Information Policy

Web-based business registration in Belarus soon

MINSK, 4 November (BelTA) - Web-based business registration and closing down will become available in Belarus starting 2010, Galina Podrezenok, Head of the United State Register of Corporations with the Belarusian Justice Ministry, told media on 4 November.

After studying international practices the Justice Ministry has put together a draft decree designed to improve business operation in Belarus, she said. The draft decree has been forwarded for consideration of the government. In particular, there are plans to introduce web-based registration and closing down of juridical persons starting 2010. Besides, the website will provide information about Belarusian commercial entities except for business secrets.

The transition to new information technologies will be gradual due to major capital investments required. Electronic primary registration of corporations will be introduced initially. Digital data about business entities will be signed by an authorized officer of the registration agency using a digital signature to inure the data. The digital register will be connected to other computerized systems, in particular, banking, customs systems and archives.

http://law.by/work/EnglPortal.nsf/0/08EF830D9FBADCAFC225766400424577?OpenDocument

ePassport in Switzerland from March 2010

The Swiss Federal Council has given the green light for the definitive introduction of the electronic passport in Switzerland, the "2010 Passport", which will come into force from March 1, 2010.

Such a passport will contain an electronic chip including the facial image and two digital fingerprints of its holder, in addition to the personal data of the latter.

http://www.egovonline.net/news-list/239-international-news/7717-epassport-in-switzerland-from-march-2010.html

Germany looks at ways to protect online journalism

As Angela Merkel begins her second term as chancellor of Germany, her government is promoting a novel way to help embattled newspaper and magazine publishers manage the transition to a digital future. The new governing coalition, led by Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats and including the Free Democratic Party, has pledged to create a new kind of copyright to protect online journalism. The goal is to level the playing field with Internet companies like Google, which German publishers accuse of exploiting their content to build lucrative businesses without sharing the rewards. “The Internet cannot be a copyright-free zone,” the coalition says in a document setting out its policies. Supporters of the proposal include Hubert Burda Media, a magazine publisher, and Axel Springer, owner of the newspapers Bild and Die Welt, who say it could be employed to help build new online business models. Analysts say it might allow them to try to claim royalties for the use of their content by Google or other online “aggregators” of news, for example. But the plan is raising hackles on the Internet, where opponents say an extension of copyright law runs counter to the spirit of openness that characterizes the Web. The government, they say, has succumbed to lobbying by big publishing interests that are fighting a rear-guard action against technological changes. State intervention in the media is a sensitive topic in Germany because of memories of the Nazis’ control of the press during the Third Reich. Direct financial subsidies, which keep some newspapers alive in France and other European countries, would be out of the question, German publishers say

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

EU begins IPv6 rollout

The European Network and Information Security Agency, Enisa, announced on Tuesday that it has become the first EU agency to begin offering services over version 6 of the Internet Protocol.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39807838,00.htm

White House opens Web site programming to public

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The White House has relaunched its Web site with programming code written by the public.

The White House says it's overhauled the technical aspects of the site and now there's computer code written in public view, available for public use and able for the public to edit.

The "open-source" move won't change much to the appearance of http://www.whitehouse.gov

But it's sure to set the tech world abuzz as the online-savvy administration embraces one of its main initiatives.

White House officials described the change as similar to rebuilding the foundation of a building without changing the street-level appearance of the facade.

The changes are expected to make the White House Web site more secure — and the same could be true for other administration sites in the future.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091024/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_web_site_1

Russia: Using Twitter to take spin to the next level

The Russian Communications and Press Ministry is looking for a company to provide the technology needed to allow bureaucrats to promote state interests on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. The technology, possibly a computer program, should also allow bureaucrats to sift through discussion topics on professional and ordinary social networks by categories such as profession, subject and date, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement. The ministry said it was offering up to RUB 5m (almost USD 166,000) to the company that could provide “effective mechanisms of promoting the interests of the federal bodies of the executive branch of power on specialized social networking sites.” The winning bidder will also need to research the Russian-language Internet for specialized social networking sites, “draft a concept” to promote state interests through the web sites, and propose “methods of monitoring” the sites in order to “boost the effectiveness” of the activities of state bodies on the sites, the documents for the tender said. The ministry said in the e-mailed statement that it was also considering tracking discussions at social networking sites operating in languages other than Russian. The ministry plans to sign a contract with the winning bidder on Dec. 10.

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

European Commission launches reflection on a Digital Single Market for Creative Content Online

The European Commission today published a reflection paper on the challenge of creating a European Digital Single Market for creative content like books, music, films or video games. According to Commission studies, a truly Single Market without borders for Creative Online Content could allow retail revenues of the creative content sector to quadruple if clear and consumer-friendly measures are taken by industry and public authorities (see IP/07/95 ). The digital availability of content thus presents great opportunities for Europe, but also a number of challenges. First of all, regulatory and territorial obstacles still stand in the way of digital distribution of cultural products and services and can impede creativity and innovation. In addition, illegal downloads on a large scale can jeopardize the development of an economically viable Single Market for digital content; there needs to be much more encouragement for legal cross-border offers. Against this background, the reflection paper – drafted jointly by the services of Commissioners Reding and McCreevy – outlines current challenges for three groups of stakeholders – rightholders, consumers and commercial users – and invites everybody interested to participate in a broad debate about the possible European responses to them. Comments can be sent by 5 January 2010.

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1563&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=nl

OECD: Rethinking e-Government Services

User-Centred Approaches Expecting substantial savings and improved public services – a trend further accentuated by the financial and economic crisis beginning in 2008 – OECD countries have invested in the development of e-government services over the past 10-15 years. However, despite the initial exceptional take-up, governments later saw low adoption and low use of e-government services which are still far from satisfactory today.

http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?sf1=identifiers&st1=422009091P1

CIA invests in social media monitoring company

US intelligence agency, the CIA, has formed a "strategic partnership and technology development agreement" with Visible Technologies, a company specialising in data-mining social-networking sites such as Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA, has invested in Visible Technologies, "a leading provider of social media analysis and engagement solutions". The move is believed to be part of the CIA’s aim to utilise the "open source" information available on social networking sites. In-Q-tel was set up in 1999 to identify "innovative technology solutions to support the mission of the CIA and the broader U.S. Intelligence Community". Visible listens in to around half a million sites a day covering forums and blogs. It also crawls commercial sites with forums such as Amazon. The only sites it cannot reach are closed networks such as Facebook. Customers of Visible receive real-time feeds on a required subject, based on a series of keywords. These are scored as neutral, positive or negative depending on the message and the influence of the writer. Visible Technologies currently works with clients including Microsoft, Hormel and Xerox.

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

EU gives free online access to its archives

The EU on Sunday used the book fair in Frankfurt to launch its online digital library of official documents issued in the last 50 years. The EU's so-called digital bookshop puts more than 12 million scanned pages online, to be downloaded for free by anyone interested. The oldest document is a 1952 speech by Jean Monnet which inaugurated the High Authority of the Coal and Steel Community, later to become the EU. Apart from the bloc's 23 official languages, some publications are also available in Chinese, Russian and around 20 other languages. The equivalent of four kilometres of bookshelves were scanned from February 2008 at a cost of about EUR 2.5 million and will also be included in Europeana, a mammoth project aimed at digitising several national libraries and arts museums all over the EU. The move comes also amid fierce opposition by European publishers to the free online books project of US giant Google.

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