ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
ISPA AGM Highlights Regulatory Progress
Papers relating to the influence and use of the media to support and promote
girl's and women's education around the world needed immediately

ONLINE RESOURCES
Global Learning Communities Website

ARTICLES
Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide
Consumer Groups Release Study Urging Open Access To High-Speed "Broadband"

Internet
What Makes a Technology Inevitable? By Stephen Talbot

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NEWS

Net to reach poor Indian villages with video e-mail

Posted at 5:58 p.m. PDT Tuesday, September 21, 1999

Net to reach poor Indian villages with video e-mail

NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- Video e-mail will open up India's Internet

revolution next month to thousands of poor, illiterate -- and awestruck --

villagers who have never seen a computer.

On Oct. 2, the birthday of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, video

e-mail booths will be inaugurated in eight towns in Uttar Pradesh and

Bihar -- two of India's poorest and most populous states. A conglomerate of

Indian computer software makers announced the program Tuesday. The booths,

complete with video cameras, will be wired up with 20 similar booths

hundreds of miles away in Bombay, India's financial hub, said Dewang Mehta,

who heads the National Association of Software and Service Companies.

It will cost 15 rupees -- or 35 cents -- to send or receive a three-minute

message, including a video image and voice, through an e-mail account. For

villagers, it may take half a day to earn 15 rupees. But Mehta feels many

would pay it for the chance to hear and see a loved one once in a while.

Most of the initial users in Bombay are expected to be taxi drivers who left

their small towns and villages to make a living in the faraway metropolis.

They are able to visit their families only once a year, and regular

old-fashioned mail takes weeks to reach home.

Most villages in India still do not have access to a telephone, and only

about half of the country's population has a phone connection. The software

makers' association hopes the Internet project will eventually enable

millions of poor, illiterate people to communicate cheaply.

Internet connectivity is growing in India, but the global information

revolution has so far touched only a fraction of the country's nearly 1

billion people. India has only 3.2 million personal computers, and only

400,000 Indians have access to the Internet.

The central government surrendered its Internet monopoly last November,

offering foreign companies up to a 49 percent share in local joint ventures.

The Communications Ministry has said it would provide all district hubs

across the country with Internet connectivity, but progress has been slow.

Eventually, the 300,000 privately-owned telephone booths in the country are

likely to provide video e-mail facilities, officials say.

``The Internet is beginning to go beyond what was considered the elite of

the city,'' Mehta told a gathering of Indian Internet entrepreneurs Tuesday.

``Common people who do not have a personal computer or a telephone can have

an e-mail address.''

 ***Back to Contents***

Online learning is rapidly becoming the norm in Australia, particularly for

information technology-related courses. Associate Professor Steve Kessell of

the Curtin University of Technology has been using the Internet to teach

professional development courses for computing and science teachers for two

years. He says that despite the lack of physical proximity among students,

"often there is a better sense of community and more communications than if

we all met once a week on campus." In the first six weeks of a recently

offered course, more than 1300 e-mail messages were posted by students to

the course bulletin board. In addition to the greater frequency of contact,

Kessell notes that online education makes it possible for students scattered

across the vastness of Australia to take courses that might otherwise be

PREPARE FOR RADICAL CHANGES IN COMMERCE, SAYS IDC

Source: IDC

The momentum of the Internet is growing with the impact of the Internet

e-conomy just beginning to be felt. In the next 24 months, online businesses

will need to prepare for this entirely new scale of commerce -- what

International Data Corporation (IDC) has dubbed Internet Economy 2.0.

"Almost everything that defines Internet Economy 1.0, including user

demographics, buying trends and technological infrastructures will be

different in Internet Economy 2.0," says Frank Gens, IDC senior VP. "At

IDC's Internet Executive Forum, business leaders will find out how to

prepare their companies to profit from the radical changes about to occur."

IDC will present current trends and data and have experts available to

discuss the new Internet economy on 28 to 29 September at the San Francisco

Airport Marriott. According to IDC research, this year there are a total of

235 million devices world-wide able to access the Internet, accounting for

190 million world-wide Web users completing $109 billion in purchases

impacted by the Web. "That number is expected to grow more than ten-fold

over the next five years to $1.3 trillion in 2003, with $842 million

completed directly over the Web," says Sean Kaldor, group VP of IDC's

eBusiness advisory research service.

