TAD Consortium August 2000 Information Update 4

Increasing PC penetration and improved, cheaper telecommunications services should see Internet penetration in the Asia-Pacific region tripling to 233 million over the next three years.

This prediction is made in a new report from Lehman Brothers, 'Asian Internet Forecasts -- Wiring Up For Growth'. The report also forecasts that online advertising spending and ecommerce revenues will also increase rapidly between now and 2003.

Internet advertising revenues will be worth USD5.4 billion in 2005, compared with USD344 million now, while Asian consumer spending online will be worth USD57 billion in 2003.

The report emphasises the difference between the developed markets of North Asia and the rest of the region in terms of projected Internet penetration rates and the value of ecommerce and advertising spending.

Lehman Brothers also advises investors to focus on companies with broad regional exposure or on markets with attractive short-term growth prospects, such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

<http://www.lehman.com/>

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Taken from Nua Internet Surveys: July 31st, 2000

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ABC News:Cubans Surf Toward Freedom of Information

As more people log onto the Internet in Cuba, Government control of information is becoming more difficult, according to a report on abcNEWS.com.

The Cuban Government says that there is now 1 computer for every 100 people in Cuba and 40,000 Cubans (not including students and tourists) have Internet access. The International Telecommunications Union recently estimated that there were 60,000 Internet users in Cuba.

There are more than 18,000 Cuban-based web pages available on the Internet and these receive over 15 million hits each week. There are four Cuban ISPs providing access to the Internet and a number of others that provide access to a national web.

Internet access to the public is still limited and expensive in Cuba and users must prove they are engaged in research or belong to an accredited institution if they want to surf the Web. The Government, however, is planning to sponsor a programme that will provide Internet access to 150 youth clubs and more than 2,000 post offices.

There are also plans afoot to overhaul Cuba's antiquated telecommunications infrastructure and install modern phone lines.

Uva de Aragon, assistant director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University in Miami, says the Internet has given Cubans a whole new way of communicating, not only in administrative and academic life, but also on a personal and cultural level.

De Aragon also believes that the Cuban Government will be unable to censor electronic communications: "It's baby steps, but it is inevitable. There will be a time when they won't have enough people to control all the information."

<http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/cubainternet000721.html>

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Taken from Nua Internet Surveys: July 31st, 2000

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BrightPlanet: Web Is Bigger Than We Thought

According to new research by a South Dakota Internet start-up, BrightPlanet, the current Web is 500 times bigger than the minimal maps provided by search engines such as Yahoo, AltaVista or Google.

There are now over 550 billion online documents according to BrightPlanet, with only about a billion of those indexed through all the Internet search engines combined. The problem with current search engines is they only locate surface information, as most are still incapable of keeping pace with the daily growth of web content.

Yet despite the seeming lack of indexed web pages, most users appear to be content with the results the traditional search engines yield. NPD New Media Services conducted a survey earlier this year, and out of 33,000 users found that 81 percent found what they were searching for.

Compare this to a late 1999 survey, which revealed 77 percent were happy with search-engine results, while just 3 percent said they never found the right information.

Meanwhile BrightPlanet and similar organisations such as InvisibleWorlds are endeavouring to find all the information on the Web, but unless they show users where to start, people will continue to drown in a pool of info overload.

<http://www.brightplanet.com/newsroom/deepweb.asp>

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Taken from NEWS-ON-NEWS/The Ifra Trend Report: No. 54 (2 August 2000)

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THE EVOLUTION OF NEWSPAPERS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

(MALAYSIA) -- Writing on the development of newspapers in the developing world, reporter Rose Ismail notes that online newspapers in countries "wedged between the First and Third Worlds" often evolve to fill a gap left by the print media. In many places, readers turn to the online press for alternative political news, or coverage of controversial topics. The danger is that the anonymity fostered by publishing online can lead to a dulling of reporting standards. Stories are frequently factually inaccurate, and fairness is sometimes sacrificed in the interest of agenda. Ismail urges reporters to practice the highest standards of journalism, both online and off. "Credibility... is the lifeblood of a newspaper," she says. "If we are trustworthy, we create loyalty and attachment. To bind our readers to us, we are obliged to remain reliable. For in the final analysis, it is the age-old formula of credibility and reliability that will keep the printed newspaper and its fledgling online versions alive and well." (New Straits Times 23 July 2000)

http://www.nstpi.com.my/

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Taken from NEWS-ON-NEWS/The Ifra Trend Report: No. 54 (2 August 2000)

