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WDR e-Brief, Vol. 4, # 5 Print E-mail
Friday, 11 November 2005

WDR e-Brief, Vol. 4, # 5
Thursday, 10 November 2005

In this e-Brief

Special issue - WDR and LIRNE.NET at the WSIS

WDR, LIRNE.NET and regional partners involved in numerous events at the WSIS

  • Pro-Poor Pro-Market ICT Policy and Regulation
  • Do Policy and Regulation Matter?
  • RIA! Policy Dialogue
  • Framing WSIS in global governance processes: Linkages and follow-up
  • IAMCR panels

Courses and WDR Expert meetings

  • LIRNEasia course and WDR Expert meeting
  • LIRNEasia network meeting
  • Upcoming Latin American expert meeting – DIRSI, LIRNEamericas, WDR

Research

  • LIRNEasia research results to be available in December
  • Stimulating Investment in Network Development: Roles for regulators

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The WDR e-Brief is the occasional electronic bulletin from the World Dialogue on Regulation for Network Economies (WDR) and LIRNE.NET and their regional partners, LIRNEasia, Research ICT Africa! and LIRNEamericas. The e-Brief keeps you informed of new documents, new projects, ongoing discussions and information of interest to the regulatory community on our websites at www.lirne.net and www.regulateonline.org. Please forward the e-Brief to interested colleagues and let them know they can subscribe for free from the WDR website at www.regulateonline.org or by sending a message to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with the subject wdr e-brief list. To unsubscribe, send a message to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . There are currently 1,622 subscribers.

WDR, LIRNE.NET and regional partners involved in numerous events at the WSIS

WDR, LIRNE.NET and our regional partners will be both numerous and active at the WSIS and related meetings in Tunisia next week. Below is information about some of the events where you will be able to meet us.

Pro-Poor Pro-Market ICT Policy and Regulation

Pro-Poor Pro-Market ICT Policy and Regulation (PPPM) is a full day seminar co-organised by the International Development Research Centre (Canada), Information for Development Program of the World Bank (infoDev), LIRNE.NET, the World Dialogue on Regulation, LIRNEasia, Research ICT Africa (RIA!), and Diálogo regional sobre la sociedad de la información / Regional Dialogue on the Information Society (DIRSI).

The seminar’s themes reflect the diversity of the research being conducted within the network, such as ICT demand, access and usage by the poor, extending access, usage of universal access funds and public participation in policy processes. During the final session a panel of experts will be given five minutes each to present their ideas for policy, regulatory and research priorities in a post-WSIS world.

The day’s session will also include the launch of DIRSI’s first book, Digital Poverty: The Latin American Experience and its new website at http://www.dirsi.net/

When: Thursday 17 November, from 09:00 to 16:45

Where: Matmata Room, Hotel Corinthia Khamsa

Details: The seminar agenda is available on IDRC’s website at http://www.idrc.ca/wsis/ev-86696-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

InfoDev Forum: Do Policy & Regulation Matter?

Over a two-day period the infoDev Forum will focus on addressing some of the key challenges facing the international community in seeking to harness information and communication technologies (ICT) as tools of broad-based development, poverty reduction and opportunity for all. The forum’s sessions begin with a series of deliberately provocative questions such as: Do ICTs Matter to the Poor?, Do National ICT Strategies Matter?, and Is Information Infrastructure a Public Good?. The final session on the first day will be chaired by LIRNE.NET managing director, William Melody and will address the question: Do Policy and Regulation Matter?

When: Thursday 17 November, from 09:00 to 18:30 (the Do Policy and Regulation Matter? session closes the first day from 17:00 to 18:30)

Friday 18 November from 09:00 to 13:00

Where: Hannibal Room, KRAM Exposition Center

Details: http://www.infodev.org/section/aboutus/wsis/wsis_agenda/

RIA! Policy Dialogue

The Research ICT Africa! policy dialogue, “ICT Indicators for Development: Measuring ICT Supply and Demand for e-Africa Policy” will be a full day high level briefing on the African e-index. Organised by RIA!, the meeting will be attended by top-level regulators and researchers from Africa as well as researchers from LIRNE/WDR partners from Latin America, Europe and Asia. Robin Mansell, who runs LIRNE’s research programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science will offer the keynote address.

When: Wednesday 16 November from 08:30 to 19:30

Where: Corinthia Hotel

Details: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-87218-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Agenda: http://www.regulateonline.org/files/ria_agenda_16_11_05.pdf

IAMCR panels:

  • Transfer of Information Technology and Knowledge: Development & Underdevelopment
  • Communication Research in the Information Age

Speakers will focus on research and practical issues relating to e-exclusion and the knowledge society and the potential of ICTs for leapfrogging development, including critical reflections on issues relating to disparities, IPR, trade, governance, financing ICT development, access and human rights. Among the speakers will be DIRSI researcher Hopeton Dunn, LIRNEasia director Rohan Samarajiva and Robin Mansell from LSE.

Where: Renaissance Tunis Hotel, Utique Room

When: 14 November 2005 from 14:00 to 16:00

Details: http://www.iamcr.net/wsis/WSIS/IAMCR WSIS IFRD Panel FlyerRS.doc

A second IAMCR panel, Communication Research in the Information Age, will serve to launch International Researchers’ Charter for Knowledge Societies.

