Nuwan noted that this leads on from the earlier coversation that were had in regard to Early Warning Systems (EWS) and explained why classification is importat for people in this field. This is important mainly for comparisons between countries, institutions and technologies. And so a ranking should be established. Four examples were identified, Community based last mile hazard warning system Traceability of agriculture markets- trying to maximize the profit of the produce. Dam failure EWS Financial EWS- Looks at currency and banking crisis within a country.
Nuwan Waidyanatha will conduct a colloquium on the topic of ‘My spring break in Kunming: Classification of Early Warning Systems on the 29th of July 2008. The Colloquium will focus on the question that came up during one of the LIRNEasia brain storming sessions which was “what can and what can’t the Last-Mile Hazard Warning System do?”; i.e. what are its capabilities and capacities?
“Without question, the book addresses an important and timely issue. The organization of the book around the four pillars of the business environment, the information infrastructure, the innovation system and human resources, is praiseworthy. The book must be commended for bringing up the topic of what should (and should not) be done, as the Sri Lankan economy moves from reliance on agriculture to reliance on services and valued-added agriculture and industry. It contributes to and adds credence to an ongoing discussion on this subject in Sinhala and English in the popular media” This is the first paragraph of the review Rohan Samarajiva did on ‘Building the Sri Lankan knowledge economy’. The publication was launched sometime back.
The LIRNEasia book has been reviewed in Current Science by Ashok Jhunjhunwala. Below is the last para. The success and failure of policies and regulations need to be studied under such a backdrop. Each nation would have its specificities, and comparisons between nations may often be difficult. It is this difficult task that the book takes up.
The op-ed piece written up on the basis of one of the LIRNEasia benchmark studies, has been published in the leading Bangladesh newspaper, Daily Star. The data and recommendations thus have been published, in various forms, in the special issue of Himal Southasian, in The Dawn, as a Choices column on LBO, and also flashed by AFP. As a result of the latter, it has got play in a number of publications, including in a Vietnam publication, the Mirror online (Sri Lanka), etc. Telecompk.net has also started a discussion.
China has the largest number of mobile users as a country. It now also has the largest number of Internet users. China Surpasses U.S. in Number of Internet Users – NYTimes.
This is from Lankadeepa online. It quotes Prime Minster Ratnasiri Wickramanayake saying one reason of restricting CMDA phones to be used only in one address (registered one) is to prevent the loss of government revenue from international traffic. He was responding to a query by Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera MP at the parliament. Sri Lanka uses CDMA technology for fixed connections but with signals available anywhere within local loop, or if not been blocked by the operator even outside, it can be converted to a ‘mobile’. Given the distinct sharing behaviour we have seen at BOP, many may use their CDMAs in multiple locations.
Dr Muhammed Yaseen, who served as a Member of the Authority since 2006, has been appointed to succeed Major General R Shahzada Alam Malik (retd.) at the helm of the PTA. LIRNEasia has been an admirer of the massive improvements the Pakistan telecom sector achieved since Chairman Malik’s appointment in 1 March 2002. We wish him well in his future endeavors and thank him for his dynamic service to the sector. We warmly welcome Dr Yaseen.
Indonesia’s telecommunication giants have demanded the government limit the number of new entrants to the industry, citing limited resources and growing investment risk. The Indonesian Cellular Telephones Association (ATSI) chairman Merza Fachys said limited frequency allocations and phone numbers meant there was no room to accommodate new players. “The government must regulate the number of players so as to ensure the sustainability of the industry,” Merza said in his speech at the annual national coordination meeting on telecommunication, information and media held by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Unlimited entry to the industry, he said, would crowd the market, increase competition and generate greater investment risk for existing players. Read the full story in AsiaMedia here.
He is not just talking. Neil Tagare brought the world FLAG (Acquired by Reliance in 2003) and Project Oxygen (Never kicked-off). He has now launched an online outfit (BySellBandwidth) where capacity will be traded somewhat like the Real Estate. BusinessWeek and TelecomTV have covered Neil’s latest venture. The idea of setting up an exchange for trading bandwidth between users with too much capacity and those with higher needs fell out of favor several years ago with the demise of Enron and Global Crossing, which were involved in illegal accounting.
Here is the answer to all those longed for a day when energy could be delivered without costly messy wires Op-Ed Contributor – Satellites With Solar Panels Can Beam the Sun’s Energy to Earth. – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com Science fiction? Actually, no — the technology already exists. A space solar power system would involve building large solar energy collectors in orbit around the Earth.
Orascom Telecom – which is currently building a GSM/3G network in the secretive North Korea has apparently secured access to the mighty, if unfinished Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang. The company has been reported by the few foreign residents permitted into the country to be working on the very top of the 105 story building and installing equipment for its mobile network. The Ryugyong Hotel dominates the Pyongyang landscape being by far the largest building in a city already full of monumental structures. Construction was started in 1987, and while the main structure is complete, the government cannot afford to finish off the structure. Construction work stopped in 1992 and the empty shell has been left since then.
There’s nothing like increasing fuel prices to generate telecom-transportation tradeoff stories. This is very promising stuff for people like us live 3.5 hours flying time from anyplace important. But none of these innovations can work here until we get decent quality on our broadband links. Has anyone tried skype videoconferencing other than in Singapore or Europe?
The special issue on “Community-based last-mile early warning system” carried on its back page the following contribution from Rohan Samarajiva (despite the title of the publication, it’s not possible to find this piece on the web, so what is pasted below is the pre-pub version: Between a rock and a hard place The tragedy of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was the absence of any official warning. The Bengkulu earthquake of 2007 September 12th shows that this is unlikely to be repeated. What we must guard against now is indifference to warning; of populations that will refuse to evacuate in the face of real danger. Tsunami prediction is an inexact art practiced in conditions of imperfect information and time pressure. In the Pacific Basin, which has had the most experience with tsunamis, 75 per cent of all warnings are false.
Maldives is the South Asian country that has reached market saturation in mobiles. Now the game is services. According to the report below, they have introduced a new service to move money from bank machines into prepaid accounts. One wonders how many of Maldives citizens have bank accounts. If a great majority do, this can be a very useful service, in places like Male and Hulhumale where most Maldivians live and work.
It is literally a child’s play getting a false UK passport, Frederick Forsyth said in 1972. In his bestselling thriller, The Day of the Jackal the protagonist used the birth certificate of a dead child to obtain a fake passport. Thirty two years later, BBC was not sure the loophole was plugged or not. Not sure how many mercenaries still benefit. The UK passport cannot be the only document an interested party can manipulate.