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LOCAL CONTENT IS KING IN THE WIRELESS WORLD

(USA) -- In the U.S. alone, the wireless online audience is expected to grow from 2 million in 2001 to 23 million by 2003 -- an enormous boom that will bring with it a huge demand for wireless content. Several newspapers have already signed agreements to promote content on the Palm VII, and others are experimenting with publishing to different wireless devices. The International Press and Telecommunications Council plans to approve a new online formatting standard called NewsML, an XML-based language that structures multimedia news so that it can be delivered to a variety of electronic devices, fixed or wireless. Unlike Internet startups, newspapers have the advantage of built-in credibility. While the small screens available on cell phones and devices like the Palm Pilot are not ideal for displaying graphics, and can offer only a few short lines of text at a time, they are ideal for customers looking for local information -- a nearby Italian restaurant, movie schedules, a doctor's office -- the kind of community information which nobody does better than the local paper. "Brands are no longer about name recognition but about trust," says Rudolph Hokanson, executive director-equity research at CIBC World Markets, "and people have come to trust what they read in their paper about their community." (Upside 20 July 2000)

http://www.upside.com/Ebiz/396f87e60.html

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IT revolution entering rural India through cyber cafes

by Sumeet Chatterjee, India Abroad News Service

New Delhi, Aug 4 - The information technology (IT) revolution is entering the rural areas of India with mushrooming cyber cafes there serving as an information powerhouse for local trading communities and the general public, a senior government official said today.

"A large number of telephone booths in the rural areas have now been converted into cyber cafes which offer whole range of telecom and IT enabled services improving the rural economy and the life standards of people," P.V. Jayakrishnan, secretary in the Ministry of Information Technology, said here.

Addressing a conference on 'Economic Prosperity Through Hardware', organised by the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), Jayakrishnan said that government has decided to set up value-added network services including electronic kiosks, telephone booths and smart cards centres for providing a one-stop information service to the public in rural areas.

The existing over 600,000 public call offices (PCOs) will be transformed into public 'tele-info-centres' offering a variety of multimedia information services, he added.

"India can become a major IT power only if IT penetration in the country deepens and widens, which in turn, is dependent on large-scale use of IT in the rural areas," Jayakrishnan told the conference.

He said that promotional measures would be taken to encourage technologies that bring IT and Internet to the masses through the vast network of Cable TV houses in the country. The IT ministry has decided to connect all the district headquarters in the country through the information superhighway by 2008.

Jaykrishnan said that the high-level committee headed by Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, charged with finding ways of making the country's education policy information technology (IT)-compliant, would submit its report within a month.

"The main objective of the committee is to ensure that good quality IT education does not remain confined to the rich and English-speaking students and to suggest measures to spread non-IT education in the rural areas through Internet," he said.

The committee, called the 'Task Force on HRD in Information Technology', includes the ministers for finance and IT and four chief ministers - Nara Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh, S.M. Krishna of Karnataka, Digvijay Singh of Madhya Pradesh and Ram Prakash Gupta of Uttar Pradesh.

The secretary said that the government has asked all the engineering colleges to look into ways to double the students intake from the next academic year and triple it in the next two years by optimally using the existing infrastructure.

"If we have to achieve the export target of $6.5 billion for the current financial year, we can't ignore the hardware industry. The industrialists and research and development institutions must commit themselves to the task of making India the IT hardware destination of the world," the secretary told the conference.

He added that the Indian hardware industry had potential to manufacture world class IT hardware products and generate as much revenue as derived by the software industry.

To promote the hardware industry, the government has decided to bring the sales tax and other state taxes on the IT sector to zero level for the next three to five years, he added.

Richard Celeste, the U.S. Ambassador to India, said the high growth of two-way trade between India and the U.S. was mainly due to the rapid progress India had made on the IT front.

