High Tech Policy Thoughts and Opinions on Government Affairs

Lisbon “Yes” could help Ireland’s “Smart Economy”

Lisbon “Yes” could help Ireland’s “Smart Economy”: October 3, 2009: Mike Conroy, General Manager, Cisco Galway Development Centre;  Kim Majerus, Managing Director, Cisco Ireland and Monique Meche, Director,  Government Affairs, Ireland

This afternoon,  it became clear that Irish voters have accepted the Lisbon Treaty by a decisive majority and are satisfied that by retaining their EU Commissioner and local control over matters such as taxation,  Ireland is ready to continue as a strong participant in the European Union.

This is great news for the citizens of Ireland and for companies like Cisco.  Ireland has played an important part in the development of some of our most innovative technologies. The future of Cisco’s unified communication portfolio is being researched and developed in Galway. 

Technology will play a central role in Ireland’s stated ambition to become a “Smart Economy”.   Being a strong and participative member at the heart of the European Union, combined with an open business environment for global technology companies, will undoubtedly help Ireland realise this ambition. 

Ireland has always prided itself on being a gateway to Europe for many global technology companies, including Cisco. Today’s result will ensure that important role continues for decades to come.

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Posted by Monique Meche at 05:57AM PST

Cisco Ireland says YES to Lisbon and YES to Europe

29 September 2009, Dublin,  Ireland: Mike Conroy, General Manager, Cisco Development Centre; Kim Majerus, Managing Director, Cisco Ireland and Monique Meche, Director, Government Affairs,  Ireland

This Friday, Irish voters will vote in a referendum to approve or reject the EU Lisbon treaty which would create a permanent EU presidency, more unified EU-wide laws and improve the overall efficiency of the EU’s operations. Ireland must approve the Treaty in order for it to take effect across the 27-EU member bloc. Irish voters rejected the Treaty in a referendum last year after widespread debate and some confusion. After rejection, Ireland received important concessions from Brussels, including the right to retain an Irish EU Commissioner.

Cisco employs approximately 200 people in Ireland across its Dublin and Galway R&D Centre locations…

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Posted by Monique Meche at 10:15AM PST

“Unemployable, f***ing headbangers”

The colourful Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, Ireland and Europe’s largest low-cost air carrier, has a certain way with words which must be a dream for journalists looking for a soundbite on the Irish vote on the Lisbon Treaty.  O’Leary cut out the niceties in using the title quote of this blog to describe the ‘No’ supporters.  Often portrayed as dull and too complex to understand, the Lisbon Treaty has nonetheless created plenty of fireworks between the opposing sides – with each accusing the other of misinformation and dirty tricks.

The Irish referendum this week is seen as the key hurdle to adopting Lisbon, which will reform the current institutional set-up of the EU.  With the likes of Ryanair, Intel and Microsoft lining up behind the ‘Yes’ campaign, the question I’m interested in is why so many in business, and the high tech sector in particular, are supporting the Treaty?

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Posted by Christopher Gow at 01:44AM PST

Smart Grids: Dept of Energy Report & Cisco Thoughts, Part 2

The Dept of Energy last month (July 2009) released its Smart Grid System Report.  In my first posting on this report, I noted which areas were rated as Moderate in penetration or forecasted market trending.  Of note were the key areas of Pricing and Regulatory Process, and why both were only marked as Moderate for future trending, given their core role in paying for utilities’ massive investments in SmartGrid through more modern billing models and tariff policies. 

In Part 2 of this blog series, I’ll focus on a couple of the more IT-related areas of the 20 Smart Grid components noted in this report.  (Caveat: I am from Cisco, and our role in Smart Grids is to leverage our experience in IT and communications to better enable both utilities and energy customers by bringing end-to-end communications + security to Smart Grids)

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Posted by Mark Weiner at 09:29AM PST

The Power of Connectivity

Recently I had the remarkable opportunity to meet President Kikwete of Tanzania and hear his vision for the future of his country.  I was struck by how passionate he was about technology being the key for his developing country to leap-frog into the 21st century.  He spoke with excitement of the promise that the subsea fibre-optic cable SEACOM (now live!) will bring by connecting the people of Tanzania to the rest of the world; and how broadband will help his country overcome an acute shortage of teachers and doctors.

It’s pretty amazing when you think about how far we’ve come in a mere 150 years. 

During the industrial revolution, railroads and steam engines connected farmers and merchants with distant markets. Today, connecting the world involves broadband instead of boats, cable instead of coal, and spectrum instead of steam.
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President Kikwete clearly understands the transformational power of connectivity.  Connectivity is the enabler for the world to grow and help solve each other’s problems. Just like the railroad in the 1800s, the network has transformed how people connect. 

But it has gone even further by transforming how we communicate and collaborate; from both an innovation and sustainability perspective.

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Posted by Kristan Gainey at 09:24AM PST

Smart Grids: Dept of Energy Report & Cisco Thoughts, Part 1

The Dept of Energy has released in July 2009 its Smart Grid System Report.  While many industry observers and experts have provided observations and predictions about Smart Grid adoption, this report offers an excellent 20 point summary of both current penetration of various Smart Grid components and predictions on trending for them looking forward.

In Part 1 of this blog series, I’ll focus on those areas rated Moderate today and/or have a Moderate to High trend rating.  (Note: the 20 Smart Grid components are grouped into categories of Coordination Regimes, Distributed Energy Technologies, and Transmission/Distribution Infrastructure)

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Posted by Mark Weiner at 09:24AM PST

EU and US Rapprochement on Climate Change

I have just returned from Washington D.C., and it is refreshing to see an era of closer cooperation between the U.S. and Europe, not to mention the rest of the world, on climate change. As the U.S. delayed meaningful action on climate change for the past 15 years, the EU has set an ambitious target to reduce member states’ CO2 emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020 – the so-called 20/20/20 initiative. The EU also created the European Trading System (ETS), the world’s first platform for trading of carbon credits.

By placing climate change high on his domestic and foreign policy agendas, President Obama has changed the dynamics of climate discussions with the EU and in global climate negotiations, generally. His administration is fully re-engaged in UN negotiations and, along with Congress, is moving forward with domestic cap-and-trade legislation. Domestic legislation would impose mandatory caps on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and set a target to cut emissions by 17% by 2020 and 83% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. The recent economic stimulus package includes $15bn for alternative energy development, more fuel efficient cars and a “smart grid” to bring them together.

The US and European are taking different approaches to solving global warming. While the Obama Administration presents reducing greenhouse gas emissions in terms of opportunities through the power of technology and the creation of a green economy, the EU is mainly focused on shorter-term opportunities to conserve, reining in electricity consumption and using less fuel by driving less and using more fuel-efficient, smaller cars, etc.

There is, however, a convergence of EU and U.S. long-term goals on climate change, and this is good news.

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Posted by Monique Meche at 08:44AM PST

A 10 percentage-point increase in broadband results in a 1.3 % increase in economic growth

For every 10 percentage-point increase in high speed Internet connections there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percentage points.

This is one of the conclusions from the World Bank report “Information and Communications for Development 2009: Extending Reach and Increasing Impact” just published last week. The report takes an in-depth look at how ICT impacts economic growth in developing countries.

The findings are forceful and I see them as an urgent call for action. The reports also identifies the mobile platform as the single most powerful way to reach and deliver public and private services to hundreds of millions of people in remote and rural areas across the developing world.

Broadband networks and ICT are a critical foundational element for the information economy and countries’ ability to compete. Countries that take wise and forceful steps to create a competitive ICT market will be able to bring the benefits of the information economy to their citizens.

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Posted by Andres Maz at 11:57AM PST

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