different person we're talking to sometimes
when they come back for a second interview," he said. "This
industry is not static — you have to keep ahead. That's the biggest piece of
advice to everyone out there: you've got to keep across everything." Keeping pace with the tech race As the IT
industry continues to be bombarded with technology developments and release
cycles, keeping up with emerging technology is vital in securing technology
jobs and then holding on to them, according to Budd Ilic, Actifio,
which deals with copy data virtualisation, usually looks for candidates that
have come from the virtualisation or storage business, and have worked for
other large companies in the field, usually in a senior position. From Ilic's
perspective, applicants that have previously held senior positions are likely
to come with not only a much broader knowledge base over a greater range of
technology, but also a sense of how that fits into an organisation's larger
operation. "Typically, our guys come out of either the virtualisation or
the storage business and have worked for other large storage vendors, or the
likes of VMware, but have got a quite senior outlook," he said. "We
often look for senior guys that have had a lot of experience across a broad
set of technologies. Usually they'll have greater strengths in a particular
vertical, or space in the technology sector, but they still need to have a
broad range of skill-set across the board." Like Amazon's Gore, Ilic
believes that the shift to the cloud has played its part in driving the
requirement for the multi-skilled polymath in the IT industry, with
enterprises often requiring fewer staff members in IT teams as infrastructure
gradually becomes software-based. "The whole shift to cloud is making a
big difference as well, because the cloud providers know how to run these
environments at a very large scale with as few people as possible," said
Ilic. "As a result, they're going to require less and less IT staff, and
the big cloud providers, due to all the automation and consolidation they do
within their cloud environment, are not going to need as many IT
people." "I see
that even in federal government, a lot of the smaller agencies and
departments are now using shared services from the bigger larger departments
and, as a result, it doesn't make sense for smaller organisations where IT
isn't their core business to have lots of IT staff. As a result we see less
and less IT people, particularly in the small to mid-tier organisations,
whether they be government or commercial. There's a definite shift to cloud,
and that's going to bring a lot of change in regard to IT people employed
within the industry," he said. This trend may seem to conjur a bleak
outlook for IT professionals not skilled up in more than one major area of
expertise, but for Safi Obeidullah, Citrix director of sales engineering for "We do
this through a number of methods included in-person training — either
internal or external — online training and peering program whereby the
employee can learn from a peer through first-hand experience," he said.
Yes, a broad skill-set is important, but so is deep expertise in one area,
according to Obeidullah, although he also concedes that an applicant with a
skill-set that extends beyond traditional technology fields will have an
easier time nabbing that dream job. "We look for people with a broader
skill set but at the same time have deep expertise in specific areas,"
he said. "To be successful in IT these days, you can't just know one
thing. In addition, non-technical skills are increasingly important. In fact,
technical capabilities are only a small part of what we assess when bringing
on new people. Teamwork, accountability, communication skills, consultative
selling, and the ability to orchestrate resources are some examples of
attributes that we assess," said Obeidullah. From http://www.zdnet.com
New
Online Service for Australian Consumers to Report Medicine Side Effects The
Australian government has launched a new online service for consumers to
report side effects of medicines and vaccines. Reports from consumers are
useful in monitoring the safety of medicines. However, many people are
unaware of the reporting channels. Last year, only 3% of reports received by
the regulator came from consumers. The new online form allows the public to
quickly submit brief details of the suspected medicine, including the batch
number and the active ingredient, as well as the description of the side
effect. Each year the Therapeutic Goods Administration under the Department
of Health receives over 17,000 reports of suspected side effects to medicines
and vaccines. Over half of the reports (55%) come from pharmaceutical
companies, 17% from state and territory health departments, 10% from
hospitals and remainder from general practitioners and community pharmacists. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Proposed
‘Axing’ of Digital Tech Curriculum Causes Outrage The
Australian Council of Deans of Information and Communications Technology
(ACDICT) has hit out at the federal government for what it says is the
proposed axing of the national digital technologies curriculum for schools.
According to ACDICT the move by the government, if implemented, is nothing
short of reducing the capabilities of school leavers to “second class
citizens” on a global scale. ACDOCT President Professor Iwona Miliszewska
says “Cutting the
development of fundamental computational thinking so necessary for the jobs
of tomorrow is equivalent to reducing the capabilities of school leavers to
second class citizens on a global scale. This move (if implemented) will have
long-term effects on student capabilities as well as our future economy that
increasingly depends on digitally focused jobs.” Professor Miliszewska says
the proposed change is the more difficult to understand, “as only today did
the government release its competitiveness blueprint”. “The policy has
international competitiveness and commercial innovation at its heart and,
among other measures, it plans to champion new programs to enhance the
standing of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in schools, and
produce workers with the skills that industry needs. Along with the ACS and
Industry Groups, ACDICT’s Skills Action Plan has highlighted the shortage of
ICT skills in the workforce. The Plan has stressed also the importance of the
development of ICT skills in teachers, as the teachers are crucial to
implementing the necessary computational and design thinking into the
curriculum.” According to
Professor Miliszewska, by effectively relegating the ICT curriculum to later
years, the incentive for teachers to lift their abilities for those formative
early years will be removed and, she says, “this will be at odds with systems
promoted in other developed countries. It is most disappointing that the
views of the From http://www.itwire.com
Cloud
First Obstructed by Data Sovereignty Data
sovereignty is one of the biggest barriers to the Australian Crime
Commission, putting all of its data on a shared cloud system, Narelle Lovett,
CTO of the agency has told FutureGov. Third party servers for cloud are often
placed in another country, she said, so From http://www.futuregov.asia
From http://www.futuregov.asia
One
Third of New Zealanders Feel They Have No Control over Government Use of
Personal Information One third of
New Zealanders surveyed by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner feel they
are not in control of the way the government uses their information, says
Privacy Commissioner John Edwards. And that is an understatement, adds newly
appointed Government Chief Privacy Officer Russell Burnand. The two privacy
chiefs were separately addressing a seminar in Edwards says
the Law Commission had made more than 140 recommendations prior to rewriting
of the Act. “Sixty per cent of the complaints we receive are around access.
To enforce things, you must go to the Human Rights Commission, which can take
years. The new law will enable us to enforce compliance.” Burnand, who was
appointed GCPO in July, stressed that he was not a privacy specialist. “This
[role] is less about privacy than about change management. I don’t think
public servants value information the way they should. The breadth of
personal information held by government is just enormous. “The tricky part is
trying to influence culture change.” He says his role was created to provide
privacy leadership and capability and a clear signal that privacy is central
to government information management practices. “Any government chief
executive must think about it. “In my view, if you don’t get privacy right it
will seriously impede the business. One public service breach has an
incremental effect.” The
government wants 70 per cent of major transactions with it to be digital. “My
role is to raise awareness with chief executives,” Burnand says. “The job is
to prod and influence, and the challenge is to understand where agencies
struggle. I’m seeing pockets of very good practice and very bad practice.”
Burnand says his focus includes developing and communicating standards and
guidance, and to provide assurance to the government CIO and ministers of
capability build. I’m trying hard not to duplicate services with John
[Edwards]. My job is to augment the work he does.” He wants to be seen as a
“trusted friend”, not an auditor. From http://www.computerworld.co.nz
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When it comes to protecting ourselves online, Canadians are not
the most savvy bunch in the world – in fact, we commit a lot of cardinal
security sins, like sharing passwords, connecting to unsecured WiFi, and so
on. Worse, that behaviour extends into the office, where Canadians will often
use work PCs to access public WiFi, or use their home PCs to get their work
done – which can be a problem if those home PCs don’t have any security
software installed. In a new survey released this month by Norton by
Symantec, researchers polled 1,000 Canadians aged 18 and over. About 30 per
cent of respondents said they bring their work home with them, and they’ll
use their own PCs to do it. At the same time, about 30 per cent of Canadians
polled said they haven’t installed any security software on their devices.
(It’d be interesting to see how many of the respondents who take their work
home, also have not put any security software in place, but Norton hasn’t
shared those numbers). Another two-thirds of Canadians have logged onto public WiFi in
the last month – even while knowing public WiFi often doesn’t offer any
security and they can be hacked. Consumers have been notorious for poor
password hygiene for some time now, and Canadian consumers are no different.
Twenty per cent of the respondents polled in this survey have shared their
work and banking passwords, while 25 per cent have shared their personal
email password – which is where people tend to direct emails for resetting
passwords, making it a critical piece of data to keep private. So while
bringing work home, giving your spouse your password, and using public WiFi
may be convenient options, it’s key for consumers to know the risks – and to
secure themselves as much as they can. From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
Things
Bad in IT Security Now? It Could Get Worse An With the right system, solving discrete logarithm problems –
used in some public key cryptography products – would be a walk in the park.
“The purpose (of the paper) was to raise awareness, because quantum computing
is pretty new,” Pecen said. “Although half the people in this room have been
studying quantum computing for 20 years, your mainstream CEOs and CIOs don’t
have the vocabulary, don’t understand it and don’t understand that it is a
risk to information security. “So we wanted to show it is a credible threat
and here are some possibilities to do something about it, both with classical
algorithmic cryptography — which relies on complexity to protect information
— and also for quantum cryptography — which relies on basic physical
properties to protect information.” Some 100 people, mostly cryptographers,
plus some government and business people, were at the workshop, which was
co-sponsored by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). It was the second annual Quantum-Safe Cryptography workshop,
aimed at finding ways to standardize the next generation of cryptographic
infrastructure to withstand quantum computing technologies. One solution
could be combining a conventional key-establishment algorithm with a
quantum-safe key establishment protocol. The idea of quantum computing isn’t easy
to explain, but it’s something like this: The computers we use today process
bits in zeros or ones. A quantum computer could use zeros, ones and both. The
point is it could process a vast number of calculations simultaneously. With
every business and user wanting a faster computer, interest in the
possibility of quantum computing is understandable. So every technology
corporation from IBM to Microsoft is working in some way on large scale
quantum computing. The other side is also true: Governments, spy agencies and IT
security researchers are looking for ways to protect systems from the
potential threat. It could, of course, be academic. The truth is no one knows
how close we are to a practical, large scale quantum computer, Michele Mosca,
deputy director of the Institute for Quantum Computing and co-organizer of
the workshop, said in an interview. “But all the evidence suggests it could
be much sooner than we thought, and it could be sooner than we are prepared
for. It could take years and years to deploy the quantum-safe tools we need,
and that’s about the time it would take to have a large-scale quantum
computer.” And, he adds, we want the data we create today to be protected for
decades. In the discussion paper Pecen, Mosca and other presented at the
workshop, it was recommended organizations have to start thinking now about
how long the information they store needs to be secure, and think about the
consequences of it being exposed to a quantum attack. They should also investigate quantum-safe products on the market
now, the paper says. In addition, they should examine cost-saving strategies
to reduce the cost of switching to a quantum-safe networking and security
environment. Enterprises with advanced research teams should document quantum
safe use cases for their industry and publish within standards groups such as
ETSI who maintain a standards leadership role in quantum safe technologies,
it also says. Meanwhile security vendors should think about adding
quantum-safe features to their products. Looked at one way, quantum computing
is poisoned fruit. But, Mosca says, “the value and prosperity that a quantum
computer could bring is too society is great to ignore. This threat to
information security should be a footnote in the history of quantum computing
because it’s a very fixable thing – especially because we’ve had over 20
years to fix it. “What I’d like is the advent of a quantum computer to be a
purely positive milestone in human history, and it can be that way as long as
we have upgraded out information security infrastructure to be safe.” From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
The Data center consolidation is, point blank, a good idea. Whether
you're concerned about costs, energy usage or environmental impact, all sound
reasoning recommends the practice. Fewer data centers mean lower real estate
costs, lower energy bills and lower environmental impact. A certifiable
trifecta of benefits are there for the taking. But data center consolidation
in the government also has hurdles to overcome. The Senate committee passed
this recent bill because federal agencies have failed to make timely progress
toward the government's consolidation goals. One of the main barriers to data
center consolidation is that it is logistically a complicated endeavor – and
particularly so if multiple, disparate agencies need to comply. But even
after the messy business of merging, consolidated data centers may be exposed
to elevated risks. Multiple data centers that are geographically separated
have the advantage of also mitigating security risk. Security risk multiplies
with consolidation precisely because it increases the amount of potentially
valuable information in one physical location. Though there are often easier
ways of accessing the data in data centers virtually rather than physically,
this risk must be acknowledged. Consolidation also puts more pressure on the remaining data
centers – which now house a higher percentage of an agency’s critical
networking – to avoid the issues, manmade or otherwise, that can cause
disruption. Data center threats like power loss, high humidity, high heat and
environmental menaces like flooding, earthquake and fire also become
relatively a greater danger. With more at stake, accurate and responsive
daily maintenance and monitoring becomes even more imperative in avoiding
prolonged outages. The whole point of data center maintenance is to minimize
downtime by trying to ensure critical infrastructure doesn’t break down. But
failures are inevitable if only because these accidents (and forces of
nature) happen. To diminish the ill effects of faults when they inevitably
occur, dedicated monitoring systems should be put in place that can diagnose
problems and communicate the details in real time. That means systems that
can report on power, equipment and network failures despite those power,
equipment and network failures, in addition to any number of other issues
that might (and let’s face it, probably will) arise. Monitoring data centers and networks remotely and out-of-band,
via cellular or modem connections, speeds up resolution times – potentially
reducing latencies that could be downright critical for our government.
Remote accessibility also lessens the physical footprint needed at a
consolidated data center, an added aid to security precautions. Fewer data
centers mean less redundancy. While redundancy is often a dirty word when
thinking about efficiency, it is vital to preserve critical services. At
least one backup should exist in a disparate and distant locale in case of
major data center failure. Even more redundant sites are valuable for
worst-case scenarios, such as widespread natural disasters or multiple
faults. As a result of consolidation, each merged data center is responsible
for more and more information and resources, so each individual data center
becomes more and more important. As a result, the upkeep of each data center
becomes increasingly vital. To ensure worst-case scenarios don't arise,
maintenance and monitoring (to check that maintenance has been effective or
that new issues have not arisen) are an even more vital component of these
data centers. If consolidation is good sense, then better and faster
monitoring goes right along with it. From http://www.nextgov.com/ How
to Address Cross-border Internet Conflicts The Internet has facilitated advancements in the way we
communicate, conduct business, and create marketplaces for innovation. For
decades, sovereign nations have worked collaboratively, and data has flowed
across nations borders. But in recent years, this model has been in jeopardy.
The Internet is quickly risking becoming a “balkanized” platform – or one
where nations create contradicting policies leading to conflicts around
operability across borders, increased cyber threats, and questions of
jurisdiction. A recent report by the Internet Technology and Innovation
Foundation (ITIF), “Beyond Internet Universalism: A Framework for Addressing
Cross-Border Internet Policy,” presents a policy framework that helps to
avoid the balkanization of the Internet. “What we are really trying to do [in
the report] is compartmentalize different issues, and highlight the reasons
that some policies are bad ideas and others good,” said Daniel Castro, Senior
Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and co-author of
the report. To help policy makers create good policies, ITIF created a flow
chart that helps leaders consider what kinds of issues should be
collaborative, and which issues are challenges to sovereign nation policy.
“We show what kinds of questions policy makers should be asking, especially
about other country’s policies,” said Castro. “They are fairly simple
questions: is the policy affecting architecture? Is it affecting people
outside the country borders? Is it something that is in alignment or contradicts
with existing international agreements that were assigned? Or, is this
something that requires international consensus or not? By looking at
different issues and seeing where they fall, you see that the reasons why we
are constantly in conflict, and others why we are not.” It’s easy to imagine
why there is so much conflict around Internet policy. Internet policy
determines everything from basic technical architecture to how content is
distributed over networks. Even within borders, there is great disparity on
how the Internet should be governed, and these issues only grow in complexity
on a global scale. “While some cyber-libertarians mistakenly believe the Internet
is and should be a lawless land of virtual anarchy, the reality is that the
Internet, like all other technologies and human practices, has always been
guided by both formal and informal rules throughout its history. These rules
have been created at the sub-national, national, and international levels, by
both governments and non-governmental organization alike. The result is an
uncoordinated patchwork of laws, regulations, and standards created in a
variety of forums,” said the report. Within this patchwork of policy, the
report identified four areas of conflict: The report provides specific
recommendations for each area, but the one area of particular interest is the
ambiguity on a proper forum to address issues. Castro observed that in many
instances, conflicts are being resolved, but in the wrong forums. Take for
instance, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a
nonprofit organization that coordinates maintenance on databases and keeps
the Internet stable. In many cases, ICANN is the spot people go to solve
disputes, but ICANN is more appropriate for Internet architecture issues.
