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Autumn 2015 Issue 51 |
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GLOBAL:
Gartner’s Top 10 Government Tech Trends in 2015 Technologies that enable new service models for digital
government must be at the top of the list for government organisations as
they prioritise technology investments, according to Gartner. The analyst
firm has identified the ten most important technology trends for government
in 2015 in order to help CIOs and IT leaders assess critical strategic
technologies and plan their enterprises' or agencies' IT roadmaps. Spending
by national, federal and local governments worldwide on technology products
and services is forecast to decline 1.8% from $439 billion to $431 billion in
2015, growing to $475.5 billion by 2019. Gartner research director Rick
Howard said organisational culture, legacy IT systems and business processes,
stretched IT budgets, and the lack of critical IT skills are among the
inhibitors for government CIOs when evaluating and selecting new technology
or sourcing options. "These strategic technology trends have substantial
disruptive potential that is just beginning to materialise and will reach an
inflection point within the next three to five years," said Howard.
"Public sector CIOs can capitalise on the value of these trends by first
determining how they will impact government programme operations or service
delivery models, and then by building the organisational capabilities and
capacity needed to support them." 1. Digital workplace The government workforce of the future will be populated with
digitally literate employees, from frontline workers to top-level executives.
The digital workplace is open, flat and democratic. It is the organisational
manifestation of open government. CIOs and IT leaders must take a leadership
role in building a more social, mobile, accessible and information-driven
work environment. 2. Multichannel citizen engagement Government jurisdictions with multiple channels (municipal
offices, physical mail correspondence, contact centres, e-government websites
and mobile apps) are struggling to provide their citizens with one coherent
view of the organisation. A multichannel strategy, in the context of digital
government, means more than delivering a seamless experience to stakeholders.
It also is about delivering interactions that are connected, consistent,
convenient, collaborative, customised, clear and transparent. To produce
those outcomes, policymakers and CIOs must radically redesign service models
by combining traditional marketing tools (such as focus groups, user
experience labs, surveys and stakeholder analysis) with new approaches (such
as citizen co-creation initiatives, agile development and design thinking). 3. Open any data The number and variety of public-facing open datasets and web
APIs published by all tiers of governments worldwide continue to increase.
Gartner's view is that government open data is here to stay, but it will take
a decade or more before its maximum utility is realised. The rapid growth of
open datasets among early mover organisations and flat or declining budgets
create sustainability challenges to government open data programmes. Open
data is not free. For most government agencies, open data programmes are an
unfunded or underfunded cost centre. The ‘value’ of open data must become
tangible to government in terms of how its availability can quantifiably
contribute to operational efficiency or effectiveness, let alone how it
supports economic development, national productivity or commercial ventures.
Gartner predicts that by 2018, more than 30% of digital government projects
will treat any data as open data. 4. Citizen e-ID Citizen electronic identification (e-ID) refers to an
orchestrated set of processes and technologies managed by governments to
provide a trusted domain for how public services will be accessed by citizens
on any device or through any online channel (web, mobile devices or
applications) — and, in some cases, using smart card readers attached to PCs
or kiosks. It has been a long-standing yet elusive goal of many government
planners to provide citizens with integrated and seamless access to all
government services. To be successful, citizen e-ID programmes require a
trusted relationship between government and commercial vendors, with a focus
on business value, interoperability and user experience. Regardless of
whether a government agency serves as the primary citizen e-ID identity
broker or contracts with a commercial identity and access management as a
service (IDaaS) provider, CIOs must ensure that personal privacy and data
confidentiality requirements are met. 5. Edge analytics Analytics is rapidly evolving from a separate and distinct
business function into a fluid aspect of system operations and user
experiences. The capabilities of edge analytics are particularly relevant as
government CIOs and agency programme leaders design new mobile services that
are augmented by situational context and real-time interactions. Edge
analytics possess three distinct characteristics. Primarily, they are
advanced — they apply predictive and prescriptive algorithms and cognitive
computing to make real-time assessments about what will happen or what should
happen. Second, edge analytics are pervasive. They are embedded into business
processes and applications to deliver responsive and agile organisational
performance. Finally, edge analytics are invisible. They operate continuously
in the background, tracking user activity, processing sensor and
environmental data, dynamically adjusting workflows to enhance the user
experience, or managing activities during events as they unfold. 6. Scalable interoperability Government agencies are starting to increasingly rely on data
exchange with external partners in order to optimise their service delivery
networks and business functions, such as cross-boundary collaboration and
service coordination, monitoring and outcome reporting. Scalable
interoperability offers government CIOs, enterprise architects and business
process analysts an incremental, ‘just enough’ approach to architecture and
standards to deliver ‘soon enough’ value. By narrowing the scope of
interoperability initiatives, a motivated community of interest — that is,
stakeholders who receive tangible benefits from improved data exchange — can
agree to use application-neutral and source-neutral extensible identifiers, formats
and protocols to achieve mutual goals. 7. Digital government platforms In digital business, citizens should no longer have to navigate
among various agencies and programmes through vertical, first-generation
e-government web portals in order to locate the services they seek. A digital
government platform incorporates service-oriented architecture design
patterns for the provision and use of enterprise services across multiple
domains, systems and processes. Vendor offerings are still at an early stage,
and they focus primarily on supporting smart cities. Examples include 8. Internet of Things The IoT is the network of physical objects (fixed or mobile)
that contains embedded technology to communicate, monitor, sense or interact
with multiple environments. For government, the IoT enables the digital
transformation of service strategies. Government agencies can expect
IoT-driven changes in several different areas, including environmental or
public infrastructure monitoring, emergency response, supply chain
inspection, asset and fleet management, and traffic safety. Government CIOs
will need to approach the IoT strategically to evaluate how a growing base of
intelligent objects and equipment can be combined with traditional internet
and IT systems to support breakthrough innovations in operational performance
or public service delivery. 9. Web-scale IT Web-scale IT is a system-oriented architectural pattern of
global-class computing that delivers the capabilities of large cloud service
providers within an enterprise IT organisation. Web-scale IT enables the
rapid and scalable development and delivery of web-based IT services that
leverage agile, lean and continuous delivery principles. For government, the
shift to web-scale IT is a long-term trend with significant IT process,
cultural and technology implications. Organisations adopting a web-scale IT
philosophy will largely eschew the acquisition of expensive, scalable
computing, storage and networking resources in favour of lower-cost,
open-source-derived hardware that bypasses the traditional infrastructure
‘middlemen’. Consequently, traditional IT suppliers and delivery modes will
become less relevant to government IT. 10. Hybrid cloud (and IT) Hybrid IT offers government CIOs a new operating model that
supports their IT departments' ability to combine and manage on-premises
infrastructure or internal private cloud with external cloud-based
environments (community, public or hybrid) simultaneously. Hybrid IT is how
IT departments are organised to secure, deliver, manage and govern these
environments. In government, where consolidation is high on many agendas, a
hybrid IT model requires very different competencies to support various
public cloud deployments. Government CIOs will need to reposition IT
organisations from being full-service providers of IT services to being their
agencies' preferred brokers and managers of services offered predominantly
through the cloud. From http://www.information-age.com/ 07/26/2015 Public
Access ICT Across Cultures: Diversifying Participation in the Network Society Shared public access to computers and the Internet in developing
countries is often hailed as an effective, low-cost way to share the benefits
of digital technology. Yet research on the economic and social effects of
public access to computers is lacking. This volume offers the first
systematic assessment of the impact of shared public access in the developing
world, with findings from ten countries in South America, Asia, and The book documents the impact of public access on individuals,
on society and networks, and on women. Chapters report findings and examine
policy implications of research on such topics as users’ perceptions of the
benefits of Internet café use in Jordan; ICT job training in Rwanda;
understanding user motivations and risk factors for overuse and Internet
addiction in China; the effect of technology use on social inclusion among
low-income urban youth in Argentina; productive uses of technologies by
grassroots organizations in Peru; use of technology by migrant ethnic
minority Burmese women in Thailand to maintain ties with their culture and
their family and friends; and women’s limited access to the most ubiquitous
type of venue, cybercafés, in practically all countries studied—and quite
severely in some places, e.g. Uttar Pradesh, India. From http://apo.org.au/
07/03/2015 New ICT
Report Points to Future Development An
Information Communications Technology expert says he hopes a new report will
trigger greater access and connectivity across the Pacific. The Pacific
Region Infrastructure Facility report highlights the improved access to
infrastructure and services across the Pacific and looks at the potential for
greater ICT development. The government's $30 million ICT fund aims to
support Maori economic development, language and culture. The Facility
director, Sanjivi Ransingham, says the report will help Pacific governments
and the private sector identify opportunities for investment. Mr Ransingham
says the report illustrated the major changes in the region with under half
of Pacific households having access to mobile phones in 2007 to 93 percent in
2014 being an example. He says the report also included some necessary
recommendations. "Do data collection and monitoring of the sector.
Leveraging international connectivity. Fostering relearning and educational
content creation. Holding ICT-enabled agricultural services. Stimulating
e-Health, health services that can be provided through the internet and then
e-Government, boosting tourism and finally and most importantly making ICT
access universal." From
http://www.radionz.co.nz
06/22/2015 Why
When it comes to crafting good digital policy, That would be a pity – one that could have been easily avoided.
In 2012, the European Commission presented a proposal to replace the EU’s
existing data-protection legislation, the latest version of which had been
drafted in 1995, when the Internet played only a tiny role in the economy.
The initial text was promising. It aimed to harmonize The ministers also adopted a broad definition of personal data.
Both cookies (small pieces of data stored on a web surfer’s computer) and IP
addresses (a code used to identify a computer when it is connected to the
Internet) would be included – even though neither provides a link to a
particular individual. At best, this broad, indiscriminate definition of
personal data threatens to create unnecessary obstacles for EU-based digital
advertisers. At worst, it will outlaw their business model. Unnecessarily
strict data rules will hurt European companies disproportionately. Google,
Facebook, and other American Internet giants are in a position to receive
explicit consent from users. But The From https://agenda.weforum.org/ 07/10/2015 From http://www.korea.net
05/21/2015 Internet Internet
The
government should consult with industry and peak bodies such as Internet A
joint submission from the Australian Industry Group, the Australian
Information Industry Association, the Australian Mobile Telecommunications
Association, and Communications Alliance has condemned the government's
proposals as a "significant deterrent" to technological investment
in From
http://www.computerworld.com.au
08/05/2015 Cloud computing infrastructure may not be replacing on-premise
infrastructure in Canada just yet, but there’s a move afoot to go
“cloud-first”— an opportunity for information technology (IT) departments to
pursue new initiatives considering the advantages of a cloud infrastructure
before examining the implications of an on-premise solution.Cloud computing
once fell squarely under the banner of “hype.” It’s now become a mainstream
alternative to on-premise solutions, and for good reasons. Chief among them
is the cost certainty that comes from moving computing infrastructure from a
capital expense (CAPEX) to an operational expense (OPEX). Other benefits
include the extensibility and scalability of the infrastructure, as well as
confidence in the currency of your applications and service level agreements
that promise uptime and security. Although there’s often a clear business
case for moving to the cloud, it’s not a simple decision. There are three
critical dimensions to consider. What kind of cloud is right for your
applications? Cloud infrastructures come in three basic flavours. In a public
cloud, you share an infrastructure with other enterprises. This has the
advantage of scalability — more cycles can be devoted to your workload on
demand — but a shared infrastructure means you’ll be scaling at the same time
as other tenants. In a private cloud infrastructure, you’re not sharing with
other tenants, but the cost is generally higher. Increasing in popularity is
the hybrid cloud, wherein certain datasets and application workloads are
hosted in a private cloud for security and control purposes, while other
applications are designed to scale out to a public cloud infrastructure when
workload demands it. Where — physically — will this cloud architecture exist? While
virtualized workloads can be efficiently hosted, scaled, and migrated on a
physical platform hosted by a provider, they can also be hosted internally
within the business, ideally, managed by a service provider to provide the
SLAs and cost-certainty that make cloud so attractive. What degree of control
do you need? In a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, the service provider
spins up instances of applications for scalability, and ensures these
pre-packaged applications are up-to-date and secure. In a
platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model, development rests more in the hands of
the customer. Applications aren’t pre-packaged and can be developed according
to the demands of the enterprise. In an infrastructure-as-a-service model
(IaaS), development and maintenance rest entirely with the customer, with the
service provider simply providing the hardware and supporting infrastructure,
e.g., power, heat, cooling, etc. Join us for a two-part series of webinars
that will help you explore and understand cloud services better and what they
can do for your business. On June 9, from 1 to 2 p.m. Cloud Goes Mainstream,
discusses real-life examples of how the cloud can transform business. On June
23 from 1 to 2 p.m. EDT, Managing Cloud Strategically, focuses on how to
build on and manage cloud computing for strategic advantage, with specific
use cases, a focus on integrating cloud-based and legacy applications, and
the security implications of cloud-based infrastructure. From http://www.itworldcanada.com/ 06/01/2015 The top legislature opened its bimonthly session on Wednesday,
with lawmakers considering draft laws on cyber and national security, and a
draft amendment to the Criminal Law. The draft law on cyber security was
submitted for its first reading at the session of the National People's
Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, which runs until July 1. The session was
presided over by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee. The
68-article draft law on cyber security suggests mechanisms to guarantee the
safety of Internet products, services, operation, network data, and
information. Lawmakers also mulled a law concerning the security of Lawmakers also deliberated a draft amendment to the Criminal Law
for the second time, which included more items defined as terrorism.
According to the draft amendment, those financing training programs for
terrorists will face more than five years in prison, in addition to fines and
confiscation of property. Under the current law, these punishments are
applied only to those funding terrorist organizations and individuals
carrying out acts of terror. Those recruiting and transporting personnel for
terrorist organizations, activities or training will also now face more than
five years in prison in serious cases, according to the draft amendment.
Items related to school bus safety were also reviewed. Drivers of overloaded
school buses may be incarcerated, according to a draft amendment. Those
driving school buses at a speed that exceeds the designated limit, as well as
owners or managers, may also face the same punishment, according to the
draft. With regard to cults, lawmakers discussed harsher punishment for those
involved in cults or superstitious activities that hamper the implementation
of laws and regulations. According to the draft amendment to the Criminal
Law, in serious cases the maximum punishment may be extended to life
imprisonment, in addition to fines or confiscation of property. Currently,
the maximum sentence for those found guilty of cult-related crimes is 15
years in prison. Lawmakers also mulled stricter air pollution control measures,
deliberating the regulation of emissions from boats and ships. According to a
draft amendment to the Air Pollution Law, ships on inland or river-to-sea
waterways must use standard diesel to cut emissions. Ocean-going vessels will
also be required to use fuels that conform to Under the program, prosecutors will be allowed to file a civil
lawsuit against any act that compromises public rights and interests by
pollution or by undermining food and drug safety, according to the bill. <
The top legislature also started reviewing an agreement on the founding of
the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) on Wednesday, intended to fund
infrastructure in the BRICS bloc and other developing economies. The
agreement was signed by all of the bloc's members -- From http://www.news.cn/
06/24/2015 Building
MANY agencies in charge of city development around the world are
working blind, making decisions without the ability to see the impact these
decisions have on the complex and dynamic ecosystem of a city. “That is the
reality of how they work and the reason is because it’s so complex, with
issues ranging from energy and waste management, to space utilisation and
even the lifecycle management of buildings,” said Dassault Systèmes president
and chief executive officer Bernard Charlès. “And most of the assets to plan
the lifecycle of a city is very poorly documented, and with poor maps – some
digitised, others not – there is no holistic approach to city management or
planning,” he told told a recent media briefing in In 2014, the population of Contextualising big data Calling it the process of building Much has been said about the benefits of big data in urban
planning and smart city management, but the fact is, its potential can’t
truly be harnessed without a reference point and, more importantly, context.
“When it comes to big data and cities, the problem is, you don’t know what to
do with it. You can’t use it if you don’t put in … the real context of a city
to understand. “With Virtual Singapore, agencies can use a ‘master model’ to
put things into context, to leverage their sets of existing information to
evaluate the impact of any changes such as traffic optimisation, planning
infrastructure development or risk management,” he said. Charlès said that
access to a 3D model simulation is more than just about visualisation but is
about enabling cross-agency collaboration on a common platform, to help
arbitrate the impact of new initiatives. There’s also the potential to expand
this to mobile devices to enable new services and offer access to citizens in
the decisions shaping how their city develops. In response to security
concerns over sensitive data being handled by a third-party vendor, Charlès
said that Challenges and confidence Charlès said that the Virtual Singapore project is now in the
experimentation phase of its development, since work began on the project a
year ago. “There are multiple milestones that we need to cross and with the
experimentation stage that kicks off this year, there will be trials with
small selected groups of citizens to get feedback about what’s valuation
information for them. “It’s not just about learning from agency specialists
and their needs, but also ensuring accessibility for citizens for certain
decision-making processes and services. “So we’re at that stage now with
experimenting with agencies and select groups of citizens,” he added. In
terms of challenges faced in making Virtual Singapore a viable and thriving
tool, Charlès said that dealing with legacy data is one. “There’s a lot of
value in legacy data but there is good data and bad data, and cases where
people believe that bad data is good when it’s not. You need to show that
some of the legacy data is of poor quality and needs to be rectified. “Having
the open architecture in place so you can use reuse that existing data is one
consideration, and the other is having people recognise that data they’re
supposed to have, may not be at the quality they require. “There could be
gaps that need to be filled or improved upon. For example, is the height of
every building in Many government agencies with their own tools, historical habits
and processes may also find that making the switching to a less ‘siloed’ and
more collaborative approach would be a challenge. Charlès believes that this
is a challenge not specific to From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/20/2015 The headlines have said it all: “OPM’s archaic IT infrastructure
opened door for massive data breach” and invited “the ultimate wake-up
call.” While We wholeheartedly agree with the CIO and offer a “friendly
amendment” to his strategy: accelerate shared services implementation so that
the government’s limited cyber expertise and investment funds can be
concentrated on a smaller number of fully modernized, cyber-secure shared
transactional platforms. As President Obama observed, “part of the problem is
that we’ve got very old systems.” He’s right: many government platforms are so
antiquated that they cannot be cyber-enhanced cost-effectively. And there are far too many obsolete
systems than make sense to modernize, and they are far too scattered to
inventory and protect effectively. An antiquated, far-flung technology
environment is only part of the problem.
Culture is an equally formidable challenge. Most agencies are not conducive
environments for security-driven decision-making. Agencies exist to serve
constituencies. Leadership
priorities and career tracks are based on fulfilling constituent needs, and
mission priorities always trump security and administrative needs in the
competition for scarce funds. Moreover, cyber-security expertise is in limited
supply and is not highly valued in most agencies. Taken together, tight
budgets, limited expertise and cultural blind spots create perfect storms of
agency vulnerability throughout the federal environment. OPM is an unfortunate but classic example of this
phenomenon. According to the
agency’s Inspector General, eleven OPM systems were operating without valid
authorizations to operate (ATO), and numerous platforms were not subject to
routine scanning for compliance with established security standards. Limited IT funds were steered to other
priorities. Clearly, the culture
of OPM did not take cyber security seriously enough. We are long past the day
when every agency can afford to maintain and protect its own critical
infrastructure for common business and mission-related transactions. It’s time to modernize the federal
shared services marketplace and accelerate agency migration to meet
ever-increasing security threats.
Let private providers compete with government providers, while setting
a high, consistent bar for cyber security for all services and
providers. Let government
providers charge cost recovery prices that capture sufficient reserves to
finance modernization and security compliance organically. Encourage government providers to use
market-based practices to recruit top talent and cultivate cultures that
reward excellence in cyber security. Effective security consists of an
integrated system of policies, procedures, and activities that are designed
to manage and reduce risks to the organization, protect critical data,
information and physical assets, ensure the reliability of service delivery,
and comply with applicable federal security laws and related OMB guidance and
policies. By implementing shared services, government agencies can improve
their ability to deliver more effective security. Let us illustrate with some
simple but persuasive examples: - By performing a work or government business process in a
smaller number of physical locations, it is inherently easier to monitor and
manage the process and reduce fraud. - By consolidating people into fewer locations, security
knowledge, awareness and competencies can be addressed with more timely and
consistent and efficient security training and behavioral remediation -Segregation of duties can be difficult to achieve in an
environment in which a process is fragmented across people and organizations,
but through consolidation a shared services organization is in a much better
position to implement this control. Shared services is about standardizing processes and supporting
technology. This can improve security effectiveness and efficiency by
reducing variation in security controls and eliminating duplication of
security work and reporting. By standardizing
technology — for example moving to a common financial shared services
platform — agencies can significantly reduce the number of system setups,
interfaces, security profiles, and manual workarounds, all of which
streamline security control design and testing. One thing is certain: more attacks
are coming. Reports indicate that on average 120,000 security hacks of
varying sophistication occur every day around the world. Last year GAO
reported that incidents involving exposure of personally identifiable
information more than doubled from around 10,000 incidents in 2009 to over
25,000 in 2013. As many as 80,000 new variants of computer viruses are
created each day, and even the best anti-virus software has only about a 40
percent success rate. Moving forward with cyber-sophisticated shared services
should be a core element of a comprehensive federal cyber strategy that is up
to 21st century challenges. From http://federalnewsradio.com/ 07/20/2015 |
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AFRICA:
The Film and Publication Board’s new Draft Online Regulation
Policy has been touted as a measure to protect the children. But if the
children of our future get to take a look at its deeply censorial and
draconian measures, they ought to be extremely offended. The Film and
Publications Board’s (FPB) Draft Online Regulation Policy has been called “ From http://allafrica.com/
06/12/2015 South
African Cabinet Approves Internet Censorship Bill From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 08/19/2015 Today, Ministers in the Justice Council have sealed a general
approach on the Commission proposal on the Data Protection Regulation.
Modern, harmonised data protection rules will contribute to making The aim of the data protection reform launched by the Commission
in 2012 (IP/12/46) is to enable people to better control their personal data.
At the same time modernised rules will allow businesses to make the most of
the opportunities of the Digital Single Market by cutting red tape and
benefiting from reinforced consumer trust. A more rigorous and coherent data
protection framework will provide for greater legal and practical certainty
for citizens, businesses and public authorities. In March 2014, the European
Parliament supported the Commission's proposal to reform data protection (see
MEMO/14/186). The European Council has called for adoption of the data
protection reform in 2015. Today's General Approach on the Data Protection Regulation
includes agreement on: One continent, one law – the regulation will establish
a single set of rules on data protection, valid across the EU. Companies will
deal with one law, not 28. This will save businesses around �2.3 billion a
year. In addition, the new rules will particularly benefit small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), reducing red tape for them.
Unnecessaryadministrative requirements, such as notification requirements for
companies, will be removed: this measure alone will save them �130 million
per year. Strengthened and additional rights - the right to be forgotten will
be reinforced. When citizens no longer want their data to be processed and
there are no legitimate grounds for retaining it, the controller must delete
the data, unless they can show that it is still needed or relevant. Citizens
will also be better informed if their data is hacked. A right to data
portability will make it easier for users to transfer personal data between
service providers. European rules on European soil – companies based outside
of More powers for independent national data protection authorities
– those authorities will be strengthened in order to effectively enforce the
rules, and will be empowered to fine companies that violate EU data
protection rules. This can lead to penalties of up to �1 million or up to 2%
of the global annual turnover of a company. The 'one-stop shop' - the rules
will establish a 'one-stop shop' for businesses and citizens: companies will
only have to deal with one single supervisory authority, not 28, making it
simpler and cheaper for companies to do business across the EU. Individuals
will only have to deal with their home national data protection authority, in
their own language - even if their personal data is processed outside their
home country. Next steps The first Trilogue meeting between the Commission, the European
Parliament and the Council of the EU will take place on June 24 with the
participation of Commissioner Jourová. The three institutions intend to agree
on a roadmap towards the finalisation of the reform in 2015. From http://europa.eu/
06/15/2015 Europe
Backs Plan for European governments Friday endorsed a plan for the From http://blogs.wsj.com/
06/16/2015 Why
When it comes to crafting good digital policy, That would be a pity – one that could have been easily avoided.
In 2012, the European Commission presented a proposal to replace the EU’s
existing data-protection legislation, the latest version of which had been
drafted in 1995, when the Internet played only a tiny role in the economy.
The initial text was promising. It aimed to harmonize The ministers also adopted a broad definition of personal data.
Both cookies (small pieces of data stored on a web surfer’s computer) and IP
addresses (a code used to identify a computer when it is connected to the
Internet) would be included – even though neither provides a link to a
particular individual. At best, this broad, indiscriminate definition of
personal data threatens to create unnecessary obstacles for EU-based digital
advertisers. At worst, it will outlaw their business model. Unnecessarily
strict data rules will hurt European companies disproportionately. Google,
Facebook, and other American Internet giants are in a position to receive
explicit consent from users. But The From https://agenda.weforum.org/ 07/10/2015 The European Commission has approved From http://www.totaltele.com/ 06/16/2015 Bite
Mobile operator Bite Telegeography’s GlobalComms Database notes that last month, Bite
announced the completion of phase two of its 3G network development
programme, which saw coverage increased in rural areas across the country.
The cellco installed additional base stations, carried out a software update
and expanded network capacity, boosting 3G network coverage to 95%-97% of the
territory. In August 2014 Bite revealed plans to invest around EUR50 million
over the next few years in the deployment of an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network.
Services will be rolled out in the cities of From https://www.telegeography.com/ 05/24/2015 NORTH
AMERICA: Cloud computing infrastructure may not be replacing on-premise
infrastructure in Canada just yet, but there’s a move afoot to go
“cloud-first”— an opportunity for information technology (IT) departments to
pursue new initiatives considering the advantages of a cloud infrastructure
before examining the implications of an on-premise solution.Cloud computing
once fell squarely under the banner of “hype.” It’s now become a mainstream
alternative to on-premise solutions, and for good reasons. Chief among them
is the cost certainty that comes from moving computing infrastructure from a
capital expense (CAPEX) to an operational expense (OPEX). Other benefits
include the extensibility and scalability of the infrastructure, as well as
confidence in the currency of your applications and service level agreements
that promise uptime and security. Although there’s often a clear business
case for moving to the cloud, it’s not a simple decision. There are three
critical dimensions to consider. What kind of cloud is right for your
applications? Cloud infrastructures come in three basic flavours. In a public
cloud, you share an infrastructure with other enterprises. This has the
advantage of scalability — more cycles can be devoted to your workload on
demand — but a shared infrastructure means you’ll be scaling at the same time
as other tenants. In a private cloud infrastructure, you’re not sharing with
other tenants, but the cost is generally higher. Increasing in popularity is
the hybrid cloud, wherein certain datasets and application workloads are
hosted in a private cloud for security and control purposes, while other
applications are designed to scale out to a public cloud infrastructure when
workload demands it. Where — physically — will this cloud architecture exist? While
virtualized workloads can be efficiently hosted, scaled, and migrated on a
physical platform hosted by a provider, they can also be hosted internally
within the business, ideally, managed by a service provider to provide the
SLAs and cost-certainty that make cloud so attractive. What degree of control
do you need? In a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, the service provider
spins up instances of applications for scalability, and ensures these
pre-packaged applications are up-to-date and secure. In a
platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model, development rests more in the hands of
the customer. Applications aren’t pre-packaged and can be developed according
to the demands of the enterprise. In an infrastructure-as-a-service model
(IaaS), development and maintenance rest entirely with the customer, with the
service provider simply providing the hardware and supporting infrastructure,
e.g., power, heat, cooling, etc. Join us for a two-part series of webinars
that will help you explore and understand cloud services better and what they
can do for your business. On June 9, from 1 to 2 p.m. Cloud Goes Mainstream,
discusses real-life examples of how the cloud can transform business. On June
23 from 1 to 2 p.m. EDT, Managing Cloud Strategically, focuses on how to
build on and manage cloud computing for strategic advantage, with specific
use cases, a focus on integrating cloud-based and legacy applications, and
the security implications of cloud-based infrastructure. From http://www.itworldcanada.com/ 06/01/2015 Take
Action Against Data Breaches Now There’s no escape, and you can be assured that it will occur if
it hasn’t already! I’m talking about data breach. No single day passes
without hearing about a data breach incident in the news. But how do you deal
with all the security intrusions? There are two ways I’ll cover data breach,
both in terms of preventive and corrective actions. Facts and stats Not all organizations are equally at risk. A study showed that
the information and professional services industry is the most at risk taking
up a corporate data breach prevention and mitigationShutterstock.com third of
the data breach incidents. Following closely are financial services
companies. If your organization falls under these categories, it’s safe to say
that security should be your top priority, just from the stats. In the $5.32 million is the average total cost of data breach $250 is the average cost per lost or stolen record 52% of data breaches involved malicious or criminal attacks With the rising rates of data breach incidents, it was recorded
that more than two-thirds of incidents have featured phishing. The impact of incidents and cost of damage No doubt, data breaches have both financial and goodwill cost.
With the increase in breaches, the cost is both dollars and damage to brands.
For example, as per its 2014 Q4 earnings report, it will cost Target $162
million to recover the data breach incident. Another survey revealed that
reputation and brand protection ranked the highest, at 47 percent, while 39
percent ranked legal costs and regulatory fines as a high priority. Preventive Measures You have to do your best effort to prevent data breach. But how
do you prevent data breach from ever occurring, and is this even a
possibility? Here we refer to cyber-security which is a process of applying
security measures to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of
data. It all starts with data classification. No preventive measure will
prove effective unless you start by identifying confidential or sensitive
information. Data classification is a key in any preventive measure which
relies on designated data loss prevention (DLP) solutions to cover data:
in-use, in-motion, and at-rest. While DLP might be a viable solution, it has
a lot to do with internal employees which should be given special attention
as many attacks are internal. Internal data breach is as dangerous as the
external ones with employees are a major factor. Internal data breach can
take several forms: Email, Instant messaging, File transfer protocol, Social
media, Removable media, Cameras, or via Hard copy. In such cases, policies,
procedures, training and awareness programs are key measures to ensure that
employees are aware of their roles and responsibilities. Another critical measure
is on the application layer where enforcing best practices of security by
design, and secure coding could reduce if not eliminate the application flaws
and vulnerabilities. Also, with the speed change in the nature of attacks,
several intrusion detection techniques are needed to provide for a more
timely response, better monitor and analyze data and stop security incidents
before an actual data breach. Actually, a mind shift is needed to move
protection from the perimeter to building more internal controls as well. One
of the last measures is by adopting and enforcing new laws. New laws might be
needed prevent an illegal or unethical activity from occurring. Deterrence
can prevent illegal or unethical activity from occurring. Also, as penalties
are needed, is the enforcement of these penalties. Risk mitigation after data breach But, what if all the preventive measures mentioned above didn’t
prevent data breach, how do you recover? With the high likelihood of being
hit, here is what every organization should do: The first action of your
response plan is communicating the incident with your stakeholders, as
delivering the message is very critical. Also, the timing and the content of
the message is very important with respect to customer sensitivity in these
cases. Your incident response actions should include First of all notify your response team including, IT, security,
customer care, and legal office. Take actions to secure the area or network
zone where the data breach occurred. If the attack was over the internet, you
will need to stop additional data loss by taking the attacked server offline.
If the attack was internal, try to answer what, how, who, and when about the
incident. Document everything about the breach. You might need help of
external forensics service for an in-depth investigation. Notify legal office
and upper management. Most importantly, document all investigation related
information. From http://www.itworldcanada.com/ 06/17/2015 If you want a more open government, now is the time to put your
ideas where your mouth is. The White House seeks ideas and feedback from the
public, federal officials and other open government advocates as it develops
a third Open Government National Action Plan to be released later this year.
The announcement came in a White House blog post authored June 4 by Corinna
Zarek, senior adviser for open government at the White House Office of Science
and Technology Policy. The government’s first and second iterations of open
government NAPs were released in 2011 and 2013, and as Zarek notes, those
initiatives will be fully implemented by the end of 2015. Given the object is
a more open government, the process by which the White House will ideate for
the third NAP is transparent and open, yet perhaps even more so than prior
efforts. NAP suggestions can be emailed (opengov@ostp.gov) or tweeted to
@OpenGov. Users can also log into the collaborative, publicly available
Hackpad platform to share their thoughts and ideas. That online collaboration
will be managed by social and digital government guru Justin Herman of the
General Services Administration. The blog post makes clear that new
suggestions regarding old commitments are sought as much as ideas for new
initiatives. The only stipulations are that ideas are ambitious, relevant,
specific and measurable, according to Zarek. “You may wish to suggest
expanded commitments on topic areas from the first two plans such as public
participation, open data, records management, natural resource revenue
transparency, the Freedom of Information Act, open innovation, or open
educational resources, among others," Zarek wrote. "You may also
wish to suggest entirely new initiatives -- and we hope you do!” From http://www.nextgov.com/ 06/05/2015 States
at Odds with Feds on Data Breach Proposals As Americans’ personal information continues to move online,
everything from medical records to mothers’ maiden names, Social Security
numbers and fingerprints are increasingly up for grabs. And the states and
the federal government are at odds on how to respond. Since California first
began enforcing data breach reporting requirements in 2003, 46 other states,
the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands have
implemented varying degrees of regulation, including requirements to provide
free credit monitoring to victims, quickly notify consumers of a breach and
tell state attorneys general or other agencies about compromised records.
States are toughening their laws by broadening the definition of “personal
data,” requiring timelier reporting and expanding the number of people or
agencies companies must notify of a breach. In contrast, Congress is just now
coalescing around federal standards. Pending legislation would preempt the
collage of state laws and enforce a definition of personal information that
is narrower than what many states use. Caught in the middle are businesses,
which would prefer a single federal standard to the different state
requirements, and consumers who must scramble to protect their bank accounts,
credit cards and credit worthiness from thieves who steal their identities to
attack their assets. Scott Talbott, a senior vice president of government
affairs with the Electronic Transactions Association, which represents banks,
companies that make credit card swipe terminals and online payment companies,
said his organization welcomes a tough standard, but that continuing to
comply with so many state regulations is complicated. Without a federal standard, reporting breaches will continue to
be a cumbersome and expensive task, he said. “Letting consumers know what to
expect with one law we think is preferable, is more efficient and works
better for all parties involved in the current system,” Talbott said. David
Thaw an assistant professor of law and information services at the University
of Pittsburgh, said the proposed federal Data Security and Breach
Notification Act of 2015 is just a reporting law—one that is less stringent
than many state laws. What’s really needed, Thaw said, is a broad federal law
that would require companies to have better cybersecurity to protect consumers’
information and privacy from breaches. He said the patchwork of state laws
more effectively protects consumers, and that complying with them is not as
hard as companies say it is. “I am 100 percent certain I could write a
computer program which would take all of the inputs from a given data breach
and spit out all the notification letters,” he said. “It’s not hard. There
are very good attorneys out there who can put out all the notifications for
all the jurisdictions and get it right and get it done.” Breach Reporting Across the States With hacking attempts numbering into the thousands each day,
hundreds of Proponents say that requiring companies and organizations to
notify an attorney general of a breach guarantees that consumers will receive
information about their compromised data and that breaches can be
appropriately investigated. The bill is one of the most comprehensive in the
nation, said Democratic Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Republican
Gov. Bruce Rauner has not said whether he will sign it. “Identity theft is an
enormous problem,” Madigan said. “It’s sometimes very difficult to identify,
very difficult to clean up, and it can have an enormous impact on somebody’s
ability to function in our world.” Twenty-one states and A Congressional Standard Jason Brewer, vice president for communications and advocacy at
the Retail Industry Leaders Association said his organization favors a
federal standard that would preempt state laws. Reacting to a breach often
involves setting up and staffing call centers, communicating with Internet
service providers to ensure that email notifications aren’t caught in spam
filters, and then identifying and reaching out to people affected by a
breach, Brewer said. “Part of the challenge is there’s a lot more that goes
into notifying than hitting send on an email,” he said. The average cost of a
data breach to a From http://www.govtech.com/ 06/12/2015 A
Guide to Treating Internet Access Like Critical Infrastructure (Because It
Is) Next Century Cities has developed a policy agenda for state and
local officials promoting its lone goal: high-quality broadband networks for
everyone. The non-profit coalition of local governments, which advocates for
the expansion of high-speed broadband Internet networks, launched in October
2014 with 32 cities, but has since grown to include 100 communities. Its
membership roster that includes a larger cities like Boston, Kansas City and
Charlotte; county governments like Montgomery County, Maryland, and Medina
County, Ohio; and smaller- to medium-sized cities like Ammon, Idaho, Hays,
Kansas, and Roanoke, Virginia. “Connecting 21st Century Communities: A Policy
Agenda for Broadband Stakeholders” stresses cross-sector collaboration
involving philanthropies and key citizen leaders when crafting municipal
codes, reforming federal laws and starting fast, public Wi-Fi projects.
Improvements in health services, small business climates and property values
have been seen in jurisdictions of all sizes that made high-quality broadband
available to residents. “In the 21st century, Internet access has emerged as
more than just an information superhighway—it has become critical infrastructure—connecting
citizens, businesses, and communities alike to new opportunities,” said Deb
Socia, Next Century Cities executive director, in the announcement. (Read Deb
Socia’s June 2 Route Fifty guest article on community wireless networks.) The agenda recommends local governments plan broadband projects
the same way they do transportation projects, as investments in
infrastructure—streamlining permitting and adopting “dig once” policies
benefiting internet service providers (ISPs). More accurate national data
collection on broadband adoption, service availability, costs, and low-income
access is necessary to prevent residents from being misled into buying homes
they think have high-speed Internet already. Aside from funding and advocacy,
philanthropies are well-placed to share broadband best practices and fund
high-impact research like the Open Technology Institute at New America is
doing on deployment models and costs. Engaging communities via libraries,
schools, places of worship, and other “anchor institutions” will educate them
on broadband and generate the necessary political support, so long as state
and local officials are honest about the level of service they can provide
low-income resident and when. From http://www.routefifty.com/ 07/08/2015 Shared
Services - A Key Part of a 21st Century Federal Cyber Strategy The headlines have said it all: “OPM’s archaic IT infrastructure
opened door for massive data breach” and invited “the ultimate wake-up
call.” While We wholeheartedly agree with the CIO and offer a “friendly
amendment” to his strategy: accelerate shared services implementation so that
the government’s limited cyber expertise and investment funds can be concentrated
on a smaller number of fully modernized, cyber-secure shared transactional
platforms. As President Obama observed, “part of the problem is that we’ve
got very old systems.” He’s right:
many government platforms are so antiquated that they cannot be cyber-enhanced
cost-effectively. And there are
far too many obsolete systems than make sense to modernize, and they are far
too scattered to inventory and protect effectively. An antiquated, far-flung
technology environment is only part of the problem. Culture is an equally formidable
challenge. Most agencies are not
conducive environments for security-driven decision-making. Agencies exist to serve
constituencies. Leadership
priorities and career tracks are based on fulfilling constituent needs, and
mission priorities always trump security and administrative needs in the
competition for scarce funds. Moreover, cyber-security expertise is in
limited supply and is not highly valued in most agencies. Taken together,
tight budgets, limited expertise and cultural blind spots create perfect
storms of agency vulnerability throughout the federal environment. OPM is an unfortunate but classic example of this
phenomenon. According to the
agency’s Inspector General, eleven OPM systems were operating without valid
authorizations to operate (ATO), and numerous platforms were not subject to
routine scanning for compliance with established security standards. Limited IT funds were steered to other
priorities. Clearly, the culture
of OPM did not take cyber security seriously enough. We are long past the day
when every agency can afford to maintain and protect its own critical
infrastructure for common business and mission-related transactions. It’s time to modernize the federal
shared services marketplace and accelerate agency migration to meet
ever-increasing security threats.
Let private providers compete with government providers, while setting
a high, consistent bar for cyber security for all services and providers. Let government providers charge cost
recovery prices that capture sufficient reserves to finance modernization and
security compliance organically.
Encourage government providers to use market-based practices to
recruit top talent and cultivate cultures that reward excellence in cyber
security. Effective security consists of an integrated system of policies,
procedures, and activities that are designed to manage and reduce risks to
the organization, protect critical data, information and physical assets,
ensure the reliability of service delivery, and comply with applicable
federal security laws and related OMB guidance and policies. By implementing shared services, government agencies can improve
their ability to deliver more effective security. Let us illustrate with some
simple but persuasive examples: - By performing a work or government business process in a
smaller number of physical locations, it is inherently easier to monitor and
manage the process and reduce fraud. - By consolidating people into fewer locations, security
knowledge, awareness and competencies can be addressed with more timely and
consistent and efficient security training and behavioral remediation -Segregation of duties can be difficult to achieve in an
environment in which a process is fragmented across people and organizations,
but through consolidation a shared services organization is in a much better
position to implement this control. Shared services is about standardizing processes and supporting
technology. This can improve security effectiveness and efficiency by reducing
variation in security controls and eliminating duplication of security work
and reporting. By standardizing
technology — for example moving to a common financial shared services
platform — agencies can significantly reduce the number of system setups,
interfaces, security profiles, and manual workarounds, all of which
streamline security control design and testing. One thing is certain: more
attacks are coming. Reports indicate that on average 120,000 security hacks
of varying sophistication occur every day around the world. Last year GAO
reported that incidents involving exposure of personally identifiable
information more than doubled from around 10,000 incidents in 2009 to over
25,000 in 2013. As many as 80,000 new variants of computer viruses are
created each day, and even the best anti-virus software has only about a 40
percent success rate. Moving forward with cyber-sophisticated shared services
should be a core element of a comprehensive federal cyber strategy that is up
to 21st century challenges. From http://federalnewsradio.com/ 07/20/2015 DHS
Secretary OKs Bill to Monitor Federal Network An Obama administration top official has endorsed bipartisan
legislation that would allow the Department of Homeland Security to surveil
public Internet traffic on government networks. The Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee approved the measure Wednesday, on the
heels of devastating agency hacks. It now heads to the full floor for a vote.
"I urge the Senate to move quickly and pass this bill," DHS
Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement Thursday night. The legislation
would tighten security "by ensuring agencies understand they are legally
permitted to disclose network traffic to DHS for narrowly tailored
purposes." The Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 was
conceived to stifle intrusions before hackers compromise agency operations or
valuable information. The Office of Personnel Management lacked an intrusion
detection system, as well as other agency-level real-time controls and login
locks, which could have caught attackers before they ran off with 21.5
million people's information. The panel's proposal would mandate all those
missing safeguards. "This bill will strengthen our cyber defenses by
requiring all federal agencies to implement stronger protections and
state-of-the-art technologies to defend against cyberattacks," Johnson
continued. Within a year, DHS would have to roll out the intruder-blocking
technology, dubbed EINSTEIN, per the legislation. The measure "would accelerate deployment of a federal
intrusion detection and prevention system across the federal government,
increasing our visibility as a government into adversary activity," he
said. EINSTEIN scans bulk traffic for the tell-tale signs of specific attacks
-- sometimes called "signatures" or "indicators." Because
it also collects innocuous data, such as personal correspondences and
Web-surfing habits, the tool has raised questions about the possibility of
government surveillance. The Senate committee's bill requires multiple
privacy protections to address such concerns, including reports on instances
where personal information unrelated to a threat is captured. In April,
before the OPM attacks were made public, DHS Cybersecurity and Communications
Assistant Secretary Andy Ozment told congressional purse-string holders that
agencies have resisted EINSTEIN scans in the past. "Some agencies, in
some cases, have questioned how deployment of EINSTEIN under DHS authority
interplays with their existing statutory restrictions on the use and
disclosure of agency data,” he said. “As a result of this uncertainty, DHS
has not been able to achieve 100 percent commitment from agencies to enter into
authorizing the deployment of EINSTEIN capabilities to protect their
systems." Johnson said the legislation's civil liberties protections
align with the department's existing privacy controls. The House already
green-lighted similar legislation tucked inside the Cybersecurity Information
Sharing Act, CISA, a lightning rod of a bill that would share threat
indicators -- including, sometimes, personal data – between government and
industry. Senate aides have said the committee's new bill could reach the floor
as an add-on to the Senate version of CISA. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas,
chairman of the homeland security committee, on Wednesday introduced separate
legislation, the 2015 Cyber Defense of Federal Networks Act, which also is
comparable to the Senate committee's bill. From http://www.nextgov.com/ 07/31/2015 Efforts to bring open data into, well, the open have touched off
widespread discussion as to just where the use of the information is headed,
and whether there is a need for expanded oversight and state legislation.
With more government agencies taking on the task of looking at and publishing
their data for all to see, technologists and officials are considering
whether better defining rules of the game are the next natural steps in the
progression. The conversation made its way to the 2015 California Technology
Forum the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 13, where a panel of experts talked
about how they approach the use of state data strongholds, processes for
opening the information to the public and the need – or not – for potential
for state controls. During the panel, Michael Wilkening, undersecretary of Better definition of terminologies and access to a knowledgeable
team eventually swayed Wilkening to understand the benefits and outcomes of
the process. The move to put unprivileged data on an accessible portal within
the agency has been progressing rapidly, according to the agency
undersecretary. At least six departments have been strongly involved in the
analyzing and opening of data. Chris Cruz, chief deputy director of
operations with the California Department of Technology, said efforts are
underway to develop his organization’s framework and policies for sharing the
data publically, as well as more effectively between agencies. Cruz said
analytics have played a significant role in looking at the information
available from a “means and measurements” perspective. Mining the data has
helped his teams to plot the best course of action moving forward. Civic
technologist Ash Roughani, founder of Code for When discussion fell to conversation of Senate Bill 573, Sen.
Richard Pan’s legislation that would set an open data policy for the state
and require the governor to appoint a chief data officer, the panel took a
slightly divided stance. “We’ve launched our effort without executive order
or legislation. We’re just doing it,” Wilkening said. “In talking to folks
throughout the nation at this point on open data, I’ve seen different models
from the legislature passing a law or there’s an executive order, and I’ve
heard varying degrees of success relative to that.” Wilkening said he is
concerned that a strict mandate would lead to hurried department data dumps
throughout the state, ultimately compromising the quality and usefulness of
the information. “I think if you do things in really compressed timeframes,
the negatives that come out of it will subsume you pretty quickly,” he said.
“If people see an effort as a positive, they’ll continue to invest in it. If
they see it as a negative, they’ll do it because they’re compelled to do it,
but they won’t continue to invest in it.” With regard to the potential
appointment of a chief data officer, Wilkening said he has yet to make up his
mind about whether the top leadership role would improve the overall process.
Cruz agreed, adding that there was some confusion as to what the executive
role would include and how it might impact the “grassroots” collaborative
partnerships that have already been established. “I think right now we have
synergy within the departments, we have synergy within the state to be able
to move forward," Cruz said. "There are partnerships that are
generated, and I think that will create the excitability and positive
momentum to make this happen." Both Cruz and Wilkening noted that the role could bring
unforeseen benefits to the transparency effort. From the perspective of their
community counterpart, Roughani said the move toward legislation would help
to protect the stability of the open data movement in the long term. While he
said that what the initiative shows so far deserves credit, the
sustainability of the efforts through administration changes remain to be
seen. “In the next administration, would an executive order sort of
eviscerate that initiative?" he asked. "Legislation gives you the
benefit of having this carved out space and having a line item in the budget.
I do think that’s important if this is the future…” As for the future of SB
573 and open data in From http://www.govtech.com/ 08/14/2015 Reuters
Institute Digital News Report 2015 This year's report reveals new insights about digital news
consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 20,000 online news consumers in
the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Brazil,
Japan and Australia. This year's data shows a quickening of the pace towards
social media platforms as routes to audiences, together with a surge in the
use of mobile for news, a decline in the desktop internet and significant
growth in video news consumption online. From http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/ 06/17/2015 Partnership
for Progress on the Digital Divide NDIA <http://www.digitalinclusionalliance.org/> is
co-sponsoring the international conference Partnership for Progress on the
Digital Divide <http://www.ppdd.org/conferences/ppdd2015/>. Our
co-sponsorship involves us providing outreach to practitioner and
policymakers and myself serving on the conference's leadership team. The PPDD
organizing team is looking for additional co-sponsors plus financial
sponsors. Let me know if you are interested. 2015 International Conference
brings together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to strategize
actions and catalyze solutions to this pressing societal concern. PPDD 2015
provides an extended, in-depth opportunity to consider the current state and
future possibilities for research, policy, and practice that informs issues
related to the digital divide around the world. Further, the Conference works
to identify new areas of necessary, productive research focus to foster
greater understanding and enlighten policy and practice going forward so that
all global citizens can participate fully in the digital, networked age. As a
major outcome of PPDD 2015, we plan to produce an edited volume of the top
papers as well as special issues of journals on specific themes within the
digital divide area. If you would like to present and discuss your work
during PPDD 2015 and have it included in the online PPDD 2015 Conference
Proceedings and/or if you would like to provide a Position Paper for
inclusion in the PPDD 2015 E-Book, please see the Call for Participation
http://www.ppdd.org/conferences/ppdd2015/cfp/) for instructions on how to
submit your work for consideration. If you would like to just attend PPDD
2015 to explore the issues and grow your knowledge and network of
connections, please know that you are very welcome and valued in the PPDD
Conference Community. From http://www.ppdd.org/
07/28/2015 OECD
Publishes Guidance on International Standard for Automatic Exchange of Tax
Information A 'handbook' giving guidance on the new global standard for
automatic exchange of financial account information and a guide to designing
an offshore tax disclosure programme have been published by the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Common Reporting
Standard (CRS) provides a framework for jurisdictions to obtain information
from their financial institutions and automatically exchange that information
with other jurisdictions on an annual basis, in an attempt to crackdown on
tax evasion using offshore accounts. Fiona Fernie, a tax investigations
expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-law.com said "The
implementation of the CRS will mean that financial institutions will need to
report to their local tax authority financial details from 1 January 2016
onwards relating to account holders who are resident in countries that have
signed up to CRS. However, it is not just banks who will have to report on
foreign holders of bank accounts; companies, partnerships and trusts will
need to conduct due diligence and if necessary their own reporting on the
ultimate individual owners of those structures." Over 90 jurisdictions have committed to implement the standard,
with the first exchanges starting in 2017 and 2018, subject to the completion
of necessary legislative procedures in each country. 'Early adopters' who
intend to begin exchanging information from 2017 include the Although the initial obligation under FATCA was intended to be
on the financial institution to provide information direct to the US Internal
Revenue Service, many jurisdictions, including the UK have entered into
inter-governmental agreements (IGAs) which mean that financial institutions
provide the information to their own tax authority which then provides the
information to the US on a reciprocal or non-reciprocal basis depending on
the terms of the IGA. The CRS builds on this framework. Fiona Fernie said:
"There are some material differences between FATCA and CRS for all
businesses to bear in mind. For example, the de minimis values are different
between the two and the CRS only looks at tax residency, rather than
citizenship when determining if a person is reportable. Part III of the CRS
Implementing Handbook provides a useful summary of the key ways in which the
CRS differs from FATCA and will assist businesses with due diligence
requirements and prevent errors in decisions as to whether reporting should
take place or not." The standard sets out the financial account information to be
exchanged, the financial institutions required to report, the different types
of accounts and taxpayers covered, as well as common due diligence procedures
to be followed by financial institutions. It was developed by the OECD in
response to a request from the G20. The OECD has also updated its report on
the various characteristics of the disclosure facilities provided by 47
countries. These disclosure facilities enable individuals with tax irregularities
to come forward voluntarily to settle their affairs on more favourable terms
than if the tax authority had found out about them itself. The OECD press
release said "The limited time left until the automatic exchange of
information under the Standard becomes a reality will in many instances be
the last window of opportunity for non-compliant taxpayers to voluntarily
disclose. This is therefore a crucial moment to update the publication and
reflects OECD policy of encouraging countries to examine voluntary compliance
strategies that enable non-compliant taxpayers to come forward". In the "Anyone with undisclosed offshore assets really needs to
come forward before the end of the year. This really is the last chance
saloon for those who want to avoid ending up behind bars" she said. It
is envisaged that jurisdictions which sign up to the CRS and obtain the
required information from their financial institutions will exchange that
information under the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative
Assistance in Tax Matters. However, some jurisdictions will want to exchange
the information under the terms of a Tax Information Exchange Agreement
(TIEA). As the current model TIEA does not allow for spontaneous automatic
exchange of information, the OECD has also published a model protocol for
amending an existing TIEA to provide for automatic, rather than on request,
exchanges. Exchange of information under a TIEA, rather than under the
multilateral convention is most likely where a territory is dealing with
dependent and associated territories or where a developing jurisdiction is
dealing with a developed jurisdiction. From http://www.out-law.com/
08/13/2015 |
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China will put more momentum behind its "Internet
Plus" drive, which aims to integrate the Internet and industry while
encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation, the cabinet vowed on Wednesday.
The campaign is very important in creating a new engine for economic growth,
said a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council,
presided over by Premier Li Keqiang, who proposed Internet Plus in March. An
Internet Plus guideline was approved at the meeting. It maps development
targets and supportive measures for sectors which the government hopes can
establish new industrial modes, including agriculture, energy, finance,
public services, logistics, e-commerce, traffic, biology and artificial
intelligence. Unreasonable regulations and policies which hinder Internet
Plus will be cleared and market accesses will be lowered for integrated
products and services, according to the guideline. From http://www.news.cn/
06/24/2015 The top legislature opened its bimonthly session on Wednesday,
with lawmakers considering draft laws on cyber and national security, and a
draft amendment to the Criminal Law. The draft law on cyber security was
submitted for its first reading at the session of the National People's
Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, which runs until July 1. The session was
presided over by Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee. The
68-article draft law on cyber security suggests mechanisms to guarantee the
safety of Internet products, services, operation, network data, and
information. Lawmakers also mulled a law concerning the security of Lawmakers also deliberated a draft amendment to the Criminal Law
for the second time, which included more items defined as terrorism. According
to the draft amendment, those financing training programs for terrorists will
face more than five years in prison, in addition to fines and confiscation of
property. Under the current law, these punishments are applied only to those
funding terrorist organizations and individuals carrying out acts of terror.
Those recruiting and transporting personnel for terrorist organizations,
activities or training will also now face more than five years in prison in
serious cases, according to the draft amendment. Items related to school bus
safety were also reviewed. Drivers of overloaded school buses may be
incarcerated, according to a draft amendment. Those driving school buses at a
speed that exceeds the designated limit, as well as owners or managers, may
also face the same punishment, according to the draft. With regard to cults,
lawmakers discussed harsher punishment for those involved in cults or
superstitious activities that hamper the implementation of laws and
regulations. According to the draft amendment to the Criminal Law, in serious
cases the maximum punishment may be extended to life imprisonment, in
addition to fines or confiscation of property. Currently, the maximum
sentence for those found guilty of cult-related crimes is 15 years in prison. Lawmakers also mulled stricter air pollution control measures,
deliberating the regulation of emissions from boats and ships. According to a
draft amendment to the Air Pollution Law, ships on inland or river-to-sea
waterways must use standard diesel to cut emissions. Ocean-going vessels will
also be required to use fuels that conform to Under the program, prosecutors will be allowed to file a civil
lawsuit against any act that compromises public rights and interests by
pollution or by undermining food and drug safety, according to the bill. <
The top legislature also started reviewing an agreement on the founding of
the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) on Wednesday, intended to fund infrastructure
in the BRICS bloc and other developing economies. The agreement was signed by
all of the bloc's members -- From http://www.news.cn/
06/24/2015 Regulator
Cracks Whip on Telecom Service Providers Ministry asks firms to cut overseas roaming rates, roll over
unused data for customers China's "Big Three" telecom carriers'
have been asked to make further reductions in overseas roaming rates and
allow users to carry forward unused monthly data allowance, in the latest
efforts by the government to regulate the sector. The Ministry and Industry
and Information Technology, also the industry regulator, said on Wednesday
that the new directive follows public complaints that despite the high fees
charged by the carriers, the speed and quality of the provided services
remain poor. Zhang Feng, the ministry spokesman, said the speed-enhancing and
price-cutting initiatives will be completed by October and will result in
lower, roughly about one-third, mobile traffic fees nationwide. Zhang said
the carriers will introduce 2-gigabyte per month 4G traffic packages between
50 yuan ($8) and 60 yuan. The international roaming fees have already dropped
by more than 80 percent on average since May. The new budget is very
affordable and can meet most of the demand. Lower roaming fees will also
greatly benefit Chinese tourists, according to Zhang. "We are asking
carriers to launch affordable traffic packages that suit all types of users.
It is the primary goal of the initiative," he said. The ministry is also
looking to cut the prices of cable connections by 20-30 percent from the average
price in May. The "Big Three"－China Mobile Communications Corp,
China United Network Communications Ltd and China Telecommunications Corp－did not
disclose individual moves on Wednesday. However, they reiterated their commitment to follow the
ministry's directive and cut service charges before the end of this year. From http://www.news.cn/
07/23/2015 The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) will oversee
several kinds of online platforms, including equity-based crowdfunding, which
allows investors to receive a stake in the company funded by pooling money
from many people via the Internet, said Deng Ge, spokesman for the CSRC, at a
press conference Friday. The inspection will focus on several aspects,
including whether the online fund raisers have promoted themselves publicly,
whether the accumulated number of equity holders has exceeded 200, and
whether the raisers have collected private equity funds in the name of
equity-based crowdfunding, Deng said.
From http://www.news.cn/
08/07/2015 From http://www.korea.net
05/21/2015 FSC
Eases Internet-Only Bank Rules Financial authorities will ease regulations and lower entry
barriers to encourage information technology companies to invest in
Internet-only banks. Nonfinancial companies will be allowed to hold up to a
50 percent stake in an Internet bank, up from the current 4 percent. The
minimum equity capital level will be lowered to 50 billion won ($45 million),
half the current requirement. The Financial Services Commission said Thursday
that it would alleviate the banking-commerce separation rule and the minimum
equity capital standard, so that innovative companies may actively get
involved in the financial industry. “We decided to partially alleviate the
separation of banking and commerce when it comes to Internet-only banks,”
said financial services director Doh Kyu-sang. Under the revised system, IT
firms such as Naver and Daum Kakao will be able to own an Internet bank and
provide financial services ranging from deposits and loans to foreign
exchange transactions. The FSC also pledged to minimize regulations in an
effort to help companies come up with more diverse and creative business
models. But conglomerates with total assets of 5 trillion won or more will be
excluded from the alleviated rules. As the related revision bill is to be
submitted to the National Assembly in September, the FSC is planning to keep
a two-track approach ― to run one or two pilot cases within the year and to
expand the range of application next year, once the bill is passed. From http://www.koreaherald.com 06/18/2015 From http://www.korea.net
06/19/2015 The South Korean government on Friday opened its 13th creative
economy center on From http://www.koreaherald.com 06/26/2015 Minister
Defends Measure Against Telecom Subsidy ICT Minister Choi Yang-hee said Friday that a government measure
to curb overheated competition in the Korean wireless industry has yielded
positive results. “No one would deny that the Mobile Device Distribution
Improvement Act has achieved its initial goal of resolving discrimination
against consumers,” said the ICT minister in a press meeting in Gwacheon, From http://www.koreaherald.com 07/19/2015 Access
to Online Pornography Should Be Regulated: KCC With most Koreans using the Internet and mobile devices, illegal
and harmful information on the Internet is on the rise. According to last
year’s statistics, the number of smartphone users exceeded 40 million, about
80 percent of the total population. During the same period, requests for
correcting illegal information made by the Korea Communications Standards
Commission also increased 28 percent to 130,000 cases from a year ago. Among
them, content on prostitution and pornography made up the largest portion,
50,000 cases. We should come up with countermeasures promptly. With
smartphone users getting younger, issues like smartphone addiction and access
to harmful content have increased drastically. Distortion of sexual awareness
among the youth has sometimes led to copycat crimes. The growing use of
social media has also made it easier for them to share obscene and violent
information. The Korea Communications Commission amended the Telecommunications
Business Act in April that obliges all mobile carriers to provide tools such
as apps to block harmful content including pornography for underage
users. From http://www.koreaherald.com 08/05/2015 |
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Before allowed to operate, online businesses in From http://www.indonesia-investments.com/
08/07/2015 The financing of the program will come from the State Budget and
the number of housewives that can take part in the program will depend on
that budget allocation. Already, the Indonesian government is supporting the
development of start-ups in the country. In February this year, Minister for
Communication and Information Rudianatara said he is planning to establish $1
billion domestic venture capital fund that will raise money from the domestic
investors. E-commerce has grown fast over the past years. Google From http://www.dealstreetasia.com/ 08/10/2015 Mimos has also been appointed implementation secretariat of the
National IoT Strategic Roadmap. “A key goal of the roadmap was also to create
an ecosystem conducive to the IoT industry, while strengthening the
capabilities of technology entrepreneurs in the many component layers of
IoT,” said Mimos chief executive officer Abdul Wahab Abdullah. “The IoT
ecosystem that we have been building is already up and running. As a premier
applied research centre, Mimos comes in as a key technology provider, in
particular for the development of the IoT Open Innovation Framework.
“[Furthermore], as the implementation secretariat, we will monitor the
results, outcome and impact of all IoT deployments,” he added. Research firm
Gartner defines the IoT as a network of physical objects that contain
embedded technology that can communicate and sense, or interact, with their
internal states or the external environment. It potentially encompasses all
Internet-connected devices including wearable technologies, as well as
machine-to-machine or M2M communications. Is “The roadmap will be an invaluable reference to determine our
strategic direction as we brace for the exciting new challenges of the IoT,”
said Ewon (pic). “The document will also be a vital tool in upgrading the
capabilities of our technopreneurs. “We also readily acknowledge that the IoT
is a rapidly growing technology, and this roadmap is a living document that
must be updated and refined, perhaps every two years,” he added. In his
opening speech, Ewon said that developed nations have already begun
implementing IoT, and that Cyberjaya as testbed The launch also saw the signing of three memoranda of
understanding (MoUs) involving Mimos, Cyberview Sdn Bhd, CyberSecurity
Malaysia and SAS Institute, which will see them collaborating to develop
Cyberjaya into a model ‘Smart and Safe City’ through IoT. With the MoUs under
its belt, Cyberview, the master developer of Cyberjaya, will implement a
smart traffic management system, public safety monitoring, energy management,
and various other IoT-based solutions.
“With the launch of the roadmap and the signing of MoU, Cyberjaya will
become a ‘living lab’ for IoT implementations,” said Cyberview managing
director Faris Yahaya (pic). “With the robust and resilient infrastructure
set-up in Cyberjaya, the tech city forms the best platform to nurture and
grow IoT talent and business, as well as to groom IoT services or solutions
in From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/09/2015 Reducing friction with digital government In line with the Smart Nation plans for better government
services delivery, government agencies will be leveraging on agile development,
cloud services and data analytics, as well as emerging technologies like
Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and robotics, to better anticipate and meet
citizens’ needs. “A Digital Government is one where we put citizens at the
heart of service development and delivery,” said Chan Cheow Hoe (pic above),
assistant chief executive of Government Services at the IDA. Such initiatives
include more enhancements to SingPass, the single sign-on for users to access
e-government services, which will be ready in July of this year. These
enhancements will include an improved user interface, mobile-friendly
features, and stronger security capabilities, such as Two-Factor
Authentication (2FA) for e-government transactions, particularly for those
involving sensitive data. This could be a one-time ‘second factor’ password
delivered through Short Messaging Service (SMS) or a OneKey token. In addition, the Government is launching a New approach to procurement Meanwhile, Chan said that the Government will continue to invest
in ICT (information and communications technology) to realise the Smart
Nation vision, and to seek collaboration with industry to build capabilities
and develop more citizen-centric services. It is projected that S$2.2 billion
(US$1.63 billion) worth of ICT tenders will be launched in the financial year
of 2015, focusing on digital and data services, web services, infrastructure,
security, as well as the development of the Smart Nation Platform. IDA
representatives declined to give a detailed breakdown on how much was
allocated for each of these categories but Poh (pic) said that this year’s
procurements featured new items. “We’re seeing things we’ve never seen
before, such as a bigger focus on data analytics and the entry of items in
IoT and robotics, which is new to the list of key procurement items in
government spending,” she said. This year will also mark a significant shift
in the Government’s approach to procurement, IT spending, and the development
of government digital services. “To be nimble and responsive, the Government
can no longer outsource applications development so extensively, but seek to
co-source solutions with industry,” said Chan. “The Government must anticipate the needs of citizens through
data analytics, build up its own internal IT engineering and development
capabilities, whilst engaging the best partners in the industry,” he added.
In line with this, a Centre of Excellence in software engineering and data
analytics is being set up by IDA in One-North, with facilities for user
research, user experience testing, and consultancy services to government
agencies in developing services for citizens. It will be staffed by a team of
software engineers and data-scientists, and is intended to engender a culture
that is multi-disciplinary, innovative and collaborative. According to the
IDA, the Government will seek to ‘insource’ up to 20% of overall IT projects,
in tandem with collaborating with industry vendors. The agency however did
not share additional hard targets or timeframe. Chan said that for the past
two years, the Singapore Government has been “experimenting” with a
collaborative, agile development approach for creating new services. He cited
as two such experiments the OneService Mobile App, a way for the public to
provide feedback on municipal issues; and MyResponder, a life-saving mobile
application which leverages on location awareness to enable volunteers to
assist with cardiac arrest cases. Since MyResponder’s launch in April, about
31 cases have been reported via the app. Opportunities for industry The briefing also provided an overview of upcoming opportunities
for industry in bidding for tenders aimed at fulfilling various objectives
under the Smart Nation initiative. Tenders for the last three components of
the Smart Nation Platform project – Data Exchange, Data Fusion and Sense
Making, Video System and U2S Platform – are slated to open later this year,
while bids for the IP Core Network and AG Boxes are already undergoing
evaluation. In addition to the IDA’s initiatives, other government agencies
were present at the briefing to share their own ICT roadmaps and procurement
projects. To promote Key procurement items for 2015 include: Ÿ Work
Pass Integrated System (WINS) Phase 2 and 3, a next-generation system which
covers all work pass types except for Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) which was
covered in Phase 1. A project with an estimated procurement value of S$50
million (US$37 million). Ÿ Licensing
System for Employment Agencies and Dormitories to process and manage licences
for employment agencies and dormitories to support the Employment Agencies
and Foreign Employee Dormitories Bill, with an estimated procurement value of
S$5 million. Ÿ Finance
and Procurement Tracking System, to support the Ministry of Manpower’s
finance and procurement officers, with estimated procurement value of S$1
million (US$740,000). Ÿ “It’s
an open playing field, with the majority of tenders holding an estimated
procurement value below S$5 million,” said the IDA’s Chan. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 05/28/2015 Building
MANY agencies in charge of city development around the world are
working blind, making decisions without the ability to see the impact these
decisions have on the complex and dynamic ecosystem of a city. “That is the
reality of how they work and the reason is because it’s so complex, with
issues ranging from energy and waste management, to space utilisation and
even the lifecycle management of buildings,” said Dassault Systèmes president
and chief executive officer Bernard Charlès. “And most of the assets to plan
the lifecycle of a city is very poorly documented, and with poor maps – some
digitised, others not – there is no holistic approach to city management or
planning,” he told told a recent media briefing in In 2014, the population of Contextualising big data Calling it the process of building Much has been said about the benefits of big data in urban
planning and smart city management, but the fact is, its potential can’t
truly be harnessed without a reference point and, more importantly, context.
“When it comes to big data and cities, the problem is, you don’t know what to
do with it. You can’t use it if you don’t put in … the real context of a city
to understand. “With Virtual Singapore, agencies can use a ‘master model’ to
put things into context, to leverage their sets of existing information to
evaluate the impact of any changes such as traffic optimisation, planning
infrastructure development or risk management,” he said. Charlès said that
access to a 3D model simulation is more than just about visualisation but is
about enabling cross-agency collaboration on a common platform, to help
arbitrate the impact of new initiatives. There’s also the potential to expand
this to mobile devices to enable new services and offer access to citizens in
the decisions shaping how their city develops. In response to security
concerns over sensitive data being handled by a third-party vendor, Charlès
said that Challenges and confidence Charlès said that the Virtual Singapore project is now in the
experimentation phase of its development, since work began on the project a
year ago. “There are multiple milestones that we need to cross and with the
experimentation stage that kicks off this year, there will be trials with
small selected groups of citizens to get feedback about what’s valuation
information for them. “It’s not just about learning from agency specialists
and their needs, but also ensuring accessibility for citizens for certain
decision-making processes and services. “So we’re at that stage now with
experimenting with agencies and select groups of citizens,” he added. In
terms of challenges faced in making Virtual Singapore a viable and thriving
tool, Charlès said that dealing with legacy data is one. “There’s a lot of value
in legacy data but there is good data and bad data, and cases where people
believe that bad data is good when it’s not. You need to show that some of
the legacy data is of poor quality and needs to be rectified. “Having the
open architecture in place so you can use reuse that existing data is one
consideration, and the other is having people recognise that data they’re
supposed to have, may not be at the quality they require. “There could be
gaps that need to be filled or improved upon. For example, is the height of
every building in Many government agencies with their own tools, historical habits
and processes may also find that making the switching to a less ‘siloed’ and
more collaborative approach would be a challenge. Charlès believes that this
is a challenge not specific to From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/20/2015 The National Legislative Assembly yesterday passed the first
reading of a bill that would allow the authorities to use electronic
monitoring on suspects released on bail. The bill seeks to amend the Criminal
Procedure Code so suspects do not have to place a high amount of assets as a
guarantee for bail. The NLA approved the bill with 171 votes. One NLA member
voted against it and five abstained. The NLA set up a 15-member committee to
vet the bill in seven days. From http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 08/07/2015 The Ha Noi People's Committee has submitted to the Prime
Minister a plan to set up a VND10.5 trillion (US$481 million) information
technology hub in Long Bien District.The committee has picked electronics and
informatics firm Hanel Ltd Company as the investor of the project, which will
cover more than 43ha.About VND942 billion ($43.6 million) will be allocated
for infrastructure construction, while more than VND9.5 trillion ($437
million) will be used to develop functional areas.The construction of the
project is scheduled to start this year and be completed by 2019.The
committee said in the report sent to the Prime Minister that the project
would contribute to developing Viet Nam as one of the countries with strong
information technology and telecommunications development.The project was
aimed at developing a knowledge-based economy and the IT industry,
particularly in the field of software, and at drawing more investment from
both local and foreign investors, it said.Director General of Hanel Nguyen
QuocBinh said it would be an open software park designed following new trends
in several countries.Apart from facilities for the development of the
software industry, the project will also have vocation training schools for
programmers and engineers, services centres and IT trade and electronics
business areas and other facilities.At present, Ha Noi has only one
concentrated IT park in CauGiay District. The 8.5ha park has more than 300
enterprises of different sectors, with IT firms comprising 28.8 per cent of
the enterprises, such as Financing and Promoting Technology Corporation (FPT)
and Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel). From http://vietnamnews.vn/ 06/29/2015 City
Seeks Solutions for The head of From http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/11/2015 NA
Discusses Law on Access to Information National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee members yesterday said
that the Law on Access to Information was meant to enable people to exercise
their rights and strengthen policy transparency. Deputies said the demand for
information was increasing, especially that relating to the implementation
and protection of their rights and benefits. This included information on
land planning, traffic, construction, compensation and site clearance. They
said that the provision of information by State organs meet only a part of
people's demand. In some cases, the State failed to provide accurate
information leading to the appearance of incorrect information. This affected
social stability. To make the law feasible, deputies said it was necessary to
make clear who had the right to information and who had to provide it. Phung
Quoc Hien, chairman of NA's Finance and Budget Committee, said the draft law
only stipulated citizens had the right to access information and that the
State acted as information provider. Dao Trong Thi, chairman of the NA
Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, and Children's Committee, said the
draft law should expand the scope of information provided. "Any
information relating to people's interests and State activities should be
provided, no mater who creates it, State or non-State organs," he said.