Where: Beja Room, Kram Centre

When: 16 November 2005 from 11:00 to 13:00 pm

Details: http://www.petitionOnline.com/iamcr/

New books

LIRNE/WDR network members are involved in a number of book projects that will be launched during the WSIS. Among them:

Digital Poverty: The Latin American Experience is the first book of the Latin American and Caribbean research network, DIRSI. The seven chapters seek to support next-generation policy reforms that build on the achievements of market liberalization efforts but at the same time address the realities of what we call digital poverty a concept that seeks to grasp the multiple dimensions of inadequate levels of access to ICT services as well as the barriers to their productive use. The book will also be launched for download from DIRSI’s new website at http://www.dirsi.net.

Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies: New models to serve and empower the poor, by Séan Ó Siochrú and Bruce Girard. This report and its accompanying case studies consider how the combination of community-driven enterprises and the new wave of wireless and related technologies may have the potential to extend networks and offer new services to poor communities and to empower them to develop solutions that are more focused on their own development needs. It will be launched during WSIS and also available for download from http://www.propoor-ict.net.

Virtual Consulate Primer: How to design and implement an e-Visa programme, published by UNDP and Hewlett-Packard this book provides detailed descriptions of e‑Visa programmes for in Armenia and Saudi Arabia. LIRNE senior researcher Amy Mahan is one of the contributors to this best-practice publication. The launch will take place 16 November from 15:30 – 16:30 in Sharing the Future Pavilion (Stand 1307.1) This report will also be available online after its WSIS launch. http://europeandcis.undp.org/?wspc=practice-14_h_19.

The report of the Africa E-Index Household and Individual ICT Access is the culmination of the first phase of research conducted by the Research ICT Africa! Network and is the result of a demand study of individuals and households and how ICT's are used across 10 African countries. There will be a book launch at the end of the RIA! policy dialogue on 16 November at 17:15 at the Corinthia Hotel. The book will also be available online from http://www.researchictafrica.net/.

Courses and WDR Expert meetings

LIRNEasia course held in Singapore

A LIRNEasia telecom reform course was successfully completed by 36 participants from 18 countries. The 10th telecom reform course was co-organised with LIRNE.NET, in association with the School of Communication and Information of Nanyang Technological University, and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore. Themed Catalyzing change:  Strategies to achieve connectivity and convergence, the course took place at the Elizabeth Hotel in Singapore on the 24th-29th September 2005. A WDR Expert Forum followed the course on 30 September.

More information: from www.lirneasia.net

Date set for Expert Meetings in Uruguay – 14-17 February 2006

The dates have been set for a WDR Expert meeting and parallel meetings for LIRNE.NET and DIRSI. LIRNE.NET’s international network will meet on 14 February. On 15 and 16 February the DIRSI network, regulators, policy makers, and representatives from civil society and the private sector will join for a WDR Expert Meeting, and on 17 February DIRSI will host a Latin American regional research meeting. Further details will be posted soon at www.regulateonline.org

Research

LIRNEasia research results to be available in December

LIRNEasia will be releasing the results of its latest research cycle in December. Studies to be made available include ICT strategies of the poor, a review of the subsidy mechanism for expansion of rural telephony in India, a study of conditions for replicating the Grameen Telecom approach to rural telecom access, a performance evaluation of the web sites of Asian telecommunication national regulatory authorities, an examination of the least cost subsidy system used in Nepal, and WiFi innovations in Indonesia. The entire body of research is related to the current WDR research theme "diversifying participation in network development”.

Reports on the research will be presented at the Pro-Poor Pro-Market ICT Policy and Regulation seminar in Tunis on 17 November and will be available on the LIRNEasia.net  website soon after.

More information: http://www.lirneasia.net/projects/

Some of the research has already attracted attention of the media. Findings from the Indonesian WiFi study by LIRNEasia researchers, Divakar Goswami & Onno Purbo were presented at a press conference in Indonesia on October 1. The results from the study have been covered by Indonesian newspapers. http://www.lirneasia.net/2005/10/findings-from-lirneasia-project-covered-by-indonesian-papers/

The Indian Express published an opinion piece by Payal Malik, one of the researchers working on the study of India’s approach to universal access. http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=81085

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Stimulating Investment in Network Development

The results of WDR’s last research cycle were published in the book Stimulating Investment in Network Development: Roles for regulators, released simultaneously in print and on the internet earlier this year. The book has been downloaded from the WDR site more than 900 times. You can get print copies from amazon.com or contact us directly at regulateonline.org. If you’re going to be at the WSIS, we’ll have copies available there.


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Bruce Girard edits the e-Brief.
Archives: http://www.regulateonline.org/content/category/7/108/40/

The purpose of the World Dialogue on Regulation is to critically examine ideas and evidence. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in content appearing on the WDR website, the Online Dialogue and the WDR e-Brief are the personal views of the individuals submitting them. Content does not necessarily reflect the views of LIRNE.NET, infoDev, the World Bank, the International Development Research Centre or any other organisation associated with the World Dialogue on Regulation.

 

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