Information Policy

EU: eLearning Papers calls for contributions on Digital Literacy

Digital publication ‘eLearning Papers’ is calling for contributions to enhance the European learning communities’ approach to the 21st century Literacies’ Agenda. The deadline for the submission of the articles is 10 November 2008.

eLearning Papers invites the members of the European and international research and practice community to submit papers which would – indicatively and not exhaustively - address the following themes:

• Digital Literacy, Information Literacy and Media Literacy: defining competencies and skills;
• Digital Literacy as a Key Competency: positioning in the set of other (basic/key) Competencies;
• Digital Literacy and School Curriculum;
• The Learning-to-learn Competency development agenda: the relation to Digital Literacy;
• The Social (e)inclusion agenda in the lifelong learning perspective;
• Digital Literacy, eSkills and Professional Development;
• eSkills and the Learning Organization;
• Digital literacy and critical thinking.

The eLearning Papers publication has been created as part of the ‘elearningeuropa.info’ portal. This portal is an initiative of the European Commission to promote the use of multimedia technologies and the Internet at the service of education and training.

http://www.epractice.eu/document/5041

EU call for 'universal' broadband

Brussels is considering making broadband access available for all.

The fast growth of broadband has led the European Commission to bring forward a review of the basic telecoms services Europeans can expect.

Current statistics suggest about 36% of households in EU member nations have high-speed net access.

When a majority of EU citizens are using a telecoms service, EC rules dictate that it becomes one every European should be able to enjoy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7637215.stm

"Europe, personally" radio project launched

'Europe, Personally' is a project originated by RTVSLO/Slovenia, which has received the support of the Radio Development Fund. The project has now been launched. The long-term aim of this project is to establish a network of European radio stations within and also outside the European Union, which will regularly make radio shows about everyday life in the language of the country in which the show is made and contribute them to a common audio base. This base is available for use by all participating radio stations. Together with Val 202 (Radio Slovenija, Channel 2), six European radio stations participate in the project, with a desire to present topics regarding the lives of Europeans and their everyday dilemmas, which are connected to the specific situations of each individual: BNR (Bulgaria), CR (Czech Republic), HRT/Croatia, LR/Latvia, LRT/Lithuania and SR/Sweden. All participating radio stations carry out this project under the same brand name: Europe, Personally! The first productions are now available via the website: http://www.rtvslo.si/europe-personally

Social networking-Facebook for suits: Websites that encourage business networking are thriving

Among the few firms benefiting from the upheaval in the financial markets are professional social networks—websites that help with business networking and job-hunting. On LinkedIn, the market leader, members have been updating their profiles in record numbers in recent weeks, apparently to position themselves in case they lose their jobs. The two most popular sites, LinkedIn and Xing, have been growing at breakneck speed and boast 29m and 6.5m members respectively. And, in contrast to mass-market social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, both firms have worked out how to make money.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12304861

MI6 seeks recruits on Facebook

MI6 is using the social networking site Facebook to recruit the next generation of spies. The Secret Intelligence Service, which has traditionally scoured the country's elite universities for recruits, launched a series of online adverts this month as part of its attempts to attract people from a variety of backgrounds.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/facebook.workandcareers

400,000 Norwegian domain names

Yesterday the counter at Norid rounded 400 000 domain names for the first time. The number has increased tenfold in ten years, and the growth is still strong. A domain name within .no is an obvious first choice among Norwegian companies.

http://www.norid.no/nytt/pressemelding20080924.en.html

European Parliament supports alternative and community media

The European Parliament, meeting in Brussels last week for its plenary session, adopted a report by Karin Resetarits (Die Liberalen, Austria) which calls on the European Union to encourage alternative media in Europe in order to promote pluralism and cultural diversity. Stemming from the old family of 'free radio' and other pirate broadcasting, alternative media today is often a community media, addressing a certain category of the population for example the Muslim population, senior citizens or young people. They can be distinguished from commercial media by the fact that they are not profit-making but purely social, linked with their community by the service they provide. Mrs Resetarits would like to see this recognised by the European Commission and the Member States. The support measures recommended by Mrs Resetarits are mostly of a technical nature, legal (attribution of frequencies) and financial (possible financing by the EU)