"The declining prices of IT goods and services in the country has created a favourable environment to ensure the growth of IT and minimise the digital divide," he said.

On lack of proper infrastructure in the country, Celeste said: "The role of infrastructure in a knowledge-based industry like IT is very important and can affect the investment decision."

For the financial year 1999-2000, the desktop personal computer market crossed 1.4 million units in India, registering a growth of 37 per cent over the same period last year.

MAIT has projected that the PC market will cross the 1.9 million mark in the current fiscal, a growth of 35 per cent over the previous year.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS

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From: Hans Klein <hklein@cpsr.org>

I am happy to announce the launch of the Civil Society Internet Forum!

Members of civil society organizations from around the globe met in Yokohama Japan in July 2000 to launch a new framework for the creation of a global Internet community.

Concerning the coming At Large Elections of the ICANN Board, the Civil Society Internet Forum will provide a global framework for promoting democratic participation in elections. It will provide both global and regional forums for information sharing and debate.

The guiding values of the Civil Society Internet Forum include democratic participation in decision-making and a fair balance between rights of privacy, speech, consumers, and property in Internet governance.

Please visit our web site: http://www.CivilSocietyInternetForum.org

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PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS

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Taken from KABISSA NEWSLETTER - 28 July, 2000

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INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR DEVELOPMENT AFFAIRS (ICDA http://www.kabissa.org/icda

To lead and sustain civil society empowerment through >development education and communication.

Based in Nigeria

Primary Contact: Osita Aniemeka (osita@alpha.linkserve.com)

Secondary Contact: Davina Jack (davina.jack@hyperia.net)

Mailing Address: Bazee Suite, 240 Herbert Macaulay Street, Yaba, City: Lagos Country: Nigeria

Telephone Numbers: 234 1 545 4129 Fax Numbers: 234 1 545 4129

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New Center for Excellence in Broadband Applications at the Community & Information Technology Institute (CITI), School of Information Studies, Syracuse University

Syracuse University's School of Information Studies and Alcatel Internetworking Inc. have announced a joint agreement to establish the Center for Excellence in Broadband Applications (CFE) under the auspices of the school's Community Information and Technology Institute (CITI). The center will evaluate, test and prototype advanced telecommunications technologies and applications that would benefit the public sector.

As part of the agreement, Alcatel will provide a $200,000 grant to CITI for the purchase of advanced broadband equipment, including high-speed switches, IP telephony, multiplexers, computer hardware and software, and other devices used to build and access broadband telecommunications networks. The CFE will be located in the University's Center for Science and Technology.

"The CFE will be a focal point for information about the technologies and how new technologies could be adopted by government agencies, healthcare institutions, the education community and other non-governmental social sector and community organizations," says Murali Venkatesh, professor and director of CITI. "The key is to enable decision-makers in government and community organizations to be more aware of the broadband technologies, applications and services that are available through education and prototyping or 'show how.'"

The center-the first of its kind that Alcatel has helped establish in a university setting-will also provide School of Information Studies' undergraduate and graduate students unprecedented opportunities to work with cutting-edge marketplace technologies, to study technology transfer issues and to develop advanced information technology applications and solutions for the public sphere.

"Through their involvement as interns and graduate assistants, students will be well-trained in using the technologies and have a high understanding of telecommunications issues that companies are now dealing with, says Wayne Miner, associate director of CITI.

Alcatel (www.alcatel.com) builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries and employs 120,000 people. In 1999, the company's sales topped EURO 23 billion.

"SU's School of Information Studies is not just a regional, but a national and international education, research and policy collaborative, providing a focus on current and future telecommunications and information technology issues," says Alan Amrod, Alcatel's vice president of North American Field Marketing. "This strategic business investment for Alcatel, rooted in the user community, will help accelerate the introduction of new technology into the marketplace, identify opportunities for innovation and help us acquire a deeper knowledge of new markets."