This presents a policy challenge to create the right forums to address the
complexity of the Internet. For conflicts that require a more narrow and
nuanced approach, the forums simply do not exist yet. The report does a great job of showing the complexity of
Internet regulation – and how domestic issues can impact the global
community. ITIF provides a list of various categories of Internet policy,
indicating the complexity of regulating the Internet: - Content regulation
(e.g., freedom of expression, censorship, decency, hate speech, libel, etc.); - Intellectual property (e.g., copyright, patents, trademarks,
etc.); Data (e.g., privacy, security, data residency, mutual legal
assistance treaties, etc.); - Commerce (e.g., e-commerce regulation; gambling regulations;
taxes; trade policy; consumer protection; anti-trust and competition; sales
of regulated goods, such as pharmaceuticals and tobacco; and sales of
contraband, etc.); - Cybercrime (e.g., spam, malware, fraud, denial of service, intrusions,
botnets, cyber stalking, harassment, etc.); - Network operation (e.g., spectrum allocation, IP address
allocation, domain name allocation, interconnection agreements, international
telecommunication regulations, etc.); - Network performance (e.g., protocol standards, network
security, network design, conformance testing, etc.); and - Equity and access (e.g., broadband subsidies, digital
literacy, connected schools and communities, computer ownership, etc.). The model that the report lays out is a good start to help
policy makers understand the core issues around Internet policy, and steps to
improve governance. “Using this framework, it creates a much healthier
environment for innovation and for the internet economy,” said Castro. ITIF
has a lot of terrific resources – if this report was something that you
loved, be sure to subscribe to their alerts to get future reports and other
interesting content. From
http://www.govloop.com/
National
Security Implications for Financial System Cyberattacks? As the White House ponders whether this summer's massive hack of
the financial services industry was a targeted, sponsored attack by The Times reported in early October that the sophisticated
techniques used in the JPMorgan breach basically gave the criminals a road
map of the financial services provider's program and app vulnerabilities. The
Proofpoint study, on the other hand, outlines perhaps a less sophisticated
and possibly more common method to target financial critical infrastructure
while showing some of the capabilities, motives and tactics of
hard-to-identify and often inscrutable financial services cybercriminals.
"Based on information gleaned from the attacker's control panels, such
as language preferences and the language of the server names and
documentation, as well as from further research, the attackers behind this
operation appear to be a Russian cybercrime group whose primary motivation is
financial," the Proofpoint report states. The organization's research shows a group targeting online
credentials for banks in the About half the infected systems ran Windows XP, showing that the
defunct program is still in relatively widespread use. Microsoft ended patch
and update support for Windows XP in April 2014. The study also found that
the cybercrime group used the compromised PCs to open its own cloud-based
paid proxy service for other organized crime groups. The service offered a
private cloud for attackers to infiltrate corporate networks. The
implications for financial services companies are sobering. The study
concluded that cybercriminals have the financial and technical means to
produce an escalating level of sophisticated attacks. Furthermore, those
electronic assaults can use the initial attack as a foothold for future
account theft, secret communications and transfers, distributed
denial-of-service attacks and ransomware. From
http://fcw.com/
White
House Gives Agencies Lead Role in Combating ID Theft New, more secure government credit cards and multi-factor
authentication for federal websites dealing with sensitive citizen data are
two ways the White House wants the government to lead a nationwide effort to
reduce identity theft and fraud. President Barack Obama signed an Executive
Order on Oct. 17 outlining a series of steps with short and longer term
deadlines to transition to more secure online transactions under a new Buy
Secure initiative. "First, starting next year, we're going to begin
making sure that credit cards and credit-card readers issued by the United
States government come equipped with two new layers of protection: a
microchip in the card that's harder for thieves to clone than a magnetic
strip, and a pin number you enter into the reader just as you do with an
ATM," Obama said during a speech at the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau in Washington. "We know this technology works. When Federal cybersecurity experts acknowledged the White House's
order with a combination of satisfaction and frustration. Alan Paller,
director of research for the SANS Institute, said the federal leadership and
implementation of pin and chip security is long overdue. John Pescatore,
director of emerging security trends for SANS, offered more details about why
the frustration. "It was over 16 years ago in Presidential Directive
Decision-63 where the White House said, ‘The federal government shall serve
as a model to the private sector on how infrastructure assurance is best
achieved and shall, to the extent feasible, distribute the results of its
endeavors.' Pushing government point of sale to chip and PIN is a good thing,
but of course doesn't do anything for online payments — only point of
sale," he said. "The bit about stronger authentication (building
public-private awareness about more secure authentication) is equally
important — moving away from reusable passwords would reduce identity theft
way more than chip and PIN will. The government hasn't been consistent on
this, since they've been pushing an obsolete Smart Card based solution
(HSPD-12) and have rejected less secure, but much more usable/feasible,
solutions like text messages as a second factor — such as Google, Paypal,
Microsoft and many others are using." As an aside, industry and government sources say momentum is
building to relook at the technology and policy guiding Homeland Security
Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12) smart identification cards. Remember the
policy is a decade old, and even though the National Institute of Standards
and Technology constantly is updating Federal Information Processing Standard
201, some experts say new approaches and technology require new thinking. In
the meantime, Obama's mandate begins to change the government and, therefore,
push the market to transform. The bulk of the work for the governmentwide
change will fall on the shoulders of the General Services Administration and
the Treasury Department. By Jan. 1, Treasury must develop a plan to for
agencies to install enabling software on payment processing hardware that
supports these enhanced security features. The department also by the same
date must ensure that any new payment processing hardware comes equipped with
these security features. The President also gave GSA and other agencies that
accept credit and other payment cards a Jan. 1 deadline to begin replacing
old cards with those that have the chip and PIN capabilities. OMB, the National Security Council staff and the Office of
Science and Technology Policy must give Obama a plan by Jan. 15 for how the
government will ensure all personal data accessible to citizens through
online services require the use of multi-factor authentication. Agencies then
will have roughly 15 months to implement that plan. The Retail Industry
Leaders Association applauded the White House order. "Today's
announcement should serve as a catalyst for widespread adoption of chip and
PIN card security," said RILA president Sandy Kennedy in a release.
"The antiquated card security system in place today in the Obama also called on Congress to take action to protect
consumers. "Today, data breaches are handled by dozens of separate state
laws, and it's time to have one clear national standard that brings certainty
to businesses and keeps consumers safe," he said. House lawmakers called
on the Senate to do something with cyber legislation. "Since 2011, the
House of Representatives has sent two cyber bills to the Senate, but the
Senate has thus far failed to take action," said Reps. Mike Rogers
(R-Mich.) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D- Md.), chairman and ranking member of
the Intelligence Committee, respectively, in a statement. "We urge the
Senate to move quickly on this issue to ensure the safety and security of all
Americans." From
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/
New
Cyber Doctrine Shows More Offense, Transparency The Pentagon this week published a doctrine that was unusually
candid about offensive scenarios in cyberspace, a transparency that experts
say could lead to an open and perhaps overdue policy debate. The document,
released internally by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in February 2013 and
publicly on Oct. 21, argues that the "growing reliance on cyberspace
around the globe requires carefully controlling OCO [offensive cyber
operations], requiring national level approval. This requires commanders to
remain cognizant of changes in national cyberspace policy and potential
impacts on operational authorities." The document also clearly defines
offensive cyber operations as those "intended to project power by the
application of force in and through cyberspace." The document is a
reference point for top brass in planning cyber operations, not something
that the budding force of thousands of military cyber specialists will draw
on in day-to-day work, if ever. Jay Healey, director of the Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft
Initiative, said the document was a welcome departure from past military
practice of over-classifying discussions of strategy. "Just think of ...
the problems of classification over the last 10 years. By completely classifying
' The newly released doctrine, banally named Joint Publication
3-12 (R), builds on a 2006 document known as the National Military Strategy
for Cyberspace Operations (NMS-CO), which then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Gen. Peter Pace described as the armed forces' "comprehensive strategic
approach for using cyberspace to assure U.S. military strategic superiority
in the domain." The NMS-CO touched on cyber offense, but another key
document, DOD's Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace (SOC), published in July
2011, made no mention of it at all. The day the Pentagon unveiled that
strategy, Gen. James Cartwright, then vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said
the U.S. approach to cyberspace was "too predictable" and lamented
the lack of an offensive strategy. There is no one authoritative document on In that sense, the newly released document could help bring
offensive cyber operations to the fore, Lee said. The doctrine is
"legitimizing that seat at the table, where you are absolutely going to
see offensive cyber operations used more often and more openly. I think
there's an argument to be made that it would be done anyway, but documents
like this that really firm it up add to the process," said Lee, who is
an active-duty Air Force cyber warfare operations officer. Codifying an
offensive cyber option builds it into the chain of command for military operations
like the ongoing one against the Islamic State of Iraq and From
http://fcw.com/
Freedom
of the Internet ‘Under Threat’ The inventor of the world wide web said he is fighting a growing
battle to keep the internet out of the hands of powerful people who threaten its
freedom. Tim Berners-Lee said he is up against big companies which want to
tweak laws to have “tremendous” control over the lives of web users. The
internet has come under increasing scrutiny surrounding privacy and
censorship following revelations of data gathering by government security
services across the world and the EU’s decision to allow individuals ask
search engines to remove links to information about them. However, he denied
his creation, now 25 years old, has been tainted by ever- evolving obstacles,
from spying to child pornography, describing it as a “neutral platform” which
reflects all aspects of humanity. The London-born computer scientist, 59, has
been marking the quarter-century of the revolution he started by campaigning
for an online ‘Magna Carta’ of rules which would enshrine the independence of
the internet and its users’ privacy. “It has got so big that if a company can control your access to
the internet, if they can control which websites they go to, then they have
tremendous control over your life,” he said. “If they can spy on what you’re
doing they can understand a huge amount about you and similarly if a
Government can block you going to, for example, the opposition’s political
pages, then they can give you a blinkered view of reality to keep themselves
in power and if they can spy on you and find out the people who are really
serious dissidents then they can round you up and put you in jail. “So
suddenly the power to abuse the open internet has become so tempting both for
government and big companies. “There have been lots of times that it has been abused so now
the Magna Carta is about saying everybody using the web take this year to
stand up and say I want a web where I’m not spied on, where there’s no
censorship. “Generally, everybody feels like that openness is really
important, the only people who are pushing back are the lawyers in the big
companies who realise that if they can make a play to take over control, that
it will be so valuable that it’s worth them spending a lot of money trying to
tweak the laws to allow loopholes which will allow them to start abusing
people.” Berners-Lee attended the Web We Want Festival at From
http://www.irishexaminer.com/
Public
Perceptions of Privacy and Security A new survey finds Americans’ perceptions of privacy are varied
and reflect a wide array of concerns connected to government surveillance and
commercial use of personal data. A majority of adults feel their privacy is
being challenged along such core dimensions as the security of their personal
information and their ability to retain confidentiality. Key findings include: 80% of adults “agree” or “strongly agree” that Americans should
be concerned about the government’s monitoring of phone calls and internet
communications. 43% of adults in the survey have heard “a lot” about “the
government collecting information about telephone calls, emails and other
online communications as part of efforts to monitor terrorist activity,” and
another 44% have heard “a little.” Only 36% “agree” or “strongly agree” with
the statement: “It is a good thing for society if people believe that someone
is keeping an eye on the things that they do online.” At the same time, the
survey finds a universal lack of confidence among adults in the security of
everyday communications channels—particularly when it comes to the use of online tools. From
http://www.pewinternet.org/
New Tool for
Spy Victims to Detect Government Surveillance A new tool to enable journalists and human rights defenders to
scan their computers for known surveillance spyware has been released today
by Amnesty International and a coalition of human rights and technology
organizations. Detekt is the first tool to be made available to the public
that detects major known surveillance spyware, some of which is used by
governments, in computers. “Governments are increasingly using dangerous and
sophisticated technology that allows them to read activists and journalists’
private emails and remotely turn on their computer’s camera or microphone to
secretly record their activities. They use the technology in a cowardly
attempt to prevent abuses from being exposed,” said Marek Marczynski, Head of
Military, Security and Police at Amnesty International. “Detekt is a simple
tool that will alert activists to such intrusions so they can take action. It
represents a strike back against governments who are using information
obtained through surveillance to arbitrarily detain, illegally arrest and
even torture human rights defenders and journalists.” Developed by security researcher Claudio Guarnieri, Detekt is
being launched in partnership with Amnesty International, Digitale
Gesellschaft, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy International. The
adoption and trade in communication surveillance technologies has grown
exponentially in recent years. The Coalition Against Unlawful Surveillance
Exports, of which Amnesty International is a member, estimates the annual
global trade in surveillance technologies to be worth US$5 billion, and
growing. Some surveillance technology is widely available on the internet;
while other more sophisticated alternatives are developed by private
companies based in developed countries and sold to state law enforcement and
intelligence agencies in countries that persistently commit human rights
violations. FinFisher, a German firm that used to be part of UK-based Gamma
International, developed the spyware FinSpy which can be used to monitor
Skype conversations, extract files from hard drives, record microphone use
and emails, and even take screenshots and photos using a device’s camera.
According to research carried out by Citizen Lab and information published by
Wikileaks, Finfisher was used to spy on prominent human rights lawyers and
activists in Amnesty International is urging governments to establish strict
trade controls requiring national authorities to assess the risk that the
surveillance equipment would be used to violate human rights before
authorizing the transfer. “Detekt is a great tool which can help activists stay
safe but ultimately, the only way to prevent these technologies from being
used to violate or abuse human rights is to establish and enforce strict
controls on their use and trade," said Marek Marczynski. Amnesty
International will use its networks to help activists across the world learn
about Detekt and scan their devices for signs of spyware. It will also engage
in testing with its local partners and networks who are considered at
high-risk of being targeted by such spyware. From
http://www.amnesty.org/
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More than 100 Chinese websites on Thursday publicized hotlines
for public reports of online abuse and rumormongering, as authorities ramp up
a drive to manage the Internet.Gathered at a work conference, the heads of
the 107 websites, including people.com.cn, xinhuanet.com, sina.com,
baidu.com, also signed a letter of commitment, promising to deal in a timely
manner with illegal information such as rumors, pornography and violent
content.In cases where web users maliciously spread such information, the
websites will report them to law enforcement departments. They also welcome
supervision from the public, they agreed.Peng Bo, deputy director of the
State Internet Information Office, said that 680,000 cases of illegal online
information have been reported this year to net.china.com.cn, a website
mainly for receiving tip-offs, and more than 800 informants have given
rewards. Some 9,000 of the cases were related to violence and terrorism.China
has made a series of attempts to clean up cyberspace, including shutting down
disagreeable accounts on Twitter-like Weibo and instant massaging platform
WeChat. From http://www.news.cn/
Security Risks Found in
Half of Govt Websites As an increasing number of government organizations embrace the
digital age by going online, website security for their domains are at high
risk for cyber attacks, a survey by the National Computer Virus Emergency
Response Center has discovered.The center found that 1,367 of the 2,714
government websites surveyed in 2013, or 50.4 percent of the total, contained
security vulnerabilities.More than 21,000 security risks were discovered
among government websites, with malware such as trojan horses, phishing
plug-ins and theft of user information being the top culprits.The survey also
found many government websites are poorly coded, leaving loopholes that
easily compromise the site. In many cases, basic protection measures such as
firewalls and anti-virus software were no where to be seen. A Thursday report from China Youth Daily said hacking attacks on
Chinese government websites are on the rise.In August, the official website
of Longshan County government in Hunan Province was paralyzed by a hacker,
who was brazen enough to leave a domain name as a form of calling card after
the attack. In 2013, a county-level government website in Anhui Province had
gambling advertisements forcibly coded into the site.Also in 2013, a local
government website in northeast China's Liaoning Province had to shut down
after it automatically redirected to a pornographic website.The report said
government websites were launched only because local officials were ordered
to and they don't have the motivation or resources to improve the daily
operation of the website. From http://www.news.cn/
Chinese government plans to clean up internet pop-up windows
that contain pornographic and illegal content, the Cyberspace Administration
of China (CAC) said on Wednesday.The announcement to clean up pop-ups came
after a meeting between CAC,the Ministry of Industry and Information
Technology, and the State Administration for Industry & Commerce
concluded in Beijing on Wednesday.One of the primary methods of spreading
harmful content online, pop-up windows regularly contain pornography and
computer viruses, according to an unidentified official with the CAC.Slated
to start in the near future, authorities will push operators to edit and
supervise the contents of pop-up windows on their websites, a statement
issued following the meeting said. A stricter protocol will also be imposed for operators
installing pop-ups. They are banned from using the method to advertise
without the consent of users and users should be able to close these windows
by one click.Operators are also urged not to install "too many" as
to avoid souring the users experience. The statement, however, did not define
what was "too many".According to the CAC, 1,200 commonly used
programs or websites have installed pop-up advertisements and about 500 of
them pop up more than 1,000 advertisements daily.The CAC welcomes the public
to tip off malpractice regarding pop-up windows, the statement said. From http://www.news.cn/
Wanted: Good Guys Who
Can Hack Like Internet Criminals China needs to build a world-class "white-hat hacker"
team to protect Internet security, according to Zhou Hongyi, chief executive
of Qihoo 360 Technology Co.Zhou made the assertion at a technology forum on
Wednesday in Beijing."The rapidly expanding Internet industry badly
needs protection by security experts who can attack like real hackers.
