ANNOUNCEMENTS
--- The Africa Alive! Initiative regional music event

ARTICLES
--- Can Cable TV Increase Net Usage in India?
--- 'Cyberlearning' Causes Rift Within the Ivory Tower
--- Namibian Govt declares 'open season' in telecommunications field

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NEWS

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INTRANETS CONTRIBUTE TO BOTTOM LINE

An Intranet expert at one of the world's leading computer makers says

companies that embrace Intranets not only enjoy the benefits of better

organisation and a better informed work force, but also stand to see

significant cost savings. Fred Isbell, Intranet marketing manager for Compaq

Computer said a successful Intranet implementation will bring increased

productivity, improve the flow of information and improve collaboration

between an organisation's different units.

Isbell said Intranets are becoming the main method of information deployment

across all organisations. This is because, statistics say, companies can

recoup Intranet investments in as little as 1.5 months. Research studies

have produced varying returns on investment, but even the most conservative

estimates put these at around 40 percent. By 2001, International Data Corp.

estimates there will be 133 million global Intranet users.

Source: Internet News

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According to Forrester Research, these are the factors driving repeat

visitors to their favorite Web sites:

High-quality content: 75%

Ease of use: 66%

Quick to download: 58%

Updated frequently: 54%

Coupons and incentives: 14%

Favorite brands: 13%

Cutting-edge technology: 12%

Games: 12%

Purchasing capabilities: 11%

Customizable content: 10%

Chat and BBS: 10%

Other: 6%

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'NET GROWTH STATS OUT

About 43 million unique machines are connected to the Internet, according to

the latest Net Wizards survey. The Net's annual growth rate remains about 46

percent. Twice a year the consulting company runs a program developed to

trawl the Internet, counting hosts.

In an analysis of the growth curve, Tony Rutkowski of the Next Generation

Internet Association said the number of connected hosts will reach the 100

million mark by the second quarter of 2001. Rutkowski said that while the

numbers confirm what everyone expected, the Network Wizards survey is unique

since it is based on actual measurements, rather than predictions, of the

growth trends on the Internet. He added that one important trend depicted in

the survey is the growth rates in other than well-connected Western nations.

"The Internet growth trend continues, but it's continuing everywhere in the

world," Rutkowski said.

Source: Wired News

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ONLINE RESOURCES

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New articles on community-oriented radio stations have been published in the

community radio section of the website of Radio Netherlands. Most recent

articles: the struggle for Micro Power Radio Stations in the US, Radio

Popolare in Milan, the history of Radio Soleil in Haiti, and the efforts of

Studio Ijambo in Burundi.

Have fun,

Francois Laureys

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The Community Networks Group is a research forum to examine the current and

future role of information infrastructure by and for communities. It

provides data and analyses to and from partnerships with equipment

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. "Sustainable Development & The Americas" is a list of Internet web sites

which have information on sustainable development and have data from Latin

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AMERICAN WEB SITES OF INTEREST

Bob Zwick

The Distance and Education Training Council Online formerly the National

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Can poverty cause gender inequality in schooling?

contributor(s): Christopher Colclough Pauline Rose Mercy Tembon - Institute

of Development Studies, UK

It is well known that there is a pronounced gender gap in access to, and

achievement in, school in many developing countries. Recent studies in

Ethiopia and Guinea, both of which have very low primary enrolments that are

lower still amongst girls, have investigated some of the reasons for these

gender differences. One of the major conclusions of this work is that,

whilst poverty at both national and household levels is associated with

under-enrolment of school-aged children, the gendered outcomes of such

under-enrolment are more a product of adverse cultural practice than of

Further information:

Christopher Colclough

Institute of Development Studies, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK

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The programme "Media for a democratic West Africa" of the Panos is pleased

to announce the launch a new web site.

your gateway to information on the development of Media and democracy in

West Africa.

