High Tech Policy Thoughts and Opinions on Government Affairs

US Should Lead in Climate Change Policy

Late last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed comprehensive energy and climate change legislation that would set our country on a path to reduce its emissions to 83% below 2005 levels by 2050, among other things.  If it becomes law, this bill will mark an historic milestone for U.S. climate change policy; one that will help pave the way for the Obama Administration to take a lead role in the upcoming global climate change negotiations this December in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Cisco supported the passage of the American Clean Energy & Security Act.  We firmly believe that innovation and technological advancement will transform how the world manages its energy and environmental challenges. This bill will help ensure enhanced investment in clean tech and energy innovation, helping solidify American leadership in this expanding market, and fast-tracking important technologies that will secure our energy and environmental future. 

This is vital for U.S. companies and U.S. investment.

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Posted by Laura Ipsen at 01:52PM PST

European Democracy at Work!

On 7 June, I joined citizens across Europe by going to the ballot box to elect the European Parliament for the eighth time; although sadly more than half of the electorate stayed at home.  Before the vote, the political chatter had focused on what the reaction of the electorate would be to the economic crisis and how the centre-right EPP grouping (the largest in the Parliament) would fare. The UK Conservatives had announced they would be splintering off from the group with like-minded parties from the Czech Republic and Poland in the new Parliament.

While the exact make-up isn’t yet clear, from the provisional results the biggest themes seem to be a dramatic loss for the centre left and a growth in fringe parties.  The EPP held its own despite the loss of their UK and Czech chapters. 

In many countries, the ruling parties were punished in the polls in what is seen as a reaction struggling economies across Europe.  That being said, centre-left governments seem to have suffered more.  The UK and Portuguese governments were heavily defeated while the opposition Popular Party beat the ruling Socialists in Spain.  In contrast, the EPP-affiliated governments in France, Germany, Italy and Poland more than held their own.  The far right and anti-immigration parties made significant ground, returning MEPs in the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Slovakia, Hungary and the UK.

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Posted by Christopher Gow at 10:28AM PST

Old MacDonald had….broadband

OK, I admit it – I’m a Brit abroad and I’m addicted to the BBC website.  There’s something very homely about reading stories about the UK, whether it be to commiserate Manchester United’s failure to get over the final hurdle or the latest story about Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. 

I was flicking through the site this morning when I came across this piece about broadband ‘not-spots’ in the UK and it set me thinking.  There seems to be a growing recognition that everyone needs to have a broadband connection, or even in some quarters that broadband should be considered a ‘right’ for our citizens.  But what is it all about?  While it may be taken as a given in our tech community, why do we think about it in these terms?

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Posted by Christopher Gow at 08:59AM PST

Technology’s Role in Earth Day

Earlier today, I listened to former President Clinton speak in honor of Earth Day. He was at Fortune Magazine’s Green Brainstorm conference on the importance of upcoming climate change talks (to take place on Copenhagen later this year). He called on everyone in the audience to focus on the economic impact of managing our energy and environmental challenges.

He said we must prove it is good economics to change the way we produce and save energy. This made me think more about the role technology can play in doing so..

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Posted by Jennifer Greeson at 04:41PM PST

First Latin American ICT Think Tank Takes Momentum

Less than two years ago a small group of academics from the leading ICT Research Centers and Universities from Latin America organized a regional conference on ICT. At the end of the conference in Buenos Aires I mentioned to two of the organizers; Professors Hernan Galperin from Univerisdad de San Andres and Raul Katz from Columbia, that by putting together the conference they had built the foundation to create a regional Think Tank on ICT.

And certainly, they did. The small group now transformed into a network of more than 30 world class institutions that seek to advance knowledge on the social, economic and political impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the Americas.

The network, called ACORN-REDECOM will have the III regional conference in Mexico City next month (May 22-23). The program and speakers are outstanding and I am sure it will be a total success.

The value ACORN-REDECOM brings to the region ...

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Posted by Andres Maz at 08:16AM PST

Chimpanzees smarter than undergraduates and college professors?

As part of our policy work, I regularly share with governments statistics, studies and other research that help to bring across the need to effect change in a country. Quite accidentally, I recently came across these two video clips featuring presentations by Dr Hans Rosling that blew my mind away about how such data can be presented. In the video, Dr Rosling compared and contrasted national statistics of different countries in a graphical and animated way which I thought brought across his points very well and was most effective in busting some of the commonly held myths about developing countries.