Experienced white-hat hackers who can think out of the box are
required," Zhou said.White-hat hackers -- the good guys, or ethical
hackers -- break Web security for nonmalicious reasons, usually to help
companies or governments test their security vulnerabilities.Zhou pledged to
hold hacker competitions at Chinese universities in 2015 to find future
talent for the industry.China’s slowly growing white-hat community isn’t
keeping up with the Internet explosion on the market. Experts say that
because commercial security companies serve only paid enterprise customers,
many security breaches are left unattended on the networks of key
organizations such as government agencies, State-owned enterprises and sometimes
the military. Websites operated by government and financial institutions
attract most of the attacks, according to the National Computer Network
Emergency Response Technical Coordination Center, a nonprofit cybersecurity
technical provider.Up to 85 percent of the backdoor attacks targeting servers
and websites came from hackers outside China, according to the organization.A
weak talent reserve in the cybersecurity sector will hurt China’s information
safety in the long run, warned Yun Xiaochun, chief engineer at the
coordination center."The talent supply is far weaker than demand in the
industry. Most of the top-tier security personnel were recruited by overseas
companies, leaving the domestic market even more talent-hungry," Yun
said. Some security experts ended up in the underground hacking business to
make more money, he added.Chinese cybersecurity experts have only two career
options, according to an IT security employee working for an Internet company
in Industry insiders said weak investment in security was the major
reason some opt to become real hackers.According to a report from industry
researcher IDC, less than 1 percent of the total IT investment in From http://www.news.cn/
China's central military authority has issued guidelines to
enhance management of military information and severely crack down on illegal
online activities involving military affairs, a military newspaper said
Wednesday.The circular was issued by the Central Military Commission (CMC) to
strengthen military information security of the Chinese People's Liberation
Army (PLA) and armed police, according to the PLA Daily.The CMC ordered all
PLA forces to standardize management of military information, conduct risk
assessment and protect the information in accordance with security
hierarchies.Efforts should also be made to promote domestically developed
information infrastructure, including Chinese produced software, to innovate
and improve information security defense, and offer personnel support for
information management, the circular said.The CMC urged unswerving efforts to
safeguard "ideological security" online and crackdown on illegal
online activities, such as leaks, involving military affairs.Comprehensive
management and control measures should be carried out to ensure security of
important personnel, core data and key devices, the guidelines said.Calling
increased information security "a bottom-line project" for
improving combat readiness, the document said pragmatic measures should be
adopted to solve conflicts and important problems. From http://www.news.cn/
Beijing police have detained more than 30,000 people in the past
three years in crackdowns against Internet crime.The Beijing Public Security
Bureau has launched several campaigns since 2011, targeting online offenses,
maintaining cyber security and cleaning up the Internet environment,
according to a statement on Wednesday.Last year, the police in the capital
arrested more than 23,000 people on suspicion of Internet crimes, six times
the number in 2011, the authority said. From http://www.news.cn/
Official Warns An official with Peng revealed China is planning to draft or enact a series of
laws and regulations related to cyberspace administration, including
legislation regarding telecommunication, cyberspace security, e-commerce and
personal information protection as well as a regulation on minor protection
in cyberspace.Figures from the China Internet Network Information Center
showed that China's netizen population reached 632 million by the end of
June, and mobile Internet users has totaled 527 million.Peng said the mobile
Internet is developing at an unprecedented speed and involved in almost every
part of ordinary people's lives.It has also generated problems such as spam,
privacy infringement and security concerns which must not be neglected, he
saidPeng urged implementation of requirements on rule of law in a key
decision approved at a recent meeting of the Communist Party of China in the
cyberspace administration.Representatives of major Chinese mobile Internet
operators, including news websites, mobile application stores, microblogging
and mobile messaging service providers, attended the conference. From http://www.news.cn/
Faster Pace Set in Bid
to Protect Internet Work on drawing up laws on Internet security in China is being
accelerated in an attempt to improve protection and prevent online threats,
the nation's top cyberspace watchdog said on Wednesday.The country already
has a series of rules covering the Internet, but some should be upgraded to
laws to effectively regulate the online environment and resist cyberattacks,
the Cyberspace Administration of China said.Latest statistics from the
country's network monitoring center show that by the end of October, more
than 8.79 million Chinese computers had been infected or controlled by online
threats, such as Trojans and botnets.Of the computers attacked, 8.61 million
received threats originating from servers in foreign countries or regions,
according to the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team
and Coordination Center of China.Although the number of computers infected in
China has fallen since last year, lawmaking related to cyberspace, especially
online security, should be speeded up, said Lu Wei, director of the
administration. The quality of some cyberspace laws is low, while some are hard
to enforce, which means lawmakers should improve such laws or revise them, Lu
said.Nearly 30 Internet and legal experts took part in a seminar on Wednesday
and called for the government to put forward a plan for lawmaking in
cyberspace.Zhou Hongren, deputy director of the Advisory Committee for State
Informatization, said, "Attention wasn't paid to legislation relating to
the Internet until China received some serious online threats recently, but
as we aimed to solve problems in cyberspace, we found laws hard to come
by."We have some judicial interpretations covering the Internet, but
they are far from sufficient," he said.Zhou also said there is a lack of
Internet and legal professionals in China studying international conventions
on cyberspace."It's good for us to learn from the lawmaking experiences
of foreign countries to avoid our legislation becoming out of date," he
said, adding that he hopes Internet-related laws can be introduced within
five years.However, Gong Shiyou, an official at the State Council Legislative
Affairs Office, said caution is needed when laws are made, especially those
involving cyberspace. "The legislation must be accurate and of high quality. We
must ensure that every law is useful and practical," Gong said.He said
some bad online behavior can be regulated under the current laws, adding that
legislative power should not be abused.Yang Chunyan, deputy director of the administration's
cybersecurity bureau, said efforts are being made to push laws covering
cyberspace with the cooperation of the legislature, adding that China
Cybersecurity Week will be held from Nov 24 to 30."We'll invite more
than 30 Internet specialists to share cybersecurity knowledge with residents
and simulate online attacks during that week."This will include how
hackers steal personal information and defraud people by installing viruses
on users' smartphone apps," Yang said. By June, the number of Internet
users in From http://www.news.cn/
The number of cyber-attacks directed at government organizations
has been increasing at an alarming rate. In some cases, information related
to such fields as space development has been stolen. The government must do
everything it can do to strengthen protection measures against
cyberattacks. According to an
annual report the government released last month, there were 5.08 million
cases of illegal access to government organizations’ computer networks in
fiscal 2013. This figure is five times the level in the previous fiscal
year. A majority of the cases are
considered to be cyber-attacks aimed at stealing important government
information. Many are believed to have come from abroad, from places such as Such attacks plant computer viruses on specific websites, and
infect the networks of targeted organizations only when the organizations’
staff browse the tainted websites. APT attacks have also been spreading to include
independent administrative institutions, or government-affiliated research
institutes, especially those relating to space exploration and nuclear power
studies. This is a profoundly serious situation. In 2011, the In May this year, the U.S. Justice Department indicted five
Chinese military officers on charges of hacking These steps have been incorporated into a cyber-attack
countermeasures bill that was jointly submitted to the latest ordinary Diet
session by the ruling coalition parties of the Liberal Democratic Party and
New Komeito, as well as the Democratic Party of Japan and other opposition
parties. The envisioned legislation should be enacted swiftly in the
forthcoming extraordinary session of the legislature this autumn. Cyber-attacks targeted at companies
that are vitally important to the nation’s economic activities, such as those
in the financial and power generation sectors, have also been surging. From
http://the-japan-news.com
Japanese entertainment giant Sony said Monday its online music and
gaming sites came under a cyber attack by a hacker group that also claimed
there were explosives on a plane carrying a senior company executive. The
company said a From
http://news.yahoo.com
Benesse
Data Safety Measures Insufficient: METI The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry says Benesse Corp.
has not worked out adequate measures to ensure the safety of customer data
from leakage or theft. METI on Friday rejected Benesse’s report on steps to
prevent massive customer data leaks, such as the incident that shook the
company this summer. The Benesse Holdings Inc. affiliate concerned was given
until Oct. 24 to craft, implement and report back to the ministry on measures
to protect the personal information of customers. After receiving the
ministry’s instructions, Benesse Corp. President Hitoshi Kobayashi said, “We
will take them seriously and strive to make improvements.” At a news
conference Friday, Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yuko Obuchi said,
“It’s very regrettable that personal information on customers, including
small children and elementary and junior high school students, leaked out.”
She urged Benesse to work hard in taking preventive steps. In a scandal that
came to light in July, some 35.04 million Benesse customers saw their
personal data leaked to name-list brokers, including names and addresses. The
data were stolen by a former employee of a company that managed data systems
for Benesse. On Sept. 17, Benesse submitted a report to the METI pledging to
take preventive steps, such as setting up a new customer data management firm
jointly with an information security company. Also in the report, Benesse said a new executive post in charge
of data management will be created at the parent company. However, METI noted
that the subsidiary will not have any such post even though it, rather than
the parent company, will deal directly with the planned data management
entity. Benesse’s measures are not clear in some aspects regarding the scope
of authority and the loci of responsibility among executives, the ministry
also said. METI said Benesse should also be clear as to when some measures
will be taken, such as reducing the range of people authorized to access to
Benesse’s customer data. In response to the Benesse case, METI released a
draft revision of its guidelines for the protection of personal information
held by companies. The draft calls for establishing reinforced data
management systems that also cover subcontractors, creating executive posts
for data management, and refraining from using personal information that may
have been acquired illegally. The ministry hopes to implement the guidelines
as early as November after a period of public comment. From
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
U.S.-Japan
Defense Industry Cyber Cooperation While From
http://www.heritage.org/
Governance
Advocates See Crowd-Sourcing as Way to Fix Internet Ills Responding to a dizzying array of issues that threaten to break the
Internet, from privacy to tax dodging to cybercrime, a group of the world’s
leading governance organisations say greater user involvement, not top-down
control, is needed. Three organisations—Brazil’s Internet Steering Committee
(CGI.br), Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the
World Economic Forum (WEF)—say they are setting up a new group to find
solutions to Internet governance issues, instead of waiting for governments
to agree. NETmundial, as the group will be known, will map out best practices
for resolving complex problems, ranging from online privacy to Internet
taxation, security and child protection. The group plans to turn to the
Internet’s own models of crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding that power web
institutions such as Wikipedia to turn decade-old debates among top
international technical organizations into action plans. “Current governance
processes are deeply challenged by the transnational nature of the Internet
and the speed at which it moves,” ICAAN Chief Executive Fadi Chehadé said in
an interview. ICANN is a global body that manages the Internet address
system. The border-hopping nature of the Internet can be summed up by
the example of a It aims to share ideas with organizations around the world,
especially in developing nations, where Internet expertise remains scarce. “The
issue list is long: Many solutions exist and sometimes, where there are no
solutions, NETmundial will coalesce to help create solutions from the bottom
up,” said Chehade of plans to encourage greater public and private
involvement in the issues. NETmundial grew out of a conference of the same
name held in “There is a need to discuss these non-technical issues not only
by governments but also by involving different stakeholders,” Virgílio A.F.
Almeida, This bottom-up approach is one of many projects underway to
develop more effective forms of Internet governance. It coincides with a
separate but related effort to internationalise control of Internet naming
functions, which ICANN has run since 1998 under a contract with the U.S.
Commerce Department. NETmundial will be run by a 25-member coordination
council with decisions made by rough consensus rather than voting. Twenty
members will be drawn from five separate regions. In each region,
representatives from government, business, the civil sector and the academic
technical community will be chosen. As NETmundial’s conveners, From
http://www.japantoday.com
The heated controversy in From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
Personal
Data of 7.45 Mln Pandora TV Users Exposed to Hackers From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
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A surgeon here has come up with a "map" that can
reduce the risks and duration of a common early-stage breast cancer surgery.
In such surgery, or a sentinel lymph node biopsy, doctors remove the body
structures that cancer cells are most likely to spread to. Dr Ong Kong Wee,
head of SingHealth Duke-NUS Breast Centre, has identified the positions of
these structures, known as sentinel lymph nodes, within the patient's armpit.
