Strong sales for Nokia’s Lumia smartphone line based on Windows OS has changed perceptions: Analysts are expecting Nokia to rapidly reassert its relevance in the smartphone market, which it had largely to itself before the 2007 introduction of Apple’s first iPhone. Over the next 12 months, Nokia will expand its smartphone market share more than [...]
CPRafrica 2012/CPRsouth7: call for abstracts and young scholar applications. Click here for details.
The end justifies the definition: The manifold outlooks on the digital divide and their practical usefulness for policy-making
In his paper, author Martin Hilbert presents a conceptual framework to classify the different definitions of the digital divide by using the theory on diffusion of innovation. The author equates the diffusion of ICT to the diffusion of Innovation which is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the members of [...]
Proto teleporting: Printing 3D objects
The NYT piece is focused on the intellectual property issues. But what I sense is the coming of age of 3D printing. As I wrote in a column in November, people will soon be able to download files of physical objects and print them out at home. Although being able to print out a new [...]
Complementary role played by mobiles in Bangladesh in improving immunization rate
We have always emphasized that telecom is a complementary input: Does not solve problems by itself, but makes solutions possible; Multiplies the effects of interventions. Here, in Bill Gates’ thoughtful year-end message, is a great illustration. He is talking about the first winner of a Gates Foundation innovation award, a doctor from Bangladesh: In 2009, [...]
Nationalizations are back: Libyans in Zambia now, but who is next?
Sounds so 1960s, but . . . This should change investment risk calculations, in Africa for now. But how broad will the ripples run? The Zambian government has confirmed expectations and will renationalise the local mobile network, Zamtel, which is 75% owned by Lybia’s Lap Green Networks. The government has also dissolved the board of [...]
Governments should decide: Is mobile telephony a bad or a good?
Gregory Mankiw is a gutsy economist. He defended outsourcing while still serving in the Bush administration. He is a also a good economist. He could make a living on textbooks alone. He is now advising Mitt Romney as he campaigns for the presidency. In an interesting op ed, he lays out some simple principles for [...]
Sri Lanka and India: The substance of agreement
It has been an unfortunate fact that Sri Lanka and India have signed many agreements that have not been implemented. This caused me to write a column some years back entitled “An MOU to implement MOUs.”. The one difference that I see in the short LBO report on cooperation between India and Sri Lanka on [...]
Open science and open scholarly publishing
For what LIRNEasia does, scholarly publishing with slow-paced peer review and print-on-paper publishing has not been the best fit. Our 2006 work got published in a 2008 book and our 2008 survey data got published in a special issue of a journal in 2011. But the question of assessing and ensuring quality is ever present [...]
Will Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) alter the net as we know it?
In their paper ‘The end of the net as we know it? Deep packet inspection and internet Governance‘, authors Ralf Bendrath and Milton Mueller explore the ways in which internet governance is responding to DPI. At present, the structure and dynamics of the internet is such that the intelligence is at the edge of the [...]
Obama does the right thing or why checks & balances are needed in Constitutions
This was not a fight we were involved in, but were following with peripheral vision. For those who were in the thick of it, it must be a good day. For us too, because an open Internet benefits everyone. “Let us be clear,” the White House statement said, “online piracy is a real problem that [...]
An exemplar of sustainability: IDRC’s funding of the National Poisons Information Center of Sri Lanka
Conventional evaluation privileges short-term outcomes (if it gets to outcomes at all). This is unavoidable. As a teacher I used to think that the true results of my efforts would be seen five-ten-fifteen years down the road. But my university needed to know how good a teacher I was every quarter or every year, so [...]
Crowdsourced, accurate maps
The World Bank – Google collaboration seems a brilliant idea; key to its success is how national government react. But if even some cooperate . . . . Lack of knowledge of social infrastructure like schools and hospitals makes it more costly when natural disasters strike, setting back recovery efforts, sometimes by months. And lack [...]
Thai media reports Teleuse@BOP4
It took a little time, but a comprehensive report on the Bangkok launch of teleuse@BOP4 results has been published in the Nation (Thailand). The survey found that Thai users spent more than any other nationality on mobile phones, $93 on average compared to $50 or less elsewhere. Most of the phones they bought had radio [...]
Why does India want to be China?
We cannot do what the Judge is asking Google, et al., to do. It’s tempting to suggest tech awareness classes for judges, but perhaps the more effective will be common sense classes: This week, a judge in New Delhi raised eyebrows when he said, according to a widely cited report by the Press Trust of [...]
Coverage for Teleuse@BOP4 findings on more-than-voice service awareness
According to LBO’s second write up on our teleuse results, the higher awareness of health information services in Sri Lanka can be explained by two factors: the mismatch between supply and demand in the government health-services sector and the existence since around 2000 of e Channeling, a multi-modal service that allows people to make appointments [...]
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