Asia is the world’s biggest seamless landmass. Yet the Asian countries have been interlinked by submarine cables. As if Asia is an archipelago. That’s why the undersea earthquakes have emerged as the serial killer of international connectivity. It disrupted Asia’s telecom services in 2006 and thereafter.
LIRNEasia is sending its Senior Research Manager, Sriganesh Lokanathan to participate in a short course on Visual Analytics at Middlesex University in the United Kingdom. The course if of high relevance to LIRNEasia’s 2012-2014 research agenda.a A big part of the upcoming research cycle involves the use of Big-Data analysis, partly to try and answer some social science research questions. Middlesex University is part of the UK Visual Analytics Consortium (UKVAC), which is a partnership of UK universities with a shared interest in establishing a multi-disciplinary scientific community in the UK dedicated to promoting and contributing to the visual analytics research and development agenda in the UK. The UKVAC Visual Analytics Summer School 2012 (VASS2012) is jointly funded by the US Department of Homeland Security via the US Centre for Visual Analytics for Command, Control and Interoperability Environments (VACCINE) and the UK Home Office.
ASEAN citizens don’t need to obtain visa while traveling within the region. They receive visa on arrival. It is an important benchmark of successful regional cooperation. Indonesia’s Communication and Information Minister, Tifatul Sembiring, wants to take it another step ahead. He has proposed to abolish mobile roaming charges withing ASEAN by 2014.
A book that I co-authored with C.J. Amaratunge was launched last week. An excellent summary and review by W.A.
In 2008, I was presenting the results of Teleuse@BOP2 at the University of Salzburg, when a member of the audience wanted my response to his assertion that the Sri Lanka’s telecom reforms had contributed to rising income inequality. I said I did not see a relation, but he went on to publish a paper on the topic. Internally, we had a few conversations about responding to this piece, but competing demands on our time put that task on the backburner and finally took it off the agenda. Income inequality is a serious problem, no doubt. Many people have studied this problem, looking at education levels, welfare polices and so on as possible explanations but without reaching a conclusive finding.
Yesterday, I was talking with an Indian colleague who was involved in improving the Indian weather information system based on INSAT while working for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The trigger had been the devastating cyclone that hit Andhra Pradesh in 1977. This was also related to initiating my interest in disaster early warning because that cyclone was supposed to hit the East Coast of Sri Lanka, but veered away at the last minute. I remember tracking news of its journey while working at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. One year later the cyclone did not change track and we lost over 900 people on the East Coast.
Botswana is a landlocked country. It invested in the West Africa Cable System (WACS) which it connected to through Namibia. It is now reaping the benefits. Internet prices are expected to go down as the Botswana Telecommunications Corporations (BTC) Group has slashed its wholesale internet bandwidth prices by 59 percent due to the commissioning of the West Africa Cable System (WACS) undersea cable. There is a lesson here for other landlocked countries.
ITU has joined more than 70 sources of Public Data to give away its treasure trove of statistics through the Google Public Data Explorer (PDE). ITU said, “With Google PDE users can now explore and visualize ITU’s key ICT statistical indicators from 1960 to 2011 (where data exists) for about 200 economies worldwide. Key indicators include fixed telephone, mobile cellular, fixed (wired) Internet, fixed (wired) broadband subscriptions and penetration, as well as the percentage of individuals using the Internet.” The database can be accessed from here.
I am not one for tradition, but we followed tradition to some extent, with the lighting of the lamp (associated with knowledge) and the general format of a book launch. One thing I insisted on was the need to open up for discussion. And discussion we had: This was a faculty member from the University of Colombo who wanted to know whether I was peddling discredited neo-liberal (neo-classical is what he actually said, but I think neo-liberal is what he meant) prescriptions. I responded in concrete terms, showing that the government did not have apply tax-payer funds to stanch the losses of the “national” airline when it was semi-privatized (and actually earned dividends) while after renationalization we are losing more money in a year than the entire welfare budget. So now the debate is joined.
“Economic Strategies for Sri Lanka”, a book written in Sinhala, co-authored by LIRNEasia Chair and CEO, Rohan Samarajiva and C.J. Amaratunga was launched at BCIS, Colombo on the 6th of September 2012. The keynote was delivered by former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, W.A.
If other countries have announced plans, please tell us. By region we mean South Asia, but even SE is fine. Of course, there’s the gap between cup and lip. Announcing is one thing. Actually getting the job done is another.
RESEARCH ASSISTANT VACANCY: We are currently looking to fill the role of a Research Assistant. The candidate must already be enrolled or choose to enroll in a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Master of Philosophy (MPhil) program in Agriculture or related program with an emphasis in ICT, at a Sri Lankan Institute. WHAT WE OFFER: In addition to a competitive, output‐dependent remuneration package, the position will enable a motivated researcher who takes advantage of the learning ‐conducive work environment and networking opportunities to build a rewarding career as an international knowledge professional. HOW TO APPLY: Please submit a detailed CV (no more than four pages), phone/email contacts of two non-related references who can speak to relevant experience/abilities, as well as a recent writing sample of not more than 10 pages to hr@lirneasia.net by 15 Aug 2012 or earlier.
Prof. Rohan Samarajiva was recently interviewed by LMD. In his view, an industry such as telecommunications should grow in two ways. Firstly, through structured reforms, which entail privatising state-held telecom companies and breaking international monopolistic control. Secondly, the industry should expand further through day-to-day policy implementation and regulation, both of which need transparency.
The first Annual General Meeting of the Pacific ICT Regulatory Resource Centre (PiRRC) was held in July 2012 in Suva Fiji. Click here for the news coverage and interview with the PiRRC Director Mr. Aslam Hayat. Chair and CEO of LIRNEasia and Regulatory and Policy Expert to PiRRC, Prof. Rohan Samarajiva made a presentation on the state of broadband in the Pacific Islands with suggestions on how bottlenecks can be identified.
Lots of ideas for people thinking up new applications for agriculture, anywhere. FarmLogs, however, uses the pricing format of software-as-a-service start-up: a free trial, no setup fees, and monthly plans based on the size of operations. Costs range from $9 a month for the smallest farm to $99 a month for farms of more than 2,000 acres. Farmers’ income arrives unevenly, in big lumps over the course of a year rather than in a steady monthly stream. That could make it hard to persuade farmers who are now using notebooks or spreadsheets for record-keeping to add a new and recurring expense category, software-as-a-service, even if the amount is tiny when compared with annual income.
Universal acclaim rarely comes to a theorist who tries to implement his ideas. As administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, he reviewed the rules implementing President Obama’s health care act and the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law. He backed major environmental initiatives, including higher fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks and new toxic emissions rules for power plants. He approved the revamping of the decades-old food pyramid (it is now a “plate”), the tightening of salmonella rules for eggs and a crackdown on prison rape. He midwifed a deal between appliance manufacturers and the Department of Energy to make refrigerators more energy efficient.