The idea for a center like CFE grew out of research CITI conducted last year for the New York State Office of Technology, which looked at broadband community network development in Central New York. "We found a low-level of knowledge about broadband networking among people who are making major investment decisions about technology solutions for their organizations," Venkatesh says. "We recommended the establishment of a 'new technology cell' as a focal point for testing and disseminating information about broadband technology and as an enabler of continuous learning on advanced technology and applications."

"We think our investment in CITI is really an investment in the State of New York that will help the underserved and help to reduce the cost of government," Amrod says.

Among the projects the CFE will tackle is one that will incorporate Alcatel Internet security solutions into a Syracuse MetroNet IP video test-bed project CITI is conducting with the Onondaga County Department of Social Services and the SUNY Health Science Center. The IP video test-bed project is designed to enable community agencies and public institutions to test a low-cost, high-speed videoconferencing system that uses ordinary telephone lines and the Internet. The system relies on ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) technology, a high-speed computer modem that can transmit data over ordinary telephone lines 100 times faster than modems currently on the market.

One of the video test-bed projects is designed to make it easier for poor and elderly hospital patients, many of whom are waiting for placement in nursing homes, to apply for Medicaid benefits. The project connects social services, which is located in the Civic Center in downtown Syracuse, with SUNY Upstate. Social workers will interview clients via the videoconferencing system rather than travel to the hospital or ask the clients' relatives travel to the department's offices. The system is expected to eliminate travel and waiting time for both parties, and improve the timely disbursement of benefits. Smaller institutions like the Spanish Action League and community health centers will be linked to the test-bed to expand coverage. Twelve institutions in the local community are expected to be linked through the IP video text-bed project.

IP telephony evaluation and implementation and advanced services selection for second generation DSL and gigabit Ethernet and ATM services are two other CFE projects.

"Through its involvement in these kinds of projects, the CFE will be a tremendous asset not only to the public sphere, but also to the school's undergraduate and graduate programs," Venkatesh says. "The lab will provide students with new opportunities for learning. It is important that we teach the next generation of information technology leaders to think creatively about this technology and to be sensitive to the challenges public institutions face in moving ahead".

CITI Background

CITI was founded to assist public institutions and community networks with technology decisions. CITI is focused on advanced technology and multi-media IP applications. CITI is dedicated to promoting technology use and application broadly in communities through

Technology transfer

Consulting and social science research

Web-enabled applications development

Education, activism and partnerships

The new Center for Excellence in Broadband Applications will spearhead CITI's technology transfer function.

CITI project partners and clients include government (state, county and city), healthcare, and social sector non-profit institutions, telephone companies (importantly Bell Atlantic) and service providers, major equipment vendors (Alcatel and others, several video vendors), technology transfer organizations (Syracuse University's CASE Center, New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation, and Rome Air Force Research Laboratories). CITI is supported in part by Xerox, Cigna, Bell Atlantic, and the Syracuse Economic Development Corporation.

Murali Venkatesh, Ph.D., Associate Professor & Director

Community & Information Technology Institute (CITI)

4-279 CST School of Information Studies

Syracuse University

mvenkate@syr.edu

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ONLINE RESOURCES

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Representatives from 21 countries across Africa met in Namibia for the School Networking in Africa workshop (and many others provided input virtually).

The presentations made at the workshop as well as the participants list can be found at the SchoolNet Africa website (under "Events" - http://www.schoolnetafrica.org/events/events.htm). The report of this workshop will be completed and circulated shortly.

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Taken from Media Workshop Edu-Tech News Digest -- July 2000

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SCHOOL USE OF TECHNOLOGY

Articles on increasing Internet use in K-12 schools, E-rate news, laptop initiatives, the need for more research and experimentation with using technology in schools, and surveys of school's technology "sophistication."

"How Was School Today? - Web Overhauls Parent, Teacher, Student Life"

Associated Press,

http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/043368.htm

July 27, 2000

"E-Rate Activities in the Beltway"

Andy Carvin

Benton Foundation's Digital Beat Extra,

http://www.benton.org/News/Extra/edt070600.html

July 6, 2000

See also: a new report on the E-rate from the Education and Library Networks Coalition, http://www.edlinc.org

"Laptops a Key to Top Education?"