 ***Back to Contents***

India may have cyber laws in place by end-year

Sharad Goel

NEW DELHI 22 SEPTEMBER

INDIAN netizens can expect to have a full-fledged framework of cyber laws in

place to govern electronic transaction on the Net by the end of this year,

soon after the new government takes over. Inaugurating the second India

Internet World here, Mr Ravindra Gupta, secretary, department of electronics

said the cyber laws have been drafted and will be introduced in the winter

session of the Parliament after the new government takes over.

"The cyber laws have been pending and it was unfortunate that the Lok Sabha

was dissolved when the Bill was scheduled to be placed before the

Parliament. The two draft bills would be placed before the new government as

soon as possible," said Mr Gupta. The department will also set up a

certification authority to tackle cyber crime which would also take adequate

steps to prevent cyber frauds. Elaborating on the other initiatives being

taken by the DoE to enhance e-commerce and Internet penetration in the

country, Mr Gupta said his department was amending the Copyright Act to

include the electronic commerce.

"The department is taking several initiatives to popularise Internet and

e-commerce in the country. We are pushing for a satellite communication

(satcom) policy, which would allow an ISP to set up earth station or take

gateway access from other satellites," said Mr Gupta. The DoE, said Mr

Gupta, also has commitments from the state-run department of telecom for

connecting all districts by optical fibres by the year 2000. "Already

significant ground has been covered with optic fibres and we hope to see

every district getting connected through these fibres in the next one year,"

said Mr Gupta. He said the ministry of defence has offered its surplus

capacity of network for civilian use in the north-east and the seven north

eastern states would have low rates of telephone connectivity," said Mr

Gupta. The DoE secretary was of the opinion that India is in a unique

position to exploit the Internet revolution as this media gives an

opportunity for entrepreneurs to have global reach without much investment.

"The radio revolution took 38 years to reach the 50-million mark, the

telephone took 30 years, the PC took 16 years, cable TV took 10 years while

the Internet took only five years. Our aim is to provide one PC for every

 ***Back to Contents***

Online Education Catching On In India

By Uday Lal Pai

India Correspondent, asia.internet.com

[September 21, 1999--MUMBAI] Online training fever grips India. While major

software training institute NIIT has already commenced online courses,

Aptech is launching its online training soon. Indian Institute of Technology

(IIT) Bangalore is starting virtual classes. Global majors also join the

fray. Lotus Development Corporation announced its plan to set up centres for

training via the Net. Sun/Netscape is scouting for alliance to impart

training online to its corporate customers in India. While a normal MCSD

(Microsoft Certified Solution Developer) course would need around $712 (Rs

30,000), the online version of the same course is available at a price tag

of $302 (Rs 12,800) at NIIT's `niitnetuniversity.com.' Other courses like

MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineering), and 40 other skillets like

Java Programming, HTML Programming, Advanced Browsing is available on the

Net. NIIT will offer Net-based Leda Cybersmart programmes for school

children in India soon. The programme is designed to provide rich learning

experience for children using Internet. "We have taken an initiative in this

regard in order to equip school children to function successful in the

radically new environment being developed around the Internet" Says P

Rajendran, chief operating officer, NIIT. Aptech's online training modules

are also priced at around 80 % of a normal classroom based coaching. This

education giant will be launching its online modules on Rediff-On-The-Net

site soon. Unlike the NIIT's certified courses, Aptech's online course is

skillet based. Meanwhile IIT-Bangalore, India's premier educational

institution goes for virtual classes. "We will have the first batch starting

in three month's time," says Prof.S.Sadagopan, Director. The idea is

inspired by a similar practice at universities in the US. The difference is

that, to save on costs, IIT-B will use a human to operate the camera while

it is common in the US to see a robotic arm doing the work. IIT-B has a

2Mbps link to the Net and 100 mbps bandwidth for its internal network. IIT-B

is also planning to have a wireless network in time for its cultural

festival. In a major move, Zee Education, the subsidiary of Zee TV, is

refocusing its strategy from being just a computer-learning centre to a

virtual reality centre. Zee has already launched ZED Privilege Membership

(ZPM) card, which will offer the customer various benefits, freebies and

discounts at various ZED Points across the country. On the other hand, Lotus

Development Corporation, an IBM company, will focus on support, education

and consulting to increase its presence in India. It is seeking to promote a

Lotus Developer community by imparting education in key Lotus platforms in

association with leading computer education companies in the country -

Internet will be the medium.