Deputies also proposed that the Government clarify which kinds of information
were to be provided and which would be restricted or forbidden. Several
deputies voiced concern over Article 22 on fees for accessing information.
They proposed that the fees should be detailed and the public told in which
areas they applied. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/13/2015 |
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Law Minister Anisul Huq has said the Information and
Communication Technology Act will be amended.Several rights bodies and online
activists have spoken of their concerns over several sections of the Act,
reports bdnews24.com.“The law had a different value when it was introduced in
2006 but its appeal has changed over time,” Huq told a programme in From http://newsfrombangladesh.net/
06/09/2015 Union Urban Development Ministry's flagship programmes - From http://www.siliconindia.com/ 05/29/2015 Telangana Government Plans to Unveil New IT Policy Technology (IT) policy to make Hyderabad the most preferred IT
destination in the country, state IT Minister K T Rama Rao.The government is
working on the new IT policy with the goal to increase IT/ITES exports
besides creating new jobs, the minsiter said. “The work is going on the
formulation of IT policy. Telangana aims to double the IT/ITES exports in
next five years.”According to the annual report of Telangana’s IT department,
IT/ITES exports from Telangana recorded 15.7 per cent growth in 2014-15 as
compared to previous year. IT/ITES exports was Rs 66,276 crore in 2014-15,
while previous year it stood at Rs 57,258 crore.Hyderabad holds second
position in the country by contributing 11 per cent of nationwide IT exports,
Rao said. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 06/03/2015 Govt’s Policy to Provide Better
Public Service: Rajapaksa The Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa said that the people who talk about good governance have not
changed their policies so far. The Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa said that the present Government’s policy and belief are to provide
a better public service by strengthening public service. The President
mentioned this while declared opening the Customs Headquarters building. President Mahinda Rajapaksa
declared open the new Headquarters building of the Customs Department last
morning (July 14) amidst religious blessings. The state of the art new
building, "Export Centre" which will work 24 hours, 365 days to
speed up clearance of exports has 12 stories. More than 10 thousand million
rupees has been spent to construct the building. Addressing the gathering following the opening of the building,
the President said that the people who talk about good governance have not
changed their policies so far. All government buildings are renovated now.
Public servants should provide their services while being in a pleasant
environment, he said. “There are politicians who do not have confidence in the public
service. Their opinion is to reduce the public sector work force. Even now
they have not changed. They have trust only in the private sector. They say
that the public sector is not efficient. They believe in other methods to
create good governance. They still believe in their old ideas. We have
changed our policies from 2005. We trusted the public service. We have
confidence in the public sector. We have the confidence that the public
sector can provide a better service. No matter how carefully we work, there
are some who escape our sight. It is possible for racketeers to escape your
vigilance”, the president further added. The president also said, “you are
not only imposing taxes, but protect the culture, artifacts, environment and
wildlife. You have that responsibility. You are able to fulfill your duties
today without fear. The public service is not there to harass people. We have
to assist the public with the proper legal procedures.” “Love your country.
The country needs your service. The country is developing now. We have risen
to a middle income economy now from a defendant economy. Be proud of your
country. Do not allow to reverse the freedom won. You need to make your
contribution, said President Rajapaksa. The land where the new building is at present, was to be sold to
a Singaporean Company by the then UNP Government. The ownership of the land
was retained by the Customs Department following trade union action led by
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was the Opposition Leader at that time. The
President who was the Prime Minister in 2005, laid the foundation stone for
the building. The building which resembles a ship in the sea. The President
also opened the From http://southasia.oneworld.net 06/30/2015 Govt
Approves Transit Oriented Development Policy for To address the growing problems of pollution, congestion and
shortage of housing stock for the poor and middle class in From http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/15/2015 Cabinet
Nod to Phase-2 of eCourts Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its
approval for the second phase of eCourts Mission Mode Project at an estimated
cost of Rs. 1670 crore. The project envisages enhanced ICT enablement of
courts through universal computerisation, use of cloud computing,
digitization of case records and enhanced availability of e-services through
e-filing, e-payment gateways and mobile applications etc. The eCourts project
of the Government is aimed at providing necessary hardware and software
applications, enabling courts to deliver e-services to citizens and to enable
the judiciary to better monitor and manage the functioning of courts. In
Phase I, more than 13000 District and Subordinate courts have been
computerised and case information linked to the respective District court
websites. These courts are now providing online eServices such as cause
lists, case status and judgments, to litigants and public through the eCourts
portal (http://www.ecourts.gov.in) also. Case status information in respect
of over 5 crore pending and decided cases and more than one crore orders/
judgments are available online. Litigants and lawyers are also provided
services through Judicial Service Centre at the court complexes. More than 24
crore transactions have already been recorded regarding online access of
court information. The Phase II of the eCourts project would also help in the
automation of workflow management in courts thereby contributing to better
court and case management. Touch screen based kiosks and video conferencing
facility will be installed at all Court Complexes and corresponding jails.
Hand held process service devices will be provided to process servers to
ensure transparent and time bound delivery of court notices and summons.
Also, the use of solar energy has been proposed at 5 percent of the court
complexes on a pilot basis. In line with the Digital India Programme of the
Government of India which emphasises on Citizen centric services, this
project would also focus on Digital Infrastructure as a core utility to every
citizen providing Governance and Services on demand eventually making the
citizens digitally empowered. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/16/2015 DOT
Releases Net Neutrality Report, Upholds Key Principles The Department of Telecom (DoT) has released its report on net
neutrality in From http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/16/2015 'Skill
From http://www.siliconindia.com 07/16/2015 Guidelines
for ‘100 Smart Cities’ Phase-1 in a Day or Two The recommendations and guidelines for the development of first
phase of the 100 Smart Cities project will be released in a day or two by the
Union Urban Development Ministry, according to a senior official of the
ministry.For the first phase of the project, the suggestive policy measures
have been approved by the Central government after consultation with all the
states and Union Territories, said Urban Development Secretary Madhusudhan
Prasad addressing a conference on ‘Smart Cities & Urban Transformation’,
organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) in New Delhi
on Tuesday.“The Government is ready with the final draft of rules and
regulations for the development of the first phase of the proposed 100 Smart
Cities…it could be announced on Thursday or Friday,” Prasad added. Elaborating on the policy measures for Smart Cities, the
Secretary said that they will have all modern infrastructure including
IT-driven facilities and offer ecology-friendly surroundings to the
residents. “The citizens will be equipped with all high-tech amenities and
civic facilities to give them a good quality of life.”Soon after the
guidelines for Smart Cities phase-I are made public, the policy decisions for
second phase of the high-tech cities would be worked on and most likely
announced in the next four months.“In the second phase of the project, the
Central Government will provide financial assistance to the states
contributing Rs. 100 crore for each proposed smart city, and the state/ UT
concerned will also have to spend the same amount on it. Special Purpose
Vehicles (SPVs) will be floated to implement the Phase-II of smart cities,”
the official said. The SPVs will be governed by the states and UTs. It will hold
responsibility of implementing From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/12/2015 President
Maithripala Sirisena says the policy of the current government is to
strengthen the State Sector as well as Private Sector in every field. The
President was speaking at the opening ceremony of new building of Dialog
Axiata PLC, in From http://www.priu.gov.lk 07/07/2015 |
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From http://www.azernews.az/
06/04/2015 A new online system will simplify the procedure of real estate
registration for Azerbaijani citizens. After having signed and notarized a
real estate purchase contract, citizens and legal entities will no longer
need to revisit the registrar for documentation. The new paperless system
will make it possible to register real estate online. This new online service
was unveiled by Rafig Jalilov, the Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for
Property Affairs. It will minimize both registration time and interactions
between citizens and bureaucrats. In his remarks, Jalilov said that the State
Committee for Property Affairs introduced the new online service as a part of
the National System of Real Estate Registration and is aided by the World
Bank's Real Estate Registration Project in Jalilov hopes that the online system will simplify the
registration procedure, get rid of impediments to obtaining application
information, and make life much easier for citizens, all of which will favor
property development in From http://www.azernews.az/
07/17/2015 The Azerbaijani government has approved new rules for
maintaining a register for residents of the The registration procedure will take 20 working days. Residents
who have received a certificate of registration will be able to sign a
tenancy contract with the managing organization. The list of residents of the
The From http://www.azernews.az/
08/04/2015 From http://en.trend.az/
08/07/2015 President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stressed the
progressive development of the cooperation between Ashgabat and The trade turnover between From http://en.trend.az/
06/22/2015 |
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Australian
internet users could soon be met with dead ends across the web after
lawmakers on Monday approved controversial laws that allow the blockage of
sites suspected of contributing to piracy. The Copyright Amendment (Online
Infringement) Bill 2015 passed with support from both major parties in the
Senate, after passing the House of Representatives last week, with just a
handful of Senators standing up against laws they said would introduce an
"internet filter" to This
latest bill will allow copyright holders such as film studios and record
labels to apply to the Federal Court of Australia for an injunction requiring
every Australian internet service provider to block local access to overseas
websites ("online locations") deemed to be facilitating piracy.
Currently, domestic sites can be targeted through the existing Copyright Act.
Rights holders must satisfy the court that the "primary purpose" of
a website is to facilitate copyright infringement. Further, the court can
weigh factors such as whether a site's operator has a "disregard"
for copyright more generally, as well as the "flagrancy" of
infringement that it allows. The laws were the subject of heated debate in
the Senate with minor party Senators leading the charge. Left-wing Greens
Party Senator Scott Ludlam argued that the "dangerous" bill was
pushed by "cashed-up donors and lobbyists," and that in future it
would become "routine that sites simply disappear." "Does
anyone seriously believe that this scheme won't be expanded in the future to
cover more categories of content? Of course it will. It has scope creep
absolutely built into it. It is lazy, and it is dangerous," he said. The
Greens moved a number of amendments to the bill, including clarifications
that VPNs would not be included in the laws. Virtual private networks are
common in From
http://www.cnet.com
06/22/2015 Internet Internet
The
government should consult with industry and peak bodies such as Internet A
joint submission from the Australian Industry Group, the Australian
Information Industry Association, the Australian Mobile Telecommunications
Association, and Communications Alliance has condemned the government's
proposals as a "significant deterrent" to technological investment
in From
http://www.computerworld.com.au
08/05/2015 Australian Government Set to Tackle Internet of Things Industry
body Communications Alliance has called for The
report's other co-author, Frank Zeichner, said that national IoT strategies
and policies were more advanced in many of Australia's peer and customer
countries, especially China, the US, the UK, Germany, Korea and India.
"When we look overseas, at our peers and at our customers, it is utterly
evident that they are more advanced in their IoT narrative and strategy than
we are. You can read it, you can see it, and here you don't read about
it," he said. "There is nothing. No one at any level is saying
anything." He noted that the German government was investing �200
million to spur research into the application of IoT to manufacturing, and
across government, academia and business. "They lead because they are
already talking about it. Because they are already solving the
problems," Zeichner said. He said that in contrast, in From
http://www.zdnet.com
08/21/2015 Private
investors will soon be given the opportunity to invest in mental health
services, Government confirmed this morning. Finance Minister Bill English
and Health Minister Jonathan Coleman have announced plans for The
National-led Government gave the green light to a pilot scheme in September
2013, and has now confirmed the first four social bond contracts. Nearly $29
million has been put aside in the Budget to expand on the pilot, which
provided employment services to people with mental health conditions. Dr
Coleman said social bonds were an "innovative" way for the
Government to contract social outcomes. Labour's Annette King said the policy
went against official advice and was a "disaster in the making".She
said not only was there a lack of evidence from overseas trials that social
bonds delivered on outcomes, but none of the international pilots provided
the expected return on investment. Mrs King said it was an experiment that
had been instigated behind closed doors. It also went against advice provided
to the Department of Internal Affairs, which warned that From
http://www.nzherald.co.nz
06/01/2015 Govt
Issues Month Deadline for Council Digital Enablement Plans Local
authorities have four more weeks to submit a digital enablement plan
outlining how they will take advantage of new investment from the
Government’s broadband extension. According to Communications Minister Amy
Adams, councils have been asked to identify projects that will promote the
uptake and benefits of the next phase of the Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) and
Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) in their communities. “We’ve made excellent
strides with the first phase of UFB and RBI, but we want to do even more to
extend better broadband and mobile connectivity to as many New Zealanders as
possible,” In
July this year, local authorities provided information on priority areas and
how they would support the roll out of better broadband and mobile services
in their communities. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
08/20/2015 |
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The Ghanaian government has handed over fully equipped, enhanced
Community Information centres (E-CICs) to communities in the Eastern, Greater
Accra and From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 07/13/2015 More than 800 sector officers from across the country have
received training ahead of the launch of Rwanda Online Platform initiative
that is set to provide electronic governance services. The trained government
officials, who are now acquainted with necessary skills to create public user
accounts, approve applications and notify applicants on the status of their
applications will process applications submitted by citizens. The training
was conducted by Rwanda Online Platform Limited in collaboration with the
Ministry of Local Government and Business Development Fund. The launch of the
online services is due this month, according to Rwanda Online Platform
Limited chief executive Clement Uwajeneza. Uwajeneza said parallel to the
trainings they were in the process of building a network of service access
points and agents in partnership with different Government institutions that
will allow all citizens, especially those with no direct access to
connectivity to access services as they go online. Other government agencies
are set to receive training in coming months parallel to the roll out
process. "In addition to working with the government, we also
entered into all partnerships that are required to put services online,
including application hosting providers, telecom services providers, payment
solutions providers," Uwajeneza said. The platform, dubbed
"Irembo," will have provisions for citizens and businesses to
register, fill in forms to apply for available services, complete the
applications and pay online using visa cards, mobile money or through a bank
agent. On completion of the procedures, the application is sent to the
government institution in charge for processing. Uwajeneza added that the
services to be offered online had been developed with easy usability and
impact on customer service experience in mind and were varied depending on
the service and level of connectivity. The firm says that the response from
the government officials trained was positive with most of them commending
the impact of the platform to their jobs. The firm was set to launch 10
inaugural services by May but postponed to this month after encountering
challenges in the development process. The first services to receive priority during the launch of the
first phase include; application for criminal clearance certificate, transfer
of land titles, issuance of trading licenses, application for birth
certificates and registration for driving license theory test. After the
launch of the inaugural services, there will be a six months window period
before phasing out manual processes in the respective government agencies. In
a recent interview with The New Times, Rosemary Mbabazi, the permanent
secretary at the Ministry of Youth and ICT, said the government was working
with the firm to make the development possible by availing more community
access points to provide online services, branding and change management.
Matthew Kubwayo, one of the officers who underwent training, said the
platform would ease his work in coming days while facilitating the issuing of
trading licenses and Birth certificates. He said a general consensus of those
introduced to the platform was that it facilitated in improving customer
experiences. From http://allafrica.com/
07/18/2015 The Belgian Council of Ministers has approved the federal open
data strategy, Datanews reported. The data available to the Belgian
government, may not be used by all, including for commercial use. Only data
that is sensitive to privacy, or is important for safety reasons, will not be
available. Minister of Digital Agenda Alexander De Croo said government data
is not owned by the government but by society as a whole. The strategy will
affect all information collected by the government as part of its usual
tasks. The information should be provided free of charge, aside from a
reduced fee. De Croo said the information could be used to help developers
work on apps for public transport, for example, or for weather forecasts. The
rule will also make it easier for different government agencies to access
each other's data. The Belgian Privacy Commission will support the government
in dealing with the data of the country’s citizens. As the data could contain
sensitive information, it will only be made public if it is anonymous. The
Dutch government published 550 datasets earlier this month; these became directly
available for consumers and businesses. Another 300 datasets are being
prepared. In most cases, the datasets involve historical information series,
such as water levels and weather, or address cards. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 07/27/2015 Over the next decade, the population of Digital signatures in Why Sullivan says Cultural and environmental factors have also driven Elsewhere in the World From http://cacm.acm.org/
05/25/2015 French Broadband Commission Enhances Coverage Map The French national broadband plan commission has added WiMax
and satellite coverage to the country's broadband coverage map, reports Echos
du Net. The interactive map now also has a layer showing anticipated FttH
coverage based on operators' commitments for the next 12 to 18 months. The
map now also shows scheduled rollouts for publicly initiative networks. As
before it provides map information on DSL, cable and FttH rollouts completed
so far. The broadband commission's responsibilities include coordinating very
high speed networks, public initiative network deployments, copper equipment
rollout and alternatives such as WiMax, based on county rollout plans. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 07/24/2015 Hungarian Internet Tax Now “Dead” The controversial internet tax that was going to be introduced
by Hungarian government is now dead and will never the revived, according to
Tamás Deutsche, the commissioner for the national consultation on digital developments
(InternetKon). Quoted by BBJ, he added that within the framework of
InternetKon, Hungarians will now be able to decide how tax burdens on
internet services can be reduced. InternetKon is an official response to the
huge protests that followed the Hungarian government’s plans last year to
introduce an internet tax. However, response to the consultation, the
deadline to which has been extended to the end of September, has been
relatively low. From http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/ 08/17/2015 From http://www.independent.com.mt/ 06/11/2015 MITA has hosted a seminar for local council officials on how
technology can be used to support their work in servicing the public. The seminar is part of the Public
Services Online project which aims at enhancing knowledge and take-up of
eGovernment services. The
officials were addressed by Stefan Buontempo - Parliamentary Secretary for
Local Government and Jose Herrera - Parliamentary Secretary for
Competitiveness and Economic Growth. The Public Services Online project is
co-financed through the European Social Funds and is being coordinated by
MITA together with other stakeholders including CDRT, various ministries and
Digitaliseringsstyrelsen (the Danish Government Digital Agency). Local
councils play a very important role in their respective localities as more
often than not they act as the first port of call for many citizens. MITA's Executive Chairman, Tony
Sultana said that local councils can also positively influence the take-up of
eGovernment services by guiding citizens to these services that are easy,
efficient and convenient. "This is why as part of this project, 100 local council
officials from various localities in Malta and Gozo are currently undergoing
training aimed at providing them with the necessary tools and information to
be in a better position to guide and encourage citizens to use online
services," explained Mr Sultana.
"This seminar comes at a time when just two days ago the European
Commission issued its Benchmarking Report on eGovernment which placed Dr Buontempo said that such initiatives simplify work and reduce
bureaucracy and also empower local council officials as they can offer a more
effective service to residents. "Technology can help consumers in
getting served more efficiently and thus time and resources can be allocated
for other work required by the local council," said Hon Buontempo. Dr
Herrera emphasized that through eGovernment it is possible to strengthen democracy
and facilitate ease of access for various government services.
"Government wants to increase the participation of citizens and
businesses and wants them to interact more with all levels of Government. We
believe that we can achieve this through eGovernment." Dr Herrera also
announced that financial support will be given to a number of local councils
to enhance their ICT facilities by purchasing new computers that will be made
available for the public From http://www.independent.com.mt/ 07/08/2015 Only 28 per cent of adults currently make use of e-government
services, with 56 per cent having more faith in traditional face-to-face
services. Moreover, the research shows that while 63 per cent have an e-ID,
only 39 per cent use it to access online services. The figures emerge from a
new research study undertaken by the Malta Information Technology Agency
(MITA) into the use of online public services. Project leader Sarah Farrugia
said that part of the reason for the low use was the lack of pleasant
aesthetics and uniformity across e-government services. She said that
although the general feedback was the services were convenient, efficient and
easy to use, participants also expressed the need for clear guidelines on
use, easier ways to discover and navigate content, and better search
functionality. Project coordinator Joanne Deguara explained that the research
project ran in tandem with an outreach programme that included video
tutorials and a three-month awareness campaign. She said the aim was to see an 8.5 per cent increase in use by
December 2016, as well as a national action plan based on the project’s
finding. Ms Deguara said Mita would be making several recommendations,
including more mobile-friendly services and the introduction of a system
where users would only have to input their data once to access all services.
Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness and Economic Growth Jose Herrera
said online tools were a way to increase the efficiency of government
services. “The challenge right now is not the technological infrastructure
but ensuring that users are taking full advantage of what is actually
available,” he said. Dr Herrera said better training for public officials was
needed to ensure they were equipped to guide citizens and pass on the
government’s message, but expressed satisfaction at the progress towards the
goals of the digital strategy. From http://www.timesofmalta.com/ 07/23/2015 Electronic services are catching up as more and more people
discover the convenience of procuring the goods and services they need from
the comfort of their home at any time of the day. Electronic banking and
e-commerce are achieving significant growth as service providers invest in
making their online service more secure and easy to use. One notable
exception in the success story is the take-up of e-government services by the
majority of people who actually need these services. E-government refers to
“the utilisations of information technology and communication to improve on
the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the public sector”.
According to research by the Malta Information Technology Agency, Malta ranks
first across the EU for both the availability and usability of e-government
services. It says just over a quarter of Maltese people use e-government
services and more than half admit they prefer traditional face-to-face
services. One must be careful not to interpret this latter statement as
resistance to change or a conservative attitude by a large section of Maltese
society. MITA’s executive chairman, Tony Sultana, was right in stating
that “our services lose credibility if they are cumbersome to use”. After
all, electronic services are not meant to be used only by young
technology-mad consumers but by the majority of the population who may have
vastly varying degrees of IT aptitude. The MITA report goes further and
actually contains some of the solutions that are needed to ensure the
government and the public reap the full benefit of the vast investment that
has been made in ICT in the last several years. “Lack of uniformity and
pleasant aesthetics across e-government services” has been identified as one
of the causes of the public’s reluctance to use these services. Many who have
tried to use the mygov.mt website agree that the branding of this site leaves
much to be desired. Branding is not just about the aesthetics, colours or animation
that one usually finds so attractive on websites. It is also about
user-friendliness, ease of navigation, response speed and search
functionality. Consumers have been used to the user-friendly features that they
find on e-commerce and electronic banking websites. They rightly expect that
such features should also be included on government websites. Put simply, the
government website is boring and not all that easy to navigate. Education
also plays a part in making the use of e-government services popular. As in
most cases where a change in the cultural mindset of our society is needed,
schools are the best workshops to start moulding a new mentality. From a very
young age students love to use computers for entertainment and hopefully also
for education. From an early age students can be taught to manage their time
better by not having to queue to get services that they can obtain much more
efficiently through e-government websites. Training older people is more
challenging but it can be achieved. The secret of success is to make these
ICT services as simple as possible. Sometimes obsessive procedures to enhance
security kill the joy of using the computer to procure a service. From time
to time security protocols need to be revised to ensure they are not too
cumbersome for users. An efficient e-government process would help both
business and the public to obtain services with as little delay as possible
and jazzing up the e-government website is long overdue. From http://www.timesofmalta.com/ 08/09/2015 Russia’s problem with internet freedom is an ongoing source of
strife for both native and foreign technology companies — particularly those
in communications tech. Legislation largely seen as thinly-veiled censorship
has caused conflict between Moscow and various businesses, notably social
networks and blogging sites. This week, the Kremlin issued a brazen decree,
sending letters to Google, Twitter, and Facebook warning all three There are multiple unknowns here, starting with how the three
tech companies will respond to the Kremlin — if they will at all. If the
companies do not comply with the requests, will the government actually apply
said sanctions? Blocking Facebook would be going the way of While Russia has never had a balmy relationship with the
internet — particularly when U.S.-based tech firms are involved — its
approach to censorship and internet governance has only worsened over the
last couple of years, especially in the wake of the revelations regarding the
U.S. National Security Agency revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013. (Snowden
still resides in From http://blogs.blouinnews.com/ 05/23/2015 6
in 10 Russians Would Support Internet Censorship During a Crisis Nearly six in 10 Russians would support the government if it
decided to pull the plug on Internet access inside the country in a crisis
situation, a recent poll indicates. Support for online censorship or cutting
off Internet access altogether was the highest among Russians who never or
rarely go online, but remained high even among those who surf the web daily,
according to a joint survey by In the absence of those special circumstances, introduction of
online censorship is favored by 49 percent of respondents, the report said.
The number was only slightly lower, at 43 percent, among those who surf the
web regularly, and reached 57 percent among those who rarely or never go
online, the report said. At a time when the government has been telling
Russian citizens that the West is supposedly eager to destroy their country
and that foreign media defame Moscow's policies, possible “filtering” of
foreign media websites won the approval of 45 percent of respondents, while
restrictions on “other foreign websites” received the support of 38 percent,
the poll indicated, RBC reported. A total of 42 percent of respondents said
they agreed with the statement that although foreign nations use the Internet
“against After From http://www.themoscowtimes.com/ 08/04/2015 Hiding
in Plain Sight: Russian Ministries Online According to a 2014 survey by Public Opinion Foundation, a
Russian survey company, half of all Russians use the internet daily. Russian
citizens still regard the Internet, however, with a degree of mistrust: a
recent study by the The growth of transparency The last high profile case taken by Ivan Pavlov, a well-known
human rights lawyer, involved Svetlana Davydova, a woman accused of treason
for phoning the Ukrainian Embassy in Tatyana Tolsteneva, Infometer’s project director, told me that
in 2004, when people were just beginning to monitor Russian state website,
few demands were being made of them. The Russian government had decided that,
in principle, government structures should have websites, but there was no
overall concept of what they should contain. In 2006-2007, when many official
bodies were still yet to go online, Pavlov took a number of them to court,
forcing them to join the 21st century. A draft Freedom of Information Act,
which proposed to introduce global standards of transparency for the state,
had been lying around in the Duma since 1993. The law was only passed in 2009,
during Dmitry Medvedev’s term as president. A draft Freedom of Information
Act lay around in the Duma from 1993, but was only passed in 2009 This law stipulates that the public should have access to
information like officials’ declarations of their income, contact details for
government structures, and details of new legislation and minutes of
meetings. Under the old way of doing things, federal laws only came into
force when their texts were published in Rossiiskaya gazeta, the government’s
newspaper. Now they also appear on the government site pravo.gov.ru.
Ministries and other government bodies are responsible for the publication of
their own regulations, as are regional governments. Information on government
procurement is also now accessible to the public online. The state’s grasp of
the internet developed fastest under Medvedev, and, according to Tolsteneva,
organisations that fall under Medvedev’s remit as prime minister are still
more open. When Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in 2012,
developing governmental sites became ‘less trendy’, but didn’t stop
completely. Here, it seems, a generational change in the bureaucracy probably
played a role, with the arrival of new people who’d been surfing the net
since childhood. Take asozd2.duma.gov.ru, which, despite its rather ugly URL,
is a move towards increased openness by the State Duma: this site allows
visitors to follow the entire process of creating legislation. And since
2012, open public access to information has become common in many regions as
well. Moscow leads the way in this area: the Mayor’s office site
(data.mos.ru) is updated constantly and has an enormous quantity of
information for every situation: the contact details of all the capital’s
schools; the opening hours of all metro station concourses and all Moscow’s
hospitals; the locations of CCTV cameras; a directory of licensed cab firms;
the contact details of refuges for lost pets, and much, much more. By 2014,
Infometer had constructed a database of 4,000 official government websites:
federal government structures, regional governments and legislative
assemblies, courts and police stations. They see this as a representative
sample of state internet sites, but by no means an exhaustive list. A patchwork of progress Infometer works as a commercial company, rather than an NGO, and
the company makes its money by advising government agencies on how sites can
be made more open and convenient to use. Infometer compiles transparency
ratings for state bodies, so that officials, while upgrading their sites, can
work on improving their department’s image. Other parts of the Research by Infometer reveals the Russian state’s development of
its internet presence to be rather chaotic. Each government body is
responsible for its own website. For example, the Justice, Interior and
Emergencies Ministries share a common platform, but the 85 regional
legislative assemblies each have their own, each with its own concept,
structure and design. In theory, the General Prosecutor’s Office has overall
responsibility for content, but it’s not very proactive: in the course of a
year, Infometer found fewer than 100 instances of the GPO’s intervention when
a site lacked information required by law. Information, or lack of it, basically boils down to the
diligence, or lack of it, of an individual official. Thus Infometer’s ratings
are often headed by quite unexpected bodies. Unmasking corruption online Government websites are anti-corruption campaigners’ favourite
stomping ground. A few months ago, for instance, the Russian branch of
Transparency International discovered an expenditure of 500m roubles (£4.9m)
on a system of electronic school diaries, the eventual form of which did not
correlate with the sum spent. The government is yet to react to Transparency
International’s revelations. The organisation’s deputy director Andrei
Zhirblis believes that the best place to start investigations into such cases
is the income declarations of officials, which are published online.
Admittedly, some officials are more devious than others, posting PDF files you
can’t open and the like. In 2013, 700 members of regional legislative
assemblies didn’t bother declaring their incomes at all. Some officials sneakily post income declarations in PDF files
that won’t open Zhirblis also relies on the anti-corruption sections of
government ministry websites. A carelessly designed or managed section will
immediately attract campaigners’ attention. Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption
Foundation uses online information in its investigations as well. In 2013,
when Navalny was being prosecuted for alleged embezzlement in the Nikolai Lyaskin, who works at the Anti-Corruption Foundation,
believes the frequent outcries caused by this kind of practice have made the
procurement system more civilised: traditional attempts to conceal purchases
from the public gaze by writing the details using occasional Latin letters
instead of Cyrillic (to confuse internet search engines) are now a thing of
the past. The next task, says Lyaskin, is to force the authorities to publish
existing statistics, for instance, on the number of children with lung
diseases relative to environmental pollution by district in From https://opendemocracy.net/ 08/20/2015 Ukrainian
E-Government Initiatives Progressing Despite Challenges The platform was built with cooperation from the government, IT
companies, and tech developers. Since volunteers are responsible for
development, the only project cost is server maintenance. Dubilet says that
the platform uses cloud servers to store data. “It doesn’t cost much, so I
pay out of my own pocket,” he says. One significant drawback of the system is
that certificates that get ordered online must be collected at the relevant
government institution. Dubilet says “we need to negotiate with the
governmental institutions so that they begin to accept electronic copies.” While iGov.org.ua seeks to provide e-services on the national
level, Lviv’s city council has also introduced its own online platform for
providing e-services. It’s still in beta-testing mode with more than 800
residents signed up for testing. Tymofiy Aleksandronets, the head of the IT
office at Lviv city council, says that there are 288 services that the city
council provides and the goal is to put them all online as soon as possible.
He added that many certificates still have to be submitted in hard copy.
Unless governmental bodies that demand those certificates change their
practices and start accepting electronic copies, it will be hard to put all
the services online. Jaanika Merilo, who actively involved in the development
of Lviv’s platform as an advisor to the city’s mayor, says that the
e-services like the one in Lviv are currently being developed in more than 15
other cities in She is also a member of From http://www.kyivpost.com/
07/08/2015 LATIN
AMERICA: This article was co-written with EFF volunteer, Ana María
Acosta. In an effort to promote tolerance and equality in If this proposal is enacted, it would most certainly stifle free
expression and promote self-censorship. We may also see website
administrators increasingly monitoring their users in fear of legal
retaliation. The draft amendments violate, under international human rights
law, the fundamental right of free expression. Eduardo Bertoni, lawyer and
former Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Organization of
American States (OAS) and Director of the Center for Studies on Freedom of
Expression and Access to Information (CELE) at the University of Palermo in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, is one of the many scholars who has expressed his
views regarding such undefined legislation in this area: Inter-American human
rights framework contemplates a broad protection on right to free expression.
For at least 30 years, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights states that
laws establishing limitations on freedom of expression must be written
clearly and precisely, given that broad and vague rules may have a deterrent
effect on the opinions for fear of sanctions. The main problem is that
vagueness in the definitions can lead to judicial interpretations that
restricts freedom of expression and grant discretional faculties to
authorities in an unacceptable way according to the Inter-American Convention
of Human Rights. Furthermore, the draft bill is contrary to the Manila Principles,
a set of guidelines for intermediaries created by human rights organizations
including EFF. In particular, this proposal contradicts the Valeria Milanes, Director in Freedom of Expression, Information
Access and Privacy areas for ADC, told EFF: We see with great alarm that this
project puts at risk the freedom of expression in the digital environment
through vague definitions, through the creation of content removal mechanisms
which the determination and implementation would remain in private hands, and
also through the allocation of punitive responsibility to those who do not
comply with such obligations. We may think that the draft authors do not
understand the digital environment operation and they have failed to see that
the proposed text has an effect of censorship. From https://www.eff.org/
08/12/2015 NORTH
AMERICA: Federal agencies expect to spend at least $400 million more on
cloud computing this year than last. The expected bump would bring the year's
total cloud computing spending to $2 billion and illustrates the heightened
attention the federal government is paying to cloud, according to a recently
released report by market research firm Deltek. However, cloud computing
still would only account for 3 percent of agencies’ estimated IT spending, according
to the report. Cloud contract awards have increased of late. In the first
quarter of 2014, the total value of these contracts came to $30 million. In
the first quarter of 2015, they came to $668 million, according to the study.
The huge growth had a lot to do with the Defense Information Systems Agency’s
Enterprise Storage Solutions II contract, which calls for hybrid cloud data
storage services, according to the study. In the first quarter of 2015, the
Defense Department awarded the highest value in cloud contracts compared to
other agencies, according to the study. “Ironic, isn’t it, considering the
impression in the market that the DOD is dragging its feet when it comes to
the cloud?” the authors of the report said. As is typical in other types of
procurement, the value awarded in cloud contracts is often much greater in
the second half of the fiscal year than in the first. For example, in 2013,
96 percent of the year’s contract value was awarded in the last two quarters.
If this were replicated in the second half of 2015, it would mean $668
million is only a tiny fraction of what awarded in cloud contracts the
remaining months of fiscal 2015. “Spending on these contracts is another
story, to be sure, as total awarded value doesn’t promise that agencies are
putting budget dollars through these awards,” the report stated. From http://www.nextgov.com/ 06/10/2015 Contrary to popular belief, governments have suffered from
excess data- not a lack thereof. Before IT, as we know it today, revenue
agencies used to rely solely on paper to store data files, most of it never
to be used again. While we have come a long way from paper dependency, we
still have much to tackle in achieving a truly data-driven government. What is Data-Driven Government? Data-driven government is where actionable information (data
that can be used to make specific business decisions) is available for all
critical decisions. The benefits include sound governance and control;
optimized fraud and error detection; and improved services. Yet in 2013, an
IBM study revealed that only 50 percent of managers made more than half of
their decisions based on data analytics. This is partly because the necessary
data capabilities are simply not available. But it also shows that government
agencies, particularly revenue agencies, have yet to fully implement data
strategies in their analytics. Challenges But why is that? According to the same IBM report, there are two
main challenges: privacy and choosing data. Government agencies must manage
these challenges in order to transform into more data-driven agencies.
Privacy: When implementing data strategies, one of the first obstacles that
always comes up for government is privacy. As we all know, government has a
responsibility to protect individuals’ privacy and security. This has become
increasingly difficult in an era where data allows us to access boundless
sources of information about people. Government agencies must be especially
prudent in their data strategies, which may be why many of these agencies are
reticent to create more sophisticated data analytics programs. While it can
be difficult to navigate between sophisticated data analytics and individual
privacy, some government agencies have been able to address this challenge.
For example, the IRS has been using data analytics to enhance compliance
activities for 40 years. They also use their data to understand taxpayer
behavior as well as educational needs and services based on categories such
as occupation, age group, and postal code. When revenue agencies use data
wisely in protecting and serving the public, there is hope for government to
achieve a balance between privacy and becoming more data-driven. Choosing Data: The other major challenge is that government
organizations, particularly revenue agencies, are not taking full advantage
of data that is available to them. However, government doesn’t have to use
all of its data, just the valuable bits. So how does government choose which
data to use and manage? Govies can start by choosing data from within,
outside, and across borders. The first area for each government/revenue
agency is to capture internal data electronically. This lowers the cost of data
capture while making it easier to keep track of filing systems. Secondly,
government should not only take advantage of its internal data, but also
outside data. For example, commercial business information services have been
highly useful, as well as sharing government data over national borders.
Sharing data internationally does not come without its challenges, but many
international data exchange treaties have been established to help countries
navigate privacy while sharing better data in relation to customs, taxation,
and social services. The Path Forward So how do government agencies become more data-driven? IBM
recommends first considering the role data and analytics should play in the
strategic plan for the agency’s future. Government agencies should adopt
enterprise data strategies to accompany analytics strategies. The following
analytical tools can help you become more data-driven in the following ways: - Identity analysis tools: Determine who is who to help prevent
identity theft and establish relationships between different entities. - Visualization tools: Show analysis results in charts and
graphs on maps. - Unstructured data analysis: Detect patterns or trends in
internal unstructured files, Internet, and social media data sources. - Cognitive analysis tools: Provide advanced analysis of both
structured and unstructured data based on machine learning and intelligence. - Information dashboards: Extract and present the information
needed for various purposes, such as management. - Analytical tools for auditors and analysts: Provide a
workbench for individuals with responsibilities such as auditing or research. - Social sentiment analysis tools: Assess social media to detect
patterns of what is being said about agencies so they can better understand
their communities as well as the broader perception of their program and
services. All of these tools can play a big part in helping to make
revenue management agencies smarter. Used to their fullest extent, they can
also overcome many of the challenges related to navigating privacy and
choosing data programs. Though these are no small challenges, what’s clear is
that a data-driven government is a better government. From https://www.govloop.com/ 06/19/2015 CIO
Scott Seeks New Framework for Government Cloud The devastating hacks of the legacy systems at the Office of
Personnel Management are a reminder that government needs to move off of
antiquated IT and into modern systems built with integrated security. Federal
CIO Tony Scott is urging cloud vendors to come up with solutions that operate
at the government scale. "My pitch to the cloud companies is: This is
where the money is," Scott told FCW after his speech at an Association
for Enterprise Information event on June 30. "The consumer market is
great, but there's some limit to where that goes." Right now, cloud
transition efforts are fragmented and uncoordinated. "Every agency is
doing some cloud stuff," Scott said. "But when you go to the core
of the matter and the heavy lifting where all the work is done, that's not
moving very fast." Right now the effort is just in the talking stages.
But ultimately Scott hopes to persuade cloud providers that the time is right
for government to move to cloud not just for data storage or email, but for a
new generation of large-scale public facing applications. He envisions a
framework for a "platform baseline" that is vendor agnostic and
applicable to public, private and hybrid systems. The time is right, Scott
said, from the point of view of the maturity of cloud technology. "It's
good enough now that we can start investing in some of those big, heavy,
weight-carrying platforms," he said. Scott said that some kind of basic framework f.or big cloud-based
government services applications is a good place to start. He's hoping to
address "common patterns across the federal government," like
permit applications, information requests and other citizen- and
business-facing services in which data is submitted, ingested, circulated and
adjudicated. "That general workflow is deeply coded in every legacy
system in the federal government," Scott said. "You can generalize
that and create cloud platforms that basically do that work, and then you
could put agency-specific rules or work processes on top of that. But the
core underlying engine could be a common framework to do that work."
Legacy systems, Scott said, are just a computerization of paper-based
workflows. "Everything behind the screen is paying homage to just the
internal, old-fashioned business model that we engaged in," Scott said.
A move to the cloud, with re-imagined, re-architected business processes
"will be a transformative kind of experience. It won't be a lift and
shift of what we have today." From http://fcw.com/ 06/30/2015 How
Government Can Get Better at Managing Big Programs Even as federal agencies take on ever more complicated
endeavors, they have been slow to adopt program management techniques common
in the private sector, a new report concludes. “Large complex change
initiatives have become a major feature of agencies once associated with the
most routine production operations, whether it be delivering benefits or
collecting statistical data,” the report stated. Still, the panel of experts
who completed the study concluded, “with the exception of [the Defense
Department] and some civilian agencies, such as NASA and the Department of
Energy, program management capabilities are generally weak, with some pockets
of strength in individual agencies.” The report was prepared by the National
Academy of Public Administration and sponsored by the Project Management
Institute. The expert panel listed seven conditions necessary to
institutionalize program management as a discipline in government: - An integrated approach to the development of governmentwide
program management policy and oversight of agency implementation. Agency leadership support for program management. - Integration of program management into strategic planning,
goal-setting and performance improvement processes. - Clearly established roles and responsibilities of agency
executives and stakeholders in program management processes. A strong, senior-level program management organization in
agencies. - A governmentwide job series for program managers that spans
business functions with a career path that extends into the senior career
executive management ranks. An organization bringing together senior program management
officials from across the government to advise on governmentwide policy,
share leading practices, and oversee the development of expert program
management resources. The proposed 2015 Program Management Improvement and
Accountability Act (HR 2144)
addresses some of these issues, including the creation of a job series
and career path for program managers. The report endorsed the legislation,
which is sponsored by Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind. The measure also would require
each agency to designate a program management improvement officer. In
addition to backing the legislation, the From http://www.govexec.com/ 07/17/2015 American
Cities Increased Their Use of Civic Engagement Tools During the Great
Recession, but Did Not Fully Embrace Citizen Involvement in Decision-Making As the Great Recession hit, American cities professional
organizations and foundations increased efforts to promote civic engagement
activities. Through analysis of
2006, 2009, and 2012 survey results, Marcia Godwin finds that cities increased
their use of civic engagement tools, especially those involving technology,
but reduced strategic planning efforts and the use of citizen surveys. Coming out of the Great Recession,
managers in the most affected cities were the most supportive of civic
engagement. While managers
generally support civic engagement, this support does not widely extend to
giving citizens the authority to make decisions. Local government
professional associations and foundations (including the Deliberative
Democracy Consortium, IBM Center for the Business of Government,
International City/County Management Association -ICMA, Knight Foundation,
National Civic League, National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation,
National League of Cities, and Public Agenda) have increasingly supported
efforts to expand civic participation.
The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) also
started its Ironically, these outreach efforts increased in the midst of the
Great Recession that began in 2007.
Local governments experienced lag effects due to the timing of tax
collections and assessments, which meant that their revenues bottomed out
later than for private businesses.
For example, the City of Detroit, Michigan did not file for bankruptcy
until 2013 after several years of budget shortfalls. Recovery has been slow and hampered by
pension obligations facing many cities. In new research, I investigated civic
engagement by drawing on responses from 585 cities that answered the 2006,
2009, and 2012 State of the Profession surveys sponsored by ICMA; the
respondents were primarily city managers. Each survey included civic engagement
questions and the 2009 survey focused on the economic downturn. Although there were differences from
survey to survey in the exact questions asked, this approach had the benefit
of yielding results about changes in civic engagement activities over time
and the association between civic engagement and fiscal stress. From http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ 07/28/2015 DOD
Sets Up Cyber Workforce Council Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work has set up an
intra-department council to manage cyber workforce issues at the Defense
Department. Work’s directive, dated Aug. 11, tasks the council with ensuring
the Pentagon takes a holistic, or “total force management,” perspective to
filling out the department’s cyber workforce needs with civilian, military
and contracting personnel. The idea is to avoid duplication and omissions in
responding to all of the cyber-related skillsets demanded by DOD officials.
The new council will include members of the offices of the DOD CIO, the
undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, undersecretary of
Defense for policy, the undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, and the director
of the National Security Agency. The broadly worded directive “unifies the
overall cyberspace workforce and establishes specific workforce elements
(cyberspace effects, cybersecurity, and cyberspace information technology) to
align, manage and standardize cyberspace work roles, baseline qualifications
and training requirements.” The updated policy is in keeping with Work’s and
other officials’ emphasis on building a technically sound DOD cyber workforce
of some 6,000 personnel to try to keep pace in a contested and asymmetric
space. The directive comes on the heels of a breach of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff’s unclassified email network by hackers allegedly linked to From http://fcw.com/ 08/20/2015 Officials
from 9 Countries Visit Officials from nine foreign countries, including From http://www.koreaobserver.com/ 06/23/2015 ICANN
53 - Guaranteeing Accountability in Internet Governance I recently attended the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers' (ICANN) 53rd meeting in In fact, the majority of ICANN-53 meeting was dedicated to
discussing accountability of the ICANN Board of Directors, an issue that
Stickling emphasized in a recent blog post. The initial draft proposal to
improve ICANN's accountability was issued for public comment on May 4, 2015.
This proposal recommends turning ICANN into a member-based organization where
all supporting organizations and advisory councils would become voting
members — if they choose to do so. This would create a voting structure and,
as a last resort, provide members with the option of taking legal action
against the ICANN board if they were not serving in the best interest of its
stakeholders. This voting-member plan is one way to hold the Board accountable,
but it needs to be heavily scrutinized before ICANN pursues its
implementation. This mechanism, or really any mechanism, agreed upon to
ensure accountability is crucial to enforcing laws and safeguarding business,
but needs to be the right course of action. Agreement for the sake of
agreement will do no good if the mechanism isn't right. Another item discussed extensively was private sector management
of the Internet. Allowing industry, academics, end users and others outside
government to manage the Internet is the future. This evolution of ICANN is
not an aberration, but an idea that has been baked into the plan all along.
Stakeholders have to be invested in the plan just as much as they are in the
agreement, or else all the work we have been doing will have little effect.
Although Adobe is not a voting member of the working groups developing the
plan on how the transition will take place, we support it and believe that a
private sector led, multi-stakeholder model is the ideal. We support what needs
to happen and why it needs to happen, but it's the multi-stakeholder
community's responsibility to decide on how it will happen. We at Adobe believe that accountability plays a crucial role in
the IANA transition and sets it up to function properly — a position outlined
in our recent blog post. There's a community beyond the ICANN insiders, ICANN
board members and government officials that have a stake in this endeavor,
and they need to be a part of this process. Under the current project plan,
the final proposal for accountability mechanisms is set to issue for public
comment in August. We urge members of the business community to carefully
review this proposal and provide feedback during the public comment period.
This will allow for adjustments based on public concerns and produce a
stronger plan for ICANN accountability. It's my hope that as we move along in
this process, private sector stakeholders will provide input and analysis
during the final public comment period. All industries affected by these
petitions need to be actively engaged so that their interests are reflected,
or we risk mismanagement of society's most powerful tool. By J. Scott Evans,
Trademark Director and Associate General Counsel at Adobe. J. Scott Evans
joined Adobe Systems as Associate General Counsel responsible for global
trademarks, copyright, domains and marketing in October 2013. From http://www.circleid.com/
07/18/2015 Multistakeholder
Internet Governance: A Pathway Completed, the Road Ahead In a new paper, Stuart N. Brotman reviews the potential barriers
facing the From http://www.brookings.edu/ 07/21/2015 Conventional wisdom used to say that democracy would be more
direct in the future. We'd be able to press buttons on our televisions to
decide on laws, making parliaments obsolete, and turning on its head 1984's
vision of everyone being controlled through TV sets. Democracy would return
to the traditions of ancient Athens in which the population -- at least the
few thousand men lucky enough not to be slaves -- could debate and vote
together in the agora, or central square. It was an appealing ideal. None of
us likes having to pass our power to representatives who we may have never
met, or voted for, or share much in common with. And as we got used to
expressing likes on Facebook or clicking on petition sites such as change.org,
we realised it was an ideal that the internet made plausible. Unfortunately,
many direct-democracy enthusiasts misread what it is that actually makes
democracy work. It's true that when we think about democracy we usually think
about casting votes – being able to elect or sack a president or prime
minister. But votes are only a small part of what makes democracy work. The
right to vote only makes sense when it's part of a system that includes many
other things: free media, open argument, campaigns and, above all, space for
deliberation -- the chance, through argument, to think things through and
change your mind. Without these aspects, democracy becomes a sham. And if you just
make decisions one by one through referendums, you lose one of the most
important qualities of any government: the ability to see the big picture, to
link issues into coherent strategies. Ironically, it was That simple insight is now shaping some of the most interesting
innovation in democracy. Some of it is happening around parliaments that are
using online platforms to let citizens propose laws and take part in debates
about them. For example, From http://www.wired.co.uk/
07/23/2015 Gartner’s
Top 10 Government Tech Trends in 2015 Technologies that enable new service models for digital
government must be at the top of the list for government organisations as
they prioritise technology investments, according to Gartner. The analyst
firm has identified the ten most important technology trends for government
in 1. Digital workplace The government workforce of the future will be populated with
digitally literate employees, from frontline workers to top-level executives.
The digital workplace is open, flat and democratic. It is the organisational
manifestation of open government. CIOs and IT leaders must take a leadership
role in building a more social, mobile, accessible and information-driven
work environment. 2. Multichannel citizen engagement Government jurisdictions with multiple channels (municipal
offices, physical mail correspondence, contact centres, e-government websites
and mobile apps) are struggling to provide their citizens with one coherent
view of the organisation. A multichannel strategy, in the context of digital
government, means more than delivering a seamless experience to stakeholders.
It also is about delivering interactions that are connected, consistent,
convenient, collaborative, customised, clear and transparent. To produce
those outcomes, policymakers and CIOs must radically redesign service models
by combining traditional marketing tools (such as focus groups, user
experience labs, surveys and stakeholder analysis) with new approaches (such
as citizen co-creation initiatives, agile development and design thinking). 3. Open any data The number and variety of public-facing open datasets and web
APIs published by all tiers of governments worldwide continue to increase.
Gartner's view is that government open data is here to stay, but it will take
a decade or more before its maximum utility is realised. The rapid growth of
open datasets among early mover organisations and flat or declining budgets
create sustainability challenges to government open data programmes. Open
data is not free. For most government agencies, open data programmes are an
unfunded or underfunded cost centre. The ‘value’ of open data must become
tangible to government in terms of how its availability can quantifiably
contribute to operational efficiency or effectiveness, let alone how it
supports economic development, national productivity or commercial ventures. Gartner
predicts that by 2018, more than 30% of digital government projects will
treat any data as open data. 4. Citizen e-ID Citizen electronic identification (e-ID) refers to an
orchestrated set of processes and technologies managed by governments to
provide a trusted domain for how public services will be accessed by citizens
on any device or through any online channel (web, mobile devices or
applications) — and, in some cases, using smart card readers attached to PCs
or kiosks. It has been a long-standing yet elusive goal of many government
planners to provide citizens with integrated and seamless access to all
government services. To be successful, citizen e-ID programmes require a
trusted relationship between government and commercial vendors, with a focus
on business value, interoperability and user experience. Regardless of
whether a government agency serves as the primary citizen e-ID identity
broker or contracts with a commercial identity and access management as a
service (IDaaS) provider, CIOs must ensure that personal privacy and data
confidentiality requirements are met. 5. Edge analytics Analytics is rapidly evolving from a separate and distinct
business function into a fluid aspect of system operations and user
experiences. The capabilities of edge analytics are particularly relevant as
government CIOs and agency programme leaders design new mobile services that
are augmented by situational context and real-time interactions. Edge analytics
possess three distinct characteristics. Primarily, they are advanced — they
apply predictive and prescriptive algorithms and cognitive computing to make
real-time assessments about what will happen or what should happen. Second,
edge analytics are pervasive. They are embedded into business processes and
applications to deliver responsive and agile organisational performance. Finally,
edge analytics are invisible. They operate continuously in the background,
tracking user activity, processing sensor and environmental data, dynamically
adjusting workflows to enhance the user experience, or managing activities
during events as they unfold. 6. Scalable interoperability Government agencies are starting to increasingly rely on data
exchange with external partners in order to optimise their service delivery
networks and business functions, such as cross-boundary collaboration and
service coordination, monitoring and outcome reporting. Scalable
interoperability offers government CIOs, enterprise architects and business
process analysts an incremental, ‘just enough’ approach to architecture and
standards to deliver ‘soon enough’ value. By narrowing the scope of
interoperability initiatives, a motivated community of interest — that is,
stakeholders who receive tangible benefits from improved data exchange — can
agree to use application-neutral and source-neutral extensible identifiers,
formats and protocols to achieve mutual goals. 7. Digital government platforms In digital business, citizens should no longer have to navigate
among various agencies and programmes through vertical, first-generation
e-government web portals in order to locate the services they seek. A digital
government platform incorporates service-oriented architecture design
patterns for the provision and use of enterprise services across multiple
domains, systems and processes. Vendor offerings are still at an early stage,
and they focus primarily on supporting smart cities. Examples include 8. Internet of Things The IoT is the network of physical objects (fixed or mobile)
that contains embedded technology to communicate, monitor, sense or interact
with multiple environments. For government, the IoT enables the digital
transformation of service strategies. Government agencies can expect
IoT-driven changes in several different areas, including environmental or
public infrastructure monitoring, emergency response, supply chain
inspection, asset and fleet management, and traffic safety. Government CIOs
will need to approach the IoT strategically to evaluate how a growing base of
intelligent objects and equipment can be combined with traditional internet
and IT systems to support breakthrough innovations in operational performance
or public service delivery. 9. Web-scale IT Web-scale IT is a system-oriented architectural pattern of
global-class computing that delivers the capabilities of large cloud service
providers within an enterprise IT organisation. Web-scale IT enables the
rapid and scalable development and delivery of web-based IT services that
leverage agile, lean and continuous delivery principles. For government, the
shift to web-scale IT is a long-term trend with significant IT process,
cultural and technology implications. Organisations adopting a web-scale IT
philosophy will largely eschew the acquisition of expensive, scalable
computing, storage and networking resources in favour of lower-cost,
open-source-derived hardware that bypasses the traditional infrastructure
‘middlemen’. Consequently, traditional IT suppliers and delivery modes will
become less relevant to government IT. 10. Hybrid cloud (and IT) Hybrid IT offers government CIOs a new operating model that supports
their IT departments' ability to combine and manage on-premises
infrastructure or internal private cloud with external cloud-based
environments (community, public or hybrid) simultaneously. Hybrid IT is how
IT departments are organised to secure, deliver, manage and govern these
environments. In government, where consolidation is high on many agendas, a
hybrid IT model requires very different competencies to support various
public cloud deployments. Government CIOs will need to reposition IT organisations
from being full-service providers of IT services to being their agencies'
preferred brokers and managers of services offered predominantly through the
cloud. From http://www.information-age.com/ Internet-Governance-by-Infrastructure Those of you who are interested in Internet governance matters
might want to have a look at a paper I recently published (as the initial
contribution to IP Justice‘s “Internet Governance and Online Freedom
Publication Series”) on “Internet Infrastructure and IP Censorship.” In the
paper, I describe (via a few recent examples) what I call
“governance-by-infrastructure” — the use of control over access to critical
portions of the Internet’s technical infrastructure (such as the Internet’s
domain name system, or “DNS”) as a means to enforce private and public law.
And I try to outline some of the reasons why these schemes should make us
very nervous and some core concerns — about Internet neutrality, legitimacy
and institutional competence, due process, free expression and harm to third
parties — that these schemes inevitably raise. Questions about
governance-by-infrastructure are at the heart of the difficult issues
surrounding the “IANA Transition” — the These infrastructure-based systems are efficient in ways that
the ordinary conventional mechanisms of international law cannot hope to
match: fully automated judgment execution machines that can operate,
virtually instantaneously, on anyone in any corner of the planet. They derive
a great deal of their power from their ability to solve three of the most
challenging problems surrounding law enforcement on a largely borderless
medium like the Internet: (1) the problem of choice of law (i.e., determining
whose substantive rules apply to conflicts involving persons located in
different countries), (2) the problem of judgment enforcement (i.e.,
obtaining enforcement of a legal judgment issued in one jurisdiction against
a wrongdoer located in a different jurisdiction), and (3) the problem of
scale (i.e., functioning effectively across a medium that is, as James
Grimmelmann once put it, “sublimely large,”and one that continues to expand
in size at an exponential rate).
It is entirely predictable — indeed, virtually inevitable — that they
will be pressed into service under many new guises and in many new
implementations in the years to come. In any event, do take a look if you’re
so inclined. David G. Post is a Sr. Fellow at the New America Foundation's
Open Technology Institute. He taught intellectual property/Internet law at From https://www.washingtonpost.com/ 08/09/2015 Internet
Censorship: Why Governments Are Against What People Want How can an administration that started out with the world’s
greatest slogan – Power to the People – get things so wrong? Pro-consumer
principles in four simple words … as policy guidance for the age of the
informed consumer, you can’t get more focused than that. Yet our rulers now
shun people-friendly positioning in favour of the apartheid era attitude that
‘we know what’s best’. They might deny they’re control freaks, but they sure
look like control enthusiasts. These enthusiasts now want to control social
media. Under nonsensical government proposals, host sites will have to set up
filters to block content deemed objectionable. Anyone hoping to share an
opinion or information will have to apply to become a digital publisher, pay
a subscription fee, submit content and wait for the censor’s go-ahead. Ain’t
gonna happen! Our control-minded rulers can’t even control the spending of
easily identified rogue municipalities. How can they control the worldwide
web? The thinking seems to be: if something seems threatening, gag it or ban
it. (Sound familiar?) Violence and intimidation are more direct forms of
disapproval and we’ve already seen some members of our taxi-industry apply
these ‘controls’ to Uber-empowered motorists and their passengers … while
police stand and watch. Adaptation rather than mindless resistance makes more sense.
Just consider: Travel agencies faced by online bookings … leading to new
business models or agency closures The music industry faced by music downloads … leading to
plummeting shop-based sales followed by a new-look music industry Retailing faced by Amazon and online shopping … leading to
retail co-existence with the web Takeaway food shops have to adapt to Mr Delivery and others,
while hotels must cope with Couchsurfers.com and AirBnb.com – formats that
allow guests to ‘crash’ on someone’s sofa or in a spare bedroom. For a fee, wannabe chefs can now practise cooking for the
neighbours at their own home (via ShareYourMeal.com, CasseroleClub.com and
Cookisto.co.uk.), a hint of big catering industry changes. And, of course,
auctioneers deal with online competition from eBay, OLX, et al. Banks also
face the spectre of real competition, thanks to the Net and peer-to-peer
(P2P) lending. P2P is driven by pioneers like ZOPA.com, with Virgin Money
eager to move in. How will banks react? Hopefully, by cutting fees.
Governments don’t really get the idea of competition. But they do study
history. Our authorities should therefore look back at the Arab Spring. As
social media-driven protests spread, many governments tried to ban Facebook, Twitter
and similar formats. But the people loved techno-empowerment and the media
and the messages proved too powerful to stop. (Some Egyptian new-borns were
even named ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’.) What names will we be calling our
rulers if they persist with efforts to control the web? From http://memeburn.com/
08/14/2015 ForeSee’s
Q2 2015 E-Government Satisfaction Index Reveals First Decline in ForeSee, a premier provider of cloud-based voice of customer
(VOC) solutions, today released the results of the 48th consecutive ForeSee
E-Government Satisfaction Index for Q2 2015. The quarterly report from
ForeSee closely examines customer experience data across 100 government
websites, mobile sites and applications. ForeSee collected nearly 175,000
citizen survey responses related to their experience, with scores of 80 and
above recognized as the threshold for excellence. For the first time since
the company began tracking mobile satisfaction in Q4 2013, survey data showed
a significant decline, suggesting that rising citizen expectations related to
mobile drove the metric down three points. “The Q2 2015 ForeSee E-Government
Satisfaction Index results demonstrate that the mobile experience makes a
significant contribution to citizens’ overall sentiment about the federal
departments, agencies and programs with which they engage” Many agency sites
with improved scores, meanwhile, saw traffic increases driven by current
events in the U.S., such as the a debate around immigration reform, the wave
of retiring baby boomers and even the availability of rare coins from the
U.S. Mint. Under increased citizen scrutiny, these sites were found to
perform well given their categorical function, demonstrating the importance
of streamlining the user experience and managing user expectations along the
way. E-Gov Performance Highlights Key findings from the latest E-Government Satisfaction Index
include: The mobile E-Gov experience is down three points, from 79 to 76,
marking the first-ever decline in citizen satisfaction for mobile. Overall
E-Gov satisfaction is also down, from 74.7 to 74.5. Taken together, the
scores suggest that citizens’ expectations for their digital experiences with
government are aligning with their expectations for web and mobile sites they
use in their daily lives, such as those for retail, banking or news
organizations. E-Gov still continues to outperform overall government in
citizen satisfaction: 74.5 for E-Gov according to ForeSee, versus 64.4 for
government overall, according to the ACSI Federal Government Report 2014. The
data confirms that E-Gov remains an effective tool for improving citizen
perception of government’s ability to deliver on its promises. The ability to
create a better digital experience builds citizen trust. This quarter,
satisfied website visitors were 86% more likely to use the site as a primary
resource and 90% more likely to put their trust behind the agency. For
mobile, those that were highly satisfied with their experience were 60% more
likely to return to the site or app and 91% more likely to recommend it.
Again, the data suggest that positive experiences with E-Gov improve
citizens’ perceptions of government. Meeting digital expectations can also
address concerns before citizens go to more costly channels, such as a
contact center, creating opportunities for reductions in overhead. Current Events Influence E-Gov Scores Citizens’ digital experiences with government appear to
correspond with sociopolitical developments that fall under federal purview,
increasing traffic to some government sites. Some of these correlations of
improved agency scores corresponding with larger events include: A Gold Rush:
The Department of Treasury’s U.S. Mint Online Catalog and main website saw
the biggest score improvement – a five point increase from 70 to 75. Heightened
citizen attention to the site was sparked by the release of several rare gold
coins by the mint in early Q2, which led to a 20% spike in site traffic
according to Quantcast. Citizens found it simple to review the coins ahead of
purchase and the checkout transaction to be easy. Immigration Policy Debate:
The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Retiring Baby Boomers: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp’s MyPBA
site experienced a three point improvement in satisfaction scores, from 75 to
78. While traffic data for MyPBA was not available, the site provides an
online service for managing pension benefits. With an increasing number of
baby boomers reaching retirement age, making pension-related transactions
simple and pension benefits easy to review has been a design priority. “The
Q2 2015 ForeSee E-Government Satisfaction Index results demonstrate that the mobile
experience makes a significant contribution to citizens’ overall sentiment
about the federal departments, agencies and programs with which they engage,”
said Dave Lewan, Vice President at ForeSee and author of the report.
“Agencies that scored highest this quarter used their limited resources to
tightly couple site functionality with its stated purpose from the start and
were able to offer an efficient and positive user experience when traffic
increases occurred.” To download a copy of the ForeSee E-Government
Satisfaction Index for Q2 2015, go here. From http://www.businesswire.com/ 08/21/2015 Challenges
in E-Government Implementation With over 250 million people, The development of e-government could also be viewed as a change
in the way the government interacts with communities, businesses and its
citizens. While the Indonesian government recognizes the benefits of
e-government, and has initiated various policies since 2003 to support its
implementation (i.e. development of reliable systems and infrastructure,
quality and service guidelines and standards, as well as the regulation of
public service transactions), these policies have yet to yield substantive
results in e-government services in the country. Last year’s UN survey on
e-government found developing countries could be divided into two groups. The
first comprises those countries advancing e-government services despite
relatively low national income. These include However, a substantial number of people, 69.2 per 100, have cell
phones. Accessing the Internet from their phones would enable these
individuals to search for government information online and participate in
public policy plans, programs and public decision-making processes. Our
qualitative study has identified several main bottlenecks in e-government in The other problem concerns incomplete databases; the
availability of long-term data and the commitment to make regular updates on
a database are often ignored. As there is no clear-cut information on why
some data was not available, besides the more current releases, some might
speculate that the incompleteness of the data might be presented on purpose;
thus the only way to obtain the missing public data would be to purchase it
from relevant government agencies. Human resources also play a crucial role.
Some activities such as web design and development are procured based on
government tenders, and thus outsourced. These contractors work for a
temporary period depending on when the budget for the next year is released,
thus limiting the sustainability of data information and presentation.
Internally, there are limited skilled human resources to manage it. On a
positive note, there has been some success on the e-government front denoted
by certain initiatives. For instance, Lapor (report) is an anticorruption
tool that allows citizens to report on the malpractices of Hence, there is promise of some advancement in e-government in From http://www.thejakartapost.com/ 07/27/2015 |
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A website containing the credit history of some Chinese
residents and firms was launched on June 1, the latest push in an ongoing
effort to establish a credit rating system in From http://www.gov.cn/
06/02/2015 China Relaunches Website on Human Rights From http://www.news.cn/
07/02/2015 Online government services are gaining more popularity in From http://www.korea.net
05/26/2015
From http://www.korea.net
07/17/2015 Court
Backs Election Law on 'Real-Name' Online Posting But four judges against the regulation said the public’s right
to free speech should be guaranteed at most especially during election
campaigns to promote “fairness” of elections. They argued that the real-name
verification rule is in place for the sake of the authorities to more
efficiently investigate election-related crimes, treating citizens as
“potential criminals.” With the ruling, Internet users will still be required
to verify their identities with their names and resident registration numbers
to make political remarks on news websites during campaigning periods. Rep.
Yoo Seung-hee, a head of the free speech committee in the opposition New
Politics Alliance for Democracy, called the court’s decision as “retreat in
liberal democracy.” “The real-name verification law has been politically
abused to discriminate against opposition party candidates and their
supporters,” he said in a statement right after the ruling. From http://www.koreaherald.com 07/30/2015 Government
Launches 'UHD Committee' to Push for Growth in Smart Media The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning has launched a
so-called “UHD committee,” or a ultra-high definition committee, to push for
growth in the next-generation broadcasting industry such as UHD and smart
media. Representatives from the science ministry, broadcasting
companies, mobile carriers and research institutes such as the state-run
Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute held their first meeting
on Wednesday. The attendees shared information on technology development
in the ultra-high definition and smart media fields as well as the current
market conditions. They exchanged ideas on UHD broadcasting which will
launch around the time of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018. They also
sought cooperation to pursue ideas on personal
broadcasting. Participants said the meeting had paved the way to boost
the broadcasting and smart media industries, vowing to achieve ten-percent
annual growth in the two fields. From http://world.kbs.co.kr
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THE Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and US
technology giant Microsoft Corp have embarked on an ambitious plan to
transform Singapore into a ‘computational thinking’ nation by teaching coding
skills to the masses. The IDA and Microsoft have partnered to launch ‘Code
for Change,’ a three-year programme that aims to teach 1.2 million
Singaporeans various levels of coding, in the hopes of developing
computational thinking in the city-state. Through it, Singaporeans will be
exposed to programming languages like Kodu and Visual Basic, as well as
frameworks like Project Spark and .Net. The Code for Change programme follows
Microsoft’s other educational programmes such as ‘Innovate for Good’ in Code for Change was launched in the wake of an Many-faceted programme Code for Change will encompass various programmes catering for
different education levels. For the lower primary levels, Kodu Game Lab
Workshops will teach students how to develop games through simple visual
programming. For the upper primary to lower secondary levels, the Hour of
Code programme will give students access to modules to learn the basics of
computer science. For the secondary to junior college levels, TouchDevelop
programmes will allow students to create apps across any platform.
TouchDevelop allows for coding with no need for a keyboard to write scripts.
Project Spark will also be available for students to build worlds and create
stories through an interactive environment, Microsoft said. For institutes of
higher learning, the Microsoft Imagine Cup will give students a chance to
design and compete for the title of the best new web services for the year.
Team Mozter, a team from From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/02/2015 |
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Sikkim Government is planning to develop the state as a ‘smart
state’ by facilitating various eGovernance initiatives.“Sikkim Government is
looking forward to strengthen e-governance in the state. The government has
extensive plans for this purpose,” said Anand Madia, Secretary
(e-governance), Chief Minister’s Office.Madia said SWAN (state wide area
network) project has already been implemented in From http://www.eletsonline.com/ 06/07/2015 Prime Minister Narendra Modi sees his government’s emphasis on
mobile governance as a game changer as far as increasing technology
penetration is concerned. “M-governance is empowered governance. It has the
potential to make development a truly inclusive and comprehensive mass
movement. It puts governance within everyone’s reach. It puts governance
in your hands 24/7,” the Prime Minister said while sharing his thoughts
during the Digital Dialogue. “A mobile is something every Indian dreams of
having and is something every Indian even ends up having. We must make full
use of this.” Highlighting the NDA Government’s emphasis on ‘Mobile First’
approach, he said, “You may have seen that all our websites are increasingly
getting mobile friendly. Innovative mobile applications have been developed that
deliver end-to-end services. We will have to take into account the popularity
of mobile and smart phones while taking decisions pertaining to IT.” Modi had invited tech enthusiasts for Digital Dialogue to
discuss the Digital India initiative. He described technology as a means to
“discover, learn, evolve and implement.” PM shared some more of his thoughts on technology on the occasion:
“It (technology) combines 3Ss- speed, simplicity and service. Technology is
fast, technology is simple and technology is a brilliant way to serve people.
It is also a great teacher. The more we learn about technology and the more
we learn through technology, the better it is.” “Technology empowers the less
empowered. If there is a strong force that bring a change in the lives of
those on the margins it is technology.” On the Digital India initiative, Modi said: “The entire
Nation has joined hands to make the dream of a Digital India into a reality.
Youngsters are enthusiastic, industry is supportive and the government is proactive.
Here is the full text of the Dialogue:
The Digital India week has been
launched. Has the response been encouraging enough and up to your
expectations? The entire Nation has joined hands to make the dream of
a Digital India into a reality. Youngsters
are enthusiastic, industry is supportive and the government is proactive. I want to tell everyone – our quest for a Digital India is all
encompassing. It is going to touch your lives in several ways, making it
easier. For instance, the Digital Locker and e-Sign will manage all key
documents with ease and efficiency. Documents can be accessed at a click and
that too without being inconvenienced. Take healthcare- eHospital would mean
no more wasting time standing in hospital lines. Instead, there is online
registration for appointment, online payment and online reports. @microrao
asked me about an online portal where information and prices of drugs and
medicine will be made available. He will be happy to know that DeitY is
actively working on this. The National Scholarship Portal brings together all
scholarship schemes under a single application form. Thus, you will have one
convenient platform to search the right scholarship, filling several forms
and tracking their progress. The real strength of these initiatives will come
when they are extensively used. More usage will enable them to become mature
and world class. That is why, I urge everyone to use these innovative
services as much as possible. For instance, think of paying the salary of
your support staff from your mobile to their Jan Dhan accounts. Similarly,
keep using these services in as many ways as possible. What is your tech routine? In what ways is
technology a part of your life? This is a question many people ask me
when I meet them. They ask me about technology, what mobile phone I use, how
often I check my mail. Technology for me is – discover, learn, evolve and implement. It combines 3Ss- speed, simplicity and service. Technology is
fast, technology is simple and technology is a brilliant way to serve people.
It is also a great teacher. The more we learn about technology and the more
we learn through technology, the better it is. Technology enthuses the world.
I see technology as this vast ocean whose small droplets I have been able to
touch upon. Ofcourse, I want to know more and more about latest technology
but due to my schedule it becomes very tough. Yet, I am a curious mind when
it comes to anything that facilitates public good and so, I try to learn more
and more about how technology can ensure public good. I keep thinking about
it and try to know as much more as possible. Like any common person, I scan
my mails and try to be as regular in correspondence (by my own standards I am
still slow).Technology makes access
to information a lot faster. I am able to access news on the go. I may be
travelling in the hills, in the Northeast of in interior Chhattisgarh but
thanks to technology I am abreast with what is happening. I have been
using technology for my work right from the days when I was doing party work.
As a Chief Minister I made attempts to integrate technology in the working of
the government and my efforts to do the same continue in Technology is here to stay. The future of technology lies in its
humanization. Technology on a day-to-day basis is getting adaptive to
human emotions, preferences and choices. To me technology used wisely is
a catalyst to magically transforming the way we live. You are active on @LinkedIn
with a vibrant following. How has social media helped you connect better
with people? The future belongs to social media. It is egalitarian and
inclusive. Social media is not about any country, any language, any colour,
any community but it is about human values and that is the underlying link
binding humanity. A great example is the recent #SelfieWithDaughter trend.