This saves time and cuts the risk of accidentally cutting nerves and blood
vessels. For if doctors do not know where the nodes are, said Dr Ong, they
might make more incisions. "This means an increased risk of cutting
through essential structures like nerves," said the senior consultant at
the National Cancer Centre Currently, two main methods are used to locate the sentinel
lymph nodes. One uses radioactive tools with blue dye to locate these and is
95 per cent accurate. While these tools are a better guide, their use costs
about S$600 (US$474.22) to S$800 (US$632.30) for patients and requires
special facilities. A second method, costing about $20, involves injecting
the blue dye into the breast and allowing it to travel to the lymph
nodes. Doctors then dissect the
armpit to find the lymph nodes dyed blue and remove them. Dr Ong's "map"- a diagram of
the internal structure of the armpit that identifies the sentinel lymph nodes
- could boost the use of the second method as surgeons will know where to
find the nodes and can remove them in a few minutes. "Hopefully more will
adopt this cheaper method to benefit their patients," he said. Only half
of breast cancer surgeons here use the cheaper pure blue dye method, he
estimated. Dr Ong's work would
help younger surgeons learn the blue dye method faster, said senior consultant
Chan Ching Wan at From
http://www.asianewsnet.net/
The From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has banned
seven websites for breaking the law. One of the seven websites,
tuvantamly.edu.vn, owned by Truong Trung Kien, was providing illegal
information via a social network. The MIC's Authority of Broadcasting and
Electronic Information had also imposed fines recently on websites that
posted a controversial story, entitled "If I had a son, I would forbid
him from loving a girl coming from Hai Phong." The authority had termed
the story as a violation of the law and a threat to national unification, and
imposed fines of VND 50 million (US$2,800) on Megafun and VND 10 million
($476) on Baomoi for posting it. However, the story was again published on
the website angiang.vnpt.vn, which is managed by VNPT An Giang, on October
29. MIC has requested the An Giang Department of Information and
Communications to check and deal with the case. In addition, another website
cab.vn, owned by an From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has signalled the
policy direction and future roadmap in many sectors. It has announced a
comprehensive Digital India initiative that would cater to digital
infrastructure capacity building, governance and services on demand and
digital empowerment of citizens. What remains untouched is the approach to
internet governance position and regime.The realisation of Digital India will
happen through the media of internet and its availability and, hence, have a
significant impact on the direction that the global internet g overnance
deliberations take. To realise Indian Talent (IT) + Information Technology (IT)
= India Tomorrow (IT), Hopefully, this would be done at the ITU Plenipotentiary meet in
October at In March this year, when the At the Brics summit in Hopefully, this would be done at the ITU Plenipotentiary meet in
October at In March this year, when the From
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/ Phone
Hacking Scheme Used to Finance Mumbai Attack: NYT But catching the criminals is difficult because the crime can
cross as many as three jurisdictions, the Times said. In one case cited by
the daily, hackers targeted the phone system of an architecture firm in From
http://www.siliconindia.com/ Most Cyber
Attacks on The National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) Director
said that foreign countries are investing heavily in cyber espionage to
gather crucial data and From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ |
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Work on the launch of online copyright protection system in From
http://en.trend.az/
Nakhchivan
to Host CIS Countries’ Discussions on Industrial Security The Azerbaijani city of From
http://en.trend.az/
The State Committee on Standardization, Metrology and Patents of
Azerbaijan is to hold in October an international conference on the use of
information technology standards and security. The Committee informs that the
event will be held by the From
http://news.az/ Special
Attention Needs to Be Paid to Cyber Protection of Critical Energy
Infrastructure NATO Advanced Research Workshop "Strengthening Cyber
Defense for Critical Infrastructure" under the NATO Science for Peace
and Security Program started in From
http://en.trend.az/
He also confirmed Iranian companies’ participation in the
exhibition, the achievements to be exhibited in From
http://en.trend.az/ From
http://en.trend.az/ Kazakh
President Calls on CIS Security Agencies to Cooperate Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev met Nov. 5 with
participants of the 37th session of the Council of Heads of National Security
Enforcement Agencies and Special Services of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS), the Kazakh presidential palace, the Akorda, said. During the meeting Nazarbayev called
on the session participants to cooperate. “We see new challenges and
intensification of terrorist organizations. In these circumstances, the
coordination of the work of national security agencies and special services
is very important,” the president said. The meeting mulled the issues of
strengthening cooperation of the security agencies and special services in
the CIS, as well as the fight against terrorism and extremism. During the
meeting, the Kazakh president pointed to the importance of the work of these
bodies in the present conditions. He also said that in terms of the Customs
Union’s activity, the security issues become particularly topical. “In this
regard, your joint work and provision of an effective data support to each
other are invaluable,” the president said. Nazarbayev also said the respect
towards equal rights of all persons, as well as the sustainable social and
economic development serve as the basis for a secure and stable society. “Now
we feel the approach of new challenges related to the difficulties in the
global economy and the developments surrounding the situation in From
http://en.trend.az/ Following the blocking of a large number of websites and social
media platforms in From
http://en.trend.az/ The activities of CIS have always complied with the principles
of equality, mutual respect, good neighborhood and goodwill of all member
states, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said while speaking at
the meeting of CIS Council of Heads of States in From
http://en.trend.az/ |
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The Australian
Government has published draft clauses to be included in all services
contracts to ensure that suppliers meet high cyber security and data
protection standards. In a recent blog post, the Australian Department of
Finance announced that it has drafted model contract clauses in consultation
with Attorney General’s Department and Department of Defence. The clauses
apply to contractors and their subcontractors, and are intended to “define
service providers’ responsibilities in order to manage cyber security risks,”
the blog post said. The new rules will “increase the visibility of cyber
incidents,” and “provide clear contractual arrangements for safeguarding
data,” it added. The new requirements ensure that contractors flag cyber
incidents in writing with agencies no longer than 12 hours after it has
occurred. Suppliers also must obtain and protect evidence about how, when and
by whom the information system was accessed for up to 12 months after the
incident. The clauses
also ensure that suppliers take steps to preserve and protect agency data
“including as necessary reverting to any backup or alternative site or taking
other action to recover customer data,” the draft document states.
Contractors also must develop a Commonwealth Data Protection Plan to clarify
all rules and steps that must be taken to protect public sector data. This
plan must be consistent with government privacy rules, specifically deal with
cybercrime risks and set out the steps and processes that the contractor and
customer will follow to protect the customer data from unauthorised access,
use, misuse, destruction or loss. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Australian Human Services Improving Cybersecurity
Following Audit Report From http://www.futuregov.asia
E-Voting Out of the Picture Due to Security,
Cost Concerns A
parliamentary committee in Instead, the
committee suggested that From http://www.futuregov.asia
Cyber
attacks might be taking a toll now, but a survey of experts says things are
likely to get even worse over the next decade. A majority of cybersecurity
experts surveyed in a poll see a likelihood of major damage from a cyber
attack in the coming years. From the 1600 experts polled, 61 per cent
answered "yes" to the question: "By 2025, will a major cyber attack
have caused widespread harm to a nation's security and capacity to defend
itself and its people?" "Widespread harm", the survey
explained, would mean significant loss of life or property losses, damage,
theft of tens of billions of dollars. "There was considerable agreement
among these experts that individuals could be more vulnerable and businesses
could persistently be under attack," said Lee Rainie, a co-author of the
report and director of the Pew Research Centre's Internet Project. "They
said essential utilities are a vulnerable target and theft and economic
disruptions could be substantial." The remaining 39 per cent surveyed
said major damage from a cyber attack could be avoided. "Some
confidently pointed out that the threat of counterattack might deter the worst,"
said Janna Anderson of From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
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EUROPE:
Norwegian writer Mette Newth once wrote that: “censorship has
followed the free expressions of men and women like a shadow throughout
history.” As we develop new means to gather and create information, new means
to control, erase and censor that information evolve alongside it. Today that
means access to information through the internet, which motivates us to study
internet censorship. Organisations such as Reporters Without Borders, Freedom
House, or the Open Net Initiative periodically report on the extent of
censorship worldwide. But as countries that are fond of censorship are not
particularly keen to share details, we must resort to probing filtered
networks, that is, generating requests from within them to see what gets
blocked and what gets through. We cannot hope to record all the possible
censorship-triggering events, so our understanding of what is or isn’t
acceptable to the censor will only ever be partial. And of course it’s risky,
even outright illegal, to probe the censor’s limits within countries with
strict censorship and surveillance programs. This is why the leak of 600GB of logs from hardware appliances
used to filter internet traffic in and out of Inside a censor’s mind At the recent ACM Internet Measurement Conference we presented
our paper detailing the relatively stealthy but targeted censorship system
that we’d found from examining the logs. Internet traffic in The appliances were sometimes misconfigured, meaning the filter
caused some collateral damage – for instance, all requests with the keyword
“proxy” were blocked, probably in an effort to curb the use of censorship-evading
proxies, but this also had the effect of blocking adverts and certain
plug-ins that had no relation to banned content. We found that Syrian users
did try to get around the filters, using tools such as Tor, or virtual
private networks (encrypted tunnels between two computers using the public
internet), and that these were fairly effective. We also noticed that some
tools not necessarily designed with circumventing censorship in mind could
also be used to access blocked content – for example using peer-to-peer
programs such as BitTorrent to download blocked software (such as Skype) and
using Google Cache to access (over HTTPS) cached and mirrored versions of
blocked web pages. Avoiding the censor’s knife What emerges is the importance of encrypting web traffic by
using secure (HTTPS) rather than standard (HTTP) web browsing. Many requests
caught by the filter were only possible because keywords in the content of
unencrypted network traffic could be read by the appliances. If traffic is
encrypted, the page requested from the target domain, or a specific keyword
in the request are not accessible. Through their efforts to enforce HTTPS by
default, providers like Google and Facebook are taking steps in the right
direction. They also serve a double purpose: protecting users’ privacy
against mass-surveillance, while also making it harder to implement
fine-grained censorship policies. We did consider that our work might help organisations on both
sides of the censorship line. But we decided to publish because we believe
that evidence-based analysis of censorship practices can help understand the
underlying technologies, policies, strengths and weaknesses – and can inform
the design of tools designed to evade the censor’s knife. While Western
countries rely on export regulations and sanctions to restrict the worldwide
availability of surveillance and censorship technologies – while apparently
deploying them for their own use, as the Snowden files have revealed – it is
time we had an open debate about their effectiveness and what can be done to
limit their proliferation. Emiliano De Cristofaro does not work for, consult
to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that
would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations. From
http://mybroadband.co.za/
A seemingly independent panel with authority over domain name
system overseer ICANN has been proposed in a new (The IANA group provides the glue keeping the internet
together.) In short, the oversight panel will be filled with people from
within the ICANN world, if it's ever created. No officials from governments,
Russian, Chinese, American or otherwise, will be allowed to join. This panel
would be given the power to "review and to veto changes to the domain
name system proposed by ICANN that the Panel considers to threaten freedom of
expression, the openness, stability, resiliency, or security of the internet,
responsiveness to the user community, or other commitments undertake by
ICANN." Its veto would be "final and will not be subject to the
override by any director or officer of ICANN." Meanwhile, the "IANA
Consortium" would be a "private, non-profit corporation that is
financed and managed by the top-level domain registries and not by
ICANN." The proposed legislation also lays out the requirement of an
independent inspector general, an annual audit, adherence to freedom of
information laws that apply to government, term limits for senior officers,
and possibly public access to board meetings and related materials. After
introducing the bill, Kelley said: "The requirements will guarantee that
the internet remains unchained and out of the grasp of bad actors and hostile
powers that actively limit freedom." What this all means The reason for the act is that the Obama Administration
announced earlier this year that the US government will let go of the IANA
contract, leaving ICANN to more or less run the whole shebang. IANA, which is
part of ICANN, acts as a central pillar around which the rest of the internet
binds, and acts as the net's main address book, if you will, among other
things. Since about 2000, Uncle Sam has paid ICANN to operate IANA, and in
2015 it will leave ICANN to its own devices. The Since ICANN has been the only holder of the IANA contract since
its creation, the assumption is that the body will continue to be run by
ICANN, but without the backstop of the Binding ICANN and the NTIA The US Congress is not happy about the process, and so this
Defending Internet Freedom Act is an effort to reassert its authority. The
legislation is designed to force the Department of Commerce's National
Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) into not releasing
the IANA contract unless certain conditions are met. The act will not make it
into law given the time remaining in the current session of Congress, but it
will likely serve as placeholder legislation for a Republican-run Congress to
pick up in the new year. As for the contents of the bill, many behind the
scenes of the internet will applaud its contents (even if it does very
closely mirror a paper put out by right-wing think tank The Heritage
Foundation back in June). The ICANN sub-group meeting to discuss the IANA contract this
week will mull over five straw man proposals, all of which resemble the IANA
Consortium idea put forward by the law bill. As for the idea of an oversight
committee, there have been persistent calls for such a panel that would have
to power to veto ICANN board decisions – something that ICANN's staff and
board have resisted for over a decade. The additional accountability and
transparency proposals in the act also closely align with proposals that have
been put forward by the internet community through five different reviews
stretching back eight years. Many will be unhappy with the idea of the US
Congress asserting its authority when they feel the global internet community
should be in charge of deciding changes. But if the Republicans reintroduce
the legislation and if it keeps in close alignment with internet community's
deliberations, an act that passes would have one very clear advantage: it
would legally bind the NTIA and ICANN to carry out what it contains. For more
than a decade, ICANN has proved surprisingly adept at agreeing to changes to
its own accountability only to drop them at a later date. From
http://www.theregister.co.uk/
But while they have similar goals to other leaders globally,
survey suggests CIOs here need to help their organizations do more on cloud.
Along with their counterparts around the world, Canadian CIOs are
transitioning to a new era of enterprise IT. In this era of digitization CIOs
must build digital leadership and bimodal capability, while renovating the
core of IT and capability for the digital future. Gartner Executive Program’s
annual survey of more than 2,300 IT leaders worldwide revealed that while the
top technology areas of focus for Canadian survey respondents largely match
those of CIOs globally, there are variations in priorities. The top five
technology focus topics for Canadian organizations essentially map the global
topics – comprising BI/analytics, ERP, mobile, infrastructure and data centre
and cloud. However, reviewing the balance of the list of technology
priorities a more interesting set of variations become apparent between
Canadian and global responses. Although security holds a similar mid-level ranking in both sets
of data, Canadian responses show a higher priority on legacy modernization
and industry-specific applications. Given the stronger influence of public
sector in the environment, and the legislated privacy protection at both federal
and provincial levels, the emphasis on security is understandable. As a
result, this security-focused environment elevates the interest and resources
dedicated to examining cloud offerings to look for those limited
opportunities or advantages. The influence of federal government on the IT
environment is also being felt, resulting from a recommendation of the
auditor general three years ago to focus on legacy modernization. The
positioning of digitization/digital marketing near the end of the Canadian list
of priorities, combined with the higher ranking of legacy modernization and
industry-specific applications, indicates the focus on maintaining stability
in the IT environment. This emphasis would also help to explain the appearance of
business process management/improvement in the Canadian top 12 list as
organizations evaluate their business delivery processes in pursuit of legacy
modernization. When considered along with the increased emphasis on growth
and innovation, it appears Canadian organizations view a stable and
sustainable environment as key criteria for growth and moving into a digital
environment. The survey also shows that As Canadian organizations adjust policies and risk practices to
accommodate the USA Patriot Act, it will become easier for them to move into
the public cloud environment. The Canadian government developing a
cloud-first policy in the near future would facilitate this direction. The
Canadian survey responses on sourcing closely match the general global
responses. The majority of organizations report a mixed model of internal and
external sourcing, with a strong proportion indicating mainly insourced and a
smaller number of organizations mainly outsourced. Similarly, Canadian
strategies for sourcing are in keeping with global direction, with close to
60 per cent of respondents indicating they will be increasing sourcing activities.
The tight IT labor market in The bottom line is that a strong Canadian economy has provided
Canadian organizations with a competitive advantage globally, placing From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
Building
Connected Networks Is the Most Important Skill of the 21st Century The most important skill we need to develop for the 21st century
is our ability to build strong partnerships. At the core of this is our
relationships. Industry lines are blurring. We no longer know what industry
Google, for example, is in. Does Netflix have a great distribution model or
is it an award winning content creator? The organizations that are
re-inventing themselves are the ones that are moving to the edges with
purpose. They also know how to create streamlined two-way communication
internally and externally. They value dialogue and understand that people are
at the center of everything. The currency is trust, which leads to strong
partnerships. A connected network knows no boundaries as it enables people
internally and externally to connect around purpose and common needs and
interests. It surpasses organizational hierarchies to connect people to each
other and to ideas. In the 21st century, leaders moved from seeing a world of
scarcity where they needed to compete to one of abundance where they can
create new markets. Possibilities and opportunities are available to those
who understand that the world is open and that social media is just a bunch
of tools that help us reach people in more direct ways. They understand how
to use video, for example, as a strategic tool to build thriving
relationships and ultimately, partnerships anywhere in the world. These
leaders know how to arm their business with the most valuable technologies to
reach their goals. They never lead with technology. Connected Network What is a connected network? Imagine that you were able to connect people around areas of
interest and they were able to solve issues together. In most organizations,
people know the people they work with and few have vast networks that span a
large organization. Of course, smaller companies can innovate faster because
they are nimble in terms of size and also they don’t have to reach consensus
and fill a massive amount of templates to get work done. They can have
conversations with the right people at the right time. But they, like large
organizations, don’t always focus on how to streamline their work through
robust internal and external connections. What are we connecting? Too many organizations are using 20th century practices to run a
21st century organization and the cracks are starting to show. Hierarchies
play a role, as organizations do need structure and processes, and at the
same time, the world has opened up and can connect with anyone anywhere. I
started my day with a quick chat with a musician in There are three elements to building a thriving connected
network: 1) Connections: Enabling the right people at the right time to connect
on specific issues. There are people who define themselves as connectors who
know how to look inside their network and connect people at the right time.