"With advantages such as global presence and real-time experience, distant

learning and classes hosted on the Net have become the natural choice among

corporates to impart education on their wares. We are looking at corporate

training and will make the required investment in due course." says Vincent

Lee, Asean and India managing director, Lotus. Meanwhile Sun/Netscape

Alliance is in talks with NIIT and Aptech to offer training in Internet and

e-commerce infrastructure through latter's institutes spread across the

country. The alliance is also looking at imparting training online to its

Taken from the Media Beat (September 27) - edited by Warren Feek

Namibian Broadcasting Corporation Ups Its Income - Namibia

The Namibian - September 16, 1999 - By Tangeni Amupadhi NBC's latest annual

report shows that the parastatal netted N$25 million from advertising,

interest on investments, licence fees, rent and sponsorship in the 1997-98

Taken from the Media Beat (September 27) - edited by Warren Feek

Television To Beam Around The Clock - Malawi

Panafrican News Agency - September 10, 1999

Blantyre, Malawi (PANA) - The five-month old Television Malawi will from

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ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS

-----------

ISPA AGM HIGLIGHTS REGULATORY PROGRESS

Source: ISPA

The Internet Service Providers Association (South Africa) is pleased to

announce that David Frankel of Dimension Data and Mark Todes of Korbitec

were re-elected as co-chairs at the association's recent AGM. Other

developments at the meeting included the announcement of significant

progress in the process of negotiation with Telkom, and real hope for an

out-of-court settlement with the telco. ISPA members expressed strong

support for the negotiation process, which could yet negate the need for

further tedious and expensive legal battles. Simultaneously, ISPA is working

to establish product and service working groups with Telkom tom improve

relationships into the future.

The ISPA has also involved itself very closely in the DoC e-commerce policy

process, intended to develop a coherent policy strategy in order to promote

the development of electronic commerce. ISPA member employees have aligned

themselves with different working groups, and are making a significant

contribution towards ensuring local e-commerce legislation is both fair and

practical.

----------------------------------------

Papers relating to the influence and use of the media to support and promote

girl's and women's education around the world, and education in general

through examples of case studies, reports and evaluations are needed

immediately. Any commentary on the analysis of why the media does or does

not make a good partner for government in getting girl's educated would also

be welcomed. Please reply immediately to Mona Grieser mona6@ix.netcom.com

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CONTACTS

PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS

(This component of the TAD Consortium Newsletter kindly sponsored by Times

Media Limited - www.tml.co.za)

***************************

ONLINE RESOURCES

GLOBAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES wishes to announce that we have completely

renovated our website to reflect the most recent services, products and

interests we share with the educational community at large, and would like

to share it with you. Our clear philosophical base is retained and has been

expanded to incorporate some extremely exciting new ventures and

partnerships. These include - a new, unique, totally integrated, innovative

and flexible Masters degree designed to appeal to educators and business

people jointly - a vastly expanded online catalogue of carefully selected

resources - a new and expanded range of professional services for individual

educators, schools and school districts including online and face to face

services - and many other exciting possibilites

If we can assist you with any further information about anything you see on

the site please do not hesitate to contact us and we will respond.

With thanks for your time - and apologies if by some chance you receive this

message more than once.

Julie Boyd

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PRINTED AND OTHER RESOURCES

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ARTICLES

Extract from: Distance Education and Technology Newsletter, vol.9, no.11, August 1999.

Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide

The National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) has

released Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, the third in

its series examining which American households have access to telephones,

computers, and the Internet, and which do not. The Digital Divide - the

divide between those with access to new technologies and those without- is

now one of America's leading economic and civil rights issues.

Overall, the report found that the number of Americans connected to the

nation's information infrastructure is soaring. Nevertheless, this year's

report finds that a digital divide still exists, and, in many cases, is

actually widening over time. Minorities, low-income persons, the less

educated, and children of single-parent households, particularly when the

reside in rural areas or central cities, are among the groups that lack

access to information resources.

In response to NTIA's release of the Digital Divide, various national

organizations have joined together to tackle this great problem posed by the

divide. A fact sheet helps to explain the scope of the problem:

---19% of people with a high school diploma or less have internet access

(52% of the population) Meanwhile 53% of people with a college degree have

internet access (23% of the population).

---Between January, 1997 and June 1998, the percentage of white web users

grew twice as fast as the percentage of black web users.

---40% of users are white collar workers (professional/managerial), but

white collar workers make up only 18% of the population.

---28% of users have no college education compared to 52% of the total

population.

---Median household income for internet users is $58,000, 61% higher than

the national median income of $36,000.

---80% of households with income greater than $100,000 own a computer; 25%

of households with incomes under $30,000 own a computer.

---46% of internet users are women but females represent 51% of population.

---The median household income of an internet user is 61% higher than the

national average.