Through social media I read about this initiative in a district in Haryana
and I thought I must talk about it during my ‘Mann Ki Baat’ and ask parents
to share selfies with their daughters on social media. The rest is history.
Worldwide and in On Yoga Day the world could see what is happening all over due
to social media. Physical distance was rendered irrelevant. Similarly, during
the previous ‘Mann Ki Baat’ I asked people to share glimpses of
#IncredibleIndia and I got lakhs of responses. One Vietnamese person shared
his memories of There is a sense that technology
further empowers those who are already empowered. How can technology change
the lives of people on the margins? Technology empowers the less empowered. If there is a strong
force that bring a change in the lives of those on the margins it is
technology. It serves as a leveler and a springboard. Take for instance the
farmer. Technology can make agriculture productive, prosperous and
profitable. We have seen this worldwide. I was happy to know that crores of
Indian farmers have been receiving agriculture related information trough
SMS. Just recently, the Cabinet cleared the Scheme of Promotion of National
Agriculture Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund. 585 regulated
markets across Small entrepreneurs not having abundant capital, get a chance to
create value, through technology. Our handicraft workers who were dependent
on seasonal tourist flow, can now sell their products across the world with a
single click. Aggregators of various kinds have given a fresh lease of life
to thousands of people across our country. Be it retail, tourism, transport, food industry, technology has given a
new platform to thousands of people, most of who are on the margins. I
want to share a small story. As CM, I went to a tribal area of Kaprada in
Valsad district for inaugurating a chilling centre in a dairy. Since there
was less space to conduct a meeting at the centre itself, the programme was
held 3 km away on a school’s ground. Some 30-40 tribal women, who collect
milk, were present at the venue. While returning from the venue after the
function, I saw nearly three-fourth of the women clicking photos from their
mobiles. I asked, “What will you do after clicking these photos from your
mobile phones?” They said we will get the photographs transferred to a
computer and later get the printouts. These are women who never attended
school or college where they could learn what to do with photographs clicked
with a mobile. But they know that the photo can be transferred to a computer
and later be collected in the form of a printout from the computer. I was
amazed. This is how technology has reached out to people on its own even at
the margins. As a digital entrepreneur, I would
like to know how does technology and Despite high penetration of Internet,
many are still not digitally literate. How do you plan to spread digital
literacy? I don’t see it as being limited to digital literacy. The larger
point lies in encouraging people to use technology. In some cases the problem
is access. In some cases it is lack of adequate guidance. In some cases it
may even be offering the technology the person needs. We are attending to all
these challenges. Once we increase access to technology, the challenge of
digital literacy will be mitigated. I feel our emphasis on mobile governance
will be a game changer as far as increasing technology penetration is
concerned. A mobile is something every Indian dreams of having and is
something every Indian even ends up having. We must make full use of this.
Giving our citizens a choice architecture, which enables them to choose
technology led solutions through carefully calibrated nudges will help. A
robust choice architecture implies producers are constantly innovating and
consumers have a gamut of products and services to chose from. There will be
something for everything. It is important to harness technology in totality. In the past
we have seen use of technology in isolation. The power of technology lies in
convergence. Convergence brings convenience and this increases usage. We want
to give every Indian a unique digital identity. In the past, there have been
too many digital identities for every person. Every service has it’s own
requirement and every service has its own database. All of this is happening
due to the alternatives technology offers to our lives today. I am confident that Indians
will be second to none in their embrace of technology in all aspects of their
lives in the years to come. What
impact will technology and automation have on Let me explain why – we in A decade ago and beyond, the pressing challenge was to take
mobile phones to as many people as possible. Today, when already a large
majority of people have mobile phones in the country yes, we do hope the
number increases but the focus has shifted only beyond numerical reach of
mobiles. One small effort towards reaching out to the people on their mobile
phones through the ‘Narendra Modi Mobile App.’ Launched a few weeks ago, the
App is a one stop destination for all the latest news and updates from my
side. It allows people to directly communicate with me and gives me an
opportunity to hear their insights. It is also a repository of earlier news,
my blogs, good governance initiatives of the government and the ‘Mann Ki
Baat’ episodes; these episodes can be heard in 16 languages too. Infact, the
radio programme can be heard live through the App. People can receive
messages through me on the App as well. I compliment you for cutting through
layers ad reaching out to all directly and having a conversation. I hope this
is a start of the many Digital Dialogues that you will have in our country.
What is Digital India’s top priority. What is Digital India’s top priority?
What role do you see universal access and the internet playing within Digital
India? These 3As are important for a Digital India- Accessible,
Additive and Affordable. Access is key. We want our 125 crore Citizens to be
digitally empowered. We already have broadband usage across When we have taken up such an ambitious initiative and that too
at such a large scale, there will be several challenges. But, we should
neither underestimate these challenges nor should we get overwhelmed by them.
We must be laser focused on our Thus, my message- keep innovating. Innovation is what will help
us grow faster. The world is changing, quicker than ever before and we
cannot remain oblivious to that. If we don’t innovate, if we don’t come up
with cutting edge products there will be stagnation. On the part of the
Government, I assure absolute support. We are doing everything possible to
make enterprise and innovation easier. We have covered substantial ground in
the last 14 months and want to do a lot more in the future. We want From http://egov.eletsonline.com/ 07/06/2015 PCMC’s E-Governance Initiative Is a
Runaway Success Neeta Hemant Nikam, a resident of Dattawadi in Akurdi area,
called the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s new helpline on December
21, 2013, to report a missing drain cover and overflowing sewage on the
street near Adarsh Mitra Mandal in her locality. She feared the open drains
might prove a deathtrap for unsuspecting passersby and drivers on the street,
especially in the dark.No sooner was her call recorded and complaint
registered than a team of civic officers from the concerned ‘A’ Ward was at
the site for spot inspection. Within six hours the repair work was done, and
adequate safety measures put in place until a new cover was fixed on the
drain on December 26.Similarly, Sudhir Ransubhe of Rupee Nagar at Talawde
complained of non-functioning streetlights in his area on December 24 and got
the civic electrical department to fix the problem within two days. The municipal administration for the twin industrial township of
Pimpri-Chinchwad launched the SARATHI helpline in August 2013, to help
citizens collect information on various civic services, rules and
regulations, and to register their complaints online.Within two months of its
launch, calls to the helpline number (8888006666) started pouring in – nearly
10,000 calls were received and more than 25,000 hits registered on the
helpline's website, which means an average of 150 calls and 400 hits per day
from the 19 lakh residents of Pimpri–Chinchwad, the adjacent planned township
of Pradhikaran which is administered by the Pimpri Chinchwad New Township
Development Area (PCNTDA), and the new industrial area of Chakan.SARATHI or
System for Assisting Residents and Tourists through Helpline Information, a
brainchild of former PCMC municipal commissioner Shrikar Pardeshi, was
instituted to provide information and services to citizens and bring speed
and uniformity to the functioning and response of the municipal corporation’s
ward offices. PCMC additional commissioner Uday Tekale, who heads the project,
said: “The civic chief initiated the project after observing that the four
ward offices were not functioning in tandem. With SARATHI we have
successfully brought uniformity to the functioning of the civic
administration.”Even before SARATHI commenced, the PCMC’s e-governance
initiative had ensured that all information related to water, education,
health, drainage, street lighting, civic taxes, building activities, disaster
management etc in all 28 sectors under the municipal corporation, was
uploaded on the website. “The call centre services are based on the website
and divided into two sections, e-Suvidha and the helpline,” according to
Tekale.The second phase was launched in November with services extended to
the Zilla Parishad (ZP), Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation
(MIDC) and Pradhikaran. Some FAQs related to the Food and Drugs
Administration (FDA) and District Collectorate were also uploaded on the
website. Calls are now coming from rural parts around PCMC, Pradhikaran,
Chakan MIDC and even the cantonment areas adjacent to the municipal limits,
though to the latter SARATHI only provides telephone numbers of the
cantonment administrators. The e-governance initiative is an efficient service for
information and grievance redressal of citizens. The ‘Dissemination of
Information’ page on the website features as many as 589 FAQs related to 39
different departments. Each new query that is not listed in FAQs is taken up,
addressed and then added to the page. The municipal commissioner reviews the
functioning of SARATHI on Tuesdays, followed by a review meeting with senior
officers.Citizens can register their complaints online, or through text
messages or simply make a call to the designated number. Each one gets a
token number and is forwarded to the concerned department heads for action.
Complaints related to birth and death registration, water supply,
non-functioning street lamps, missing drainage covers or overflowing garbage,
dead animals, cleaning of roads, are solved immediately. “People prefer to call the helpline instead of locating the
concerned officer at the PCMC office. As a result, the number of visitors to
the PCMC main building has come down to an average of 300 per day from 800 or
so three months ago. Now officers get more time to concentrate on the job and
other important tasks,” Tekale said.The call centre now logs 250 calls per
day, 70% of them seeking information while 30% are civic complaints. However,
the majority of the calls are made by middle class and upper-middle class
residents, say call centre employees. They are a team of seven working in two
shifts between 7 am to 10 pm under the supervision of two senior civic
officers. Each information query is attended to right away, while the
complaints are registered (typed online), voice-recorded and forwarded to the
concerned department head for action. After fixing the problem the civic
officials call the complainants. A flowchart of each call is maintained
and monitored online by the senior officers.Pardeshi’s idea of introducing a
negative marking or negative point system is said to be the reason why the
concerned departments and their heads act so promptly. If an officer takes
more than the stipulated time period to fix problems, he accumulates
‘penal points’ and is liable to get memos and show cause notices and, in the
worst case, invite adverse remarks on the service register.According to
Tekale, “The back-up server is located at PCMC headquarters and at Hinjewadi. The municipal commissioner can access any complaint in voice or
written format anytime on his laptop.” Since August, two officers have
received show cause notices for laxity in their work, while some 30 junior
employees have received memos for dereliction of duty. At the same time,
about 50,000 citizens have called in for information and complaints.By
early-January 2014 SARATHI had received 7,325 complaints, of which 6,741 have
been addressed while 584 are being redressed. This means a success rate of
92%, says Tekale. “The success is such that the local corporators have now
demanded that their grievances which are raised during General Body meetings
and Standing Committee meetings should be treated as citizens’ complaints
under the services of SARATHI in order to get immediate results,” he
said.Going a step further, the services will now be introduced in Hindi and
English. “We are also moving towards m-governance and have introduced an
android application for users so that they can use the services while on the
move,” Tekale said. The success of SARATHI has prompted eight municipal corporations
in From http://www.expressindia.com/ 06/10/2015 PM Launches His Own Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his own mobile app to stay
connected with people. The app – Narendra Modi Mobile App – is available on
Google’s PlayStore and can be downloaded by Android users free of cost.The PM
urged citizens to stay connected through the app. The app provides updates on
the day-to-day activities of the PM. It presents an opportunity to receive
messages and emails directly from Shri Narendra Modi. There is also an option
to contribute and earn ‘badges’ through to-do tasks.Using the app, one can
tune-in and listen to the various ‘Mann ki Baat’ editions of the PM, read his
blogs, and get to know more about him from the Biography section.The app
provides comprehensive information on initiatives and achievements of the
Union Government, including an ‘infographics’ section.The app can be downloadedat: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.narendramodiapp. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 06/18/2015 History of E-Governance in Digital Digital Prior to 2006 when the Government of India formally launched its
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) some departments of Government of India as
well as state governments had initiated steps to adopt e-governance.NeGP aims
to make all government services available to citizens via electronic
media.NeGP has been formulated by the Department of Electronics and
Information Technology (DeitY) and Department of Administrative Reforms and
Public Grievances (DARPG). The government approved the National e-Governance
Plan, comprising 31 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and eight components, on May
18, 2006. In this context it would be useful to highlight some of the
important e-governance initiatives implemented by the This category of e-governance initiatives involves use of
e-governance as a tool to make government more transparent, reduce costs to
citizens (by reducing corruption and decreasing time spent for availing
services) and to make government more accessible. Computerization of land records (Department of Land Resources,
Government of India) A conference of revenue ministers of states/UTs
had advocated such computerization as early as 1985. Based on the
recommendation, the Union Ministry of Rural Development selected 8 districts
in 8 states for a pilot project on Computerization of Land Records, which was
100% centrally-sponsored. From 1994-95 onwards, it was implemented in
collaboration with the NIC. Bhoomi
Project in Karnataka: Online delivery of land records Bhoomi is a
sustainable e-governance project for the computerized delivery of 20 million
rural land records to 6.7 million farmers through 177 government-owned kiosks
in the state of Karnataka. Gyandoot
(Madhya Pradesh) Gyandoot is an intranet-based Government to Citizen
(G2C) service delivery initiative. It was initiated in Dhar district of Madhya
Pradesh in January 2000 with the twin objectives of providing relevant
information to the rural population and acting as an interface between the
district administration and people. The basic idea was to establish and
foster a technologically innovative initiative which is owned and operated by
the community itself. Lokvani Project
in Uttar Pradesh Lokvani is a public-private partnership project
inSitapurdistrict of Uttar Pradesh which was initiated in November 2004. Its
objective is to provide a single window, self-sustaining e-governance
solution with regard to handling of grievances, land record maintenance and
other essential services. Project FRIENDS in Kerala
Fast, Reliable, Instant and Efficient Network for the Disbursement of
Services is a single-window facility for citizens to pay taxes and other
financial dues to the state government. It was launched in Thiruvananthapuram
in June 2000 and replicated in other district headquarters during 2001-02. e-Mitraproject in Rajasthan This
e-governance initiative builds upon the experiences of the LokMitra and
JanMitra pilot projects launched in 2002. While LokMitra was centred in the
city of To address these problems, it was decided by the BSEB to employ
ICTs in providing value-added and consumer-friendly services to clients. A
separate department of IT was created in BSEB to implement the project and
the software was designed by NIC. Admission
to Professional Colleges – Common Entrance Test (CET) With the rapid
growth in demand as well as supply of professional education, the process of
admission to these institutions became a major challenge in the early-1990s.
The use of ICTs in the admission process has helped in making the admission
process totally transparent, fair and objective. Many institutions have now
switched over to similar ICT-based admission processes. Government to Business e-Procurement Project in Andhra Pradesh
The entire e-procurement process was designed to avoid human interface,ie
supplier and buyer interaction during the pre-bidding and post-bidding
stages. The system now ensures total anonymity of the participating
suppliers, even to the buyers, until the bids are opened on the platform. e-Procurement in Gujarat The system
of e-procurement was introduced in the state of It aims to establish transparency in the procurement process,
shortening of procurement cycle, availing of competitive price, enhancing
confidence of suppliers and establishing flexible and economical bidding
processes for suppliers. MCA 21
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has implemented the MCA 21 Mission Mode
Project under the NeGPsince September 2006. The project aims at providing easy and secure online access to
all registry-related services provided by the Union Ministry of Corporate
Affairs to corporates and other stakeholders at any time and in a manner that
best suits them. Government to
Government Khajane Project in
Karnataka This is a comprehensive online treasury computerization project
of the Government of Karnataka. The project has resulted in the
computerization of the entire treasury activities of the state government and
the system has the ability to track every activity right from the approval of
the state budget to the point of rendering accounts to the government. SmartGov (Andhra Pradesh) SmartGov
has been developed to streamline operations, enhance efficiency through
workflow automation and knowledge management for implementation in the Andhra
Pradesh Secretariat. The solution automates the functioning of all levels of
government entities and provides a well-defined mechanism for transforming
the ‘hard copy environment’ to a ‘digital environment’. Another important initiative taken by the Government of India
towards creating a Digital India is the National Fibre Optic Network (NOFN)
launched in October 2011 that aims at connecting all the 250,000 gram
panchayats in the country by utilizing existing fibres of PSUs (BSNL, Railtel
and Power Grid) and laying incremental fibre to connect to gram panchayats
wherever necessary. It aims at launching applications like e-health,
e-education and e-governance amongst others. Maharashtra’s state policy on e-governance and digital inclusion The e-Governance Status Report 2014 of The Tribal Development Department, Minorities Development
Department and Social Justice and Special Assistance Department, provide
various scholarships to students from socially backward and economically
weaker families in the state. Initially, the scholarships were disbursed
manually, but now all of these departments have automated the process and
implemented e-scholarship application. The e-scholarship system enables
online application, automated approval, transparent verification and timely
disbursement of scholarships.Under this new system, the scholarship is
credited directly into the accounts of students, and they also receive a
confirmation SMS alert from the system. The solution user-interface is
available in English and Marathi. vi.
Online Disability Certificates Doctors can issue five types of
disability certificates -- vizVisual, Hearing, Physical, Mental Illness and
Mental Retardation using the Software for Assessment of Disability,Maharashtra
(SADM). Doctors only need to enter the assessment values and the disability
percentage is calculated automatically by the software. These certificates
are directly linked with the UID. vii. e-Validity for Caste Certificates
and Minority Status Certificates This application enables
online application, verification, approval/rejection and finally online
delivery of Caste Certificates and Minority Status Certificates to citizens.
Throughout the process, updates to citizens on the status of their application
are sent regularly. Other initiatives aimed at ensuring inclusion in
e-governance include: Application for Free Coaching Classes for minority
students, MIS for Residential Institutes (State Homes, Protection Homes,
Swardhar Homes etc) run by government and NGOs for destitute women and women
in crisis, MIS for Domestic Violence Act, MIS for Manodhairya Scheme
(financial assistance and rehabilitation of women and children who are
victims of rape, sexual assault and acid attacks, Tracking children with
special needs, Online certificate generation and reservation verification
application for schools, Online entrance examination for CET and MCA, Launch
of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning(NPTEL)to provide
e-learning through online web and video courses in engineering, science and
humanities. Establishment of Virtual Learning Centres (VLCs) through
YashwantraoChavan Maharashtra Open University (YCMOU) Funding for e-governance 0.5% of the Plan & Non-Plan Budget
of all departments has been mandated to be utilised for e-governance in the
state of The guidelines for the utilisation of the same were issued by
the Chief Secretary vide Government Resolution dated June 18, 2010. A revised
government resolution on May 3, 2014 extended the mandate to all municipal
corporations across From http://netpehchaan.in 06/22/2015 Slew of
E-Governance Initiatives Launched Under Digital Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Commerce &
Industry today launched a slew of e-Governance initiatives under the Digital
India Programme. The initiatives have been developed by the Marine Products
Export Development Authority (MPEDA). Two of these programmes, namely, Shrimp
Price Information over SMS by a missed call, and mKRISHI – Mobile App for
aquaculture operations will provide digitally-enabled services on demand to
the aqua farmers in the country. Other e-Governance initiatives aims at
providing single window solution to exporters and other stakeholders through
two new websites, namely Online MPEDA Registration portal for Exporters, and
MPEDA Portal – www.mpeda.gov.in.
Details regarding the e-Governance
initiatives: (1) Shrimp price
Information over SMS by a missed call India mainly produces L.Vannamei
(LV) and Black Tiger (BT) shrimp in aqua farms in all maritime states.
In 2014-15 about 3.53 lakh tonnes of Vannamei shrimp and 71,400 MT of BT
shrimp was produced. MPEDA is providing price related market
information of Vannamei shrimp and BT shrimp to farmers over SMS on a missed
call to a predetermined number. On receipt of the missed call, information on
price of Vannamei shrimp and BT shrimp for different grades in major markets
like (2 ) mKRISHI – Mobile App for
Aquaculture Operations. This is pilot project presently
operated in Gujarat and will be extended all over From http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/10/2015 Govt Strives for Non-discriminatory Access to
Internet The government is committed to the fundamental principles and
concept of net neutrality, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a
written statement to the Rajya Sabha. The minister added that the government
strives for non-discriminatory access to internet for all citizens of the
country. “The committee constituted by the government on net neutrality has
submitted its report to the Department of Telecom (DoT). The report has been
uploaded on website of DoT and MyGov portal for comments and suggestions. The
Committee report is not the government report which is yet to take a
decision,” Prasad said. The Committee recommended adherence to core
principles of net neutrality. According to report, user rights on the
Internet need to be ensured so that Telecom Service Providers/Internet
Service Providers (TSPs/ISPs) do not restrict the ability of the user to
send, receive, display, use, post any legal content, application or service
on the Internet, or restrict any kind of lawful Internet activity or use.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is also currently engaged in
consultation process on the issue whose recommendations are awaited. Below are the key recommendations of
the report: 1.
The primary goals of public
policy in the context of Net Neutrality should be directed towards
achievement of developmental aims of the country by facilitating “Affordable
Broadband”, “Quality Broadband” and “Universal Broadband” for its citizens. 2.
Over-The-Top (OTT)
application services should be actively encouraged and any impediments in
expansion and growth of OTT application services should be removed. 3.
Specific OTT communication
services dealing with messaging should not be interfered with through
regulatory instruments. For OTT application services, there is no case for
prescribing regulatory oversight similar to conventional communication
services. 4.
Tariff plans offered by
TSPs/ISPs must conform to the principles of net neutrality set forth in
guidelines issued by the Government as Licensor. TRAI may examine the tariff
filings made by TSPs/ISPs to determine whether the tariff plan conforms to
the principles of net neutrality. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/25/2015 Solutions for Seamless eGovernance in Education NYSA
Communications offers turnkey solutions pan NYSA takes care of the entire
academic administrative activities and provides services to more than two
million customers annually. We have a target of $10 million of annual revenue
and over 300 employees. Our web-based education management solution caters to
both; large and small enterprises in real time. Needs of both large and small
educational institutions are kept in mind while developing and maintaining
the education management solution.The ERP system combines all aspects of an
educational institute including academics, admission, fee management, campus
management, placement management which can be customisable according to
clients’ requirements. It integrates all the essential functionalities
of an educational organisation through a single database system.We provide
end-to-end solutions right from designing and printing the papers, providing
infrastructure, from the registration of candidate, to fee payment, seating
arrangement, etc. Since most of the state government departments perform this
task manually, there is always a big challenge of integrating the data in
their information system. NYSA, turnkey assessment and evaluation is
preferred by various state governments. What
about the NYSA’s international presence? NYSA has bagged few good
international contracts. We have also been chosen by What
are the innovations and other verticals the company plans to expand into?NYSA has developed an integrated university management
system (UMS) which is webbased software for effective and efficient
management of university. UMS develops and supports all the major
universities and provide end-to-end management systems viz admission,
administrative, academic, examination, HR, finance, library,
transportation.Most sought out solution is DigiCampus, which is a complete
management software designed to automate a college’s diverse online,
academic, communication and management operations. It develops and supports
all the major campus-wide administrative and other management systems.Our
‘Plan my School’ is a web-based school management system designed for better
interaction between parents, students, teachers and management. This software
effectively and efficiently handles all the requirements of the schools. What
are the new initiatives taken by you in the field of education in NYSA also has Cloud Vidya
platform, which is mapped to cloud. The course is advanced enough for
students to ask questions and have their queries sorted. Although the
delivery of the programme is happening in From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/08/2015 |
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The national satellite communications system of From http://en.trend.az/
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We
Australians have still not fully embraced the use of online channels to
transact with government, including for completing tax returns, passport or
drivers’ license renewals and benefit payments. In fact, of the 800 million
transactions conducted at federal or state government level every year, 40%
of these transactions are still completed through traditional channels such
as phone and mail. And, a newly published report by Deloitte Access Economics
commissioned by Adobe reveals that the next stage of public sector digital
transformation in The
potential savings projected by the report equate to net benefits of $20.5
billion, or $2,000 per Australian household. The 'Digital Government
Transformation: Unlocking the Benefits of Digitising Customer Transactions'
report was launched today in Sydney by Federal Minister for Communications,
Malcolm Turnbull with Deloitte Access Economics partner John O’Mahony and
Paul Robson, President of Asia Pacific for Adobe. At today’s launch of the
report, research author O’Mahoney said:
“ “This
report makes the economic case for digital transformation within government.
The report highlights the challenges government faces in going digital –
policy bottlenecks, budget constraints, meeting the needs of citizens who are
not digitally savvy, navigating privacy and security issues, and managing
change for a large workforce. Citizens won’t want to interact with government
via a website or mobile app unless it’s a great experience. It needs to be
well-designed, simple and end-to-end, so they don’t log onto a website, only
to be told to print off a hard-copy form and post it into a government
department.” Adobe president for Asia Pacific Paul Robson said that beyond
the economic benefits of digitising government transactions “come a host of
conveniences for citizens. Digital transactions are faster, more flexible and
typically deliver higher customer satisfaction than traditional transaction
models such as mail or phone. The public expects an efficient, effective and
convenient experience when engaging with government departments, no less than
in any other interaction they undertake. The technology to make this possible
is available, and departments across The
Deloitte report launched by Malcolm Turnbull today will be the centerpiece of
the Digital Government stream at Adobe’s annual Digital Marketing Symposium,
to be held in Sydney tomorrow (28 July). More than 1,500 marketers from
leading brands including Australia Post, NAB, Qantas and AMP, will attend the
sell-out event; including 150 attendees at the Digital Government stream who
will hear from speakers including Dominic Perrottet, NSW Minister for
Finance, Services and Property, Paul Shetler, the newly-appointed CEO of the
Digital Transformation Office and Adobe Fellow and VP of Enterprise
Technology David Neuscheler on open source for government. From
http://www.itwire.com
07/27/2015 NSW to See The
New South Wales Government has announced plans to establish The
initiative will serve as a data sharing platform between government agencies,
providing greater interoperability and insight into the effectiveness of
existing programs and policies. The NSW Government will draw from the data to
support ongoing policy development and ensure investment is targeted to
programs with the greatest benefit. The use of data and data analytics is
consistent with the NSW Government’s Digital + ICT strategy, which recognises
the need for a digital transformation of government services, Dominello told
CIO. The initiative follows the example of The
committee includes experts such as the NSW privacy commissioner Dr Elizabeth
Coombs; NSW chief scientist and engineer, Mary O’Kane; NSW customer service
commissioner, Mike Pratt; and NSW information commissioner, Liz Tydd. Once
the centre has been fully established, the committee will be dissolved, and
an advisory board will form to guide the future direction of the centre’s
priorities. Members of the advisory board will be drawn from NSW Government,
industry and the research sector, and will report to the Minister for
Innovation and Better Regulation. Both the Australian Information Industry
Association (AIIA) and the Australian Computer Society (ACS) have commended the
NSW Government for its foresight. AIIA Chair Kee Wong said: “As we mature
into a knowledge-based economy, the role of data and the ability to link data
from multiple sources, supported by appropriate privacy and security, will
drive more effective and innovative government as well as contribute to the
competitiveness of the NSW economy.” “The holistic approach taken by the
Minister by involving multiple stakeholders will lead to a better outcome
overall, and as the professional association for From
http://www.cio.com.au
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AFRICA: The Growth of Other competitors are regionally based like The motive for the two mobile operators getting involved is
probably not so hard to fathom. These days most senior mobile operators have
things like e-commerce, content and services on a "to-do" list and
Rocket offered a more proven way of getting into the market than first-time
start-ups. It is noticeable that the other major mobile operators do not have
this kind of investment and stand to lose out if they do not get involved.
The largest country spread by operator is Africa Internet Group which has 23
country operations. This is slow and fast lane Africa all over again: the
dozen or so obvious markets are easy to spot (including Investors put up with the difficulties found in bigger countries
because the potential markets are so large (for example, Even the seemingly ubiquitous Africa Internet Group will not go
everywhere. As Poignonnec told me:"Our logic is not to roll out as many
companies as possible or in as many countries as possible." It's not
hard to see that having done its current country roll-out that the new
opportunities get fewer in number. Another key fault line that will produce
winners and losers is the method of payment. Poignonnec is clear that from
the customer point of view, cash is king. Its sites may operate on the
Internet but many accept cash on the doorstep when physical goods are
delivered:"The main barrier to paying online is in the mind of the
consumer. Cash is what they use already and seems more convenient so why say
they have to pay online?...You don't want to go against consumers. It's a
mindset change that may or may not happen". He thinks that The existence of these e-commerce operators encourages smaller
start-ups outside the tech space to use them to facilitate distribution and
improve revenues. Rukky Ladoja of Nigerian fashion start-up Grey has an
affordable line of clothes that she sells on the Jumia platform. The absence
of effective "bricks and mortar" retailers across this huge country
makes e-commerce an essential channel. Fashion-based clothes and shoes at mid
and high level price points are goods that do well on these platforms. Kenyan
Diane Opoti, a fashion communications consultant who runs her own company
Artemis Media made the same point about the e-commerce platforms making
better "go-to-market" channels with the local spin that since
Westgate terror attack high-end buyers are markedly more reluctant to go to
the malls. She also made the point that those who will buy the cheaper
clothes online are 18-25 year olds but they are unlikely to be able to afford
to do so. Of course, this may change as they get older and get better jobs. And what will the market look like in 5-10 years time?
Poignonnec told me:"The share of e-commerce may be higher than in the
Western World because for example of the shortcomings in the retail sector.
Online will be a significant share of business for the people we deal with
like distributors, taxi drivers and hotel owners. It will shape the way they
do business, not only on the Internet, making them run their businesses more
efficiently. Lots of new companies will come online." Internet companies
and those providing e-commerce integrations should do well as the number of
African start-ups and existing companies getting involved in e-commerce
increases. Innovation in Africa is a fortnightly e-letter that covers:
start-ups and investment; energy; ICT4D; 3D printing; and innovation in Essential reading for those interested in new start-ups and innovation
that will change The Mother of All African Start-Ups - Africa Internet Group
nurtures cash-centric e-commerce with 5,000 employees in 23 countries The Birth of Africa's Francophone Start-Up Ecosystem - The
realities of different cultural heritages 3D Printing in Separating Hype from Reality in the Fizzy World of Africa
Start-Ups - VC4Africa survey findings Education entrepreneur Obinna Ukwuani, Exposure Robotics' plans
to launch the first African STEM secondary school in From http://allafrica.com/
06/01/2015 Some 400 representatives of European governments, international
organisations, the private sector, civil society, users, academia and the
Internet technical community will meet in Sofia (Bulgaria) on 4-5 June at the
European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) to discuss the last
developments and challenges on Internet governance, including the Digital
Single Market Strategy recently adopted by the European Commission. There
will be an opening address by Ivaylo Moskovski, Minister of Transport,
Information Technology and Communications of Bulgaria, and a keynote speech
by Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, Foreign Minister of Estonia. Participants will
discuss a Draft statement on network neutrality, which aims to develop a text
that covers the diversity of stakeholders -including end-users and
businesses- , interests and principles with regard to net neutrality. Other topics on the agenda are the following: Developments in new media with a particular focus on public
service media value, and new types of journalism The consultation process for the EU copyright reform The challenges posed by the cross-border nature of the Internet
and its consequences for the application of national laws Challenges for the right to privacy and to data protection of
big data and new Internet services Cybersecurity, and the respective roles of states, the private
sector and civil society The process for the internationalisation of domain names (IDN) The current status of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA) transition process and its implications for The day before EuroDIG, the first South Eastern European
Dialogue on Internet Governance (SEEDIG) will be held under the theme
“Multistakeholder Internet governance: from the global debates to South
Eastern European realities”. This event aims to promote a better
understanding among South Eastern European stakeholders on Internet
governance, encourage their participation in regional and international
Internet governance processes, and create a framework for multistakeholder
discussions on Internet governance issues that are particularly relevant to
the region. EuroDIG 2015 is hosted by UNICART, and supported by the Ministry
of Transport, Information Technology and Communications of Bulgaria,the
European Commission, the Council of Europe, the European Broadcasting Union
(EBU), RIPE NCC, the Swiss Federal Office of Telecommunications (OFCOM), the
European Youth Forum, the Internet Society (ISOC) and ICANN’s Regional
At-Large Organisation (EURALO). Practical information for the media: The conference will take
place at the Hotel Marinela (James Bourchier Boulevard 100). There will be a
live webcast in the EuroDIG website. Requests for accreditation can be
submitted online. Media accreditation badges may be collected at the
reception desk at the venue after 08.00 a.m. on 4 June at the venue. The
Pan-European dialogue on Internet governance (EuroDIG) is an open platform
for informal and inclusive discussion and exchange on public policy issues
related to Internet Governance between stakeholders from all over From www.eurodig.org/
05/29/2015 E-commerce has been steadily growing in From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 07/06/2015 According to agreement signed some weeks ago, Citizens blessed RIA deputy director-general Katrin Reinhold said the development
is significant as in addition to improvement e-services cooperation between «In the initial phase, three to five major databases and
information systems will gain connection to Kansallinen palveluväylä (name of
the Finnish X-Road – edit)» he specified. In all likelihood, the inhabitants
of the two nations will be offered the services at the end of 2016 – latest –
as the Finnish side will complete its public e-services viewing project,
including total switch from their current citizens portal suomi.fi. As the
new system is launched, every Estonian citizen should be able to view his tax
data stored in Finnish databases, file applications and declarations, submit
admission applications to universities, and whatnot – including digital
prescriptions issued in The talk about joint X-Road date back for several years as
people from Estonian e-Health Foundation and RIA travelled to From http://news.postimees.ee/ 07/21/2015 One fifth (19%) of Irish SMEs cite poor broadband as the biggest
issue facing their company in 2015, reports The Irish Independent newspaper.
The 2015 Sunday Independent Business Owners Survey found that Irish SMEs sell
comparatively little online, with only 7 percent of respondents saying online
sales accounted for more than half of their business. A total of 1 in 10 said
they did between 20-50 percent of their business online. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 08/10/2015 Around 10.4 million Dutch people bought something online last
year, according to figures from the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS). In
2014, around 7.9 million regular internet users bought something online,
compared to 7.5 million in 2013. The CBS noted that the growth in e-shopping
could also be observed when looking at online retail sales, which went 11
percent higher in 2014 than the year before. The vast majority of Dutch
people (94%)who bought something online in 2014 did so from providers in
their country. Around 28 percent also purchased from suppliers from other EU
countries while 20 percent bought products and services from outside the EU.
About 92 percent of online shoppers used online banking to pay for their
purchases. More than 40 percent also paid by credit card and 30 percent also
paid in cash or by bank transfer. Travel and clothing were the most popular
product categories. Two thirds of Dutch who shop online regularly purchased
products in these sectors. Half of them ordered event tickets on the
internet. Also, compared to the year before, more online purchases were made
in 2014 for furniture, washing machines, food, cosmetics and cleaning
products. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 07/27/2015 Research by Mintel shows that From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 08/03/2015 The Colombian telecoms market is on track to generate USD 8.64
billion in revenues in full-year 2018, up 8.1 percent from USD 7.99 billion
in 2014, according to research by Dataxis. Growth will be driven by the
broadband and mobile segments at the expense of fixed telephony, the study
predicted. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 08/14/2015 WPP, the world’s leading communications services group, has
taken the first steps to commence trading operations in In addition, WPP has maintained contacts with Cuban and
international firms operating on the island to provide its services from a
local base in the near future. WPP is working to provide its international
clients with strategic counsel on the institutional and economic environment
in From http://www.wpp.com/
08/12/2015 NORTH
AMERICA: In a new 10-year search-and-advertising alliance, Microsoft will
transfer the lion's share of its display ad business to Verizon-owned AOL.
Under the deal, approximately 1,200 Microsoft employees will get offer
letters from AOL, most of them in ad sales. Additionally, AOL will end its
search distribution relationship with Google in order to accept Bing search
and ads on all its mobile and desktop properties – giving Microsoft an additional
1-2% of search market share carved directly from Google's lunch. That part of
the partnership kicks off in January 2016. The deal gives AOL responsibility
for both hand-sold and programmatic ads in nine of Microsoft's largest
markets, and across its entire media portfolio including display, mobile and
video ads on MSN, Windows, Outlook.com, Skype and Xbox. The nine markets are
the From AOL's point of view, the deal represents an opportunity to
increase its digital advertising clout at a time when considerable power is
accruing to Google and Facebook. "We believe this is a scale play to
become another alternative to our competitors," said AOL president Bob
Lord. "A lot of this deal is frankly getting to the younger demo, and
not just programmatic platform offerings but also programmatic content
offerings. That's what they're asking for: not just a campaign platform but a
content platform." It's not clear what the long-term impact will be for
AppNexus, Microsoft's key ad tech partner until now and a company in which it
holds significant equity via a 2010 investment. AOL offers a sell-side
platform of its own, but it's unclear whether AOL has the technology chops to
process the high volume of bid activity that Microsoft's inventory brings in.
For now, AppNexus remains the technology platform in the top nine markets
where AOL has taken the rein, and its position appears secure for the time being.
As if to reassure the world of their continuing ties, AppNexus and Microsoft
issued a press release today announcing a "multi-year" extension of
their technology agreement. AppNexus traffics Microsoft inventory in 39
markets today. From Microsoft's standpoint, the deal is a reflection of a
longstanding dissatisfaction on the part of management with the sky high
overhead required to run its global ad sales organization. Earlier this year,
sources tell AdExchanger's the company's ad sales and platforms team kicked
off a tour of potential display sales partners, including eBay, to whom it
could outsource part or all of its display ad business. It settled on AOL
before AOL's acquisition Verizon went through, but that merger evidently did
not dampen Microsoft's enthusiasm. Rik van der Kooi, corporate VP at
Microsoft and the most senior executive in charge of Microsoft's ad platforms
business, disagreed with this characterization. "From our side we don't
think we have an unprofitable sales force. We've run our business pretty
efficiently," said van der Kooi. "Irrespective of any deal, the
move towards programmatic allows us to reexamine [how we structure our media
sales]. It's a focus on the opportunity we have." Given the timing, one
week after Verizon and AOL consummated their $4.4 billion merger, the deal
also suggests Verizon is dedicated to supporting its new subsidiary's manual
sales processes along with its ad platforms (read: automated selling)
business. Corrected: An earlier version of the story wrongly pegged the
number of Microsoft employees receiving offer letters at 500. From http://adexchanger.com/
06/30/2015 Pentagon's
The Defense Department’s first fulltime outreach office in
Silicon Valley is up and running thanks to a July 2 memo from Deputy
Secretary Robert Work directing $1.75 million to the office in fiscal 2015
and $5 million for 2016 to 2019. The office, dubbed Defense Innovation Unit
Experimental (DIUX), will be staffed by a Senior Executive Service official,
plus a handful of reserve officers and civilian employees, among others. The
SES position could pay up to $183,000 in salary according to a USAJobs
notice. The application period closed in late May, but the successful
candidate will be expected to cultivate relationships with local tech gurus
and small businesses, broaden the Pentagon’s access to technologies for use
beyond the intelligence community, and serve as a broker between acquisition
officials and tech executives, according to the notice. “While the Department
is beginning to focus on innovation in the commercial technology sector, a
more concerted effort is needed,” Work wrote in the memo. DIUX’s mission will
be “to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones; scout for
breakthrough and emerging technologies; and function as a local interface
node for the Department.” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced the
office on his April trip to From http://fcw.com/ 07/08/2015 Internet
Advertising to Drive Global Ad Spend -Zenith Surging growth in advertising via mobile phones and tablet
computers will help Internet advertising overtake television as the dominant
medium for global ad spending by 2017, a leading media buyer forecasts.
Zenith Optimedia, owned by advertising agency Publicis , said on Monday that
it expects mobile advertising - via smartphones, iPads and other tablet
computers - to more than double its share of global ad spending between 2014
and 2017, to 12.9 percent. It would contribute 70 percent of growth in all
advertising spending over that period. It defines global spending as spending
across the 12 biggest advertising markets worldwide. "The Internet is
quickly establishing itself as the dominant advertising medium, and on
current trends will overtake television by the end of the decade," said
Zenith Optimedia CEO Steve King. "The amount of time viewers spend
watching online video on their laptops, tablets and smartphones is increasing
rapidly, and advertisers are shifting their budgets online to follow
them," he said. The forecasts, based on media buying and planning trends
detected by the company's local offices or affiliates, see the Internet
becoming the dominant medium in From http://uk.reuters.com/
06/22/2015 Monitoring
of Super-Rich Finances May Rise as a Result of Tax Information Exchange, Says
Expert The OECD said this week that tax authorities around the world
must improve their monitoring of the super-rich. While 85% of revenue bodies
have set up dedicated divisions to manage large corporate taxpayers, far
fewer have similar arrangements for high net worth individual (HNWI)
taxpayers, the OECD said. This is despite recommendations by the OECD's Forum
on Tax Administration, and "evidence of significant growth globally in …
numbers and wealth", the OECD said. The OECD report ratifies what the Other revenue authorities may look at that information and find
that they have quite a lot of wealthy people on the list – and the number of
units internationally might then suddenly grow." The OECD said fewer
than a third of the 56 tax authorities it surveyed had set up a dedicated
unit to oversee the tax affairs of the rich. These units are important to
"ensure that this segment of taxpayers receives the appropriate level of
scrutiny to detect and deter non-compliance," it said. The numbers of HNWIs
grew by nearly two million in 2013, a 15% growth rate and the second largest
increase since 2000. North America and Asia-Pacific saw the most growth, with
From http://www.out-law.com/
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From http://www.news.cn/
06/03/2015 From http://www.gov.cn/
06/17/2015 Leading Chinese Online Direct
Sales Company Launch " At a From http://www.news.cn/
07/20/2015 E-commerce
Forces Change on Brick-and-mortar shops? More like broken and mortal. Challenged
by the online shopping frenzy, Chinese high streets are struggling. In the
Lafayette Gallery, which opened in 2013 on At two such department stores, In 2014, about 201 retailers closed across GOING
ONLINE "We don't see the Internet as an enemy, but as a way to
improve our services," Yan Qier, From http://www.news.cn/
07/23/2015 Chinese Virtual Reality Headset Gears Up to Meet Market Demand Giant leaps in display technology and industrial design have led
to a boom in virtual reality (VR) gadgets to lure investors into this
competitive market. DëePoon, a domestic consumer-targeted VR head-mounted
display developed by Shanghai-based manufacturer Le Xiang Technology Ltd was
revealed on Monday in From http://www.news.cn/
07/23/2015 Chinese IT producers are expected to benefit from an upcoming
expansion of a tariff elimination agreement, but analysts also warn cheaper
imports could come as a blow. Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
clinched a deal in Yao Jin'an, chairman of Shenzhen-based intelligent home service
provider i-Tone, said many domestic firms rely heavily on imported
semi-conductors and rising prices squeeze their profit margins. A wide range
of IT product components are included in the new agreement and tariff
elimination will likely lower costs for Chinese manufacturers. "I hope
the new deal will come to the rescue," said From http://www.news.cn/
07/27/2015 Alibaba to Help Alibaba has signed an agreement to help east From http://www.news.cn/
07/31/2015 From http://www.news.cn/
08/01/2015 Despite an anemic economy, From http://www.news.cn/
08/03/2015 Despite an anemic economy, From http://www.news.cn/
08/03/2015 The Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has welcomed Walmart's purchase
of Yhd.com, a move that means the world's largest retailer is the first
company to wholly own a Chinese e-commerce platform. Walmart has been buying
stakes in Yhd.com, a smaller version of Alibaba, since 2011. The company
announced on July 23 that it had acquired full ownership after From http://www.news.cn/
08/04/2015 More Controls on Online Payments Ma Tao, an Internet finance analyst at consultancy firm Analysys
International, said that people's user experience is expected to remain more
or less the same as online payment firms will work closely with banks to
provide verifications that can live up to the requirement. "The goal of
the draft rule is to limit the business portfolio carried out by third-party
payment firms as an increasing number of them have expanded their business to
engage in peer-to-peer lending, wealth management and other services that
were earlier offered by financial institutions in From http://www.news.cn/
08/04/2015 Chinese Top Bank's Internet Financial Products Boom China's biggest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China (ICBC), has granted more loans in both yuan and foreign currencies in
the first half of the year, thanks to innovative online loan products. The
bank's new loans in both yuan and foreign currencies rose 5.6 percent year on
year to 623 billion yuan (102 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months
of 2015. One of its online loan products that aims to fit the investment
needs of small and micro enterprises (SMEs), "Wang-dai-tong", has
extended a total of 1.73 trillion yuan of loans to more than 70,000 SMEs,
ICBC spokesman Gao Zhixin told a press conference Thursday. During the first
six months, one of its e-commerce platforms "Rong-e-gou" registered
around 204 billion yuan of business, 26.8 times more than that in the same
period last year, Gao said.x The bank is to establish an Internet financing
center to offer more online financial products, said Xiong Yan, general
manager of ICBC's financial services for small enterprises department.
Internet finance has helped small enterprises grow, expanded employment, and
opened the door for mass entrepreneurship and innovation. In early July, From http://www.news.cn/
08/06/2015 Online Payment Most Problematic Internet Finance Service: PBOC Online payment was most complained about in the Internet finance
sector, according to the central bank on Friday. More than 95 percent of
customer complaints regarding Internet finance services were about online
payment, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC). Third-party online
payment platforms offer convenient channels for illegal activities, such as
money laundering, as accounts are not based on real names. Meanwhile, poor information
protection for some online payment institutions threatened customer privacy.
A new security regulation on third-party payments has stirred big controversy
in From http://www.news.cn/
08/07/2015 130 Million Yuan Allocated to Boost E-commerce in Xinjiang The Chinese government has allocated 130 million yuan (20.9
million U.S. dollars) in funding to boost e-commerce development in northwest
From http://www.news.cn/
08/09/2015 Software and IT services sales surged in the first five months
this year, evidence that consumption pertaining to technology and Internet is
increasing economic growth, said From http://www.news.cn/
08/10/2015 New stats show the smartphone market here in Observers say one of the key reasons behind the weak demand for
new phones is the penetration rate, which sits at around 90-percent. Sun Qi
says convincing existing users to buy a newer model is critical. "The
focus is going to shift back to the phone's intrinsic qualities. Consumers
used to be attracted to the design of the phone. But now they have bigger
demands. Stand-by time, information safety and user-compatibility are the
core needs for smartphone users moving forward." To counter the drop in
sales, Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and Huawei have been attempting to
expand overseas. But despite the downturn in sales for smartphone producers,
retailers are still doing well. Chinese home appliance giant Suning has seen
its sales through the first half of this year jump by some 70-percent. Gu
Wei, manager of the telecom sales division at Suning, says their sales are
growing both online and offline. "We hope we can be the fastest in
delivery, with latest products, bringing more products to customers with
reasonable price. Through our store, our online platform and mobile app, we
try to meet needs of the customers." Suning recently inked a
multi-billion dollar deal with Alibaba for online payments, deliveries and
aftersales services.
From http://www.news.cn/
08/11/2015 From http://www.news.cn/
08/17/2015 JAPAN: Electronics Firms Aim to Reboot Smart TVs Electronics companies are launching “smart televisions,” a new
type of TV set equipped with smartphone operating systems to provide services
comparable to those available through smartphones. For example, smart TVs
enable users to enjoy services such as access to the Internet and playing
video games. It is also possible for individual users to install additional
applications on their smart TVs, meaning they can customize the services they
use according to their needs, just as with smartphones. The new technology
from the electronics makers is intended to offer consumers new methods for
enjoying services on TV. By doing so, these manufacturers hope to turn around
their embattled TV production businesses, according to observers. In late
May, Panasonic Corp. started selling a new 4K ultrahigh-definition TV
equipped with the Firefox operating system in the domestic market. The
Firefox OS has been developed by Meanwhile, Sharp Corp. plans to launch a smart TV only in For example, with a cooking application, a user can cook a meal
while looking at the recipe displayed on the TV screen. While these things
can already be done with smartphones or other tablet devices, electronics
companies believe that consumers who have not used such services, such as the
elderly, can more easily access them with TVs, which are a more familiar home
appliance to many people. “We will change a TV from a thing people use
casually to something that satisfies their curiosities,” said Hiroshi Kawano,
president of Sony Marketing Inc. The electronics industry has had bitter
experiences with smart TVs. In 2010, Sony and Google jointly launched the
Google TV, which had Internet connectivity. However, the product was not user-friendly, taking a long time
to start up, and had other drawbacks. As a result, Google TV failed. Other
companies countered the move with products made to their own specifications,
but the services available for those TVs did not increase in number and
therefore smart TVs did not become widespread. “They became TVs that were
like a personal computer, and were not user-friendly,” a senior official at
one electronics maker said. With recent developments, the companies have
improved the user-friendliness of their smart TVs by such measures as making
it possible for customers to use a touch-screen remote control similar to a
smartphone, and speeding up the start-up times of applications, hoping to
make another attempt to increase adoption of smart TVs. However, it will be
difficult for each company to differentiate its products from those of rivals
that use the same operating system, so it may be necessary for them to
demonstrate the uniqueness of their products in terms of user-friendliness
and other aspects. In addition, how they differentiate their products from
smartphones and tablet devices offering similar services will likely be key
to the spread of smart TVs. From http://the-japan-news.com 06/09/2015 More Convenience Stores Offer Pickup Services for E-Shoppers A growing number of convenience stores are offering a service
that allows online shoppers to pick up their purchases at the stores at their
convenience. The service allows customers to conveniently shop online
whenever they like without having to wonder when they will be at home to take
delivery of the item, which appeals to those who are frequently away from home,
as well as those who prefer to not be bothered with accepting deliveries in
person. By offering the service, major convenience store chains have
successfully attracted people who tend to frequently be away from home, such
as those who live alone or married couples who both work, according to the
three biggest convenience store chains in Japan: Seven-Eleven Japan Co.,
FamilyMart Co. and Lawson Inc. They add that the service appeals to women who
are uncomfortable speaking with deliverymen at their front door. About a dozen online shopping sites, including Amazon and
Rakuten Books, offer pickup services with the three major convenience store
chains. Once items are ordered on these sites for in-store pickup, they are
addressed to a convenience store selected by the customer and then delivered
by courier. The delivered items are handed over after the customer gets a
receipt for them from an in-store terminal and presents it. Convenience
stores that offer pickup services differ depending on the shopping site. Just
about any convenience store will offer in-store pickup if they are among one
of the chains that includes the service, which means customers can choose a
store that is close to home or on their way to work. Many online shopping
sites offer convenience store pickup free of charge, but some charge a fee.
Some items offered by these sites are excluded from the service because of
their size or other factors. Major convenience store chains began to offer full-fledged
in-store pickup services with unaffiliated online shopping sites about seven
or eight years ago. In 2007, FamilyMart became the first to offer the service
when it began taking book orders for Rakuten Books, which was followed by
Lawson taking orders for Amazon in 2008. Lawson plans to have its stores take
on orders for as many as five new companies in fiscal 2015, incluging online
shopping sites serviced by Sagawa Express Co. In addition, starting this
summer, FamilyMart is expanding its in-store pickup services to include
several online retail shops run by Rakuten Inc. As of now, Seven & i
Holdings Co. and the pickup services offered by its Seven-Eleven shops and
other stores strictly focus on affiliated online shopping sites. However, a
company spokesperson said, “We may partner with other online shopping sites
outside of our company in the near future.” The benefits of in-store pickup
services are not limited to the customers who use them — both convenience
stores and couriers also benefit. For instance, by expanding their in-store
pickup services, convenience stores can expect to see an increase in their
customer base. And couriers and transporters can increase distribution
efficiency if they curtail their redeliveries by focusing on delivering to
convenience store locations. Redelivery due to absent recipients was
necessary in 20 percent of about 4.1 million items surveyed in 2014 by Yamato
Transport Co., Sagawa Express, and Japan Post Network Co. Following an
increase in online shoppers, the number of items handled by domestic courier
services rose to about 3.64 billion in fiscal 2013, which is approximately
double the amount delivered 15 years earlier, according to the Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry. In June, the ministry began
to look for further cooperation between online shopping sites, courier
services and the major convenience store chains in the hope of creating more
measures to decrease redeliveries. In light of this, in-store pickup services
will likely only expand. From http://the-japan-news.com 07/19/2015 Cafe24, From http://www.koreaherald.com 05/21/2015 New Tech Allows IoT to Work on Different Platforms Researchers have unveiled a new technology that enables devices
based on different Internet of Things (IoT) platforms to interwork and to
become connected to each other. The Korea Electronics Technology
Institute (KETI) presented its new interworking technology, based on the
oneM2M platform, at the oneM2M Showcase held in From http://www.korea.net/
06/10/2015 SK C&C to Open Korea’s First Internet Bank Next Year A senior executive of SK C&C, a leading system integration
developer in From http://www.koreaherald.com 06/10/2015 Naver Joins Fray in Online Payment Services South Korea’s largest Web portal operator Naver launched a new
online payment service Naver Pay on Thursday, which the company said would
become a “game changer” in the domestic online payment industry. Similar to
other online and mobile payment services already out in the market -- such as
Kakao Pay run by Web portal and mobile messenger firm Daum Kakao -- users
have to register data of their credit cards or bank accounts on Naver Pay
once, and then they can pay for their purchases through a simple
identification process using a 6-digit PIN. Naver has deployed layers of security measures to protect
information of users on the payment system: encryption of personal and
financial data, use of virtual credit card numbers, and a big data-based
fraud detection system that identifies unusual purchasing patterns of users.
Vowing to work together with financial authorities and police, the company
said it would operate support centers round-the-clock to receive reports for
possible fraud cases from users and runs programs to fully compensate scam
victims. Naver will join forces with 14 banks and credit card firms to
promote the new payment service. Users of Samsung Card, Shinhan Card and
Hyundai Card will be able to use Naver Pay services from Thursday, and those
who have accounts at five banks -- including Woori Bank and Industrial Bank
of From http://www.koreaherald.com 06/25/2015 Online
Shopping Sales Jump in May Online shopping sales in From http://www.koreaherald.com 07/02/2015 Smart
Card Firm Launches Payment Platform South Korean’s leading smart card solutions developer KONA I has
rolled out a new online and offline payment platform, called KONA PAY, which
will enable cardholders to make payments in a more secure manner. Since there
are no payment means that meet global standards -- especially EMV-- in From http://www.koreaherald.com 07/29/2015 E-Gov't
Exports Estimated at over $314 Mil. Exports of computer systems and software that provide online
government services reached USD 314.42 million in the first half of the year.
That amount includes exports by some 250 local IT companies during the first
half, and it is equivalent to 66 percent of similar exports during the same
period last year, said the Ministry of Government Administration and Home
Affairs on Aug. 4. Exports for the entire year are expected to surpass USD
500 million, an increase of 10 percent over last year's figure. Exports of
systems for online government services have been on the rise for many years.
They were at USD 159.92 million in 2010, 237.71 million in 2011, 342.12
million in 2012, 419.28 million in 2013 and hit 475.21 million in 2014.
Nations from the former Soviet Union took in 43 percent of From http://www.korea.net
08/06/2015 Online
Payment Syrup Pay Sees Growth IT solutions developer SK Planet’s online payment service Syrup
Pay is gaining traction as it saw transactions executed through the system
increase fourfold since its launch in April. The total amount of transactions
processed on Syrup Pay crossed the 60 billion won ($51.4 million) mark this
month, up from 5 billion won recorded during the first month of its
operations, according to SK Planet on Monday. Syrup Pay allows users to make
purchases on PCs and smartphones only with passcodes, and does not require
the installation of any extra applications or security programs. Embedded
with the firm’s own authentication and security processes, the online payment
system guarantees safe online transactions, according to the Pangyo-headquartered
IT firm. SK Planet plans to incorporate the mobile payment system into its
mobile ordering app, dubbed Syrup Order, which enables users to place orders
at 1,200 coffee shops run by 110 coffeehouse brands and franchises including
Caffe Bene, Angel-in-us Coffee and Hollys Coffee. “Syrup Pay will take the
lead in the era of online payment market with convenient services that enable
users to make purchases anytime and anywhere,” Lee Eun-bok, head of the
firm’s merchant product division said. The company will also make its
payment service available on other mobile services such as app market “T
store,” and taxi hailing service “T map Taxi.” Currently collaborating with
all domestic credit card companies for the payment service, the affiliate of SK
Group will further work with local banks to allow customers to use their
debit cards and make money transfers on the payment system. From http://www.koreaherald.com 08/10/2015 IT Firms, Banks Team Up for First Internet Bank South Korean information technology firms are scrambling to band
together with commercial banks and brokerages to get the nod for the
country's first Internet-only bank as the financial regulator is poised to start
the approval process soon. Daum Kakao Corp., the operator of the country's
largest mobile messenger Kakao Talk, is a step ahead of its competitors. The
company has joined hands to build a direct bank with the biggest brokerage
house, Korea Investment Holdings Corp., and Kookmin Bank, one of the three
biggest lenders by asset. KT Corp., the second-largest mobile carrier, agreed
with No. 3 life insurer Kyobo Life Insurance Co. to establish a consortium
for the launch of an Internet-only bank. The KT-Kyobo partnership beckons
state-run Woori Bank and No. 2 Shinhan Bank to join its team.
Telecommunications giant SK Telecom Co. has also announced plans to contend
for a direct bank license, contacting eligible partners including Interpark
Corp., a leading online shopping mall operator. Daou Technology Inc., an IT
solution unit of brokerage firm Kiwoom Securities Co., is also seeking a
partner to form a pool, while other IT companies are set to follow suit. Their aggressive moves came after the Financial Services
Commission (FSC), the country's top financial regulator, announced a plan to
introduce the direct bank business as part of its efforts to deregulate the
local financial industry and foster the fast-growing financial technology. An
Internet bank, or direct bank, is a bank that offers services remotely via
online and telephone banking without physical buildings. Such banking emerged
in the 1990s with the advent of online banking technology. According to the
FSC plan, Internet-only bank operations will range from deposits, lending and
cards to foreign exchange transactions, and their financial soundness would
be regulated in the same way as that of other commercial lenders. It is aimed
at encouraging IT firms to invest in the untapped Internet-only banking
industry by lowering entry barriers, including stake ownership limits. It
also removed requirements that all banks must have brick-and-mortar offices
and face-to-face channels with customers. Under the current laws, an industrial company, or a non-financial
firm, is banned from holding more than a 10 percent stake in a bank. The
regulator is considering raising the stake ceiling to about 50 percent to
induce IT firms to invest in the financial industry. "The FSC has
demanded applicants meet only two requirements. A commercial bank or a bank
holding company cannot be the majority shareholder of a consortium, and the
consortium should include at least one IT company," said Song Yong-min
from the Bank Division at the FSC. "We don't set limits on each company's
stake holding in a consortium." He said the FSC will accept applications
for direct banks on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, and select one or two of them before
the end of December. IT companies, who have been banned from entering the
banking sector due to the stake ownership limits, welcomed the FSC's policy
and seek appropriate partners to grab the first-mover advantage. The Daum Kakao-led consortium said the three industry leaders
will create a synergy in running a direct bank thanks to their experience in
their fields and numerous customers. For now, Daum Kakao will hold a 10
percent share in their bank at the time of application, while Korea
Investment owns a majority 50 percent and Kookmin Bank takes 10 percent.
However, Daum Kakao said its partners have agreed to give Daum Kakao the
majority shareholder title when the law revision is completed. "We are
forming the partnership on the assumption that we can hold a majority stake
in an internet bank," Daum Kakao co-CEO Choi Sae-hoon said in a conference
call last week. "We are now studying how we can utilize our mobile and
online assets and what kind of values we can offer to our customers and
partners." Experts said it is early to put one consortium above the
others as each pool has enough big data to analyze credit of potential bank
clients and roll out profitable financial products. "All companies are competitive. The key is, who has an
effective analysis tool to sort out customer data and develop a new revenue
model, as well as higher risk managing ability," said Jason Choi, a
market researcher at NH Investment & Securities Co. "They need to
secure quality manpower to deal with such tasks and set up a profitable
structure at the offset." However, Choi pointed out that no one is sure
whether the future of the first Internet bank will be rosy or gray. In 2001,
some large companies, including retail giant Lotte Group, had tried to set up
a direct bank but failed to overcome legal obstacles. Mirae Asset Securities
Co. has recently decided to pull out of the bid for the Internet bank
project, citing that it will focus on its core brokeraging business. "It
is a risky attempt for IT firms, banks and brokerages because no one has an
experience in the business in From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr 08/19/2015 |
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Asian
SME Cloud Journeys Derailed by Migration, Legacy IT Issues THERE is no doubt that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are
embracing the cloud, recognising it as a means of competing on a global stage
with international peers and unbound by capital constraints. At last, that’s
what Salesforce.com’s area vice president, commercial business unit, Making tools sticky Tate said that a key focus for Salesforce is how it can help its
customers unwind, scale back or make a different decision that would give
them the same growth opportunities as other customers which are not burdened
by similar capital constraints. “That’s one of the important differentiators
with Salesforce – we enjoy a very low attrition rate as we are maniacally
focused on customer success,” he claimed. “Post-implementation, we focus on
adoption rate. Are customers using it? Is the usage rate on or above industry
benchmarks? And if not, how can we proactively do something about it – either
via better enablement or enhancements? “Adoption is a key post of the decision-making
process with any new technology,” he added. Tate said that the core driver of
internal adoption, and also the easiest, is the usability of the platform.
“The generational shift to using technology that’s 100% social and mobile …
has been paramount in driving the adoption of corporate apps,” he said. Pointing to Salesforce’s founding vision 16 years ago, Tate said
the company’s founders wanted to create corporate apps which were as easy to
use as consumer apps. “They wanted to make the experience of using a
corporate app as simple as buying something off eBay. Ten years ago, legacy
vendors still provided software that was complex and not intuitive, which
created this phenomenon of change management to push adoption. “Fast forward
to the present, and every touch point and engagement point with customers
revolves around these concepts. “When you put Salesforce into users’ hands,
it has to look and feel like the apps they’re used to using – that’s our
focus and [this] is key to adoption,” he added. Tate admitted that top-down
sponsorship of new software tools by management will always aid in adoption,
but said that giving users a great experience will naturally drive adoption.
He pointed to one Malaysia-based customer just starting its Salesforce journey
asking similar questions about how management could help drive adoption. “I
told them that as long as you yourselves use the app and advocate it
internally, it will help adoption. “In our experience, when users love the
tools, you don’t need dictator-like mandates to get them to use them,” he
added. Adding analytics to the mix Having easy-to-use cloud-based software that helps manage and
enable better customer relationships is only one component of stickiness and
adoption. The other is how useful it is in the decision-making process and
how much insight companies can garner on their customers, to pinpoint service
needs and improve loyalty and retention. Salesforce is moving quickly to
position itself as the integrated supplier of such business intelligence
tools, with a key corporate message being its desire to be “a part of our
customers’ growth.” “The fact is that the customer will continue to be a
bigger and bigger part of every company’s growth story, and the customer has
to be at the centre of any growth aspirations,” Tate said. Last October,
Salesforce launched its first-ever cloud-based analytics platform, Wave
Analytics Cloud, which it claims would allow enterprises to deploy sales,
service and marketing analytics, or build custom mobile analytics apps, by
using any data source. Tate could not disclose what the uptake has been like
with customers in the Asia Pacific region, calling it “early days” for its
analytics offering but described interest and momentum as “amazing.” “An overwhelming number of customers that have looked at Wave
said that ‘this is the missing piece,’ and it makes perfect sense to put
analytics in the hands of everyone in the business, instead of just IT,” he
said. Tate said that for the first time, it’s analytics for the rest of the
company, as opposed to the analytics tools of the past, which have resided
with IT or analysts, and only gets to the business units days later – such a
delay is no longer tenable in today’s rapid mobile and social landscape.
“This presents enormous opportunities for all companies to make better
decisions, by having access to analytics in real time via their mobile
device. “Consumer behaviour has changed drastically, becoming hyper-connected
– business needs to follow suit,” he added. “The CEO of Coca Cola at our
Dreamforce conference said that ‘worse place to make a decision is in the
office, the best place is where your customers are’,” he added. Tate said
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Predictive Decisions, launched in March, is one
example of how analytics capabilities can be leveraged across its platform.
The offering fuses CRM (customer relationship management) and marketing data
with relevant contextual data such as web browsing activity, using native
predictive intelligence decisions to increase conversions and engagement in a
single application. It is intended to allow marketers to harness the power of
data science to analyse customer engagement and proactively deliver new
recommended content, products or offers to customers. “Marketers can be much more
granular about how they construct customer journey,” said Tate. Advice for SMEs Tate often gets asked for advice from his SME customers, and
shared his top three tips: The first is to grow with the cloud and make it a
part of the company’s strategy. “That’s an obvious one – if you do that, then
the barriers to entry are minimal and this puts you on the same stage as your
global competition. You can then differentiate early without needing to sink
painful capital expenditure into infrastructure,” he said. The second is to
make that transition to running the entire business from one’s mobile.
“Everything you do as a business today must have a social and mobile
connected context,” he said. The last is to “connect with customers” as how
well companies establish and maintain that one-to-one relationship will be
the single biggest differentiator for the next 10 years. “There is no doubt
about the link between customer-centricity and revenue. So the key scope of
our work will remain: How do we help our customers make that shift to
customer-centric company, from their business model to their go-to-market
strategy,” he said. APAC growth The two-year horizon looks very bright from Tate’s perspective
and Salesforce’s growth opportunities in the region, as there is “no better
time to be in business in Asia, and no better time to be a small business in
Asia.” Though he could not share specific revenue figures or give a breakdown
by market, some regional customers include StarHub, Lazada, Changi Airport
Group, Telstra and Japan Airlines. For its full fiscal year 2015, Salesforce
reported global revenue of US$5.37 billion, an increase of 32% year-over-year
(YoY). A MarketRealist report highlighted that as of April 30, 2015,
Salesforce generated free cash flow of US$731 million, a YoY increase of 54%.
The company has cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities worth
US$1.92 billion. It has a total debt of US$2.04 billion with no short-term
debt, and as of the first quarter of its 2016 fiscal year, a working capital
deficit of ~US$1.35 billion. “We’re growing just like our customers are, and
the Asia Pacific region is one of our fastest-growing regions in the world –
which is testament to the level of interest and momentum here,” said Tate.
“One area of focus for the next two years will be on accelerating customers
in the early stages of their Salesforce journey – the more successful they
are, the more successful we are,” he added. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/22/2015 E-commerce players in the country saw their sales and revenues
climb in the first six months of this year, demonstrating the resilience of
the infant industry amid an economic slowdown and weakening consumer
purchasing power during the period. Online business platforms from
marketplaces to ticket-booking sites have reaped more than what they
expected, a contrast to the lackluster performances recorded by many
brick-and-mortar retail giants. Elevenia, a marketplace jointly operated by
telecommunications operator XL Axiata and Yusi Obon, the communications head of marketplace Bukalapak,
also said that her firm recorded a satisfying performance amid the economic
downturn in the first half. “An advantage of online business is that our
operational costs are not as high as those offline,” she told The Jakarta Post.
Bukalapak, which was pioneered in 2010, aims to grow by between 10 and 20
percent in terms of transactions and revenues, according to Yusi. Echoing a
similar optimistic view, ticket-booking sites tiket.com and Ezytravel are
even trying to raise their bars by aiming to triple their web traffic this
year and record new revenue records each month. Tiket.com managing director
Gaery Undarsa said that while the travel industry might slow down a bit
because of lower consumer purchasing power, his firm achieved good revenue
growth in the January to June period of this year. “There’s probably a
shifting behavior from buying tickets offline to buying them online,” he
said. During the Idul Fitri exodus period, ticket sales doubled or even more
compared to the same period last year, he explained. Operating under Global
Tiket Network, tiket.com sells transportation tickets and hotel vouchers and
has employed 250 people in its four years of operation to handle growing
sales traffic. The firm recorded 1.9 million ticket bookings last year, with
most of them coming from frequent individual travelers, according to the
firm’s internal data. Ezytravel, which is part of travel giant Dwidaya Tour,
meanwhile, successfully expanded its revenues by more than 100 percent in
almost every month. “For us,
every month of this year is a new record,” said EzyTravel chief technology
officer Doddy Lukito. From http://www.thejakartapost.com/ 08/08/2015 Online business in Indonesia should register and secure a permit
from government before they are allowed to operate, according to a draft
regulation (RPP) being prepared by the government.The draft new regulation,
scheduled to be issued in February 2016, is currently being discussed by the
Trade Ministry, Communication and Information Ministry and the Law and Human
Rights Ministry. The Indonesian government is of the view that the regulation
was a necessity as the current online trading practice was not supervised by
the government. The draft regulation which has drawn mixed reaction from
players and consumer groups is likely to influence the landscape and the
future growth of e-commerce in the country. Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel said
after the regulation is issued, e-commerce traders must obtain a permit in
accordance with applicable laws. Permits will be obtainable through
registration with the Communication and Information Ministry. “Foreign merchants
must secure a permit from us (government) before starting an online business
in Google In addition, at least eight Indonesian companies are entering
e-commerce industry, namely retailer PT Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk (MAPI),
convenient store operator PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk (AMRT), mobile phone
retailer PT Erajaya Swasembada Tbk (ERAA), heavy equipment distributor PT
United Tractors Tbk (UNTR), PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk (EMTEK), mobile
phone distributor PT Trikomsel Oke Tbk (TRIO), travel agency PT Panorama
Sentrawisata Tbk (PANR), and property and hotel operator PT Surya Semesta
Internusa Tbk (SSIA). Mitra Adiperkasa Tbk indeed plans to focus more on its
e-commerce capability, especially on its mapemall service which is set to be
launched in second semester this year. The platform will be supported by
three MAP’s running e-commerce portals, which are planetsports, lineshoes,
and LiverpoolFC Indonesia Official Store. Meanwhile Sumber Alfaria launched
its retail website called alfaonline by injecting Rp 12.5 billion through its
subsidiary PT Sumber Trijaya Lestari. Panorama, on the other hand, is
building its brand in digital world by introducing a number of ticket
reservation portals, including BookPanorama, Panorama-Tours, MyHotelFinder,
Travelisious, and PHM. In property sector, there is Surya Semesta which is
diversifying its business into tourism through PT Horizon Internusa Persada
(Travelio) whose vision is to be the best online hotel platform in Asia
Pacific, based in In mobile phone and gadgets distributor sector, Erajaya and
Trikomsel are entering the e-commerce foray. Erajaya enters the e-commerce
market through its Erafone brand, while Trikomsel established a special
division called Trikomsel Internet Media Incorporated (TIMI). Trikomsel also
plans to form a joint venture with From http://www.dealstreetasia.com/ 08/08/2015 Investment in telecoms has surged in While MPT has the widest coverage at present, reflected in its
higher subscription figures, it is being challenged by both Ooredoo and
Telenor, which have extended their reach to 41 per cent and more than 50 per
cent of the population, respectively. The increased coverage and broader
access to voice and internet services will be a driving force for economic
growth, according to Petter Furberg, CEO of Telenor Myanmar. In an
established economy, a 10 per cent increase in mobile penetration can lead to
a 1.2 per cent jump in GDP, Furberg told OBG. This may be even higher in
certain countries. “In emerging economies such as FDI wave rolling in The telecoms sector has been a major driving force behind a rise
in foreign direct investment (FDI) over the past year, with Telenor and
Ooredoo investing in infrastructure, as well as fulfilling their fiscal
obligations under the licensing agreements. The sector also faces a 5 per
cent commercial tax as of June. Until now, the industry had been exempt from
the tax, but this is due to end shortly, with revenues generated from the tax
to go towards health, education and transport projects, according to
officials. In the first five months of the 2014-15 fiscal year, telecoms
accounted for 31 percent of total FDI of $3.32 billion, becoming the biggest
single component in direct capital inflows, according to data issued by the
Myanmar Investment Commission. The flow eased in the latter half of the year,
but still attracted a quarter of all FDI during the year, ranking it second
only to the energy sector. Peter Tropper, senior advisor at Emerging Markets
Private Equity Association (EMPEA), said the surge in investments and the
expansion of the telecoms sector signalled an improving economic climate in Strong signals for the future Thanks to a fast expanding consumer base, the telecoms sector’s
long-term prospects remain bright. According to a study by the McKinsey
Global Institute (MGI), the international consultancy’s research arm, From http://www.dealstreetasia.com/ 06/20/2015 THE intense price competition amongst Malaysian mobile operators
is likely to be temporary – at least, that was one of the main key takeaways
from analysts briefings hosted by Digi.Com Bhd and Maxis Bhd last week. “At
the results [conference] call, the [Digi] management appeared slightly more
positive on its second-half 2015 outlook as it believes the current price
competition in the market is not sustainable ... “... Digi views the underlying
price competition in the market as temporary,” RHB Investment Bank analysts
Jeffrey Tan and Annuar Rahman said in their research report. In another
research report, the RHB Investment Bank analysts added that Maxis chief
executive officer Morten Lundal shared the same sentiment regarding price
competition. “Like Digi, Maxis does not expect the pricing skirmish in the
market to be prolonged,” they said. Operators in “[Digi’s] management guides that the current competition is
cyclical in nature (and not a reflection of any structurally prolonged weak
demand), and thus may be short-lived – this is articulated through
management’s relatively optimistic second-half 2015 outlook,” Chong said. “We
are however taking a conservative stance as we expect a relatively flattish
third quarter amid price competition among telco players. We expect Digi to
reap positive operating leverage and earnings growth momentum to continue
only from the fourth quarter of 2015 onwards.” Although the price discounting
competition is currently mainly focused on the postpaid segment, analysts are
not discounting the possibility of the price war spreading to the prepaid
segment. Celcom surprised the market in the second quarter 2015 by launching
its Basic First38 plan, a package that gives customers 3GB of data, 3GB of
complimentary Celcom WiFi, 50
minutes of voice calls, and 50 SMSes to all networks. Most players reacted to
Celcom’s move, with Digi offering 3GB of data, 100 minutes of voice calls,
and 100 SMSes for RM36 a month; and U Mobile offering 3GB of data, 50 minutes
of voice calls and 300 SMSes for RM28. These offers last for a limited
period, however. While most of the mobile operators were engaged in this price
war, Maxis seems to be using a different approach. “While it had responded to
the aggression in the market, we note that Maxis has generally kept to its
headline pricing and refrained from promotions that would be value
destructive,” RHB Investment Bank said in its report. “For example, it opted
to give more freebies to users rather than discounting the prices of its
plans.” Meanwhile, AmResearch analyst Hafriz Hezry said that the postpaid war
may spread to the prepaid space. “The issue might spread into prepaid as
Celcom is moving to introduce a new prepaid plan in the third quarter of
2015,” Hafriz said. “We trim our financial year (FY) 2015 forecast, FY2016 forecast
and FY2017 forecast by 9%, 8% and 8%, respectively, to reflect lower prepaid
revenues and lower earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and
amortisation (EBITDA) margin assumption. “We now expect earnings to fall by
1% year-on-year (from an increase of 9% previously),” he added. Weaker-than-expected performance for Digi During the first half ended June 30, 2015, Digi registered a
1.4% growth in its revenue to RM3.51 billion (1H2014: RM3.46 billion), while
net profit fell 4% to RM943.57 million (1H2014: RM984.07 million). For the
second quarter alone, revenue fell by 1.7% to RM1.72 billion against RM1.75
billion in the same period a year ago, while net profit declined 6.9% to
RM464.36 million, versus RM498.91 million a year ago. The result, in general,
was below the expectations of most analysts. “The first-half 2015 earnings
account for 43% and 45% of our and consensus full-year estimates of RM2.01
billion and RM1.95 billion, respectively,” said Hafriz. During the second
quarter, the company added 124,000 new subscribers, comprising 111,000
prepaid and 13,000 postpaid customers. It now has 11.82 million customers.