They often get out of the middle and let these connections build and continue
to grow the network. Ask yourself how can connections leverage existing
networks to grow your business? How do you build a trusted network and then
grow it with people who can help you meet your goals. 2) Conversations: When the right people can connect over a
specific need, they engage in a two-way conversation. The shift is from
meetings to engaging conversations around understanding and addressing
issues. In a connected network, people know who to bring into the
conversation at the right time to drive it further. In a business,
organizational silos no longer dictate who is invited into the conversation
and the shift is to making sure the business issue is being addressed by the
right connections. 3) Co-creation: When the connected network brings the right
connections to have the conversations to innovate and solve issues,
co-creation takes place. This is why partnership becomes a critical edge for
21st century organizations as they recognize that through their connected
network, they are able to drive business results and are not held back my
antiquated 20th century management practices. It takes hard work to build anything and learn from it Some times you will never know how deep your connected network
runs as the growth of it depends on continually extending it. Imagine, if you
were running a clinical trial and wanted to introduce a mobile Health
solution and all the traditional channels tell you that you are non-compliant
with the FDA regulations. Then imagine, if you could turn to your connected
network and ask them to help you with this innovative approach and your
network can help you have the right conversations with the right people. And
finally, imagine, if you were able to co-create a solution that would help
you experiment and save more lives. That’s a real problem I am working to
help a client with now. One of the biggest challenges we have in our
connected world is knowing who can help us in new ways and also having the
courage to ask for help. A connected network allows you to break down
barriers and bring innovation to save more lives through connections,
conversations and co-creation. From
http://www.itbusiness.ca/
Think your organization is too big to move to the cloud? Not so
— take a look at the Among the goals is to give staff a repository on the cloud where
they could share and reuse code, and possibly do disaster recovery as a service. But
here are the questions Kadakia asked about moving to the cloud or keeping
applications in-house, which any IT leader should be asking: “What are you
trying to protect? How does hosting it internally give you more protection
than having it hosted externally?
Just because a server is in your own data center does not make it
secure. It’s not about where the information is but how it’s protected. It’s
about the controls used. The government has to abide by regulations and there
are hundreds of controls. Who has access? Do they have continuous guards? Do
they have lockable casings in their data centers? Do they have redundant
cabling? What Amazon does with their data center is going to be evaluated.”
Even after moving to the cloud the learning continued. For example, her team
found that some cloud-based apps were only using about one per cent of the
dedicated processor power, even at peak levels. Shifting to lower-powered
servers saved a chunk of money. From
http://www.itworldcanada.com/
Which
States Have the Best Technology? The 2014 Digital States Survey grades states on how well they
use technology to serve their citizens. Results for the 2014 Digital States
Survey are in, and they paint a picture of progress in the world of
government IT. Three states received an A grade this year as Michigan and
Utah, two states that consistently score highly on the survey, are now joined
in the top echelon by Missouri, bumped up from a B+ grade in 2012. Every two
years, the Center for Digital Government (CDG), the research and advisory arm
of Government Technology’s parent company e.Republic, evaluates state
government’s ability to improve internal processes and better serve citizens.
This year’s results are positive, and foreshadow a bright future, said CDG
Executive Director Todd Sander. “States have made thoughtful, and for the
most part, wise decisions on where they invested over the last couple years
in particular,” Sander said. “They needed to because financial resources were
scarce and the competition in the enterprise was high. We’re starting to see
that really pay off now.” Of the 50 states surveyed, 21 improved their grade since 2012,
17 states remained the same, and 12 states saw a drop. As a group, the states
are doing well and even the states with lower grades didn’t drop by much,
Sander said. All 12 states with decreased grades dropped by just one step,
going from an A- to a B+, for instance. The distribution of grades is trending
up in 2014, with eight states in the A range, the same as in 2012, and 30
states in the B range, up from The states that scored A grades did the best job of making their
strategies consistent with their state’s priorities and policies; proving a quantifiable
return on investment through IT; demonstrating progress over the past two
years; using creative and innovative solutions; collaborating between
departments and jurisdictions; and using successful approaches to
transparency, privacy and security. View our infographic with more Digital
States statistics here: How Digital Are States in 2014? Missouri CIO Tim
Robyn said the state's success stems from executive leadership from Gov. Jay
Nixon and support from the Legislature -- support that continues throughout
state government. “It is certainly an honor for our state to be mentioned
alongside In addition to receiving an A grade in 2014, Utah scored an A in
2012 and 2010, placed first in 2008 before a grading system was adopted, and
scored consistently well in each previous year. By management’s account, that
success is derived largely from an emphasis on meeting public expectation of
service delivery. The public expects to be able to interact with their
government using new convenient technologies, and with the new services that
states like Utah Chief Technology Officer Dave Fletcher cited the state’s
project management as one of the key reasons for the continued success. “ VADRS manages more than 2.5 million titles and registrations
annually, 2,700 dealership and body shop licenses, and 12,000 sales licenses
-- it brought a higher level of customer service and reduced costs for the
state, VanOrden said. The overhaul involved the training of more than 300
people, and support from more than 24 county offices. But it was worth the
huge effort, he said, because the state's department of motor vehicles leads
the nation in online registration. “We’ve got a very innovative population
here in HIGH MARKS FOR In From
http://www.govtech.com/
GSA
Rolls Out IT Systems for Acquisition The General Services Administration's IT operations are using
two new applications that the agency says will aid federal customers'
purchasing and procurement. GSA Associate CIO of Acquisition IT systems Liz
DelNegro said the Enterprise Acquisition Solution integrated (EASi) and the
Assisted Services Information System (ASSIST) look to help federal agency
customers better navigate the complex procurement process. EASi will allow
customers to choose from standardized solicitation and award packages, as
well as get assistance with funding certification, DelNegro wrote in a blog
post on the agency's website Sept. 2. It will also interface with the
mandatory Integrated Award Environment’s System for Award Management.
According to DelNegro, the application leverages GSA's larger IT application
environments, including the Regulation Management Service, a new feature of
the Solicitation Writing System and the Enterprise Content Management System.
Internally the services are supported through the consolidated Service
Oriented Architecture platform. GSA personnel in IT, Federal Acquisition
Service and the Public Building Service's Office of Acquisition Management
collaborated to produce EASi, she said. Last September, the agency also contracted with Interactive
Technology Group to develop, deploy and support EASi. The company said it
provided overall business analysis and system enhancements to ensure the
system and applications met functional and regulatory requirements. GSA
considers EASi a descendant of the agency’s old Comprizon acquisition
platform. According to the federal IT Dashboard, the Electronic Acquisition
System/Comprizon is a centralized web-enabled electronic procurement system
based on commercial-off-the-shelf Comprizon proprietary software. The EAS
Comprizon system automated key Public Building Service acquisition processes
and provided a range of functional tools designed to support the office's
acquisition preparation, tracking, and reporting for 3,050 active users at
regional offices, field offices, and other remote locations nationwide. ASSIST, the agency's other new acquisition system, sprung from a
partnership of GSA IT and the Federal Acquisition Service’s Assisted
Acquisition Service. DelNegro said GSA is "midway through" ASSIST's
development and implementation. She said ASSIST supports FAS customers,
contracting professionals, and contractors by providing standardized task and
delivery-order management. It also integrates contracting with funds
management to provide data for business decisions. According to DelNegro,
ASSIST’s registration consolidation project establishes a new central
mechanism for GSA, vendor and client registration. It also eliminates legacy
hardware, software and license costs while reducing the operational burdens
associated with user account maintenance, she said. From
http://fcw.com/
How
Collaboration Leads to Public-Sector Innovation Innovation is a perennial buzzword in government and technology
circles, but it’s not easy to come by when government is used to doing things
in traditional ways -- and it doesn’t come without risk. Public-private
partnerships are popular in government, but the public sector shouldn’t
forget partnering with other governments as well. A few speakers at the
Governing California Leadership Forum, held this month in “I think the opportunity for both parties, both private sector
and the government sector, is to find ways that they can look at problems
that are big problems for people, for citizens, and that they can solve
together,” said Peter Sims, co-founder of Fuse Corps, an organization that
partners start-ups with public-sector leaders for technology projects. “For
example, parking is a big problem, potholes are a big problem. How can we use
creative solutions to solve those problems in new ways, and how can we find
ways for government and the for-profit sector to work in a collaborative
manner on addressing those problems?” Innovation is a perennial buzzword in
government and technology circles, but it’s not easy to come by when government
is used to doing things in traditional ways -- and it doesn’t come without
risk. “Innovation’s such a challenging topic because it can mean so many
different things," Granger said, adding that she thinks government has
been innovating in many ways, "but a lot of [the] time, we don’t notice
what that means. If you’re talking about technology innovation, it’s
definitely been an area where government has been slow to adopt." But it is definitely increasing, she said, "and there’s so
much now that’s happening at all levels of government, and great examples of
that locally, statewide and at the federal level. I think, just in the last
10 years, we’ve made a lot of progress.” According to Sims, public-sector
employees often need to be risk takers to get technology projects off the
ground. “That takes leadership from the public sector, and it takes
leadership from entrepreneurs to say, ‘You know what? This isn’t going to be
maybe the easiest process to go through.' There’s going to be a lot of risk
aversion,” Sims said. “There’s going to be a lot of potential barriers that
exist in government, but you know what? We’re going to benefit society. We’re
going to open up an opportunity that’s potentially going to lead to a lot of
value for both private sector and citizens in the long-term, so I think that
collaboration is really at the heart of what can help this country get back
on the right track.” From
http://www.govtech.com/
U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz on Friday announced two
awards worth 425 million U.S. dollars in total to build two supercomputers
that will be at least three times faster than China's Tianhe-2, today's most
powerful system in the world, as well as research extreme scale
supercomputing technologies. Moniz said in a statement that the government
will invest 325 million dollars to build " "DOE and its National Labs have always been at the
forefront of HPC and we expect that critical supercomputing investments ...
will again lead to transformational advancements in basic science, national
defense, environmental and energy research that rely on simulations of
complex physical systems and analysis of massive amounts of data."
According to the DOE, The department said a third laboratory, Argonne National
Laboratory in From
English.news.cn/ Those who want to have basic rights and freedoms, openness,
wholeness and net neutrality as the Internet's constituent parts will gather
on September 4-5 at the Internet Ungovernance Forum. Internet Ungovernance
Forum will happen in parallel to Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2014 that
will be held in Our Association, considering the silence on these topics as a
shortcoming on the part of this event, which is IGF, where two thousand
participants are expected to be received; and to compensate for these
shortcomings by the IGF, decided to organize this event called Internet
Ungovernance Forum. We can summarize this forum's purpose as “It is
Internet's serious problems that we want to talk about, to find how to solve
them and draw a trajectory for action.” In the forum's website https://iuf.alternatifbilisim.org,
we draw attention to the disadvantage of 'multistake-holder structure' caused
by IGF by indicating that “the main perpetrators of many of the Internet's
problems, governments and corporations, are getting representation in IGF
they don’t deserve”. We think that Internet's problems donot emerge from
technology alone, that none of its problems are independent of the political,
social and economic contexts within which Internet and other digital
infrastructures integrated are. We want to re-structure Internet as the
infrastructure basic to our society, cities, education, heathcare, business,
media, communication, culture and daily activities. This is the purpose of
the organization of this forum. The significance of creating solidarity networks for a free and
equal Internet has also emerged in the process of the event's organization.
Pioneered by Alternative Informatics Association, the event has gained
support from many prestigious organizations worldwide in the field. In this two
day event, basic topics are decided as 'Surveillance, Censorship and Freedom
of Expression, Alternative Media, Net Neutrality, Digital Divide, governance
and technical solutions'. Draft schedule of the event can be reached at https://iuf.alternatifbilisim.org/index-tr.html#program.
Internet Ungovernance Forum will have simultaneous translations in Turkish
and English languages. To attend this event that will take place in Bilgi University
Santral Campus on 4-5 September, you need to register by sending an e-mail to
kayit@alternatifbilisim.org. From
http://www.i-policy.org/
UN
Internet Governance Forum Sees New Challengers, from Top Down and Bottom Up The Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry
Barlow in the end somehow reconnected the 9th Internet Governance Forum and
the new Internet Ungovernance Forum held in It was the first time that a large alternative conference was
held outside of the UN event on all things internet, but it was not the only
challenge to the forum. Just minutes apart, Mueller and Halpin spoke on the
new global community connected via the network rather than between borders
that challenge the concept of state, sovereignty and also traditional
democracy with more radical ideas on consensus building. The excitement
surrounding the IGF came from the “feeling that we are building some new kind
of political community, maybe even revolutionary forms of governance,”
Mueller said after a week with over 80 workshops on access, human rights, and
governance structures on the net. And while he said multi-stakeholderism (a
current term for transformation) is a “lousy label” for a revolution, the key
issue about it is that it “elevates transnational non-state actors to the
same status as governments.” IGF Excludes Turkish Activists’ Workshops Halpin, on the other side of the city, talking about the W3Cs
WebWeWant Initiative and the need to seize back the net after the
surveillance revelations by Edward Snowden and to rethink the meanings of
democracy and freedom, reflected the sentiment of the Ungovernance
organisers: “We feel the discussions at the IGF are exclusive and no longer
useful,” he said. Snowden issued a statement [pdf] to the event. Well-known
academics and activists from Ungovernance: Censorship, Surveillance and Possible Reactions To allow discussions about “It [the IGF] should not be called Internet Governance Forum,
but Internet Censorship Forum,” said surprise keynote remote guest, Julian
Assange. The Wikileaks leader, who for technical reasons could only send a
written address, warned about the holes that censorship equipment is making
into secure networking channels. “Perhaps in time, governments will realise
that the serious cybersecurity and foreign surveillance threats posed by
censorship equipment outweigh whatever supposed benefits of national
stability and control that they bring,” he said. Akdeniz and representatives
of the Alternative Informatics Association (AIA) had more reservations about
the official IGF than the exclusion of their topics. “What is the benefit of
those meetings when the net rapidly becomes a dystopia of surveillance and
censorship,” a representative from AIA asked. During Ungovernance, potential
technical and societal answers were debated, including Pond, a forward secure
messaging system. Talk Less, Work More Calls to improve the IGF were also made at the official venue.
European Union Commissioner Neelie Kroes, making her last appearance as a
Digital Agenda Commissioner, asked the IGF “stop talking, but act.” United
Kingdom Foreign Minister Ed Vaizey made an appeal on the same lines, while
Macedonian Minister for Information Society and Administration Ivo Ivanovski
said he was amazed that ministers of education, science and culture were
absent from the Forum. “If it would be only IT, it could go to the ITU,” he
said. The calls to make the IGF more productive are not new. For instance, a
working group by the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development
(CSTD) reported on IGF improvements three years ago. But given that the
second five-year mandate of the IGF is running out next year, and that some
governments themselves stepped up after the Snowden revelations to probe a
new format – the April NetMundial meeting in Brazil – there is some pressure
on the IGF to prove it is worthwhile. Top-Down: WEF Enters the Arena In addition, the Geneva-based World Economic Forum has jumped
onto the stage by collaborating with the always active management of the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), on a proposal
for a NetMundial initiative to follow-up to the successful Sao Paolo meeting.
Alan Marcus, head of IT and telecommunications industries at the World
Economic Forum (WEF), tried to assure the IGF participants that the WEF-ICANN
NetMundial initiative, which was accused of pirating the name NetMundial. The
WEF initiative is intended to “bring our ‘grass tops’ [as opposed to
grassroots] community to the issues of internet governance,” he said, and
invite them to “bring their resources and identifying solutions and convening
coalitions around those solutions to move some of our collective challenges
forward.” Permanent, Long-Term, Continuing The WEF cannot take over from IGF, Jeremy Malcolm from the
Electronic Frontier Foundation told Intellectual Property Watch after the
closing of IGF and IUG. Malcolm before the IGF meeting wrote that there might
be a need for an IGF successor: “We all know that the IGF has been a
disappointment and has failed to deliver,” he said, adding that he is willing
to withhold judgment for another year. But Malcolm is opposed to making the
IGF as an institution permanent. The five-year mandate adds pressure for
results, he said. Governments that made strong statements at the opening and
were nearly expected to join the call for permanency ultimately returned to
requests for renewal of the forum in their final statements. “We support the
renewal. We said that in the UNGA [United Nations General Assembly]
committee,” said US State Department Coordinator for Cyber Issues Christopher
Painter, giving praise to the convening of the ever-growing number of
stakeholders from around the world. “We don’t see it as a talk-shop,” Painter
underlined, “but as a place where stakeholders coalesce and find solutions.”