For further information, contact:

Web:www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn99/contents.htm

----------------------------------------

CONSUMER GROUPS RELEASE STUDY URGING OPEN ACCESS TO HIGH-SPEED "BROADBAND"

INTERNET

PUBLIC POLICY ANALYSIS DEMONSTRATES ANTI-CONSUMER IMPACT OF PRIVATE

REGULATION OF THE "BROADBAND" INTERNET

(Los Angeles, Calif., and Washington, D.C., September 21, 1999) - Consumer

Action and the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) jointly released today a

major public policy study demonstrating that open access to the high-speed

"broadband" Internet is essential to preserve the Internet as a vibrant

medium for communications and commerce.

"This analysis makes it clear that neither the cable companies nor the

telephone companies should be allowed to pick and choose which Internet

service providers (ISPs) may provide consumers access to high-speed Internet

connections," said Ken McEldowney, Executive Director of Consumer Action,

and President of CFA. "The effort to impose private regulation on the

Internet in the form of exclusive, discriminatory access is a dagger pointed

at the heart of the Internet, which has thrived by allowing all content

providers to have equal access to the wires that connect people to the

network."

The 100-page report, titled Transforming the Information Highway into a

Private Toll Road, explains the harm to consumers inherent in efforts to

close the on-ramps to the nation's information superhighway, including:

--- preventing competition for cable TV programming;

--- reducing competition for broadband Internet services;

--- abusive pricing and bundling of cable TV and Internet services;

--- diminished creativity, innovation, and diversity of content; and

--- restriction of universal service.

"AT&T has set out to amass a monopoly over U.S. cable TV systems and to

extend the cable TV business model to the Internet," said Dr. Mark Cooper,

CFA's Director of Research, and principal author of the study. "That model

includes price increases over three times the rate of inflation, denial of

consumer choice through forced bundling of programming, and restriction of

innovation through preferential treatment of affiliated programming."

"Local phone companies must also live up to their duty under the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 to provide open access to their high-speed

networks," McEldowney added. "They should not use the efforts of cable

companies trying to close off their broadband 'pipe' to unaffiliated ISPs as

an excuse to push policymakers to eliminate telephone company obligations to

run an open network. The potential end result will be a disaster for

consumers - two private toll roads and no open access lanes on the

information superhighway."

The report notes that local cable TV franchising authorities in Portland,

Oregon, and Broward County, Florida, have ordered AT&T to provide open,

non-discriminatory access to the cable network as a condition of the

transfer of cable TV licenses to AT&T, and that scores of others currently

are taking up the issue. To promote the same pro-consumer outcome, Consumer

Action will be filing the study before numerous cable franchise authorities

in the Los Angeles area, as well as in San Francisco, which is developing

its policy on open access.

"The local governments that have been insisting on open access have stepped

up to defend consumer interests by filling a void left by federal

regulators," McEldowney said. "Congress and federal regulators have been

promising the American people for years that competition will break the

monopoly power of cable TV and local telephone companies-and they have been

wrong. Our report shows that the Federal Communications Commission has erred

again, by not imposing an open access requirement, especially with one

company dominating so much of the infrastructure and programming for both

cable TV and broadband Internet service."

The report details the technological and economic mechanisms that already

are being used to restrict competition in a closed, discriminatory cable

network.

The study:

--- documents the technological capability to discriminate against

unaffiliated ISPs;

--- enumerates the current anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices of

cable TV and local telephone companies;

--- identifies key elements of the closed access business model planned for

the broadband Internet;

--- reviews the extremely negative experience of consumers in the 15 years

that the cable TV industry has operated as a closed access network; and

--- analyzes the failure of cross-technology competition to break the cable

monopoly.

"To maintain a vibrant Internet, ISP access to consumers must be open and

non-discriminatory, regardless of whether the connection is made via a cable

or telephone company's network. Consumers and the country cannot afford the

development of private networks for broadband Internet service. A small

number of private networks will not provide adequate competition to prevent

the abuse of economic power in the commercial market, or to ensure the free

flow of information in the marketplace of political ideas," Cooper

concluded.

Consumer Federation of America, founded in 1968, is the nation's largest

consumer advocacy group. Composed of over 250 state and local affiliates

representing consumer, senior citizen, low-income, labor, farm, public

power, and cooperative organizations, CFA's purpose is to represent consumer

interests before the Congress and the federal agencies and to assist its

state and local members in their activities in their local jurisdictions.

