Cisco Government Affairs E-Update

Volume 1, Issue 5
16 March 2001
Brought to you by Cisco Government Affairs Online: www.cisco.com/gov

This Week@Cisco in Government Affairs

CISCO@INTERNATIONAL

· Last week, Cisco hosted Erkki Likkanen, European Commissioner for Information Society And Enterprise. Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Dan Scheinman talked to Commissioner Likkanen about broadband, education, e-government and more during our web “Policy Talk.” Watch the webcast here.

· Director of Government Affairs Laura Ipsen this week met with representatives of Germany’s Max Plank Institutes (MPI). The MPIs are the government’s research and development arm, primarily focusing on the sciences.

“Whole Lotta Love”

· Swedes Love the Internet

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010314/wr/sweden_dc_1.html

· Koreans Love the Internet

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010313/wr/asia_surfers_dc_1.html

· Latin America Loves the Internet

Latin online: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010312/wr/latin_users_dc_2.html

· Europeans Love the Internet

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010313/wr/eu_internet_dc_1.html

· One Man's Fight to Wire Africa

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,41407,00.html

· B2B Loves the Internet

Gartner Inc. forecasts that the worldwide business-to-business (B2B) internet commerce market should total $919 billion in 2001, $1.9 trillion in 2002 and $8.5 trillion in 2005. Gartner reports that in 2000, the value of global B2B sales transactions was over $433 billion, a 189% increase over 1999 figures.

· Progressive Policy Institute issues report on worldwide e-commerce

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=107&subsecid=126&contentid=3156

· Borderless Net Hits Real Borders

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/15/technology/15BORD.html

(free registration required)

CISCO@WASHINGTON, DC

· Cisco President and CEO John Chambers joined 17 other CEOs of ITI (Information Technology Industry Council) in sending a letter to President Bush and to the 4 leaders of Congress urging education reform. Read the letter on Cisco Government Affairs’ Education page.

· Cisco Systems filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission on the 3G Spectrum Allocation proposed rulemaking Cisco urged the Commission to promote broadband access for all Americans by 2010 by protecting current fixed wireless deployments in the MMDS/ITFS bands and quickly finding alternative new spectrum for other Internet applications such as 3G. Cisco's filing is available at http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/ecfs/retrieve.cgi?native_or_pdf=pdf&id_document=6512561724. (Adobe Acrobat Required)

· The Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday, April 4, 2001, at 10:00 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will be entitled: "Migration to 3G: A Progress Report on U.S. Spectrum Policy."

· Demand for 3G Spectrum Pits Education and Military Against Each Other

http://www.latimes.com/business/20010315/t000022549.html

· GAO issued a report on the use of information technology by regulatory agencies in regulatory management, including rulemaking, compliance assistance, information collection and dissemination, and regulatory enforcement. The report concluded that "innovative IT-based approaches to regulatory management have the potential to increase the amount and quality of public participation in rulemaking, increase regulatory transparency, reduce burden on regulated entities and help them understand their responsibilities, save regulatory agencies money, and improve the quality of agencies regulatory programs." (Adobe Acrobat Required)

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?rptno=gao-01-232

· The U.S. Federal web site “Firstgov.gov” is likely to go interactive.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0312/web-portal-03-15-01.asp

· Senator Lieberman (D-CT) calls for emphasis in digital trade. http://www.senate.gov/~lieberman/press/01/03/2001312917.html

· House Education Reform Subcommittee Learns About Ways to Improve Accountability

http://edworkforce.house.gov/press/press107/edreform3801.htm

· R&D tax credit applauded: http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/163048.html

· This week the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on S 487, the Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act. The bill would amend §§ 110(2) and 112 of the Copyright Act to extend the distance learning exemptions enacted in 1976 to digital delivery media. The TEACH Act incorporates many of the recommendations made by the U.S. Copyright Office in 1999 in a study mandated by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Under current law, there are exemptions for "face-to-face" and "transmission" teaching activities; but Internet based education is not referenced.

· The Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, April 4, 2001, at 10:00 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will be entitled: "Migration to 3G: A Progress Report on U.S. Spectrum Policy." Witnesses will be by invitation only.

· Wrong Time for U.S. Net Tax?

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42442,00.html

· Read Cisco’s Internet Tax thoughts here.

CISCO@US STATES

· This week a delegation from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania visited Cisco for a day-long session on government use of technology. Secretary Samuel A. McCullough, of the Community and Economic Development Department, and others from his team discussed Pennsylvania's "Net Readiness" and learned more about emerging technologies in use by governments and businesses worldwide.