The IGF should be long-term, Painter told Intellectual Property Watch, but he
did not leave out the limits: no negotiations here. Tangible Outcomes Many say the lack of the possibility in the IGF to negotiate
joint statements of some sort make it difficult to answer the call for action
on the other hand. The chair of the Membership Advisory Committee, Janis
Karklins, never tired of promoting steps towards “tangible outcomes.” For the
first time, best practice papers on how to organise multi-stakeholder
mechanisms, how to tackle spam, Computer Emergency Response Teams, enablers
for local content development, and online child protection were discussed and
are now put out for comment until 15 September. “We have a tangible outcome,”
said also Marianne Franklin, chair of the IGF Internet Rights and Principles
Coalition, pointing to the just-finalised Turkish version of the fundamental
rights document by the Coalition. While not binding in any way, it made the
case for fundamental rights in the digital sphere. Also for the first time,
the IGF picked two focus issues, net neutrality and the much-discussed
transition of the oversight of the internet domain name system (DNS) root
zone management away from the US National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA). Both net neutrality and the transition (of oversight
of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority or IANA), did succeed in exploring
differences, though, and, for IANA, resulted in a warning about the
timetable. IANA Stewardship Transfer Byron Holland, chair of the Country Code Names Supporting Organisation
which represents the national name zones like .ch, .us. and .in at ICANN,
said in After last week, NetMundial host That entails, he added, that the IGF also seeks to relate to
existing policy processes, including intergovernmental processes. “We can
remain in silos, discussing among ourselves in those different settings or we
can try to build bridges and make the best out of all of what we have,”
Fonseca said. While the Turkish activists might have liked that description,
out of the Ungovernance Conference came the call that for the time being the
activists think ungovernance will be necessary in From
http://www.ip-watch.org/
Global
E-Government Forum: Leaving Gutenberg and Entering the Holographic Galaxy –
OpEd XXI Century Global E-Government Forum in the city of XXII
Century – Astana, Kazakhstan, The E-World Capital in 2014. Where is the best
place to hold the Global E-Government Forum than in a country with 138
nations and the 30 most popular religions, as well as many language groups?
Where is the best place to hold the Global E-Government Forum than in the
country where the unemployment rate is only just a few percent, and even
those few percent consists of recent graduates who have just started looking
for jobs? Where is the best place to hold the E-Government Forum than in the
country which ranks among the top 30 most powerful countries in the level of
‘E-Government’ development? But, the most important procedural question rises
beyond the ones mentioned: Why do we need E-Government? Furthermore, why have
E-Government issues not been more developed to assure the further
dissemination of the information that goes towards the betterment of human
well-being during the age of the Holographic galaxy which we are experiencing
since the establishment of the Virtual world? The Answer is simple, yet it is hard to get it to materialize on
the surface of thoughts and decision making. Namely, in these times when the
individual is more than ever alienated with the means of technological
revolution, when we have our iPods, iPhones and all kinds of mobile phone
devices with us everywhere (not to mention places where we have used
newspapers and books before and even had places for them there – you know:
the places where we, besides other things, shave our faces), E-Government is
the best solution for the proper dissemination of information with feedback
for adequate decision-making processes. But, let’s start with a few
historical facts: Since 2012, the The topic of this year’s E-government Forum is “Smart Governance
for Sustainable Development: New Opportunities of Partnership in the Network
Society” and will be held in Easily?! Through these networking events among nations, using information
to the benefit of all instead of the abusing of a few, through the creation
of Government for all based on real democratic means that came from Agora
centuries ago, but this time with the most fluctuating means of
communication: social networks. The name is ‘social,’ and the social is the
society that makes Government efficient and responsible, eo ipso
communication networking within E-Government through the use, not abuse, of
social networks that serve to help. Whom? All of us, regardless if we are
sitting in the comfortable Minister’s Chair or selling the tickets in the
suburban bus. How? Via the exchange of information, dissemination of
methodologically based conclusions, analysis of expectations and, finally,
even, changes in ultimate decisions. Democracy should mean the acceptance of
alternative thoughts, if they are used properly. The speakers of this year’s Forum will be from As stated in the AIDE-MEMOIRE: The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
(UNDESA), through its Division for Public Administration and Development
Management (DPADM), assists Member States in promoting efficient, effective,
transparent, accountable, collaborative and citizen centered public
governance, administration and services through innovation and technology to
achieve the internationally agreed development goals. UNDESA promotes
knowledge sharing of innovative approaches and practices in public
management, as well as capacity development in the area of innovation and
e-government. The General Assembly itself has highlighted the importance of
knowledge-sharing activities in resolution 57/277, noting that particular
emphasis should be given to the exchange of experience related to the role of
public administration in the implementation of internationally agreed goals,
including those contained in the Millennium Declaration. In resolution
50/225, it also underscored that international cooperation should be
strengthened in the field of public administration, including South-South and
Inter-Regional cooperation. The ultimate goal of this forum is to enhance government
capacity, particularly in developing countries, through presentations,
discussions, and peer-to-peer learning. The main objectives include: •To discuss policies, strategies and best practices for smart
government and smart society •To present recent trends of e-Government development and
introduce new approaches as applied in the 2014 UN e-Government Survey •To introduce various country cases of Smart Governance from
around the globe and assist Member States to promote cooperation in this area •To strengthen North-South and South-South cooperation for the
development of Smart Government The Forum is expected to achieve the following outputs: •Identify good case studies that highlight smart governance and
smart society that could be shared at the •Obtain greater knowledge of Central Asian’s e-government
activities and progress made, as well as develop stronger ties between DESA
and the region •Draw recommendations and suggestions from the Forum discussions
in order to provide guidance to Member States on how to promote smart
government and smart society •Renewed commitment among policy makers to adapt their acquired
knowledge and expertise in developing innovative e-Government strategies fit
for their countries Within the framework of the overall theme of the Forum ‘Smart
Governance for Sustainable Development: New Opportunities for Partnership in
the Networking Society”, four interrelated sub-themes will be discussed in
the workshop in order to enhance public administration capacity as follows: 1.Trends and Emerging Issues of Smart Government and Smart
Societies 2.Strategic Policy-Making Aspects of Implementing Smart
Government 3.Whole-of-Government Approach 4.Open Government Eurasia Review will be presented by its senior partner,
Sabahudin Hadžialić, M.S. and provide coverage of the event, as well as the
outcomes of the E-Government Forum in Kazakhstan. Gutenberg is behind us.
Welcome to the Holographic Society. Starting from E-Government Forum at the
Independence Palace of Astana, Kazakhstan; at least. From
http://www.eurasiareview.com/
CISCO’s
With a view to bridging the ICT skills gap in the country, The
Polytechnic of Namibia has leveraged its partnership with the global IT and
networking giant, CISCO, to establish a training academy on campus. Among
other roles, the academy is expected to deliver The partnership between both institutions was struck in 1999,
when a growing demand for ICT professionals in the country necessitated the
establishment of a From
http://www.ventures-africa.com/
World
Development Report 2016: The Internet and Development The Internet has the potential to be a powerful tool in the
fight against global poverty and in boosting prosperity. Along with mobile
phones and advanced digital technologies, the Internet is lowering
transaction costs, creating new economic opportunities, and improving
accountability. It is fair conjecture that this is an area where much scope
remains for new and imaginative applications and large gains. The benefits of
the Internet are, however, not automatic, and our understanding of its impact
on economic development remains incomplete—based on anecdotes more than on
solid analysis. This hinders the design of effective policies that can help
countries take full advantage of new information and communication
technologies (ICTs). There is much at stake, because Internet technologies
enable transformational changes—much like the way steam engines, electricity
and automobiles triggered the previous industrial revolutions. The success or
failure in adopting such technologies may well determine whether low income
countries catch up with wealthier ones or fall further behind. Relatedly, the
internet may also be the engine that hastens social and cultural change in
unprecedented ways, with implications for economic development. From
http://econ.worldbank.org/
Google
Analyst Speaks About Internet Freedom in Digital Age Although most of the developed western world enjoys open
Internet access, many parts of the world do not. Ben Blink, a senior policy
analyst at Google, discussed the worldwide importance of Internet and online
freedom and how it will impact on the future of democracy, human rights, and
economic growth at an event Thursday in Kane Hall. A question-and-answer session
followed. The event was part of a series titled, “Freedom and Power in the
Digital Age,” hosted by the World Affairs Council (WAC), a non-profit,
non-partisan international affairs organization. “[Internet freedom] is an
important issue that affects us all,” said Jacqueline Miller, president and
CEO of the WAC in However, Blink said, there has been significant Internet
governance, filtering, and censorship in some regions of the world, which is
undermining the intended open and free nature of the Internet. In Google’s
own transparency report, famous examples of censorship include mainland From
http://dailyuw.com/
On the Path
of Global E-Government Forum: Innovation Challenging Practice Yes, those words of Seneca’s (“We learn by teaching“) has found
a fertile ground within Smart Governance in the sense of increasing the
knowledge of emerging issues and trends in E-Government development, as well
as the identification of innovative policies and practices. But how do we
actually “learn by teaching?” I dare say that during the first day of the
Global E-Government Forum in Three different sessions focused on: 1. Use of architectural approach in the public sector; 2. Smart convergence technologies 3. Data Science for Smart Government This was followed by a workshop that centered on the Capacity
Development for E-Participation: citizen engagement in policy development and
decision making through information and communication technologies (ICT).
After the Nomination of the UN Awards on developing E-Government — that were
spread all around the world, from Singapore to Bahrain, including Kazakhstan
— a round table of ministers was
conducted and after that more and more sessions ….It was remarkable to see
that this same issue of E-Government has been recognized by Governments from
around the World — but that said, there is a very important problem, one that
does exist regardless of cultural, historical and/or political issues within
the various counties. What is it? The answer is simple, and visible, and rests on how to actually
implement E-Government practices. As a matter of fact, since Plato’s time,
the State has always placed pressure on its people, but we should now,
instead, focus on a way to make that pressure less painful, if not in a
‘kinder’ way. That is the role of E-Government. Frankly, I could not simply
see within the first day of the Forum a proper way of integrating the
excellent “know how“ that was espoused by all the presenters and key speakers
and a practical, interacted way of how a Pro-Society works that will make
people of each country of the World: 1. Capable to organize their lives in a way that will benefit
both, the country and them – It is either one or the other. 2. Capable to be free of any kind of controlling influence of
the paperwork. Who are the controllers of the controllers? Who will and might
that be? Where are the independent people’s commissions and/or institutions
free of influence of any state and/or party decision making that are dealing
with E-governance? Yes, we have “independent“ public institutions within the
countries, but…what does independence mean within the sense of influence
feed-back within a society? 3. Capable for people to feel released not just from standing in
long lines, but to make them to be more useful for the society and
themselves. 4. Capable to make decisions which will improve their countries
regardless of the ruling party(ies) and/or any kind of institutions that
might be “above“ them. We will wait for the second day of the Forum and see if it
really is hard to be ‘human’ within human society — or is there another way
around? — while at the same time trying to :learn through teaching” within
the E-Government sessions. From
http://www.eurasiareview.com/
ICT Releases
Idencia v1.4 for Infrastructure Product Information Tracking International Coding Technologies, Inc. (ICT) announced today
that it has released Idencia v1.4, an update to the Idencia SaaS system that
enables information tracking throughout the entire life cycle of any asset
manufactured with the system. Idencia, released in February 2014, is a SaaS
system that is used by manufacturers of products used in infrastructure to
create a serial number for each product it produces and associate it with
information about the manufacture of the product. Customers affix radio
frequency identification (“RFID”) tags to the products they manufacture. The
Idencia system is used to define questions that are answered during the
manufacturing process on a tablet or smartphone. The answers are retained in
Idencia and can be recalled any time the asset is scanned thereafter. Idencia v1.4 enables multiple processes to be recorded for each
product, not just questions related to manufacturing. This means that the
department of transportation (“DOT”) that purchases products built with
Idencia can utilize it to create and retain information related to managing
the asset over its lifetime. After a product is manufactured, the DOT can use
the system to create questions related to its inspection process. Once
entered, both the manufacturing information and the results of the inspection
process are associated with that specific asset. The DOT can later use
Idencia’s GPS location feature to find where the product has been placed upon
delivery. When it is time to count inventory, Idencia can be used to simply
scan products in the yard to identify exactly what inventory remains on hand.
Idencia is therefore now as valuable for asset managers as it is for
producers. DOTs and railroad companies are primary beneficiaries. Tom Tilson,
President/Founder, stated: “This is the beginning of the full realization of
the potential for Idencia. Since we started the company we have always
envisioned that the benefits of information tracking run from birth through
end of life. We are delighted that asset managers may now use Idencia to make
their operations more productive.” From
http://www.rfidsolutionsonline.com/
'ICT
Council' Wants Joint Push Towards Digital-Economy Era ASSOCIATIONS overseeing telecommunications and information and
communications technology are striving to establish an ICT Council to work in
parallel with the government in ushering The task forces would oversee areas such as infrastructure,
security and e-commerce. They would work with the government at the policy
level. Besides TFIT, the main ICT and telecom associations are the Thai
Internet Service Provider Association (Tispa), Association of Thailand Open
Source Federation (TOSF), the Association of Thai ICT Industry (ATCI), the
Thai Software Export Promotion Association, the Thai e-Commerce Association
and the Thailand Tech Startup Association. The ICT and telecom associations
have also discussed setting up an ICT Council, as well as a digital-economy
road map to propose to the ICT minister late this month. Morrakot
Kulatumyotin, managing director for Internet Danupol Siamwalla, managing director and chief executive officer
of Ice Solution and vice president of TOSF, said the ICT industry should play
a role as an enabler in six necessary areas - policy, rules and regulations,
integration, technology, standardisation and security. Adirak Patitus,
president of the ATCI, said the priority was for the public sector to
digitise itself along government-to-government, government-to-business and
government-to-citizen lines. Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, president of the Thai
e-Commerce Association, said that forming the ICT Council with a solid
framework would help the country gear up for the digital economy. Amarit
Charoenphan, co-founder of the Thailand Tech Startup Association, said the
biggest challenge for the government was the digital divide. "It is not
only how to assist businesses and industries to survive or succeed towards
the digital-economy era but also about how to help Thais throughout the
country to have a better standard of living," he said. From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/
Information
Architects Launches New Improved Website Information Architects (OTCPK: IACH) today announce the launch of
phase one of the improved IACH website. The new platform offers up a one stop
location to keep current on everything happening at IACH. The website will
have relevant information pertaining to company developments as well as
events and happenings pertaining to IACH. See the new site at: http://dakotacreativegroup.net/.
The new website includes details on the progress of the theme parks planning
and preparation, Grand Southern Studios and Theme Parks, LLC. As the parks
development proceeds, the website will be the place where shareholders and
interested parties can follow the progress and development. The website will also feature the projects and works of IACH
wholly owned subsidiary, Legacy Animation. Legacy’s many properties including
the animated feature films, children’s television programing, combination
live/animation productions, books, songs, characters, toys, video games,
board games, children’s clothing lines and more are all to be featured on the
website. The website also has information of the progress of the IACH feature
film, Way of the Unicorn, the endangered ones, LLC. Discussions are in the
final stages for a director, voice talent, artists, set designers, and all of
the other components necessary to produce a top quality animated feature
film. In addition to the film IACH has the rights to: five songs, a video
game, a board game, plush toys and a clothing line for children accompanying
the film property. The new improved website also has information on the IACH
management as well as company filings and news releases. The site will be
updated often as development within the company progresses. From
http://finance.yahoo.com/
The future
of the Internet: What’s Next for the World Wide Web? The Internet has infiltrated almost every corner of society,
transforming our lives in the process. Over the coming decades, networked
innovations will extend this change to the physical world. But as we become
ever-more reliant on online tools and services, who should protect and
regulate the Internet itself? Our Global Agenda Council experts explore the
debates and opportunities ahead. Over the past two decades, the exponential
growth of the Internet has led it to touch upon every aspect of modern life.