Clip 1
Clip 2

Particularly relevant to our work is the last set of statistics that he showed on Internet penetration in Clip 1 (about 18 minutes into the 20-min clip). His graph showed a correlation between Internet penetration and GDP, and the steady growth of Internet penetration trending towards the flattening of differences between the developed and developing countries. He presented it quite briefly, but you get the idea of how this can be used to draw other conclusions from data presented this way.

Why do I raise this?

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Posted by Seow Hiong Goh at 05:15AM PST

No Need to Lock Them in a Room, Mr. Secretary—Use IP

A lot has been said and written this month about the need for speedy adoption of interoperability standards for smart grid, but the simple fact is: Agreeing on interoperability standards doesn’t need to be this hard. Incumbent manufacturers of some niche smart grid technologies based on proprietary protocols and those companies that have built siloed systems using them have every incentive to drag out the process of identifying and agreeing on interoperability standards for smart grid. But, the answer is so obvious; it seems hard for some people to grasp: Use Internet Protocol (IP).

At the center of the Internet boom in the 1990s were not only the price declines in computing and telephony, but also the transition from the use of proprietary protocols and standards to the adoption of open protocols and standards – namely IP – that allowed communications devices and systems to interoperate, spurring innovation and promoting competition. IP was an important factor in enabling the market disruption that drove Internet use – all to the benefit of consumers. Without IP, we wouldn’t have YouTube, or Facebook, or Internet banking.

Who wants to wait in line at the bank anymore?...

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Posted by Jennifer Sanford at 01:33PM PST

Latin America Is Going Fiscal At Full Speed

The Challenge is how to Turn Economic Packages Into Opportunities that Create Sustainable Growth and Competitive Advantage

Numerous market indicators already signal that the global economic crisis is now impacting Latin America.  Unless the U.S. economic stimulus package (or officially, the American Reinvestment & Recovery Act) works and each country in the region puts in place comprehensive counter-cyclic policies, the crisis’ impact could be even longer and more devastating.

Countries across the region are experiencing a reduction in the demand on their exports in varying degree.  This reduction has generated rapid increases in trade deficits and difficulties in accessing international financing, a situation that has been exacerbated by the repatriation of funds from foreign investors. These elements have combined to create major pressure to domestic currencies; in just the last six months the Brazilian real has lost 32% of its value. The immediate impact in consumption, investment and employment has been more than evident.

To attack the different symptoms, countries in the region have adopted different measures. So far macroeconomic policy has been the medicine of choice. However, the crisis is so deep that for many economists and Governments, it is now clear that monetary policy will not be enough, and that the case for a major fiscal counter-cyclical policy is now essential.

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Posted by Andres Maz at 02:02PM PST

Human Flesh Search Engine

Many years ago I saw, on a whiteboard, a sentence which never left me. The sentence, written by a programmer friend, said: "Never automate sharp objects". Although, I do not totally agree with my friend, but there is a lot of wisdom buried in this phrase.

The Internet is a sharp tool. The advent of the browser and worldwide web made vast amounts of information within the reach of any literate person who has access to a networked computer. Since then, listening and creating music and video, telephony and videoconferencing, search engines and social networking have made Internet easier and easier to use. We have continuously been sharpening our tool. Browsers and world wide web have become so automated that today’s children at a very young age become adept at handling it. In fact we speak of them as "Internet natives" as opposed to the "Internet migrants" of the previous generation. This automation of the Internet carries the dangers that my friend was referring to.

Recently I have run in China into a phenomenon that I have never observed before. It is called the human flesh search engine.

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Posted by jmgronski at 02:38PM PST

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Slumdog Millionaire & Intelligent Urbanization

Like many Indians, I woke up today with an Oscar fever, watching the live telecast of the Academy awards from Los Angeles!

Most of India is toasting to the success of Slumdog Millionaire at the Oscars today. A staggering eight Oscars, including two for India’s most loved and my favorite music composer - A.R.Rahman. Slum dog’s story is that of a young man’s trials, tribulations and eventual triumph set in the background of Asia’s biggest slum - Dharavi in Mumbai, India. However not all of India is celebrating the success.

A section of India is dismayed that the film has put a spot light on India’s underbelly - slums of urban India. The film captures in gory detail the poor living condition of urban India and many of its dark shades. Pictures that do not reconcile with the "India shining story," pictures which renew the old "western" stereo type of India, pictures that makes you uncomfortable as an Indian.  I too was initially sad when I saw the millions of dollars spent on promoting "Incredible India" by India’s Ministry of Tourism evaporate into the thin air.  However I gave it some more thought and reconciled.

