DIGITAL DIVIDE
County High In Online Access
INTERNET
Internet Unites Kosovo Foes
Europeans Eye E-Vote Eventuality
NEC, KDDI, 2 Others Ally On Internet Consortium
DIGITAL DIVIDE
COUNTY HIGH IN ONLINE ACCESS
A new study, "eReadiness: Assessing our Digital Opportunities," has revealed
that the Annapolis, Maryland area has the most reliable and speedy Internet
connections in the state. However, Phillip Singerman, executive director of
the Technology Development Group said the study also revealed that many
small businesses, schools and homes are not taking full advantage of the
Internet. Income and education levels were closely connected to personal
computer use. Thirty-one percent of high school graduates earning less than
$50,000 a year reported having a computer at home. Ninety-one percent of
graduates earning more than $50,000 had used computers at home. The next
phase of the study will involve using the data to develop public policy
aimed at increasing use of information technology in Maryland.
[SOURCE: The Capital, AUTHOR: Noi Mahoney]
(http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/live/04_20-17/TOP)
INTERNET
INTERNET UNITES KOSOVO FOES
Years of conflict have taken their toll on the environment in Kosovo.
Environmental groups now hope to use the Internet to enable Albanian and
Serb activists to work together on solving problems such as polluted rivers,
smog and deforestation. "Most people don't know there is an environmental
problem," said Blerim Vela of the Regional Environmental Center for Central
and Eastern Europe. "So we decided there was a need for an electronic
network so that they can disseminate information about the environmental
problems." The network, called Sharri.Net, was set up in February and the
website is expected to be running by June. Funding for the network is coming
from the Norweigan Ministry of Environment and Dutch Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. The network will be housed in an office in Pristina, available to
all environmental groups.
[SOURCE: BBC News; AUTHOR: Alfred Hermida]
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1939000/1939121.stm)
EUROPEANS EYE E-VOTE EVENTUALITY
All experts are more or less of the opinion that it is too soon to
contemplate remote Internet voting on a large scale. Despite security and
integrity issues, nations across Europe are continuing forward with Internet
voting experiments. It is hoped that e-voting will provide easy access for
more voters and will encourage younger members of the population to get
involved in the democratic process. Caution, however, is the key word, and
e-voting advocates stress that security must not be compromised in the rush
to implement new systems. One of the biggest hurdles is setting uniform
standards for electronic voting. Currently, there exist a multitude of
security standards, making it difficult to launch large scale systems and
impossible to measure voting security against a benchmarked standard. Once
this hurdle is cleared, researchers hope to be able to build public
confidence in online voting. Even so, technology alone is not a panacea for
voter apathy. Jo Dungey, a policy advisor at the Local Government
Information Unit in the U.K, cautioned that "Technical changes alone will
not solve the whole problem of low turnout." Dungey feels that issues such
as lack of information, public alienation from the conventions of the
political process and media portrayals of politics all have to be examined
if e-voting is to be successful.
[SOURCE: Wired News; AUTHOR: Dermot McGrath]
(http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51838,00.html)
NEC, KDDI, 2 OTHERS ALLY ON INTERNET CONSORTIUM
NEC Corp, has joined Japan's second-largest telecom carrier, KDDI Corp and
two other firms to create an Internet Service Provider (ISP)
"Megaconsortium" that will bring over 10 million Japanese Internet users
under one roof. Consolidation appears to be gaining momentum in Japan and
the "Megaconsortium" was spurred in part by a possible partnership between
Sony Corp and Fujitsu Ltd. Kenji Yoshiyama, head of NEC's Biglobe has said
that they are not "...making this a closed consortium, we are opening our
alliance up to interested parties." The new consortium will result in four
main ISP providers including the NEC-led consortium, the possible
Sony-Fujitsu partnership, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) and a
high-speed service run by Softbank Corp and Yahoo Japan Corp.
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Reuters]
(http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3114798.htm)
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