Katie Dean

Wired News,

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,37263,00.html?tw=wn20000628

June 28, 2000

"More Planning Needed for School Technology"

Rebecca Weiner

New York Times,

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/cyber/education/28education.html

June 28, 2000

"As Teacher in the Classroom, Internet Needs Fine-Tuning"

Jacques Steinberg

New York Times,

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/biztech/articles/07class.html

July 7, 2000

"New Survey Lauds Midwestern States For Use of Technology in Schools"

Rebecca Weiner

New York Times,

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/cyber/education/26education.html

July 26, 2000

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Taken from Training ZONE LearningWire #112

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Prompt Box On-Line is a resource for trainers containing icebreakers, energisers, analogies and brainteasers to build into training sessions and workshops. There are currently 300 ideas in the database, which is being regularly updated.

http://www.promptbox.co.uk

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Calcutta casebook. How one Indian school transformed itself into a universal benchmark

contributor(s): Tansy Jessop - DFID South Africa

Recent research commissioned by the Education Group of the Department for International Development (India) examined contemporary models of 'best practice' in primary and secondary schooling, in an attempt to identify generic indicators that characterise 'good' schools. These indicators have ranged from the school's value system, its academic achievements and the quality of interpersonal relations, to leadership, community building and provision of adequate resources. One school in Calcutta provides a uniquely interesting model of best practice. The research report identifies characteristics and values that have made the Loreto Day School, Sealdah, an example of best practice in its pursuit of both excellence and equity.

http://www.id21.org/static/4adf001.htm

To receive this piece by email, send a message to the following email address: getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk

Leave the SUBJECT field BLANK, and copy the following text into the BODY of the message: GET http://www.ids.ac.uk/id21/static/4adf001.htm

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Out of sight, out of control? Does digital technology need regulating?

contributor(s): Robin Mansell - SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex, UK

14 July 2000

Digital technology is developing at a fast and furious pace, in a chaotic and unpredictable manner. Many believe such technologies should be restrained. Research by SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research Unit) at the University of Sussex, however, argues that such views betray a habit of thinking about technological development that is historically inaccurate and inappropriate to present circumstances. Instead, technological development both can and should be guided, if it is to have positive impacts on society.

http://www.id21.org/static/3crm1.htm

To receive this piece by email, send a message to the following email address:

getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk

Leave the SUBJECT field BLANK, and copy the following text into the BODY of the message:

GET http://www.ids.ac.uk/id21/static/3crm1.htm

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Leaving it to the market: the failure of liberalisation to help the rural poor of Mexico contributor(s): Steve Wiggins - Department of Agricultural & Food Economics, University of Reading

26 July 2000

Agricultural liberalisation aims to kick-start the rural economy and improve the livelihoods of rural people. By freeing market forces and discipline, efficiency should be raised and investment encouraged. The University of Reading's Department of Agricultural and Food Economics examined four villages in Central Mexico, and asked how international, national and farm-level policies have impacted on the village households since 1988. Why are many rural dwellers in Mexico still poor? What has liberalisation done, if anything, for the villagers?

http://www.id21.org/static/8asw1.htm

To receive this piece by email, send a message to the following email address:

getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk

Leave the SUBJECT field BLANK, and copy the following text into the BODY of the message:

GET http://www.ids.ac.uk/id21/static/8asw1.htm

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Assessing Community Telecentres: Guidelines for Researchers

by Anne Whyte (for the Acacia Initiative of IDRC)

IDRC 2000, ISBN 0-88936-916-X, $20

120 pp., paper, 6�" x 9�"

Telephone, fax, email, Internet; telemedicine, distance education, news distribution, telecommuting: these are some of the services offered by the community telecentre. But do telecentres truly respond to the communication and information needs of the communities they are intended to serve? What impact do they have on social equity and economic development? This guidebook will assist researchers as they assess and evaluate the role and impact of community telecentres. It provides an introduction to some of the key research issues, a framework for telecentre evaluation, and an impetus for research teams to share ideas, instruments, and methods.