From the total subscriber base, about 6.84 million or 58% are Internet
customers. Digi also reported that 57.1% of its customers are smartphone
users. During the quarter, its capital expenditure (capex) was RM200 million,
bringing the first-half capex total to RM393 million. The company expects its
full-year capex to be around RM900 million this year. As a result of its
capex, the company managed to expand its 3G (Third Generation) and 4G-LTE
(Fourth Generation/ Long-Term Evolution) network coverage to 86.6% and 35% of
the population, respectively. It also maintained its 2015 guidance of low- to
mid-single-digit service revenue growth and sustained EBITDA margins at 45%. Maxis within expectations While Digi’s second quarter results were below analysts’
expectations, Maxis’ first half results were well within consensus estimates.
During the quarter, it recorded revenue of RM2.11 billion, a 1.8%
quarter-on-quarter decline and a 1.3% year-on-year increase. Its second
quarter net profit of RM441 million represented a 7.6% quarter-on-quarter
increase and a 1.1% year-on-year decline. For the first half, it recorded a
net profit of RM851 million on revenue of RM4.26 billion. It also added
49,000 new subscribers during the quarter, mainly from the prepaid segment as
the company is gaining traction in the migrant segment. Its postpaid segment
lost 27,000 subscribers during the quarter. “[Nevertheless, the] management
appears unperturbed by any risk of potential market share dilution. “The
company remains confident [that the] MaxisOne Plan will help drive top-line
for the group. We do not discount further uplifts to MaxisONE postpaid ARPU
(average revenue per user), underpinned by Maxis’ superior customer profile
with a propensity to spend on mobile charges,” said UOB Kay Hian’s Chong. Shares still attractive Despite the weaker-than-expected numbers, some analysts are
still optimistic about Digi’s shares on From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/20/2015 PRICING and subscription plans remained the most important
factor for Singaporeans in selecting their telecommunications service
providers, according to Frost & Sullivan. In a statement, the research
and analyst firm said in its Singapore Telecommunications Services Customer
Experience study, 83% of consumers said that they will choose their service
providers based on pricing and subscription plans while 62% said they will
make their choice based on their individual customer experience. Frost &
Sullivan conducted an online survey from October to November 2014, involving
1,300 respondents, randomly selected from consumer online panels, to measure
customer experience in the telecommunications sector in From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/16/2015 M-Commerce:
This finding is in line with the region, where nearly half of
the respondents across Asia Pacific (49.5%) cited convenience as the most
compelling reason for smartphone shopping. Two-thirds of Asia Pacific
respondents also cited similar motivating factors including the ability to
shop even while on the move (43.9%) and the growing availability of apps that
make it easy to shop online (39.5%). The top three items bought through
mobile phones in Close to half (44.5%) of the respondents surveyed (or
interviewed) have conducted price comparisons between online and offline
retailers, with a similar proportion (44.2%) also stating that they have
conducted research online prior to making a purchase in-store. Furthermore, a
third of Detailed findings: Ÿ Overall,
consumers from Ÿ In
terms of the biggest growth in mobile shopping, Taiwan and India lead the
region with the number of people shopping on smartphones more than doubling
over two years – Taiwan went from 28.2% in 2012 to 62.6% in 2014 while India
went from 30.3% in 2012 to 62.9% in 2014. Ÿ Ÿ Nearly
half of the respondents across Asia Pacific (49.5%) cited convenience as the
most compelling reason for shopping on their smartphone. Other motivating
factors include the ability to shop on the go (43.9%) and the growing
availability of apps that make it easy to shop online (39.5%). Ÿ The
most popular mobile shopping purchases amongst Asia Pacific shoppers include
clothing and accessories (27.9%), followed by apps (21.2%) and daily deal
coupons (19.2%). More than one-third of Chinese (37.4%) and Korean (36.0%)
consumers shop for clothing and accessories on their smartphone. Meanwhile,
apps top the list of items Thai (33.8%) and Vietnamese (31.8%) shoppers
purchased using smartphones. Ÿ Asia
Pacific consumers are also adopting new mobile technologies, with 27.9% of
respondents saying that they use mobile banking apps. Group buying apps
(40.3%) and digital wallets (28.5%) are the most popular amongst Chinese
consumers. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/30/2015 Bkav Corporation yesterday launched the first made-in-Vietnam
smartphone, Bphone, which was in development for more than four years. With a
flat design, the phone has a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 with a speed
of up to 2.5 GHz, and RAM Sky Hynic 3GB LPDDR3, and eMMC 5.0 flash storage of
Toshiba. It comes with a 5-megapixel front camera and a 13-megapixel rear
camera with OmniVision sensor. Bphone has the same technology used in global
high-end smartphones. For example, it provides Fast Tracking Auto Focus that
allows users to take photos and get them in focus later. According to Bkav
Hardware Division's vice president Vu Thanh Thang, there are only two
smartphones equipped with this technology: Bphone and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
The manufacturer has also said that Bphone is one of the smartphones offering
music in 24bit/192 kHz, with quality nearly equivalent to that of vinyl
records. It is said to be the first smartphone in the world to be equipped
with Transfer Jet, which allows users to transmit data within short distances
in super high speed. Bkav Corporation's Chief Executive Officer Nguyen Tu
Quang noted that Transfer Jet is 500 times faster than... From http://vietnamnews.vn/
05/27/2015 Freight
Transport Moves to E-Commerce A transport e-commerce market place that enables all major
stakeholders in the freight transport business to easily link up is expected
to be begin its initial operating period in 2016. Nguyen Van Quyen, Directorate
for Roads of Viet Nam (DRVN) Deputy General Director, was quoted by Transport
newspaper as saying that the formation of the online transport market aimed
to create a breakthrough to enhance the economy's competitiveness, as
transparency was expected to be enhanced and transport fees lowered. Quyen
said the pilot implementation of the online transport market was approved by
the transport ministry, adding that the legal framework, along with
management software, were being developed. Following the roadmap, the
transport market would become operational at the beginning of next year,
Quyen added. The platform was planned to be built for operation in major
transport centres, such as Ha Noi, The formation of transport market places would help tackle these
problems. Do Cong Thuy, Deputy Director of DRVA's Transport Department, said
the transport market place was an e-commerce platform that connected all
stakeholders in the freight transport business, including logistics service
providers and customers. "Freight transport firms which join the market
place must be checked in terms of capacity, prestige and commitments,"
Thuy said. The platform would enable transport firms to connect with each
other to prevent their returning from deliveries with empty trucks, which was
expected to help lower fees. Sharing From http://vietnamnews.vn/
07/17/2015 Domains
Vital to Brand Protection About 182,000 of 500,000 firms have registered the domain name
"VN", a conference on brand protection with the "VN"
domain name was told in "In the context of further and deeper integration and
globalisation, the usage of the domain name "VN" to protect
Vietnamese brands will help enterprises avoid loss of rights in their
homeland and consolidate the value of their brand in the international trade
environment," VNNIC director Tan said. The lack of websites or
professional email addresses would reduce the opportunities for enterprises
to promote themselves while participating in global trade. The registration
of the domain name " VN" would be implemented in accordance with
international practices, which meant enterprises first would have the right
to own the domain names, Tan said. The State management agencies cannot
protect or hold all domain names related to brands if the brand owners do not
register for brand protection on the Internet. Therefore, enterprises needed
to pay more attention to protecting their brands on the Internet, the
director said. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/08/2015 |
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The Haryana Government launched online issuance of form ‘C’ for
traders in the state.The service was launched by Haryana Chief Minister
Manohar Lal Khattar. “The online service will facilitate hassle-free issuance
of the form to traders,” Khattar said.“We have listed 163 services which will
be linked with online system. Out of these, 23 services have already been
linked.”It is mandatory for traders dealing inter-state transactions to fill
form C with their quarterly VAT returns. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 06/05/2015 Mobile
Banking Goes to Rural State-run Canara Bank's two sponsored regional rural banks
(RRBs) in Kerala and Karnataka launched an immediate payment service through
the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)."The innovative
facility will enable customers of Kerala Gramin Bank and Pragathi Krishna
Gramin Bank to send and receive payments from their mobile handset
round-the-clock and throughout the year," NPCI chairman M. Balachandran
told reporters.As an affordable payment mechanism to benefit common man
across the country and help financial inclusion, NPCI was set up in 2009 as a
not-for-profit organization with 300-crore
authorized capital and 100-crore
paid-up capital by six state-run, two private and two overseas banks as its
co-financers.
From http://news.siliconindia.com/ 06/11/2015
UT
Administration to Roll Out E-Payment Facility for VAT, Utility Bills Welcoming the move, Charanjeev Singh,
president of Chandigarh Beopar Mandal said that currently traders face major
hassle in paying sales tax, facility of which is only available at few
branches of State Bank of India.The UT administration is
set to roll out the e-payment facility for local sales tax (VAT) as well
as utility bills withina month.Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh
(SPIC) is already in the advanced stage for preparing the module and
technical back up system for rolling out the e-payment system. All the
private as well as national banks are being engaged so that maximum
compliance of e-payment can be achieved, it is learnt.Welcoming the move,
Charanjeev Singh, president of Chandigarh Beopar Mandal said that currently
traders face major hassle in paying sales tax, facility of which is only
available at few branches of State Bank of India. “Online payment of VAT was our long pending demand and we are
happy that all the banks are being enrolled to start the facility, he said.In
consumer services, online payment of electricity and water bills will be
first to be introduced followed by e-payment facility for road tax that may
take three to four months.At present, people pay their utility bills at
e-sampark centres.The announcement of e-payment of utility bills were made
last month when Adviser to Administrator Vijay Dev inaugurated the payment
facility of the utility bills through debit/credit cards.SPIC’s centre head
Anil Prashar said that the link for e-payment both for VAT and utility bills
will be availableat upcoming portal besides newly developed website
of the UT excise and taxation department and likely to be rolled out
with in one month.All banks are being engaged for the purpose, he
said Excise and Taxation department collects more then Rs 1,300 crore of
VAT from 65 categories of classified goods items. A senior official of the excise department said that e-payment
facility would avoid the hassles of standing in long queues, filling challans
in four copies and visiting a collecting back to pay the tax.Online facility
is available round the clock. The challan will be filled online by the
taxpayer and there will be immediate acknowledgment of payment in form of
cyber receipt.“For department, it will also be easier to track the VAT
compliance, he said.*Online generation of statutory forms that play important
role in getting tax concession in inter-state transactions. Nearly 2 lakh
C-forms are issued every year by the department to the traders. From http://indianexpress.com 06/19/2015 E-commerce Overtakes BFSI to Become 2nd Largest
Office Space Occupier E-commerce has overtaken banking and financial services (BFSI)
as the second largest occupier of office space in From http://egov.eletsonline.com 07/14/2015 Mobile Malware Grows Nearly 3-fold in Q2;
Mobile-banking Main Target About 291,800 new mobile malware programs emerged in Q2 2015,
which which is 2.8 times greater than in Q1, says a report released by
Kaspersky Lab.Moreover, there were 1 million mobile malware installation
packages in Q2, which is 7 times greater than in Q1.According to Kaspersky’s
Q2 cyberthreats report, mobile banking remained the main target
for cyber threats. “Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.OpFake.cc was capable of attacking
no less than 29 banking and financial applications,” the report said.The
Trojan’s latest version that emerged in Q2 is capable of attacking 114 (four
times more) banking and financial applications. “Its main goal is to steal
the user’s login credentials with which to attack, among others, several
popular email applications,” the report said.Financial threats are not
limited to banking malware programs which attack the clients of online
banking systems. “Apart from banking malware (83%), financial threats are posed
by Bitcoin miners (9%) – these are malware programs that use the victim’s
computer’s computational resources to generate bitcoins, as well as bitcoin
wallet stealers (6%) and keyloggers (2%),according to the report. Cyberespionage attacks target SMB
companies. The second quarter has also witnessed the cybercriminals’
interest in small and medium businesses.“This type of businesses was targeted
by the cyberespionage campaign Grabit. Cybercriminals focused on economic
sectors such as chemical industry, nanotechnologies, education, agriculture,
mass media and construction,” the report said.Alexander Gostev, Chief
Security Expert at Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team said,
“In Q2 we launched an important initiative called Securing Smart Cities. If security
measures are not planned at the development stage that could have serious
implications later, and retro-fitting security might not be a straightforward
task.” Q2 in figures. According to KSN data, Kaspersky Lab solutions
detected and repelled a total of 379.9 millions of malicious attacks from
online resources located all over the world – this is 19% lower than in
Q1.During the three month period, an average of 23.9% of Internet users’
computers across the world came under a web-borne attack at least once. This
is 2.4 percentage points lower than in Q1.26,000,000 unique malicious objects
were detected, which is 8.4% lower than in Q1. The script AdWare.JS.Agent.bg
was the most widespread among such objects – this script is injected by
adware programs into arbitrary web pages. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/07/2015 E-commerce
Generates $1.2 Million Revenue in Every 30 Seconds: Study Every 30 seconds, global e-commerce industry generates over $1.2
million revenue with Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter contributing $5,483,
$4,504 and $4,308 respectively, says the ASSOCHAM – Deloitte study joint
study. Social networks are contributing significantly to the growth of
e-commerce business revenue. The maturity of social media and its reach
across masses and classes makes it a suitable platform for online sales.“Social
media helps e-tailers to build brand awareness by responding to customer
queries. Seasonal sales and offers are displayed in social networks to reach
maximum number of people. E-tailers have even started to motivate customers
with reward points to provide feedback on the product on social networks,”
said D S Rawat, Secretary General, ASSOCHAM. Prospective customers also
interact with users of the product or service on social networks before
making purchase decision. The social media provides a platform for e-tailers to engage
with customers for: advertisement, building brand awareness, developing a
community of trusted user, spreading Word-of-Mouth and customer feedback.
Furthermore, payment gateways help the e-tailers to receive money instantly
rather than waiting for the CoD payments, thus reducing chances of theft and
fraud. The retailers are slowly moving towards payment gateways for improving
security and dealing with other complexities which arise with financial
transactions. The banks as well as the e-tailers are offering different
offers like cashback and easy Monthly Installment (EMI) to encourage
customers for card-based payments. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/20/2015 |
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The activity of mobile operators is on a medium level. According
to Oxu.Az, the statement came from BEGO representative Roman Kilisek who
spoke at the session in anticipation of the First European Games in the
Ministry of Communications and High Technologies. He said there is a need to
improve this sphere. After that the Minister of Communications and High
Technologies Ali Abbasov warned the mobile operators and demanded to
eliminate shortages within a short term. The minister said otherwise this may
influence the extension of the terms of licenses to mobile operators. From http://news.az/
05/29/2015 Bakcell Offers 4G Roaming Services Bakcell, The First Mobile Operator and Leading Mobile Internet
Provider of Azerbaijan, was the first to activate 4G roaming services for its
subscribers in 14 countries around the world shortly after the operator had
launched its superfast LTE mobile internet. Bakcell, which has launched its
smartphone optimized LTE service in early May of 2015, now is the only Azerbaijani
mobile operator providing 4G roaming services. Thus, Bakcell subscribers will
be able to benefit from high-speed 4G LTE services while travelling abroad.
Moreover, the prices of 4G roaming services will remain the same as prices
for 3G roaming. The list of countries and operators where Bakcell 4G roaming
service are available:
Bakcell is also the only mobile operator offering inbound 4G LTE
roaming services for visitors from the above countries to Today, Bakcell subscribers are able to use roaming services in
168 countries over the networks of 417 mobile operators. By means of the
Bakcell Roaming Application, subscribers who travel abroad may get all the
necessary information about the prices for calls, SMS and the Internet, as
well as the current roaming campaigns at all partner roaming countries and
operators, and even get support through online communication with “Bakcell”.
Information about 4G roaming partners is now available through the Bakcell
Roaming App. For more detailed information about the Bakcell Roaming
Application, please, visit:http://www.bakcell.com/az/bakcell-rouminq-app
Bakcell, The First Mobile Operator and the Leading Mobile Internet Provider
of Azerbaijan, offers a variety of products for modern mobile communications
customers. Bakcell provides class leading 3G mobile internet experience in
the country under the Sür@ brand name. As one of the largest national non-oil investors, Bakcell today
continues making large investments in the economy of From http://en.trend.az/
07/04/2015 Electronic commerce in From http://www.azernews.az/
07/16/2015 European Commission to Finance
IT-projects of The International Commission, which is also composed of experts
from From http://en.trend.az/
08/18/2015 |
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How Are Organisations Addressing the Impact of a Digital
Business? Ahead
of the Gartner Application Architecture, Integration and Development Summit
in 1)
What are the biggest drivers of application change? There
are two main factors - digital business and the rapid pace of IT change -
which largely go hand in hand. The digital world is forcing organisations to
evolve and change at a much faster rate than ever before. If an organisation
is moving at a certain pace or level, the IT organisation has to match that
rhythm. 2)
How do applications strategies need to evolve to give businesses a competitive
edge? To
stay ahead, businesses need agile, dynamic, iterative, continuously evolving,
ecosystem-based delivery methods. In the digital economy, businesses will
live or die based on how they handle complex application strategies,
including packaged applications, analytics, customer applications,
cloud-based applications and mobile apps. All of these application
environments need to deliver seamless user results and compelling,
consumer-like user experiences. The key challenge for today’s applications professional
is to reinvent applications strategies to align with the new digital reality,
while at the same time supporting the innovation businesses will need to
remain competitive. Mobile strategy also needs to change. Addressing the
current generation of smartphones and tablets is not enough. Businesses must
prepare for a more complex future with multi-channel and multi-device
approaches, all the while supporting cross-platform deployment. At the same
time, analytics is rapidly spreading beyond traditional data warehouses.
Analytics strategies must encompass predictive analysis, customer targeting
and big data. The final front is the cloud. Now is the time to aggressively
address security and privacy concerns. 3)
Business demand continues to outpace IT supply, while IT struggles to
maintain and modernise legacy applications. Are there new tactics to help? Old
styles of application development simply can’t deliver the results a
digital-age business needs. New, innovative and disruptive technologies come
up all the time. The
rise of the Web Scale IT, consumerisation, citizen developers and business
units with autonomy and budgets means open architectures are critical – and
SOA is not enough. Web Oriented Architecture (WOA) is now the focal point.
The primary WOA model is RESTful Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
and an API gateway/management tool. Done right, WOA provides a simple
interoperability model that also enables a significant amount of agility and
flexibility. 4)
As we enter a new era in IT – and business – how do organisations prepare for
the digital economy? The
increasing variety and complexity of data and the ubiquity of the Internet of
Things are bringing about a new digital imperative. Every business is now a
digital business. Every business unit is an innovation centre. Every project
is a digital project. This means a radical shift in priorities and
perspective. The important thing going forward, for example, may not be how
you might process sales transactions more efficiently or make other
incremental process improvement. The objective now is figuring out how you
will lead your enterprise into a new world where the physical and digital boundaries
start to blur, where new opportunities will spawn a new generation of
competitors and where traditional industries, industry models and industry
leaders will be disrupted. We are quickly getting to the point where IT isn’t
just a part of the business – it is the business. Application leaders must be
ready to step up to that challenge and seize the opportunity to help lead
their organisations into the age of digital business. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
06/23/2015 ‘New Generation’ ICT Services to Boost Telco Revenues Telcos
will get their biggest share of revenues from a “new generation” of strategic
ICT services over the next five years, according to one global analyst firm.
In its latest forecast on telco-managed global services, Ovum says revenues
for telcos worldwide will grow to more than US$297 billion by 2020, with the
biggest contribution from new strategic ICT services revenues at nearly
US$173 billion - increasing at a CAGR of 9.9% - over the period from this
year to 2020. Ovum says strategic ICT services include business IT and IP
applications, compute and hosting, enterprise mobility, managed networks,
professional services, and unified communications, and represent the new
generation of “dedicated IT and IP communications services that telecoms
service providers are able to offer under contracts with enterprise
customers.” “Telcos have relied on adapting traditional voice and data
services to serve increasingly complex enterprise business users, but now
have a powerful range of ICT services that have been integrated across the
operators’ global networks,” said David Molony, principal analyst in Ovum’s
enterprise practice and author of the report. “Telco
revenues from strategic ICT services are growing faster and, according to our
calculations, will overtake legacy service revenues in 2018.” Molony says
that, by definition, global services means there are prospects for growth
worldwide, but regionally the growth areas for telco strategic services are
in Latin America (17.8% CAGR), Africa (17.5%), the Middle East (16.4%), and From
http://www.itwire.com
07/13/2015 The
mobile phone market in From
http://www.cellular-news.com
06/18/2015 Growing
Confidence in Online Shopping Brings Demand for Enhanced Services Aussie
consumers are becoming increasingly confident about shopping online and have
a willingness to spend more, but they now expect retailers to offer digital
solutions that enhance service and give more flexibility in areas such as
returns and digital loyalty programs. Along with the growing affinity for
online shopping, however, the lack of personalised service offerings across a
number of consumer touch points is driving a decline in engagement and
loyalty to a retailer. The newly released data from IBM’s 2015 Global Smarter
Consumer study also reveals a growing gap between consumer expectations and
what their primary retailers services delivery. With expectations of more
digital solutions to enhance their online shopping experience, the survey
reveals that shoppers today are leaving retailers who fall short on
delivering a seamless, in-store and online experience. According to Anna
McPhee, Retail Council, CEO, “All signs point to Australians embracing all
aspects of digital.” McPhee
says this presents great opportunities and mounting pressure for retailers to
deliver a “revolution in the shopping experience”, rather than incremental
change. “The convergence of digital and physical retail channels is being
driven by consumer desire for more convenience, and it’s up to retailers to
deliver a seamless service. Doing things smarter and faster requires agile
thinking and organisations are working to improve mobile, online and in-store
fulfillment,” McPhee stresses. Ian Wong, Partner, Interactive Experience, IBM
Australia and New Zealand says Australian shoppers want retailers to help
them and serve them, and this ability to see if an item is in stock before a
shopper goes to the store was among the “most appealing capabilities that
would drive a consumer to switch.” Wong points to the survey which reveals
that 50% of consumers agreed they would switch to a retailer who could provide
this information, and he says this signals a “huge opportunity for retailers
to synchronise online and offline offerings for an enhanced shopping
experience.” And, consumers also expect retail assistants to be able to
resolve inventory issues, with more than 50% of Australian respondents citing
this capability as a differentiator in the selection of a retailer.
Additionally, 25% of Australian respondents cited the importance for store
staff to be able to offer personalised promotions based on purchase history
or preferences as a differentiated and unique experience. “This
year’s survey indicates Australian retailers need to be more agile and adopt
continuous change quickly to meet and exceed consumer expectations,” Wong
suggests. “It’s no coincidence that low advocacy ratings locally reflect a
growing awareness among Australian shoppers for alternate channels available
through retailers in the US, UK and elsewhere. This indicates an opportunity
for growth for local retailers who can meet these consumer expectations.”
According to Wong, Australian customers’ favour a “know me” and “listen to
me” approach, with the survey confirming they are increasingly comfortable
with sharing their location, social media habits, mobile number and email
information with a trusted retailer. “With easy to use tools like the IBM
Sales Assist app this puts important customer information into the hands of a
retailer’s store assistant, empowering staff to deliver a more personalised,
in-store experience for shoppers.
Leveraging insights from customer data merged with Social, Location
and From
http://www.itwire.com
07/07/2015 ICT
Investment Trends in While
other advanced economies have been facing slow economic growth, the
performance of the Australian economy over the last few years has been
commendable which can be attributed to factors such as the strength and
stability of the Australian financial system, the fiscal and monetary policy
response, flexibility of the exchange rate and the performance of its major
trading partners, particularly China. The confidence around the country's
economy is being reflected in enterprise ICT investments, as most enterprises
in Key Findings #
Kable's survey reveals that in order to reduce and control operating costs
and keep a focus on their core activities, Australian enterprises are also
planning to outsource their infrastructure and help desk functions through to
the end of 2016 #
To react to changing market dynamics quickly, Australian enterprises are
increasingly spending on business intelligence tools, with the highest
proportion of respondents planning investments in data warehousing/marts and
social sentiment analytics in the next two years #
With the majority of respondents having expressed their intention to invest
in server and storage virtualization technologies in the next two years,
there are good opportunities for vendors operating in this space From
http://www.mynewsdesk.com
08/14/2015 New
Zealand ICT provider New Era has been named a finalist in the 2015 Microsoft
Public Sector: Education Partner of the Year Award. The Auckland-based
company was honoured amongst a global field of top Microsoft partners for
demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer
solutions based on Microsoft technology. “Microsoft’s selection of New Era as
a global finalist in a very competitive market is an affirmation that our
people and processes are truly world class,” says Anthony Church, managing
director, New Era. New Era provides network and ICT support and services,
strategic planning and professional development to the “We
were named Microsoft Education Partner of the Year in “We
are pleased to recognise New Era for being selected as a finalist of the 2015
Microsoft Public Sector: Education Partner of the Year award and for
demonstrating excellence in providing value to our mutual customers.” Sorgen
says the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognise Microsoft partners
that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions
during the past year. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
06/08/2015 Govt
Departments Spend $360k on Pay TV A
spend of more than $360,000 on pay television subscriptions by Government
departments has been criticised by Labour. The cost came over the past two
years, information obtained using the Official Information Act shows. The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade racked up the biggest bill at $80,844
for pay TV in 2013/14. Internal Affairs was next at $33,868, and the New
Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) was the third-biggest spender at $19,307 in
the year. "There may be some justification for MFAT and even DIA to have
connected offices, but why the Transport Agency needs to fork out nearly
$20,000 to watch TV is beyond me," Labour's state services spokesman
Kris Faafoi said. "Surely they should have their eye on the traffic
monitors, not on Top Gear re-runs or the Deadliest Catch, and Road Cops is on
free-view." Mr Faafoi said the Government needed to explain why such a
large amount of taxpayer money was being spent on pay TV for public servants. A
spokesman for NZTA said it had over 1300 staff working in more than a dozen
locations across "Equally
we want Government officials to use information and technology to improve
Government performance and efficiency. For some officials that might mean
using pay TV to get international news and market information they can't get
locally." Spending on pay TV subscriptions - top five departments in
2013/14. 1.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade $80,844 2.
Department of Internal Affairs $33,868 3.
New Zealand Transport Agency $19,307 4.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment $10,887 5.
Ministry of Social Development $5083 From
http://www.nzherald.co.nz
06/08/2015 Government
CTO Claims NZ$60 Million in Savings The
The
government has a "bold vision" of a single, coherent ecosystem
supporting a radically transformed public service that transcends agency
boundaries, he said. IT leadership has to be "functional" --
focusing on service functions rather than agency processes -- to deliver a
system-wide approach and integrated service delivery. That change is being
centrally guided but collaboratively delivered, Occleshaw said. Connected
information and connected platforms are key to delivering interactions that
are "digital by default". Occleshaw said the government's identity
verification service RealMe has been a key enabler of change. RealMe is used
by 61 services for login, and there are more than 2 million logins in use.
40,000 logins are "identity verified" accounts, which are being
used by six services including passports and StudyLink student loans, and in
the private sector by BNZ and TSB banks, Occleshaw said. As
ZDNet reported in March, however, adoption of verified accounts has been much
slower than expected. The government is focusing on what it calls "life
events" to construct some of its new digital services. Occleshaw used
the birth of a child as an example. Previously, new parents would have to
deal with multiple agencies for services, but these are now being joined up.
The transformation required would lead to changes in the way the government
engages with suppliers to "co-create" ecosystems for service
delivery. Tenders would be likely to be less prescriptive, because defining
them to the nth degree constrains innovation. "It's not the way we want
to go forward," he said. Occleshaw said the IT strategy review is
expected to be completed next month with Cabinet approval, and release is
expected in the third quarter. From
http://www.zdnet.com
06/15/2015 Kiwi
Firms Urged to Take a Global Focus From
http://www.nzherald.co.nz
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AFRICA: The eLearning As technology continues to drive development in From http://elearning-africa.com/ 06/08/2015 Senegal Has 14.82 mln Mobile Lines, 7.36 mln Web Subs From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 08/17/2015 EUROPE: Merely 5 percent of Germans use the 'eID' function of their
electronic ID card to identify themselves on the internet, according to a GfK
survey on behalf of Welt am Sonntag among 1,983 people. The Federal Ministry
of the Interior stated that while 35 million Germans own this document with a
built-in chip, only approximately every third holder has activated the online
function, and two out of three members of the public forgo the possibility to
use their ID card on the internet. The GfK survey showed that 9.3 percent of
holders have used the chip for digital bureaucratic procedures during the
last twelve months, and 7.9 used it for commercial activities online. Pablo
Mentzinis of the IT association Bitkom blames the lack of training for
government employees and of PR work, as well as an app that was difficult to
use at the start, for the initial failings of the new ID card. There is also
a lack of providers that offer services for the chip. Only 55 commercial and
109 official providers have acquired a certificate that allows them to use
the document for a digital ID check. From late summer, Deutsche Bahn
customers can use the electronic ID card to register for direct debiting. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 06/08/2015 Over 40% of Germans Read Work Emails at Home - Survey Over 40 percent of German employees read work emails after
finishing work, according to a survey by German consumer and home electronics
sector association GFU cited on Wiwo.de. More than a quarter (28%) not only
acknowledge the information but also reply in their free time. In an
international comparison, Swiss employees are ahead of Germans at 58 percent,
followed by Italians (56%), Austrians (54%) and Spaniards (45%). British
(37%) and French (36%) employees check their emails less than Germans outside
of work. On the other hand, 42 percent of German workers admitted to reading
private emails or checking Facebook during work; in From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 08/10/2015 The first international cyber security summer school will be
held in From http://news.err.ee/
07/14/2015 The number of applicants seeking Estonian e-residency is growing
faster than expected, Ministry of Economic Affairs said today. The number of
applications that the state hoped to achieve by the end of the year was
exceeded almost two times in the first half. While the initial goal was to
receive 2,000 e-residency applications from foreigners by the end of 2015,
the state had received 3,816 applications by the end of July. Advertisement “We estimated that if we would have 30,000 e-residents one day,
it would translated into 60 million euros injected in our economy,” explained
Minister of Economic Affairs Kristen. Michal, adding that additional revenue
for the state budget generated by e-residents includes bank accounts,
management of companies, portfolio management, jobs, as well as taxes. Michal
said that if the state provides additional funding, it would be possible to
have 60,000 e-residents by the end of 2017. The list of Estonian e-residents
includes British journalist Edward Lucas, TOP TEN COUNTRIES The list of countries by e-residency applications as of end of
June: US: 221 MORE FUNDING NEEDED Michal said that 54 e-residents have established a business in From http://balticbusinessnews.com/ 07/24/2015 Mobile services and the internet are the two most widely used
telecommunications services among some half a million people with
disabilities and an additional one million people with long-term illnesses in
Hungary, according to two unrepresentative national surveys conducted by
NMHH. Mobile phone services are most used by the visually impaired (96
percent), followed by persons with physical disability (89 percent), people
with intellectual disability (55 percent) and hearing impaired people (51
percent). The use of internet on mobile phones and smartphones is most used
by the visually impaired (78 percent), persons with physical disability (41
percent), people with intellectual disability (40 percent) and hearing
impaired people (39 percent). Web cameras assist the hearing impaired in
using the Internet, adding another channel via which they can use sign
language to communicate (four out of ten hearing impaired internet users
currently own a web camera). Mobile service providers offer special rate
packages for the hearing impaired with minimal or zero voice use charges and
unlimited texting or a greater than customary data allowance. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 08/10/2015 Dutch Govt Starts Support Website for Broadband Projects The Dutch ministry of economic affairs has started a website to
share information on setting up local broadband projects. Content on the
Samensnelinternet.nl site will be provided by the provinces Drenthe,
Friesland, Gelderland and From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 06/22/2015 One in Three Dutch Homes Have Their TV Connected Dutch households with connected TVs rose to 31% from 23% a year
ago, according to the Media Standard Survey by TNS Nipo for ratings group
SKO. 11% of homes have a device to connect a TV set to the internet, such as
Apple TV or Google’s Chromecast, up from 6% a year ago. The number of homes
with a media player has gone up from 19% to 27%. The Media Standard Survey
found that cable is continuing to decline, but with 55% is still the most
popular platform, followed by 13% IPTV on DSL, 8% IPTV over FTTH, 7% KPN’s
DTT service Digitenne and around 6% for satellite DTH. 36% of households have
digital video recorders, of which 26% sits a in a set-top box and 13% in a
DVD player. The share of homes with a DVD player has fallen from 51% in the
second half of 2014 to 47% at the end of June 2015. From http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/ 08/17/2015 The recent threats by Russian authorities to block access to
popular U.S.-based websites such as Google come amid a larger and growing
effort by the Kremlin to wall off sections of the Internet from Russians.
What’s more troubling: there’s new research that suggests the Russian public
may be ambivalent. Last week, the Kremlin’s Internet and media regulator
Roskomnadzor sent letters to the U.S.-based web services Twitter, Facebook
and Google, requesting large amounts of private information on Russian’s who
use their services. Additionally, Roskomnadzor authorities asked that various
pages deemed illegal for advocating “unsanctioned protests” in The spokesperson was referring to a law passed by the Duma and
signed by President Putin in 2014. It requires Russian bloggers with over
3,000 daily visitors to register with the government, hand over information
about their users, and comply with Russian restrictions on what can and can’t
be published. The law was only one of many moves made over the past several
years to restrict what Russians can see and say online. Analyst Gregory
Asmolov of the London School of Economics worked for several major Russian
newspapers, and now studies the role of the Internet in Russian society. “We
can see a lot of efforts from [Russian-owned] Yandex to oppose this
legislation, but eventually they are based in Russia.," he noted.
"Google is quite vulnerable because on the one hand it can be accused of
being a foreign agent. But on the
other hand still they are not owned by Frozen out In the last year, sites run by opposition leaders Garry Kasparov
and Alexei Navalny, and independent media like the Ekho Moskvy radio station
and Grani newspaper, among others, have been frozen out. Hundreds of websites
based in other countries have also been blocked, including archive.org, which
stores screen captures of now-banned sites going back for years. The
government has exerted its control in other ways as well. In April of 2014,
Pavel Durov, founder of the popular VKontakte social network, was fired as
CEO and replaced by a Kremlin ally. Durov says he was “forced to flee” the
country for refusing to hand over information about Euromaidan protestors.
Given his fiery rhetoric about the evils of the web, there’s no doubt among
observers that the push for these and other restrictions comes directly from
Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian president famously called the
Internet a “CIA project” designed specifically to diminish Kolpakov would know. For years he led the investigative team at the independent
Russian journalism website Lenta.ru, which was no friend of Putin. In March
of 2014 during Public opinion on censorship Researchers Erik Nisbet and Sarah Mikati of The Ohio State
University surveyed 1,600 Russians on their attitudes about the Internet and
freedom of expression online. Their study concluded that nearly half of those
surveyed believe information on the web should be censored, with a near-equal
percentage saying news from websites outside “The Kremlin rhetoric about the Internet being controlled by and
a tool of the CIA, especially in the context of the conflict with Ukraine,
reaffirms this skepticism - and further reduces the likelihood of Russians
using the Internet to seek out counter-Kremlin information,” Nisbet said.
Nisbet describes several different types of Internet censorship. One of is
the legal route, such as the blogger law, and another is the technical route,
such as blocking sites, which he likens to a game of cat-and-mouse. “It’s a
constant game of escalation between Internet censors and circumventors as
individuals who are motivated enough can find ways to bypass Internet
censorship,” he said. But the third type is what Nisbet calls the most
insidious: self-censorship. “It’s called motivated reasoning in political
psychology. We work backwards from our strongly held beliefs, values, and
attitudes to avoid information that might challenge them - and if exposed to
information that does challenge them, we process that information in a biased
manner that discounts or dismisses it,” Nisbet said. In other words, said Nisbet, if the public believes the web is
dominated by hostile Western interests or threatens national stability, it’s
easy to get people to support censorship and even censor themselves.“ “How
does the U.S. State Department create a (circumvention) technology to bypass
that?” Nisbet asked. It’s not yet clear if any of the three From http://www.voanews.com/
06/08/2015 Putin
Says He Supports "Minimal" Internet Restrictions President Vladimir Putin said he was in favor of only
"minimal" restrictions on the Internet, but added that he expected
Russian citizens to respond with a forceful promotion of "But still we can think about it," he said. "Let
me talk to the Cabinet — I have a meeting with the Cabinet literally within a
couple of days. We will hold a discussion, I will put this question to my
colleagues." Putin also insisted he supported online freedom, within
limits. "We believe, and I personally believe, that restrictions should
be minimal," he said. You know, the way I see it, in order to protect
our people, especially young people, from detrimental or even hostile — which
is quite possible — influences, one should not forbid reading, viewing or
listening to something, but we should ourselves promote our position. So that
our people could be prepared to receive any kind of information and are able
to respond in a harsh, timely, beautiful and talented manner. And I very
often see this in fact happening," Putin added. Meanwhile, the "minimal" restrictions Putin was
referring to currently include another law that the president signed this
week that will require search engines to remove the personal information of
Internet users from search results on request if the information is "in
violation of Russian Federation law, is false or outdated." The law,
which is widely known as the "right to be forgotten" law, sets no
criteria for evaluating the correctness and relevance of the disputed
information, but the Kremlin said in a statement that users can turn to the
courts if search engines deny their requests. Critics said the law opened the
way for Russian politicians to prevent the public from learning about their
past misdeeds or false statements by removing any mention of them from search
results. "This is a law on arbitrary and comfortable laundering of
reputations. This is a law on allowing people to lie," journalist Sergei
Parkhomenko said in a program on independent Ekho Moskvy radio when the bill
was debated earlier this summer. One of the examples Parkhomenko mentioned in the program was
Putin's initial denial that "A society has a right and obligation to protect
itself," he said. "Many European countries are already taking
necessary actions. I am not talking about From http://www.themoscowtimes.com/ 07/18/2015 Ukrainian
Bloggers Use Social Media to Track Russian Soldiers Fighting in East In his free time, Ukrainian blogger Anton Pavlushko trawls
through Russian-language social networking sites searching for evidence of
foreign soldiers in his country. “Sometimes you need to study profiles for
hours,” he says. “Sometimes you spend months tracing a soldier and following
his activities. But it’s all worth it.” Pavlushko is looking for Russian
soldiers – not volunteers or those on leave, as the Kremlin has portrayed
them – but servicemen on active duty. Invisible army: the story of a Russian
soldier sent to fight in A digital trail The bloggers say the soldiers often post photos and comments
documenting their stay in eastern Anton Pavlushko “We are performing, on a voluntary basis, the work Ukrainian
authorities should be doing: show there are Russians here,” he says. “But
since Ukrainian authorities are approaching this issue in a very strange way,
we decided to take the matter into our own hands.” But Pavlushko and his
fellow bloggers are not the only ones fighting in the online information war:
in 2014 Advertisement The UN currently estimates more than 15,000 people have been
injured in the ongoing conflict, and Pavlushko says that of the thousands of
servicemen fighting in his country very few will be identified. Nonetheless,
he firmly believes that even the handful of cases uncovered by Ukrainian
bloggers will help his country hold From http://www.theguardian.com/ 06/18/2015 NORTH
AMERICA: After holding the title of the world’s most intelligent
community for the past year, Toronto is ready to hand the title over to a new
city – and it may stay within Canada.Toronto is playing host this week to the
Intelligent Community Forum’s annual conference. Last year, the New York-based
think tank gave Technology is changing everything for municipalities and for the
world, said Thompson, and the potential benefits are enormous for those
communities that identify and seize the opportunities brought by
rapidly-emerging change and the technology now available to them. It’s about
harnessing the power of technology to build a better city and a better
community for all our citizens. “Technology is become a great equalizer for
many communities, municipalities and individuals around the world,” added
Thompson. Waterfront Toronto was a key driver behind Toronto’s winning bid,
and John Campbell, president and CEO of the economic development and
revitalization organization for Toronto’s waterfront district, told the 2015
event that their journey began in 2004, when the downtown was losing job and
development to the suburbs. The undeveloped waterfront was seen as a
potential catalyst to build a new kind of intelligent city that could return
jobs, development and residents to the downtown core. And the goal isn’t just
attracting businesses, but building a place where people that companies want
to hire will want to live, work and play. “Our focus is on providing quality
of life to attract and retain talent in our city,” said From http://www.itbusiness.ca/ 06/11/2015 Libraries can evoke tired assumptions. It could be a stack of
battered books and yesteryear movies; that odd odor of wilted pages and
circa-1970s decor; or it could be a bout of stereotypes, like obsolete
encyclopedias and ruler-snapping librarians. Whatever the case, the truth is
that today libraries are proving they’re more than mausoleums of old
knowledge. They’re in a state of progressive reform, rethinking services and
restructuring with data. It’s a national trend as libraries modernize,
strategize and recast themselves as digital platforms. They’ve taken on the
role of data curator for information coming in and citizen-generated data
going out. They host civic hacker hubs. They serve as booming e-book
distributors. They provide digital clinics for aspiring technophiles. It
could be called a refresh to a retro institution, a data movement that’s
growing organically in spurts. According to latest 2013 statistics from the
American Library Association’s Digital Inclusion Survey, 97.5 percent of
libraries help visitors complete online government forms, 74.1 percent
support e-government and civic engagement programs, 98 percent offer
technology training, and 53.3 percent provide office space to a mobile
workforce. And data is a common thread running through all of these services.
Headlining acts are many. They include the Boston Public Library that, with
the help of the Knight
Foundation, merged Forging
New Ground Nate Hill is among this band of progressives. As a data zealot
who believes in data’s inclination for innovation, the former deputy director
for “The dream here is to treat the library as a different kind of
community infrastructure,” Hill said. “You can conceivably be feeding live
data about a city into an open data portal, and at the same time, turning the
library into a real live information source — rather than something just
static.” In Nationalizing
a Movement Offering a glimpse of the data movement at the national level is
the Digital Public Library of America, based in Boston Public Library. The
DPLA brings together openly available digital content from libraries,
government jurisdictions, historical archives and museums, and makes it
freely accessible to citizens everywhere. It does this in two ways: by
hosting an easily searchable database of items from contributing
organizations — using identifiable macro data — to refer visitors back to
contributor sites; and with a sophisticated application programming interface
(API) so developers can insert content directly into their Web and mobile
apps. No niche endeavor, the DPLA has a growing database of more than 10
million items from 1,600-plus contributors. These range from prestigious
organizations like the Smithsonian to rural county historical societies.
Content is diverse too. There are about 2.5 million e-books, millions of
photographs from the 1850s to present, more than 100,000 maps of towns and
counties, and artwork numbering in the tens of thousands -- all of which are
joined by manuscripts and audio-visual materials in abundance. “We launched
with about 2 million items from 500 institutions [in 2013], and just two
years later, we’ve more than tripled the number of contributing institutions
and more than quintupled our total items,” said DPLA’s Executive Director Dan
Cohen. “It’s been a pretty rapid growth scale.” The service has obvious benefits to entrepreneurs, educators and
researchers seeking information; however, it’s highly beneficial to
contributors as well. The API processes an average of about 3 million queries
per month and top performing contributors have doubled their site’s entire
web traffic since they joined. As collections grow it’s likely queries can
only increase. “I think libraries see that when they contribute their data to
the overall pool, they get a lot of advantages with many people finding their
content for the first time,” Cohen said. The DPLA may also be a succor to
local libraries’ purse strings. In the “We’ll have a coast-to-coast digital network for ingesting data
from across the country,” Cohen said. Beyond this, the DPLA plans to continue
diversifying its content. Similarly it will evangelize services to app
developers — its primary users — who present a number of apps in the DPLA app
library. Some of the apps connect photos to user locations, others link
content to Wikipedia articles, while others serve as DPLA analyzing services
to see where and how digital items come in. Long term, Cohen said the broader
vision is to be a democratizing force for education and research in the
digital age. The Internet has forever widened the definition of open
information, and with it, online access takes precedent over physical visits.
To support the DPLA major philanthropic funders like the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Knight and others have
committed millions to stake the enterprise. And Cohen says he’s confident the
library will have a lasting presence. “We’re building it to really implement
a multi-decade effort,” Cohen said. “We’re building this to be around for the
long run.” From http://www.govtech.com/ 06/05/2015 Policymakers
Seek to Bridge the Internet Connectivity Gap for Students Federal policymakers have turned their attention to a digital
equity gap between students who can access high-speed Internet outside of
school and those who can't. Because school districts have historically
struggled to provide Internet access at school, that's where the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) and legislators have focused. But that is
changing, and the FCC revamped the E-rate program in December to provide additional
funding for school and library broadband subsidies. Now the governing body
and legislators are paying more attention to Internet access outside of
school. On Thursday, June 18, the FCC announced a public comment period on a
potential restructuring of its Lifeline program, which provides subsidies to
low-income families for phone service. While the actual questions for public
consideration have not been released in an order yet, the FCC is considering
whether the program should shift its focus from phone services to broadband
access and affordability. The same day, two legislators introduced the
Digital Learning Equity Act of 2015, a bill designed to start a pilot program
where states and communities work together to provide students with Internet
access outside of school. The
homework gap As school districts increasingly shift to digital learning, more
teachers require students to do homework that requires them to use digital
learning resources. And that means they need access to the Internet --
connections to which are difficult to come by, partularly in rural
communities and for low-income families. This lack of access poses a problem
when students are trying to complete their homework, hence the term
"homework gap." In pockets throughout the country, schools and
libraries have been trying out ways to tackle this problem. For example, Legislation
seeks to jumpstart creative problem-solving That's where the Digital Learning Equity Act of 2015 comes in.
The main thrust of the legislation is to provide grants to state educational
agencies and community partnerships so they can spend up to two years
demonstrating a way to approach the Internet access problem that low-income
students have. At least 30 percent of those grants must go to rural pilots,
which is important because low-income rural students often are overlooked since
they're so far from major urban centers. And the Internet access cannot be
dial-up or restricted by monthly data caps lower than 1 gigabyte, a critical
distinction because so many digital learning resources do not work well with
these constraints. State education agencies have been working to address
these issues, but like school districts, they can't do it alone. These pilot
grants would enable them to work with libraries, businesses and community
groups to develop creative ideas that will address this access problem. The
grant applicants have to specify how they will measure the success of their
pilot, and a national evaluation of the pilots will study which methods
worked and what effect they had on student learning. Because the pilots'
success will be measured on two levels, state directors will be able to see
what other states are doing well and adopt similar approaches. "You want
kids to be able to have access so they can learn better," said Lan
Neugent, interim executive director of the State Educational Technology
Directors Association. "That will resonate with a lot of people. They do
want to see kids get access, but they also want it to make a
difference." From http://www.centerdigitaled.com/ 06/19/2015 On the heels of Thursday’s announcement that From http://www.govtech.com/ 07/31/2015 15%
of Americans Don't Use the Internet. Who Are They? For many Americans, going online is an important way to connect
with friends and family, shop, get news and search for information. Yet
today, 15% of From http://www.pewresearch.org/ 08/05/2015 Why
Decentralized Social Media Is Safer Than Facebook Mos consumers view social media as a godsend, providing an easy
way to stay in touch with friends, family, and loved ones. At any time or
place, a status update tells the whole world what something about you.
However, Facebook’s methods of handling direct communication may indicate
that social media is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. When social media started
making headway as a mainstream trend, the advantages became visible for
everyone to see. You can connect online with people you know, as well people
you don’t know, at no cost. Share personal opinions with the world through
networks such as Twitter, and open lengthy discussions on topics you and your
friends find interesting. In this day and age, it is important to build up a
network of friends, colleagues, and people you love, as our society has grown
estranged from each other. Even though none of us sees the people they care
about as often as we would like, social media gives people around the world a
powerful tool to stay in touch at any time. In recent years, however, it has become abundantly clear that
social media never had noble intentions in terms of using personal data
consumers willingly provide to these platforms. Advertisers get access to
sensitive consumer information through these social media platforms in order
to create targeted ad campaigns. Consumers do not get paid for their
information, since they agree — whether they know it or not — to give it away
for free to platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Even social media
platforms need to find creative ways to make money, and an IPO does not raise
enough funds on a constant basis to keep things going. Advertising campaigns
are just one of the many evil things social media platforms can do with
consumer data, and it looks like Facebook wants to step up their game, albeit
not in a positive manner. Companies can Send Unsolicited Messages to
Individual Facebook UsersBitcoinist_Facebook Private Message Handing over sensitive customer data for targeted advertisement
campaigns is clearly not enough, as Facebook now allows companies to send
private, unsolicited messages to individual users. Luckily for the recipients, they have
the option of blocking further unwanted communication from these companies.
Whenever an individual Facebook user writes on a company’s page, that company
can then send a private message to that individual. While there is a clear
use case for such a service in terms of support-related questions, it also
opens up the door for spam, advertising, and who knows what else. The system
also works the other way around: individual users can contact companies on
Facebook and directly respond to advertisements. It is important to note that
both companies and individual users can turn off this new Facebook feature on
their profile pages. However, the feature rolled out without previous warning
and went live just the other day. Even though this feature may seem to be a
valuable addition to the Facebook ecosystem, it will be interesting to see
how companies and individuals decide to use it. Advertising and spam are just
a few clicks away on both ends, and it may not be long until this feature is
disabled by most business and individuals to prevent that sort of behavior. Time for Decentralized Social Networks? Bitcoinist_Decentralized
Communication Centralized social networks such as Facebook and Twitter take a
more aggressive stance towards harvesting customer information. Although both
platforms are easy to use and offer social benefits, users sacrifice a lot of
privacy when using these social network. In a world where digital privacy is
a topic of growing concern, the way social media gathers user data will have
to change sooner or later. Blockchain technology can be adopted to create
decentralized social networks, where users from all over the world can
communicate with each other. There would be no centralized authority
involved, as there is no physical network or data center. Every piece of
information would be broadcast through a network of blockchain nodes, similar
to how Bitcoin transactions work. The beautiful part of blockchain technology
is the fact that is has been created for the individual users, by the
individual users. There is nothing that can’t be achieved with blockchain
technology, as layer upon layer of innovation is stacked upon each other. And
all of this technology can be used with or without integrating Bitcoin as a
payment method. From http://insidebitcoins.com/ 08/09/2015 Global
Digital Economy - The Crucial Role of E-Health, E-Government and E-Education With the rise of digital platforms, the world is rapidly
changing. In newspaper and book publishing, TV and radio, film, music, and
other forms of media, we see that the walls that protected organisations
within traditional models are crumbling. Yet, despite the obvious need to
move with the times, many professionals and organisations are still grappling
with the digital economy and questioning the impact it will have on them –
or, even worse, are ignorant about it. In many cases, their own consumers are
well ahead of them. The public sector is also seriously affected; it should
learn from the problems in other areas, especially book and newspaper
publishing. Healthcare and education are classic examples here. Throughout
the world, a significant portion of GDP is spent on healthcare. New
technologies are increasing life expectations and improving our lifestyle.
The cost of this, however, is enormous and it is difficult to finance these
huge advancements through the public health systems. BuddeComm believes that
the alternative to not embracing e-health is to accept a significantly
inferior healthcare service in the future. Countries that are lagging in
broadband infrastructure developments are going to face, not just a telecoms
dilemma – but, more importantly, they are going to face a health crisis. In countries with a clear policy for an advanced broadband
infrastructure (i.e. National Broadband Networks/NBN), we see e-health
emerging to allow us to enjoy these advances in medical technology at more
affordable costs. On truly high-speed broadband networks, E-health is rapidly
shaping up as one of the key killer apps. Millions of people around the world
can potentially benefit from e-health applications. Cost savings through
e-health are expected to be between 10% and 20% of total healthcare costs.
Education is another sector where digital economy plays a vital role. The use
of IT and telecommunications technology within educational environments is
set to increase dramatically as high-speed fibre-based broadband becomes more
widely available. Simultaneously, the capability of internet services devoted
to distance education is set to increase enormously over the next decade as
well. With smartphones and other mobile devices proliferating around
the world, people are finding more and more uses for these tools that have
become practically an extension of the self. In health and education, the use
of mobile devices opens up unforetold possibilities. Without a doubt, the
future of the world is tied to this small revolutionary tool, which has
radically changed the way we think and interact with our environment. The
potential of mobile devices is staggering – they are with us everywhere, able
to provide performance support, knowledge checking, real-time diagnosis,
medical recordings, and countless other services. Critical elements for the
future of the global digital economy include Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Big
Data. Without a doubt, there is much interest throughout the world in the M2M
market. But what we are seeing is only what is happening on the surface. Most
of the M2M activities are taking place unnoticed. As for Big Data, despite
its potential advantages (particularly in the healthcare sector), there are
still concerns surrounding privacy. While the Big Data that is floating
around somewhere in clouds is becoming increasingly critical to business
operations, very few companies have a good understanding of where their data
is at any given time. From http://news.sys-con.com/
07/08/2015 Do
Mobile Phone Surveys Work in Poor Countries? - Working Paper 398 In this project, we analyzed whether mobile phone-based surveys
are a feasible and cost-effective approach for gathering statistically
representative information in four low-income countries ( From http://www.cgdev.org/ 07/19/2015 Internet Freedom Becomes a Mere Illusion Freedom of speech was the last bastion that could hold tight the
boundaries of a liberated society. Freedom and boundaries don’t actually work
well when put together, but somehow, freedom takes note of a certain kind of
discipline. And discipline is fundamentally a boundary. Once upon a time,
there were these techno utopians who were dreaming about a virtual land where
censorship was treated as damage, hurting communication and preventing the
natural flow and progress of human relationships. Utopians remain in the
Utopialand while in realityland things look extremely different. The ongoing
centralization of the internet in the name of security, privacy and
convenience facilitates surveillance, censorship and control. Of course it
does, because in a land where there are no boundaries, suspicion and fear
arise, driving people to slowly start constructing boundaries and they let
them grow until these boundaries completely block perspective over
everything. Officials from “liberated” states comment on the necessity of
security. Enterprises and governments need to try to keep their customers and
their public secure. Ok, but secure from what? Secure from their own degree
of exposure? We should all be in control of everything we say and everything
we are given back, in order to avoid chaotic situations, where our security
is at risk. Internet is harmless if we know how to keep ourselves safe from
overexposure, although all social channels invite us to show ourselves to the
extent of feeling basically naked and deprived of any degree of privacy.
Security, from a governmental point of view, happens by automatically
updating client software from a trusted central controller…..”controller”….
and this creates choke points. Instead, people want to use convenient, secure
and extremely available online services, such as Amazon, Facebook, Twitter,
Gmail, but this centralizes and strengthens control to an extreme. “Decentralization empowers people to make their own decisions
about right and wrong”. But today, the over-centralized internet makes those
decisions on our behalf. And not only that, but manipulates all information
we deliver and it monetizes it. To cover it all up and offer it a clean face,
they call it “moral standard”, which is basically a censorship move by which
photos of breastfeeding moms are reported as inappropriate or a government
“cracks down on cybercrime” by convicting people for incrementing URL
strings. Moral laws are the reason why internet freedom becomes a mere
illusion. On paper, all statements highlight terms like freedom, choice,
privacy, ethics, but in reality, some masterminds out there have the power to
control our every move, know about every button we’ve pressed, every article
we’ve read and every song we’ve listened. This is paradoxical, to say the
least and this is maybe the last proof, us, humans, needed, in order to
conclude once more that we’re almost incapable at progressing at a large
scale, a scale that would enlighten minds and lift up spirits. We are afraid
of freedom actually and we construct our comfortable walls that limit our
perspective. We scream inside those walls but we’ve only entered the cell
we’ve built ourselves. Internet freedom is dead, long live internet freedom! From http://www.themonitordaily.com/ 08/09/2015 The
Dream of Internet Freedom Doesn’t Have to Die This post is a version of the introduction to the author’s
keynote speech, “The Lifecycle of a Revolution” at this year’s Black Hat
information security conference. Twenty years ago, I attended my first Def
Con. I believed in a free, open, reliable, interoperable Internet: a place
where anyone could say anything, and anyone who wanted to hear it could
listen and respond. I believed in the Hacker Ethic: that information should
be freely accessible and that computer technology was going to make the world
a better place. I wanted to be a part of making these dreams—the dream of
Internet freedom—come true. As an attorney, I wanted to protect hackers and
coders from the predations of law so that they could do this important work.
Today, the dream of Internet Freedom that brought me to my first Def Con is
dying. The dream is dying because, for better or for worse, we’ve prioritized
things like security, online civility, user interface, and intellectual
property interests above freedom and openness. As a result, the Internet is
less open and more centralized. It’s more regulated. And increasingly it’s
less global, and more divided. These trends: centralization, regulation, and
globalization are accelerating. And they will define the future of our
communications network, unless something dramatic changes. Let’s take a quick
look at just a few of the things likely to happen if these trends continue. Twenty years from now: You won’t necessarily know anything about
the software-driven decisions that affect your rights, such as whether you
get a loan, a job, or if a driverless car runs over you. Things will happen
as a result of computing data and no one will really be able to understand
why. When the public learns about these secret decisions, we will be
comfortable with these outcomes so long as they mostly affect the rights of
minorities or the people who help our society and societies around the world
to change. This isn’t only unfair, it burdens the people that push society to
evolve. The Internet will become a lot more like TV and a lot less like the
global conversation we envisioned 20 years ago. Internet technology design
will increasingly facilitate rather than defeat censorship and control.
Rather than being overturned, existing power structures will be reinforced
and replicated, and this is particularly true for security. Instead of
thinking about global network security, our government talks about “cyber”
with the idea that the internet is a It doesn’t have to be this way, but to change course, we need to
ask some hard questions and make some difficult decisions. How can we stop
being afraid and start being sensible about risk? Should we worry more about
another terrorist attack in From https://www.justsecurity.org/ 08/09/2015 Keep
the Internet Free of Borders One of the great things about the Internet is that it does not
have national borders. When a company in The I.T.C. has long had the power to forbid companies from
importing physical goods like electronics, books and mechanical equipment
that violate the patents, copyrights and trademarks of American businesses.
It does so by ordering customs officials to seize items at the border or by
issuing cease and desist orders to importers. The commission’s order to
ClearCorrect was the first time it had sought to bar the transfer of digital
information. If the appeals court upholds this decision, it could set a
precedent that would allow businesses to seek to block all kinds of data
transmissions. Of course, businesses should be able to protect their patents
and copyrights. But there are far better ways to do so. In this case, for
example, Align could sue ClearCorrect and seek damages for patent
infringement. Or the company could ask a judge to order ClearCorrect to stop
selling products made using the information contained in the files. It is not even clear that the commission has the authority to
restrict international data transfers. Congress has given it authority to
block the import of “articles,” which for decades has been understood to mean
physical goods. In last year’s ruling, a five-member majority of the
commission ruled that the word “article” includes data. Groups like the
Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association
of America are supporting the commission’s view. They argue that, as trade
increasingly becomes digital, the definition of “article” should include
data. The Internet Association, which represents companies like Facebook,
Google and Twitter, is asking the court to reverse the decision. At some point, Congress may have to step in. Because it defines
the limits of the commission’s authority, Congress should decide whether the
changing nature of international trade requires the government to apply the
same rules to data that it does to physical goods. History suggests that it
might not be sympathetic to the commission’s position. In response to
opposition from Internet users, Wikipedia, Google and others, Congress did
not approve proposals that would have allowed movie studios and record labels
to block foreign websites that were alleged to have violated copyrights. The
appeals court should strike down the commission’s ruling, which is bound to
hamper the exchange of ideas and information on the Internet. From http://www.i-policy.org/
08/12/2015 |
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The China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) has been
given a bigger role in managing the country's S&T affairs. "As part
of the country's comprehensive reform, science and technology societies
should be allowed to take full advantage of their unique knowledge to take
over some governmental functions in an orderly manner," said a work plan
released Thursday. The document, jointly released by the general offices of
the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council, CAST is the largest non-governmental organization for science
and technology workers in From http://www.news.cn/
07/16/2015 Smartphones Driving Internet Use in Smartphones have overtaken personal computers and tablets to
become the ultimate gateway for those who want to connect to the Internet in The top three frequently used applications for Chinese
smartphone users are instant messaging, search engine and online news, but
the growth in smartphone Internet users has also increased the use of mobile
payment, mobile shopping and other business-related apps, and become a major
engine of From http://www.news.cn/
07/24/2015 Being a farmer in Though harvests were good, inefficient sales channels, a
shrinking labor population and lack of access to loans have been squeezing
farmers' earnings and dragging down the rural economy. In 2014, the per
capita disposable income of rural residents rose 9.2 percent year on year to
10,489 yuan (1,720 U.S. dollars), less than half of that of urbanites, and
70.17 million rural Chinese earned an annual sum less than 2,300 yuan, the official
poverty line. However, the Internet, especially mobile networks, have
provided agriculture with a new vision. By the end of 2014, nearly 30 percent
of It has amassed over a million registered users as it requires no
more than a mobile phone and a SIM card, simplicity which is crucial in the
Chinese countryside, where Internet infrastructure lags behind the situation
in cities. Han Guiyin, a farm owner in east From http://www.news.cn/
08/02/2015 From http://www.news.cn/
08/03/2015 Chinese telecom service has been required to verify and register
users' ID when selling new phone cards from Sept. 1, the nation's
telecommunications regulator said on Friday. The mandate is the latest effort
to better enforce a regulation passed in 2013 that required identity
verification when accessing telecom services, including fixed phones, cell
phones, and the Internet. Due to lax implementation of the policy, there remains
a large number of unverified accounts, including old clients who bought sim
cards before 2013. Currently, users can obtain sim cards without ID in
non-official channels, such as newspaper stands and phone stores ignoring the
rule. All three companies' brick-and-mortar shops are required to have ID
card readers to verify and register new users' information starting next
month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Friday. So
far 600,000 card readers have been installed. Meanwhile, old and unverified
accounts that were activated before the 2013 policy will also be verified
when users are applying for new service packages or changing phone cards. In From http://www.news.cn/
08/07/2015 The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry unveiled plans Friday to
introduce a common numbering system that would allow hospitals, pharmacies
and nursing care facilities to share medical data on patients. The plans were
presented to the day’s meeting of the government’s Industrial Competitiveness
Council, chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The ministry aims to start the
envisaged system in stages from fiscal 2018, aiming for a full-fledged launch
in fiscal 2020. At the meeting, Abe said that the government will designate
the five years through fiscal 2020 as an intensive period to promote the use
of information and communications technologies for medical fields. The
government plans to include the numbering system in its growth strategy,
which is set to be revised in summer this year. From http://the-japan-news.com 05/30/2015 Human Resources Key to Growth Plan / Revision Focuses on Higher
Education, IT Applications The government has released draft outlines of a revised growth
strategy focusing on human resource development via university reforms and
the application of information technology to such systems as My Number social
identification numbers. Comprising key measures to boost growth amid the
graying of society, the outlines were presented at a Thursday meeting of the
government’s Industrial Competitiveness Council, chaired by Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe. The Cabinet plans to approve the strategy by the end of the
month. The plan is slated to be the second revision of the revitalization
strategy compiled after the 2012 launch of the second Abe Cabinet. The
strategy is the “third arrow” of the Abenomics policy package, after bold
monetary easing and flexible fiscal stimulus measures. At the meeting, Abe
said, “We need to fundamentally improve our country’s productivity through
information technology and investment in human resources.” To aid human
resource development, the strategy proposes the establishment of higher
education institutions that would teach practical skills and offer vocational
training. Before deciding how much in subsidies will be allocated to aid the
operational costs of national universities, the government will also evaluate
any reforms undertaken by the schools themselves. In addition, the government aims to apply technology in the
widespread implementation of the My Number universal ID system for medical
records, as well as in taxation, social security and disaster countermeasures
covered by existing laws. Significant in light of the recent theft of
personal data of pension subscribers, the strategy also recommended the
enhancement of cybersecurity and training for information management
specialists. The government also plans to establish in each region a
destination management organization (DMO) that will draw up tourism promotion
strategies. Regarding labor conditions, the new strategy will push firms to
introduce a system that allows mid-career or senior employees of major
companies to work on loan, on a trial basis, at midsized or small firms in
need of experienced staff. Under the envisaged system, such workers would not
need to quit their jobs unless they decide to move to the smaller firm. Last
year’s strategy revision stipulated the government’s proactive stance on
easing regulations in the areas of employment, agriculture and medical
treatment to benefit economic growth. Parties concerned have been strongly
opposed to deregulation. This year’s strategy is centered on minor revisions,
including one to institute a financial settlement system for fired workers if
a court has ruled their dismissal as unfair. From http://the-japan-news.com 06/12/2015 Online Restaurant Site to Target Seniors Offline Gurunavi, Inc., which runs an online restaurant search site,
will start delivering printed information on restaurants in residential areas
chiefly for elderly people unfamiliar with restaurant searches and making
reservations on the Internet. The new service will be developed nationwide
from this summer after a trial delivery of leaflets advertising restaurants
was well received. The company recently delivered about 150,000 leaflets
introducing 20 to 25 restaurants by inserting them into the newspapers
delivered to individual houses and condominiums in areas around Akabane
Station in Kita Ward, Gurunavi was the pioneer of restaurant search sites and has
about 53,000 restaurants registered as paying members. However, individual
members 50 and older have continually comprised only 17 percent of its
membership. Many seniors are believed to have money and time to spare, and
persuading them to visit restaurants is a challenging goal for the company.