· President Bush To Nominate Pennsylvania’s Gene Hickok As Under Secretary Of Education http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010315-3.html

· Digital Divide Appears to be Narrowing in US

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2695900,00.html

· Texas City Names E-Commerce Czar

http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/plano/307477_ecommerce_10pl.html

· Governing Magazine is now accepting nominations for Public Officials of the Year. Top-level elected, appointed and career officials from any branch of state or local government are eligible for this prestigious award. Nominate your favorite official today. Deadline is June 15. http://governing.com/poy/poy.htm

· Tax Time!!! Visit our U.S.States (http://www.cisco.com/gov/us_states/index.html) page to find your state and federal income tax forms. Download the forms or file electronically. eGovernment (http://www.cisco.com/gov/people/e_government.html) in action!

CISCO@MULTIMEDIA – NEW “Policy Talk” VIDEO!!!

· Watch Cisco Senior Vice President for Corporate Affairs Dan Scheinman talk to European Commissioner Likkanen about broadband, education, e-government and more during our “Cisco Policy Talk.”

SITE OF THE WEEK – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

OECD’s site is a wealth of information about the Internet and the new economy.

www.oecd.org

Top story is on EU e-government and the Information Society.

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS LAUNCHES “VIRTUAL THINK TANK”

· To read about the newest Cisco Government Affairs web supported public policy initiative please visit News@Cisco.

FACTS AND STATS OF THE WEEK: “eLabor, eCommerce and eFiling.”

· CRASHING THE LABOR PARTY

After reading all the layoff news, it's hard to imagine there's a labor shortage in Europe's information technology (IT) industry. According to a Silicon.com survey of 3,000 IT professionals in the UK and Germany, 44% of companies cannot fill positions due to a skills shortage. The shortage dropped over the past year in the UK from 47% to 39%, but more than one-half of German companies still have trouble filling positions. Only 4% of Germany's IT workers are contractors, compared to 15% of IT workers in the UK.

· eCOMMERCE IN MEXICO

IDC reports that 60% of e-commerce companies in Mexico are business-to-consumer (B2C) ventures, 20% combine B2C and business-to-business (B2B) ventures and 5% are strictly B2B. IDC says that 25% of the Mexican companies it surveyed had more than 251 employees. Additionally, 56% of the companies are traditional businesses and 44% are dot-coms (50% of which expect to be profitable in 2001).

· INTO THE eFILING CABINET

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reports that through 2 March 2001, 3.4 million taxpayers filled out and filed their own returns electronically, a 35.2% increase from 2.5 million in the year-ago period. Paid professionals e-filed 18.8 million returns this year, up 10.1% from last year's 7.1 million. Overall, e-filing increased by 8.8% from a year ago.

· For more Facts and Stats on the New Economy, visit our Facts and Stats page. Also, see our special State of the Internet report on this page.

· For daily, topical Facts and Stats visit our Hot In Tech page.

TECH NEWS STORIES OF THE WEEK

· PriceWaterhouseCoopers reports that the Internet dramatically adds to worker productivity. They report reported that a 4.9 percent rise in productivity among companies that stayed offline in 2000. In comparison, technology firms that used the Internet for activities such as selling, buying, advertising, and recruiting increased productivity by 13.4 percent. Read the report. http://www.PricewaterhouseCoopers.com/Extweb/pwcpublications.nsf/docid/4F47F4C8F670A67F852569FF00595B2C

· The companies building Europe's wireless Internet say that accessing data will take longer than originally promised, but consumers nonetheless will adopt the new technology faster than predicted. That optimistic assessment is a key finding of a Wall Street Journal Europe survey of wireless operators, network-equipment and handset makers. (Paid registration required)

http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB984511585707980579.htm

· Survey of European Wireless Internet Expectations

http://interactive.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Timing-2001-03-14.htm (Paid registration required)

CISCO GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS@2001

Cisco’s top policy focuses for 2001 are the areas of Education, Broadband Deployment and eGovernment. To read or listen to our thoughts on these issues, please visit our Government Affairs home page or our visit our multimedia section.

E-UPDATE ARCHIVE

To view past issues of Cisco’s Government Affairs E-Update, visit our E-Update Archive page.

CISCO.COM/GOV AND E-UPDATE FEEDBACK

As we continue to build out Cisco’s Government Affairs web site, as well as our new service, this E-Update, we welcome comments, criticisms, praise and suggestions. Please send any feedback to John Earnhardt at jearnhar@cisco.com.

To contact any member of the Government Affairs team, please visit our “Contact Us” page.

DISCLAIMER

Positions in articles and papers from outside sources are in no way endorsed by Cisco Systems' Office of Government Affairs. We offer articles on topics of interest to our audience to further the debate on the issues that are important to high-tech. To view our positions on the policy matters that we care about, please visit our Government Affairs homepage.

SUBSCRIBING/UNSUBSCRIBING:

You are receiving this update because you requested it. If you no longer wish to receive this update, send a message with “unsubscribe” in the subject line to gov-update@cisco.com.

If you received this message because it was forwarded to you and you wish to subscribe to this weekly E-Update, please send a message to gov-update@cisco.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line. Or, visit our Government Affairs homepage (www.cisco.com/gov) and click on the “Subscribe” button in the lower left-hand corner.