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/european_parliament_supports_alternative_and_community_media/

Social Networking Sites: Commissioner Reding stresses their economic and societal importance for Europe

Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, will today give a speech on Social Networking. It will be the first public statement of the Commissioner on this subject. The speech will be given at today's Safer Internet Forum that takes place in Luxembourg and focuses on Safer Internet and children this year. Commissioner Reding will underline the importance of self-regulation and will also meet representatives of the social networking companies Myspace and Dailymotion.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/465&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Number of cell phone subscribers to hit 4 billion this year, UN says

The number of mobile cellular subscribers worldwide will reach the 4 billion mark by the end of 2008, the head of the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announced yesterday.

The number of subscribers has surged nearly 25 per cent annually for the past eight years. Mobile penetration stood at only 12 per cent in 2000, growing to reach over 60 per cent by the end of 2008.

“The fact that 4 billion subscribers have been registered worldwide indicates that it is technically feasible to connect the world to the benefits of ICT [information and communication technology] and that it is a visible business opportunity,” ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said in New York at a high-level event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets agreed upon by world leaders in 2000.

“Clearly, ICTs have the potential to act as catalysts to achieve the 2015 targets of the MDGs,” he added.

The ITU emphasized the need to carefully interpret data. A 61 per cent penetration rate does not mean in reality that every other person in the world is using a mobile phone; rather, the statistics reflect the number of subscriptions, not people. Double counting could occur if people have multiple cellular subscriptions, while some could be sharing their phone with others.

The agency also cautioned that penetration rates vary by region and even within countries.

Rapidly developing economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China are driving the growth in the number of cellular subscribers, with these nations alone accounting for over 1.3 billion of them by the end of 2008.

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27530&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

EU adopts law to raise telecom competition

BRUSSELS: The European Parliament adopted measures Wednesday to increase competition in EU telecommunications markets in a bid to give consumers a wider choice and less-costly services.

The EU telecommunications commissioner, Viviane Reding, who drafted the package, wants to make it easier for new entrants to compete with established operators in the €300 billion, or $440 billion, sector.

The EU assembly voted 597 in favor, with 55 against and 29 abstentions, on a proposal to force telecommunication companies to run their network and retail services as separate businesses to give competitors easier access to their networks.

Big operators like Deutsche Telekom and France Télécom opposed this "functional separation" measure, which would be a "last resort nuclear option" for national regulators if other pro-competition measures failed.

However, the assembly watered down another prime aspect of the package, Reding's proposal for an EU telecom "super regulator" that would also include Internet security.

It voted 490 to 105 to create a less powerful alternative, the Body of European Regulators in Telecoms, that would not include Internet security.

The body will be financed by a mix of EU and national funds. Reding wanted it paid for solely by the EU, a step she believed would ensure it was fully independent and not beholden to national governments that could be tempted to protect former state-owned operators.

"This vote is very good news for European consumers," said Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for Reding. "It's a strong signal for the single market in the EU."

National governments have the final say on the package and the assembly's first vote will form the basis of a joint deal with member states.

The assembly also voted to scrap Reding's plan to give the European Commission a veto over national competition "remedies."

It backed steps to make more efficient EU-wide use of radio frequencies freed up by broadcasters switching from analog to digital so that mobile phone operators can offer new services in several countries.

However, the vote ensures that member states remain in charge of spectrum usage nationally, and Reding's aim of stronger EU-wide decision-making on spectrum was diluted.

The final measure, to be voted on later, will concern improving consumer protection by strengthening the obligation on operators to provide a minimum service of specific quality at an affordable price.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/24/business/telecom.php