The company decided to distribute leaflets in cooperation with companies
dealing with net advertisement after analyzing the number of households,
their family structure and selecting suitable restaurants. For example, in
areas where many households with small children reside, the emphasis will be
on restaurants that cater to families with small children. In keeping with
the development of its business, Gurunavi plans to collect advertisement fees
from the restaurants it introduces. “We want to contribute to reinvigorating
communities through the introduction of restaurants in neighborhoods via
leaflets,” a Gurunavi public relations official said. From http://the-japan-news.com 06/15/2015 Youths from From http://www.koreaherald.com 05/21/2015 Agriculture
to Become 'Smarter' While working in the fields, a farmer can control the
temperature and humidity inside a distant vinyl greenhouse and water the
crops remotely by using a smartphone. Also, thanks to a new smartphone app,
farmers can raise, sell and manage their agricultural produce. These are
examples of “smart agriculture,” combining agriculture, science and
technology. To continue promoting and developing such smart agricultural
technologies, the government opened the From http://www.korea.net
07/01/2015 Even
Higher Speed Internet Service on Subway, KTX It will be only a short time until Wi-Fi services at up to 1
gigabyte per second become available in the subway or on KTX high-speed
trains. This is 100 times faster than the current speed of Internet access on
From http://www.korea.net
07/02/2015 Koreans
Embrace Smartphones have changed people’s lifestyles. Users rely on
mobile map applications instead of paper maps, communicate with friends on
social media and hail taxis with their smartphones. Another notable change is
currently taking place in the retail sector, too. People no longer need to
lineup at coffee shops, restaurants or bakeries to be served, thanks to
mobile ordering apps. They just go in and grab what they preordered through
the mobile apps. At the forefront of the mobile ordering app industry in From http://www.koreaherald.com 07/29/2015 SK
Telecom to Build LTE Network for Sea Service From http://world.kbs.co.kr
08/02/2015 SAP
Leading IT solutions developer SAP From http://www.koreaherald.com 08/13/2015 |
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THERE was an overall decline in online employment in From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 06/29/2015 ICT Salaries Rising, Growing Disparity with Management However ALTHOUGH “This is attributed to a higher demand for experienced
professionals, with the talent pool being limited in Hope for fresh grads In 2014, the average salary for ICT fresh graduates rose 5.9% to
RM2,581, and is expected to grow 6.6% this year to hit RM2,752. However,
Cheah stressed that this does not mean that fresh graduates should be asking
for RM2,752 from their prospective employers, as large multinationals and
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have different a pay range for fresh
graduates. “I think it also differs from industry – some industries may offer
lower salaries but have good perks,” he added. Zooming in on the various
sub-sectors, the semiconductor and wafer fabrication industry paid the
highest monthly salary of RM3,280 for fresh graduates in 2014, while the
wholesale/ retail/ trading industry paid the lowest at RM2,075. Other
employers which paid an average monthly salary of less than RM2,500 to ICT
fresh graduates were the printing/ publication business (RM2,300); hotel/
restaurant/ food services (RM2,340); telecommunications (RM2,375);
construction (RM2,494); and education (RM2,433). “Although our ICT fresh
graduate’s basic salary is increasing, it is still lower compared with
developed markets,” said Woon. Industry to grow Even though the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax
(GST) has impacted most industries, Pikom’s Cheah believes that it will not
have a major negative effect on the ICT industry. In fact, Pikom expects the
ICT industry to grow 14.2% to reach RM70.9 billion this year. “Subsequently,
the share of the ICT services sector to GDP (gross domestic product) is
expected to almost double from 3.3% in 2000 to 6.4% in 2015,” said Cheah. The
contribution of telecommunication services to the overall ICT services value
may drop to 58.4% this year from 61.4% in 2014, while the computer services
segment is expected to increase to 26.5% this year from 23.8% in 2014. Cheah
attributed the changes in growth and sectorial shares as being partly driven
by the rising popularity of cloud computing, big data analytics,
Software-as-a-Service, social media applications, The Internet of Things, and
wearable technology. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/22/2015 The "Nation Digital Voice Year 4" sound library
project was officially launched on Friday, after audio-books proved to be a
great success with the visually impaired for three years running.The project
was organised by Nation Radio FM90.5, Working Station Radio FM102, the
Foundation for the Blind in Thailand Under the Royal Patronage of HM the
Queen and the Thailand Caulfield Foundation for the Blind under the Royal
Patronage of HRH Princess MahaChakriSirindhorn.During the launch,
AeumsreeBoonhachairat, an executive at the Nation Broadcasting Corporation
(NBC), said that Nation Radio had selected books for volunteers to read and
record as audio-books, which are forwarded to various schools, institutes,
associations and foundations. Several high-profile individuals have
volunteered in this project, including chairman of the advisory board of the
Defence Ministry General NipatThonglek, as well as Nation Multimedia Group
executives, anchors and employees.Visit www.nationradio.co.th,
www.facebook.com/natioradiofanpage and twitter.com/NTRadio_NBC for more
information. From http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 06/28/2015 Complaint Centre for Online Consumers THE OFFICE of Electronic Transactions Promotion under the
Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) will open an online
complaint centre to give netizens more confidence in shopping online.The
agency will also launch a green e-commerce project to support small and
medium enterprises, transforming their traditional business into a new,
modern online business. The agency expects to usher about 400 SMEs to the
online business this year.RatthasartKorrasud, senior director, said last week
that the online complaint centre (OCC) would also help boost customer
satisfaction and consumer protection.Under the OCC, which will be announced
by the end of this month, the ETDA will work with other government agencies such
as the Consumer Protection Board and Technology Crime Suppression Police to
solve problems stemming from products and services ordered via e-commerce or
the online sales channel. The corporation expects to provide a service level
agreement to get back to customers within seven days per case. It also
expects to slash online complaints about orders by half. The agency will move
towards online dispute resolution in a couple years.For SMEs, the ETDA will
provide training to about 10,000 firms and consulting in areas such as online
marketing. The green e-commerce project will recruit members |for a
e-directory at www.thaiemarket.com to support businesses and customers that
want to search for and access information on SMEs. It has more than 100
members now and expects to reach over 400 members by year-end. "The
e-commerce market in From http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 06/29/2015 Govt to Launch 'Coupon' System for Teacher Development THE "COUPON for Teacher Development" project will be
introduced soon in a bid to empower teachers and improve the education
system. The project will involve collaboration between the Office of the
Basic Education Commission (Obec), 46 higher educational institutes and the
Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology. The
participants officially inked a memorandum of understanding on Thursday. The project will seek to help teachers
develop skills as per job requirements through the use of "coupons"
and upgrade their teaching methods to be on par with international
standards. Each teacher will be
given a set of coupons, which they can then exchange for the right to take
training courses. "Initially
we will have teachers evaluated and see in which aspects they need to achieve
skills. After that, plans will be delivered to the Educational Service Area
Offices, which will decide on the procedures for each group of teachers
before dealing with higher education institutions that are part of the
collaboration," Surasak Insrikrai, head of the Bureau of Teachers'
Education Personnel Development, said recently. The 46 participating higher
education institutions will be in charge of teacher development in four
subjects: Thai language, English language, science and mathematics. Teachers
eligible for this project must come from Obec-run schools only. Surasak said
the project requires a budget of Bt35 million and will focus on 7,000 primary
and secondary school teachers. Under the project, each teacher will be given
Bt3,500 for registration and another Bt1,500 for travelling expenses. "We aim to improve the country's
teaching personnel in terms of knowledge and skills through real practices. The
higher education institutions |will provide close support and guidance in
order to achieve effective results," Anek Ratpiyapaporn, an Obec senior
adviser related to Technology for Teaching and Learning, said at a recent
event. Implementation of the project will begin next Wednesday and run until
September 30. From http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 07/11/2015 Communication Students Tune in to NOWADAYS, people can receive news through so many outlets, be
they papers, television, or social media. However Thai teens, in the wake of
this digitalised world, tend to obtain most of their information via social
media, due to its greater convenience. As a result, Communication Arts have
had to adapt their teaching methods and content of lessons to cope with the
new generations' behavioural shift in getting information via online sources
rather than print. The university adjusted its curriculum to cover mainstream media
and various contexts that allow the emergence of new media and technologies.
The content must be clearer because news now spreads fast, far and wide.
Karada said ethics and law must also be emphasised because fast
"instant" news can yield more mistakes, meaning accuracy and
respect among those involved in the process are important. A
"Communication Literacy" skill would also be taught in the
curriculum so students could screen news gathering. Social media would be
involved in the teaching and learning so as to make it fun and interesting
and relevant (via real-life examples), she said. The new curriculum would
also ensure that graduates could achieve everything their jobs required,
catering to the job market's demand for highly competitive and more current
manpower. According to a survey by five undergraduates, young generations are
foregoing the use of newspapers and embracing more online sources.
"Twitter is where I get more information, especially local news. As I
carefully read from reliable distributors, I'm quite certain of
accuracy," said Pornisee Easupaphan, an engineering student from the
Faculty of Engineering, "I collected most information via Facebook, which is
convenient and easy to access, as well as other news websites like 'Sanook'
and 'Khaosod', said Anutida Lohasiri from the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi
Hospital, From http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 08/17/2015 Vietnamese relevant agencies will be able to warn a tsunami two
hours before it hits coastal provinces with the help of a tsunami warning
system of 532 stations, local newspaper Saigon Times Daily reported Sunday.
The tsunami warning stations are part of a plan approved by the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development to develop an effective tsunami warning
system in 13 provinces in central and southern regions, from Ha Tinh to Ba
Ria-Vung Tau. Among 532 stations, only 36 will be built and the remainder
will be installed at mobile transceiver and television stations to cut costs.
From http://news.xinhuanet.com/ 06/21/2015 |
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Venkaiah Naidu has assured the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish
Rawat that Dehradun will be included in the government;s ‘100 smart city
project’.Naidu, at a meeting with the CM, said, “The projects which are not
even 50 per cent complete, will be put under new schemes and will get funds.
Those which are either complete or even half done under schemes like Rajiv
Awas Yojana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan till 2014, will get funds.”Naidu also
said the Centre and the state governments should work in tandem for the
country to progress. According to Naidu, “After election results, everyone
should come together to be part of the same party… the ‘development party’,
the ‘progress party’.” From http://egov.eletsonline.com 06/06/2015 AAP Govt Says It Will Make It’s the turn of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) now . The government will
make Not only this, in its effort to make Delhi a smart city, the
government is also planning to give people just one smart card, which will
work not only for metro, bus etc., but parking facility can also be availed
by using the card.Shastri added, “In the same way, health cards will be given
to each citizen which will be carrying the full data along with his medical
history. The entire bed availability system will be made online by
integrating all the hospitals and medical institutions. The doctors, in this
way, will be able to check availability of beds and medicines on real time
basis.”The power sector will witness smart street lights. This type of
lighting works on the basis of surrounding light. It works according to
requirement and thus good per cent of light can be saved. From http://smartcity.eletsonline.com 06/07/2015 Software, Hardware Industries to Partner for 'Digital
Indian software and hardware industries are partnering to make
the NDA government's 'Make in India' and 'Digital India' initiatives a
reality soon, their officials said.The partnership will create a major force
in the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry and the IT
landscape to position India among top five economies in the next decade, top
officials of the hardware and software industries associations told reporters
here.The partnership between the software and hardware representative bodies
- the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and
India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) - is aimed at making
India a leading player in the IT and ESDM space over the next decade, they
said. "The partnership will enable us to draw a common agenda to
guide the industry and the government, frame policies and build an ecosystem
for developing ESDM (hardware) and IT (software) products, solutions and
brands," said IESA chairman Vinay Shenoy.With electronics, computing and
communication paradigms shifting at a faster pace and from mainframes to the
new Internet of Things (IoT), hardware, software and services have
converged.The $120-billion IT industry has emerged as a global leader in
building and delivering software and IT services and contributing nine
percent to the country's national gross domestic product (GDP), while the
ESDM market is projected to growth to $94 billion this year from $76 billion
in 2013."The complimentary strengths of the software and hardware
industries offer a huge opportunity to contribute to the country's economic
development in the next decade and reduce foreign exchange outgo,"
Shenoy said. As technology innovation requires electronics, computing and
communications to converge and deliver a holistic solution to meet the
industry demand, Nasscom and IESA will drive the 'Vision 2025' to enable
hardware and software to jointly contribute 25 percent to the GDP."Smart
cities, defence and IoT have been of interest for both of us. By joining, we
are better able to address adevice-infrastructure-application' and the
interplay between them," Shenoy said.Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar
said From http://news.siliconindia.com 06/16/2015 Wi-Fi Cities for Universal Access A recent newspaper article announcing the setting up of the
world’s longest free wi-fi zone (20 km long) in Patna, capital of the state
of Bihar (one of the most economically backward states of India, and not one
known for its prowess in technology) took everyone by surprise. If the
initiative has indeed moved from plan to actual implementation and operation,
this would be an amazing development as, besides the wi-fi, the Wi-fi is the popular technology that allows an electronic device
like a computer, mobile phone, game console or camera to connect to the
internet wirelessly using radio waves,
and to exchange data. The Wi-Fi Alliance defines
wi-fi as any "wireless local area network (WLAN) with
products that are based on IEEE 802.11 standards",
of which there are many variants, the latest being 80211n with data rates
going up to 150 m/bits. Upcoming standards include the 802.11ad (or wi-gigs)
which promise speeds of up to 7Gs. Wi-fi or hotspot coverage can
comprise an area as small as a room or as large as several square
miles, achieved by using multiple overlapping access points, the most popular
being the mesh network which preempts total network failure even if one
access point breaks down somewhere. Wi-fi hotspots are now found in homes,
offices and in commercial and public spaces like airports, hotels, coffee
shops, college and school campuses, railway stations, parks and even streets.
But the From a policy perspective municipal and town authorities are
starting to realise that provision of wi-fi services to citizens is almost as
critical as the provision of basic amenities like water, electricity, roads,
transportation, healthcare and infrastructure. Wi-fi access allows people to
avail of services. It also projects a city’s futuristic outlook and
thereby attracts more investments into the area. Of course city
administrations realise that internet services cannot be limited to those
with the ability to pay a high price for them. Thus the interest in making
internet access a universal service. The idea of cheap and/or free community
access began to gain ground in the early-2000s with cities around the world
announcing plans to set up citywide wi-fi mesh networks. Many were
subsequently set up, some succeeded, others failed to take-off. In 2005, ‘Free’ wi-fi are really hotspots accessible to anyone who walks
into a zone with a wi-fi-enabled device, and therefore ‘free to access’.
Perhaps one reason for the ‘free’ moniker is that wi-fi hotspots are
relatively cheap to establish compared to carrier-grade networks, as the
802.11 standards mostly use spectrum in the 2.4 and 5 Ghz band which is
unlicensed. That means the operators have not paid a huge spectrum fee for
it. (Over time, wi-fi chipsets will become cheaper and will be built into
most devices.) Therefore, one does not have to pay to enter hotspots and one
is ‘free’ to access the internet according to the terms applicable. Even if
usage is free, the cost is probably built into the endless cups of coffee the
person may drink there! A provider offering internet access in these hotspots
is paying to use the bandwidth that we consume; this has to be paid for along
with the initial capital cost of setting up the network. With a view to
propagating universal internet access, municipalities can pay a company to
set up a network out of their budgets. But it is not their core job to
operate and run the service. An ISP does this for them in line with the
public private partnership model. A variety of cost recovery models have been followed, with mixed
results. Some owners provide the network for limited use at no cost, beyond
which time or data consumption-based charges start to apply. Free time is
often subsidised as a promotional cost by the service-provider or recovered
through advertisements. Municipalities with an eye on universal internet
access have to remember that often a large part of the city population is
poor, with no ability to set up a network let alone pay for use of the
internet. To draw this section into the universal access framework,
municipalities are starting to look at investing the capital needed to set up
networks in poor and low-income localities. They therefore own the wi-fi
networks, but the services are run by service-providers who can be mandated
to offer low-cost internet access schemes for the needy, whilst charging
normal to slightly higher rates to those who can pay, and/or recovering some
costs through advertisements. Another option is for municipal authorities to
tie up with local business associations that may offer to fully or partially
pick up the operating cost as part of their collective CSR initiatives. The city of From http://www.siliconindia.com/ 06/22/2015 Public
Access ICT Across Cultures: Diversifying Participation in the Network Society Shared public access to computers and the Internet in developing
countries is often hailed as an effective, low-cost way to share the benefits
of digital technology. Yet research on the economic and social effects of
public access to computers is lacking. This volume offers the first
systematic assessment of the impact of shared public access in the developing
world, with findings from ten countries in South America, Asia, and The book documents the impact of public access on individuals,
on society and networks, and on women. Chapters report findings and examine
policy implications of research on such topics as users’ perceptions of the
benefits of Internet café use in Jordan; ICT job training in Rwanda;
understanding user motivations and risk factors for overuse and Internet
addiction in China; the effect of technology use on social inclusion among
low-income urban youth in Argentina; productive uses of technologies by
grassroots organizations in Peru; use of technology by migrant ethnic
minority Burmese women in Thailand to maintain ties with their culture and
their family and friends; and women’s limited access to the most ubiquitous
type of venue, cybercafés, in practically all countries studied—and quite
severely in some places, e.g. Uttar Pradesh, India. From http://www.i-policy.org 07/03/2015 Hindi
Avatar of IRCTC’s E-ticketing Portal Is Available Now In a major benefit for people in the Hindi heartland of From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/11/2015 |
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The Azerbaijani Ministry of Culture & Tourism and navigation
system GoMap.az developed a joint project. The Ministry reports that a mobile
version of navigation system GoMap.az. has been developed within the project,
abc/az reports. "The aim of
the mobile version is to create conditions for free movement of tourists. The
program is supported by systems iOS and Android and can be downloaded through
gomap.az resource/apps," the Miinistry said. The mobile navigation software works
not only when you drive a car, but also when walking on foot and also
provides additional information about restaurants, museums and other
sites. Electronic map GoMap.Az
was created and is supported by the Ministry of Culture & Tourism of
Azerbaijan. Currently, the map shows locations of 8,730 populated localities,
80 cities and towns, 118,000 points of interest (POI), 5,000
historical-architectural monuments, 1.2 million buildings and constructions,
77,600 roads, 40,900 sq m of forest territories, parks and green zones, etc. From http://news.az/
06/16/2015 Azerbaijan Simplifies MNP Service Azerbaijani mobile operators will simplify the country’s mobile
numbers portability service, a procedure that makes it possible to migrate
from one mobile carrier to another. The Communications and High Technologies
Ministry has revealed that many of the errors in the work of mobile operators
to provide MNP services have been created artificially to limit the loss of
business, and the consumer’s right to choose. Meanwhile, the MNP serves the interest
of the final consumer. Taking this into account, the ministry has already
submitted proposals to amend the rules of the MNP service to the government
for approval. It is expected that the new changes will take effect in the
near future. Earlier, the Ministry initiated a plan to reduce the waiting
time for migrating from one operator's network to another from six to three
days, which was undertaken in order to ensure the efficiency of services and
enhance its attractiveness to end users. The Ministry also removed the
requirement for consumers to be completely caught up in payments to the
subscriber in order to switch carriers. The debt to the operator will be
considered the current debt, and calculations are carried out after the
transfer of the number. There are three mobile operators in Azerbaijan:
Azercell, Bakcell and Azerfon. The implementation of the MNP service will
allow mobile communication subscribers to keep their phone numbers when
changing network operators. The number transfer envisages a subscriber's
transition from one service to another within the provider's prefix of 050,
051, 055, 070 and 077. The simplification of the MNP service is expected to
increase competition and prompt operators to provide more competitive
services to attract new customers. From http://www.azernews.az/
07/02/2015 Azercell
Expands Network of Express Offices Azercell Telecom, market leader in telecommunication sector of
the country, continues to increase number of Azercell Express offices in Baku
and regions in order to provide immediate and high quality service to its
customers. Thus, the company has launched a new AzEx office at Ismat Gayibov
Street, 9 in the region of Hajigabul on July16. The new AzEx office will
operate based on convenient "one-stop shopping" concept which
allows customers to benefit from three services at one point: make payments
for their phone bills, use full range of customer services and buy a new
phone or a number. Azercell Telecom was the first mobile operator in CIS
countries to introduce such services to its subscribers by launching the
first Azercell Express office in Baku on August 27, 2004. Constantly
expanding its network and coverage, Azercell has 15 Express offices operating
in Baku and 33 in the regions. In addition, the company has four Customer
Services in Baku and six in the regions. In general, there are 48 AzEx offices in Azerbaijan. New office,
opened in Hajigabul will enable subscribers to enjoy the benefits of the most
professional and exemplary customer service in the country. In addition,
Azercell Customer Centre is also being represented at Asan-1, Asan-2, Asan-3
service centers, as well as at the service centers for Taxpayers under the
Ministry of Taxes. Azercell will further continue to increase the number of
its Express offices all over the country in order to provide all customers
with prompt and top quality service. For more information, please apply to
news@mcs.az. Azercell Telecom LLC was founded in 1996 and since the first
years, it sustains a leading position on the market. Azercell introduced a
number of technological innovations in Azerbaijan: GSM technology, advance
payment mobile services, GPRS/EDGE, 24/7 Customer Care, full-time operating
Azercell Express offices, mobile e-service “ASAN imza” (ASAN signature) and
others. With 51-percent share of Azerbaijan’s mobile market, Azercell’s
network covers 99.8 percent of the country’s population. Currently, the
number of Azercell’s subscribers is 4.6 million people. In 2011, Azercell
deployed 3G and in 2012 the fourth generation network – LTE in Azerbaijan.
The company is the leader of Azerbaijan’s mobile communication industry and
the biggest investor in the non-oil sector. Azercell is a part of TeliaSonera
Group of Companies serving 186 million subscribers in 17 countries worldwide
with 27,000 employees. From http://www.azernews.az/
07/17/2015 Customs
Exemptions to Lead to Development of High Tech Parks in Azerbaijan The seven-year exemption for the residents of Mingachevir High
Tech Park from customs duties for importing high-tech product components will
give an impetus to the establishment of new and the development of existing
high tech parks in Azerbaijan, Vugar Bayramov believes. The Chairman of the
Center for Economic and Social Development told Azernews that customs
privileges would pave the way for a decrease in expenditures. "It, in
turn, creates a financial incentive for the development of the high tech
parks and leads to an increase of state support in this regard. It also leads
to an increase of interest in innovative and information technologies,"
he said. The expert also said that the development of the information
technologies sector is considered as one of the top priorities of
Azerbaijan's non-oil sector. "The development of this sector is also
emphasized in the ‘Azerbaijan 2020: A Look into the Future’ strategy. I think
that customs privileges will allow for increasing the volume of investments
in information technologies and gaining more profits," Bayramov noted. The application of customs privileges will be carried out in
accordance with amendments to the governmental decree "On rates of
customs duties on export-import operations in Azerbaijan." According to
the amendments, customs privileges will be applied to export-oriented
products. The list includes storage arrays (HDDs) and other devices for
computers, and various parts and accessories (electronic modules) and
monitors. Customs privileges will also be imposed on electronic integrated
circuits (integrated and non-integrated processors and controllers with the
memory devices, converters, logic circuits, amplifiers, synchronizers and
etc.). Azerbaijan, which has actively sought to limit its reliance on its
energy sector by diversifying its industries, is looking to unveil a series
of benefits to attract residents to its soon-to-be constructed High Tech
Park. The Mingachevir High Tech Park was set up in view of securing
sustainable development and economic competitiveness. The expansion of
innovative and high-tech industries based on modern scientific and
technological achievements, as well as research and development at a modern
complex for new technologies, will enable Azerbaijan to make its mark in the
region and promote growth. The facility will stretch 1.3 hectares and fall under the
administration of the Communication and High Technologies Ministry. The
high-tech park has been equipped and organized in such a way that it will
promote research and development work, ultimately leading to the
commercialization of new products and high tech applications. An initial
investment of 2 million manats was allocated to the project from the
Azerbaijani President's Reserve Fund. Presently, Mingachevir is well known
for its production of KUR computer equipment. The KUR plant, which was
established in 2005, is the only manufacturing company engaged in the
assembly-line production of computer equipment and electronics in the South
Caucasus region. The plant will be used for the production of high-tech
products, starting this year. Mingachevir High Tech Park will work in
collaboration with another facility in Baku. The High Tech Park is currently
under construction in an area comprising 50 hectares in the Pirallahi
district of the capital. This facility will also be equipped with all of the
necessary infrastructure, logistics, and governing entities, enabling
engineers to conduct research in ICT telecommunications, energy efficiency,
and the development of new and high technologies. Moreover, residents and
companies operating in the park will be exempt from VAT (18 percent) on all
imported infrastructural and technological goods and services. Along with the
development of high tech parks, Azerbaijan has worked to develop its
Industrial Park in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan’s primary industrial city. From http://www.azernews.az/
07/31/2015 Azerbaijan’s
Cable Network Operators Renew Packages National Television and Radio Council has commented on renewal
of packages Aile TV channels package will be renewed. Press service of
"Caspian Telecom” told APA that after the changes some TV channels in
the basic package will be broadcasted in several languages. Tariff changes will come into force
from September 1. KATV1 cable
television will make some changes in the formation of the packages. According
to the changes, subscribers will be able to choose channels and language of
the channels. "HD"
package will be also enriched. The main package will mostly include
"amusing", "movie" and "sport" channels.
Renewal will allow subscribers to watch new channels in Russian, Turkish and
English languages. “KATV1 cable television is realizing transition to HD
receivers and new generation Smart Boxes in order to provide high-quality
broadcasting. KATV 1 internet service users can watch channels with 10-day
archive via Smart Boxes.” Head of the Administration of National Television and Radio
Council (NTRC) Toghrul Mammadov said in a statement to APA he has had a
discussion about the updating of channels package during a meeting with the
heads of cable network providers operating Azerbaijan. “In compliance with the terms of the
special permit given to cable network providers by the National Television
and Radio Council, cable network operators must coordinate foreign channels
that they air with the Council,” he said. According to Toghrul Mammadov, the issue
of the copyright of foreign channel is also on the agenda. Note that, On July 23 a meeting took
place at the NTRC with the heads of cable network providers operating
Azerbaijan. The meeting focused on the discussion of the current situation in
the area of cable network broadcasting and necessity of taking actions to
effectively counter illegal cable network provision to new buildings and
hotels. At the meeting, attendees
put special emphasis on facts of non-compliance with the rules and terms of
the special permit by cable network providers and illegal retranslation of
tele radio broadcasters, without a legal basis. From http://news.az/
08/05/2015 IRAN:
To Offer Fiber Optic Internet to Users in 7 Big Cities Iran will offer fiber optic internet to users in 7 big cities by
the end of the current Iranian fiscal year (March 2016), said Mohsen
Baqeri-Chenari, the managing director of Iranian Net Company, which is the
executor of the project. Fiber
optic internet will be launched in the cities of Karaj, Tehran, Isfahan,
Shiraz, Tabriz, Mashhad, and Qom, providing 500,000 access ports with 20
megabytes per second internet, Iran’s Mehr news agency quoted Baqeri-Chenari
as saying on June 21. He added
that the project is scheduled to be implemented over the course of two
years. Fiber optic internet is
much faster than cable internet. Plus, it allows the user to send data over
much greater distances while maintaining speed. The latest statistics of Iran’s
Internet Penetration Management Portal put the number of Internet users in
Iran at 40 million, indicating that the Internet penetration rate of the
country stood at 53.29 percent in June 2014. About 11.07 million of the users
in Iran have used GPRS connection to access the Internet over the same
period. It should be noted that
several of world's most popular networks, such as Twitter and Facebook are
banned in Iran, while users are still able to access them via proxies. A
proxy allows bypassing 'gates' meant to block certain sites. A survey by Iranian Ministry of Youth
Affairs and Sports indicates that 69.3 percent of the country's young
generation use proxy servers to by-pass the filters and access banned
Internet websites. From http://en.trend.az/
06/21/2015 TURKMENISTAN: Number of Internet Users Increases Fourfold In 2014, the number of Internet users has quadrupled in
Turkmenistan, said the message of State News Agency of Turkmenistan. The
message said that by reducing tariffs and expanding the types of services of
cellular communication, the number of subscribers of national mobile operator
“Altyn Asyr” increased by 116 percent.
Work on the widespread introduction of the last generation LTE
technology-based 4G mobile communication network continues in the accelerated
rate, the message said.
Turkmenistan continues laying transnational fiber-optic communication
lines. All analog PBXs have been replaced by digital ones, in order to
provide even higher quality services and expanding their range, transition to
high-speed transmission systems such as STM-64, CWDM/DWDM and IP/MPLS is
being carried out. Backbone network based on DWDM-systems (channel
separation) is being upgraded, which makes it possible to improve access to
various information and lower prices for telecommunication services. At
present, Turkmenistan works on the introduction of Wi-Fi technology in
hotels, recreation areas and shopping malls, which will provide high-speed
Internet access. The launch of the first artificial satellite of Turkmenistan
“TurkmenAlem 52oE” opened even more opportunities and conditions for the
establishment of telecommunication system meeting international standards.
Since June 9, 2015, broadcasting of seven Turkmen TV channels in HD, as well
as four radio programs via the national satellite began. Currently,
negotiations are underway with stakeholders for using effective capacity of
the “TurkmenAlem 52oE” satellite. From http://en.trend.az/
08/14/2015 UZBEKISTAN:
Mobile Operator Unitel’s Earnings Grow The earnings of Uzbekistan’s mobile operator, Unitel, which is
the Russian VimpelCom’s subsidiary operating under trademark Beeline, grew in
Jan.-March 2015 by 2.5 percent versus the same period of 2014, reaching $167
million, VimpelCom Ltd. said in a message. The official exchange rate as of
May 25 is 2532.34 UZS/$ 1. The company said the earnings in the mobile
services segment rose over this period by 3.1 percent to $166 million and in
the fixed services segment the revenues doubled – reaching $2 million, versus
$1 million the previous year. The company’s earnings from data transmission
services over this period rose by 12.8 percent up to $34.3 million. Unitel’s operating earnings before
interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), remained at the
level of the same period of last year – at $105 million, while the
marginality of operations fell by 1.7 percent to 62.7 percent . The company’s
subscriber base reduced by two percent compared to the early 2015 – from 10.6
million to 10.4 million subscribers. The monthly average revenue per user
(ARPU) of the mobile communication rose by almost two percent to 5.2 percent,
and the number of the minutes used monthly per user increased by 5.6 percent
up to 491 minutes. Uzbekistan currently has five mobile operators – Unitel,
Coscom (the subsidiary of the Scandinavian TeliaSonera, trademark Ucel),
Rubicon Wireless Communications (RWC, trademark Perfectum Mobile),
Uzbektelekom Mobile (Uzmobile) and the Uzbek-Russian company, the Universal
Mobile Systems (UMS). From http://en.trend.az/
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AUSTRALIA:
Funding Critical to Technology Advancement in the Healthcare Sector Lack
of funding and government policies are seen as the greatest inhibitor
impacting the introduction of technology in the healthcare sector, including
in Australia, in future years up to 2025. And, despite concerns about
funding, Australian professionals working in the sector are cautiously optimistic
about the impact technology could potentially have on the adoption of new
models in healthcare, with 42% believing that government policy is gaining
momentum, albeit not at the rate they would like in terms of healthcare
innovation. Nevertheless, 43% of Australian professionals were less
convinced, believing government policy was not adequately keeping up with
healthcare innovation, and not at the rate they would like- a sentiment
mirrored globally, at 41%.According to the Australian study, commissioned as
part of a global survey by collaboration solutions provider Polycom, only
5%of Australian healthcare professionals believe the Government is keeping
pace with innovation, compared to the global outlook which was slightly more
positive at 13%. And,
in Australia respondents to the survey also strongly believe that the
country’s ageing population and demand on health services infrastructure will
present the greatest healthcare challenge in 2025, at 38% and 23%
respectively. Global findings also identified these two areas as the greatest
challenges to the future of healthcare. On a positive note, however,
overwhelmingly more than 70%of Australian healthcare professionals believe
that technology can help overcome some of the challenges facing the sector
now and in the future, particularly when it comes to primary care. Increased
accessibility to broadband, mobility devices and applications were among the
most notable trends that respondents believe will make primary care
accessible to all citizens, regardless of distance, by 2025. Australian
professionals say technology is also expected to alleviate the shortage of
healthcare practitioners, which continues to be an issue for the industry
globally, and more than 70 of Australian healthcare practitioners surveyed
are confident that technology will facilitate greater access to practitioners
in 2025. The
industry can also expect to see increased investment in home care, according
to Polycom, with 76% of respondents believing virtual healthcare in the home,
supported by technology adoption, will be a realistic scenario in the future.
“Understanding the key challenges facing the healthcare industry is the first
step toward a more positive future. It’s abundantly clear that the industry
needs to transform and evolve, so we are better positioned to deliver the
types of healthcare services needed to provide improved patient outcomes,”
said Ron Emerson, Global Director, Healthcare Polycom. “Whilst historically
there has been trepidation when it comes to embracing change and new service
models, it is clear there is an overwhelming appetite from Australian
practitioners to explore new ways of working. The adoption of technology
solutions such as video for example, is just one way we can bring healthcare
specialists virtually to remote parts of the country, where patients would
not normally benefit from such consultations without travelling.” Emerson
says that government policy and funding needs to keep pace with meeting the
changing needs of the Australian healthcare sector and technology
advancements in this sector. Polycom suggests that telehealth will become the
‘new normal’ in the Australian healthcare industry, with healthcare
professionals themselves believing that telemedicine and telehealth will be
the greatest areas of investment by healthcare organisations in 2025,
followed closely by virtual healthcare delivery and effective care
coordination. Personal connectivity is earmarked to change the way health
services are delivered, with most respondents (80%) believing the use of
devices such as personal health monitors will likely change the delivery of
health services. And, Polycom says that advancement in technologies such as
video collaboration will also enable greater adoption of in-home virtual
consultations, support the reduction of in hospital readmissions and increase
the number of virtual appointments for remote patients. “Given Australia’s
geographically dispersed population, it has the opportunity to lead the way
in showing how innovative healthcare services like in-home healthcare and
virtual consultation services, can help alleviate the challenges facing the
sector,” Emerson says. “There is no doubt that incorporating technology like
video into the delivery of healthcare services will be critical to creating a
positive healthcare future not only in Australia, but globally.” From
http://www.itwire.com
06/04/2015 National
Library to Store Online Media Future
generations of Australians will have access to today’s online media, thanks
to the National Library of Australia and new legislation which requires the
institution to store all electronic and well as print media published in
Australia. From January 2016 the National Library will be able to capture
everything from ebooks to blogs, websites to social media— anything published
on the Internet. Director-General of the National Library of Australia,
Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, said for more than a hundred years the library had
been collecting all print material about Australia and Australians through
legal deposit – a requirement for publishers to lodge a copy of their
publications with the Library. “New legislation now allows us to take the
lead in the way Australia documents the ever-changing online world by
collecting the very latest digital media, that is, the full digital
landscape,” said Ms Schwirtlich, announcing the initiative.” She
said this had been made possible through the introduction of The Civil Law
and Justice Legislation Amendment Bill 2014, which updates the Copyright Act
1968. This will allow the Library to collect billions of Australian web
pages, tens of thousands of Australian ebooks, journals and magazines and any
new forms of publication that appear in the future. “We look forward to
working with the publishing industry so we can preserve all Australian
stories, regardless of whether they’re in print or online,” she said. “These
new digital collections will be as important for researchers tomorrow as our
most prized treasures like Cook’s Endeavour Journal or Edward Koiki Mabo’s
papers are today. Collecting this digital material will let us create a
picture of what it’s like living in Australia today: how we think, how we
feel, what we care about. This will provide invaluable social history to
scholars of the future.” From
http://www.governmentnews.com.au
07/06/2015 Government
Seeks Smoother NBN Transition for End Users The
federal government has launched a public consultation on its draft Migration
Assurance Policy for the National Broadband Network, which is intended to
provide a framework for a hassle-free experience for end users during their
shift from the copper network to NBN fixed line services. The framework
spells out the roles and responsibilities of NBN, Telstra, retail service
providers (RSPs) and other parties during the transition to the new network.
However, it's yet to be updated to take account of the government's shift
from a fibre-only fixed line network to a mixed-technology rollout that
includes hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) and fibre-to-the-node (FTTN). NBN's most
recent roadmap earmarks September this year for the initial FTTN product
release and Q2 2016 for the initial HFC product release by the network
wholesaler. The statement accompanying the Migration Assurance Policy
framework says that MAP will be updated to take into account HFC, FTTN and
fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB). "The
Migration Assurance Policy puts the customer at the centre of the migration
process and its goals are to minimise disruption to end-users, prioritise
continuity of service and target vulnerable end-users for assistance," a
statement issued on behalf of Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
The MAP policy states that migration to the NBN should be "an end user
focussed and industry‐led activity".In addition to spelling out the
process for switching off copper-based services delivered to homes and
businesses, the framework addresses how business-grade 'special services'
that rely on the legacy network will be dealt with. "These services are
initially exempt from disconnection from the Telstra copper network, pending
either a Telstra initiated product exit, or nbn releasing additional product
functionality which enables RSPs to provide alternative services over the
national broadband network to the particular type of special service (known
as the White Paper process)," the draft framework states. "NBN
will publish a white paper which outlines how its additional product
functionality can be used to enable RSPs to provide alternative services over
the national broadband network based products to that type of special
service." Special services will be disconnected 36 months after the
publication of a final white paper on a particular service. 'Non-premises'
services that employ the copper network, such as traffic lights, bridge
controls and payphones are not currently subject to disconnection. However,
the MAP framework states that the government, Telstra and NBN will this year
develop a high-level migration strategy for such services with the aim of the
timetable for their disconnection commencing in 2017. From
http://www.computerworld.com.au
07/20/2015 SMBs
Can Now Access Optus Satellite During Outages Optus
Satellite has set up a service that enables small to medium sized businesses
(SMBs) to access its infrastructure in the case of an outage. The “cost
effective” business continuity service, according to Optus, can be activated
in the event of an outage and offers SMBs an alternative to having to set up
their own infrastructure or business continuity plan. Businesses' day-to-day
connectivity – either through fibre, ADSL or the like – will still run if
there is no disruption, and Optus Satellite infrastructure will kick in when
an outage occurs. The service also offers an alternative to traditional
terrestrial network infrastructure, as traffic can bypass any terrestrial
network outages, Optus said. “We have listened to the concerns of our many
small to medium business customers about the importance of continuing to
trade at all times,” said Paul Sheridan, vice president of Optus Satellite,
said in a statement. “We know that they often don’t have the opportunity to
access the infrastructure and resources for a tailored business continuity
program despite being equally, if not more, exposed to outages compared with
the top end of town.” From
http://www.cio.com.au
08/21/2015 NEW
ZEALAND: Broadband Speeds Creeping Up, Mixed Bag on Costs Broadband
average speeds in New Zealand have been gradually increasing along with the
amount of data consumed per broadband connection growing strongly to 32GB in
2014, up from 26GB the year before. According to the latest report on the New
Zealand telecommunications sector from the country’s Commerce Commission,
there was a significant rise in average broadband speeds for 2014, reaching
7.3Mbps in the fourth quarter of the year, up from 5.3Mbps in the same
quarter in 2013. And, on broadband speeds, the commission says that New
Zealand is neck and neck with Australia, with the rise in average speed for
both countries likely driven by the “gradual migration of customers” to
higher-speed cable plans and high-speed fibre plans, where available. It also
explains that New Zealand also has some migration to higher- speed copper
VDSL plans, which are widely available in the country. The commission also
says that the continued roll-out of fibre also offers the opportunity to get
very high speed broadband in New Zealand. On
broadband penetration, the commission points out that the OECD compares the
rate of broadband penetration between countries by measuring connections per
100 of population, and as at 30 June 2014, New Zealand had 31.2 fixed-line
broadband subscriptions per 100 of population, compared with the OECD average
of 27.4. This gave New Zealand a continued ranking of 15 out of 34 OECD
countries, ahead of the US at 16 and Australia at 20. On mobile broadband,
the commission says that although it is a newer service than fixed-line
broadband, it has become “more accessible with the rapid growth in smartphone
use in recent years”. “Total mobile connections mostly grew slowly over the
four years to 2013/14, while the number of mobile connections that were also
mobile broadband connections rose rapidly to reach a high proportion (80%) of
total mobile connections”. On
both fixed-line telephone and broadband connections, the commission says it
appears that the total number of fixed-line connections is not in decline
despite the rising use of mobile devices. “This may be because the large
amounts of data being used by households are generally only able to be delivered
cost-effectively by a fixed-line connection.” On the cost of broadband, the
commission says that most New Zealand consumers now buy their fixed-line
telecommunications services in a bundle that includes a voice service and a
broadband service – “with most consumers spending more time online now than
on the phone”. According to the commission these consumers are probably more
concerned about the amount of data they get in their bundle for the price
than the per-minute price of phone calls. To get an indication of how New
Zealand fixed-line broadband prices compare to those overseas, the commission
says it has compared the New Zealand price against an overseas average price
for broadband and voice bundles for various levels of usage and speed. An
increasing number of households are using their fixed-line connection to
purchase broadband only, so we have also compared the price of naked
broadband services. The commission says that New Zealand prices for broadband
plus voice bundles were mostly above the average of the benchmarked set of
countries, although New Zealand was right on the average for the 30GB basket
and a substantial 22% below average for the 30GB 30Mbps fibre basket. Also,
in New Zealand, the retail premium charged for larger amounts of data or
unlimited data pushes the price above the international average, according to
the commission. A snapshot of prices for broadband, mobile and data plans
shows: •
New Zealand’s price of $69 for a 30Mbps 30GB fibre broadband plan with voice
was 22% below the average of 28 countries with comparable plans •
New Zealand’s price of $69 for a 30GB entry level copper broadband and phone
bundle was right on the average of 32 countries with comparable plans •
New Zealand’s price of $29 for a mobile plan providing at least 100 calls
(188 minutes), 140 texts and 500MB of data was 35% below the average for the
34 OECD countries •
New Zealand’s price for 6GB of stand-alone mobile data at $90 (typically for
use with a data-stick) was amongst the most expensive in the OECD. On
total retail revenues for the New Zealand telecommunications industry, the
Commerce Commisson says revenues had essentially been flat for five years
before appearing to pick up in the 2011/12 year, but falling slightly in
2012/13 and again in 2013/14 to $5.17 billion. And, the commission says that
the fixed-line broadband and internet revenue component has continued to rise
while all other fixed-line revenues continued to fall. On connections, the
number of fixed-line telephone connections essentially remained static in
2014, according to the commission, while fixed-line broadband connections
have continued to grow steadily and reached 1.39 million in mid-2014. From
http://www.itwire.com
06/08/2015 Telco Report Shows Strong Growth in Data Consumption New
Zealand's Commerce Commission has released its latest annual
telecommunications monitoring report analysing the state of the country's
telecommunications markets. Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Stephen Gale
said the past 17 months had been particularly eventful for the industry, with
mergers, acquisitions, spectrum sales and the arrival of a slew of content
streaming services. "Competition among fixed-line retailers remains
strong and the sector is responding positively to consumer demand for better
broadband quality and value. Average broadband speeds are increasing and the
average data consumed per connection per month has grown strongly from 26GB
in the previous year to 32GB," Dr Gale said. On the mobile side, growth
in data consumption has been even greater rising from around 130MB per mobile
connection per month to 229MB. "As noted in last year's report, data
revenues continue to rise while voice-related revenues are in decline, reflecting
the importance of fixed and mobile internet access for New Zealand
households." When
comparing New Zealand's retail prices to those in other OECD and
similar countries for various levels of monthly consumption, notable results
were: #
New Zealand's price of $69 for a 30Mbps 30GB fibre broadband plan with voice
was 22% below the average of 28 countries with comparable plans #
New Zealand's price of $69 for a 30GB entry level copper broadband and phone
bundle was right on the average of 32 countries with comparable plans. #
New Zealand's price of $29 for a mobile plan providing at least 100 calls
(188 minutes), 140 texts and 500MB of data was 35% below the average for the
34 OECD countries. #
New Zealand's price for 6GB of stand-alone mobile data at $90 (typically for
use with a data-stick) was amongst the most expensive in the OECD. From
http://www.cellular-news.com
06/08/2015 NZ Post Considers Electronic Mail Service Trial New
Zealand Post is considering trialling a service for customers who have told
it they want to receive their mail electronically by being scanned and
emailed. It's one of several projects NZ Post is considering to test a range
of digital services that add value, says Sarah Foote, Head of Project,
Digital Platforms, NZ Post. With regard to the electronic mail trial, Foote
says these are customers who travel a lot and would like peace of mind they
don't miss important mail when away. “We would trial it with staff first then
consider going into the field with a bigger trial if successful,” Foote adds.
Foote says GreenID services would be used as part of the sign-up process -
GreenID is an online, secure verification service. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
06/22/2015 Why NZ
Needs More Female Technology Role Models New
Zealand needs more female role models in science, maths and IT if the country
is to meet future industry demands. That’s the view of the new principal of
one of the nation’s most respected private girls schools, who believes that
the education requirements of today’s girls have changed significantly since
the school’s inception. “The challenge in educating the next generation of
girls is ensuring that we not only provide the most up-to-date learning resources
for science, technology, engineering, and maths education, but help them find
the passion to carry them through into successful career paths,” says Kathy
Parker, Principal, Chilton Saint James School, based in Lower Hutt. With
nationwide skills shortages in IT and other technology related industries, it
is critical that we address the level of support and encouragement we provide
as parents and as a society for the next generation.” Parker, says girls need
a wide range of role models to aspire to if they are to pursue technology
based subjects that the country is most in need of. “Establishing
and promoting role models at an early age is an essential part of framing the
career development of our next generation of scientists and technology
industry leaders; in many ways it is even more important for young females,”
Parker adds. Parker says when female students see the same role models
regularly publicised, it sends a message that these are more the exception
than the rule. “I believe we need to see each technology industry seeking out
successful professional women and proactively developing their profiles,” she
adds. “As educators, we also have a role to play in better facilitating
girls’ exposure to these women.” Alongside a greater focus on technology, and
teaching of the curriculum, Parker believes it's important that today's young
women are armed with skills such as resilience, flexibility, leadership and
initiative. “My goal is to ensure that we prepare young Chilton women for the
rapidly changing world they now inhabit by constantly reviewing our offering
and ensuring that our curriculum remains relevant to them,” she adds. We want
to keep our girls engaged with material that is diverse, challenging and
satisfying. Part of this diversity includes a strong emphasis on service and
the artistic disciplines the school offers.” Parker
says the increasing emphasis on development of STEM science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics subjects also complements Chilton’s
traditionally strong performance in the arts. “Although not commonly paired
together, traditionally analytic subjects can be enhanced through creativity
- particularly where a degree of lateral thinking can put forward unique
solutions - we have found the cross pollination of ideas from disciplines
leads to better innovation,” Parker adds. Parker is only the 14th principal
in the school’s almost century long history with the school opening its gates
in 1918, and will leave her role at ACG Senior College to take up the new
Wellington position in October. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
06/29/2015 Government
Requests for Personal Information to Be Tracked The
number of times agencies such as the Police and Inland Revenue receive
personal data from a range of companies is to be revealed. Companies that
hand over the information - often without a warrant or the knowledge of the
customer - will now be asked to provide a record of requests to the Office of
the Privacy Commissioner, which will publish a record. Senior lawyers,
privacy advocates and companies have concerns about the growth in government
requests for company records and personal data. Instead of seeking a legal
order, police have asked companies to hand over the information to assist
with the "maintenance of the law" - requests that carry no legal
force but are regularly complied with. Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said
businesses increasingly hold a large amount of personal information that can
be useful to the government's law enforcement and national security
activities. "Agencies such as the Police, Inland Revenue, the Ministry of
Social Development, and a host of others have powers to obtain information
from corporations, about individuals, often without the knowledge of those
involved," Mr Edwards said in a speech to an annual gathering of New
Zealand's intelligence community in Wellington. "Transparency
reporting, publishing reports of how often these requests or demands are
made, and how many individuals are affected was initiated by Google, and
others such as Facebook, Vodafone, TradeMe, and others have followed
suit." Mr Edwards said his office has been working on a pilot
transparency reporting project, and had found an initial group of agencies
and stakeholders generally supportive. "This year we intend to trial
asking companies to keep a standardised record of requests for information
from law enforcement agencies and to report this information to us. We will
then publish this information." A range of agencies have been citing
clauses in the Privacy Act to get people's personal details. Clauses in
Principle 11 allowed personal information to be provided if it was for
"the maintenance of the law", "protection of the public
revenue", to "prevent or lessen a serious threat" to
individuals and similar clauses. Mr
Edwards told the Herald that the move to publish a record of how many
requests for information had been granted was not born from a concern that
police or other agencies were behaving inappropriately. "No. Because I
don't know. This is the thing - we don't have much information. If we get a
first round of transparency reporting from a whole bunch of agencies, that's
not going to tell us very much either. "But I think over time there will
be trends. And there will be some value for people in that - knowing, whether
a particular law enforcement agency is too quick to go to a
telecommunications provider, for example, instead of using other methods of
investigation." Mr Edwards said reaction from companies approached had
so far been mixed, and any reporting would be voluntary. Those who agree
would be asked to provide standardised information such as the number of
requests received, the number of individual records the requests relate to,
and the outcome. In March, the Herald reported that police were regularly
seeking personal data from airlines, banks, electricity companies, internet
providers and phone companies. Of New Zealand companies, TradeMe is unusual
in its public declaration of Principle 11 clause requests it receives. Police
made warrantless requests for information on 1663 occasions ending June 2014,
while other government agencies made 641 requests. From
http://www.nzherald.co.nz
07/15/2015 2000 Kiwi
Schools Set to Connect to Govt-Funded Managed Network During
the coming day, around 2000 schools across New Zealand will be connected to
the government-funded N4L Managed Network, designed to provider faster and
more reliable internet. “A bundle of schools will be connected this week,”
says Nikki Kaye, Associate Education Minister. One of these will be the
2000th school connected, and I’ll be calling the principal to mark the
milestone. This will mean more than 80 per cent of schools are using the
Managed Network, which as well as fast, reliable internet also provides
uncapped data, web filtering and network security services, at no cost.”
Schools connected within the past week include the country’s largest school,
Auckland’s Rangitoto College, with 3000 students, and several small rural
schools. “All up, around 600,000 students and 36,000 teachers now have fast,
reliable internet for learning,” Kaye adds. “The Government is investing $211
million in this project, so that all state, state-integrated and partnership
schools can have uncapped internet access funded by the Crown. This is about
ensuring every young person has access to high-quality internet for learning,
no matter where they go to school in New Zealand. Fast connections and uncapped
data are like heat and water. Every student should have as much as they need
to achieve their best and make the most of their school day.” Kaye
says that the project to connect schools, which is led by Network for
Learning (N4L), continues to run ahead of schedule. “The Managed Network is
helping bring the internet to children who might not otherwise be able to
access it, and it’s expanding learning opportunities for everyone in the
classroom,” Kaye adds. “It’s also reducing IT complexity in schools, so that
teachers can focus on teaching and learning. Having access to reliable,
ultra-fast broadband is critical to enabling schools to explore more
innovative approaches to teaching and learning, using the internet and
digital technologies.” By the end of this year, it’s anticipated that up to
90 percent of New Zealand’s 2,500-plus schools will be able to connect to the
Managed Network, with all participating schools able to connect by the end of
2016. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
08/17/2015 Next
Generation Education in NZ The
inevitable has happened. That slow-moving tsunami of 21st Century students
have finally navigated the education terrain of the primary school sector,
and as of next year the first of these students will spill into our secondary
schools. The effect of these students has been predicted, researched and
analysed over the decade but the moment of truth will only be realised when
the students first arrive at high school in 2016. Forget the so-called
Millenial babies, 21st-century learners and digital natives. Heading the
charge of education transformation is the new frontier of learners. These
twelve-year-olds will look very much the same as the previous generations of
high school students, but their arrival will be felt like a punch between the
eyes. They are a formidable force of young change agents who have never
experienced a traditional class. The past seven years of learning in primary
schools have moulded these next generation students to become independent and
collaborative learners, who have grown up secure in a new model of teaching. These
are active learners familiar with inquiry-based practice, who have learnt to
pivot seamlessly between devices and across different platforms while they
deep dive into subject areas that are delivered online, offline and in
immersive learning environments. This generation of the disruptive learner
who will bring their experience of collaboration, openness and digital
literacy to the classroom. They are redefining, modifying and augmenting the
learning process and bringing a technical confidence to the classroom. My
role, leading a postgraduate course in digital and collaborative learning for
teachers has provided me with an extraordinary insight of our primary and
secondary school classrooms. Over the past 12 months over 800 teachers on the
programme have provided video insights into their classroom practices. These
videos provide evidence of individual teaching practices and the environments
where they teach. The video submissions are openly shared on a closed media
portal with other teachers on the same cohort where they are peer reviewed
and discussed for further insights. This teacher group is no small community,
and the observations are blindingly transparent. The world of primary schools
is significantly more adaptable and progressive than the counterparts in the
high school sector. The
high school teachers on the postgrad course work in small rural schools through
to large city colleges. Their teaching approach is, for the most part,
restricted to delivery of subject and time-based classes that are defined by
bells and timetables. The secondary school students within these schools
continue to learn within in these traditional ‘chalk and talk’ teaching
environment. Within their world their subjects are still, for the most part,
delivered in silos and ‘teaching to the assessment’ is still the primary
measure of education success. While the real world of business and industry
has adapted, adopted or disappeared in the face of technological advances and
disruption, the high school learning experience has become stuck, unprepared
for the students who are about to throw the legacy education model into
disarray. Just-in-time learning is an essential skill in today’s workplace.
The ability to problem-solve challenges, find solutions and to collaborate
with others are critical capabilities demanded by employers and valued by
employees. But within the high school system things move slowly. The
over-arching burden of history, the weight of aged systems and processes,
financial limitations and the absence of a government directed mandate to
inform the need for change, holds the secondary system in limbo. There
is no better example of a redundant tradition that continues to exists than
that of the school exam. The dated concept of students lining up to fill
hundreds of chairs in a school hall once a year to measure their worth is
well past its use by date. Fortunately, today’s high school student is the
last of the transitional student. These 13-18-year-olds have grown up in a
mostly analogue world, and their technical capability is generally limited to
being the consumer of apps and the user of social media. This is the student
who has been schooled in classes with limited access to shared workstations,
with learning still delivered by worksheets and text books. With the
exception of a few forward-thinking schools these students are experiencing
school mostly as we experienced it. Fortunately for the higher education
sector these remaining transitional students provide universities and
technical institutes an important window of opportunity to make essential
changes. Current high school students will continue to follow tradition and
sign up for tertiary courses that lead to qualifications that are no longer
needed. They will sit in legacy lecture halls in the absence of real
alternatives. However,
this window of opportunity is small and closing by the day. Today’s
12-year-old today are just 6-years away from signing up for tertiary study.
By 2021 this new generation of learners will have moved through today's high
school system. During their time in high school they will see new education
practices rolled out as schools are forced to transform in respond to
increased unrest by students who will question outdated teaching practices
and the relevance in today’s world. The speed and extent of change needed is
not for the faint-hearted, the fearful or the resistant. The time to debate new
teaching approaches has past and the education leaders of tomorrow will be
those who champion progress and reward those who embrace change. However
change comes slowly in the assessment-delivering, assurance seeking,
compliance ticking world of higher education. There will be many educators
who will continue to posture and criticise progress from the confines of aged
infrastructure, and traditional classrooms. I welcome the next generation of
platform floating, cloud space storing, super googling, Pinterest
glamourising Insta-spotifying students. Let
us support you to collaborate, co-habitat and converge the subject silos to
bring authentic learning to your world. It is time for new modalities, where
co-constructed knowledge is scaffolded and powered by digital pedagogies. Let
us be part of the solution as we build a new education system that supports
the development of creators, doers, innovators, coders and problem-solvers.
We need resilient thinkers who can solve today’s problems for the environment,
for energy and global sustainability. The answers to these problems are found
in discovering new things we don’t already know, not in the end of year exam
printed on worksheets. From
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EUROPE: ICANN Should Strengthen Its Mechanisms to Respect
Freedom of Expression and Privacy, Says Council of Europe The Council of Europe has called upon its 47 member states to
ensure that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),
which manages Internet domain names globally, creates adequate mechanisms to
identify, prevent and mitigate possible breaches to human rights in its work,
notably the rights to freedom of expression and privacy. In a Declaration
adopted today, the Council of Europe´s Committee of Ministers recalls that
ICANN, as a private non-profit corporation should respect international human
rights law, notably the UN Resolution 17/4 on human rights and transnational
corporations and other business enterprises, and welcomes its commitment to
operate in conformity with relevant principles of international law. The
Committee of Ministers underlines that ICANN decisions on the use of certain
words or characters in top level domain names and name strings (TLDs) raises
issues concerning the rights to freedom of expression and to association. It
stresses that, when taking decisions on the allocation of TLDs, ICANN should
ensure that an appropriate balance is struck between economic interests and
other objectives of common interest, such as pluralism, cultural and
linguistic diversity and the needs of vulnerable groups and communities. Close to 1000 TLDs are in use today. More than 600 of them are
new generic TLDs created following a process launched by ICANN in 2011 to
increase their number from the few that were available before (such as
“.com”, “.info”, “.org” or ”.int”). Some decisions taken by ICANN to accept
controversial domain names, such as “.xxx” or “.sucks”, had relevant
implications for freedom of expression and access to information. An ICANN
decision on some 600 requests for new generic TLDs is pending; these include
TLDs such as “.gay” which several applicants have requested. In addition, the
Committee of Ministers points out that ICANN´s contractual policies and
services should fully comply with human rights standards, for example when
dealing with the processing and retention of personal data of domain name
holders. This addresses the fact that, for example, personal data of domain
name holders - such as the name and postal address - is publicly available in
the WHOIS online database without adequate safeguards, and that domain
registrars can keep this personal information for over two years after the
domain contract has expired. In a separate Declaration, the Committee of
Ministers reaffirms its support to the multistakeholder governance of the
Internet – based on co-operation between governments, business, civil society
and the technical community. It also calls for the extension by the United
Nations General Assembly of the mandate of the Internet Governance Forum
until 2025. The Council of Europe has observer status with ICANN´s
Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). From http://www.i-policy.org/
06/04/2015 Net Neutrality in Critical Danger in Europe Last week, the European Parliament finalised its second
compromise proposal on net neutrality, and sent it to the Member States
(represented in the Council of the European Union) and the European
Commission. This will now allow the Council and Commission to put pressure on
the Parliament to accept a final compromise this week. The new proposal is
another major concession from the Parliament. It contains only the absolute
minimum elements for net neutrality, while proposing incoherent, meaningless
text on blocking of allegedly illegal content, and dangerous suggestions on
“parental controls” (filtering of legal content). The new compromise represents
another surrender from the European Parliament, which continues to offer
concessions to the Council, which continues to offer absolutely nothing in
return. Everything appears to be building to the “end game”, where telecoms
providers will be allowed to launch a new abuse (the end of net neutrality)
in return for the end of an old abuse (mobile roaming charges). So, what is the “score” in the negotiations so far? What has the
Parliament given up? All of the proposed measures on radio spectrum; The definition
of (or even a reference to!) ‘net neutrality’, replacing it with a
non-defined “open internet”, as the Council had suggested. Adding adjectives
like “open” suggests there is a “non-open” Internet, which makes little sense
outside countries like Iran; The definition of specialised services;
Virtually all of the proposed measures on user rights; Its proposal for the
removal of irrelevant elements (like spam – unsolicited e-mails- or parental
controls), which renders the scope of the Regulation unclear; Its proposal to
remove unclear text on blocking. Ultimately, the Parliament has given up all
of this in return for virtually nothing apart from minor concessions on
roaming. Worse still, the Parliament has no strategy for the next round of
negotiations – is this just another step towards giving up completely or is
this is the final red line from the Parliament? We don’t know. We fear that
they don’t know. What has the Council given up? Almost nothing, as all the Council’s proposals were virtually
identical. Modifications made in the most recent texts went even further away
the Parliament’s position and even worse than the Council’s initial position
of 4 March 2015 in certain points. What to do now? Visit the SaveTheInternet.eu campaign site. Through SaveTheInternet.eu,
anyone can contact her/his representative in the Industry committee of the
European Parliament (ITRE) via phone, e-mail or social-media for free!
Technical meetings amongst the three institutions are scheduled for this
week. Contact your MEP: SaveTheInternet.eu and remind him/her the four steps
towards ensuring net neutrality. From https://edri.org/
06/22/2015 Italy:
The Policy Implications of Hacking the Hacking Team The irony of Hacking Team—an Italian company that sells
surveillance software—being hacked (or as Wired put it, “disemboweled”) is
delicious, especially given Hacking Team’s denials it sold to governments
with notorious human rights records. Hacking Team still insists it broke no
laws and has behaved ethically. Whether Hacking Team survives remains to be
seen, but this episode’s importance extends beyond one company. What the hack
revealed touches on important policy issues From http://blogs.cfr.org/
07/14/2015 Russia:
How Safe Are Internet Search Engines from Censorship? The Russian legislator largely responsible for a host of
controversial laws, including bans on obscenities in films, foreign adoptions
of Russian orphans, and restrictions on “gay propaganda,” is back with a new
idea: demanding that Internet search engines be held accountable for the
content they index. According to Duma deputy Elena Mizulina, Russia's
child-protection laws should apply to Google, Yandex, and their rivals.
Mizulina noted that the Russian state (along with law enforcement officials)
has the authority to shut down websites containing information deemed harmful
to children. In addition to child pornography, which is illegal nearly
worldwide, this policy covers web content on suicide, drugs, and
homosexuality. In November 2012, the Kremlin's media regulator, Roskomnadzor,
declined to hold Internet search engines responsible for the content they
index. Mizulina said earlier this month that she thinks the agency lost its
nerve, adding that it's not too late to enforce the law as it was intended. Original Quote I understand there were many fears in 2012, when the law was
just entering force. But today the situation is different, and international
experience gives us clear evidence that it’s necessary to impose stricter
requirements [on the Internet]. Mizulina hasn't specified what “international
experience” she has in mind, but Roskomnadzor has said it will consider her
suggestion. The agency’s deputy head, Maksim Ksenzov, also promised to review
the matter with Russia's Communications Ministry. It remains unclear what
consequences search engines might face in Russia if the law is reinterpreted
to apply to their indexing policies, but the recent experience of Google in
the EU helps to color the picture. In May of 2014, the EU Court of Justice
issued a landmark ruling in favor of the “right to be forgotten.” The ruling
required Google to build a system that allows individuals in the EU to
request that the company remove certain results from its searches when these
results contain personal information that is either outdated or no longer
considered “relevant.” While the case at hand stems from a different type of
content, it touches on many of the same fundamental issues surrounding the
liability of information intermediaries. Oleg Yashin, the vice-president of Russian Shield, an
intellectual-property organization, provided some details about what
regulatory changes might be in store. One possibility, he says, is that
search engines will be required to purge or discriminate against search
results containing blocked websites or illegal data. Yashin claims Yandex is
starting this May and June to test ways to filter search results, and
Roskomnadzor is supposedly expected to assess the mechanism afterwards.
Mizulina says she worries most about search results that lead Internet users
to child pornography and information about suicide and illegal drugs. She
points out regularly that Internet companies in the West already make efforts
to remove such content, asking rhetorically, “What—are our children less
deserving of protection?” While companies like Microsoft and Google do work
to eliminate access to things like child pornography, granting new censorship
powers to the Russian government raises special concerns, given Moscow's
recent track record for reinterpreting Internet laws in ways that inhibit
civic freedoms online. On May 29, lawmakers introduced draft legislation to create a
“right to be forgotten” in Russia that would require Internet search engines
to delete links to data about individuals upon request. While Mail.ru and
Google have refused to comment on the initiative before more is known about
its details, Yandex told the news website Meduza that such a law would
violate constitutional rights to information and saddle search engines with
unreasonable and unusual legal burdens. The offending information, Yandex
says, will remain online regardless, disseminated on websites like social
networks. Russia's current era of Internet governance started almost three
years ago, when President Putin signed a law creating a state registry for
banned websites. Originally, the blacklist was meant for specific kinds of
generally apolitical content, but subsequent laws and generous regulatory
interpretations have led to an expanding crackdown on opposition websites,
Ukrainian Web resources, and more. Forcing Internet search engines to censor
results based on this growing list of banned websites could have a
significant impact on Russians’ access to alternative sources of news and
opinion. From http://globalvoicesonline.org/ 06/08/2015 How
Russia Threatens Internet Freedom Beginning in September a new Russian law — the Personal Data Law
— will require international Internet firms with Russian customers to process
and store data about them on Russian servers. Ostensibly, this is intended to
protect Russian citizens’ privacy. In fact, its purpose is to gain government
access to that privacy and to cramp the competition of international Internet
companies. By forcing the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and
Microsoft to store personal communications and data of their Russian
customers inside Russia, the country’s security services will have immediate
access to that information. Paranoia apparently played a role in the
legislation. Russian leader Vladimir Putin said in an April television talk
program, “The Internet began when [it] appeared as a special CIA project and
is still being developed that way.” Mr. Putin has also referred to it as a
CIA “front” and that nothing coming from the Americans can be trusted. Originally, the law was to take effect in January; however,
Internet-freedom advocates raised such a rumpus that the date was pushed out
to Sept. 1. The law will harm Russia’s estimated 76 million Internet users.
For example, it will disrupt travel planning of those who rely on online
services such as international airline ticketing, hotel bookings and payment
— even visa services. The law will also hurt the already-weakened Russian
economy, according to a new report by the European Centre for International
Political Economy (ECIPE). It estimates the law will cut $5.7 billion off the
country’s gross domestic product. ECIPE’s report states, “Investments in the
Russian economy would drop by 1.4 percent, with considerable effects on
employment . It is unlikely that losses of such scale could be compensated
and offset by a few jobs created in [Russian] data processing.” If the
non-Russian companies now providing these services were to comply with the
law and move their Russian data to in-country servers, the cost would have to
be passed on to their customers. And there may not be enough time between now
and September for these countries to rent Russian servers, let alone build
new ones. Several Western Internet companies have already decided to leave
what had been a growing market. Microsoft began the move with the
announcement it would move its Skype development office from Moscow to
Prague. Adobe has ceased its Russian operations. The popular music-streaming
service Spotify, based in Sweden, has canceled plans to launch a Russian
service. The Russian business daily RBK cites as the reasons the new Personal
Data Law, along with Russia’s declining economy and ruble. Google, while
insisting it is still committed to its Russian users, has announced it is
closing its engineering office in Moscow. The new law was not mentioned in
its announcement, but must have figured strongly in this decision. All these
companies have had to weigh the cost of converting to this new mandate in
relation to present and potential revenue. There is the cost of segregating
Russian data from the rest; the cost of renting a new batch of servers; and
the time- and labor-consuming cost of software reprogramming. The office of the United States Trade Representative says of the
Russian Personal Data Law that it would “affect a broad range of cross-border
services.” This law can be seen as an extension of the Kremlin’s strategy to
clamp down on free speech. Ever since the arrival of Edward Snowden in
Moscow, after his theft and publication of classified U.S. government data,
the Russian government has been steadily restricting media freedom. It has
banned foreign interests from obtaining majority ownership of any mass medium
and is developing new laws to extend restrictions on “promoting extremism” to
extend to bloggers as well as news websites and publications. From http://www.washingtontimes.com/ 07/10/2015 Turkey:
Internet Censorship Reaching Dangerous Levels Internet censorship is reaching dangerous levels in limiting
freedom of expression, especially concerning critical matters in Turkey,
information technology legal expert and lawyer Burçak Ünsal states in his
article published in the European Magazine Media Association's (EMMA)
2014-2015 issue. The government is allowed to issue media blackout decisions
on critical issues such as the Soma mine disaster, where 301 miners died; the
Reyhanlı bombing, where 51 people died; the Dec. 17 corruption
investigations, implicating senior members of the Justice and Development
Party (AK Party); the nationwide Gezi protests against AK Party policies; the
delivery of arms to radical groups in Syria by the National Intelligence
Organization (MİT); and the hostage crisis at a courthouse that led to the
death of public prosecutor Mehmet Kiraz, on major social media outlets like
Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Ünsal said. "Two weeks before the municipal elections held on March 30,
2014, Twitter was banned in Turkey. A YouTube ban followed only a week
later," Ünsal added, emphasizing the increasing level of limitations on
freedom of expression in Turkey. Ünsal emphasized the suppression of the media
during the more than 13 years of AK Party rule, pointing to the increasing
number of journalists who have been put under arrest and thrown in prison,
especially after the corruption investigations in December 2013. Ünsal stated
that Samanyolu Broadcasting Group President Hidayet Karaca and Zaman daily's
Editor-in-chief Ekrem Dumanlı had been detained, while criminal cases were
filed against many other journalists, including Can Dündar, Pelin Batu, Koray
Çalışkan, Mirgün Cabas, Banu Güven, Nazlı Ilıcak and Ceyda Karan. Pointing
out that 503 complaints have been filed since April 2014 by President Recep
Tayyip Erdoğan against the media, Ünsal indicated that the amount of money
Erdoğan is seeking in damages from those complaints comes to $440,000. Ünsal underlined that the AK Party government has been using
fines as a method of oppression and censorship, targeting various media
organizations, Samanyolu television station and Zaman daily being in first
place. Ünsal added that State Economic Enterprises (KİT) and state banks
never gave any advertisements to those television stations that maintained an
objective approach to the corruption and bribery files and allegations, such
as Samanyolu Haber, CNN Türk, Kanaltürk, Bugün TV and Kanal D, whereas
pro-government dailies including Sabah, Yeni Şafak, Milliyet, Star and Yeni
Akit were given official advertisements worth 4,570,000 euros. According to
Ünsal's article, Turkey was declared the “world's worst jailer of
journalists” by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2012 and 2013.
Turkey's ranking in the Reporters without Borders' (RSF) World Press Freedom
Index dropped to 154 from 138, out of 180 countries between 2012 and 2014. From http://www.todayszaman.com/ 07/18/2015 U.K.:
Hacking Team Emails Expose Proposed Death Squad Deal, Secret U.K. Sales Push
and Much More Late Sunday, hackers dumped online a massive trove of emails and
other documents obtained from the systems of Italian surveillance firm
Hacking Team. The company’s controversial technology is sold to governments
around the world, enabling them to infect smartphones and computers with
malware to covertly record conversations and steal data. For years, Hacking
Team has been the subject of scrutiny from journalists and activists due to
its suspected sales to despotic regimes. But the company has successfully
managed to hide most of its dealings behind a wall of secrecy – until now.
For the last few days, I have been reading through the hacked files, which give
remarkable insight into Hacking Team, its blasé attitude toward human rights
concerns, and the extent of its spyware sales to government agencies on every
continent. Adding to the work of my colleagues to analyze the 400 gigabyte
trove of hacked data, here’s a selection of the notable details I have found
so far: Demo for Bangladesh “death squad” In May, a Hacking Team representative traveled to Dhaka in
Bangladesh to demonstrate the company’s spy technology at the headquarters of
a brutal paramilitary security agency that is known for torture and
extrajudicial killings. The Rapid Action Battalion (pictured above) –
described by Human Rights Watch as a “death squad” that has perpetrated
systematic abuses over more than a decade – wanted to see “a practical
demonstration” of Hacking Team’s surveillance equipment “in the ground
settings of Bangladesh,” according to the company’s emails. Last month, a
reseller for Hacking Team in Bangladesh reported that he had submitted the
bid papers for the deal and was “pushing RAB to select our offer through our
personal relationship.” DEA mass surveillance in Colombia Hacking Team supplies its technology to the DEA, which one email
shows is apparently using the spyware to launch surveillance operations from
the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia. More notably, the email suggests that,
in addition to the Hacking Team technology, the DEA is also using other
spying equipment at the embassy in Colombia to perform dragnet Internet
surveillance. Last month, a Hacking Team field engineer had a meeting with
DEA agents in Cartagena and noted that he was told the agency had “bought
another interception tool (something that will receive all the traffic for
Colombian’s [sic] ISPs).” Impressing dictator’s spies In October 2014, in Doha, Qatar, Hacking Team demonstrated its
technology for two officers from Belarus intelligence agency the Operations
and Analysis Center, or OAC. The Belarus government is an authoritarian
regime that been accused by Human Rights Watch of suppressing “virtually all
forms of dissent,” cracking down on journalists, activists, opposition
politicians, and anyone else deemed to have deviated too far from the
orthodoxy of despotic president Alexander Lukashenko, known as “Europe’s last
dictator.” Nevertheless, these issues don’t seem to have put off Hacking
Team’s attempts to make a sale. “The prospect confirms to be impressed by our
solution,” noted a Hacking Team employee after the meeting with the two
officers. “They will evaluate to proceed with the Sales Department to arrange
a dedicated meeting.” It is unclear from the emails whether the sale went
ahead or if efforts to finalize it are still ongoing. Sales through Israeli company One of Hacking Team’s key corporate partners is Nice Systems, an
Israel-based company with close links to Israeli military and intelligence
agencies. (CEO Barak Eilam, for instance, was formerly an officer with an
“elite intelligence unit” in the Israeli Defense Forces, according to his
biography. Eilam’s LinkedIn profile links him to Unit 8200, Israel’s signals
intelligence corps.) The leaked Hacking Team documents show that Nice has
been working on closing a large number of deals for the company across the
world, winning contracts in Azerbaijan and Thailand and pushing for sales in
Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Kuwait, Finland, Georgia,
Greece, India, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kirghistan, and elsewhere. Hacking
Team had not responded to a request for comment on this story at time of
publication. On Tuesday, a spokesman for the company told the International
Business Times: “We don’t have anything to hide about what we are doing and
we don’t think that there is any evidence in this 400GB of data that we have
violated any laws and I would even go so far as to argue that there is no
evidence that we have behaved in anything but a completely ethical way.” Top clients According to the hacked files, Hacking Team’s top sales in
recent years have come from governments and law enforcement agencies in these
countries, in descending order of sales: Mexico, Italy, Morocco, Saudi
Arabia, Chile, Hungary, Malaysia, UAE, the United States, Singapore,
Kazakhstan, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Panama, Ethiopia, Egypt, Luxembourg, Czech
Republic, South Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Spain, Ecuador, Oman, Switzerland,
Thailand, Russia, Nigeria, Turkey, Cyprus, Honduras, Azerbaijan, Colombia,
Poland, and Bahrain. Attempts to break U.K. market Police agencies in the United Kingdom have trialled Hacking
Team’s technology, and have been attempting to purchase it for years, but
have been hindered by apparent concerns about the legality of the technology.