As some one said ‘For everything said about India, the opposite is also true".

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Posted by Harish Krishnan at 08:41AM PST

Turning Universal Service Funds into Agents of Change

While research has shown conclusively that competition among service providers and diversity in technology platforms for connectivity are a major driver for telecom penetration, it would probably take a long time for the market to create enough commercial incentives to bring connectivity to high cost remote regions and low income households.

The stakes are too high and the economic and social opportunity is huge to wait for the market to bring connectivity to all. The Universal Service Funds (USFs) will play a critical role to help governments address this challenge. I want to invite Governments around the world to move with an extreme sense of urgency to turn these "sleepers" into agents of change.

Before the opening of competition the funding and allocation of USF was straightforward. One telecom supplier funded either by cross subsidies between difference services or government funds supported the program to provide fixed telephony service to high cost remote locations and low income households. This model continued to exist for many years with modest results in many markets, as evidenced by the poor growth in fixed line telephony penetration rates.

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Posted by Andres Maz at 06:59AM PST

Data Privacy - A Difficult Balance for Asia?

In many industrialized nations, data privacy is a given. While there are occasional differences in expectations of privacy protection, for instance between the United States and Europe, or between opt-in and opt-out practices, for most, there is general consensus that privacy is an individual right, and that some form of data privacy legislation is necessary.

This, however, is not something to be taken for granted among developing economies. In Asia Pacific, while Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea have data privacy provisions in place for some years, countries such as Philippines and Thailand are only in the drafting stages of their privacy bills. Others such as Singapore and Malaysia still do not have data privacy laws in their statutes even after going through the rigors of considering such legislation over many years. Speaking of which, I recall participating as a government representative at an "Asian Personal Data Privacy Forum" from as early as 2001 where among others, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand each presented the privacy law developments of their countries. Some eight years later, things are still very much on the drawing board.

What makes it so difficult to put data privacy legislation in place?

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Posted by Seow Hiong Goh at 12:01AM PST

US DTV Cutover: re-purposing spectrum is harder than you think

With just 20 days until US analog television broadcasting shuts down, the various parts of the federal government are in a dither over whether to hit the brakes to give themselves four more months to prepare for the dawn of the all-digital TV age.  A bill pending in Congress, crafted in response to a Obama Transition Team request, would change the date from February 17 to June 12, 2009. 

The radio spectrum that the old analog broadcasting service is vacating is going to be made available to new, state-of-the-art commercial broadband services and to public safety for their radio interoperability needs.  Both of these issues were identified as critical priorities back in 2006 when the legislation authorizing the transition was adopted.  So why delay?

The old triple-play of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt seems to be a factor. 

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Posted by Mary Brown at 02:41PM PST

Obama Brings a New Attitude to Broadband

Wandering back to work this morning after a long weekend full of Obama, I stopped to check out the new White House website. With a new Administration comes a new website and it was impressive to see that the Obama Administration had its nicely produced website up and running already. I quickly searched for “broadband” and was not disappointed. The tech-savvy new Administration had this to say:

Deploy a Modern Communications Infrastructure

Deploy Next-Generation Broadband: Work towards true broadband in every community in America through a combination of reform of the Universal Service Fund, better use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, promotion of next-generation facilities, technologies and applications, and new tax and loan incentives. America should lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access.

Now this is change that I can believe in!

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Posted by Jeff Campbell at 01:36PM PST

Will Obama be the only President of the United States in 2009?

There’s no doubting the Obama magnetism.  I’m a Brit living in Brussels but next week, like much of the rest of the world, I will be eagerly watching as Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America.  While the world has been focused on Washington, however, developments at a meeting of the heads of state of the 27 countries of the EU in December may have paved the way for another President of the United States to emerge. 

Back in June, the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty - the EU’s efforts to redefine its remit and structures - by the Irish voters had thrown the EU into a crisis.  However, in the December deal, described by the Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowen as a "major achievement for Ireland", it was agreed the country will vote again before the end of October, paving the way for the Treaty to enter into force before the end of 2009.

Before those who foam at the mouth at the mere mention of the EU get excited about my headline, I hold my hands up to a bit of hyperbole. No direct comparison can be made between the envisaged structure under the Treaty and the federal system in the US.  Countries such as Finland will retain more autonomy than states such as Florida; Austria more than Alaska.  Moreover, it’s no given that the Irish will vote yes, while the Czech Republic, Poland or the UK could all yet throw a spanner in the works.

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Posted by Christopher Gow at 03:39PM PST