Available online in full text; printed copies may be purchased from IDRC's web site. Visit:

http://www.idrc.ca/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=6&Product_ID=520&CATID=15

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Taken from The Drum Beat - 59 (August 7, 2000)

Web Site: http://www.comminit.com

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Sierra Leone's "Expo Times" is now on-line. It was forced to close over 2 yrs ago and most of its journalists fled in the wake of the military intervention by the Nigerian-led West African force, ECOMOG. 2 of the staff were detained for about a year and one of them died in mysterious circumstances while awaiting trial on treason charges. Resumed publication via a website on March 15, 2000 with help from the US-based Freedom Forum and the British newspaper, The Guardian. Includes news articles, features, editorials, community links, business links, and access to back issues.

Http://www.expotimes.net

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Taken from The Drum Beat - 59 (August 7, 2000)

Web Site: http://www.comminit.com

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The Open Society Foundation for South Africa Community Radio Festival Report is now on-line.

Http://www.osf.org.za/radio_festival_report.htm

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ARTICLES

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Cool Counts in Luring Hot Techies

By Gary Chapman

The No. 1 problem for high-tech firms these days is the shortage of skilled workers, especially those with the talent to make an entire company succeed. And the "talent wars" -- firms raiding one another for top people -- are going to get even worse. What's also interesting is how the shortage is influencing the character of communities and, in turn, urban politics.

Richard Florida, a professor of public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, produced a fascinating report in January titled "Competing in the Age of Talent: Environment, Amenities and the New Economy" (http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~florida/talent.pdf).

Florida's yearlong study looked at how cities and regions compete for technical talent in the new economy, and the role that environmental and "quality-of-life" factors play in this competition.

"Knowledge workers," says the report, "essentially balance economic opportunity and lifestyle in selecting a place to live and work. Thus, lifestyle factors are as important as traditional economic factors such as jobs and career opportunity in attracting knowledge workers in high-technology fields."

Five years ago, some pundits claimed that the flexibility of the new economy would spell trouble for cities. George Gilder, for example, proclaimed that the Internet would lead to the "death of the city."

What he didn't anticipate is that young people tend to like being around other young people. The result is that hip, young technology companies have revitalized many downtown neighborhoods, as in Manhattan's Silicon Alley, Seattle's Pioneer Square, San Francisco's China Basin, Santa Monica's downtown area and Austin, Texas' Congress Avenue.

Florida says that because young workers can essentially choose to work nearly anywhere, they gravitate to places that offer a fairly distinct mix of environmental quality, social life and "amenities," including youth culture, sports, night life, music and "coolness" -- in short, an urban identity that everyone knows exists but that is difficult to describe completely.

"Due to the long hours, fast pace and tight deadlines associated with work in high-technology industries, knowledge workers require amenities that blend seamlessly with work and can be accessed on demand," Florida wrote.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson -- a young politician to watch with a record-breaking 82% of the vote in the city's last election -- is one of the few political leaders who seems to sense this transformation. Watson calls it "convergence." He means that, just as city governments are trying to figure out how to reconcile economic growth with environmental quality and avoid sprawl, the dynamics of the labor market in high tech are helping point to a solution.

Young high-tech workers are not attracted to sprawling, remote and sterile suburban developments, or even to "edge city" clusters of campus-like high-tech companies. They want to be where the action is and, consequently, companies want to be there too. That provides growing support for so-called "smart growth" strategies, more dense and diverse communities, more redevelopment of under-used real estate and more attention to environmental quality in protected natural landscapes.

This is happening in Los Angeles too, although it is only just emerging. Jason McCabe Calacanis, editor of Digital Coast magazine, says Los Angeles is attracting young workers who want to put the Internet to use, the creative people who are more interested in content than in chips.

"They don't care what browser people are using. They don't care how fast your computer is," Calacanis said. "Everyone thought that technology would be the driver of the new economy, but it turns out it's content, it's art. That's why in L.A., you see energy and entrepreneurship." He says the "epicenter of the Internet in Los Angeles" is the Coffee Bean cafe on 4th Street in Santa Monica.

Ross C. DeVol, a senior researcher at the Milken Institute, agrees with Calacanis. "In the recent past, we've had earthquakes, riots, fires, recession, etc.," he says. "Sometimes Los Angeles can be its own worst enemy. But last year, we had the first positive domestic migration to Los Angeles in any year since 1989. That's a good sign for L.A. Young people come here to work with cool technologies, like computer games, movies, animation, special effects and Web design."