Consumer Action is a non-profit, membership-based organization that was

founded in San Francisco in 1971. Throughout its 28 years, Consumer Action

has continued to serve consumers nationwide by advancing consumer rights;

referring consumers to complaint-handling agencies through our free hotline;

publishing educational materials in Chinese, English, Korean, Tagalog,

Russian and Vietnamese and other languages; advocating for consumers in the

media and before lawmakers; and comparing prices on credit cards, bank

accounts and long distance services. Consumer Action is a member of CFA.

----------------------------------------

What Makes a Technology Inevitable? By Stephen Talbot

Taken from Netfuture #95

Copyright 1999 by The Nature Institute

Is there any idea more powerful, more debilitating, more drastic in its

consequences for our future than the idea of technological inevitability?

Nothing seems more certain than the march of technological progress, and

nothing more quixotic than resisting it. As a result, certain forces are

unleashed that carry society forward with all the subtlety of a tsunami,

which in turn reinforces the sense of inevitability.

But wait a minute. Let's look at a particular field of technology -- say,

biotech. In broad strokes, here's what we see:

First, the entire field is awash with money and commercial impulses. No one

will dispute that the links between "pure" research and business are

ubiquitous. Few university department chairmen fail to sit on the board of

at least one biotech company, and few if any major departments fail to

receive funding from industry. I recently heard a geneticist from a large

university tell how his department chairman had announced, "Fifty thousand

dollars goes to anyone who brings in a `special relationship' with a

pharmaceutical company".

Second, the biotech industry participates in a cycle of product development

and guaranteed obsolescence that fuels a kind of perpetual-motion cash

machine. For example, Monsanto Corporation produces "Roundup-ready" corn

seed, highly tolerant to its own Roundup herbicide. This enables farmers to

drench their soil with Roundup in order to fight weeds. Roundup sales go

through the roof. Meanwhile, the weeds start developing resistance to the

herbicide -- a process already well under way - and Monsanto is thereby

assured a market for its next generation of herbicides and engineered seeds,

currently under development in the laboratory.

To take this particular example a little further: Monsanto is also a prime

mover in the current push to develop a so-called Terminator technology,

intended to prevent seed saving. When the technology is in use, it will make

the seeds produced by the farmer's crops sterile, so that he must either go

back to Monsanto to buy a new batch of seeds each year, or else buy a

Monsanto chemical that, when applied to the seeds, "switches" them back on.

Third, all the resources of the federal government have been made available

to the high-tech industry in order to realize this cash machine. As Steven

Gorelick points out in the Sep./Oct., 1998 issue of *The Ecologist*, the

industry receives huge direct and indirect subsidies; the Patent Office

makes genetically altered life forms profitable; and the regulatory agencies

are shamefully dominated by industry interests.

(Gorelick mentions that, during the approval process for Monsanto's

recombinant bovine growth hormone, "the `revolving door' almost spun off its

hinges". You can read the horrific details in *The Ecologist*.)

Now, when you place particular technological developments into their larger

context like this, the question of inevitability takes on new coloring. How

inevitable is Terminator seed technology? Would it happen without the patent

laws, without the inordinate industry influence in the regulatory agencies,

without the industrialization of agriculture, and without the subordination

of research organizations to commercial interests? It is hardly imaginable.

None of this has to be; we've simply made it a matter of social policy.

More generally, the entire commercial, industrial, scientific, and

governmental program embodies a stance toward the world that can be

summarized in the single word, `control'. That's where the perpetual-motion

cash machine comes in. What the great totalitarian regimes of the twentieth

century discovered in the realm of human affairs also holds true in our

relation to the natural world: the one-sided attempt to exercise control

leads to a ceaseless upping of the ante. The next technical fix must be more

draconian than the last. It will consume more resources and require a more

single-minded commitment from the controlling authorities. Unfortunately, it

will also set society more irreversibly upon a path that eventually must

lead to collapse.

So, in order to see the fallacy of inevitability, you need to look at the

context of the "inevitable" developments and ask yourself what patterns of

choice the context represents. It is certainly true -- barring the most

extreme cataclysm -- that we will become ever more technically capable. But

this still leaves open the *directions* in which we choose to apply our

capabilities. There are radically different ways of viewing and relating to

the world -- organic agriculture, for example, emphasizes cooperating with

nature rather than controlling and browbeating it - and the kinds of

technology we spend our money on will vary according to our vision.

A technology's "inevitability" represents nothing more than our inattention

to the various ways we participate in *demanding* the technology.

(This essay was inspired by, and draws upon, a lecture on biotech given by

my Nature Institute colleague, Craig Holdrege, on Sep. 18, 1999.)

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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

* 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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