In May 2011, through a U.K.-based corporate partner, Hacking Team arranged a
secretive meeting with several interested British agencies. The company was
told by the partner that attendees would possibly include London’s
Metropolitan Police, the government’s Home Office, domestic intelligence
agency MI5, customs officials, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, and
others. After this meeting, in September 2013, the London police force told
Hacking Team that it was “now ready to progress” with a trial of the spying
tool. In December the same year it then invited Hacking Team to formally
submit a bid for a spy technology contract. A confidential document outlined
that the force wanted to obtain “‘Software’ that can be covertly introduced
to a third parties device and will allow us to ‘Look, Listen and Follow’ the
third party. The Authority will receive, record and playback the ‘Product’
retrieved from the third party on a ‘System’ that shall be scalable, using
proven technology that has in-built security measures appropriate to this
task.” But the deal with the London cops, worth £385,000 ($591,000) to
Hacking Team, was abruptly halted in in May 2014 following “internal reviews
on how we wished to move this area of technology forward,” according to an
email from the police, although the force left the door open for a future
deal, adding: “Of course in the months/years to come this could change and if
that is the case then we would welcome your organization’s participation.”
Since then, Hacking Team has continued to try to crack the U.K. market. It
tried – and apparently failed – to set up a deal with Staffordshire Police
after an officer contacted the company seeking technology to “access WiFi
points to check users” and infect devices to covertly collect data. Hacking
Team discussed whether it could sell its technology disguised under a
different name, “hiding” its full functionality. And in January this year it
began negotiating a contract with the British National Crime Agency. The meeting was a success, with an officer for the agency
telling Hacking Team that a demonstration of the covert surveillance
technology “was extremely well received and proved to be a real eye opener
for what can be achieved.” In April, the same officer told Hacking Team he
wanted a quote for basic spyware that would log keystrokes, noting that he
could “then grow the system accordingly as we would then have the base
platform.” Hacking Team was interested in this proposal and discussed
internally whether it could sell its technology disguised under a different
name, “hiding” its full functionality. The deal appears to have since
stalled, with the British agency telling Hacking Team in late May it was
“unable to arrange” a meeting. Plotting denials Hacking Team’s emails reveal its deceitful attempts to
positively spin news reports that have exposed the company’s technology being
used against journalists and activists in repressive countries. In October
2012, for example, Bloomberg and Citizen Lab revealed the company’s
technology had apparently been used to target a pro-democracy activist in the
United Arab Emirates, who was tracked down and beaten by suspected agents of
the state. But instead of accepting responsibility and taking firm action
against its customer, Hacking Team chose to issue a series of denials. A
technical analysis of the malware used against the activist showed it
contained the acronym “RCS,” a reference to Hacking Team’s flagship spyware
called Remote Control System. Hacking Team’s public relations guru Eric Rabe
scrambled to find a way to muddy the waters, suggesting to his colleagues
that they could identify another software with RCS in its name and pin the
blame on that. He proposed the company could announce that “The initials RCS
are, of course, the initials of a Hacking Team product, Remote Control
System, but are also commonly used in software code for the term (WHAT?)
Frankly they could mean anything.” In other emails in the trove, Hacking Team
employees appear to confirm that their spy tool did target the UAE activist.
While discussing a Slate piece I wrote on the incident in October 2012,
Hacking Team developer Marco Valleri says in the UAE case malware was
“downloaded” to infect the activist’s device from “our old demo server.”
Moreover, as my colleague Lee Fang has reported, the hacked data shows
Hacking Team’s technology has been sold to the UAE since at least 2011. The
pro-democracy activist was targeted by it in July 2012. Enemies list A presentation prepared by Hacking Team for a surveillance
conference in South Africa later this month shows the company complaining
about the “chilling effect” that it claims regulation of surveillance
technology is having on the ability to fight crime. The presentation singles
out the organizations Hacking Team views as its main adversaries, noting that
it is a “target” of groups such as Human Rights Watch and Privacy
International and warning that “democracy advocates” are putting pressure on
governments. Separately, the company’s emails show CEO David Vincenzetti’s
reaction to criticism from activist groups, who he says are “idiots” good at
“manipulating things and demonizing companies and people.” In one email sent
last month, Vincenzetti seems to have unwittingly foreseen the future,
jokingly warning staff about the ramifications of the company’s sensitive
information leaking online. “Imagine this: a leak on WikiLeaks showing YOU
explaining the evilest technology on earth! :-)” he wrote. “You will be
demonized by our dearest friends the activists, and normal people will point
their fingers at you.” From https://firstlook.org/
07/11/2015 LATIN
AMERICA: Brazil Suffers Most Hacker Attacks in Latin America Brazil is in first place in Latin America and tenth globally in
the ranking of countries that suffer the most cyber-threats, says the latest
research by Symantec, reports Bonde. The data show that 2.32 percent of
hacker attacks in 2014 had Brazil as their target. The global top three puts
the US in first place, with about 25 percent of attacks, followed by China
(10%) and India (5%). According to Symantec systems engineer Arhur Cesar
Oreana, Brazil has visibility by being one of the largest countries in the
world and because a large portion of its population is connected to the
internet. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 06/21/2015 NORTH
AMERICA: Canada - Ottawa Increases Spending to Protect Critical
Infrastructure from Cyber Attacks Ottawa is pumping $142.6 million more into cyber security, with
some of it helping the private sector get threat intelligence from the
federal government. The spending, announced Wednesday by Public Safety
Minister Stephen Blaney, is in addition to the $94.4 million for cyber
security set aside in the budget earlier this year, making the total federal
spend on cyber security over the next five years $237 million. The new money
is to bolster the Harper government’s Cyber Security Strategy, announced five
years ago, which not only includes improving security of federal systems but
also partnering with the private sector on critical infrastructure sectors
like energy and banking. A Public Safety Canada spokesperson said there won’t
be a detailed break-down of where the new $142.6 million over five years is
going. The news release says some will go to “secure essential systems outside
of the government.” A background paper issued with the announcement says it
will also go to three places: — Greater capacity for the federally-run Canadian Cyber Incident
Response Centre (CCIRC) to respond to, and mitigate, cyber incidents in the
private sector. Through the development of real-time automated feeds, the
private sector will receive additional threat information and faster
dissemination; —Money for the Regional Resilience Assessment Program (RRAP), a
site assessment project done in co-operation with the U.S. to enhance the
resilience of critical infrastructure in both countries. Funding will bolster
the capacity of the RRAP to incorporate cyber security into the site
assessment process. This measure will enable Public Safety Canada to assess
the overall cyber security of an organization and provide recommendations to
improve resilience; — Funding to develop the RCMP’s ability to detect and disrupt
cybercrime activities. Money will help the Mounties will establish a
dedicated investigative team to combat high-priority cybercrime, as well as
to boost their intelligence capacity, technical support and law enforcement
training. Of the $94.4 million announced in the budget, the bulk ($58
million) is going to secure federal networks, while $36.4 million will help
“vital cyber systems” remain safe. In 2010 the Harper government announced a
national strategy to better protect critical infrastructure calling for the
public and private sectors to work on addressing risks. But two years later
the Auditor General released a report complaining the strategy still didn’t
have an action plan. That plan has since been completed, and the government
says some progress has been made. “As long as our digital infrastructure
continues to evolve, there will always be those who try to exploit
vulnerabilities to undermine Canada’s national security, public safety and
economic prosperity,” Blaney said in a statement today. “Collaboration and
information-sharing with critical infrastructure sectors and private sector
partners is our best defence to protect our essential cyber systems.” He made
the announcement with John Manley, CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief
Executives, who is also co-chair of an advisory committee on cyber security.
“Cyber security is a shared responsibility,” he said in a statement, “so I am
pleased about this important step forward to enhance our collaboration with
the federal government on this important issue. These advancements to the
strategy will ensure our essential systems have the latest threat
information, as well as help us to continue to build on each other’s
strengths.” It isn’t clear why this spending is being announced now and
wasn’t included in the recent budget. A call to Manley’s office for more
details on the spending wasn’t returned. From http://www.itworldcanada.com/ 07/22/2015 US
Internet Freedom Software Tools Developed Do Not Facilitate Cybercrime Software tools created by the U.S. State Department to encourage
the free flow of information online and on mobile phone networks are not
likely to be used by criminals to pursue illegal activities, according to a
new RAND Corporation study. While some technologies supported by the State
Department’s efforts have the potential to be used for illicit purposes,
there are numerous alternative technologies that are better suited for
criminal activity, according to the report. “There is little reported
evidence that the tools created to promote human rights and the free flow of
information are also used in any material way to assist illicit activities,”
said Sasha Romanosky, the study’s lead author and a policy researcher at
RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “However, we conclude that the tools
do provide critical capabilities to human rights activities and other
Internet users in nations where communications are restricted.” Sponsor video, mouseover for sound RAND researchers conducted a review of technology projects
supported by grants from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor after members of the U.S. Congress expressed concern that
some of the tools may be used by criminals to further the commission of
illicit activities. Some of the projects examined include proxy technologies,
virtual private networks, mesh networks and anti-distributed denial of
service. Information about each project supported by the bureau was collected
from a combination of publicly available information, interviews with
grantees and documents provided by the bureau itself. The bureau funds the
development of many cybersecurity and privacy software programs within its
human rights mandate. However, researchers say there are tradeoffs associated
with any investment in technology and innovation. “Given the wealth and diversity of other privacy, security and
social media tools and technologies, there exist numerous alternatives that
would likely be more suitable for criminal activity, either because of a
relatively reduced level of surveillance and law enforcement capabilities
compared to that of the internal security regimes of authoritarian
governments, fewer restrictions on their availability, or because they are
custom built by criminals to suit their own needs,” said Martin Libicki, a
RAND senior management scientist and an author of the report. Support for the
project was provided by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. The
report, “Internet Freedom Software and Illicit Activity: Supporting Human
Rights Without Enabling Criminals,” can be found at www.rand.org. Other
authors of the report are Zev Winkelman and Olesya Tkacheva. The research was
conducted within the International Security and Defense Policy Center of the
RAND National Security Research Division. The division conducts research and
analysis on defense and national security topics for the U.S. and allied
defense, foreign policy, homeland security and intelligence communities, and
foundations and other nongovernmental organizations that support defense and
national security analysis. From http://www.darkreading.com/ 07/08/2015 U.S.:
Not Just OPM -- Agency Cybersecurity Incidents on the Rise The Office of Personnel Management breach affecting millions of
federal employees and contractors has served to shine a bright spotlight on
cyberattacks. While the OPM hack may be one of the most devastating to hit
government, the department itself is far from alone in being the target of
hackers. Since 2006, the number of “information security incidents” affecting
federal systems each year has steadily increased, according to a report by
the Government Accountability Office released Wednesday. In 2006, there were
fewer than 6,000 reported incidents, but two years later that number had
tripled. Last year, there were about 67,000 reported incidents. “Effective
cybersecurity for federal information systems is essential to preventing the
loss of resources, the compromise of sensitive information, and the
disruption of government operations,” stated a document accompanying the
report. Although cyberattacks are on the rise, many "information
security" incidents at agencies don't refer to computers at all.
One-quarter of all security incidents recorded in 2014 were listed as
"noncyber," according to the GAO report. That's a designation that
could describe paper documents improperly stored on employees' desks, for
example. Malicious code accounted for only 11 percent of these incidents, and
suspicious network activity was only 3 percent. Security incidents are also
not always caused by targeted attacks by hackers. They can be unintentional
and simply result from employee error or equipment failure, according to the
report. Last year, 14 percent of security incidents were chalked up to
equipment or improper use categories. Agencies should launch risk-based
cybersecurity programs and improve their response to security incidents,
according to the report. “Until federal agencies take actions to address
these challenges . . . federal systems and information will be at an
increased risk of compromise from cyber-based attacks and other threats,” the
report stated. From http://www.nextgov.com/ 07/10/2015 4
Critical Challenges to State and Local Government Cybersecurity Efforts
(Industry Perspective) In his January State of the Union address, President Obama
called for a strong bipartisan effort to address cybersecurity challenges
nationwide, touching on such issues as student privacy, breach notification
and information sharing. Many applauded the president’s proposals and
welcomed the widespread exposure for these urgent issues. Given the current
political climate, however, no one is expecting Congress to enact
comprehensive cybersecurity legislation anytime soon. While the federal
government works on big-picture solutions, state and local government
agencies are under tremendous pressure to secure critical data,
infrastructure and services. In fact, cybersecurity is the No. 1 strategic IT
priority in 2015 for state and local agencies, according to the National
Association of State Chief Information Officers. A constant stream of
high-profile attacks by organized crime, hacktivists and state-sponsored
agents against both commercial and government entities has raised awareness
and created a heightened sense of urgency. Organizations of all types and
sizes are deeply concerned about data breaches by politically motivated bad
actors and the all-too-real potential for highly sophisticated
state-sponsored or terrorist attacks on critical public infrastructure and
services. Moreover, the massive amount of valuable data housed by state and
local agencies is an attractive target for cybercriminals seeking financial
gain. Hackers steal, then sell or leverage, sensitive data including Social
Security and driver's license numbers, credit card information, and
health-care records, among other things. This creates havoc for compromised
citizens. Likewise, intellectual property, trade secrets and contract
negotiations are lucrative targets, and a successful breach at this level
could bring an enterprise, industry or public agency to its knees. It doesn’t
take much imagination to envision an array of devastating scenarios. The IT
organizations inside state and local agencies are focused like never before
on keeping their networks — and the data of the citizens they serve — secure
against cyberthreats. But they face some critical challenges in doing so. 1. CYBER THREATS ARE INCREASING IN COMPLEXITY AND INTENSITY The iSheriff cyberthreat lab is seeing rapid growth in the
number of threats being released every day. For example, we have seen more
than a quarter of a million different ransomware variants over the past year,
with as many as 60,000 new variants in a single day. Our team has been called
into several local government agencies to assist with remediating these
attacks. Ransomware is an example of a large-scale cyberthreat that acts like
a trawling net — casting broadly to snare as large a number of victims as
possible in one attempt. These threats have become increasingly complex,
conducted over multiple threat vectors in combination. Although somewhat
“vanilla” on the spectrum of cyberattack complexity, the results of such an
attack can still be devastating. Because many organizations do not back up
their data off-network, for example, a ransomware attack can result in
catastrophic data loss data. At the other end of the cyberthreat spectrum are
targeted threats, designed to attack a specific organization or even a
specific individual within an organization. Unlike a typical malware-based
infection, targeted attacks are very difficult to block with traditional
security products. A persistent adversary will attempt to utilize techniques
that “fly under the radar” in order to achieve their objectives. 2. FUNDING FOR CYBERSECURITY INITIATIVES IS INSUFFICIENT The typical state or local government agency spends less than 5
percent of its IT budget on cybersecurity, compared to over 10 percent in the
typical commercial enterprise. If we bear in mind that some of the world’s
most prominent enterprises have been successfully hacked, and that government
agencies are faced with precisely the same security challenges as their commercial
brethren, it is alarmingly clear that state and local agencies’ cybersecurity
efforts are woefully underfunded. Unfortunately, state and local governments
have been let down by the security industry. Security has become too complex
for the average agency. Mulitple products from multiple vendors don’t readily
integrate and require prohibitively expensive installation and ongoing
management. A typical agency doesn’t have the budget to effectively deploy
and maintain all the required components. In addition to budgetary concerns,
government agencies are faced with a security staffing and know-how problem.
Given the rapid growth in cyberthreats over the last few years, and the
increasing corporate focus on addressing this problem, demand has created a
substantial premium on cybersecurity skills. Public-sector organizations are
hard-pressed to compete for talent, given the wide disparity in compensation
levels. 3. LACK OF CYBERSECURITY VISIBILITY AND CONTROL One of the unfortunate byproducts of the proliferation of
security point products within the IT environment is an avalanche of security
events and alerts, making alert overload one of the banes of agency IT
staffs’ existence. In fact, a whole new category of products and services has
grown up in an attempt to bring order to this chaos (referred to as Security
Information and Event Management, or SIEM for short). Managing security
through alerts, however, has been described as analogous to driving a car
down a busy highway at night by looking through a frosted rear-view mirror:
It is not only misleading, but will likely end in disaster for all involved. 4. NEED TO COMPLY WITH GROWING ARRAY OF REGULATIONS In an effort to enforce better levels of protection for citizen
data and greater transparency when breaches occur, federal and state
government agencies have introduced an array of new regulations. These
include the FBI, IRS, HIPPA, OCSE, FSSA and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
For small IT organizations with limited security expertise, enforcing compliance
with these regulations can be an onerous level of additional overhead on top
of their substantial core responsibilities. ANSWERING THE ACUTE NEED FOR BETTER SOLUTIONS The benefits of more secure government agencies — from the
corner post office to the U.S. Department of Defense — are multifaceted.
Defending our essential infrastructure and government services, our
intellectual property, and our citizens’ safety are paramount to preserving
our way of life. The risks created by improperly protected government assets
are enormous and urgent — and mounting every day. Traditional,
perimeter-focused security approaches are no longer sufficient or practical.
Especially at the local and state levels, IT teams do not have the resources
to address each threat vector in isolation. Integration, automation and
flexibility are essential to maintaining a comprehensive defense against
complex and proliferating threats. Scalable solutions help teams maximize
their financial and staff resources, delivering higher value and better
protection from limited budgets. Unable to compete with enterprise IT
salaries, agencies are universally short on expertise. They need a solution
that is simple to set up, run and monitor, with a “single pane of glass” view
across the agency’s network. Enhancing the simplicity of solutions leaves
more time to address the complexity of threats. Instead of wrangling with
software and hardware, cybersecurity defenders must be free to focus on
managing risk and response. From http://www.govtech.com/ 07/17/2015 OMB
- Agencies Making Strides on Enhancing Cybersecurity Agencies have taken significant steps to improve their
cybersecurity in the aftermath of the two recent cyber breaches at the Office
of Personnel Management. In a blog post today, the Office of Management and
Budget released the preliminary results of the 30-day cyber sprint ordered by
federal Chief Information Officer Tony Scott in June. At the heart of the
sprint was a binding operational directive issued by the Homeland Security
Department in May, which Federal News Radio first reported on June 8. It
required agencies to fix all critical vulnerabilities within 30 days or
justify to DHS why they could not. OMB’s cyber sprint went beyond that,
according to a fact sheet issued by the Obama administration on June 12.
Scott instructed agencies to tighten policies for privileged users,
dramatically accelerate the implementation of smart identity cards for
logical access under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12, and
immediately deploy indicators provided by DHS to scan systems and logs to
detect attacks or the possibility of a breach. Today’s blog post reported the following improvements in strong
authentication: “Federal Civilian agencies increased their use of strong
authentication for privileged and unprivileged users from 42 percent to 72
percent — an increase of 30 percent since agencies last reported their
quarterly data on Performance.gov. “Specifically, Federal civilian agencies
increased their use of strong authentication for privileged users from 33
percent to nearly 75 percent — an increase of more than 40 percent since
agencies last reported their quarterly data on Performance.gov. “Thirteen
agencies, or more than half of the largest agencies — including the
Departments of Transportation, Veterans Affairs, and the Interior — have
implemented the same level of strong authentication for nearly 95 percent of
their privileged users.” While recognizing the significance of these
statistics, OMB acknowledged that more needed to be done to improve agencies’
cybersecurity. “Agencies are reducing the number of privileged users and
working with DHS to scan their networks on an ongoing basis for known
critical vulnerabilities,” OMB said. “Additionally, agencies continue to
train employees to recognize and report phishing attempts to introduce
malware into Federal networks. But malicious actors aren’t slowing down. As
their efforts become more sophisticated, frequent, and impactful, so must
ours. Although the Sprint may have come to a conclusion, it is only one leg
of a marathon to build upon progress made, identify challenges, and
continuously strengthen our defenses.” To build on the work started by the cyber sprint, a team of more
than 100 experts from agencies and the private sector are reviewing the
government’s cybersecurity practices, policies and procedures. They will be
creating a Cybersecurity Sprint Strategy and Implementation Plan, which will
released in the coming months. The White House also reached out to Congress
to provide the necessary funding and resources for agencies to protect their
networks. Earlier this week, Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Tom Carper
(D-Del.), the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, introduced The Federal
Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (S. 1869). which aims to enhance agencies’
ability to protect themselves from cyber attacks. The committee passed the
bill on for a vote by the full Senate. “This growing threat is too intense
for anything but the best defenses,” Carper said, in a release. “Fortunately,
this Administration has made cybersecurity a top priority and has focused its
attention on cyber best practices for federal agencies and networks. However,
we are reminded nearly every day that more needs to be done in order to stay
ahead of the ever-evolving threat. Today’s results from the Administration’s
Cybersecurity Sprint underscore that need. Far too many agencies need to step
up when it comes to strengthening their cyber defenses.” Carper praised
today’s news from the White House, but agreed more work needs to be done.
“Our bill would also enhance and accelerate the deployment of Department of
Homeland Security’s federal cybersecurity program known as EINSTEIN.” he
said. “We know all too well that cybersecurity is not only a sprint, it’s a
marathon. It will take sustained focus, vigilance, and progress to ensure
every federal agency and business is equipped with the capabilities needed to
fend off future cyber attacks.” Over in the House, Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas)
introduced the EINSTEIN Act of 2015 on Wednesday. It would authorize DHS to
deploy its EINSTEIN 3A program. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has called on
Congress to authorize the program’s deployment. From http://federalnewsradio.com/ 07/31/2015 Black
Hat: Hackers Urged to Protect Internet Freedom By Tim Greene Las Vegas -- Security researchers need to fight for the rights
to study, modify and reverse engineer Internet hardware and software or the
general population risks losing Internet freedom, the Black Hat 2015
conference was told. “The dream of Internet freedom is dying,” warned
Jennifer Granick, the Director of Civil Liberties at the Stanford Center for
Internet and Society during the conference keynote. Four things are killing
it: centralization, regulation, globalization and loss of “the freedom to
tinker,” she says. It sounds like hobbyists at play but the freedom to tinker
enables people to dismantle and reverse engineer the hardware and software
that runs the Internet – the bread and butter of Black Hat attendees. But
with laws that forbid purchasers of software from tearing it down to see how
it works, eventually people have access to that information. She cited the
case 10 years ago when researcher Michael Lynn quit his job to give a talk at
Black Hat that Cisco and his then-employer ISS wanted to squelch. He was sued
with the companies making the claim that the software he was examining was theirs,
“and we will tell you what you can do and no more,” she says. The issue was settled out of court but the laws haven’t changed
to protect this type of research, she says. The message is, “You need our
permission to operate in this world. If we don’t like what you’re doing or if
we don’t like you, this law is vague enough for us to come after you.” The
laws, she says, need to change. Researchers are needed to bring about changes
that improve security and ensure better software, not attacked for doing their
work, she says, and they need to take a more active role in making that
happen. Centralization, such as that caused by much of the Internet backbone
being provided by a limited number of large providers, means chokepoints
exist where large streams of data flow through. That means good things like
centralized security to stop spam and cut off distributed denial-of-service
attacks, but also places where governments can gather data. The renewed
governmental attempts for encryption backdoors in backbone-provider networks
is one example of the downside of this centralization, she says. Regulations need to be rethought giving more weight to privacy
and free speech and in the U.S., Congress needs to readjust the balance
between the government’s need to defend the country and personal privacy and
free speech, she says. One promise of the Internet was freely available
information and the ability for anyone to contact anyone else and share
information, she says. But with globalization of the Internet, more and more
countries are able to impose their own regulations that affect everyone. Some
of these countries don’t have freedom of speech or even the rule of law, yet
they will have an influence on how the Internet is used and regulated, she
says. Where one country might seek surveillance of Internet to catch
terrorists, another might use it to prevent dissent and undermine the work of
journalists. These decisions will be made by the powerful who will decide who
gets Internet security and who doesn’t. She says she once viewed the Internet
as a place where age, race and gender wouldn’t be a factor, but she’s found
that discrimination in all these areas has successfully transferred to the
digital realm. From http://www.networkworld.com/ 08/09/2015 UN
Expert Launches Robust Defence of Online Anonymity and Encryption Today, David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of
expression published a major report on encryption and anonymity in the
digital age. ARTICLE 19 welcomes the report as a major step forward for the
protection of the rights to free expression and privacy online. We call on
governments to review their laws, policies and practices and bring them in
line with the Special Rapporteur’s recommendations as soon as possible. “The report
marks an important milestone in the protection of freedom of expression and
the right to privacy online. As the UK government just announced its plans
for increasing surveillance powers, the UN top free expression watchdog has
sharply rebuked Prime Minister Cameron’s earlier promises to ban encryption,”
said Thomas Hughes, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19. “The UN report makes it absolutely clear that attempts by
governments to gain backdoor access to people’s communications or to
intentionally weaken encryption standards violate international law. It is
vital that States review their relevant laws, policies and practices on
anonymity and encryption, to ensure that they protect people’s rights to free
expression and privacy online,” he added. ARTICLE 19 submitted a response to
UN Special Rapporteur’s Call for Comments on Encryption and Anonymity earlier
this year, and noted that where anonymity is not protected, and the use of
encryption is compromised, the exercise of fundamental rights is at risk. Anyone
who wants to express their opinions online should be able to do so
anonymously, to ensure freedom from harassment or reprisal; it is also
essential for journalists protecting their sources, and for whistleblowers
uncovering wrongdoing. ARTICLE 19 welcomes the ground breaking report’s
recommendations, which also reflect our own views on these issues,
particularly the recognition that: Encryption and anonymity are vital enablers of freedom of
opinion and expression: the Special Rapporteur made it clear that an open and
secure Internet should be counted among the leading prerequisites for the
enjoyment of freedom of expression today, and must therefore be protected by
governments. Encryption and anonymity must be strongly protected and promoted
because they provide the privacy and security necessary for the meaningful
exercise of the right to freedom of expression and opinion in the digital age
(see paras.12, 16, 56). Anonymous speech is necessary for human rights defenders,
journalists, and protesters: in particular, the Special Rapporteur
highlighted that attempts to ban or intercept anonymous communications in
times of protest was an unjustified restriction on the right to freedom of
peaceful assembly under the Universal Declaration and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (para. 53). He also recommended that
legislation and regulations protecting human rights defenders and journalists
should include provisions enabling access and providing support to use the
technologies to secure their communications. Restrictions on encryption and
anonymity must meet the three-part test: in particular, the Special
Rapporteur stressed that draft laws and policies providing for restrictions
on encryption or anonymity should be subject to public comment and only be
adopted following a regular – rather than fast track – legislative process.
He also emphasised that strong procedural and judicial safeguards should be
applied to guarantee the due process rights of any individual whose use of
encryption or anonymity is subject to restriction (paras. 31-35). Blanket bans on the individual use of encryption technology
disproportionately restrict the right to freedom of expression: he also noted
that rules (a) requiring licenses for encryption use; (b) setting weak
technical standards for encryption; and (c) controlling the import and export
of encryption tools were tantamount to a blanket ban and therefore a
disproportionate restriction on freedom of expression (paras. 40-41).
Government backdoor access to peoples communications, key escrow systems
(allowing for potential third party access to encryption keys), and the
intentional weakening of encryption standards are disproportionate
restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and privacy. In particular,
the Special Rapporteur highlighted that governments proposing back-door
access had not demonstrated that criminal or terrorist use of encryption
serves as an insurmountable obstacle to law enforcement objectives. Under
international law, States were required to demonstrate, publicly and
transparently, that other less intrusive means (such as wiretaps, physical
surveillance and many others) were unavailable or had failed, and that only
broadly intrusive measures, such as backdoors, would achieve the legitimate
aim. Key escrow systems were also a threat to the secure exercise of the
right to freedom of expression because of the vulnerabilities inherent in
third parties being trusted to keep encryption keys secure, or being required
to hand them over to others (paras 36, 42-44). Blanket prohibitions on anonymity online and compulsory
real-name or SIM card registration go well beyond what is permissible under
international law: on the contrary, the UN Special Rapporteur noted that
because anonymity facilitates opinion and expression in significant ways
online, States should protect it and generally not restrict the technologies
that provide it (paras. 49-51). Imposing intermediary liability for anonymous
comments undermine the right to free expression online: in particular, the
Special Rapporteur noted that the recently adopted Manila Principles on
Intermediary Liability - an initiative spearheaded by ARTICLE 19, EFF, CIS
India, Derechos Digitales and Open Net Korea among others - provided a sound
set of guidelines for States and international and regional mechanisms to
protect expression online (para. 54) The report further acknowledges the role
of corporate actors in protecting and promoting strong encryption standards.
In particular, companies are invited to consider their own policies that
restrict encryption and anonymity. The report will formally be presented to the UN Human Rights
Council during its 29th Session in Geneva on 17 June 2015, when States will
have the opportunity to discuss the findings and recommendations with the
Special Rapporteur. ARTICLE 19 encourages States to proactively engage in
this UN debate, outlining what laws, policies, and practices they would need
to change to fully protect freedom of expression and privacy online. The report
also provides a strong basis for future Human Rights Council action, as well
as for further study and recommendations in this area, including by the new
mandate-holder of UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, who will be
appointed at the Human Rights Council’s 29th Session. ARTICLE 19
congratulates David Kaye on his first report to the Human Rights Council, and
looks forward to working with him over the coming months and years. From http://www.article19.org/ 05/30/2015 The
Authoritarian Surge into Cyberspace In the early days of the Internet, it was difficult to imagine
how authoritarian regimes could cope with such a powerful source of open
information. Today, it is clear that this was a failure of the imagination.
Every year since its first edition in 2011, Freedom House’s Freedom on the
Net has observed declining Internet freedom, even as Internet penetration
continues to expand in many authoritarian countries. Authoritarianism is
alive, well, and increasingly active online. Writing for the July 2015
Journal of Democracy, Citizen Lab Director Ronald Deibert examines the
sources of this “resurgent authoritarianism in cyberspace”—and how to respond
to it. Deibert draws on Citizen Lab analysis describing how authoritarian
regimes restrict access to online information through technological, legal,
and extralegal techniques. Deibert sorts these methods into three
“generations” of information controls: the first generation consists of
“defensive” techniques (like Internet filtering), the second includes legal
measures extending information controls to the private sector, and the third
uses “offensive” techniques (such as targeted cyberattacks on civil society). Deibert notes that the first two generations are gaining wider
acceptance in the international community, in part because they imitate state
activities undertaken in the democratic world. Mass surveillance and Internet
filtering, for example, are used by both democratic and authoritarian
governments to prevent terror attacks and restrict access to pornography.
However, in the absence of democratic accountability, such capabilities are
often misused to suppress independent voices. Deibert also suggests adding a
fourth generation of information controls to the existing three: the growing
influence of authoritarian regimes in Internet governance forums such as the
International Telecommunications Union and the United Nations. Concerns about
this “fourth generation” have been making headlines, especially since the U.S.
government’s announcement that it plans to end its contract with the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and transfer oversight
responsibilities to the international community prompted fears that
authoritarian governments would gain undue influence over the “Internet’s
address book.” Despite concern over authoritarian efforts at the international
level, Deibert warns that an underappreciated threat to Internet freedom
comes from regional initiatives which are far less transparent and receive
much less attention. For example, authoritarian regimes in the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and
the Gulf Cooperation Council have implemented agreements allowing for digital
surveillance of civil society activists and extraterritorial arrest of
political dissidents for their online activities. These violations of user
rights are now facts-on-the-ground. Failure to challenge the legitimacy of
these practices risks allowing them to become normalized as they spread from
region to region. This still leaves open the question of what is driving
authoritarian innovation in cyberspace. Deibert identifies increased
government emphasis on cybersecurity as one driver: cybercrime and terrorism
are serious concerns, and governments have a legitimate interest in
combatting them. Unfortunately, when democratic governments use mass
surveillance and other tools to police cyberspace, it can have the effect of
providing cover for authoritarian regimes to use similar techniques for
repressive purposes—especially, as Deibert notes, since former NSA contractor
Edward Snowden’s disclosure of US mass surveillance programs. Second, Deibert observes that authoritarian demand for
cybersecurity technology is often met by private firms based in the
democratic world—a group that Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls the
“Corporate Enemies of the Internet.” Hacking Team, an Italian firm mentioned
in the RSF report, is just one example: The Guardian reports that leaked
internal documents suggest Hacking Team’s clients include the governments of
“Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the
United Arab Emirates.” Deibert writes that “in a world where ‘Big Brother’
and ‘Big Data’ share so many of the same needs, the political economy of
cybersecurity must be singled out as a major driver of resurgent
authoritarianism in cyberspace.” Given these powerful forces, it will be difficult to reverse the
authoritarian surge in cyberspace. Deibert offers some possible solutions:
for starters, he writes that the “political economy of cybersecurity” can be
altered through stronger export controls, “smart sanctions,” and a monitoring
system to detect abuses. Further, he recommends that cybersecurity trade
fairs open their doors to civil society watchdogs who can help hold
governments and the private sector accountable. Similarly, Deibert suggests
that opening regional cybersecurity initiatives to civil society
participation could mitigate violations of user rights. This might seem
unlikely to occur within some authoritarian-led intergovernmental
organizations, but setting a normative expectation of civil society
participation might help discredit the efforts of bad actors. Deibert
concludes with a final recommendation that society develop “models of
cyberspace security that can show us how to prevent disruptions or threats to
life and property without sacrificing liberties and rights.” This might
restore democratic states to the moral high ground and remove oppressive regimes’
rhetorical cover, but developing such models will require confronting
powerful vested interests and seriously examining the tradeoff between
cybersecurity and Internet freedom. Doing so would be worth it: the Internet
is far too important to cede to authoritarian control. From http://www.resurgentdictatorship.org/
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CHINA: Responding to Report on Cyber Attack If overseas hacking organization OceanLotus is proven guilty for
stealing government information, it will further evidence that China falls
victim to hacker attacks, a Chinese spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying's comment came after a report released
Friday by Chinese Internet company Qihoo 360's SkyEye Labs accused OceanLotus
of launching "elaborately organized" online attacks on China's
marine agencies, scientific research institutions and shipping companies
since April 2012. "If this is true, it will just prove that China is a
victim to hacker attacks," Hua said at a daily news briefing. She reiterated China's opposition to hacking in any form and
said the most effective way to cope with them is international cooperation.
China is willing to better cooperate with the international community on
cyber space security on the basis of mutual respect and trust, formulate
national norms to jointly combat cyber attacks and foster a peaceful, secure,
open and cooperative cyber space.
From http://www.news.cn/
06/02/2015 China Police Tighten Cyber Security China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Tuesday unveiled
measures to fight online crime. The ministry said Chinese Internet users
easily fall victim to cyber attack, Internet fraud and personal information
leakage, among other online crimes, which pose a big threat to national
security and social stability. The MPS vowed to increase cooperation with the
Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology to prevent hacking and ensure data security. It will
also improve surveillance by cyber police to curb illegal activities. The
ministry said it will harshly crack down on pornography, rumors or
information about terrorism, guns or drugs. From http://www.news.cn/
08/04/2015 JAPAN: Pension Data Theft Indicates JPS Lacks Awareness About
Risk of Cyber-Attacks The latest revelation regarding pension data theft from the
Japan Pension Service (JPS) indicates the organization’s complete lack of
awareness about the risk of cyber-attacks. The government must do everything
in its power to prevent a recurrence. Computers used by JPS employees were
targeted, resulting in 1.25 million cases of theft of personal pension data,
including the names, addresses and basic pension numbers of recipients and
subscribers. The data hack occurred after some JPS employees had opened
attachments to e-mails sent to their personal computers at work,
inadvertently infecting their PCs with a computer virus designed to steal
information. The PCs in question were connected to a server that stored all
pertinent personal pension data, allowing an attacker to steal this
information. The attack is believed to have employed what is called “a
targeted e-mail,” a typical trick used in such a cybercrime. Though the JPS
had instructed its workers not to open suspicious e-mails, this instruction
was not observed by all JPS employees. Internal rules set by the JPS include one that requires
employees to insert passwords into personal data files. However, passwords had
not been inserted into files containing personal data in about 550,000 cases.
This negligence must be condemned as a sheer lack of awareness about the
gravity of handling personal information. The latest hack could have been
averted if separate computers had been used to carry out JPS operations — PCs
for sending and receiving e-mails and those for handling personal data. Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga had good reason to criticize the JPS in
connection with the problem, saying, “[The JPS] is not doing what it should.”
If the stolen information is used for unlawful purposes, it would be possible
for a perpetrator to change anyone’s address by using his or her personal
data. It is also feared that an individual’s pension record could be made
known to a person unrelated to him or her. It seems unlikely that the latest
data hack will enable anyone to illegally obtain pension benefits that are
supposed to be paid to proper recipients. However, the information in
question could be used for fraud and other crimes. To prevent irregularities, the JPS plans to change the basic
pension numbers of all pension recipients and subscribers whose information
has been stolen. It is essential to carry out this work in a swift and
appropriate manner so no further confusion will ensue. The Health, Labor and
Welfare Ministry will set up an investigative committee tasked with
identifying the cause of the latest theft and devising ways to prevent a
recurrence. We hope the envisaged panel will identify all problems involved
in the JPS’ information management system. Starting in October, people will
be notified of their individual numbers under the My Number system, which
will be put into actual use next January. The system is designed to manage
all data pertaining to all individuals through a single 12-digit number,
including their income, resident registry data and pension records. The new scheme is to serve as an important tool for such
purposes as making administrative services and activities more efficient and
providing social security benefits in an appropriate manner. The system has
been contrived in a way that ensures each social security-related government
office manages personal information tied to its duties separately from
similar organizations, a method similar to the one used in the past. This is
intended to prevent the theft of a My Number at one government organization
from leading to the hacking of data at other institutions. In response to the
latest hacking problem, economy revitalization minister Akira Amari said,
“Measures will be taken to prevent a similar incident from taking place at
all costs.” However, we believe a considerable number of people are concerned
about the new system. With a view to operating the My Number scheme smoothly,
the government needs to closely reexamine the system and carefully explain
what kind of security measures will be adopted. From http://the-japan-news.com 06/03/2015 Firms Team Up Against Cyber-Attacks About 30 major firms from 15 sectors will launch a committee
Tuesday for possible cooperation against cyber-attacks, as the recent data
theft from the Japan Pension Service (JPS) has reinforced the need for companies
to take all possible measures against cyber-attacks. The new organization was
planned as cyber-attacks have become more sophisticated and difficult cases
are increasing in number, making it harder for each firm to adequately
respond on its own. It is increasingly important for companies to share
information on cyber-attacks to prevent damage. Since the JPS data theft,
major electronics makers Hitachi, Ltd. and NEC Corp. have warned their entire
staff by e-mail about cyber-attack risks. Hitachi has asked employees to
carefully manage confidential information, while NEC warned about the risks
of e-mails targeting specific companies or persons. Amid the increasing
threat of cyber-attacks, Hitachi has occasionally held no-notice “rehearsals”
for its employees since 2012 by sending fake “targeting-type” e-mails. Last autumn, Mitsubishi Corp. and Itochu Corp. employees
received e-mails in which the senders claimed to be sending information about
how much the individuals had paid for medical treatment. Their personal
information was stolen after some employees opened the files attached to the
e-mails. To fight cyber-attacks, many companies have shifted to teaming up
with other firms. NTT Corp. called for the foundation of the new body, the
first meeting of which is scheduled for as soon as Tuesday. The organization
will foster anti-cyber-attack specialists, and plans to seek the cooperation
of universities in establishing educational programs to nurture engineers
needed in the various business fields. Ahead of the latest efforts, six
companies and organizations established the Nippon CSIRT Association in 2007
to share information on cyber-attacks. The 85 current member bodies include
manufacturers, financial institutions and information technology firms, with
the list including major names such as Hitachi, NEC, Nippon Life Insurance
Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. About 30 more companies are waiting on screening to join the
organization. Mizuho Bank Ltd. joined the association in 2012 and was able to
prevent a specific cyber-attack on its organization, as it had obtained
information about overseas incidents through the CSIRT. Attackers’ tactics
vary, but companies will be able to take countermeasures if they can
immediately recognize what kind of attacks are occurring. Also, the early
collection of information on an attack is important, as multiple major firms
in the same industry are often targeted at one time. CSIRT’s projects are
coordinated by the JPCERT Coordination Center, an incorporated association
that supports corporate countermeasures for cyber-attacks. “If companies
can’t defend themselves against cyber-attacks, they will suffer huge damage
to their corporate image and losses such as data outflow,” said Takuho
Mitsunaga, manager of JPCERT’s Watch and Warning Group. “They should lose no
time in taking preventive measures.” From http://the-japan-news.com 06/05/2015 Prevent Cyber Crimes Targeting IP Phone Users Via Public-Private
Cooperation There has been a flurry of cases in which IP phone users have
been overcharged by significant amounts after their phones, which use
Internet connections, were hacked. Hackers use such tactics as breaking into
a switchboard that connects a telephone to the Internet, and then giving
instructions to make international calls automatically by controlling the
phones remotely. In the case of international calls, domestic telecommunications
carriers collect fees from IP phone users, and then pay part of the fee to
phone companies in the overseas destination. Some countries employ a system
in which part of the phone charges are paid to receivers as a fee for
information. Criminal organizations are suspected of reaping profits through
the fraudulent use of this system. We cannot overlook the rampant nature of
heinous cyber crimes, targeting telephones, easily accessible household
items. The telecommunications industry and supervisory authorities should
cooperate closely in improving countermeasures. Using such means as
fiber-optic networks, IP phones transmit and receive voices in the form of
digital signals. As the charges for calls are comparatively low, the use of
IP phones is widespread in Japan, with the number of IP phone contracts
accounting for more than 50 percent of fixed-phone contracts. NTT East and West said they have confirmed at least 130 cases of
this type of hacking since last fiscal year. But the amount the damage caused,
including that of other carriers, remains unclear. One IP phone hacking
victim was asked by NTT East to pay more than ¥2.5 million, with the carrier
claiming that the victim made 15,000 phone calls to Africa over a matter of
three days. On a contractual basis, the phone user had no choice but to pay
that bill. But why did the carrier not suspend the phone calls as the number
of international calls was obviously abnormal. Surely there are many IP phone
users who are dissatisfied with the explanations given by carriers. In many
cases, users charged large amounts had asked the two NTT carriers to suspend
international calls, but ended up suffering further damage as the carriers
were too slow in processing the requests. The decision of the two carriers to
agree to partially compensate victims is reasonable, as the refund covers the
period between when users requested the suspension of overseas calls and when
such services actually ceased. Telephone carriers should check the user’s status of phone calls
and take measures to suspend the phone lines promptly if the frequency of
international calls is extremely unusual. It also is important for both telecom carriers and phone sales
companies to explain the danger of illegal access by hackers and measures to
prevent this from happening. Users should take such self-protection measures
as changing passwords, needed when gaining access to an IP phone switchboard,
to ones that are more difficult for others to work out. This type of damage
was particularly severe in March, and involved IP phones installed by a Tokyo
phone sales company. But it was already in July when the Internal Affairs and
Communications Ministry requested, in written form, that telecom carriers
reinforce measures against this type of hacking. The ministry acted far too
late. The ministry must prevent the damage caused by cyber crimes from
spreading by sharing relevant information with such organizations as the
Consumer Affairs Agency and the police. From http://the-japan-news.com/ 07/14/2015 Public-Private Joint Efforts Needed to Foster Cybersecurity
Specialists Damage from cyber-attacks has become serious. All-out efforts
must be made jointly by the public and private sectors to bolster protection
measures against them. The government has drafted a new strategy on
cybersecurity, with Cabinet approval scheduled for early September. The
strategy calls for strengthening the functions of the National Center of
Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity (NISC), which serves as the
control tower for the government’s cybersecurity policy, to expand the
coverage for its audits and surveillance from the central government offices
alone to independent administrative agencies and special corporations. A
“ready reserve team” will be established to cope with crises. The team will
consist of personnel from the private and public sectors who are engaged in
everyday jobs at ordinary times and equipped with high abilities of analyzing
information and carrying out cybersecurity measures. They will be gathered in
times of emergency. The team should conduct training repeatedly to enhance
effectiveness. Based on a lesson from a massive data breach at the Japan
Pension Service that compromised information on some 1.25 million
subscribers, a new system will be put in place to prevent data breaches even
if a targeted e-mail is opened. It is essential to build a system that will
enable early discovery of computer virus infections to prevent the range of
virus intrusions from expanding. There were 264 cyber-attacks on government
offices in fiscal 2014, which were threatening to cause serious damage such
as information leaks. This was about double the figure recorded in the
previous fiscal year. Beginning in October, individuals will be notified of the numbers
assigned to them before the so-called My Number system for social security
and tax goes into force next January. There is deep concern among the people
about potential leaks of such personal information. The Ise-Shima G-7 summit
will be held in Japan next year while the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games
are set for 2020. The budget for implementation of measures against
cyber-attacks and the personnel for that purpose urgently need to be
augmented. The new cybersecurity strategy calls on private companies to also
beef up measures against cyber-attacks. In addition to fostering engineering
specialists, the strategy calls for information to be shared thoroughly and
promptly between public and private sectors and among firms in times of
cyber-attacks. A system will be introduced under which cybersecurity measures
taken by businesses are evaluated objectively by a third-party body. Active
cooperation is called for on the part of individual companies in this regard. Cybersecurity is now a common agenda for the international
community. The government’s strategy will reportedly call for deepening
cooperation with other countries, including the United States and Southeast
Asian nations, to effectively counter international terrorist groups that
abuse cyberspace. The United States is especially advanced in this field.
Even so, personal information on more than 20 million people was recently
compromised when the entity in charge of administration of personnel affairs
for a government-related organization suffered a cyber-attack. It is
necessary to exchange information steadily with the United States on various
examples of damage and prevention measures so that what is learned from the
exchange can be used effectively as steps to be taken domestically. Setting
international rules on cyberspace is also important. China and North Korea,
among others, are said to have been committing organized cyber-attacks on
other countries. It is not easy to make rules with the participation of such
countries, but it is necessary to proceed with negotiations tenaciously to
achieve the goal. From http://the-japan-news.com 08/21/2015 SOUTH KOREA: Setting Up Security Plan for Internet of Things The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning on Wednesday
unveiled a three-year plan for information security in the coming Internet of
Things era that connects all mobile and electronic devices through the
Web. The government also plans to support the development of key technologies
as part of its efforts to nurture related industries as the next growth
engines. Under the plan, the ministry will offer a set of guidelines to be
used for the whole process of production, distribution and maintenance of all
IoT services and products. A certification system will be adopted for
the wider use of the guidelines, while an advisory committee, consisting of
experts in the field, will be set up to support the plan. The ministry
also plans to pour resources into securing fundamental technologies for IoT
security, including information coding, security system operation and privacy
protection. Further, a new R&D center will be set up for companies to
test-drive their new technologies. “In the IoT era, security is not an
option, but an essential safety measure,” said Chung Han-geun, the ministry’s
information security chief. “This will be the first year to start related
efforts.” From http://www.koreaherald.com 06/10/2015 Spy Agency to Release Usage Record of Hacking Programs South Korea's top spy agency said Friday that it will show the
usage records of controversial hacking programs to lawmakers in coming days,
a rare move to back up its claims that it has never used the programs to
monitor civilians. The National Intelligence Service said the usage records
of the hacking software are classified, but it will allow lawmakers to see
them as "an emergency measure." "It will become clear that the
NIS did not carry out surveillance of civilians once" the lawmakers see
the records, the spy agency said in a statement. "There is no reason to
lie." The statement came amid lingering controversy over the hacking
software programs the spy agency purchased from an Italian hacking firm in
2012. The software program uses Remote Control System technology, which could
allow hackers to manipulate and track smartphones and computers by installing
spyware. The NIS said it bought the programs that can be used to hack into up
to 20 mobile phones simultaneously and said the programs are designed to work
through the Italian company. The spy agency said 97 agencies from 35
different countries have bought the hacking software programs from the
Italian company, though no country is as mired in controversy as South Korea.
It did not name the other 95 agencies. From http://www.koreaherald.com 07/17/2015 |
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MALAYSIA: Govt Spyware Use Unconstitutional, Call for Action THE news that the Malaysian Government uses spyware developed by
a Milan-based company called Hacking Team has got an Internet rights
organisation calling for an independent probe, while a lawyer pointed out
that such use on citizens would be unconstitutional. Khairil Yusof (pic),
cofounder of the Sinar Project, an NGO (non-governmental organisation) that
advocates transparency in governance, said that Members of Parliament (MPs)
should call for the establishment of a bipartisan parliament oversight
committee to ensure that the Government “is not doing anything illegal, in
this case digital spying of citizens.” “There must be a PAC inquiry on this,
and the findings made public on possible unconstitutional government
actions,” he told Digital News Asia (DNA) via email, referring to the
Malaysian Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC). “We also repeat the
call that there is a strong need for a civil society digital rights watchdog,
with technical and legal capacity to ensure continuous monitoring and to hold
government accountable for issues such as this,” he added. News that Malaysian government entities had been using Hacking
Team’s spyware broke after the Italian company was hacked over the weekend,
and details posted on its Twitter feed. Note that as at press time, the
Hacking Team website was offline, although because it uses CloudFlare
technology, snapshots of some sections like its Customer Policy page could be
viewed. Hacking Team said it goes to “great lengths” to ensure that its
Remote Control System (RCS) software is not sold to repressive regimes or
those with questionable human rights records, but The Guardian reported that
in 2013, Reporters without Borders named the company as one of the “corporate
enemies of the Internet.” The leaked information showed that it has sold its
software to countries such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Honduras, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman,
Panama, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United
Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan. Other RCS customers include the Australian
Federal Police, the Defence Department and Drug Enforcement Agency in the
United States, the South Korean Army, and even the Infocomm Development
Authority of Singapore (IDA). Three Malaysian government entities were named in these records:
The Malaysia (sic) AntiCorruption Commission, the Prime Minister (sic) Office
and an unknown entity known only as Malaysia Intelligene (sic). The Malaysian
Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is no longer an active customer, and it is
not known why the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) would see the need for
spyware. These purchases were routed through a Shah Alam-based company called
Miliserv Technologies, which despite its name, describes itself as being in
the business of supplying and installing telecommunications equipment,
according to records with the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM). The
company was registered in 2005, with a total authorised capital of RM1
million, of which RM750,000 has been issued. [RM1 = US$0.26 at current
rates]. Constitutional issues Currently, it is not known exactly what the implicated
government entities were using Hacking Team’s RCS software for, but civil
liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan (pic above) said that if it was indeed true
that the Malaysian Government was spying on its people, “then major
violations of our fundamental liberties would have taken place.” “Article 5
of the Federal Constitution provides that all persons have the right to life
and personal liberty. Personal liberty here includes the right to privacy, as
recognised by the Federal Court,” he said. “So the law recognises the right
to privacy. Spying on citizens is a violation to this right to privacy. As
such, it contravenes Article 5 of the Federal Constitution (PDF link),” he
told DNA via Facebook. When asked what recourse was open to Malaysian
citizens, Syahredzan said they would first have to obtain proof that the
Government was indeed spying on the people. “Undoubtedly, this would not be
an easy task. The Government would not readily admit such a thing. “But if
proof is somehow obtained, then the subject can bring the case to court by
suing the Government. “Outside of the courts, citizens can always pressure
the Government to reveal whether it has indeed spied on its citizens.
Non-violent actions such as protests and petitions may be useful to advocate
for the Government to respect our privacy rights. “Unfortunately, the right
to privacy is not a big ticket issue in Malaysia, so there are not many
‘privacy activists’ out there,” he added, echoing the views of Sinar
Project’s Khairil. When asked if the use of spyware such as RCS could be legitimate
if only used against foreign nationals, Syahredzan said that it would still
constitute a violation of constitutional rights. “Certain rights are accorded
to all persons, not just Malaysians, and the right to life and personal
liberty is one such right,” he said. The Malaysian Government has been
tightening and strengthening some of its security laws over the last few
years, citing the need to combat terrorism and violent crime. It introduced
the Prevention of Terrorism Bill (POTA), amended the Sedition Act which it
had previously promised to repeal, and amended the Security Offences (Special
Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma). The Sosma amendments legitimise wire-tapping
against suspected ‘hardcore criminals’ and human traffickers, although the
law itself was first passed as an anti-terrorism and national security
measure. When asked if the Government could legitimise spyware use if it came
under Sosma, Syahredzan said the law does allow the Government to intercept
communications, but for ‘security offences’ –terrorism, treason and so on.
“More worryingly, the Criminal Procedure Code allows the State to intercept,
listen or record any message or communication received through any
communication if it is likely to contain any information relating to the
commission of a crime,” he said. “Worse still is the fact that the State can
use this information against the person in court. These provisions have not
been challenged in court, but I believe that they are in fact
unconstitutional for being in breach of Article 5 [of the Federal
Constitution],” he added. Not the first time According to a research report from The Citizen Lab, Hacking
Team’s RCS can capture data that is stored on a target’s computer even if the
target never sends the information over the Internet. It can copy files from
a computer’s hard disk, record Skype calls, e-mails, instant messages, and
passwords typed into a web browser. Furthermore, RCS can turn on a device’s
webcam and microphone to spy on the target. This is not the first time
Citizen Lab, from the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs,
has looked into spyware use. In 2013, it traced command and control (C+C)
servers for the FinFisher (aka FinSpy) spyware from UK-based Gamma
International to 25 countries, including Malaysia. Citizen Lab however noted
that the discovery of a FinSpy C+C server in a given country cannot
conclusively indicate that the country is using FinSpy on its citizens. Much
like RCS, FinSpy captures information from an infected computer, such as
passwords and Skype calls, and sends the information to a FinSpy C+C server.
In March 2013, industry regulator the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia
Commission (MCMC) initiated an investigation against news portal The
Malaysian Insider for running a report that said the Malaysian Government was
using FinFisher to spy on its own citizens, based on a blog post in the New
York Times. Be that as it may, in May 2013, cybersecurity firm F-Secure noted
that Gamma company executives were present at the ISS World 2011 surveillance
software trade show in Kuala Lumpur. The MCMC had not responded to DNA’s
request for comments on the Hacking Team issue as at press time. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 07/08/2015 SINGAPORE: Workers Say Work-Confidential Information at Risk -
Survey SECURITY intelligence and analytics company LogRhythm said 58%
of Singapore workers indicate that work-confidential information is at risk,
according to a survey it conducted. The permission-based online study across
Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong also revealed that 52% of the respondents
reported ‘security events’ in the last few years. Security events could be a
breach, virus attack or unauthorised access of information, LogRhythm said in
a statement. In the same study, 21% of Singaporean workers admitted to
looking at documents they shouldn’t be while at work, and 14% admitted to
having accessed or taken confidential documents without proper authority. “It
is worrying to see such a high percentage of workers indicating that they
believe information security is at risk,” said Bill Taylor-Mountford,
LogRhythm vice president for Asia Pacific and However, the study also revealed that 41% of Singapore workers
are also more likely to keep their passwords in an unsecure place, thus
reflecting a disparity in views between that of higher management and their
workers. “Information security needs to be a coordination between the
organisation and its people,” said Taylor-Mountford (pic). “Think of the
organisation as the castle, and the information as the treasure. It is no use
having the best walls and moats around the castle but your guards leave the
key to the side door outside the castle. “In our study, 94% believe that the
greatest threats to data security are employee-related. It is not easy to
detect internal threats so organisations need tools that will help them
reduce the time to detect such threats and manage [them] before they can
cause further damage,” he added. It is important that organisations are
constantly educating and reminding employees of data or information security
as 44% say that they don’t even think about it. In the same study, 73% of
Singaporean workers also indicated that they had changed passwords within the
last six months. This puts the nation ahead of Hong Kong (56%) and on par
with Australia (73%). Singapore workers also change their passwords more
frequently, with 69% changing their passwords at least once a year. In Hong
Kong and Australia, only 56% and 59% respectively do so once a year. “Another
interesting finding is that only 1% of passwords are automatically changed
and generated by company security in Singapore,” said Taylor-Mountford.
“While we try to educate on the importance of password hygiene to workers, it
will help if the organisations have systems in place to ‘force’ the change,”
he added. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 08/27/2015 VIETNAM: Businesses Spend More on Data Security Turnover for security software in Viet Nam reached US$16.6
million last year, an increase of nearly 12 per cent compared with 2013,
according to a recent report from International Data Corporation (IDC). The
same growth is expected for 2015, especially for cloud computing-based
applications. The IDC survey for software markets in the last six months of
2014 in Asia Pacific showed that expenditures for network security, including
intrusion prevention systems and firewall applications, had increased nearly
20 per cent in 2014 compared to 2013. "Vietnamese companies focused on
protecting end-using devices and network security while reducing expenditures
for web and messaging security," Ha Ngoc Khuong, market analyst of IDC
Viet Nam, said. In 2014, the end-using devices security market grew 12.4 per
cent, largely due to purchases from Government offices and communication companies.
Local enterprises' increased investment for big data and cloud computing was
expected to increase turnover for security. For the last six months of 2014, security for end-using devices
on the public cloud increased 102 per cent compared with the same period in
2013. It is expected to reach growth of 74 per cent in 2015. Meanwhile, local
companies are still in the first stages of applying business mobiles and
developing a strategic route for implementation of enterprise mobile
foundation. According to an IDC survey released at the Viet Nam Enterprise
Mobility Breakfast Briefing early this week, there will be modest growth in
mobile solution implementation this year. "Mobile solutions are very
important for local enterprises because it will help them increase business
efficiency," Vo Le Tam Thanh of IDC Viet Nam said. "Enterprises
should have the right mobile strategy to catch up with the current mobile
environment," Daniel Pang, director of Mobile Devices Study Group for
IDC ASEAN, said. "There are many enterprises still focusing on
connections with their customers through PCs, but they should move to mobile
devices because this year we'll see 650 million people in Asia-Pacific using
only the mobile internet," he said. Expenditures for mobile enterprises
are expected to reach over US$22 billion in 2015 in the region. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
06/13/2015 Cyber Criminals Change Tactics to Lure Unsuspecting Companies Cyber criminals have changed their tactics to deceive companies
and digitally extort consumers, according to Symantec's Internet Security
Threat Report (ISTR), Volume 20. "We are seeing a dramatic shift in the
mode of attacks. Attackers have tricked companies into infecting themselves
through Trojanised software updates, hiding their malware inside software
updates of programmes used by target organisations. This enables cyber
criminals to gain full access to corporate networks without the need to even
make any forced entry," said Ong Jonghan, Country Director for Vietnam
Symantec. "Viet Nam climbed up the global threat rankings from 11 in
2013 to 9 last year among countries globally on internet security threat
activities. This is a clear indication that cyber criminals have not slowed
down but are constantly innovating and enhancing their modes of attacks. With
the growing population of internet users, there is a critical need to
increase more awareness around cybersecurity among businesses and consumers
in Viet Nam," Ong added. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
06/13/2015 Watchdog
Warns of TV Shopping Risks The Viet Nam Competition Authority has warned consumers to be
careful when shopping via television channels (TV shopping) as it may pose a
threat to their consumer rights. TV shopping has become increasingly popular
in recent years in Viet Nam. However, the competition authority has pointed
out that the greatest problems posed by TV shopping are false advertising,
lack of clarity in the origin of products, deceptive reward programmes, and
ignorance of consumers' complaints. The authority said that when shopping via
TV channels, consumers have no opportunity to test the products directly, so
they may end up disappointed by the products' quality or usefulness, which
could differ greatly from what was advertised. Many products sold through TV
channels have been found to be of unclear origin and poor quality, the
authority said. According to consumers' claims, some of the rewards they had
received from TV shopping networks were fake or low-quality products, or the
customers had to pay a sum of money to receive the rewards. In addition, some firms were also ignorant of customers'
attempts to return products even though regulations stipulate that consumers
have a right to unilaterally terminate the contract within ten days if the
product is not the same as what was advertised. A variety of products are
sold via TV shopping, such as cosmetics, jewellery, supplementary foods,
watches and gym equipment. According to the competition authority, consumers
should verify information in advertisements before purchasing products via TV
shopping networks. In particular, customers should be careful with products
for daily use which are sold at extraordinarily high prices, such as
shampoos, rinses, skin creams and home appliances, as well as products which
were advertised as premium quality. Consumers can dial 1-800-6838 for support
from a consultant, or they can send their claims to the competition authority
via the website www.bvntd.vca.gov.vn or email bvntd@moit.gov.vn. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
06/16/2015 Domestic
Bank Websites Contain Security Glitches Thirty per cent of Vietnamese bank websites have security
loopholes, according to the country's top internet security firm, BKAV. Of
those, two thirds are at high or medium risk of having their security
breached. The most dangerous loophole that bank websites are facing is SQL
Injection, which allows hackers to directly attack websites' data. Others,
including Cross Site Scripting (XSS) and Open Redirection, could take control
over a site or redirect visitors to a spam site. A large number of websites
with loopholes were newly established or being restructured. These types of
sites didn't have the money to invest in website security, said Ngo Tuan Anh,
deputy director of the firm's Internet security division. It was necessary to
set aside from 5 per cent to 10 per cent of budgets for internet security for
IT projects, said Anh, adding that repair work was even more costly and
time-consuming. BKAV sent warnings and instructions to at-risk banks, Anh said.
There were more than 23,500 new computer viruses in Viet Nam in the first
half of this year. These viruses have infected nearly 31 million computers.
Meanwhile, 2,790 agency and enterprise websites were hacked. Of those, 34
were websites with government domains and 122 were for educational
organisations. Spam messages The number of spam messages sent each day was reported at 13.9
million – higher than last year's average of 13.5 million, according to BKAV.
According to the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, one million
spammers were blocked in the first half of the year. Spam messages about real
estate increased in the first half. Fake Facebook pages About 40 fake Facebook pages on average appeared each day in the
first half of this year, according to BKAV. The pages aim to steal passwords
to swindle money and spread spam messages. BKAV experts recommended that
customers verify information when receiving promotion messages and should not
recharge prepaid mobiles on unreliable websites. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
08/08/2015 |
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INDIA: Net Neutrality War Rages
on in mygov.in Thursday is the the last day for submitting comments and
suggestions to the government on mygov.in, as a huge debate is going on
regarding Net Neutrality. The deadline was extended by five days on August 15
after a lot of people came up with their comments. As of now, around 70,000
people have submitted their comments and suggestions on the issue. In the
month of April, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had received
more than one million comments with a large number of people demanding
implementation of ideal net neutrality. Net neutrality calls for an equal
treatment to all the internet traffic without any special favours to an
entity or firm on the basis of payment for content or service providers such
as telecom companies, which seems unjust. The expert panel has proposed
regulation of domestic calls through internet-based apps like Skype, Whatsapp
and Viber putting them on par with services offered by telecom operator.
However, the committee has suggested a free approach to app-based
international calls. As per the data from TRAI, the pricing difference is
around 12.5 times in the case of a voice call and 16 times for messages
between services offered by telecom operators and Over-the-top (OTT) players.
Net Neutrality became a bone of contention in the wake of Bharti Airtel
announcing a plan to include separate charges for VoIP calls at standard
rates. The government will now take the decision after going through the
public opinion and recommendations of TRAI. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/20/2015 |
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AZERBAIJAN: Working Toward
Cyber-Security In today’s world where the issue of security transfers to the
virtual reality, superpowers blame each other over allegation of cyber terror
- cyber spies are now the new danger. A global system of the Internet that
now links several billion devices worldwide has experienced sustained
exponential growth from the early 1990s. The rapid development of technology
and the widespread use of computer devices are changing the world every day
and thus challenge all and every entity involved to rethink safety.
Everything is now connected to the Internet and its danger may affect anyone.
Today, Azerbaijan is one of the leading countries implementing high
technology in the region. The country is confidently striving to enter the
world’s ICT race. In Azerbaijan, internet penetration started its victorious
conquest some 10 years ago, as the country’s economy stabilized after gaining
independence. Today, over 70 percent of Azerbaijan's population has access to
the Internet and 50 percent are broadband internet users - twice the world
average. The country is now developing its broadband Internet project,
which aims to bring Azerbaijani Internet to the level of developed countries
by 2017. This is a new challenge for Internet users in this Southern Caucasus
country. In Azerbaijan, the population is highly computerized and computer
skills have become a major requirement for all applicants. Internet literacy
in the country is also developing, as well as computer literacy is increasing
in schools, for both pupils and teachers. “Taking into account the fact that
we live in the information age, internet literacy in the country is
increasing day by day,” the Cyber Security Center told AzerNews. The Center's
representative said skills in using the Internet have developed since the use
of ICT and Internet has been simplified and the burden of business processes
has been reduced in different areas and institutions of the country. The
cyber security center, created in 2013, aims to protect users from online
threats, malware cyber-attacks and other adversities. Widespread access to
programs that are not preventing information security violation and do not
meet safety requirements of the global Internet network development, shows
that danger is imminent, the source said. Due to Internet freedom - the right to obtain access to the
Internet and the information which is fully provided, Azerbaijan has seen
certain risks emerged. Cybercrimes have become an actual reality and
Azerbaijan has had to contend with this threat. “Cybercrimes know no
boundaries, and this has created obstacles in identifying perpetrators. Unfortunately,
there are no international rules in this sphere”, the source said, noting the
more Internet users, the more cyber threats we have. “In Azerbaijan, the
fight against cybercrime is a matter of national security. In order to combat
cybercrime more effectively, Azerbaijan has signed the Cybercrime Convention
of the Council of Europe in 2008. At the same time, certain points have been
added to the Criminal Code on cyber crime,” the Center’s representative said.
To fight cybercrime in the country, the cyber security center raises
awareness about the dangers and educates Internet users. In addition, the
organization is working with persons exposed to cybercrime to solve problems.
At the same time, CERT ensures coordination in information security of Internet
providers working across the country. At a time when e-commerce is developing in Azerbaijan,
cybercrime affects both business and consumers. “The largest and most
influential companies engaged in electronic commerce, which made online
business a part of their business use certain technologies to ensure the
safety of the e-shopping process. By this, they are calling consumers to use
ICT opportunities more confidently in the process of online shopping.” One
more threat of the electronic era is the so-called cyberwar. Azerbaijan has
been faced with hacker attacks mostly from abroad and on state holidays.
Speaking about this, the source said that there are four organizations in
Azerbaijan dealing with safety in the information environment of the state and
non-state enterprises, as well as individual Internet users, and fighting
with cybercrimes. The Cyber Security Center, the Computer Emergency Response
Team, AzScienceCert, and AzEdunet analyze existing threats and immediately
remove them, she said, emphasizing that this is protecting the country from
possible cyber attacks. From http://www.azernews.az/
05/28/2015 Information Security in Focus of Baku Conference Today's realities are forcing companies to take a fresh look at
the issues of information security and the choice of appropriate solutions.
This statement came from Ruslan Gabitov, the consulting manager for Central
Asia and Azerbaijan at the International Data Corporation during the opening
of the fourth annual international conference IDC IT Security and Datacenter
Transformation Roadshow 2015 in Baku on June 5. The conference is dedicated
to information security and data center transformation. “For customers the
greatest significance still represent the issues related to opposition to
targeted attacks and ensuring the continuous operation of mission-critical
business processes, as well as the protection of sensitive data,” Gabitov
said. “An additional challenge to experts throws ubiquitous spreading of
cloud and virtual infrastructures, as well as the widespread use of mobile
access to corporate resources. I am sure today's event will facilitate the fight
against new threats and equip you with useful information,” he added. Elmir
Velizade, Deputy Minister of Communications and High Technologies, addressed
the audience with a welcoming speech. Mark Yates, a leading analyst of IT in
the public sector and retail trade, Central and Eastern Europe, IDC, talked
about the digital transformation of the organization and new trends. Partners of the conference presented their reports on new
products and solutions for public and private companies in Azerbaijan. The
conference was attended by over 100 people from the public and the private
sector in Azerbaijan, including directors of information technology and
information security, IT managers, engineers and specialists in information
security. The conference was held under the strategic support of the
Azerbaijani Communications and High Technologies Ministry. International Data
Corporation is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory
services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and
consumer technology markets. More than 1000 IDC analysts provide global,
regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and
trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 50 years, IDC has
provided strategic insights to IT professionals, business executives, and the
investment community to help them achieve their key business objectives. From http://www.azernews.az/
06/05/2015 Azerbaijan Launches New Service for Information Security Azerbaijan Cyber Security Center has launched a new online
service for information security entitled Malware Lab, CERT reported. The new
service allows users to scan for suspicious files and malware codes as well as
to detect unauthorized access to computers. Malware Lab will combine a number
of functions. The primary version of the service involves the use of analysis
tools to professionally analyze malicious codes; the next version will allow
users to analyze suspicious files using multi-interface software. The service
will include modules to scan and provide information about viruses, as well
as analyze processes and Internet traffic. At present, users can already
enjoy four e-services by CERT. Among them are an “Online code generator,”
“Password Security,” “My IP-address,” and “Infected IP.” The Center plans to
launch another e-service entitled “Virtual Test,” which will be aimed at
improving skills and knowledge in the field of information security.
Participants who score highly in the test will be able to practice applying
to the CERT or get hired. The Cyber Security Center was established under the
Communication and Information Technologies Ministry in September 2012. The
Center engages in coordinating the action of information infrastructure
subjects, reporting about existing and potential risks at the country level,
educating public, private, and other institutions in the field of cyber
security and providing methodological assistance to them. From http://www.azernews.az/
08/04/2015 |
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AUSTRALIA: Government Seeks to
Boost Security of Telco Infrastructure The
government has progressed long-mooted reforms that will compel the
telecommunications industry to take steps to protect network infrastructure.
The Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015 will amend
the Telecommunications Act 1997 to strengthen the current framework for
managing national security risks to Australia’s telecommunications networks.
In a 2013 report, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and
Security had recommended that the government create a telecommunications
security framework. That framework would include an obligation to protect
infrastructure and data passing through it, compel industry to provide the
government with information to assess national security risks to telco
infrastructure and a penalty regime to include compliance. In its report
earlier this year that rubber-stamped the introduction of data retention, the
PJCIS included as a recommendation that the government enact the
'Telecommunications Sector Security Reforms' (TSSR) prior to the end of the
implementation phase for data retention. The
government indicated it supported the recommendation. "TSSR is designed
to ensure the security and integrity of Australia’s telecommunication
infrastructure by encouraging ongoing awareness and responsibility for
network security by the telecommunication industry, and will extend to
provide better protection of information held by industry in accordance with
data retention obligations," the submission from the Attorney-General's
Department to the data retention inquiry stated. "TSSR will impose an
obligation on service providers to do their best to prevent unauthorised
access and unauthorised interference to telecommunications networks and
facilities, including where the provider outsources functions." The bill
unveiled last week will enhance existing information sharing and
relationships between government and telecommunications carriers, carriage
service providers and carriage service intermediaries (C/CSPs) to "ensure
greater consistency, transparency and accountability for managing national
security risks across all parts of the telecommunications sector," a
draft explanatory memorandum states. Communications
Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the bill will provide a security framework to
strengthen the government’s ability to manage national security risks to
telecommunications networks by: Obliging all carriers, carriage service
providers and carriage service intermediaries to do their best to protect
their networks from unauthorised access and interference. Requiring carriers
to notify security agencies of key changes to networks and management systems
that could adversely affect their ability to protect their networks.
