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| This Week@Cisco in Government Affairs |
| Cisco's E-Update keeps you up to date on the major policy news of the week. Focusing on broadband, education and e-government areas, but covering high-tech and telecom in general, the E-Update is a great source of information for policymakers. Click EUpdate to become a subscriber. If you have high-tech public policy news or announcements that you think other e-update subscribers would be interested in, please send them to john.earnhardt@cisco.com. There are over 1300 subscribers to Cisco Government Affairs' eUpdate. CISCO GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS WEBSITE - Please visit www.cisco.com/gov to view our worldwide government affairs website. You can reach any member of the team at: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/779/govtaffairs/contact/. Also see Q&A with Laura Ipsen, Vice President of Worldwide Government Affairs, as she reviews the issues that Cisco is focusing on: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/media_info/public_policy_overview.html |
| This Week@WASHINGTON, DC |
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CARRIERS SAY REGULATION WOULD STIFLE VOIP – Regulators should take a hands-off approach to VoIP services, a panel of service providers told state telecom directors last week. FCC ASKS HIGH COURT TO RULE ON BROADBAND – The federal government is challenging an appeals court ruling that, officials fear, would stifle the expansion of cable broadband services by burdening the providers with new regulations. FEDS SET IWN SCHEDULE – Federal officials have outlined the schedule for awarding the ntegrated Wireless Network initiative to provide an interoperable nationwide wireless communications network for federal agents. FIRST RESPONDER NETWORK GROWS QUIETLY – Battelle Memorial Institute today demonstrated its Disaster Management Interoperability Service, a network backbone for connecting first responders that has quietly gained nationwide acceptance over the past year. OMB SETS NEW STANDARDS FOR E-GOVERNMENT GRADES – The Office of Management and Budget handed agency chief information officers more information on what's needed to achieve top grades for managing e-government projects. E-PASSPORTS USING CONTACTLESS CHIPS SHOW SECURITY FLAWS – Contactless e-passport chips show problems, including broadcasting sensitive data to a reader 30 feet away. FEDS CRACK DOWN ON CYBERCRIME – A new aggressive stance against illegal file sharing and spam defines the Justice Department's proactive stance against cybercrime. |
| This Week@EMEA |
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U.K. ENVOY PRAISES E-GOVERNMENT PROGRESS – Whitehall is starting to get the message about using technology to improve delivery of public services, according to the government's outgoing e-envoy. "It was a battle to get government [departments] to look at technology as a way of changing the way they deliver,” said Andrew Pinder. UK COUNCILS ENCOURAGED TO IMPLEMENT CRM – The government's CRM National Programme is firing up its efforts to get all local authorities to implement CRM as a cornerstone of their e-government strategies. SATELLITE TRACKING FOR CRIMINALS IN UK – Prolific offenders and paedophiles are to be monitored by new satellite technology under three pilot schemes. It is the first time a European country has used satellites to monitor the movements of offenders. WELSH PROCUREMENT INITIATIVE PUTS IN STAFF TO DEVELOP E-PROCUREMENT – The Welsh Procurement Initiative (WPI) has appointed Mike Melville as e-Business programme manager where he will be in charge of developing electronic procurement (e-procurement) practices across the Welsh public sector. SCOTLAND BRAVES EFFICIENCY AGENDA –The Scottish Executive has ambitious plans for using e-government to achieve efficiencies. HIGH-SPEED SWEDE EMOTIONS - Swedish broadband users enjoy surfing the Net on a rainy day about as much as reading a book, according to a new survey from TeliaSonera. GERMAN EGOVERNMENT INITIATIVE OFF TO A SLOW START – The EU would like its citizens to use personal computers to do taxes and complete bureacratic formalities. But apart from a successful eGovernment project in Bremen, Germany still lags behind on an EU level. POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SOUTH AFRICA MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, DR IVY MATSEPE-CASABURRI – Announcement of a number of policy decisions designed to further accelerate growth in the communications sector, remove constraints for such growth, reduce the cost of telecommunications and facilitate appropriate interventions in the 2nd economy. |
| This Week@Asia-Pacific/Japan |
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AUS ELECTION SHAKES TECH POLICY – Regardless of which party wins the October 9 poll, federal IT and communications policy is in for a major makeover. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,10621162^15302^^nbv^,00.html AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSES WARMING UP TO VOIP: IDC – Australian organisations are warming up to IP telephony, according to a recent survey conducted by market advisory firm IDC Australia. The survey showed over half of medium to large companies will implement the technology by 2007. OUR BROADBAND TWO YEARS BEHIND – Australia is two years behind comparable developed countries in broadband services despite an accelerated uptake that doubled subscribers in the past year says the annual broadband survey of consulting giant AT Kearney. AUS BROADBAND MAKES THE MILLION – Australian broadband penetration has reached another milestone, with subscriber numbers passing one million for the first time. AUS PRIVACY CONCERN OVER EMAIL LAW – A new federal law could allow authorities easy access to private, stored emails without a warrant, according to civil libertarians. AUSTRALIA, AT YOUR SERVERS – Australia is now the white knight in the worldwide battle against spam. At conferences in China and South Korea, it will try to persuade Asian governments and internet service providers to follow its example. CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUP LASHES E-MAIL, SMS INTERCEPT LAW – Civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) has expressed concern over the erosion of individual privacy if the Telecommunications Interception Legislation Amendment Bill makes it into law. COMMENTARY; ASIAN GOVERNANCE AND THE 'KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY' – A more knowledge-intensive approach to governance will redefine how the public sector relates internally to its own agencies and its own employees. CHINA LEGALIZES ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES TO PROMOTE E-COMMERCE COMMENTARY: CHINA'S POLICY TO PROTECT ITS OWN SOFTWARE REMAINS UNCHANGED – China's policy to protect the China-made software will not change. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200408/27/eng20040827_155037.html CHINA FINDS NEW WAYS TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO THE INTERNET – The phalanx of barriers China uses to block access to dissenting views on the Internet is growing in sophistication and reach, stretching from network nerve centers to home desktop computers. GUANGZHOU TO COMPUTERISE LOCAL GOVT – According to the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs, more than 70 per cent of the city's neigbourhood committees have been equipped with FISCAL PRESSURES FORCE MANILA TO REVIEW OPEN SOURCE E-GOVT – The Philippines' Commission on ICT (CICT) believes that e-government services will help encourage more widespread take-up of internet services in the country. MALAYSIA SEEKS TO BECOME ASIA'S TOP OUTSOURCING CENTRE – Malaysia will seek to lower the cost of business to remain competitive as one of the region's top outsourcing centres and bolster growth in its eight-year-old high-tech zone, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said. LTA GEARS UP FOR MORE E-SERVICES – In the latest sign of Singapore's relentless e-government push, the country's transportation authorities have unveiled a host of new online services for road users and merged previously-disparate motoring information sources into a single Web portal. |
| This Week@Americas International |
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GROWTH OF BROADBAND ACCESS IN CHILE SLOWS – Growth of broadband access in Chile slowed in the second quarter, the local unit of Cisco Systems (CSCO) of the U.S. said. INFOWAY BOSS PAVES WAY FOR NATIONAL E-PATIENT RECORD – Richard Alvarez appointed earlier this year to lead Canada Health Infoway, the federal government corporation, has a goal of accelerating the development of interoperable electronic health information systems. |
| This Week@US States |
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STATE IT EXECS BETTING ON VOIP – In California, there might be a new killer app for voice over Internet protocol (VoIP): balancing the state budget. BATTLE BREWS IN CALIFORNIA – A report recommending that California establish a new technology department could ignite heated debate over who should ultimately approve big-ticket information technology projects. FOLLOWING AN INDUSTRY TREND – Agencies are turning to the private sector to provide human OHIO/TIME WARNER BROADBAND SUIT ADVANCES – A state appeals court has breathed life back into Time Warner's challenge of an Ohio city law requiring new homes and offices to connect to a municipally owned Net infrastructure. THE CITY OF BROTHERLY WIRELESS? – City officials in Philadelphia are weighing a plan that would turn the City Of Brotherly Love into the world's biggest wireless hot spot. BOSTON COUNCILOR ENVISIONS CITYWIDE WIRELESS WEB ACCESS - Councilor John M. Tobin Jr. envisions a Boston Utopia, with greater public spirit and a more robust sense of community. And he says he knows how to achieve it: WiFi. WA STATE FERRIES TO OFFER FREE WI-FI SERVICE – Ferry riders who fret about their long commutes will soon be able to download video games, browse their favorite Web sites or send e-mail from many Seattle-area vessels. PUBLIC SAFETY FOUNDATION AWARDS $2.5 MILLION TO EXPEDITE WIRELESS E9-1-1 EMERGENCY SERVICES – The Public Safety Foundation of America (PFSA) recently announced a series of grants to support and expedite the implementation of wireless enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) throughout the United States. |
| Other Tech News Of The Week |
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VOIP VS. CONVENTIONAL TELEPHONES – Traditional phone systems may be going the way of the Pony Express. Voice-over-Internet Protocol, technology that allows users to make and receive phone calls using the Internet, is giving the old circuit-switched system a run for its money. VOIP HAS THE WHOLE INDUSTRY TALKING – Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is projected to account for over 12% of all telephony revenues by 2009, according to Juniper Research. IPV6: BUILT FOR SPEED – Early testing of IPv6 indicates that the next-generation Internet Protocol can handle the demands of future high-performance computing. But among government agencies, only officials at the Defense Department and research agencies seem to be aware of its advantages. UN BACKS OPEN SOURCE WITH NEW AGENCY – The United Nations is moving to embrace open source with a new agency. It's called the International Open Source Network (IOSN), which is an initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with a primary goal to promote Free and Open Source (FOSS) software usage. STUDY SHOWS GOVERNMENTS' OPEN-SOURCE EMBRACE – Governmental bodies have approved at least 90 initiatives involving open-source software, a Washington think tank has found. CLEAR, OBVIOUS PRIVACY POLICIES BOOST INTERNET SALES – A recent study at the University of California Irvine has found that clear, visible privacy policies related to the collection of customers' personal information boost trust and therefore significantly improve online sales. http://lists.internetworld.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/ehLd0Hv25z0GuZ0BK1u0Al INSTANT MESSAGING IS GROWING UP, GOING TO WORK - IM DNWFM, WFU? – Instant messaging, or IM, is catching on with adults in a big way as it moves rapidly into the workplace, according to recent surveys. In fact, analysts predict IM soon will overtake e-mail as the No. 1 form of electronic communication. COMMENTARY: DON'T REGULATE RFID – YET – The technophobe mentality just won't quit. Now a clutch of privacy fundamentalists is calling for new laws to target radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. |
| E-Update Archive |
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| Positions in articles and papers from outside sources are in no way endorsed by Cisco Systems' Office of Worldwide 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. – http://www.cisco.com/gov |
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