From mobile entertainment to healthcare to the heart of enterprise, the
Internet has become, in the words of Bill Gates, “the town square for the
global village of tomorrow”. Now, with the advent of the Internet of Things,
we stand on the threshold of a new era – one in which online functionality
will spread to the physical world, to the objects and environments that
surround us. As this happens, however, the complexities associated with
online structures are transferred to the offline world, including the
question of governance. As web-enabled devices take an ever-more prominent
role in our societies, who should govern and protect the infrastructure upon
which they rely? Will this issue of governance hinder the development and
adoption of Internet technologies? And what opportunities and problems will
be presented by this new chapter of our technological history, both for
governments and individuals? The power of networks Networked technology is spreading rapidly from traditional
devices to everyday items, and even to the spaces in which we live. Before
long, online functionality will be ubiquitous in the most commonplace
objects, allowing them to identify, communicate and cooperate with one
another. This coming phenomenon is known as the ‘Internet of Things’.
Research firm Gartner predicts there will be 26 billion devices on the
Internet of Things by the year 2020. Anil Menon, President of Smart+Connected
Communities at CISCO, believes that the rise of omnipresent connectivity will
present opportunities and challenges in equal measure, fuelled by an
explosion in data feedback from our networked environment. “Connecting one
object to every other object will not necessarily transform the way we live
or do things,” he says. “It is by connecting things to processes, and then
using the resulting data to change the way we behave – that is where you will
see a dramatic shift. The Internet of Things will be the foundation, but it
will be the business models on top of it that will change our lives.” Menon believes that cities are the entities best placed to
benefit from this data-centred evolution. Yet the current lack of standards in
network interoperability presents a potential hurdle to those who would
harness this power. Global standards in medicine, for example, allow for
communication between doctors who cannot speak each other’s language. Now we
need to establish a similar harmony for data. “In 1913, the city of “Our research shows that for 80% of a typical doctor’s
consultation, the doctor doesn’t need to touch you themselves,” says Menon.
“Somebody needs to be physically present, but that person doesn’t necessarily
need to be the doctor. So once we have wearable health monitors and
interactive video, why should you drive all the way into town for a
consultation?” The evolution of medical services will be particularly
effective in developing countries. “In a country like The governance of the Internet Many people regard the Internet as a global entity, something
that exists outside of the boundaries of national ownership. Yet the fact
remains that much of the system’s core infrastructure remains in the hands
that pioneered it, and specifically in Western institutions. The protocol for
the assignation of IP addresses and online namespaces is handled by ICANN,
based in “It’s not the fault of Western countries,” he says. “The West is
home to a lot of developed nations with strong technology and good knowledge
about the Internet – that’s why they play a very important role in its
governance. The reality is that there’s a gap between western and eastern
countries. If you look at Professor Helen Margetts, Director of the Oxford Internet
Institute, agrees that the transition to a more global governance structure
is desirable. However, she feels that the question of governance is less
important than the fact that the landscape of the Internet is evolving at a
speed that authorities struggle to match. “I don’t think talking about a new
model of governance for the whole Internet is really the way to go. The
Internet is often depicted as some kind of lawless Wild West, when in fact
its architecture and operation is governed by clear standards and protocols
set by international bodies, while our use of the Internet is largely covered
by existing laws and regulations on issues such as fraud, copyright and
libel. There are aspects of these laws and regulations that are basically
unsuited to deal with changing technologies and the fact that people spend
increasing amounts of their time in digital contexts – and that is what we
need to address. But that is not really a question of Internet governance. I am in favour of a multistakeholder approach, where there is no
single point of failure, or domination by a single group or set of interests.
Existing governance structures need to adapt and change – but I am not
supportive of a government-focused type governance model. There are reasons
to be worried about those – I’m not aware of an Eastern governance model that
doesn’t involve censorship. Rather, we need a clearer understanding of the
limits of government and corporate intervention online.” The recent debates
over the surveillance activities of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and
the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) have cast a spotlight
upon governmental use of the Internet, particularly with regards to
data-tracking. But for Professor Margetts, the real dangers lie with the
rapid centralization of the Internet, which has led to the emergence of
monolithic platforms such as those owned by the world’s most popular search
engines and social networks. While she feels that these companies have had a
broadly positive impact on the experience of using the Internet, their
data-gathering capabilities and increasing omnipresence makes them hard to
control. “As unhappy as I am that the NSA and GCHQ have gathered large
quantities of my personal data, I am equally concerned about the amount of
information the major digital services companies have about me,” she says.
“How long are they storing this data for, and for what purpose? Once you are
using the same platform for your search engine, email and cloud services –
and then add a driverless car into that mix – you establish a toxic situation
that is very difficult to regulate.” Legislation arguably represents the key
battleground for determining the future of the Internet. Professor Margetts
believes that the real question is whether existing laws and regulations on
issues such as fraud, copyright, libel, data protection and freedom of
expression can be effectively enforced online. In some areas new bilateral
agreements are emerging which may amount to international agreement, such as
consensus around measures tackling child abuse images online. In other areas,
we see a few reactive prosecutions rather than widespread adherence. For all the drastic change that the growth of the Internet has
already brought to our lives, the years ahead will require further adaptation
on the part of governments and individuals alike – particularly as the
Internet of Things becomes a widespread reality. But for Professor Lee, this
change is not something for us to fear. “If you go back 100 years, there were
very few cars – most people would feel very nervous if they even saw one,” he
says. “Today there are five or six million cars in most cities. People aren’t
worried because they know how to drive, how to avoid being hurt by them.” He
continues: “Now we’re living in the Internet age. There are so many sensors,
so many video cameras everywhere and facilities to monitor everything – so of
course there are a lot of security issues, and people want to protect
themselves. We already know how to do that in the physical world, but we need
to build new models and cultures for the Internet era, rules that will let us
find a balance between a convenient life and a secure life. And that may take
a couple of years. ” From
http://english.alarabiya.net/
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Little known outside the realm of crowd science, MIT Media Lab
Professor Alex Pentland, dubbed the "father of wearables" and one
of the world's seven most powerful data scientists, has outlined his vision
for big data and his take on Baidu's big data strategy, China's largest
search engine, in a wide-raging interview with China.org.cn."The world
is bigger than Deep learning is one of the directions that Baidu is currently
working towards. In January 2013, Baidu's founder and CEO Robin Li announced
the establishment of a research lab dedicated to "deep
learning" -- an emerging computer science field that seeks to mimic
the human brain with hardware and software.If Baidu's success in predicting
the outcomes of World Cup matches has demonstrated only a tip of its ambition
in big data, its increasing presence in a host of data-related industries has
sent a strong signal: The era of big data has come.Baidu has announced plans
to roll out a range of products and services based on big data analysis, in
areas such as disease prevention, real estate, recuitment and
finance.Pentland said this means Baidu has found many good ways to morph data
into useful applications or products.The firm has teamed up with the Chinese
Center for Disease Control and Prevention to use big data to forecast flu
outbreaks. The other splash that Baidu made recently was its partnership with
the UN to build a lab that aims to use big data technology to solve global
issues like environmental protection and disaster relief.Commenting on
Baidu's position as a leading search engine in the world's most populous
nation, Pentland said, "Baidu has strong technologies and a strong
position, making it one of the major companies in the world in this
area."He also added that Baidu should have good choice in the future
about how it continues to grow and develop. From http://www.news.cn/
China Mobile, China's largest telecom service provider, said on
Friday that it had passed its annual target and had more than 50 million
fourth-generation ( From http://www.news.cn/
The information and communication technology (ICT) market in From http://www.news.cn/
In the near future, people will be less likely to lose their way
or wander around trying to find their way in large public facilities, such as
subway systems or shopping malls. So called "indoor navigation"
services based on spatial information and position-determination technology
will be introduced soon. Visitors will be able to download an indoor
"navigation app" onto their smartphones, which will guide them
through a three-dimensional map. The 2014 Smart Geospatial Expo, held in During the ministerial meeting held on the sidelines of the
expo, delegations from 22 countries, including From
http://www.korea.net
From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
From
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr
ICT Growth
Hinges on Investment: Minister
From
http://www.koreaherald.com
The star of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, currently taking
place at the BEXCO convention center in Busan, has turned out to be From
http://www.korea.net
ICT Ministry
to Promote Cloud Tech to ITU Members From
http://www.koreaherald.com
ITU Offers
Awards for Bringing More Women into ICT Sector The International Telecommunications Union on Tuesday gave
recognition to individuals and agencies that have promoted women’s presence
in information, communication and technology industries. The ITU had picked
37 finalists from around 360 candidates recommended by 74 countries for the
awards ― the first of their kind ― given in seven categories. The Gender
Equality and Mainstreaming Tech Award “seeks to create a platform for
advancing women’s meaningful engagement with ICTs and their role as
decision-makers and producers within this sector,” according to the
ITU. Winners included UNESCO, iMerit Technology Services from From
http://www.koreaherald.com
Global ICT
Firms Eye Energy Industry With the rise of smart energy technologies ranging from smart
bulbs to smart grids, nontraditional energy companies, especially from the
information communication and technology sector, are increasingly turning
their attention toward the energy market. Among those trying to gain a
foothold in the energy market is LG Corp., which has a range
of businesses including home appliances and electronics parts under
its wing. The conglomerate’s electronics, battery and chemical business
affiliates showed off their prowess in the energy sector by introducing an
array of energy-related products and solutions, including the world’s most
energy-efficient solar panels and energy storage systems at the Conference of
Electric Power Supply Industry 2014. The conference, a biannual
international energy industry conference, was held from Monday through
Wednesday on From
http://www.koreaherald.com
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From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
How
Geographic information system (GIS) technology is helping the
Malaysian Armed Forces make more informed decisions in its operations,
including in the recent search and rescue operations for the Malaysian
Airlines flights MH370 and MH17 tragedies. The Defence Geospatial Division of
the Department of Survey And Mapping Malaysia has developed a system to
integrate geospatial data across multiple business systems so defence
officials can get accurate data on a single interactive map. Before the
launch of this system, uGEO for Defence, soldiers and decision makers at the
armed forces would rely heavily on hardcopy topographic maps. These static
maps gave them limited information analysis capabilities, said Brigadier
General Hj. Abu Sufian bin Ahmad. “Having uGeo for Defence roadmap in place
allows us to plan and equip MAF officers with geospatial foundation
information that can help them make decisions that are timely, relevant,
consistent, and objective,” Brigadier General Hj. Abu Sufian said. The
interactive map fuses multiple layers of operational data so that officials
can quickly “uncover hidden patterns, trends and relationships that would
have otherwise remain buried if they used hardcopy maps and static digital
maps,” he added. He confirmed that the technology contributed significantly to
the forces’ operations in the Lahad Datu territorial dispute in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Citizens in Metro Manila, the From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
600
Municipalities in the The Philippine government is introducing wireless internet
connectivity to 600 more remote areas by next year using unassigned
television frequencies. This is part of the Department of Science and
Technology’s nationwide project to improve internet connectivity, so that
citizens can benefit from e-government services in the long run,
Undersecretary Louis Casambre told FutureGov in a separate interview. It is
estimated that 83% of the population still do not have access to the
internet. The department told local media that TV white space will provide
internet access to local government offices, that will then extend access to
the wider population by creating wifi hotspots. The government has committed
PHP 300 million (US$ 6.7 million) to fund the implementation of TV white
space, Mario Montejo, Secretary of Science and Technology, told the media. TV
white space solution was first piloted in Palo, a municipality near Tacloban
city. When the city was struck by Typhoon Haiyan a year ago, TV white space
proved to be an effective technology to provide first responders and victims
the much needed connectivity. From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
The Singapore Government has launched a competition to encourage
citizens to help redesign its central government portal for information and
services, ecitizen.gov.sg. A prize of $1,500 will be awarded to the
nomination that best redesigns the homepage, topic page and directory of the
website. The design brief states that it should be “warm, friendly yet
credible”, “resonate with Singaporeans”, use dark colours and resize to fit
any device. The competition also encourages citizens to suggest new features
or enhancements, such as geo-location, weather forecast, personalised updates
of news in From
http://www.futuregov.asia/
Asean countries should team up and share information gathered
from satellite imagery for better and more efficient development in the field
of information science infrastructure, the Geo-Informatics and Space
Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) board said recently. Board member
Vichit Satharanond pointed out that each country in the region had invested
in satellite imagery, but the nations had never worked together in the field.
He was speaking at a recent seminar on Geo-Informatics and Space Technology
for better Asean cooperation as part of the annual "Geoinfotech
2014" exhibition. The event is aimed at promoting research in
information technology and space in the public and private sectors in Vichit said regional countries could turn to Asean+3 countries
in terms of science and information development, adding that China -
considered one of the most influential countries in the region - should be
encouraged to invest in the field and provide training to other countries.
Somchai Tiamboonpresert, deputy permanent secretary of the Science and
Technology Ministry, also called on the government to allocate more funds for
the development of Speaker Somkiet Ornwimon, president of the TV production house
Thai Witat, agreed that From
http://www.nationmultimedia.com
President Truong Tan Sang yesterday urged President Sang also visited Sa Loong Commune and Kon Plong
District where he presented cows to 50 poor families. He also conducted a
fact-finding tour of Bo Y international Border Economic Zone between From
http://vietnamnews.vn/
Electronics producers and importers in From
http://news.xinhuanet.com/
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Although the prices for In a span of only one month, the number of mobile internet users
has increased by 15 lakhs, to 3 crore 93 lakhs and 52 thousand in July 2013.
While the number of Grameenphone internet subscribers have increased to 1
crore 28 lakhs and 42 thousand. During the same time span, Banglalink had 1
crore 12 lakhs and 6 thousand internet subscribers. Also, Robi has the
highest number of From
http://www.businessnews-bd.com/ It is however politically defined as resources, demographics,
territory and economic assets. Whatsoever it is defined as, the bottom line
is that power means get things done. One must seek power to achieve certain
objectives. As we have seen power meant different things in different times
of our history. So power evolves as per changing times. From Europe to Soviet
Union and then to United States, now to Asia- that’s when we discover that
the world is shifting towards the emerging sources of power. It is therefore
important to take a keen look at various aspects of power in today’s
scenario. Forbes has taken the initiative to make a logical comprehension of
important aspects of power. From
http://news.siliconindia.com/
IT
Investment Region Near Bengaluru to Attract $20 Bn BENGALURU: “I have reviewed the project and directed the nodal agency
(KIADB) to acquire 2,072 acres of land for developing the first phase,” the
chief minister said, inaugurating the Bangalore ITE.biz and CeBIT From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ IT Services
Industry Should Look at Doing New Things: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka BENGALURU: Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who has the ardent task of
reviving the company, on Wednesday criticised the Indian IT industry's
business practice of "doing old things cheaper" and said firms
should innovate more. "As I speak to you it is my 100th day as the CEO
of Infosys. I was not deeply familiar with the services industry until
recently. As I had thought about the opportunities in front of us and the
current state of Infosys, I see a tale of two cities," Sikka said. In
his recorded key note address through video at CeBIT India 2014 here, he
said, "I find that on the one hand we have a great opportunity in front
of us to help accelerate the reshaping of world with software. But at the
same time, I also see the reality that we are currently in - that is a
somewhat depressing reality." "I find all of us in the industry
find ourselves on a downward spiral. It's like a treadmill of increasingly
lower cost, hiring people faster and faster from more and more mediocre
places, training people less and less, putting them into job faster and
faster. I think that is a wrong direction," he added. Sikka, the first outsider who has not been part of the
co-founders club to lead the Bangalore-based firm, became the CEO of the
company earlier this year at a time when fortunes of once-IT-bellwether were
down and rivals were doing relatively better. He has come from US-based SAP.
CeBIT From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ A Walk
Through 'Digital' Hampi Made Possible Experts from more than 10 premier institutions including IIT
Delhi, IIT Bombay, Indian Statistical Institute and The usage of Kinect technology, basically the use of 3D cameras,
has made it possible for a visitor to the exhibition to experience a certain
level of "physical interaction" with the 3D printed miniature models
of the structures, Chaudhury said, adding the "aspect of physical
interaction would not be possible if was merely put on a web portal."