What this all means for political leaders eager to promote economic growth is that they now have to pay attention to the idea of a "place," a concept far beyond the traditional blend of tax rates, labor costs and business infrastructure. The hot technology companies don't have time for negotiations over tax abatements and new highways. They just want to be where the workers are. The workers want to be where the fun is. And political leaders now need to figure out how to get all those ingredients to work together.

This is all good news for those few places that have the right mix of a high-quality environment, plentiful outdoor activities, a robust urban youth culture and what Florida calls a "thick labor market" of talented young technical workers -- in other words, lots of them with lots of churn, job-hopping and innovation.

Other places are unfortunately out of luck. There's a steady "brain drain" going on across the U.S. as communities that are less than "cool" lose their best and brightest and thus slowly sink into economic stagnation or decline.

It's also tough if you're not a good fit with a hothouse culture of young, type-A personalities who do everything at top intensity. The emerging culture of the new economy is hard on older workers, workers with families and on women and ethnic minorities who haven't absorbed the tastes and energy levels of young, affluent techies, entrepreneurs and new-media hipsters.

As with most other developments brought on by technology, these social changes tied to the new economy are Janus-faced -- encouraging and discouraging, appealing and alienating, creating new winners and new losers all the time.

Gary Chapman is director of the 21st Century Project at the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at gary.chapman@mail.utexas.edu.

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Taken from The Learning MarketSpace, August 1, 2000

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QUALITY FOR WHOM?

Quality assurance in distance learning is a hot topic. No issue of the Chronicle would be complete without an article in which some higher education entity questions the "quality" of someone else's effort in this arena--whether it's the AAUP condemning North Central's accreditation of Jones International University, the feds worrying about seat-time and separate-but-equal standards for reviewing distance learning programs, or the AFT advocating that no institution should be allowed to award a degree strictly by distance learning. The debate goes on.

One thing missing from this heated discussion is the student's perspective. What does "quality assurance" mean when you are the one who wants to take a distance-learning course?

To give an example of what life is like for the prospective distance learner, imagine that you are a student looking for the "best" undergraduate course in marketing that's available online, one that you can afford, and one that you can transfer to your home institution.

Try looking at the following three Web sites that aggregate online courses, each a leader in the field, each wanting to encourage greater access and flexibility for both current and potential students by enabling them to study and take classes at any time and from any place.

The SUNY Learning Network < http://sln.suny.edu/admin/sln/original.nsf> aggregates the online course offerings of more than 40 State University of New York campuses. During the 1999-2000 academic year, more than 1,000 courses were offered. Students can view a listing of courses sorted by institution, subject matter, course name or level.

The Southern Regional Educational Board's Electronic Campus Web site

< http://www.srec.sreb.org/> lists more than 2,700 courses. Students can search the site by institution, state, subject matter, delivery media and undergraduate/graduate level.

The Regents' College DistanceLearn database

< http://www.lifelonglearning.com/>, the most comprehensive of the three, lists more than 15,000 online courses. Students can search the database by institution, subject matter, delivery media, undergraduate/graduate level, availability outside of the United States and maximum cost.

What do you discover? The good news is that there are a lot of courses out there. The bad news is that there are a lot of courses out there.

The SUNY site sorts courses alphabetically by course title. This makes finding a marketing course fairly tedious since course titles may begin with "Marketing," "Principles," "Introduction," and so on. You can sort by subject matter, but marketing courses for the fall 2000 term appear under both "Business" (one course) and "Management" (10 courses). "Electronic Commerce," "Fashion Merchandising," and "Retailing" are among the other possible disciplinary homes for marketing as well.

The Electronic Campus site's search engine is more sophisticated and returns a list of 14 undergraduate marketing courses for the summer 2000 term.

The Regents College site allows you to select "Business Administration and Management" from a list of disciplines and then "Marketing" from a list of specific course subjects. When printed out, the resulting course listing, sorted by graduate and undergraduate courses, is five pages long (single-spaced)! An estimated 400 undergraduate courses in marketing are available.