Providing the Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department with direction
and information gathering powers, enforceable by a civil penalty regime. “This
framework builds on existing obligations in the Telecommunications Act 1997
and will be implemented via a collaborative partnership with industry,
involving increased engagement and information sharing with government
agencies,” a statement issued on behalf of the communications minister and
Attorney-General George Brandis said. Government agencies would also provide
general and targeted threat assessments and mitigation advice to assist
telecommunications carriers and carriage service providers to manage risks to
their networks. The regulatory framework would be supported by administrative
guidelines, which are being developed in consultation with the
telecommunications industry, the statement said. "These guidelines will
help carriers and carriage service providers understand which parts of their
networks are particularly vulnerable to unauthorised access and interference.
They would also provide guidance on the controls and measures that can be
implemented to manage these vulnerabilities," the statement said. According
to the government, the reforms will ensure that businesses, individuals and
the public sector can continue to rely on telecommunication networks to store
and transmit data securely. However, implementation will be based on a regime
of industry consultation, advice and guidelines. “The new regulatory powers
of direction will only be used as a last resort, to protect the national interest,”
the government's statement said. The Attorney-General’s Department is
conducting a public consultation on the bill. From
http://www.computerworld.com.au
06/29/2015 Government, Industry Looking at
Ways to Counter Cybersecurity Threats Talks
today between the federal government and business leaders have set in train
initiatives to strengthen measures to combat cybersecurity threats across
Australia. The discussions on potential future strategies to strengthen the
Australia’s cyber security landscape follow the inaugural cybersecurity
summit initiated by the Prime Minister Tony Abbott in July. The government
has said it will release a new national cybersecurity strategy later this
year. Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, Christian Porter, who
chaired today’s industry roundtable, said the meeting considered ways to
share critical information about cyber threats and enable rapid response to
issues. Today’s roundtable was attended by 22 industry and business leaders
who told the July summit that they wanted national leadership and a
coordinated approach to address cyber security threats, including a strong
partnership between the government, businesses and the research community. “Today
the Government started in earnest the process of engaging business leaders to
work with government to co-design a range of practical initiatives” Porter
said. “We considered ways to share critical information about cyber threats
and enable rapid response to issues. We shared ideas about identifying best
practice cyber security for Australian businesses and we also talked about
ways to grows Australia’s cyber security workforce and meet critical job
needs. Importantly, we discussed the role that innovation plays in growing
economic opportunities for Australian businesses and developing home-grown
cyber security capability. We will continue to develop these ideas and
feedback from the summit and today’s meeting will inform a new Cyber Security
Strategy, to be released later this year.” Porter said the federal government
is investing in cyber security initiatives to support businesses and the
community, with investments to date including $14.6 million in the Australian
Cyber Security Centre, $3 million for cybercrime reporting and $10 million on
countering email spam and online scams. From
http://www.itwire.com
08/06/2015 Australian Businesses Under Cyber
Attack Cyber
criminals don’t stand still, and neither do the people who protect
organisations against them. We caught up with six analysts and security
experts to ask them about the current risk factors in Australia and New
Zealand. We asked each person four questions – and got more than 8,000 words
of transcript in response. What follows here is a representative selection of
their answers to those questions. It makes for interesting and sobering
reading. What are the main cyber crime
risks in Australia and New Zealand at the moment? Jason
Ha, national manager, security practice, at Dimension Data, says:
“Previously, we might have seen solo skilled hackers with a fair amount of
know-how. Now it’s more like a sophisticated marketplace, in which anyone can
reasonably easily buy cyber crime services. Now we have a scenario where they
are innovating, with quite advanced online presence, impressive websites and
24/7 customer support. They almost look like Amazon, with rating systems,
feedback, commentary. It’s a professional marketplace and we’re seeing highly
targeted spear phishing attacks come out of it.” According to Anne Robins,
research director at Gartner, from a topical point of view, ransomware is
getting a lot of interest. “That’s especially so in the SME [small to
medium-sized enterprise] market, perhaps more than for larger organisations.
Australia is the second most commonly attacked country after the US for
ransomware now. This is starting to get picked up and generate a level of
interest, but those who are more likely to be hit aren’t the ones that are
aware of the risk.” Charles
Lim, senior industry analyst for information and cyber security Asia-Pacific
at Frost & Sullivan, agrees: “An estimated 50-60% of the globally
generated attacks [using] ransomware were detected in Australia.” For Bryce
Boland, Apac CTO at cyber security firm FireEye, the risk is primarily data
theft. “What’s reported tends to be high-visibility attacks, such as DoS
[denial of service], extortion, attacks against consumers. But the actual
risks are much more insidious, such as large-scale data theft,” he says.
“Spear phishing targeting is now at a very high level, using reconnaissance,
LinkedIn profiles, social media posts, etc. These provide a mine of
information for an attacker, who can then build a ruse around it, offering
weaponised content apparently from someone the target trusts,” he adds.
“People still think it’s malware that’s the problem. But that’s not true at
all. A soldier might have a gun, but might also have a knife, grenades, the
ability to call in an airstrike, and so on. The attacker has a range of
tools, and they’ll use whichever tool is appropriate.” Who’s winning: the hackers or the
businesses and those who protect them? Dan
Miller, country manager ANZ at Splunk, says: “It feels like a progressive
stalemate, iterating back and forth, where organisations have been in the
habit of being reactive and responsive – only reacting when something is
known as a bad thing, to prevent it happening. I think, therefore, you’re
always on the back foot. But what we are seeing is a shift increasingly
around advanced threat protection, an element of predictive analytics. People
get wildly carried away with that, and machine learning, but there is
increasing maturity around security now.” Dimension Data’s Ha says: “If
you’re going to take an objective snapshot, it appears the bad guys are
winning at the moment. That’s because the mindsets are different. The
businesses (good guys) haven’t really caught up with the mindset of the bad
guys. A lot of what we’re doing is education and awareness. Specifically
trying to educate executives, boards, even security teams in organisations,
about how sophisticated the bad guys are. Once armed with that thought
process, they can improve the effective- ness of their defences.” FireEye’s
Boland says you can’t prevent every breach. “It’s just not possible,” he says
“but you can re-define what winning is. Look at what you can do that stops
the attacker achieving their objective and prevents impact on the business.
Usually an attacker has some mission in mind. They want to steal your
corporate secrets, credit card details, customer lists or IP. If you can
prevent them getting the stuff that lets them fulfil their mission, you’ve
won.” Phillip Simpson, principal consultant at Dell Secure- Works, says: “As
one of the richest, least regulated, English-speaking counties in the world,
Australia is front and centre for well-researched hackers – but you wouldn’t
know it from the big breach notifications. Unfortunately, the main risk is
lack of security awareness in the boardroom.” What’s the key issue for an
organisation in this region trying to identify and prevent cyber crime? “The
most common thing is that there’s a skills shortage,” says Splunk’s Miller.
“Organisations know they need to do this, need to be better at it. It has
visibility at senior levels, but it’s very difficult to find security
analysts with the skills required.” Gartner’s Robins says: “At the smaller
end they just don’t have the resources and expertise, and where they are
successful is where they’ve outsourced that to a man- aged service provider,
or a cloud computing environment that does it for them.” Dell SecureWorks’
Simpson says: “Many Australian companies are doing the bare minimum to
survive. Security here is seen as defensive action versus a competitive
advantage. Without doubt Walmart sees a competitive advantage that it didn’t
get breached and suffer the brand damage that Target did. Investing before a
breach is far less costly than trying to recover from a breach.” FireEye’s
Boland says: “By and large it’s still a lack of awareness of large-scale data
theft. Unfortunately today we find most organisations that we talk to have
been com- promised and don’t even realise it.” Dimension Data’s Ha says:
“Taking an asset protection-oriented approach, not a threat-based or
attack-based one. Understanding what an asset is worth to the criminals, not
just to the organisation. The value might be very different. Also, 79% of
businesses out there don’t have a proper incident response and incident
management process. That’s usually what damages the organisation rather than
the attack. Most organisations will be attacked – it’s how they respond
that’s important.” Will companies in Australia and
New Zealand have to reduce staff freedom and connectivity to increase
security? According
to FireEye’s Boland, as soon as security becomes a business disabler it tends
to get turned off. “There are few organisations where you can put in place
very obtrusive controls. So don’t lock down completely – trust, but verify,
and use better intelligence,” he says. Splunk’s Miller says: “There is always
an element of risk, and we could lock everything down and make it utterly
secure, but that would prevent us interacting with our customers and working
in any way. So we have to give people access to certain things, but take a
balanced view of the appropriate level of risk we can tolerate. “We have to
determine the right form of governance for internal and external behaviour
management, and watch the things that are unusual. Behaviour analysis is
becoming really important. What does a system, a user, an application that’s
normal and expected actually look like? Once you understand that, you can
identify things that are unusual.” Dimension
Data’s Ha says: “No doubt some organisations will become gun-shy and might
move to more draconian approaches of lock-down. But any organisation that
does that will probably not survive. The need for agility and cost reduction
is being met by technology. So putting a full-scale ban on cloud or mobility
is really not going to work.” Gartner’s Robins says: “It depends. We’re not
seeing companies reducing access, but strong efforts are being made to
understand what access there is, to put in place the right sorts of policies
so that employees understand acceptable usage. There’s also a much stronger
reliance on monitoring. Not preventing users from doing things, but keeping
an eye on what they actually are doing.” According to Dell SecureWorks’
Simpson, employees are almost always the entry point in every major breach.
“When restrictions come in, people feel constrained, but eventually
understand and see the benefits. For the company, it’s about risk management.
Gradually those security measures evolve and become easier to live with.” What
stands out here is that Australia, in particular, is a country highly
targeted by cyber criminals; that many organisations have been breached (even
if they don’t know it); and that few organisations have the resources to
counter all threats. On the plus side, more organisations are becoming aware
of the risks they face – even at board level. Progress is being made. But
there’s a long way to go. Whereas an average business might spend 5-10% of
its IT budget on defence, the cyber criminals are spending 100% of theirs on
attack. The weaponry may change, but the battle goes on. Alex Cruickshank has
been a technology journalist since 1994. He grew up in England and moved to
New Zealand a few years ago, where he now runs his own writing agency,
Ministry of Prose. From
http://www.computerweekly.com
08/11/2015 Secure Web
‘Vital for Nation’s Growth’ Australia’s
economic future depends on a “cyber-enabled” world that will not be possible
without an underpinning of crucial security systems, a major report has
recommended. Tech giant Cisco has delivered this response after working with
the federal government’s cyber security review set up last year by Prime
Minister Tony Abbott to tackle the growing threat of digital attacks. The
report says that as an early adopter of technology, Australia is well placed
to become a world leader in the exponential growth and transformation offered
by digitisation but the current security situation is holding us back. “Put
simply, cyber insecurity is taxing Australia’s economic growth,” the report
says. “Globally national losses from cyber security incidents are estimated
to be as high as 1% of GDP, which for Australia could be as much as $17
billion per year. The formation of a national level cyber strategy is
critical for a strong economy today and in the future. It’s an opportunity
for Australia to be a global leader as the world economy enters the next wave
of digital enablement.” The
next step for the web is known as the Internet of Everything (IoE) which
Cisco estimates has $19 trillion of value at stake globally over the 10 years
since 2013, with $74 billion for Australia. IoE builds on the Internet of
Things (IoT) by connecting people, processes and data to things, making those
networks more relevant and valuable than ever before. Kevin Bloch, Cisco’s
chief technology officer in Australia, says the advances will offer growth
through increased automation and efficiencies in areas like transport,
mining, agriculture and health, but as the connections expand exponentially
so will the level of vulnerability. “We are going to have a very exposed
world of connected things,” Bloch says. “Therefore we need to think carefully
about how we engineer IoT so that it’s robust and scalable.” Bloch uses the
analogy of brakes on a car, which are not there to slow us down as many
people think, but to allow us to speed up and go fast confidently. “The
reason that we need cyber security is so that Australia can confidently take
advantage of the knowledge economy, of digital transformation, of the
Internet of Everything,” he says. “Because if we don’t, we become more
vulnerable. You increase business risk, you lower confidence and therefore
few will invest.” Mobile banking is an example of something we already do
daily that has exponentially increased the security threat. Instead of fixed
physical branches there are millions of smartphones accessing the network and
all are on the move. Bloch says we need to be aware of these vulnerabilities
and put appropriate security policies in place as “we leverage what digital
technology and IoE can do for our economy”. Gary Hale is Cisco’s director of
cyber security and innovation for the region, and led the team that worked on
the company’s response to the Australian Government’s Cyber Security Policy
and Strategy review. Hale
says the goal is to make Australia the safest place globally to do connected
business - something fundamental in a world which will rely more on
automation and remote operations to grow. “For the first time you are going
to have those operational systems connected in a way that can be accessed or
approached,” he says. “Think about that in the resources sector and think
about how many conveyor belts, driverless trucks, trains, all these sort of
things that you could apply a new set of software to and ultimately create a
destructive outcome or at least a disruptive outcome.” Hale says the security
solutions are designed to let business invest confidently and to reap the
rewards offered by an increased use of the IoE. To do this there needs to be
an alignment of government, industry and academia, he says. The Cisco report
recommends creating a national cyber security curriculum “engine” that will
see web security included in basic education, much like maths and English are
now. It also recommends implementing state-based security centres to build
and maintain trust and enable a greater level of information sharing. “This
is about enabling productivity in a secure way,” Hale says. “We’ve been very
excited to be working with the Australian government and we look forward to
our ongoing engagement with them.” Others assisting the cyber security
strategic review include representatives from the Business Council of
Australia, Telstra and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The new
government strategy is expected to be announced in coming months. Cisco
recently unveiled the company’s eighth global Innovation Centre at Curtin
University in Perth to link foundation industry partners (Woodside) with
academic researchers (Curtin) to explore the possibilities offered by the
IoE. Cisco is presently planning on opening a Sydney centre in the next few
months. From
http://www.theguardian.com
08/17/2015 |
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EUROPE: Pumping USD1.1bn into Poland’s Broadband Rollout The government of Poland is to receive PLN4 billion (USD1.07
billion) from European Union (EU) funds to help develop internet coverage in
the country, particularly in so-called ‘white spot’ areas which are currently
unserved by data services, Media2.pl writes. Under the state’s Digital Poland
programme, all households will have access to at least a 30Mbps internet
connection by 2020. Besides the deployment of last mile internet
infrastructure, the government is improving 45,000km of fibre backbone
networks, while also working on raising public awareness of the benefits of
internet services and rolling out new e-services such as health and
education. From https://www.telegeography.com/ 06/03/2015 EU’s High-Speed Internet to Unite Researchers in the Eastern
Partnership Area The European Commission signed a �13 mln contract with
networking organisation GÉANT to expand connectivity in the Eastern
Partnership (EaP) countries. The project aims at creating a regional
high-speed Internet network dedicated to research and education (R&E)
across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. There are
all the chances for the Baltic States’ researchers to participate. The
ultimate aim of the project would be to provide fast interconnection between
the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in the EaP partner
countries and integrate them in the pan-European research and education
network. At the Eastern Partnership Vilnius Summit in 2013 the Heads of State
and Government of the EU member states and the six EaP countries had
encouraged the setting up of a Common Knowledge and Innovation Space. At the
Summit in Riga on 22 May 2015, they also recognised the digital economy as an
area with yet untapped potential for both the EU and the partners. EaPConnect
will provide a regional gateway to the R&E community to pursue these
goals. Two million scientists, academics and students at over 700
institutions across the region will benefit from the connectivity boost. This
high-speed broadband network will enable access and exchange between
scientific databases and facilitate international cooperation via faster data
transfer. In addition, EaPConnect will promote increased coverage of wifi access
for student and researchers. Commission and GÉANT’s opinion “The EU has a vision for global collaboration to bridge the
digital divide,” said Gerhard Schumann-Hitzler, Director at the European
Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement
Negotiations (DG NEAR). “The EaPConnect project is a central part of this
strategy which is fully shared by partner countries. It reflects our joint
will to increase collaboration in the field of research and education in view
of closer links between people and businesses.’’ “Today’s research community
needs to be truly global if it is to solve the challenges humanity faces”,
said Pierre Bruyère, Chairman of GÉANT Board of Directors. “The creation of
the EaPConnect network is a natural progression into fostering worldwide
collaboration in research and education.” About EaPConnect project The Eastern Partnership Connect (EaPConnect) project sets out to
create a regional research and education (R&E) network in Eastern Europe
and the Southern Caucasus. This will interconnect the national R&E
networks (NRENs) in six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries and integrate
them into the pan-European GÉANT network. The partner countries are Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The overall objective of
EaPConnect is to decrease the digital divide, improve intra-regional
connectivity and facilitate participation of local scientists, students and
academics in global R&E collaborations. By interconnecting the R&E
communities across the region and with their European counterparts,
EaPConnect will create a gateway for talented individuals in the EaP
countries to be truly global players. EaPConnect is managed by networking
organisation GÉANT in collaboration with the NRENs in the six partner countries.
The European Commission is contributing 95% (�13m) towards the cost of the
EaPConnect project. By enabling fast and reliable exchange of high volumes of data
between scientists in the EaP countries and their peers in Europe and further
afield, EaPConnect will facilitate collaborative research in areas such as
environmental monitoring, telemedicine, life sciences and physics. In
addition, stable videoconferencing will support e-learning initiatives or
simply enable artists, thousands of miles apart, to perform together in
near-real time. EaPConnect is expected to run for 5 years and will be managed
by networking organisation GÉANT in collaboration with the NRENs in the six
partner countries. The European Commission provides 95% of the project costs. The remaining 5% will be raised by
GÉANT from the EaP countries. From http://www.baltic-course.com/ 06/16/2015 Europe Prepares to Enforce Its Take on Net Neutrality European Union citizens got their first look at draft net
neutrality laws on Wednesday, more than a week after the European Parliament
and the Council of the EU reached an agreement. Digital rights activists are
guardedly optimistic about the guarantees it offers for access to an open
Internet. Only the Netherlands and Slovenia have clear rules on net
neutrality today, leaving most Europeans without a guaranteed right to access
the open Internet. The draft law published Wednesday after years of
negotiations between the EU’s three legislative bodies—the Parliament,
Commission and Council—aims to guarantee access to online content and
services without any discrimination of traffic by Internet access providers.
The text was agreed to early last week—but then changed again on Friday, with
some tweaks to the articles of the law and some bigger changes to the
explanatory notes, called recitals. The latest changes establish a clear net neutrality provision,
even though the term itself isn’t used in the text, said Estelle Massé, policy
analyst at digital rights group Access Now. The new article 3.3 now reads:
“Providers of internet access services shall treat all traffic equally, when
providing internet access services, without discrimination, restriction or
interference, and irrespective of the sender and receiver, the content
accessed or distributed, the applications or services used or provided, or
the terminal equipment used.” Its scope had previously been limited, but now
the whole definition of net neutrality comes back into play, according to Joe
McNamee, executive director of EDRi, another digital rights group. Massé also
said that the negotiations had closed a loophole that would have allowed
commercial services to buy priority access over the European Internet. Such
prioritization of Internet services is no longer allowed by the draft. Agreements on services optimized for specific content will still
be allowed where optimization is necessary, but operators will have to ensure
the general quality of Internet access services, according to the draft. Such
specialized services could include telesurgery or connected vehicles,
according to the Council of the EU. Operators are allowed to use reasonable
traffic management measures to keep the Internet running—but such measures
must be based on objective technical requirements, not on commercial
considerations. Blocking or throttling will be allowed only in a limited
number of circumstances, for instance to deal with exceptional or temporary
traffic congestion or to counter cyber-attacks. While Access Now and EDRi see
the latest text as an improvement, Massé and McNamee would both have liked to
see a ban on “zero-rating,” in which a mobile operator allows subscribers to
access a site or service for free, without counting it towards their data
allowance, perhaps because the site is paying the operator to promote it.
Such deals would give services an advantage over their competitors, they say. The term’s absence from the draft could open the way for
countries to ban zero-rating of their own accord, said Marietje Schaake, a
Dutch Member of the European Parliament. The rights groups also regretted a
lack of clarity in parts of the text. As an EU regulation, it will enter into
force almost immediately after its final approval, replacing national law in
the areas it covers. It will be up to national regulators to enforce the law.
However, “a big part of the text” lacks clarity and would need to be
interpreted by the authorities, said Massé, who is concerned that national
regulators could interpret the text differently from one another. Now the
Council has formally approved the draft, Parliament must give its formal
approval—and may try to change the text again. Schaake said she would try to
add a ban on zero-rating, though she said that at this stage that would be
hard to do. Next week the document will be discussed in the Industry Research
and Energy Committee, and Parliament is expected to give a final vote on the
text in the autumn. From http://www.cio.com/
07/14/2015 Europe Tops the Global Spam Charts Europe is the worst offender globally when it comes sending out
unsolicited emails, accounting for 15% of worldwide spam, according to a new
report from Proofpoint. The security vendor claimed that, by comparison,
other countries and regions accounted for single digit percentages. Even so,
there has been a decline in spam volumes to the point where levels are the
lowest they’ve been since 2012, the firm claimed. While this sounds positive
on the face of it, the reality is that cyber-criminals are now concentrating
on fewer campaigns but with more malicious intent, Proofpoint warned. “What
was lost in volume was more than made up for in maliciousness,” the report
notes. The most notable trend of the first six months of 2015 was the shift
from malicious URL-based spam campaigns to messages with malware hidden in
attachments. This has been driven by Dridex and other prolific botnets, the
firm revealed. There’s also bad news for IT managers, as spammers are
increasingly shifting attention away from individual consumers to business
users. Major phishing lures include social media-based invitations and
connection requests, order confirmation messages, and financial account
warnings, according to Proofpoint. The report had this: “During the first six months of 2016, Proofpoint Nexgate social
media security researchers found that the efficiencies gained in distributing
malicious content via social media continue to make it an attractive channel
for hackers and scammers. A
single phishing lure, malware link or spam message posted to a high profile
corporate social media destination may be viewed by ten thousand or more
potential victims.” ESET security specialist, Mark James, argued that the
only way to improve messaging security is through software, education and a
better understanding of the task at hand. “We need to have the right software
in place to not only help us identify bad emails but also so we have a clear,
tested backup procedure for when something does go wrong,” he told
Infosecurity. “A good, regularly-updated internet security product at desktop
and server level should be deployed and monitored at regular intervals. Along
with that, users need to understand how and where attacks come from.”
Employees need to be educated about the potential impact a successful attack
can have on their organization, he added. “Staff need to understand how these
types of attack can directly affect the ability to trade and stay in
business. It won’t just happen to someone else, and these days it’s not a
case of ‘if’ but ‘when’ it will happen to a company,” James argued. From http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/ 08/14/2015 LATIN AMERICA: Cuba to Expand Public Internet Access with Wi-Fi
Technology Cuba's state-run telecommunications company Etecsa will open 35
areas for public Internet access with wireless technology throughout the
country in a few weeks, an Etecsa official said Thursday. The public Wi-Fi
access will be ready in the first days of July, Luis Diaz Naranjo, Etecsa's
director of public relations, was quoted by the Cuban official daily Juventud
Rebelde as saying. "Right now the company is committed to the final
settings of the center in charge of operating this type of wireless network
technology, aiming to ensure the quality of the service," he said. These
networks, called WIFI_ETECSA, can be accessed by anyone after hiring one of
the temporary or permanent Nauta access accounts run by the company. They
will be accessible on mobile devices, personal computers or tablets with
Wi-Fi capabilities. The 35 areas, including boulevards, parks and main
avenues in several cities of the island nation, are not directly linked to
hotels or Etecsa cybercafes. Diaz Naranjo said this is the first step in his
company's strategy for increasing Internet access. Public Wi-Fi has been
long-awaited by consumers since the first cybercafes were opened in Cuba in
June 2013. Adding to the announcement, he said that from July 1, the price
per hour for Internet services provided by Etecsa will lower to 2 Convertible
Pesos, or CUC, (about 2 U.S. dollars), an over 50 percent decrease from the
original price two years ago. Cuba has two currencies, the official Cuban
Pesos (CUP) used for paying state wages and some services, and the stronger
CUC, equivalent to the U.S. dollar. In terms of the exchange rate, currently
one CUC is equal to 25 CUP. Diaz Naranjo recognized that two CUC for an hour is not yet the
desired cost as Cuba's average monthly salary is 20 CUC, but he said the new
price would contribute to bringing Internet services closer to common
consumers. Thursday's announcement came as a relief to many Cubans who have
to stand in a long queue whenever they want to access Etecsa's cybercafes.
Wealthier citizens who prefer not to wait will pay the overrated price of
eight dollars per hour in hotels and tourist places. However, they always
complain about the high price. Etecsa charges 4.5 CUC per hour but the fees
in hotels are set by hotel managers. Arlena Acosta, a 16-year-old student, is
one of the many young people often seen around the Presidente Hotel using its
Wi-Fi service. "Well now at least I can connect directly with my cell phone
but the point is that, as soon as word spreads, these places will fill up
with over 100 people, so the connection will continue to be difficult until
the infrastructure gets better," she told Xinhua. Cuba is one of the
countries with the lowest Internet connectivity rate at only 5 percent. When
talking about broadband, connectivity decreases to 1 percent. After Cuba-U.S.
relations began to thaw in December 2014, inhabitants raised their
expectations for the improvement of the island's Internet access. Since talks
began to reestablish Cuba-U.S. diplomatic ties, U.S. on-demand streaming
media provider Netflix has launched its service on the island. The service
has been available since February from eight dollars a month to residents
with credit cards and access to high-speed Internet. However, with Cuba's low access to fixed broadband, the service
won't significantly increase the U.S. company's profits, according to the
World Bank. But Netflix's early move into Cuba indicated that it is committed
to expanding globally, even in countries with poor infrastructure and other
obstacles. Meanwhile, several other U.S. companies have shown their interest
in developing joint telecommunications projects with local counterparts to
improve the island's infrastructure. Executives of tech titan Google have
said Cuba should take into account its technological delay in terms of
infrastructure and move directly toward wireless services, Wi-Fi technology,
cell phones and tablets, according to the online journal "On Cuba".Last
week, some U.S. media reported that Google has offered to participate in
infrastructure investments in Cuba. The company is waiting for approval from
the Cuban government, "On Cuba" said. From http://www.foxbusiness.com/ 06/19/2015 Chile to Lead LatAm Internet Penetration Until 2018 - Study Chile is set to continue leading Latin American internet
penetration rates over the next three years, with 71 percent of the
population having online access in 2018, according to a study by IDC for
PayPal. Chile’s coverage will be well above the regional average of 60
percent, with Argentina reaching a penetration rate of 68 percent, followed
by Colombia with 66 percent and Brazil with 60 percent. However, the study
predicts that only 54 percent of the Mexican population will have access to
the internet in 2018, far below the government target of 70 percent.
Unsurprisingly, the internet penetration figures are closely tied to the
e-commerce penetration rates, with IDC predicting that Chile will also lead
the Latin American e-commerce market in three years’ time. According to the
study, 65 percent of Chileans will make online purchases in 2018, followed by
56 percent of Argentine users, 51 percent of Brazilians and Colombians and 50
percent of Mexicans. From http://www.telecompaper.com/ 06/04/2015 NORTH AMERICA: Canada Needs 182,000 People to Fill These IT
Positions by 2019 Due to skills mismatch, demand-supply imbalances, an aging
workforce and other factors, Canada is headed for a major technology talent
shortage in the next five years. Canada needs 182,000 people to fill
positions for information systems analysts and consultants, computer and
network operators, Web technicians, software engineers and others in by 2019,
according to an IT labour market report released this week. Also read: Why
Canada has an 182,000 IT talent shortage while lots of tech professionals are
out of work. There are about 811,200 information communication and technology
professionals currently employed in Canada, but provinces across the country
will require an additional 182,000 ICT talent by 2019.ICT labiour market
outlook. The study was funded by the Government of Canada’s Sectoral
Initiatives Program. The report was prepared and released by a team from the
Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), a labour market
intelligence and industry skills standard body funded by the government. “The
latest innovations in ICTs – in particular the Internet of things (IOT) as
well as social, mobile, analytics, apps and cloud (SMAAC) – have become
drivers of innovation, productivity and growth,” the report said. “…It is
projected that the availability of homegrown ICT talent will not be
sufficient to meet these hiring requirements.” Most employers will still have
difficulty recruiting individuals with the right blend of technical and
business skills. “Unless adequately addressed, this will cause particular
strife to Canada’s prosperity, as growth in Canadian workers’ productivity
levels has fallen notably since 2001,” according to the report. The
researchers said “employment growth – combined with replacement demands due
to skills mismatch, retirements, and other exits, demand-supply imbalances
will affect some occupations more than others.” Among the high demand occupations identified by the report were: - Information systems analysts and consultants - Computer and network operators and web technicians - Computer programmers and interactive media developers - Software engineers - Graphic designers and illustrators - Computer and information systems managers - Database analysts and data administrators Medium demand occupations include: - Electrical and electronics engineering technologists and
technicians - Web designers and developers - Computer engineers - Electrical and electronics engineers - User support technicians - Systems testing technicians Low demand occupations are: - Telecommunications carriers managers - Broadcast technicians The demand-supply imbalances will hit: British Columbia would
have to fill 20,900 ICT positions over the next five years. By 2019,
cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are expected to be over 15,500
in Vancouver, over 1,700 in Victoria, and over 3,600 in rest of British
Columbia. Alberta would have to fill 17,300 ICT positions over the next five
years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are expected to
be over 10,600 in Calgary, over 4,000 in Edmonton, and over 2,500 in rest of
Alberta. Saskatchewan would need to fill 3,900 ICT positions over the next
five years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are
expected to be over 1,400 in Regina, over 1,100 in Saskatoon, and over 1,300
in rest of Saskatchewan. Manitoba would need to fill 4,000 ICT positions over
the next five years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent
are expected to be over 3,300 in Winnipeg and over 600 in rest of Manitoba.
Ontario would need to fill 76,300 ICT positions over the next five years. By
2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are expected to be over
52,700 in the greater Toronto area, over 9,700 in Ottawa-Gatineau, over 3,800
in the Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo region, and over 9,900 in rest of
Ontario. Quebec would need to fill 49,600 ICT positions over the next five
years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are expected to
be over 35,600 in Montreal, over 9,900 in Quebec City, and over 3,900 in rest
of Quebec. New Brunswick would need to fill 2,200 ICT positions over the next
five years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are
expected to be over 900 in Moncton, 800 in Fredericton, 300 in Saint John,
and 100 in rest of New Brunswick. Nova Scotia would need to fill 3,200 ICT positions over the next
five years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are
expected to be over 2,900 in Halifax and over 300 in rest of Nova Scotia.
Prince Edward Island would need to fill 1,500 ICT positions over the next
five years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements for ICT talent are
expected to be over 900 in Charlottetown and over 500 in rest of Prince
Edward Island. Newfoundland and Labrador would need to fill 3,800 ICT
positions over the next five years. By 2019, cumulative hiring requirements
for ICT talent are expected to be over 2,400 in St. John’s and over 1,200 in
rest of Newfoundland and Labrador. Authors of the report said it is important
for business to “attract and retain” more women in ICT professions. They
noted that in Canada, three out of four ICT professionals are men. Another
way to close the talent gap is to attract youth to ICT professions. Only one
out of every 20 ICT jobs are held by youth currently. Business will also have
to look beyond Canada’s borders for talent. The labour market outlook for
immigrants, however, is “not optimistic.” “Immigrants lacking Canadian labour
market experience will have considerable difficulty in securing an ICT job
that is commensurate with their qualifications,” the report said. “Bridging
programs that combine training in Canadian workplace, business practices and
communications, and a work placement component will create excellent
opportunities for newcomer jobseekers to obtain employment that is
commensurate with their skills and qualifications.” From http://www.itworldcanada.com/ 07/08/2015 U.S.: Predictions for the Future of Cloud Are Sky-high Global data center traffic is expected to increase at a compound
annual growth rate of 23 percent from 2013 through 2018, which will account
for nearly 8.6 zettabytes (or 8.6 trillion gigabytes) of data traversing data
centers around the world, according to Cisco's Global Cloud Index. By this
estimation, the world's data center traffic will have tripled in less than
six years' time, due primarily to cloud's growth within the market. While traditional
data center traffic is projected to grow 8 percent annually, its share of the
market will inevitably fall each year as cloud's traffic soars at a compound
annual growth rate of 32 percent (see the following chart and table). Global
Data Center IP Traffic Growth in Zettabytes - Total data center traffic - Cloud data center traffic Year Traditional data Cloud data Total 2013 1.5 ZB (46%) 1.6 ZB (54%) 3.1 ZB 2014 1.5 ZB (39%) 2.3 ZB (61%) 3.8 ZB 2015 1.6 ZB (34%) 3.1 ZB (65%) 4.7 ZB 2016 1.8 ZB (32%) 4.0 ZB (69%) 5.8 ZB 2017 2.0 ZB (28%) 5.1 ZB (72%) 7.1 ZB 2018 2.1 ZB (24%) 6.5 ZB (76%) 8.6 ZB Despite initial concerns regarding security and integration with
existing IT, cloud adoption has skyrocketed since 2013. Cloud services have
become prevalent, in part, due to their ability to handle greater traffic
loads than traditional data centers, while offering support through
virtualization, standardization, automation and service delivery. Of the
three "as-a-Service" cloud computing models--including
Software-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and
Infrastructure-as-a-Service--Cisco projected that SaaS will surpass IaaS and
increase nearly 20 percent by 2018. From http://fcw.com/ 06/12/2015 UN Report: Encryption and Anonymity Online Are Necessary to
Advance Human Rights Encryption and anonymity on the internet are necessary for the
advancement of human rights, according to a new report from the United
Nations. The report from David Kaye, a UN special rapporteur on freedom of
expression, asserts that privacy is a “gateway for freedom of opinion and
expression.” Soon to be presented
before the UN’s Human Rights Council, the report examines in detail how
encryption and anonymity impact freedom of opinion and expression. The report
concludes that encryption and anonymity “deserve strong protection” because
they “enable individuals to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and
expression in the digital age.” “States should not restrict encryption and
anonymity,” Kaye writes. He notes that “blanket prohibitions fail to be
necessary and proportionate,” a reference to standards for human rights law
as articulated in the 13 International Principles on the Application of Human
Rights to Communications Surveillance. The 13 Principles are “compelling
demonstrations of the law that should apply in the context of the digital
age,” observes Kaye. Kaye also calls out specific practices that threaten
user rights. “States should avoid all measures that weaken the security
individuals may enjoy online, such as through backdoors, weak encryption
standards and key escrows.” Timely report Privacy rights are under daily attack. This year in Belarus, the
Communications Ministry imposed a block on internet anonymizers including
Tor, an anonymizer that China has successfully blocked. A report released
Tuesday revealed that the Canadian telco Rogers is collaborating with ETSI, a
major telecommunications standards body, in order to undermine “the core
security design decisions” of end-to-end encryption. Meanwhile, a debate
continues in the U.S. on requiring “backdoors” in technology to facilitate
government access to users’ devices and data. Further, governments in the UK,
Germany, Australia, France, and elsewhere are proposing or have passed
surveillance laws that grant sweeping powers to access users’ data without
warrants, and mandate data retention. Intermediary liability protection is
also threatened by the ongoing Delfi AS v Estonia case in the European Court
of Human Rights. The case, referenced in Kaye’s report, would impose
liability on a news website (Delfi AS) for anonymous third party comments.
Access has followed this case and intervened at the Court to allow users to
post content freely, anonymously, and without government censorship. The
final ruling will be presented on June 16th in Strasbourg. With this first
report, Special Rapporteur David Kaye steps onto the platform that Frank La
Rue, Kaye’s predecessor, used to declare unequivocally that human rights
apply online. La Rue’s groundbreaking annual reports addressed topics like
the blocking and filtering of online expression, and the alarming expansion
of digital surveillance in violation of human rights law and norms. Special
Rapporteur Kaye has continued this important work by showing how encryption
and anonymity “provide the privacy and security necessary for the exercise of
the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the digital age.” Putting principles into practice Access believes that robust encryption is necessary to protect
our communications and our private data. Our Encrypt All The Things campaign
provides a seven-step Data Security Action Plan to help internet platforms
protect their users’ rights. Earlier this month, Access released an
Implementation Guide that provides a framework for governments to implement
surveillance programs consistent with the legal rights of the people. The
guide gives practical guidance for implementing the afore-mentioned
Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communication Surveillance.
These 13 Principles were developed in broad consultation with international
organizations. They have been endorsed by more than 400 civil society
organizations worldwide including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
Privacy International. Together with the Special Rapporteur’s report, the
Implementation Guide and the 13 Principles make up a powerful international
toolkit for ensuring that fundamental rights are respected by all parts of
governments worldwide, as well as by the private sector. From https://www.accessnow.org/ 05/30/2015 Information and Communications Technologies Can Fast-Track
Solutions to Global Warming and Social Issues While Driving Economic Growth,
Finds Study by GeSI and Accenture SMARTer2030 shows potential to enable a 20 percent reduction in
global CO2e emissions by 2030, 1.6 billion more people enrolled in
e-healthcare and over $11 trillion in new revenues and cost savings.
Information and communications technologies (ICT) could bring far-ranging
levels of sustainable prosperity and opportunity to all corners of the world
within the next 15 years, according to research published this week by the
Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and Accenture (ACN). The report,
SMARTer2030, shows that as smart phones, networked sensors, smart grids and
other ICT devices become faster, cheaper and more available globally, they
have the potential to deliver profound environmental, economic and social
benefits. These include a 20 percent reduction of global carbon emissions by
2030, over $11 trillion dollars in new economic benefits, the ability to
extend e-healthcare to an additional 1.6 billion more people worldwide, and an
estimated 30% increase in agriculture yields. “Our findings show an
ICT-enabled world by 2030 that is cleaner, healthier and more prosperous with
greater opportunities for individuals everywhere,” said Luis Neves, chairman
of GeSI. Major findings of the study include: ICT can enable a 20 percent reduction of global CO2e emissions
by 2030, holding emissions at 2015 levels. Besides the environmental
benefits, this dramatic shift also means that policy or business leaders
would no longer be forced to make tradeoffs between economic prosperity and
environmental protection. ICT emissions as a percentage of global emissions –
and in absolute quantities – will decrease over time. The SMARTer2030 report
shows the ICT emissions “footprint” is expected to decrease to 1.97 percent
of global emissions by 2030 compared to 2.3 percent forecast by 2020. ICT
offers significant environmental benefits in addition to reducing carbon
emissions. The most substantial benefits identified by this study include:
increasing agricultural crop yields by 30 percent, saving 25 billion barrels
of oil per year and saving 300 trillion liters of water per year. An
assessment of eight sectors of the global economy – energy, food,
manufacturing, health, building, work/business, learning, mobility/logistics
– shows that ICT could generate over $11 trillion in economic benefits per
year by 2030, the equivalent of China’s annual GDP in 2015. ICT will connect 2.5 billion additional people to the “knowledge
economy” by 2030, giving 1.6 billion more people access to healthcare and a
half-billion more people access to e-learning tools. Worldwide growth of the
digital economy continues to accelerate, providing the scale necessary to
drive greater connectivity and new, disruptive business models. And, as
opposed to the old production-line economy, individuals are firmly in the
center of this process. “The ICT industry offers tremendous benefits: more
resource and cost-efficient businesses that are less harmful to the
environment, improvements in services with significant societal benefits and
new sources of economic growth,” said Neves. “This new study is based on
in-depth modeling, unprecedented in its range, into the potential for ICT to
disrupt business as usual and radically reshape the way we live, as well as
reducing the impact that continued economic growth has on our environment.
ICT can help break the link between economic development and resource
depletion, with emissions savings close to 10 times those generated by the
ICT sector itself.” “The SMARTer2030 report comes six months before the crucial
United Nations climate change conference in Paris in 2015,” said UNFCCC
Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. “The long term outcome of the new
agreement requires a peaking of global emissions in ten years’ time and a
dramatic bending of the emissions curve thereafter. This report underlines
the pivotal role of ICT in assisting to achieve these aims.” ICT-enabled
services could also generate US$6 trillion in ICT-enabled annual revenue
opportunities and US$5 trillion in annual savings from lower consumption of
energy, fuel and other resources, according to the report. SMARTer2030
follows GeSI’s 2012 report, SMARTer2020, which calculated reduced greenhouse
gas emissions and energy consumption. In addition to identifying the business
benefits of technology enabled sustainable business models, the new report
goes further by pointing to three important changes accelerating ICT’s
potential to drive these benefits: ICT now puts the user at the center of solutions, empowering
individuals with services from patient-centric e-health to flexible,
on-demand learning. As the number of connected devices is expected to grow to
100 billion by 20301, the potential to drive societal and environmental value
grows significantly. ICT is enabling new and profitable disruptive business
models that are separating growth from carbon and resource intensity. Peter
Lacy, managing director of Accenture Strategy, said: “This US$11 trillion
opportunity shows that digital can improve the financial and business case
for investing in socially and environmentally responsible products and
services. Not only are new technologies easily available, but they are able
to directly improve the quality of people’s lives. And they are now able to do
so at massive scale, enabling sustainable business models to become
mainstream and a source of competitiveness and growth.” SMARTer2030 identifies three key stakeholder groups and
recommends actions they could prioritise for a more sustainable, profitable
future: Policy makers should create the right policy environment. In
particular, setting national CO2 targets, recognizing the critical role of
ICT, creating investment incentives to connect the unconnected with new
infrastructure and ensuring a stable and balanced regulatory approach to ICT.
Businesses should recognize the growth and innovation opportunities enabled
by ICT that make sustainable investments viable. Consumers should be
encouraged to adopt technology solutions that promote resource efficiency,
such as those typified by the sharing economy. Visit smarter2030.gesi.org for
more information. From http://finance.yahoo.com/ 06/09/2015 ICT Sector Eyes 20pc GDP Contribution by 2017 The private sector has been challenged to collaborate more with
the government to help the ICT sector hit its target of contributing 20
percent to gross domestic product by the end of 2017. ICT Cabinet Secretary
Dr. Fred Matiang’i says this will compliment the allocations from the
exchequer which are insufficient to finance all ICT projects. He however
cautions against wrangles in state agencies and court litigations which he
says hold back growth of the industry. The Ministry of ICT is on the second
attempt to oversee a revamped sector, after the expiry of the first
ministerial master plan which ran from 2008-2013. For the second plan which
has been running since 2013 and ends in 2017, a serious organization
structure has been conducted bringing in autonomous government agencies under
the ministry to ensure targets are met. Under Ministerial Strategic Plan
which runs from 2013 to 2017, the ICT ministry seeks to undertake policy and
regulatory reforms, improve universal access to ICT services, build capacity
in the sector, create employment, build a digital economy and promote
regional integration. Matiang’I however says with strained funding, there is
need for enhancement of Public Private Partnerships for projects like From http://www.kbc.co.ke/
06/10/2015 ICT to the Rescue of Visually-Impaired Information and communication technology (ICT) can be used to
overcome the barriers faced by visually-impaired and the blind, says chairman
of Sarawak Society for the Blind (SSB) Kuching Division, Ying Ten Ping. He
said SSB aims to provide social and vocational training to equip such people
with skills that make them independent. “It has been shown that people who
are blind or visually impaired can do almost any job – lawyer, artist,
accountant, secretary, customer service representative, food service worker,
financial analyst, teacher, computer programmer and more. “SSB wants to
provide social and vocational training to equip them with skills to make them
socially and economically independent and prepared for the challenges and
realities of life,” Ying said at the closing of a computer course for the
blind yesterday. The ICT programme was conducted in Kuching where there was a
high concentration of the blind. “We hope to expand our programme to central
and northern Sarawak where we have branches in Sibu and Miri. We are looking
for partnerships with other NGOs to sponsor the hardware and software for
setting up the facilities,” Ying said. Also present was Malaysian Foundation
for the Blind (MFB) chief executive officer Silatul Rahim Dahman as chief
facilitator for the computer course. During the closing ceremony, course participants
were presented with certificates. From http://www.theborneopost.com/ 06/13/2015 The
Internet and Sustainable Development The past thirty years have seen tremendous growth in the
capabilities and reach of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
The Internet, especially, has become a critical enabler of social and economic
change, transforming how government, business and citizens interact and
offering new ways of addressing development challenges. A new approach to
development will be agreed this year, when the United Nations adopts a
Post-2015 Development Agenda based around Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). The Internet Society is convinced that the Internet is a unique
platform for innovation, creativity, economic opportunity and social
inclusion, which can make a major contribution to achieving these. This briefing
describes the Internet’s potential and identifies priorities for action. From http://www.internetsociety.org/ 06/16/2015 Public
Access ICT Across Cultures: Diversifying Participation in the Network Society Shared public access to computers and the Internet in developing
countries is often hailed as an effective, low-cost way to share the benefits
of digital technology. Yet research on the economic and social effects of public
access to computers is lacking. This volume offers the first systematic
assessment of the impact of shared public access in the developing world,
with findings from ten countries in South America, Asia, and Africa. It
provides evidence that the benefits of diversified participation in digital
society go beyond providing access to technology. Public access venues—most
often Internet cafés in cities and state-run telecenters in rural areas—are
places for learning, sharing, working, empowerment and finding opportunities. The book documents the impact of public access on individuals,
on society and networks, and on women. Chapters report findings and examine
policy implications of research on such topics as users’ perceptions of the
benefits of Internet café use in Jordan; ICT job training in Rwanda;
understanding user motivations and risk factors for overuse and Internet
addiction in China; the effect of technology use on social inclusion among
low-income urban youth in Argentina; productive uses of technologies by
grassroots organizations in Peru; use of technology by migrant ethnic
minority Burmese women in Thailand to maintain ties with their culture and
their family and friends; and women’s limited access to the most ubiquitous
type of venue, cybercafés, in practically all countries studied—and quite
severely in some places, e.g. Uttar Pradesh, India. From http://apo.org.au/
07/03/2015 The
Global Forum Releases New Compliance Ratings on Tax Transparency The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for
Tax Purposes published new peer review reports today for 12 countries or
jurisdictions, moving further ahead with its goal to implement global
standards on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. Phase
1 reports on Jurisdictions continue to request supplementary reviews that
assess steps taken to address recommendations of the Global Forum to address
gaps in their legal frameworks and exchange of information practices
identified in previous reviews. This included the Marshall Islands, which had
been blocked from moving to Phase 2 of its review process due to significant
gaps in its legal framework. A supplementary review concluded that key
changes to its legislation now enable the Marshall Islands to move to Phase
2. Austria, which was rated “Partially Compliant” in July 2013, has since
implemented a number of recommendations by the Global Forum, leading to an
upgrade of its overall rating to “Largely Compliant” in its supplementary report.
The supplementary report of the British Virgin Islands, which assesses
progress made since its Phase 2 report in July 2013 also concluded that based
on significant improvements having been made, its overall rating be upgraded
from “Non-Compliant” to “Largely Compliant.” The Global Forum is the world’s largest international tax group,
with 127 members on an equal footing. The Forum has now completed 198 peer
reviews and assigned compliance ratings to 80 jurisdictions that have
undergone Phase 2 reviews. Of these, 21 jurisdictions are rated “Compliant”,
46 are rated “Largely Compliant”, 10 are rated “Partially Compliant” and 3
jurisdictions are “Non-Compliant.” A further 11 jurisdictions are blocked
from moving to a Phase 2 review due to insufficiencies in their legal and
regulatory framework. In an important step towards the smooth implementation
of the OECD’s standard on Automatic Exchange of Information, the Global Forum
has launched a multilateral process to evaluate confidentiality and data
safeguards frameworks in more than 90 jurisdictions which have committed to
begin automatic information exchange by 2017 or 2018. The Global Forum continues to ensure that the benefits of
participation in the new tax transparent and cooperative environment are available
to all. It has conducted a number of training seminars to help jurisdictions
prepare for peer reviews, sensitize tax auditors in the use of the exchange
of information infrastructure and equip governments to implement automatic
exchange of information. Around 200 tax experts participated in seminars in
Colombia, Cameroon, Ghana and Kenya. The Global Forum will also support a new
pilot project on Automatic Exchange of Information announced jointly by Ghana
and the UK on the sidelines of the 3rd Financing for Development Conference
in Addis Ababa. Global Forum members will meet at their annual plenary
meeting on 29-30 October 2015 in Bridgetown, Barbados. From http://www.oecd.org/
08/03/2015 APEC
Challenge Open to Tech Start-Ups Innovative technology start-ups and entrepreneurs in the
Asia-Pacific are invited to pitch their ideas to a panel of high-profile
international venture capitalists, angel investors and corporate executives
as part of the 3rd APEC Challenge, sponsored by Intel and Siemens, on 19 – 20
October in Chinese Taipei. The champion of the Intel Award stands to receive
USD 100,000 and all winners will have opportunities to collaborate with
Intel, Siemens and other investors. Team applications are due 30 June 2015. APPLY NOW This year the APEC Challenge is looking for start-ups
specialized in four technology applications including Interactive Learning,
Immersive Collaboration, Smart Mobility and Smart Home. The First APEC
Accelerator Network Forum for Early Stage Investment will convene at the
upcoming APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group meeting in Atlanta,
the United States on 10 - 11 June. Launched in 2014, the APEC Accelerator
Network and its annual APEC Challenge in Chinese Taipei provides a platform
for young entrepreneurs in the Asia-Pacific to showcase their ideas to
investors. The contest culminates in a final round at the Intel Global
Challenge and Siemens New Venture Forum in Silicon Valley, the United States
for selected start-ups. In 2014, one of the APEC start-ups, ServTech, took
first place at the Intel Global Challenge with its cloud-based app store for
factory managers. “Last year, the APEC Challenge helped many start-ups secure
funding from venture capitalists and corporations,” said John Andersen, Chair
of the APEC Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group. “For example, Roam & Wander, an innovative toy company from
Hong Kong, China, was invested by 500 Startups, a well-known Silicon Valley
accelerator. AirSig, which enables signing onto online sites by waving your
smartphone, secured an investment of USD 2 million from Foxconn Group, making
it the most valuable start-up company ever seen in Chinese Taipei,” added
Andersen. The international venture capital attention captured by APEC
start-up companies last year highlights the Asia-Pacific as an innovative
source of new technologies. The APEC Accelerator Network’s goal is to nurture
this entrepreneurial talent and is part of APEC’s priority to stimulate the
growth of the region’s innovation and start-up base. “We look forward to
helping the next round of Asia-Pacific innovators bring their ideas to a
global audience and gain recognition,” said Johnny Yeh, Director General of
the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration in Chinese Taipei, who helped
initiate the APEC Accelerator Network. From http://www.apec.org/
06/03/2015 Being
a Smart Nation Entails Having Open Mind on Technology As a Smart Nation was the principal focus of last week's mega
infocomm technology (ICT) show, the CommunicAsia, EnterpriseIT and
BroadcastAsia 2015. This trade show-cum-conference is one of Asia's largest
ICT events and more than 48,000 attendees from 101 countries were present
during the four-day event. At the conference, Minister for Communications and
Information Yaacob Ibrahim declared that Singapore has entered the
"build phase" of its plan to become a Smart Nation, with concrete
results from its first wave of projects to show for it. Ever since Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong formerly launched the Smart Nation initiative in
November last year, much of the government's ICT activity has been centred
around this endeavour. While government officials and technology experts
understand the huge potential that exists in bettering the lives of citizen
in the country once it becomes "smart", the concept till now has
been a bit nebulous as far as the public is concerned. Indeed what does being a Smart Nation entail? When can we decide
that Singapore has become a "Smart Nation"? More importantly, is
there a definite endpoint in this Smart Nation journey where we can say yes
we have achieved our goal? The relative lack of clarity is to be expected.
Much of the planning and technology deployments that are going into making
Singapore a Smart Nation entail blue-sky thinking. In effect, Singapore is
not following a well-established path of development. Instead, it is itself
trailblazing a new model which, if successful, could establish a benchmark
for other cities and nations to follow. Despite the uncertainty, some aspects
are quite clear. As Steve Leonard, the Infocomm Development Authority's
executive deputy chairman, noted recently, the Smart Nation drive can be
successful only if all age groups can be brought on board to use technology
with an open mind. The Smart Nation is not only for young, technology-savvy
Singaporeans. It is also for the elderly, who need to be able to use
technology to live healthy and better lives. As outlined by the Prime
Minister, this is one of the key goals of the Smart Nation push, and rightly
so since Singapore has an ageing population. As an example, remote healthcare
- which is being trialled in Singapore - can dramatically reduce healthcare
costs, with patients not having to be admitted to hospitals. Building a Smart Nation will also be about taking risks. As Mr
Leonard pointed out, nothing great has been achieved by taking small
incremental steps and not trying anything dramatic - there is a need to try
out new ideas. Some of them may fail, but others will succeed. In essence,
the Smart Nation is not just about new mobile apps or services or even about
technological breakthroughs. It's about trying out new solutions and
approaches which at first glance may seem radical. New approaches need to be
tried out and if something seems too radical or is perceived to involve
breaches of privacy, then it should be discussed with an open mind instead of
rejecting it outright. In essence, building a Smart Nation is also about
building a mindset that embraces technology for the betterment of society and
social acceptance of new ways of doing things. If this can be pulled off, the
benefits could be huge. Our success in this endeavour will also put Singapore
on the world technology map and perhaps even enable it to be an inspiration
for other nations with similar ambitions. From http://business.asiaone.com/ 06/11/2015 |
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CHINA: Setting Up Technology Transfer Centers with ASEAN
Countries China and Indonesia have established a technology transfer
center in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the fifth
between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). China
established transfer centers with Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand in
2014. "We are actively promoting the construction of such centers with
more member states of the association," said Liu Jianhong, deputy
director of the regional department of science and technology. Liu said the
cooperation arrangements with Malaysia and Vietnam have been going smoothly.
A total of 1,228 companies, research institutions and industry associations
in the fields such as agriculture and renewable energy have joined the
China-ASEAN Technology Transfer Center (CATTC) since its establishment in
2013. A CATTC forum on collaborative innovation will be held in Nanning,
capital of Guangxi, this September. From http://www.news.cn/
06/17/2015 Internet Finance Injects Vitality into Chinese Economic Growth Ever since Premier Li Keqiang announced China’s “Internet Plus”
drive in his annual government work report in March, the country has been
making strenuous efforts to integrate the Internet with its traditional
industries, which gives rise to the burgeoning growth of Internet finance
nationwide. What does Internet finance refer to? What role can it play in
China’s overall economic development? What experience can China learn from
other countries to ensure the healthy development of its Internet finance
sector? A group of Chinese and foreign experts gathered in Beijing on
Saturday to share their insights on these issues at the first international
meeting of building an ecosystem for “Internet Finance Plus”. Internet
finance and “Internet Finance Plus” Internet finance is a new business model, allowing traditional
financial institutions and Internet enterprises to carry out financial
activities with the use of Internet technology, according to the guidelines
for Internet finance released by China on July 18. The new notion of
“Internet Finance Plus” raised at Saturday’s meeting refers to the
integration of Internet finance with other industries, said Lin Yongqing,
founder and president of Crowdfund China Society. Finance takes on the role
of serving other industries, and with Internet finance, it is much more
convenient for financial enterprises to provide timely help to these
industries, Lin explained. Zhang Xiaochen, co-founder of the society, said
the “plus” here is more like a kind of subversion. The “Internet Finance
Plus”, just like “Internet Plus” which subverts outdated business models by
the means of the Internet to promote the upgrading of traditional sectors,
aims to overturn traditional financing models. Niu Huayong, dean of the
International Business School of Beijing Foreign Studies University, also
gave his interpretation of the “Internet Finance Plus”. He compared finance
as a blood circulation system, other industry entities organs and the “plus”
blood vessels, saying it allows everyone to participate in Internet finance. Boosting
mass entrepreneurship and innovation Mass participation in Internet finance generates mass
entrepreneurship and innovation as analyzed by experts attending the meeting.
Lin Yongqing said Internet finance can also be called “mass finance” because
it enables individual investors to decide where they want to invest and
grants small and medium-sized enterprises with loans that are usually
rejected by large banks. “Internet finance boosts mass entrepreneurship and
innovation,” said Wang Huiyao, president of Center for China &
Globalization (CCG) and counselor of the State Council. He highlighted the
effective role of the Internet in garnering capitals, talents, and
technologies to create more jobs and new business models. He also urged China
to grasp the opportunities provided by the development of the Internet
industry to expand its market shares via the Internet and enhance the
innovation capability of its enterprises. Wang’s idea was also echoed by
Zhang Xiaochen who believed that Internet finance plays a huge role in
creating jobs and encouraging innovation. Zhang said Internet finance mainly
helps those startups who cannot get access to funds. As a new business model,
it can help both underprivileged people and those startups with brilliant
ideas. Learning
experience from other countries This meeting also invited experts from the United States,
Australia, Israel, and some European countries to share their experience in
Internet finance and provide suggestions for its healthy development in
China. “The most valuable experience should be investor education,” said
Jason W. Best, principal of Crowdfund Capital Advisors. He said it is
important to help investors become aware of potential risks arising from
Internet finance and learn to diversify their overall investment by putting
some portions into more stable industries. Drew Von Glahn put emphasis on
data transparency, saying any kind of growth relies on the ability to obtain
data, with which investor can make sensible decisions on investment. He also
called on startups to execute on their ideas with perseverance instead of
just dwelling on big ideas. Scott McIntyre, executive director of U.S.
Crowdfunding Professional Association (CFPA) also gave advice to startups,
regarding trust, innovation and communication as crucial elements in gaining
investment through Internet finance. Rules and regulations are also
emphasized by experts at the meeting, saying those factors are urgently
needed to promote the healthy development of Internet finance and create a
sound ecosystem around it. From http://www.news.cn/
07/27/2015 Expect More Free Sport on Your Mobile, but Not for Long I was reminded recently of the amazing progress that has been
made in mobile Internet technology. Despite being on holiday, deep in the
countryside of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, I was able to watch a
live soccer match, on my smartphone, being held in a different province,
between two leading international teams. There were no TV sets in my hostel
in Guilin, but its wireless Internet service meant I could still watch the
match between Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid and Italian Series-A
counterparts Inter Milan, being played in Guangzhou, the capital city of
Guangdong province. Guilin is a modern international tourist city, but nearby
local Zhuang and Yao ethnic people still plant rice in long, narrow paddy
fields on hill sides, as they have for hundreds of years. The rich, green
mountain views were stunning, and offered a fantastic contrast to my busy
urban life－but
as a football fanatic, I was still desperate not to miss the match. Thanks to
China's growing investment in Internet services, I didn't. This would not
have been possible five years ago, when Chinese soccer fans could only watch
big games via live TV coverage. This Real vs Milan match was covered live by
LeTV.com, one of the country's leading online video platforms which provided
commentary both in Mandarin and Cantonese. The 40,000 crowd in Guangzhou was joined by 10 times that number
online, said Gao Fei, CEO of the Internet business group at the LeTV.com.
"A growing number of people who previously watched TV have shifted to
mobile terminals. That's why we have invested a lot in covering major sport,
to boost our presence in the online video industry," said Gao.
Traditional Chinese online video content providers such as LeTV have been
quick to see the potential of tapping into China's increasing number of
sports fans, who are now turning in their millions to watching via mobile.
Citing official data, Gao said the number of Internet users in China is now
between 600 million and 700 million, more than half the entire population. To
deliver more sports content, online video providers have spent huge sums
buying the rights to events in recent years, from traditional TV stations or
sports organizers. LeTV.com signed a strategic partnership agreement with the
organizers of the China leg of the International Champions Cup (of which Real
beating Milan 3-0 was part) to stream live coverage of three matches on its
website and mobile apps, plus other promotional activities surrounding the
event. Lei Zhenjian, the CEO of LeTV Sports, said bringing coverage of the
prestigious tournament to China marks a significant expansion into a new
field for the Internet and technology company. "The move demonstrates our commitment to developing the
LeTV Sports ecosystem by not only providing unique and innovative content via
PC, mobile devices and smart TV, but also bringing world-class sporting
events to Chinese fans." Following the government's move in 2014 to open
up the broadcasting rights of live sporting events, a number of online video
providers have signed agreements with international sports content providers
to bring some of the world's biggest spectacles to China. Tencent Sports, for
example, has spent $500 million on the rights to broadcast live National
Basketball Association games over the next five seasons. The Chinese market
can expect such huge investment in live sport on the Internet by online video
providers to continue, spending which will inevitably reduce the size of TV
audiences. This is certainly encouraging more younger Internet users to watch
using mobile devices. I have one concern, though－how long
will I be able to watch for free?
From http://www.news.cn/
08/04/2015 JAPAN: Ministry to Target Asian Students to Secure IT Human
Resources The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry plans to launch a
system next fiscal year that will help new Asian university graduates and
others invited to Japan find employment in the nation to alleviate a shortage
of human resources in information technology. The ministry will first target
Indians and Vietnamese and aim to secure about 10,000 IT workers, according
to sources. The ministry envisages creating a system in which Asian
university graduates who majored in IT and other people will come to Japan to
learn Japanese and then find employment at Japanese companies. It plans to
include related costs in its budgetary request for fiscal 2016 to launch the
system in that fiscal year. Under the system, Asian students will be
introduced to places to study and work in Japan. The students would be
allowed to work part-time at IT firms to earn money for living and tuition
while attending Japanese language schools. A council comprising Japanese IT
companies, Japanese language schools and other entities is expected to be
established as early as this summer. The ministry plans to set up a joint
task force with the Indian government this autumn to discuss specific
measures. It also plans to seek cooperation from Vietnam, which is keen to
develop IT human resources. According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, 31,581
foreign workers were employed at IT companies in Japan as of October. As part
of its growth strategy, the government has set a goal of doubling the number
of non-Japanese workers at domestic IT companies to 60,000 in 2020. However,
domestic firms, such as software and game developers, tend to be cautious
about hiring foreign workers who do not speak Japanese. Although there has
been a trend of Japanese companies employing Chinese workers in IT fields,
the number of Indian IT workers at domestic firms has stagnated. Many Indian
students have found employment at IT companies in the United States, taking
advantage of their English ability. With the My Number system set to be
implemented and demand for IT system updates rising, a shortage of IT human
resources has become serious in Japan. From http://the-japan-news.com 07/18/2015 S. Korea, Uzbekistan Cooperate on Developing E-Gov't, ICT Korea and Uzbekistan have shared their experiences in
establishing online government services. The Global Leadership
Enhancement Program for Uzbekistan is currently underway at the Central
Officials Training Institute in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do (Gyeonggi Province). It
is a rare, long-term educational program held from April to October, and 13
Uzbek government officials are taking part in it. In their first four
months at the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs, the
National Information Society Agency (NIA) and the Central Officials Training
Institute, the officials are learning about policies surrounding innovation
and administrative procedures, online government services and information and
communications technology (ICT). For the remaining two months, they will
receive practical training at local IT companies, public institutions and
universities, and learn about examples of how ICTs were applied. The participants will attend lectures and analyze the current
state of online government services in Uzbekistan in relation to what they've
learned. They will then make presentations on how to improve the
systems. The program was created as a result of a memorandum of
understanding signed in April 2014 between the Central Officials Training
Institute and the Academy of Public Administration in Uzbekistan to improve
the competence of public officials. It is also part of the Ministry of Public
Administration and Home Affairs' e-government cooperation project between
Korea and Uzbekistan. "Uzbekistan has established a master plan to
set up online government services and focus on developing ICTs and network
infrastructure," said Djalalov Muzaffar Mukhitdinovich, an official at
the Uzbek Ministry for the Development of Information Technologies and
Communications. "I would like to learn more about online services for
the private sector, developing ICTs for regional governments, managing
e-government projects and using ICTs for government
administration." From http://www.korea.net
05/21/2015 SK Telecom to Develop 5G-Enabled Robot South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom is stepping up its
efforts to develop future-oriented technologies utilizing the firm’s advanced
telecommunications networks. As part of the initiatives to secure a new
growth momentum, SKT signed a memorandum of understanding Thursday with
Korean robot-maker Robobuilder to develop emergency response and life care
robots that support the next-generation 5G telecommunications technology. The
two companies agreed to develop remote control systems running on
telecommunications networks, sophisticated artificial intelligence that can
sense and respond to human emotions and people’s movements, and advanced
transmission technologies of video and audio data. “SKT will work together
with small and medium-sized firms and developers to create business
opportunities and achieve innovations in people’s daily lives with the 5G
networks,” said Choi Jin-sung, the head of SK Telecom’s research and
development center. He also said the mobile carrier would take the lead in
offering futuristic services with the 5G-supported robot. SKT demonstrated a
concept robot that can be remotely controlled through 5G network technology
at an information technology trade show in Seoul this year. The humanoid
robot showcased at the event can be controlled by a user wearing an
exoskeleton installed with communication sensors. SKT plans to roll out an
upgraded version of the robot featuring video and audio streaming
technologies on the 5G networks. From http://www.koreaherald.com 06/18/2015 Korean companies involved in information and communications
technology (ICT) have wowed Londoners at a recent convention. On June
16, the “2015 K-Global@London” event brought together a range of Korean ICT
companies, giving them a chance to promote their signature items and
technologies in the European market. The three-day event was part of London
Technology Week, one of the biggest ICT festivals that features more than 50
ICT-themed events across the city. The Korean part of the convention
welcomed 84 enterprises, including firms specialized in software,
broadcasting content and startups, along with more than 300 local
buyers. The Korea-Britain ICT Innovation Forum hosted about 200 experts
from both countries, including officials from ICT-related governmental
bodies. Participants held in-depth discussions about strategies aimed at
innovation in the ICT business and on the current system to create jobs in
the industry. ICT products, like mobile solutions, the Internet of
Things (IoT) and cloud services were featured at a special exhibition.
Thirty-one businesses in related fields, meanwhile, held one-on-one talks
with some 300 buyers from Britain and other European countries, such as
British Telecom and Tesco. Ten major broadcasting networks had the
chance to build networks with their British counterparts like BBC News. The
talks led to the signing of several MOUs, including agreements to produce
joint projects with Pioneer Europe and Discovery. From http://www.korea.net
06/22/2015 Winning
Formula for Globalization: Great Technology and Great People The world keeps getting smaller. In Europe and America,
consumers have long been accustomed to seeing manufacturing labels of Asian
countries on a broad range of consumer goods. Now, when Europeans travel
across to Asia Pacific and walk into high-end supermarkets in cities across
the region, they can find an extensive selection of European wines that they
recognize, along with the finest French champagnes. And on the streets of those
cities they see premium autos from Europe and America. In fact for luxury car
companies, the single country of China frequently ranks as their most
important market worldwide. In turn Asian automakers are designing and
manufacturing cars specifically targeting European and U.S. markets. A recent
Bloomberg study estimated that globalization contributes $450 billion to
worldwide growth each year, and with so many opportunities available to
companies of all sizes, that’s likely to keep growing. As well as bringing
direct economic benefits, this expands competition in markets across the
globe, providing more options for consumers and creating more dynamic local
markets, enabling both businesses and individual consumers to get the best
products and services at competitive prices. But that doesn’t mean to say
that all these markets have the same look and feel. Successfully crossing new
frontiers in commerce needs people who understand local preferences as well
as global drivers. In addition, technology has also been a great enabler of
globalization, so the right balance between people and tech is key to
success. From http://www.koreaherald.com 07/29/2015 S.
Korea's ICT Sector Has Highest Value Added Among OECD Nations: Report South Korea's information and communications technology (ICT)
sector has the largest portion of the value added against other segments
among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
members, thanks to its strength in electronics and optical productions, a
report showed Tuesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy came first with the
value added in its ICT industry standing at 10.7 percent of the country's
total as of end-2013, according to the 2015 OECD Digital Economy Outlook,
based on a survey of 29 member countries. Japan trailed with 7.02 percent,
followed by Ireland with 6.99 percent and Sweden with 6.81 percent. The
average was 5.5 percent. The report cited the advancement in South Korea's
computing, electronics and optical-related areas as the main reason the
country took the top spot. However, overall South Korea lagged behind other
nations, with the figure for other industries, such as software publishing,
telecommunications and IT service, hovering far below the respective average.
Market watchers raised concerns, notably, over the relatively slow growth of
the IT service industry in Korea, stressing the need for additional measures
by the government that will help boost its expansion and lead to more job
creation in the field. From http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr 08/11/2015 IT
Industry Rises as Major Pillar of Korean Economy Along with the steel, automotive and shipbuilding sectors, the
IT industry has served as a locomotive that has driven South Korea’s economy
for decades. At the forefront of South Korea’s IT scene were electronics
businesses run by conglomerates including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics
and Daewoo Electronics (now Dongbu Daewoo Electronics owned by Dongbu Group).
Having produced the nation’s first transistor radio in 1959, LG, then called
Goldstar, was a pioneer in the domestic home appliance market: It rolled out
Korea’s first black-and-white TV and first refrigerator in the 1960s.