Going beyond merely recreating the physical structures, the project also
attempts to put life into the cultural aspects of the period. "We have
tried to link the various cultural and geographical aspects at different
levels of abstraction structuring them hierarchically," he said. The
Indian Digital Heritage Project aims to bring together technological and cultural
perspectives in the representation of heritage involving a large number of
academic institutions across the country. From
http://news.siliconindia.com/ As Indian
Govt Plans a Web Filter, Let’s See How Internet Censorship Works in The Internet censorship debate in Things haven’t got so bad, yet. You still get access to majority
of websites from across the world. You don’t have to register with government
agencies before you decide to start a blog. But citizens of some nations
aren’t that lucky. Let us see how internet censorship works in controlled
regimes such as Apart from blocking entire sites, the Iranian internet filters
also look for specific keywords and block those pages. The traffic passing
through the Iranian firewalls, if it is not recognised, has its speed
severely throttled and in certain cases gets cut off altogether. This
controls circulation of news, photos and videos, which may be deemed
political. During the June 2013 elections, the throttling was at its peak to
prevent dissent and anti-regime propoganda, which was later relaxed. Twitter
and Facebook accounts of many individuals as well as western journalists were
blocked in A large portion of Restricting access to foreign websites, has given rise of
homegrown websites in Accessing internet from home for majority of the population is
unheard of. Only those who can afford it can access the internet from home.
This includes government officials, doctors, engineers, Cuban govt approved
journalists and so on. Rest of the population accesses it via government run
cyber cafes which charge a prohibitive hourly rate. Cubans have to provide an
ID to use the internet, so there is not question of anonymous internet use
either. Internet speeds are slow in most places. And uploading of content can
only be done by pro-government users. Facebook and Twitter are accessible but
not YouTube. Unlike From
http://www.i-policy.org/ At present, From http://news.siliconindia.com/ From
http://www.siliconindia.com/ The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was speaking during a
National Information Technology Conference (NITC)-2014. From
http://southasia.oneworld.net/ SL Moves to
Digital Technology with Japanese Assistance With a view to accelerating cooperation on maritime
connectivity, the two leaders also shared the intention to promote
cooperation in the maritime sector. President Rajapaksa also expressed his
expectation for further cooperation in the fields of ports and harbours
development and maritime education. Prime Minister Abe expressed his
gratitude to the Sri Lankan Government for the facilitation of port calls in The Japanese Prime Minister, who appreciated the political
leadership of President Rajapaksa towards national reconciliation, also
appreciated the scheduling of a meeting in President Rajapaksa welcomed the implementation of a survey with
a view to providing educational and documentary TV prgrammes from the
Government of Japan. There was also agreement to advance bilateral
cooperation in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT),
including capacity building, which will contribute towards enhanced
cooperation in areas such as disaster prevention, education, traffic control,
health care, maritime safety, agriculture, tourism and e-Government.
Reconciliation Acknowledging that peace and stability are the desire of all
people, the two leaders reaffirmed the importance of national reconciliation
for ever-lasting peace in Prime Minister Abe also highly appreciated the specific actions
by Sri Lanka, such as holding the election to the Northern Provincial Council
in September 2103, submitting to Parliament the Bill on Assistance to and
Protection of Victims and Witnesses, finalizing the report of the Needs
Assessment on resettled IDPs, and expanding the mandate of the Presidential
Commission of Inquiry on Missing Persons including establishment of an
Advisory Council comprising internationally recognized persons of eminence,
as domestic initiatives. Battling terrorism The evolving nature of terrorism
and the need for partnership in combating it was addressed in the Joint
Statement between the leaders of From
http://southasia.oneworld.net/
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Azerbaijani ambassador to Lithuania Hasan Mammadzade has met
Lithuanian Minister of Transport and Communication Rimantas Sinkevičius. The
meeting focused on bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Lithuania,
cooperation in the fields of transport and ICT, Azerbaijan`s participation at
“Viking” project, AzerTag reports. Ambassador Mammadzade congratulated
Sinkevičius on his appointment as minister of transport and communication
after the Lithuanian presidential elections. He stressed praised development
of the Azerbaijan-Lithuania ties in political, economic, cultural and
humanitarian spheres. The Azerbaijani diplomat also spoke about the
government`s attention to the development of high technologies in the
country, as well as achievements in this field. The Lithuanian minister said
that he would attend international exhibition on “"Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
Railway - New Opportunities in Silk Road” to be held in Baku, on October
15-16, 2014. From
http://news.az/ The
Number of E-Signature Owners in The number of electronic digital signatures, or EDS, issued by
the National Center of Certification in From
http://en.trend.az/
Agrarian
Sector, Tourism, ICT Are Directions for Expanding Azerbaijan-Germany
Cooperation As of 2013, the trade turnover between From
http://en.trend.az/
World
Bank, McKinsey & Co. to Assess Azerbaijan`s ICT Readiness The World Bank and McKinsey & Co. will carry out the
assessment of the information and communication technologies readiness of From
http://news.az/ Azerbaijani
ICT Sector Revenues Exceed $1.5 B in 2014 The volume of income received on the ICT sector and postal
services in From
http://en.trend.az/ The development of information technologies will be supported by
the government of Kazakhstan, the country’s prime minister, Karim Massimov
said Oct. 7 at the Global e-Government Forum 2014, held in Astana. “The information technologies’
development has a profound impact on society,” Massimov said. “Our government
wants to promote the country’s positive development through the use of
information and communication technologies (ICT).” He added that today these technologies
are irreplaceable for the modern society and the global economy. The PM noted that the ICT provide
communication between different people in a variety of new formats. “We are using new technologies between
the government and business. We can receive great benefits through such
mechanisms as the e-purchases, e-taxation and e-licensing,” Massimov
added. “And we were able to
improve the efficiency, accessibility and transparency of many key services
rendered by the state authorities,” he said. Massimov added that From
http://en.trend.az/ |
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Top
10 Key ICT Trends Set to Impact Regional Market International
Data Corporation (IDC) envisions 2015 will be a year of accelerating
innovation on the 3rd Platform. “While the smartphone component of IT
spending continues to grow in Asia Pacific,” explains Shyne-Song Chuang,
Program Director, Cross-Pillar, Security and Technology Advisory Service
Research Group, IDC Asia/Pacific. “Its relative size is plateauing as
enterprises shift gears to focus on efficient workflows on both employee and
enterprise-owned devices; web scale cloud systems built by agile development
teams to enable new business capabilities and systemic improvements on the
journey to becoming a true data driven enterprise. Not forgetting
personalised digital experiences as well as branded Internet of Things (IoT)
that provide an unprecedented customer experience.” Following the Chuang’s
observations, IDC revised IT spending growth in the Asia/Pacific, excluding IT spending
growth for the rest of the 2014-2018 forecast period however is expected to
climb upwards to 6.4% in 2017. IDC expects the APeJ region to remain a most
reliable engine for growth with multinational companies (MNCs) and Asian
enterprises alike continuing to relentlessly look to 1) US$15B of
government funding in 2015 will turn ICT plans into battlefields innovators In 2015, IDC
expects government ICT investments to be focused on the consolidation and
streamlining of scarce ICT resources; the attainment of better management
tools for effective decision making; and cyber-security. In the next two to
three years, IDC expects several regional authorities to utilise new sourcing
models for transformational ICT such as 3rd platform technologies (i.e.
cloud, Big Data/ analytics, mobility and social); continued Smart City
programs; connected smart machines and intelligent sensors (i.e. edge
computing); and IoT. 2) 60% of
enterprises in 2015 will structure IT into core vs Lines of Business (LoB) IT In 2015, IDC
predicts that 60% of enterprises will structure their IT departments into two
functional groups: Core IT and a separate LoB IT function. For larger
organisations, these groups will become physically distinct entities, but for
most Asia Pacific enterprises this separation will be logical, as the two kinds
of roles will be distinctly different but the reporting structure may not
differ. 3) The software-defined battle lines will get
defined in 2015 The hybrid
cloud, or federated datacenter is still the current architecture of choice
for organisations trying to align their IT infrastructure to the demands of
the business. Looking ahead to 2015 and based on the IDC Asia/Pacific
Transformative Infrastructure (TI) Index, between 20-25% of all organisations
will already have adopted Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Software-Defined
Storage (SDS) or with Software-Defined Datacenter (SDDC) to deliver on the
hybrid cloud architecture (such as automation, show back and service catalog
capabilities) across the region. 4) The agile development team will be in high demand
in 2015 with growth in DevOps adoptions IDC's IT
Services Survey found that 45% of businesses are undergoing or planning to
undergo application modernisation projects. Their ability to scale up 3rd
Platform adoption will require changes to IT operation that bring agility and
overcome siloed legacy systems. This need for speed will bring the first big
wave of DevOps adoption in the region and will make agile development the
de-facto norm. 5) The digital experience in 2015 will
separate market leaders from followers - Agility is the new business hygiene Organisations
are experimenting with “immersive experiences” and virtual brand experiences.
These initiatives attempt to drive different conversations, promote digital
channels, reduce the cost per transaction, and positively change the brand
and perception of the organisation. Ultimately, the goal is to improve the
overall customer experience. IDC predicts that in 2015, the digital
experience will separate market leaders from followers. Agility will become
the new business hygiene. 6) 3rd Platform technology mash-ups go on
steroids in 2015, driving new business models and fundamental organisational
change The mash-ups
of Cloud, Social Business, Big Data Analytics and 7) Creating new markets with branded IoT During the
past year, IDC has witnessed an explosion in the consumer wearables market
with new fitness bands, smart watches and smart clothing being launched from traditional
OEM vendors and a multitude of tech startups and 3rd platform-born players.
IDC believes that in 2015, the market will see a flux of consumer IoT
embedded into consumer retail brands/products. Partnerships between IoT
vendors (including ODM/OEM manufacturers) and non-tech consumer goods’ brands
will emerge rapidly to create a sizable market opportunity for the IT
industry. 8) Personalised businesses will thrive on
disruptive platforms in 2015 In 2015, IDC
predicts that there will be an influx of cloud-based, business-led innovation
platforms to support the growing need for personal digital services and
businesses across multiple sectors and industries. These personal services
deliver a new level of customer experience that has become the new norm. Many
of these will leverage cloud-based, business-led innovation platforms to
support this growing need. 9) Data whisperers will emerge in 2015 driving
the shift to a data-driven enterprise While
technology is a critical component of business success, becoming a
data-driven organisation is about more than just investing in the right
technologies. This transformation needs to be complemented with a cultural
shift toward analytically oriented decisions and processes. IDC predicts that
in the next three years, those who fail to adopt a data-driven strategy will
no longer be able to effectively meet consumer demands. 10) Service providers will compete
aggressively in 2015 for world dominance with the support of Big Data and
analytics Big Data and
analytics will be a major weapon for service providers in 2015. Those that
are able to attract consumer transactions and assets will have a much deeper
arsenal to work with. The service provider industry is transforming and the
self-defining entities within it will emerge from a wide variety of heritage.
The American mega-providers will continue to lead in the near term, but other
and more organisations will challenge that position. IDC predicts that the
battle for global dominance of the consumer will be defined in the coming
year. From Why
2015 will be a year of accelerating innovation on the 3rd Platform across From http://www.computerworld.co.nz
From http://www.futuregov.asia
Big Data,
Big Models, New Insights - Launch of New ARC Centre of Excellence A new $20 million
Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence launched today at The
University of Melbourne will create innovative mathematical and statistical
models that can uncover the knowledge concealed within the size and
complexity of big data sets. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and
Statistical Frontiers of Big Data, Big Models, New Insights will focus on
using newly developed models to deliver insight into societal problems such
as health, sustainable environments and prosperous societies. ARC Chief
Executive Officer, Professor Aidan Byrne, welcomed the launch of the new
Centre and said it would play an important role in developing new models to
the benefit of the nation. "In this day and age we produce a massive
amount of data, which comes in numerous forms and is collected from a multitude
of sources, often making the data too complex and difficult to process.
"Researchers at this Centre of Excellence will take these data sets,
analyse and produce new models to ensure the data can be applied
appropriately and deliver positive benefits for us all," Professor Byrne
said. Some particular areas
that this Centre will focus on include: data modelling of the heart to
improve our health care system; new data-based solutions, through smart
phones and the internet, to manage traffic; and integration of data models to
produce reliable tools for reef management. This new Centre is led by ARC
Australian Laureate Fellow, Professor Peter Hall, a highly respected and
recognised researcher for his work in developing theoretical tools to analyse
data. The Centre will collaborate with five Australian universities and seven
other partner organisations, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics,
Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems ( From http://www.arc.gov.au
Record 3 Million Users
on Online Tax Payment Systems Australia’s new
electronic tax payments systems were used by a record 3 million people in the
past year, according to the Australian Tax Office annual report published
this week. It said that 2.8 million used the e-tax system, which is for more
complicated business taxes, while a further 750,000 used the new mytax
system, launched this May for personal taxes. The mytax platform was also
linked to the myGov system run by the Department of Human Services, which
gives citizens a single portal for all transactions with central government.
The report says that 2.4 million myGov accounts were linked to the ATO by 30
September. Earlier this year, the myGov service crashed on the first day of
the new financial year. Overall, the ATO received 20.7 million payments
electronically, with only 1.4 million received manually. Paper-based
lodgements have declined by 36% since 2012. The annual
report set out the agency’s plans for the future. It committed to using voice
biometric technology for proof of identity when conducting telephone
transactions, and using electronic taxpayer notice of assessments in
mid-2015. It also committed to make interactions “digital by default”,
creating systems that can be tailored for taxpayers and prevent them from
making mistakes. Last year the ATO launched a mobile app providing tax
information and calculators, which was downloaded more than 196,000 times. From http://www.futuregov.asia
Shift to
smartphones challenges marketers The big
question for marketers is whether their approach to selling fits with the way
people are using mobile devices. Big ad agencies have specialist teams
tailoring their marketing to make mobile promotions more effective. The move
from desktop and laptops to smartphones needs a bigger shift in thinking than
tweaking images to work on smaller screens. DDB New Zealand chief executive
Justin Mowday says smartphones are "very personal" devices.
Marketers had to remember that some people did not like to be interrupted.
Advertisers are aware that messages have to be welcome. "Communications
are a value exchange. People watch free-to-air television and they accept
that there is a value exchange." In return for seeing the ad breaks
people get programming for free. Likewise mobile apps need to be enjoyable
experiences for mobile users, Mowday said. "The fact is that the
experience you get from watching advertising on a big cinema screen - or a 42
inch TV screen - is a lot better than you get from your mobile," he
said. Mobile
advertising has to be a value-added proposition, he said. Mowday accepted
that mobile marketing was entering a new phase as it took up a greater
proportion of users' time on the web, but he warned about excessive optimism.
It was like the idea of smartphone geo-marketing, which had been around for a
long time, but it was still coming. Corey Chalmers, an executive creative
director at Saatchi & Saatchi, says mobile is already being treated as
"the first screen".Chalmers said there were pitfalls in marketing
through smartphones. There was a tendency for apps - which enable marketers
to make direct contact with consumers on their mobiles - to be "one-hit
wonders". So ideas for reaching smartphone users had to have more depth.
Marketing to mobile had becoming an increasingly critical part of their
business operations, Chalmers said. "Take a
look around on a bus people are staring at their screens the majority of the
time. They've got time to enjoy stuff," he said. "Marketing is so
much more than just ads now. It's an app that gives extra features to sell a
movie, it's a way to get a voucher for free beer, it's a way to check your
heart rate and sell some Nikes along the way," Chalmers said. Ford changes
gear on mobile media advertising Ford New Masterson
thought maybe three other car marketers in Getting
connected Technology
research firm IDC surveyed 1500 NZ households in March and April about their
use of technology. •The average
number of household devices connected to the internet has risen from •47% of
respondents would prefer to shop online than in a physical store. •17% would
prefer to watch a movie alone on their tablet. •Six in 10
Kiwis own multiple mobile devices From http://www.nzherald.co.nz
The Solomons
Oceanic Cable company says it will have a broadband network up and running in
three of From http://www.radionz.co.nz
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