The Regents site is illustrative of the problem. Let's suppose that the ideal situation from the consumer's point-of-view would be one mega-site that lists all online courses. (This may be the ideal situation from the provider's point-of-view as well since a major time consumer for institutions is providing course and program data in a multitude of formats for the many course aggregators currently in existence. At a minimum, surely students and institutions would benefit from an agreement among these aggregators to display course data in a common format.) If such a site existed, how many online marketing courses would result from a search? Hundreds? Thousands?

Returning to our example, the Regents College database takes a big step forward over other Web sites by allowing students to sort by cost. (One would think that SUNY can side-step that problem since tuition is standard throughout the system, but you'll need to get out your calculator when you discover the variety of fees that need to be tacked on to the course tuition.) If a student can only afford $100 for a course, it doesn't help to sort through hundreds of courses that cost more than that.

What about enrollment information? Browse through some of the course listings and look especially at the prerequisites. In many cases, you will find that you must be enrolled in a degree program at the home institution in order to take the course. Other courses list things like "56 semester hours completed" or "junior standing in business" as a prerequisite. (Where? At the student's home institution or at the listing institution?) In other cases, specific prerequisite courses are listed. Unfortunately, most of these are described as ECO 201, MA 222, MKTG 101, and so on, in a language unintelligible to all but the most clairvoyant registrars. Suppose you've taken the equivalent of ECO 201 at your home institution? Does that count? And finally, the worst case description of the necessary prerequisites: "No data given."

Let's assume that common data formats and better search engines can resolve many of these issues. Students will be able to obtain a list of affordable courses in which they can, in fact, enroll. What remains is the primary question: how do you make a choice among them? Which has the highest quality or, at least, "good enough" quality for your particular purposes?

All of the institutions listed on each of these Web sites are regionally accredited. This suggests that accreditation may be a necessary but not sufficient condition to ensure quality from the student's point-of-view. Online learning poses a set of issues about what information consumers need to make intelligent choices among a bewildering array of new and unfamiliar options, simply because there are more options.

As George Connick has observed, any discussion about quality in a distributed learning environment must first ask "quality from whose perspective?" If we are looking at quality from the viewpoint of most traditional higher education institutions, we are likely to get a very different answer than one offered by students studying via technology, especially distant learners.

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TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS

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Taken from E-Access Bulletin - July 2000

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IBM BIDS FOR VOICE RECOGNITION STANDARD

IBM has stepped up its operations in a highly competitive battle to create the industry standard for voice recognition technologies, which are set to experience explosive growth over the next few years.

The company has launched Websphere Voice Server, which uses its flagship voice recognition software ViaVoice to 'speech-enable' e-commerce websites. It says phones including mobile phones will ultimately outstrip the PC as the primary user interface for accessing information and conducting transactions.

Using the technology, telephone call centres will be able to respond to voice commands from customers, and callers will be able to listen to the same information that is designed for viewing as text on the web.

IBM is supporting the use of open standards to drive the widespread adoption of voice technology primarily through Voice Technology Initiative for Mobile Enterprise Solutions (VoiceTimes). VoiceTIMES is promoting the use of VoiceXML as the industry standard mark-up language for voice applications, in the same way as the web mark-up language HTML is used for visual applications.

The VoiceXML standard was founded by IBM with AT&T, Lucent and Motorola. Other members of the VoiceTIMES initiative include Intel, Dictaphone and Philips.

However, not all observers are convinced of the current potential for voice recognition to help blind or visually impaired computer users. A spokesman for the charity AbilityNet, which helps people with disabilities to use computers, said that although anything that improved access to websites was welcome, it is almost never appropriate for visually impaired people to give up keyboard access.

He also warned there is likely to be intense competition to create standards for voice recognition, so users should be cautious before committing to any one system.

AbilityNet is at:http://www.abilitynet.co.uk/

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Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
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www.saide.org.za

* To view an archive of previous updates visit: www.saide.org.za/tad/archive.htm
* For resources on distance education and technology use in Southern Africa visit:
www.saide.org.za/worldbank/Default.htm

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