Following LG, Samsung jumped into the electronics manufacturing business in
1969, rolling out its own fridges, washing machines and microwaves. After
taking the helm of Samsung in 1987, chairman Lee Kun-hee asked his top
executives and employees to focus on improving the quality of products to
catapult the tech firm into the top echelon of the world’s IT business. LG, which has maintained the No. 1 position in the world’s
washing machine market for seven straight years since 2008, snapped up a 12.4
percent market share by sales last year, according to combined data of
multiple research institutes including GfK. The company is also one of the
largest high-end TV makers in the world, along with its compatriot
Samsung. On the back of the world’s fastest broadband Internet
infrastructure built across the nation thanks to government-led projects,
ventures sprouted up in the Internet and online game sectors during the late
90s and early 2000s. Those Internet firms came up with fresh ideas including
the world’s first social-networking services, Cyworld and I Love School, both
of which were launched in 1999, five years ahead of Facebook. Internet giants
Naver and Daum (now Daum Kakao) and game companies Nexon, NCSoft and
Netmarble were also established during the “venture boom.” Despite such
growth of the Korean IT sector, it now faces huge challenges mainly posed by
Chinese businesses basking in strong domestic demand and the Chinese
government’s support. From http://www.koreaherald.com 08/16/2015 |
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MYANMAR: 100% Mobile Penetration Rate Expected by 2021 Myanmar will have achieved the 100 per cent mobile phone
penetration rate in six years, according to a survey by the New Crossroads
Asia (NCRA), the research branch of the Union of Myanmar. NCRA believed that
the mobile penetration rate in Myanmar would exceed 40 per cent this year. At
the current rate of increase, penetration would reach over 80 per cent by
2019 and 100 per cent in 2021, it said. Before 2014, Myanmar had one of the
lowest mobile penetration rates in the world with less than 20 per cent. The
situation has improved significantly after telecom liberalisation. Two
foreign companies, Qatar's Ooredoo and Norway-based Telenor, were awarded the
licenses in 2014. As they started the operations later in the years, Myanmar
is flooded with cheap SIM cards. As of May 2015, Telenor Myanmar said it had
6.4 million mobile phone users and Ooredoo Myanmar claimed 3.3 million
subscribers. Having monopolising the industry for decades, Myanma Posts and
Telecommunications said that it had about 9.3 million SIM card users. It
plans to spend US$2 billion to expand the mobile network after signing a
joint-venture agreement with Japan's KDDI and Sumitomo Corp. Mobile SIM cards
have also boosted access to the Internet as broadband internet infrastructure
remains poor. The number of websites and domains created by domestic
companies rose from 300 in 2013 to about 900 in September 2014. As of
November 2014, the number has exceeded 1,000. Despite the recent improvement,
Myanmar still has the lowest mobile penetration rate in Asean. In second
place is Laos with about 50 per cent. From http://www.asianewsnet.net/ 06/08/2015 MALAYSIA:
ICT Spending to Recover After September THE strong greenback and the implementation of the Goods and
Services Tax (GST) from April 1 have hurt demand for ICT (information and
communications technology) goods and services in the country, but the
National ICT Association of Malaysia (Pikom) expects renewed spending in the
fourth quarter of this year. “Before April 1, there was a buying spree which
saw hundreds of million [of ringgit] being spent,” said Pikom chairman Cheah
Kok Hoong (pic). “However, we expect there will be some adjustment from April
to September ... perhaps a decline of a few percent. “But after September, we
expect that it will pick up and companies to continue to … spend,” he told a
recent media briefing in Petaling Jaya after Pikom had released its ICT Job
Market Outlook in Malaysia report. Spending on ICT in Malaysia was affected
not only by the rollout of the GST, but also by the weakening ringgit. Over
the past one year, the US dollar has strengthened from RM3.21 to RM3.82 per
US dollar [on July 31], resulting in higher costs for domestic companies,
many of which would have delayed their purchases. Cheah however believes that companies can still overcome this
challenge. “Prices of laptops, desktops and servers are increasing because
they are in US dollars,” he said. “Some companies might want to adopt the
lease-to-use concept.” Pikom expects the ICT industry to grow 14.2% to reach
RM70.9 billion (US$18.6 billion) this year. While the 14.2% year-on-year
growth is lower than the 30% growth recorded in 2010, it is nevertheless
higher than the 2014 and 2013 growth of 11.4% and 9.4%, respectively. The ICT
services sector’s contribution to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is
expected to almost double from 3.3% in 2000 to 6.4% in 2015. The contribution
of telecommunication services to the overall ICT services value is expected
to drop to 58.4% this year from 61.4% in 2014, while the computer services
segment is expected to increase to 26.5% this year from 23.8% in 2014. Employers hiring wrong grads During the media briefing, Cheah also said that employers were
hiring “the wrong graduates” for ICT jobs. “Most employers do not, or are not
able to, distinguish ICT degrees from distinct disciplines. This leads to a
higher likelihood of companies employing the wrong graduates for required ICT
roles,” he said. Companies which require software development skills should
hire graduates from either the computer science or software engineering
discipline, according to Cheah. “Similarly, IT or computer science
[qualifications] with relevant electives would suffice if companies needed
graduates who can administer, integrate, select, and manage systems and
databases,” he added. He said that if left unaddressed, the continued
mismatch between talent and jobs will exacerbate the brain drain, curtail
innovation in companies, and further widen the talent gap. “Pikom has
published the 2014 Program Standards: Computing report to help address this
issue. But potential employers, human resource professionals and job
recruitment specialists must take the lead in matching the right talent to
the right jobs and requirements,” Cheah. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s national ICT custodian Multimedia
Development Corp believes that industry-academia collaboration needs to
deepen to address this mismatch. “By collaborating, academia will know what
qualifications and skill sets the industry is looking for, and universities
can amend their curricula to suit industry needs,” said Muhammad Imran
Kunalan (pic), director of MDeC’s talent division. The need for such
collaboration was highlighted as a key thrust in the Malaysian Government’s
recently-released Higher Education Blueprint, he said. Muhammad Imran said
such collaboration can take place in a few ways. Industry players could give
talks and lectures at universities which can help prepare students and
lecturers on what to expect in the ‘real world.’ Lecturers, for their part,
could go to ICT companies to get a better idea of current demand and
expectations in the sector. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 08/03/2015 Malaysian
and Singaporean Companies in Broad ICT Partnership SINGAPORE-based New Silkroutes Group’s technology arm Digiland
Pte Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia-based
telecoms firm NTT MSC Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s NTT
Communications Corp. In a statement, New Silkroutes, listed on the Singapore
Exchange (SGX), said the focus of the MoU will be on three key areas: Big data analytics, business intelligence reporting and
dashboard solutions; Cloud services focusing on e-government applications, facilities
and real estate management solutions, healthcare informatics and management
systems; and Energy management and conservation solutions. NTT MSC and Digiland share the common vision that big data is the
new normal and there is an immediate need to build and grow such capabilities
for intelligent exploitation of these data, New Silkroutes said in its
statement. The partnership will further extend Digiland's leadership as the
preferred provider of analytics and information management services and
solutions for improved decision-making, it claimed. With NTT MSC’s global
network and capabilities and Digiland's proven experience in delivering
end-to-end large business solutions to enterprise clients, the solutions
offered by the MoU will represent a complete suite of valuable services to
help organisations meet their intelligent exploitation gaps, it added. The
two companies claimed their solutions and services will enable corporations
to maintain their competitive edge; and governments to leverage off ICT,
network infrastructure and big data to better plan and deploy Smart City
initiatives in national development programmes. “We believe this
collaboration with Digiland will bring about a suite of compelling solutions
that will give our clients an extra and crucial edge to their businesses,”
said NTT MSC president and chief executive officer Ken Deguchi. Analytics and e-government services are the key growth drivers
in Digiland's technology roadmap, the company said. Its packaged solutions
will target the government as well as the private sector, with customers
ranging from cybersecurity forensics, market intelligence and energy
conservation, to large consumer-centric industries such as telecommunications
and online marketplaces. “Although faster computers and the digitisation of
data have sped up the processing of information, we still require human
intelligence and ingenuity to solve complex relational problems,” New
Silkroutes group chief executive officer Dr Goh Jin Hian. “Our team has taken
the first significant step in capturing this essence of human ingenuity in
our applications and solutions, and through NTT MSC, we hope to offer these
cloud-based solutions globally to companies and even countries that wish to
apply this in their critical management infrastructure,” he added. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 08/21/2015 PHILIPPINES:
Tech Startup Roadmap Guns for 500 Startups with $2b Valuation by 2020 The Philippine government is set to launch its first ever tech
startup roadmap on August 20. It targets to achieve at least 500 Philippine
startups with a cumulative valuation of $2 billion, resulting to 8,500
high-skilled jobs created; 1,250 startup founders; 15,166,684 users acquired;
and 719,737 paying customers – by the year 2020. Dubbed “The Philippine
Roadmap for Digital Startups”, the project is under the “seedPH” initiative
by the Department of Science and Technology – Information and Communications
Technology Office (DOST-ICTO). The five-year roadmap that provides a
framework for developing Philippine Startup ecosystem — mainly regarding
internet-related innovation — is a result of several months of collaboration
between the government, technology entrepreneurs, investors, and
accelerators. DOST-ICTO will lead the unveiling of the official copy of the
roadmap on Thursday next week at the international startup event of Geeks on
a Beach to be held at the Boracay Island in Aklan province. The ICT Office
crafted the tech startup roadmap in collaboration with the Philippine
Software Industry Association (PSIA), Philippine Development Foundation,
Kickstart Ventures Inc , IdeaSpace Foundation, and TechTalks.ph. Also part of
the roadmap team are former entrepreneurs, foreign startup founders,
investors, academicians, policymakers, and grassroots representatives. DOST-ICTO’s e-Innovation deputy executive director Monchito
Ibrahim said the roadmap is a project for the startup community and by the
community itself. “This roadmap aims to develop a coherent and consistent
strategic plan for the country’s innovative ecosystem, engaging members of
both public and private sectors,” Ibrahim said, adding, “Ultimately, our goal
is to generate startups that drive economic growth and provide solutions to
our society’s most pervasive issues.” Although there is a booming interest in
the local tech startup sector, the roadmap team noted that there are lots of
issues that need improvement as the Philippines prepares to be a global
startup hub. There are currently around 20 accelerators, incubators, and
venture capitalists in the Philippines, and at least 100 operating tech
startups. Yet no local startup has surpassed the $50 million in valuation. Startups
that have grown big in the “We have identified areas of the ecosystem that need improvement
and the programs needed to address such areas. We need to ensure that each
player of the ecosystem – academe, investors, and startups, among others –
plays a role. It is imperative for all sectors to play their respective roles
in the ecosystem to move forward,” Ibrahim added. DOST secretary Mario
Montejo recently commented that the success of the startup ecosystem will
contribute to the success the IT and business process management (IT-BPM)
industry that now employs more than one million. The IT-BPM, especially the
business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors continue to benefit from the
country’s tech-savvy population, low operating costs, and English language
proficiency. It was likewise noted that there is a huge opportunity in the
young startup sector since it still has minimal business competition. From http://www.dealstreetasia.com/ 08/12/2015 THAILAND:
Report Details Asia's 'Digital Economy' Status Thailand is turning its digital-economy plan into action, as are
other Asian countries.A GSM Association report, "Building Digital
Societies in Asia", is based on a study of digital societies in six
countries - Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan. It
found that each country had a digital-society policy framework - Thailand's
Digital Economy Plan, Digital Bangladesh, Digital India, the Indonesia
Broadband Plan, Digital Malaysia, and Pakistan's Vision 2025.The countries
have developed a digital-economy plan to be part of their digital-society
aspirations.The concept of a digital society, according to the report, is
about the interaction among governments, businesses and citizens via digital
technologies, accompanied by social and economic benefits around efficiency
and productivity gains, as well as the improved well-being and living
standards of citizens.The report shows that the digital societies in Asia
have a diverse landscape, since Asia is arguably the most diverse region in
the world in terms of economics and information and communications
technology. The region is home to some of the world's biggest economies and
most connected countries. In contrast, it also contains a number of countries
with very low connectivity levels and relatively small economies.Those with
advanced digital societies have highly developed and integrated digital
platforms in place. The report divides digital societies into three types:
emerging, transitional and advanced. An emerging digital society is in the
early stages of digitisation and emphasis is on digital and financial
inclusion. Most services are built around providing basic information and
essential services to citizens on Web portals and push (SMS) platforms.In the
transitional digital society, personalised services are available to
citizens, allowing them to perform private transactions with public and
private institutions online and in real time, such as accessing medical
records, settling personal and company tax bills, and accessing
social-security benefits.An advanced digital society has a high level of
integration of public infrastructure and services, including utilities and
transport. Citizens can interact with a variety of institutions in real time
and over multiple digital channels.Thailand is ranked as a transitional
digital society.The report found that Thailand's digital-economy strategy
emphasised the development and application of ICT economic and social
aspects. The government has proposed five themes to drive its digital-economy
initiative. l Hard infrastructure is used so the private sector is able to
promote the digital economy, such as high-capacity broadband, data centres,
and digital gateways. l Soft infrastructure is used to boost confidence in online
transactions by providing verification systems to identify individuals online
and cyber-security to safeguard e-commerce activities. l Service infrastructure creates a platform to support private
businesses and individuals. l Promotion and innovation develops the digital skills of
entrepreneurs to improve their efficiency. l Universal access to online channels ensures that everyone can
access the Internet at an affordable price. Currently, there are eight draft bills under consideration to
guide the implementation of Thailand's digital-economy goals.They are the
Information and Communication Technology Ministry Reform Bill; the Digital
Economy Bill; the NBTC Bill; the Electronic Transactions Bill; the Electronic
Transactions Development Agency Establishment Bill; the Personal Data
Protection Bill; the Computer Crime Bill; and the National Cyber Security
Bill. From http://www.nationmultimedia.com/ 06/27/2015 VIETNAM:
PM Promotes Hi-Tech Innovation in Global Integration A high-quality workforce and technological advances were needed
to carry the country forward in the current context of global integration,
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told a gathering of science and technology
experts in Ha Noi yesterday. The meeting took place ahead of the upcoming
seventh National Congress of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology
Associations (VUSTA) for the 2015-2020 tenure that will bring together 600
delegates from across the country. He hoped that VUSTA would continue to
attract leading scientists, experts and managers working as advisors to the
Party and State. The PM asked VUSTA to motivate its members and their fellows
to work on technological innovations that served socio-economy, culture and
national defence-security. VUSTA President Dang Vu Minh thanked the Party and
State for their continued support, saying that the Government had issued
important documents as a legal framework for the union to provide social
feedback on major issues. With chapters across the country's 63 cities and
provinces, VUSTA members would follow the examples of their predecessors and
dedicate their brainpower to national development, he promised. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
05/27/2015 The Ha Noi Customs Department will accelerate its use of
information technology (IT) in the customs process to promote transparency,
simplicity, and to modernise the sector. Increased use of IT was among the
key activities planned for the 2016-20 period, as set by the department at a
conference on Thursday. Other tasks included implementing a mechanism for
companies to enjoy special priority in customs procedures and security, in
line with World Customs Organisation standards. Also, rules were put in place
for applying national and ASEAN single-window mechanisms, as well as ensuring
fair, transparent and efficient tax collections. Also, over the next five
years the city's government would equip its staff with world class
professional and technological skills to improve trade and tourism
activities, the conference heard. Director of the department, Nguyen Van
Truong, highlighted favourable conditions that assisted in reforms and
modernising operations over the past decade, adding that its sub-departments
were expanded to outlying provinces, such as Phu Tho, Vinh Phuc and Yen Bai,
making it easier to handle new procedures. He emphasised procedures for
assessing risk management throughout the customs process, which have helped
the sector cut down the time required to deal with procedures. Further, the
staff's abilities and sense of responsibility had improved substantially, he
noted. From http://vietnamnews.vn/
06/13/2015 70%
of World’s Population Using Smartphones by 2020: Ericsson BY the year 2020, advanced mobile technology will be commonplace
around the globe – smartphone subscriptions will more than double to reach
6.1 billion people; 70% of the world’s population will be using smartphones;
and 90% will be covered by mobile broadband networks, according to Ericsson.
Citing the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, published June 3,
the company said that growth in mature markets comes from an increasing
number of devices per individual. In developing regions, it comes from a
swell of new subscribers as smartphones become more affordable; almost 80% of
smartphone subscriptions added by end-2020 will be from Asia Pacific, the
Middle East, and Africa, it said in a statement. With the continued rise of
smartphones comes an accelerated growth in data usage. Smartphone data is
predicted to increase tenfold by 2020, when 80% of all mobile data traffic
will come from smartphones. “This immense growth in advanced mobile
technology and data usage, driven by a surge in mobile connectivity and
smartphone uptake, will makes today’s big data revolution feel like the
arrival of a floppy disk,” said Ericsson senior vice president and chief
strategy officer Rima Qureshi. “We see the potential for mass-scale
transformation, bringing a wealth of opportunities for telecom operators and
others to capture new revenue streams. “But it also requires greater focus on
cost-efficient delivery and openness to new business models to compete and
remain effective,” she added. Connected devices, video An expanding range of applications and business models coupled
with falling modem costs are key factors driving the growth of connected
devices, Ericsson said. Added to this, new use cases are emerging for both
short- and long-range applications, leading to even stronger growth of
connected devices moving forward. Ericsson’s forecast, outlined in the
report, points to 26 billion connected devices by 2020, confirming we are
well on the way to reaching the vision of 50 billion connected devices. Each
year until 2020, mobile video traffic will grow by a staggering 55% per year
and will constitute around 60% of all mobile data traffic by the end of that
period. Growth will be largely driven by shifting user preferences towards
video streaming services, and the increasing prevalence of video in online
content including news, advertisements and social media. When looking at data
consumption in advanced mobile broadband markets, Ericsson’s findings show a
significant proportion of traffic is generated by a limited number of
subscribers. These heavy data users represent 10% of total subscribers but
generate 55% of total data traffic, the company said. Video is dominant among
heavy users, who typically watch around one hour of video per day, which is
20 times more than the average user. The Report The Ericsson Mobility Report shares forecast data, analysis and
insight into mobile traffic, subscriptions, and consumer behaviour to provide
insight into current traffic and market trends in today’s ‘Networked
Society.’ Ericsson regularly performs traffic measurements in over 100 live
networks in all major regions of the world. Detailed measurements are made in
a selected number of commercial WCDMA/HSPA and LTE networks with the purpose
of discovering different traffic patterns. To accompany the Ericsson Mobility
Report, Ericsson has created the Traffic Exploration Tool for creating
customised graphs and tables using data from the report. The information can
be filtered by region, subscription, technology, traffic, and device type. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 06/04/2015 Development
of Digital Societies Key to APAC Growth: Research Reports NEW research reports produced by the GSMA, International
Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN) and the Internet Society (iSOC) show that the development
of digital societies have the potential to help solve key challenges faced by
Asian countries. These challenges range from access to essential services and
enhanced disaster management to improvement in service delivery and the
efficient utilisation of limited resources, GSMA said in a statement. The
reports, developed independently by each organisation, share common
conclusions and recommendations on the potential of digital and mobile
technology to advance national economies and markets, as well as overcome
challenges arising from rapid population growth and increasing rural-urban
migration faced by Asian countries. These findings were shared at the
‘GSMA-ITU Digital Societies Policy Forum 2015’ which recently took place in Bangkok.
“With the development of high-speed mobile broadband technologies and the
increasing availability and affordability of smartphones, mobile technology
is well-suited to deliver the required connectivity and content for a digital
society,” said Chris Zull, the GSMA’s spectrum director for Asia. “Today’s
wireless networks are able to cover a wide area with greater efficiency at
lower costs than many other technologies, particularly in emerging countries
with underdeveloped fixed network infrastructure and low levels of
urbanisation,” he added. The ‘GSMA-ITU Digital Societies Policy Forum 2015’
is one of the first events jointly organised by the GSMA and ITU, and
supported by ICANN and iSOC. It assembled over 100 policymakers, regulators,
industry and other stakeholders from the ICT sector to discuss issues related
to digital societies in the Asia Pacific region, as well as examine the
emerging national plans to build digital societies, framed around these new
research reports and policies. From http://www.digitalnewsasia.com/ 06/30/2015 |
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BANGLADESH: Plans to Earn $1 Billion from ICT
Exports by 2018 The government has plans to earn $1
billion by 2018 from information and communication technology exports, State
Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak says. He also hoped that tech tsars
like Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates and Facebook Inc CEO Mark Zukerberg
will emerge from Bangladesh if the right facilities were available. From http://newsfrombangladesh.net
05/30/2015 INDIA: The
Internet and Sustainable Development The past thirty years have seen tremendous growth in the
capabilities and reach of information and communication technologies (ICTs).
The Internet, especially, has become a critical enabler of social and
economic change, transforming how government, business and citizens interact
and offering new ways of addressing development challenges. A new approach to
development will be agreed this year, when the United Nations adopts a
Post-2015 Development Agenda based around Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). The Internet Society is convinced that the Internet is a unique
platform for innovation, creativity, economic opportunity and social
inclusion, which can make a major contribution to achieving these. This
briefing describes the Internet’s potential and identifies priorities for
action. From http://www.internetsociety.org 06/07/2015 ICT in School
Education: A Flawed Policymaking Process The
government has proposed a six-fold increase in spending on incorporating ICTs
in school education. Government has also formed a group to draft a National
Policy on ICT in School Education. Strangely, there are more representatives
of IT majors in the group than educationists, says Gurumurthy Kasinathan. Imagine if
the Government of India were to invite Airtel to join a group making national
policy on spectrum allocation, or Ranbaxy Laboratories for a policy on drug
pricing or licensing, or other organisations that have clear vested interests
regarding the specific choices that policy would make. It would be a serious
problem since it is clearly recognised that policy formulation needs to be
driven by principles of public interest and hence only bodies working for the
public interest can have a role in its active framing, though subsequent to
its drafting, feedback from all groups would, of course, need to be
considered. This
fundamental principle relating to policymaking is somehow ignored when it
comes to policymaking relating to the use of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) in the development arena. A group established recently to
formulate the National Policy on ICTs in School Education is packed with as
many as five technology vendors, each with a clear vested interest in
specific policy choices. At the same time, this group has hardly any
educationists, excluding even those who were involved in formulating the
National Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF), a landmark education policy
document, whose creation was led by NCERT. This is akin to having a policy
relating to use of diagnostic tools being made by a group that includes tool
manufacturers but no doctors or public health professionals. Significant
changes over the past decade in ICTs have impacted many aspects of our lives
– including booking train tickets and banking, using search engines for
information, communicating with friends and colleagues, and participating in
virtual professional and social networks. All these represent the thin end of
the wedge insofar as these technologies are triggering structural changes --
at least as far-reaching as those of the Industrial Revolution -- towards the
creation of an ‘information society'. In a time where the major institutions
of our society are in flux, it is important to ensure that these changes, as
far as possible, are in consonance with society's priorities, determined
through its political processes. The education system is closely related to
society's knowledge processes, which are most impacted by these new ICTs. It
is therefore important to understand where our public education system stands
in relation to these changes, both in terms of opportunities and challenges.
Even though computers have been introduced in schools in Though the
draft is not yet published and is being discussed in a group with
non-governmental and business representatives, the basic direction that it is
taking raises some misgivings and concerns. On the one hand, ICTs can support
shifts to desirable learning processes and practices, for students and teachers.
This is contingent upon the active application of ICTs across the system by
different actors in a participative manner, clearly led by considerations of
public interest. This is what will allow teachers to collaborate and create
learning networks, or allow children to use hardware and software tools to
custom-build applications and create content during their own learning
processes. The virtues of constructivism have long been spoken of in
education, and the role of ICTs in education needs to be primarily seen from
this angle. Such decentralisation requires significant investment in the
processes concerning the use of ICT tools and in the capabilities of teachers
and students to decide how they want to use these tools. However it is
important to recognise that in well-directed and relatively large-scale
collaborative efforts, the costs of ICTs can actually decrease rather than
increase with greater participation. We already know of this phenomenon in
the area of Open Source software and in the Wikipedia type of
knowledge-building systems. These collaborative gains can be extended by
connectivity infrastructure through community-based mesh networks, where each
user node itself represents an infrastructural ‘installation'. If not
guided by these participatory and collaborative principles, both in terms of
the best educational outputs and optimisation of ICT adoption costs, ‘ICT in
school' investments could just as well become another unwanted burden on the
school system, with specific hardware, software and curriculum choices being
imposed on schools across the board, irrespective of their distinctive
contexts, needs and priorities. This will not provide any significant
improvement in educational ‘output', as has been shown by studies on computer
education efforts in the Indian context in the past few years. Given the risk
of an obvious conflict of interest, we are concerned that the small group
(called the ‘inter-ministerial' group!) set up to draft the initial policy
has as many as five private vendors: Intel and Microsoft, who have near
monopolies in hardware and office application software; Educomp and
24x7guru.com, who are large education content producers; and NIIT, the
largest IT training company in the world. It is thus
hardly surprising that an initial policy draft that the group came up with
does not take note of collaborative and non-proprietary technology processes
– like Free and Open Source software versus Microsoft's proprietary software,
and Open Content (collaboratively developed content, which is free to access)
v/s licensed content. The lack of consideration of these technology options
is more glaring at a time when at least two states in India have announced
their preference for Open Source and Open Content options. Significantly, the
school education system itself has more than a million institutions, which
could work and collaborate to produce content that can be made available in
the public domain, instead of using content licensed by private vendors.
Similarly, common support systems, which are perhaps the primary roadblock at
present in adoption of Open Source, could if created for such large numbers
of institutions, result in huge savings. According to some rough
calculations, just the one-time cost difference between using Open Source + Open
Content versus proprietary software and content could run into ten times the
entire amount of Rs 6,000 crore budgeted in the 11th Plan. A policy with a Rs
60,000 crore implication can be an enormous incentive for private vendors to
be involved. But whether policy should be designed by those who directly gain
by specific choices the policy can make, is a moot question. What
compounds this inclusion of vendors in the policymaking process is the rather
complete exclusion of education activists/actors from the broader education
community. Why aren't the people involved in the NCERT-led National
Curriculum Framework 2005 (NCF) work part of this policy drafting group? The
NCF 2005 ‘Position Paper on Education Technology' is an excellent document
highlighting the relevance and potential as well as the pitfalls in the
Indian education context of ICTs, but sadly it has been ignored by the
current policy draft. One needs to be cognisant that ICT in school education
is really a ‘curricular' decision, and the absence of those involved in the
NCF is indeed an extraordinary omission. Partly this may be due to the policy
drafting process having proceeded from a technological rather than a
domain-centred perspective. Needless to say, ICT in school education policy
is an issue central to education policy and not to IT policy (just as
textbooks are a curricular policy and not a printing policy). ICTs as an educational tool Another
aspect of ICTs in schools is that the exclusive use of certain software
platforms without exposure to others will result in the learner becoming
dependent on these, and often unwilling or unable to use alternatives. It is
to be noted that Project Shiksha of Microsoft usually has a clause in its
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with state governments that only
Microsoft can determine what applications would be taught in the academies
created under these MoUs. This amounts to equating world-class ICT learning
with learning only Microsoft applications. And if a large number of children
going to the public school system grow up learning just one set of
technologies, this becomes the de
facto standard, which means huge profits to its owner, and loss
to society both by monopoly lock-in costs as well as innovation losses on one
hand, and poor development of local software-building skills, and fewer
possibilities of localised and contextual adoption of software for various
societal purpose, on the other. Just as
the present policymaking process is silent on Open Source and Open Content
possibilities, it is also silent on new possibilities of decentralised radio
or video use. Schools and school support institutions at the block or
district levels can use these tools for creating local content in a
cumulative and participative way. Many community-based radio and video-based
content initiatives have the potential to combat existing hierarchical
networks of ‘learning' with peer networks. However, an ICT in schools policy
that treats children as passive consumers of education content produced
centrally, or as users of proprietary applications (that cannot be worked on
in a co-constructive manner), and teachers as instruments to promote ICT
literacy in the education system without giving them autonomy to make
contextual learning choices, can exacerbate the present problems of our
education system rather than solve them. The present policy extols
public-private partnerships as fundamental to the use of ICTs in school
education. While the participation of both private sector and civil society
institutions is important, their role cannot water down the responsibility of
the government in providing universal education. This responsibility includes
the appropriation of ICTs for learning, in accordance with the aims of the
education system envisioned by our education policies -- unless the aim is to
convert the education system into what would be the biggest market for
technology vendors. If
appropriately applied, ICTs can significantly help achieve some critical
priorities in the country's education sector. At the highest level they
provide capabilities for full membership in the emerging information society,
and strengthen ‘citizenship'. At the level of our learning systems, ICTs can
enable activity-based and collaborative learning processes (suggested by NCF
2005), which can help us move away from the traditional 'rote-based learning'
that dominates much of our current education system. ICTs can also
indirectly, although substantially, support education through relevant use in
teacher education and education administration processes. To enable such
possibilities a greater range of actors from the education sector, and others
interested in education policy, need to engage with ICT in the school
education policy process. A consultation with education activists was held at
NCERT recently, to discuss the possible shape that such a National Policy
could take. There were sharp debates about the nature of ICTs and their
potential for both centralised control and networks for democratic spaces,
essential for providing autonomy to schools and teachers. There were detailed
discussions about the education contexts, challenges being faced by the
Indian education system and lessons from previous programmes in the education
arena involving use of ICTs, including those such as EDUSAT. The policy
itself was clearly characterised and understood to be an education policy
rather than a technology policy and ICTs were seen as a tool, though an
important one, for achieving education goals. This is in contrast to the
current policy draft in which education contexts and challenges are largely
glossed over with emphasis largely on technological aspects such as
infrastructure or connectivity. While an
NPISE is critical to ensuring meaningful investment in ICTs for achieving
education goals, it is essential that it be facilitated by a national public
body that is working in the education arena, with wide-ranging consultations
with all groups, including the active participation of education activists.
The current route of private organisations that do not have a background of
working in Indian education facilitating a process and involving technology
vendors and excluding education activists is clearly fraught with dangerous
implications for the country and its education system. From http://www.siliconindia.com/ 06/23/2015 ICT Awards Cyberoam with Two Honors Cyberoam, a leading global provider of
network security appliances added two more feathers to its already brimming
cap with ICT Awards. The company was conferred ‘Innovation in Technology of
the Year’ award for its patented Layer-8 Technology and ICT Leadership of the
Year Award on its highly respected and trail blazing CEO, Hemal Patel who is
also the SVP of IT & Operations of Sophos. This high profile award
function was inaugurated by Govindbhai Patel, Minister (s) for Science and
Technology, Energy and Petrochemical, Gujarat State and Bipin Mehta,
President, Computer Society of India. Around 300 leading luminaries from
Ahmedabad’s ICT industry attended this event to honor excellence and
innovation in the ICT industry. These awards illustrate Cyberoam’s ever
growing prominence as a leading player in the network security industry and
its focus on product quality and innovation to become a domain leader. From http://egov.eletsonline.com
07/21/2015 Let’s Go Amsterdam Way on Smart Cities: Minister What is the action plan of government
to implement Smart Cities initiative? What will be the contribution of your
department in PM’s dream project?Women safety and security
of senior citizens remain a serious concern in the society. So, the Central
and state governments will ensure that measures for safety and security of
women, elders and children are in place, and come up with more helpline
numbers to facilitate them. We have public grievance redressal system in all
departments, mainly those handling women-related affairs. Now, it is going online
under the Digital India programme, which is also an important component of
Smart Cities.‘Women safety and security of senior citizens remain a
serious concern in the society. So, the Central and state governments will
ensure that measures for safety and security of women, elders and children
are in place. The government is also focusing on child education and
old-age homes to improve literacy rate and handle cases related to abandoning
of senior citizens, respectively. We will educate the children living below
the poverty line and make them technically sound. They will get admission in
government schools as well as good private schools. We will also uplift the
differently-abled or special children through our various schemes. In Smart
Cities, we will not only take care of elite class people but also deal with
the weaker sections of the society. We are also modernising our security
forces and equipping them with high-tech gadgets for the purpose. Do you see any challenges in
implementation of the project?There is an adage ‘where there is
a will there is a way’. Hurdles and challenges are always there but it
doesn’t mean we will stop thinking about good things. If the Prime Minister
has decided to make Smart Cities in India, something that was never imagined
before, we should think positive and help implement the project in all
possible ways. Contributions/suggestions of people from different walks of
life matters a lot, as every individual should voluntarily come forward and
put forth his ideas.We are exploring smart ways to push our system from its
current level to the next level. As far as the requirement of Smart Cities is
concern, we aren’t too short of infrastructure and the people. However, small
modifications in the existing machinery are needed. The Government is trying
to identify the problems and looking for possible solutions. One major
problem is non-payment of taxes. Hence, people should pay their taxes. It
will help increase the revenue of the Government. How will the Government proposes to generate
awareness among the masses?The goal of Smart Cities cannot
be achieved without public participation. Therefore, social awareness is a
must to make Smart Cities initiative a big hit. We will orgainse workshops,
conferences and summits to make people aware about various aspects of the
programme. It will help them understand the objective of initiative and how
they can contribute towards making it a success. Multiple government
departments, private sector, NGOs and media, along with communities,will have
to work together to make Prime Minister’s dream project come true.For that
matter, even Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Campaign) cannot be taken to
its logical conclusion without the participation of communities and people at
large. So, they are being educated about it. Many of us when go to abroad, we
do not litter at public places, but remain least bothered about cleanliness
when back in our country. It will take time but people will understand their
duties and support us, we are confident. How do you see the series of Elets
Smart City conferences being held across the country? It is a great initiative of Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd to
organise Smart City conferences across India. Elets is genuinely discharging
its social responsibility, as such meets bring together the stakeholders to
suggest the way forward for Smart Cities. People in general and the
authorities concerned must take part in such activities to learn from the
ideas and understand the strategies.Elets has been conducting Smart City events
in various cities since the launch of programme. I want such conferences to
be organised in every nook and corner of the country. From http://egov.eletsonline.com 08/04/2015 SRI LANKA: ICT Export Sector Revenue to Hit US $ 1
bn in 2015 Sri
Lanka’s ICT exports are projected to top one billion US dollars this year
while the sector has grown at 123 per cent in the last five years, Minister
of Industry and Commerce said.“Sri Lanka has launched an ICT value survey to
find the national hi-tech exports it achieved in 2013/14.” the minister said
in a statement. “All the ICT exporters are encouraged to actively take part
in it.”“We have recognized the ICT industry to be a key player in our
exports. We a looking for US $ one billion in exports this year.”In 2013 the
islands ICT export revenues were 719 million US dollars and the sector
reported a growth of 123 per cent over the last five years.The London Stock
Exchange and HSBC are among recipients of country’s ICT support.The
minister’s statement says, Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM sector vision 2022 is to earn
five billion US dollars in revenues while also creating 200,000 direct jobs
and 1000 start-ups. During the
last five years the islands global brand position improved significantly with
AT Kearney ranking Sri Lanka among the top 25 destinations in their global
ranking in the last three consecutive rankings.Sri Lanka also received the
“Outsourcing Destination of the Year” award from the National Outsourcing
Association (NOA), UK twice in a row.“To evaluate the progress of ICT/BPM
exports, we need to continuously measure the growth of it and its
contribution to the country’s economy,” Bandula Egodage, chairman and chief
executive of the Export Development Board said.“The government has recognized
the industry to be one of the key players in the Sri Lanka. The EDB expects
that this survey will be instrumental in facilitating the industry to reach
its highest potential.”“The results of the survey will be useful to assess
the current status of the industry in relation to its competitors as well as
be the basis for Government policy decisions in the future regarding the ICT
industry”.Sri Lanka’s competitive advantage as a destination for doing business
in the ICT/BPM sector is built around agility, cost, a niche talent base,
ethics, cultural adaptability and superior quality of life. From http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/
06/02/2015 |
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Turkey, Azerbaijan Can Jointly Work in ICT Sector Turkey and Azerbaijan can implement new projects on the basis of
joint strategies in the field of high technologies, said Turkish Ambassador
to Azerbaijan Ismail Alper Coskun in his interview with the newspaper
"Communication World". The ambassador noted that Azerbaijan has
made significant investments in the development of technology in recent
years. The country's infrastructure is being improved in this area. Turkish
government also strongly supports the technology area in recent years. Now,
Turkey is becoming producing and exporting country of the new technologies.
“The application of satellite, as well as large-scale high technologies is
possible in these countries,” he said. “Both countries may have their own
networks, technologies, satellites, but common goals, interests in many areas
are also available”, the Ambassador stressed. Today, Azerbaijan is the
leading regional country in terms of developing high technologies. Currently,
some 75 percent of the population uses the Internet. Broadband Internet
penetration among the population stands at 62 percent. For these indicators,
Azerbaijan is twice ahead of the world average. Moreover, Azerbaijan holds
the 23th place among developing countries on the share of Internet-connected
households. From http://www.azernews.az/
06/10/2015 Azerbaijan, Iran Prepare for Deployment of Joint Production of
IT Equipment Azerbaijan and Iran are preparing for the deployment of joint
production of computer and telecommunication equipment, which is one of the
key areas of cooperation between the two countries in the field of ICT, the
head of the office of the Ministry of Communications and High Technologies of
Azerbaijan Vidadi Zeynalov told Trend June 11. He said that the prospects for the
deployment of co-production between the two countries will be discussed on
June 15 within the framework of the visit of the delegation of the Ministry
of Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan headed by Deputy
Minister Iltimas Mammadov to Iran.
Cooperation between the parties in the fields of broadcasting and
satellite communications will be also discussed within the framework of the
meeting, he said. “The management of Azercosmos OJSC will hold talks with the
Iranian side on the issue of using the resources of the telecommunications
satellite Azerspace-1 for the broadcast of Iranian television and radio
channels,” said Zeynalov. Earlier, the Iranian side expressed its readiness
to consider issues of cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of satellite
communication, and this issue could become one of the key topics in the
meetings of the joint Committee on Broadcasting, the document on the creation
of which was signed in October 2014 in Baku. From http://en.trend.az/
06/11/2015 Bakcell Awarded with Honorary Certificate by Ministry of
Communications and High Technologies Bakcell, the first mobile operator and leading mobile Internet
provider of Azerbaijan has received an honorary certificate from the Ministry
of Communications and High Technologies for its contribution to provision of
telecommunications services during the First European Games. Bakcell has provided in-building
solutions at such sporting and non-sporting venues and areas as Baku Aquatics
Centre, Baku Sports Hall, Tofiq Bahramov Stadium, Heydar Aliyev Arena,
Athletes Village, Baku Crystal Hall, Fairmont Hotel and Heydar Aliyev
International Airport. Within the
frames of the preparatory work for the First European Games, and with the aim
of providing the users with highest quality services, Bakcell has
additionally installed 95 2G/3G stations and 20 stations compatible with 4G
services. As a result of installation of additional innovative equipment,
able to ensure high network throughput, Bakcell network was reinforced to
provide a large number of subscribers with high quality voice and internet
services at all the venues of the First European Games. During the execution of this project, Bakcell has worked
together with other providers as a part of the European Games team and served
implementation of this national project on the highest level. More than 1000 tourists visiting
Azerbaijan during the European Games chose Bakcell network to use
state-of-the-art LTE services with up to 150 Mbit/s internet speeds. It should
also be noted that Bakcell is the first and only operator in Azerbaijan to
provide the subscribers with 4G services in roaming. Bakcell offers a variety of products
for modern mobile communications customers. Bakcell provides class leading 3G
mobile internet experience in the country under the Sür@ brand name. As one of the largest national non-oil
investors, Bakcell today continues making large investments in the economy of
Azerbaijan through its investments in state-of-the-art telecommunication
technology and its people who service our customers. Bakcell’s network covers more than 99
percent of the population and 93 percent of the land area of the country
(excluding occupied territories). Bakcell is a leader in innovation and it
focuses on bringing the best of the mobile internet to Azerbaijanis through
new partnerships and its Sür@ services.
For more information about Bakcell products and services, please visit
www.bakcell.com or call 555. For press releases please see
www.bakcell.com/az/news (or www.bakcell.com/en/news for press releases in
English). If you are not a
Bakcell subscriber, but wish to find out about Bakcell and its services,
please call 055 000 05 5. From http://en.trend.az/
07/07/2015 Azerbaijan Ranks First Among CIS Countries for Intensity Use of
Internet The development in the communications and high technologies has
been ensured and the country has achieved a number of successes in this
field. The growth of income in this sector is 12 percent which is 1,5 times
higher than average world indicator. This was stated by the Minister of
Communications and High Technologies Ali Abbasov at the meeting of the
Cabinet of Ministers on the results of the country's socio-economic development
in the first half of 2015 and the objectives for the future, AzerTag reports.
The Minister said: "Gross income of the three mobile operators in
Azerbaijan has increased by 6 times in comparison with the same period of
previous year". According to the Minister, 3G-network mobile services
have been provided in all the country's territory, while coverage of 4G
networks was provided for Baku and Absheron Peninsula. The country is
building broadband Internet channels to all cities of Azerbaijan. The number
of internet users in Azerbaijan is increasing annually. Density of broadband
Internet users has reached 65 percent. "Azerbaijan is the leader among
the Central Asian and CIS countries for Internet penetration and the country
observes a trend of increase in the number of broadband Internet users, which
is confirmed by statistics of international analytical agencies", the
Minister said. From http://news.az/
07/17/2015 DATA-Center
to Accelerate Transition to Cloud Services The launch of the DATA-center of the Trier 3 level in Azerbaijan
will accelerate a transition to cloud services and cloud computing, said,
Communication and High Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov. The minister said
the largest data center in the region will start operation this October.
Azerbaijan plans to transfer the personal data of users from social
networking services and Internet telephony (Skype, WhatsApp and others) into
the country, Abbasov said. The Ministry is preparing to appeal to these
companies so that all of the resources related to Azerbaijan are stored
directly within Azerbaijani territory. “It is the first data center in the
region. The center will also serve other countries in the region, Google,
Facebook, and other large companies,” he said. Abbasov stressed that this
move is very important in the context of the cyber-security. Depending on the
demand, storage capacity of the DATA-center will be increased, he added. At
present, the DATA-center is tested for resilience to obtain a certificate for
the Tier3 level. The certificate will be official confirmation that it is
designed based on the best international standards on the criteria of
reliability and safety. The disaster-proof DATA-center has been created to protect
the data of its clients. The center will ensure stable operation in case of
failure of any node of the system, as it will have a record of 99.985 percent
availability. Currently, a number of major world companies including
Facebook, Google, Amazon, Yahoo and others, have expressed an interest in
placing their IT-infrastructure in Azerbaijan’s DATA-center. The addresses of
the companies are being evaluated, as the resources to be distributed among
customers, have already been planned. From http://www.azernews.az/
08/10/2015 Azerbaijan
Considering Switching to LTE The state operator is considering switching to the promising LTE
technology to further develop communications in Azerbaijan, where mobile
phone penetration rate stands at 112 percent. Baku Telephone Communications
Production Association under the Communications and High Technologies
Ministry is considering LTE technology as a promising area for the
development of communication standard CDMA, the PA reported. “Prospects of
CDMA remain vague, and today it is worth considering switching to other
technologies. This issue is on the agenda. The lack of frequency resources is
the reason that impedes the development of the CDMA standard,” the
association said. Today, the issue of the modernization of CDMA networks and transition
to LTE is relevant to many operators in Asia and the U.S. The CDMA update is
another step in the development of the network, as CDMA 2001X used today by
network operators is considered obsolete, the PA said earlier. The
association believes that the evolution of the network infrastructure is
inevitable, following innovation dictated by IT-equipment manufacturers,
whose products becomes more and more universal every year. This in turn has a
positive impact on improving quality and increasing the list of services
provided by operators. “In general, the CDMA subscriber base declined
slightly last year due to the expansion of the fixed telephony in settlements
where subscribers mainly used communication standard CDMA earlier,” said the
association. To date, a total 24 CDMA base stations are involved in the state
operator network. The numbering capacity of CDMA can reach 20,000, and 10,000
are currently in operation. There are three mobile operators in Azerbaijan –
Azercell, Bakcell, and Azerfon – providing LTE services to its subscribers.
Speaking about mobile devices used in the country, 50.7 percent of the market
is covered by Samsung devices, followed by Apple with an 18.1 percent
distribution. The third popular, Nokia, covers 9 percent of the market. From http://www.azernews.az/
08/11/2015 Azerbaijan
to Use Microsoft Cloud Tech Azerbaijan's Communications and High Technologies Ministry will
use Microsoft’s cloud technologies to deploy virtual services through a
regional data center, the ministry reported. The issue was discussed during
the meeting between Communications and High Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov
and Trudy Norris-Grey, the managing director of Microsoft’s public sector
business in Central and Eastern Europe. The sides discussed the current
situation and prospects for cooperation between Microsoft and the Azerbaijani
government, particularly in cyber security and e-government services.
Norris-Grey applauded the excellent organization of the inaugural European
Games, expressing her satisfaction for allowing Microsoft to be a partner. In
turn, Abbasov hailed the high-level cooperation with Microsoft, including the
use of its state of the art technology during the Games, and expressed
gratitude for the quality of services. Upon conclusion, the sides exchanged
views on Microsoft’s participation in the Baku Tel 2015 exhibition and
conference to be held in December. The largest data center in the region is expected to be
commissioned in Azerbaijan by the end of September. Currently DATA-center is
being tested for resilience to achieve a Tier3 conformity level certificate,
the presence of which would be official confirmation that the design meets
the best international standards in reliability and safety. Certification is
carried out by the American Uptime Institute. A number of major global
companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Yahoo have already
expressed interest in placing their infrastructures within the DATA-center.
To date, the number of Microsoft products localized in the Azerbaijani
language includes Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and
Windows 10 operating systems as well as all Microsoft Office products. The
Microsoft Corporation, operating in Azerbaijan since 2005, is represented by
seven experts focused on the interaction between public and private sectors
as well as on issues of humanitarian concern. Microsoft Azerbaijan's main
goal is to offer the latest products and software designs that would
contribute to Azerbaijan's development through introduction into
e-government, business administration, and education. From http://www.azernews.az/
08/24/2015 IRAN: Internet Bandwidth Rises by 240% in Two Years Internet bandwidth increased from 700 megabytes per second to
2400 MB/s since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013, said
Iranian Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud
Vaezi. Some 8,000 villages were
connected to the national internet network in the past Iranian fiscal year,
ended on March 20, he said, adding that the figure will be increased to
25,000 in the current year, Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted Vaezi as saying on
June 14. Before the current
administration took office, just 200,000 people had access to internet
services via mobile phone, but now over 11 million people have access to the
services, he noted. The ministry
plans to provide villages of more than 15 families with internet services, he
added. The latest statistics of
Iran’s Internet Penetration Management Portal put the number of Internet
users in Iran at 40 million, indicating that the Internet penetration rate of
the country stood at 53.29 percent in June 2014. About 11.07 million of the
users in Iran have used GPRS connection to access the Internet over the same period. From http://en.trend.az/
06/15/2015 Iran
Aims to Undermine US Global Internet Management Iran is taking measures to put an end to the US domination of
global Internet management. “Iran
has officially taken the issue of ending US domination of global Internet
management into the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU),” Fars News Agency
quoted Nasrollah Jahangiri, Iran’s deputy communication and information
technology minister as saying August 19.
According to the report, an Iranian delegation lead by Mahmoud Vaezi,
the minister of communication and information technology is following the
issue of allocation of more opportunities for states in governing the global
Internet network in the ICANN session.
Jagangiri also said projects such as electronic government and
national network would be designed in a way completely ensuring Iran’s
political sovereignty, the report adds. From http://en.trend.az/
08/19/2015 TURKMENISTAN:
National Organization for Bar Coding Joins GSI Turkmenistan’s national organization for bar coding has been
admitted to membership in GSI (Global Standart), international organization,
and products made in Turkmenistan have been assigned a relevant international
bar code, said the government of the country June 20. This decision was taken unanimously by
111 member countries at the General Assembly of GS1 in Sydney (Australia).
Products made in Turkmenistan will be marked with a bar code beginning with
number 483. Turkmenistan’s
national organization for bar coding is co-funded by the Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan. It accounts for 366
members. Large-scale work is currently under way in Turkmenistan on introduction
of the system of barcodes. Some 20,000 types of goods manufactured by
national producers have already been assigned relevant barcodes. From http://en.trend.az/
06/20/2015 Uzbekistan,
OIC Mull Development of Co-op Uzbekistan and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
have discussed the status and prospects for development of cooperation, Uzbek
Foreign Ministry said May 28. The discussions were held between Uzbek
delegation led by the country’s Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and OIC
Secretary General Iyad Amin Madani during the 42nd session of the Council of
Foreign Ministers of OIC member states in Kuwait. The sides also discussed
the practical issues related to the upcoming presidency of Uzbekistan in the
OIC Council of Foreign Ministers and holding its next session in Tashkent in
2016. The OIC was founded on Sept.25, 1969 at the conference of the heads of
Muslim countries in Rabat to ensure Islamic solidarity in the social,
economic and political spheres, to fight colonialism, neocolonialism and
racism and support the Palestine Liberation Organization. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Central
African Republic, Russian Federation, as well as the Moro National Liberation
Front in the Philippines and several organizations (UN, Non-aligned Movement,
etc.) have observer status in the organization. The headquarters of the
organization is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Organization of Islamic Conference
was renamed as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on June 28, 2011, in
accordance with the decision of the 38th session of OIC Council of Foreign
Ministers in Astana. From http://en.trend.az/
05/28/2015 Tashkent
Hosted Round Table on ICT Development In the metropolitan International Business Center held a round
table on "The role of modern information and communication technologies
in the modernization of public administration and democratization of
society", Embassy of Uzbekistan said. Deputies of the Legislative Chamber of
Oliy Majlis, managers and employees of state power and administration,
foreign ICT experts, representatives of NGOs, civil society, the media and
others attended it. The event
noted that systematic and deeply thought-out state policy in the information
field has enabled Uzbekistan to make significant progress in the formulation
and development of national information space, freedom of expression and
information, the introduction of modern ICT in all areas of life. The participants of round table
discussed the effective use of ICT in public administration, further
improving the legal framework in this area, expanding of provided interactive
services, protection of citizens' personal data on the Internet and
others. As a result of measures final conclusions, practical suggestions
and recommendations adopted.
Broad participation of national experts together with foreign experts
in the field of information technologies from the Today Uzbekistan has a unique chance to create an effective
IT-industry, which for a short period of time can be a catalyst for economic
development and an attractive market for foreign investment. For more than 15 years our company
successfully cooperating with the Uzbek partners, and we look forward to the
further expansion of fruitful cooperation. "Electronic Business"
program Director at Riga International School of Economics and Business
Administration Ina Gudele (Latvia):
- Over the past few years I've been following regularly the
development of governmental sites of Uzbekistan and I should note that they
are constantly improving in functional terms, they are regularly
updated. In my opinion, providing
online access to the databases of central government agencies demonstrates
the commitment of your country to the innovative approach to the
modernization of public administration and the democratic renewal of society. From http://en.trend.az/
07/08/2015 |
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New
ICT Report Points to Future Development An
Information Communications Technology expert says he hopes a new report will trigger
greater access and connectivity across the Pacific. The Pacific Region
Infrastructure Facility report highlights the improved access to
infrastructure and services across the Pacific and looks at the potential for
greater ICT development. The government's $30 million ICT fund aims to
support Maori economic development, language and culture. The Facility
director, Sanjivi Ransingham, says the report will help Pacific governments
and the private sector identify opportunities for investment. Mr Ransingham
says the report illustrated the major changes in the region with under half
of Pacific households having access to mobile phones in 2007 to 93 percent in
2014 being an example. He says the report also included some necessary
recommendations. "Do data collection and monitoring of the sector.
Leveraging international connectivity. Fostering relearning and educational
content creation. Holding ICT-enabled agricultural services. Stimulating
e-Health, health services that can be provided through the internet and then
e-Government, boosting tourism and finally and most importantly making ICT
access universal." From
http://www.radionz.co.nz
06/22/2015 160 Trillion Annual Mobile and Online Messages by 2019 New
research says 438 billion messages will be sent per day by 2019 for a total
of 160 trillion messages per annum up from 94.2 trillion per year in 2015.
When it comes to SMS, MMS, IM (instant messaging), social media messaging and
email - it’s going to grow even greater than ever before, according to
research and analytical firm Juniper Research. It is expected to grow fro
94.2 trillion messages on an annual basis in 2015 to 160 trillion by 2019, or
approximately 438 billion messages per day. In 2014, Juniper says that, at
around 35 trillion messages per year, email accounted for the largest share
of traffic, although with the pretty major caveat that nearly 80% of traffic,
or 28 trillion messages, was spam. The next stat is that, within the next 12
months, IM will overtake email generating almost 43 trillion messages
annually. I personally find it very rare to receive spam via instant message,
so while it does exist, it does appear to be negligible in comparison from
reports I’ve seen online, showing just how chatty humans are on instant
messaging mediums. Juniper’s
observation is that ‘the negligible cost of IM services had led to
significant migration from SMS,’ and noted that ‘service providers such as
Tencent’s QQ, WhatsApp and WeChat now had more than 400 million active users,
with WhatsApp reporting in excess of 30bn messages sent per day.’ This
information and much more is contained in Juniper’s research entitled ‘Mobile
& Online Messaging: SMS, RCS & IM Markets 2015-2019’, which the
research firm would no doubt like to sell you and relevant telcos and other
organisations a copy of. Juniper then notes that social media sites such as
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are continuing to experience sharp uplifts in
usage, with Facebook alone now seeing more than 5.8bn posts, likes and
comments per day. In addition, when it comes to Application-to-Person (A2P)
messaging, Juniper’s research found that enterprises continued to regard A2P
SMS as more reliable and secure than IM for services such as verification and
notification, driving A2P revenues to more than $70 billion by 2019, up from
$62.8 billion this year, 2015. Other
key findings include: #
Many OTT messaging players are in the process of diversifying their offerings
across markets as diverse as food ordering, taxi bookings and payments.
Examples would include Snapchat with their ‘Snapcash’ service, and LINE’s
LINE Pay. #
MNOs have been slow to implement RCS (Rich Communications Services), which
will enable the provision of enhanced messaging services, although the recent
availability of joyn-enabled smartphones allied to greater commercial
deployments should significantly boost traffic in the medium term. From
http://www.itwire.com
07/08/2015 AUSTRALIA:
Rural NBN Becoming a Reality There
remains significant controversy over the technology used to deliver the NBN
to Australia’s cities and more populated regional areas, but the wireless
broadband and satellites that will be used for rural and remote Australia are
looking good and generating much less argument. And NBN and the Government
are making sure we know it. Last month they made a big deal of the imminent
launch of the first NBN satellite, which will replace the current
unsatisfactory interim satellite service. Now it is the turn of the wireless
NBN. It will be the best and fastest wireless broadband service on earth, we
are assured. The NBN wireless network will ultimately serve 600,000 premises
and nearly 1.5 million people, about 5 per cent of the NBN’s planned number
of connections (satellite will reach another 3%). These are users in areas
where it is uneconomic to run fibre cable, which will remain the NBN’s core delivery
medium. Rural users will be served by a wireless system called TD-LTE (Time
Duplex – Long Term Evolution). The technology is very similar to that used
for Australia’s 4G mobile phone network, though the two networks will not be
interoperable. The backbone infrastructure will be from Swedish
telecommunications giant Ericsson, with the customer premises equipment
supplied by Australian company NetComm. There
is considerable animosity towards the Government’s ‘multi technology mix’ –
Malcolm Turnbull’s term for the combination of media that will replace the
previous ALP’s all fibre plan for heavily populated areas. About one third of
urban dwellers will still receive fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), mostly in
areas where the previous Government’s plans were too advanced to alter, but
one third will now receive fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), which will use existing
copper telephone cables into the home. Another third will have their NBN
broadband delivered over the existing HFC (hybrid fibre coaxial) cables that Optus
and Telstra installed to deliver pay TV in the 1990s. NBN has purchased these
HFC assets. There has been considerable controversy over the speeds that FTTN
and HFC will be able to deliver, and over the cost and delivery schedule of
the multi technology mix compared to the originally planned FTTP system. We
will never know, or at least will never agree on, which will have been the
better option. But there is no real controversy over the wireless and
satellite parts of the NBN. The Coalition has not altered Labor’s plans,
despite criticising them when they were first suggested. The fact that most
of the beneficiaries of these technologies are rural residents and part of
the Coalition’s natural constituency is no doubt a factor. Now
NBN is been promoting a new report, from research analyst group Ovum and
commissioned by Ericsson, which says that the wireless part of the NBN will
be the world’s fastest and best value broadband wireless network. Ovum’s
Fixed Wireless Broadband: A Global Comparison compared the NBN fixed wireless
service with 21 other wireless broadband providers. “Our research
demonstrates the combined technical performance with high levels of
affordability of the NBN fixed wireless network make it a world leading
broadband service when compared to other overseas wireless operators,” said
Ovum’s David Kennedy. The arrival of the NBN will position rural and regional
Australians to gain new access to a host of applications at affordable
prices, helping to close the gap between city and country as well as
Australia and the rest of the world.” The Ovum report found that data
allowances over the NBN fixed wireless network for its existing 25/5 Mbps (25
megabits per second download, 5 megabits per second upload) product offered
at least three times more data than the next best international peer, PLDT in
the Philippines. It also found that price per gigabyte of data for the same
service was 75 per cent cheaper than the next best value competitor, T-Mobile
in the Czech Republic. And
“NBN’s wholesale upload speed performance for its upcoming 25-50/5-20 Mbps
wholesale speed tier product – currently in pilot – will be around 33 per
cent higher than its next best peer, Meteor in Ireland.” Communications
Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s deputy Paul Fletcher talked up the technology at
the Asian edition of the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai this week. He said
that the next generation of wireless technology, 5G, will eventually deliver
even higher speeds for the NBN’s wireless users (5G standards are not expected
to be finalised until 2020). “The NBN is an ambitious project to deliver high
speed broadband services to every home in Australia using a combination of a
fixed access network in the cities and major towns, fixed wireless in less
densely populated areas and satellite in remote areas,” he said, choosing not
to mention the fact the it was conceived by the previous government and
criticised by his own party when it was in opposition. “The
NBN is using mobile technology in the form of TD-LTE to deliver a fixed-broadband
like service in many areas of regional and remote Australia, where it would
be prohibitively expensive to roll out a fixed network. The NBN
fixed-wireless network currently covers 270,000 premises. It will ultimately
cover around 600,000. Today it has almost 50,000 active end-users and is now
adding 1,000 end users per week. Many of these subscribers previously had to
use expensive 3G or 4G mobile broadband services – and some of them simply
could not access any form of satisfactory broadband. The NBN fixed-wireless
service is opening up a whole range of broadband applications to regional
Australians that were previously simply not possible. Right now
fixed-wireless can deliver 50 Mbps on the NBN – and it could go marginally
higher – but substantial speed increases will only really be possible with
the arrival of 5G. 5G will bring greater capacity to the fixed-wireless
network which will enable even higher data usage; it also offers lower
latency which will improve quality service on some applications.” All of
which is true, and all of which the current government is happy to take
credit for. From
http://www.governmentnews.com.au
07/16/2015 NEW
ZEALAND: As the Digital Age Evolves, What Keeps Kiwi CEOs Awake at Night? New
Zealand CEOs are more concerned about the impact of a skills shortage on
their business than at any point in the last six years. According to research
by PwC, Kiwi CEOs, as well as their global counterparts, are now finding it
so difficult to find people with the skills they need to grow their business,
with three quarters ranking skills shortage as the biggest threat to their
business. This represents a 10 percentage point jump from 2014 and is up from
less than half (46 percent) six years ago. Of the 1,300 CEOs interviewed by
PwC rank, CEOs in Japan and South Africa are the most concerned with over
nine in 10 of those surveyed say the availability of key skills is a threat
to their organisation’s growth prospects. This is closely followed by China
(90 percent), Hong Kong (85 percent), New Zealand (84 percent and up from
last year’s figure of 80 percent), UK (84 percent) and Romania (84 percent).
To solve the talent conundrum, CEOs are increasing their use of contingent
workers, part-time employees, outsourcing and service agreements to fill
their talent gaps. According to PWC, they are also looking for a wider mix of
skills than in the past and are searching for talent in different
geographies, industries or demographic segments. “Organisations
both in New Zealand and globally are struggling more than ever to find the
right people with the right skills to achieve their growth plans,” says Scott
Mitchell, Partner and business adviser, PwC. “The digital age has transformed
the skills shortage from a nagging worry for CEOs into something far more
challenging.” Mitchell says filling talent gaps is also a major driver of
Mergers and Acquisitions activity, with over a quarter of CEOs saying that
access to top talent is the main reason for collaborating with other
organisations. As a result, this is creating a ‘gig economy’, where workers
with the most in-demand skills can dictate where and when they work, and who
they work for. Despite rising business confidence and ambitious hiring plans,
Mitchell says businesses are faced with a complex and shifting world where
technology is driving huge changes. “People with strong technology skills
that can adapt and work across different industries are desperately needed,
but these people are difficult to find and can afford to charge a premium for
their skills,” he adds. “New places, geographies and new pools of talent must
be looked at - organisations can’t afford to recruit people as they’ve always
done.” Businesses feel that the Government has an important role to play in
solving the skills gap with six in 10 CEOs, both globally and in New Zealand,
believing that creating a skilled and adaptable workforce should be a top
priority for government. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
06/08/2015 Where Are
the Skills NZ Needs? Almost
three quarters (72 per cent) of New Zealand employers believe that the skills
shortage has the potential to impact the effective operation of their
business or department, according to findings in the recently released 2015
Hays Salary Guide. As revealed in the Guide, 46 per cent of more than 451 New
Zealand employers, representing 374,007 employees, intend to increase their
permanent staff levels in the year ahead. As the available candidate pool is
absorbed into new or replacement roles, Hays says it is natural that skills
shortages emerge. According to the Guide, 18 per cent report difficulty
recruiting accountancy & finance, IT and technical professionals at the
entry to mid management level. Also in short supply at this level are
operations (14 per cent), engineering (11 per cent) and sales & marketing
(10 per cent) professionals. At
the senior management level operations (11 per cent), technical (also 11 per
cent), engineering (9 per cent) and IT (9 per cent) professionals are
difficult to find. In response, 70 per cent of employers will consider
employing or sponsoring a qualified overseas or expatriate candidate in skill
short areas. In addition, 39 per cent will ‘sometimes’ counter-offer staff
when they resign, but of these 38 per cent find that staff leave anyway, 21
per cent said they only stay for three to 12 months and 1 per cent said they
stay less than 3 months. “ According
to Walker, career paths and training and development were also considered to
have a major impact on an employer brand, but only 9 per cent of employers
said their organisation is perceived as offering ‘excellent’ career paths or
training and development. “These results suggest that many employers still
need to work on creating an employment brand that reflects the culture of the
organisation if they are to attract and retain the top talent in the year
ahead,” he observes. “After all, it’s your culture and your unique way of
operating that will attract and retain your top performers.” Meanwhile job
seekers with in-demand skills can be confident of securing their next career
move, Walker claims. “We suggest you look above salary to the long-term
career advancement that a role could potentially offer you,” he adds. “There
are a lot of exciting projects in New Zealand at the moment, so consider how
involvement in one of these projects could aid your career advancement in
future years.” The Hays Salary Guide includes salary and recruiting trends
for over 1,000 roles in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
07/06/2015 Will
Hybrid IT and Cloud-Enabled Technologies Define the New Normal? Hybrid
IT is fast becoming the new normal across organisations in Asia-Pacific. With
the increasing utilisation of data centres and cloud services across the Asia
Pacific region, companies have gradually updated or upgraded their existing
IT systems, giving rise to the Hybrid IT environment. Besides helping
enterprises to drive digital disruption, the latest Hybrid IT environment is
also enhancing the customer experience and encouraging business model
innovation. As a result, there is greater acceleration in the adoption of a
multi-vendor multi-cloud environment or Hybrid IT. More than half of
enterprises surveyed last year are planning to move to a Hybrid environment
over the next 12 to 18 months. This is putting the onus on vendors and
services providers as the traditional IT procurement model is being disrupted
by new business models. The service providers are responding to this by
accelerating their pace of service innovation. Frost
& Sullivan’s latest report on Hybrid IT and Cloud Enabled Technologies,
‘Asia-Pacific Data Center and Cloud Computing Market Update 2015’ discusses
the current developments in the lucrative data centre market and its
potential impact on enterprises. According to Mayank Kapoor, Industry
Principal, ICT - Data Center and Cloud Computing, Frost & Sullivan, Asia
Pacific, although Hybrid IT is defining the new normal, the Cloud is enabling
the accelerated adoption of new technologies such as Big Data, the Internet
of Things and Connected Industries. “These new technologies are also driving
industry transformation,” Kapoor notes. “From our research, we have
identified the three industry verticals at the forefront of such
transformations, namely Manufacturing, Automotive and Healthcare.” Kapoor
says these two trends (Hybrid IT and Cloud Enabling Technologies) are also
creating a strong demand for data centre and cloud services - this in turn is
driving the data centre construction frenzy across Asia-Pacific. Frost
& Sullivan research estimates the market in Asia-Pacific to have been
worth US$25.7 billion in 2014. Kapoor says it is expected to grow at a CAGR
in excess of 20 percent over the 2014 to 2019 period to reach US$65.2
billion. As a result, Frost & Sullivan expects the cloud services to be
the dominant segment of the market with a CAGR of 33.1 percent for the
forecast period. “We at Frost & Sullivan believe that this is the start
of the Everything as a Service (XaaS) era, with managed services at the heart
of it,” Kapoor adds. This widespread adoption is also driving significant new
investments across the region. Other key trends having a strong impact on the
data centre and cloud computing market include the implementation of a
Software Defined Everything Vision, stricter data sovereignty laws, such as
in Indonesia and the rise of vertical cloud computing applications. In the
long term, Frost & Sullivan recommends enterprises focus on three key
pillars - Service Portfolio Augmentation, Geographic Expansion and Business
Model / Deliver Capability Enhancement. From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
08/06/2015 Is NZ Ready for
the Digital Economy? New
Zealand is suffering from an emerging skills gap, an issue which could
seriously impact the country’s ability to thrive in a digital world. That’s
according to the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand’s latest
publication, Future proofing the profession: preparing business leaders and
finance professionals for 2025, which claims that the nation is suffering
from an emerging skills gap. A contributor to the publication, Cisco
Australia and New Zealand Executive General Manager of Corporate Affairs, Tim
Fawcett says that the companies on the Fortune 500 list today, only 24
percent existed 25 years ago. Echoing Fawcett’s claims, Head of Academic
Relations, Professor James Guthrie believes that the impact of the digital
economy is “profound” and is set for further impact in the near future.
“Skills, particularly STEM skills will be required for jobs of the future -
but enrolment in these subjects and courses has been in decline,” he says.
“This in conjunction with technology disruptions, the impact of regulation
and the lack of these skills in current and future workforce are critical
issues that the Australian and New Zealand governments need to deal with
now.” For Guthrie, workplaces today are already increasingly flexible,
innovative and creative, meaning that the appetite to embrace the digital
economy is there. “Businesses are expected to drive over 500 percent boost in
digital jobs,” he adds. “Without the right skills there is a risk that
Australia and New Zealand will not be part of the business of moving towards
efficient and effective use of technology and adapting to disruptions unless
needs are supported and met.” From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
08/17/2015 Digital
New Zealand - The Road to Disruption Convergence
and connectivity is disrupting, transforming and collapsing industries,
redefining the future of business across New Zealand and how Kiwi executives
will manage companies in the future. The interplay between cloud computing,
mobile technology, big data and the Internet of Things is driving the surge
in digital transformation and rapidly accelerating the pace of connectivity
and convergence across all industries, radically changing lives; transforming
the way we work, relax, learn, and manage our health. Frost & Sullivan’s
New Mega Trends, Impact on convergence in the future, has identified four
types of convergence: Products, Technologies, Industries and Competition.
“Customers are no longer interested in silo based apps or services,” says
Andrew Milroy, Senior Vice President for ICT Asia Pacific, Frost &
Sullivan. “They demand holistic, end-to end solutions for their connected
lives and companies understand the importance of convergence for those
solutions to materialise, thus incentivising partnerships between Energy,
Security, IT, Healthcare, Automotive, and other sectors.” Connectivity
is enabled by the proliferation of connected devices and technology enablers
create disruptions in various sectors, forcing convergence and thereby
creating possibilities to build solutions for emerging demand. Identifying
new convergence areas will stimulate the development of new business models
and new product development. “An integral factor for growth for companies is
to understand the landscape of new convergence areas and subsequent
opportunities that could be generated in the future,” Milroy adds. “Digital
technology is allowing industries to radically improve their effectiveness
and to transform themselves to meet stakeholder requirements much more than
before. With a culture of innovation, companies can turn the disruptions into
opportunities if they are able to respond appropriately with the right tools
and strategies. Conversely, companies are likely to put their business at
risk if they do not look at changes in other industries and innovate their
products and services. As established and global as Apple and Samsung are,
they are also constantly challenged to keep innovating to meet customers’
expectations.” For
Milroy, healthcare, energy, retail and financial services are all
transforming rapidly. “The music and media industries have already
experienced the digital transformation and have radically changed the way we
listen to music and watch videos and movies,” he adds. “We are increasingly
using mobile devices to manage aspects of our lives from banking to booking
flights. Digital disruptors such as Google and Yahoo have driven the
transformation of the advertising industry. Amazon has driven the digital
transformation of the retail industry and has recently played a pivotal role
in the digital transformation of the IT industry.” Across the world, New
Zealand included, the manufacturing industry’s adoption of digital technology
has completely transformed manufacturing processes. Harnessing a combination
of cloud computing, mobility, big data and the Internet of Things, factories
can make changes to production instantly. For Milroy, this allows
manufacturers to make large numbers of small customised batches, rather than
small numbers of large batches, signalling the end of the mass manufacturing
era. “We
are entering the era of the software defined factory and moving toward a
state of autonomous factories which do not require people to work in them,”
he adds. The automotive industry has also experienced rapid digital
transformation resulting in cars that are much more intelligent and
autonomous than before. “Cars can learn and customise the driving experience
for individual drivers,” Milroy adds. “Cars can learn preferred/typical
routes and use them when driving, taking shortcuts where necessary, if for
example, there are roadworks. “It can adjust its route and driving based on
weather conditions, it can anticipate danger and eliminate accidents. While
the concept of self-driving car a few years ago seemed far-fetched, today,
digital technology has made self-driving cars are a reality and has
transformed the driving experience as well as the entire automotive industry.”
In addition, telecoms players are well positioned to provide solutions beyond
the physical home environment including enabling connected work and connected
cities. Milroy says that social trends, like ageing societies, demand
specific solutions around assisted living are areas that a lot of telecoms
players are actively looking at. “As
the cost of healthcare rises and countries grapple with the challenges posed
by ageing populations, greater focus will be placed on preventive care and
providing care in the home and ageing-in-place,” Milroy adds. “This new
healthcare paradigm will see the hospital is coming to you rather than you
going to the hospital, and there are huge new opportunities for ICT suppliers
whose technology will enable and drive this transformation. Telecom players
such as AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have used the power of convergence in
their connected home platforms called “Digital Life” and “QIVICON”
respectively. “Google has moved away from their traditional business area to
form new partnerships and new solutions.” Smart Cities Several
smart cities and companies already have evolved business models incorporating
aspects of convergence. Many smart cities have adopted integrated urban
solutions as a part of their smart city framework, an example being The
Amsterdam Smart City Consortium’s rebuild of its smart city framework
integrating various sectors and industries within the city. “Technology firms
are being forced to change the way they look at the world and engage with
their customers,” Milroy adds. “For example telecoms companies traditionally
report their activities in terms of broad product categories such as mobile
or fixed line. This will change and in a few years telecoms and ICT companies
will report their activities in terms of the vertical markets that they are
serving. You will see revenues primarily segmented by healthcare, financial
services and so on.” Throughout New Zealand, Milroy believes that going
forward, all industries will be transformed by digital technology and these
transformations will have a huge impact not only on the industries themselves
but also on societies and economies. “It
will affect the way we interact with each other, with our employers and with
the organisations that serve us. It will change the way we serve our
stakeholders and we manage our businesses,” Milroy adds. The knock on effect
is that Milroy believes connectivity and convergence will have a massive
bearing on business, society and personal lives and the future of all
industries would be defined by the influence and adoption of connectivity.
“As connectivity continues to drive convergence, companies need to identify
adjacent, periphery products and services that can be added as a part of
their portfolio in the future,” Milroy adds. “This will define new solutions,
new customers, new partnerships and new competition.” From
http://www.computerworld.co.nz
08/20/2015 SAMOA:
Fast Internet Another Step Closer Samoa
is set for faster internet after the World Bank gave the green light for a
$16 million US dollar grant. The Samoa Connectivity Project is expected to
bring more reliable internet and is a public-private partnership, with
financing from the Asian Development Bank, Australia's Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, and the newly established Samoa Submarine Cable Company. A
1,300 kilometre cable will link Upolu and Savai'i islands to the Southern
Cross Cable Network in Suva. Fiji is a well-established submarine cable hub
with connections to Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Hawai'i, and Vanuatu. The
cable will also provide opportunities for neighbouring countries to connect.
Work on the cable is planned to start in 2016, and the total cost of the
project is $49.94 million. Samoa is currently connected to the internet via
satellite and the older American Samoa-Hawai'i Cable System. From
http://www.radionz.co.nz
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