Human Rights, New Information Technologies and Audio Production Bank
- consult information on the media situation in the region
- find information on the development situation in the region
- discover the new web site for the Audio Production Bank
- listen to current radio programmes from the audio production bank
- research an index of Panos Paris publications
- discuss current topics in our web based discussion forums, chat site and distribution lists
- explore the web using our extensive guide to media sites for the entire continent of Africa
- visit our selection of the top five media related African web sites
- surf the new web version of the bulletin for radio pluralism in West-Africa:

Radio-Action and coming soon:
- a photo gallery
- a database of newspaper extracts from the region
- a database of regional laws and regulations relating to the media

We look forward to your visit,

Christopher Black

Panos Institute – Dakar Antenna

Panosweb@telecomplus.sn

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

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The Africa Alive! Initiative is sponsoring a regional music event to create

mass awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and to promote prevention. Concert

will coincide with the World AIDS Conference-2000 in Durban, South Africa.

Contact Anne Akia Fiedler strtalk@imul.com OR strtalk@swiftuganda.com

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CONTACTS

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Media Against Conflict (MAC) - Liberia - is a cooperation of newspaper and

radio editors to use media to promote peace, national reconciliation and

stability in Liberia. "Peace and Reconciliation Messages" are disseminated

on radio and in newspapers. MAC will also hold training workshops and

discussions with government officials on cooperation with the media in the

provision and dissemination of information regarding developments that have

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ARTICLES

San Jose Mercury News: Can Cable TV Increase Net Usage in India?

Given the major infrastructure problems facing Indian ISPs, cable television

may prove the fastest and most efficient way to increase Internet usage in

India. At present, 25 million Indian homes have cable TV, a higher number

than there are phone lines in the country.

The dearth of phone lines and PCs constitute the greatest immediate hurdles

to growth. With a population of close to 1 billion, the estimated 19.1

million phone lines represent superficial market penetration. Further, the

total number of PCs is estimated at just 3 million nationwide.

There is still considerable dependency on the State. The Department of

Telecommunications retains control of domestic transmission capacity and is

responsible for building inter-city Net connections. Also, until such time

as free market ISPs are in a position to set up their own international

gateways, they remain dependent on the former State provider VSNL.

There are 600,000 cable operators in India, most of which have a small

customer base of 50 to 100 households. Ashok Desai, Managing Director of

Silicon Graphics Systems argues that even if just one percent of these can

offer Internet access, it will dramatically increase the number of ISPs,

making the market more competitive and in turn reducing prices and

increasing access.

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Source: San Francisco Examiner

Subject: `Cyberlearning' Causes Rift Within the Ivory Tower

SAN FRANCISCO -- The 63 students who enrolled in Peter Navarro's

introductory macroeconomics course at the University of California at Irvine

last spring had a choice: Take a seat and listen to the lectures, or take

off and on your way out grab a multimedia CD-ROM containing lectures.

Navarro, who teaches in the Graduate School of Management, had been

listening to the endless debate over the use of new technology in learning.

Is "cyberlearning'' an educational fraud or the wave of the future? He

wanted to answer that question for himself. Of Navarro's macroeconomics

students, 31 chose to be traditional learners and 32 cyberlearners. At the

end of the quarter and after wading through a statistical analysis, Navarro

concluded: ``In general, there was no significant difference in academic

outcomes when cyberlearners were compared with traditional learners.''

Virtual universities are never going to be for everyone. Critics, such as

political scientist Kenneth Ashworth of the University of Texas at Austin,

decry the absence of conversation and relationships.

``Students probably learn more from each other on a campus than they do from

the faculty there,'' Ashworth said. ``E-mail may be communication, but it is

not conversation.''

Still, the Navarro study helps bolster the case for long-distance learning

in California advocated by former Gov. Pete Wilson through the California

coalition of other Western governors through the Western Governors

For one thing, Navarro said, the study may help solve a bricks-and-mortar pr

oblem. ``I'm the first to say that this is only for certain courses,''

Navarro said. ``It's ideally suited for core introductory courses. But

California is facing a tidal wave of (public college and university)

students, and there are not enough seats for everybody. Unless they develop

alternative strategies for delivering course content, they'll have to ration

seats. Some students will be left out in the cold.''

California Virtual University offers a catalog of 1,750 on-line courses and

degree programs offered by 102 accredited California colleges and

universities.

Wilson created CVU in 1997, proposing it as a marketing tool for colleges

and as a career and skill booster for employers and employees.

In doing so, he turned down an offer from the Western Governors Association

to join in its virtual university, which, having begun operations Sept. 3,

offers some 300 on-line courses from 26 colleges and universities and

corporations.

The key difference between CVU and WGU is that the California students can

earn degrees from participating colleges, while WGU students earn degrees

only from WGU.

Stanley Chodorow, who was recruited by Wilson in 1997 to head CVU, is a

convert to cyberlearning.

``Part of it is having kids push me'' to learn the new technology, said

Chodorow, 55, a medieval historian and administrator at the University of

California at San Diego for 25 years and former provost at the University of

Pennsylvania. ``They regard me as `Techno Peasant.'''

``To take a course on the Web means you as a student must be active. There

is a certain percentage of students whose only action is to get themselves

to class. Then they sit there dead silent, and they may or may not be

absorbing the material,'' he said.

At Irvine, Navarro found that students using the CD-ROMs appreciated

learning at their own pace and being able to hear lectures more than once.

They liked the convenience and flexibility of studying on their own times

and not having to take notes.

Eighty-eight percent thought they had enough opportunities, through e-mail

and other electronic means, to question Navarro, although fully half of the

32 cyberlearners noted that, even though they had absorbed the material,

they were disadvantaged by lack of interaction with the professor and other

students. They also thought they may have missed some important material.

Precisely, said Ashworth, who teaches policy development at the Lyndon

Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.

``Learning through keyboards and screens is not the way to learn,'' he said.

``You've got to have conversation, you have got to have face-to-face

relations,'' he said. ``You can call up data or library resources, and that

may be clever, but it's not doing analysis. You can consult on-line

contemporary articles in a hurry, but you ignore 99 percent of the recorded

knowledge of mankind. If that is an adequate college education, we are

certainly abandoning our standards.''

Moreover, Ashworth believes cyberlearning is being promoted by advocates

bent on saving money by reducing teacher ranks and controlling classroom

construction.

``They're trying to find out a way to expose students to so-called learning,

without having the expense and trouble of having a faculty involved,''

Ashworth said. Navarro, however, still has a teaching job. He is now also

the star of his own interactive macroeconomics CD-ROM, published by

Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

``We think we have a better mousetrap. A lot of the long-distance learning

courses offered are simply Web sites with digitized textbooks. They're not

real interesting,'' Navarro said.

``CD-ROM lectures are only as good as they are. But if they are good, they

never get tired. They never digress. They never have a bad day.''

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From The Namibian newspaper of February 11, 1999

Govt declares 'open season' in telecommunications field

CHRISTOF MALETSKY

TELECOM Namibia will face tough competition from foreign companies following

a decision by Cabinet to open up the telecommunications playing field.

Namibia's telecommunications parastatal has been "protected" so far by

provisions which prevented competitors from entering the market. According

to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Ben Amathila, this had been

to allow the company to find its feet and establish itself as a recognised

force. "By the year 2000 we should facilitate an open sky so that other

companies will be able to come in," Amathila told a media Wednesday. He said

the Cabinet had adopted the telecommunications policy and regulatory

framework which he had submitted. The policy will open the domestic

telecommunications market to private international companies to start

competing with Telecom. He said as the information and telecommunications

sector was a fast-developing and changing sector which needed continual

assessment, his Ministry had initiated the process of developing a policy

and regulatory framework in collaboration with the Ministry of Works,

Transport and Communication. They have been assisted financially by the

Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) since 1995. "The Policy and

regulatory framework has as its aim the socio-economic development of the

Namibian people and its business sector and it must be flexible and evolving

and should be instituted as such from the beginning." In addition, the

primary aim of the framework was to provide a broad, reliable and efficient

supply of communication services at an affordable cost for the nation, the

Minister said. It would also add a national balance to develop

telecommunication infrastructure where needed while ensuring universal

access for all citizens to basic telephone services at affordable prices.

Further, it would develop the sector to achieve its potential for national

growth while promoting regional telecommunications co-operation to promote

efficiency in economical and industrial affairs across the borders. Amathila

said market structures, financing and ownership of telecommunication

infrastructure, and regulation would be used to manage the process by

facilitating the flow of investment funds from foreign and domestic,

non-subscriber sources. The service market would also be opened up

selectively to different degrees of competition.

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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

neilshel@icon.co.za

www.saide.org.za

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