Photoblog of Bahrain

These are views from the hotel in the Seef area, a fast rising area of offices and malls.

I had an informal dinner with some members of the board of the Bahrain Internet Society. They in cooperation with the Women's rights association had just received a grant from the government to set up an ICT/Internet training course for women

The night of the dinner at the Raddison Diplomat. All jurors received a gift and a certificate.

BPN 1348 The scope of eGovernment

I am back from Bahrain. It was not because of the sand storm on Thursday, but the assignment to chair the 2009 eGovernment Excellence Award jury was completed. The jury reached a final winners list on Wednesday evening.

The jury deliberations were over, but the Bahraini have a nice tradition of thanking the jury members. An official dinner was arranged on Thursday evening. All the jury members, the staff and the officials of the eGovernment Agency were present. The dinner was presided over by sheik Ahmed Bin Ateyat Allah Al Khalifa, the minister of Cabinet Affairs. Once the sheik had arrived, a few speeches were made. I was asked by the eGovernment Agency to say some words (see photograph). Of course, thanks were in order for organising the jury event as part of the eGovernment Contest. After that a ceremony, which looked like graduation day, was started up. Everyone was called up to come forward and receive a certificate and a gift in red velvet (red and white are the colours of the flag of the Kingdom of Bahrain).

Looking back at the second edition, it certainly was different from last year. The electronic jury system was different and the jury members worked remotely. So contrary to last year I did not see the jurors often. In fact I saw them at the opening session and on decision day. I received telephone calls and messages with questions at the office of the eGovernment Agency or at the hotel. It led to a morning message and a daily wrap up message.

There was some joking about my presence in Bahrain. Last year I stayed here three weeks. This year I have stayed there two weeks. So a prediction was made jokingly saying that next year it would be just one week or worse Skype.

It was also interesting to have an Omani lady and two Saudi officials in the jury. As they are preparing eGovernment contest in their respective countries, they got an experience through participation in the jury from the inside out. The Saudi plan to have a national contest in November, while the Omani lady has been charged with the organisation of a national contest as well as a GCC (consortium of Gulf countries) contest. Both have asked to assist them in starting up the contest. Besides at the end of the dinner, Bahraini officials asked whether I was available for the third issue, which solicited the remark, that I only need an apartment in Bahrain and a jallabah.

During the dinner we got into a discussion about the scope of eGovernment. Was it just a cost reduction exercise using the citizen as a data typist or was it to make government more accountable and transparent? Of course all elements are involved. And it is not only the scope but also the state of art of eGovernment. Governments which have just adapted eGovernment are less mature than the governments using a portal with a lot of information and eServices, thus letting citizens browse for information and have him/her do payments online from their home at their own convenience. Of course, it also saves on people handling manual transactions. Transparency of course comes when one can check public spending as well as the voting behaviour in connection with payments. Of course the US and many EU countries have a certain degree of transparency. One of the beautiful examples of creating transparency is the US site Money and Politics by Maplight, which was a winner in the 2007 World Summit Award edition.

Blogp Posting Number: 1348

Tags: eGovernment

BPN 1347 World Summit Award Gala RESCHEDULED

The World Summit Award Gala has been rescheduled to September 4th 2009. The venue will be in Monterrey, Mexico. The Gala was scheduled for June 12th in Monterrey, Mexico, but was rescheduled due to the Mexican flu.

Thanks to the generous invitation of the WSA Mexican partner under the leadership of Mr. Ramon Alberto Garza of Indigomedia, WSA will hold its Gala events to promote the world's best e-Content in the City of Monterrey.

This will be the forth time that WSA will select, showcase and celebrate the most outstanding local e-Content and innovative internet applications.

The four day celebrations in Mexico will provide a unique opportunity to meet and connect with WSA winners, ICT experts, business leaders, multimedia producers and creatives as well as government and business leaders who will be giving their recognition to the showcased best practice examples. In addition, the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) will focus on the use of the Internet and mobile applications to put the UN’s Millennium Development Goals into Action.

Blog Posting Number: 1347

Tags: econtent, multimedia contest

BPN 1346 Bahrain eGov Jury half way

It is weekend in Bahrain. Today is the second day of the weekend and it is very quiet on the roads, as far as I can see from my hotel room. After breakfast I took some pictures from the 10th floor, where the swimming pool is. Yesterday I took a dip and stayed on the sun deck and I might do so again after the lunch outside the hotel with a friend.

We are now half way with the jury deliberations. The jury members are busy evaluating all the entries. In the past week, I have gone through all the entries and made sure that they qualify for the contest. The rules have been tightened since last year. This has been done to avoid winners of last year in the same category, as the contest is more a demonstration of applications than a competitive contest. In total 100 entries have been registered, but after cleaning up the list of entries there were 63 entries left. However evaluating all these 63 entries is no small task.

The jury will decide on the list of winners by May 13, with an option to continue on May 14. Winners of the current edition of the awards will be announced at the Award ceremony at the eve of the start of the eGov Forum in Manama on 25.05.2009. This year there will also be a catalogue of the winners with a summary of the entry and the jury judgment.

Blog Posting Number: 1346

Tags: e-Government

BPN 1345 eGovernment contests in the Gulf

I am in Bahrain since late Sunday evening after a KLM flight from Amsterdam. The route has been changed from Amsterdam to Kuwait via Bahrain; the route used to go to Bahrain to Abu Dabi or Dubai. At the airport there was a welcome committee. Later I was told that at the airport heat sensors have been installed to detect heat, i.c. body temperature, in case of Mexican flu. All I saw was an official with plastic gloves behind the customs picking out people from the crowd.

I have been invited by the e-Government Agency to chair the jury for the second edition of the e-Gov Excellence Award contest. So far I have been talking to the people involved, reading the documents and going into the entries.

Last year the agency started the contest and everything had to be done from scratch. Yet on the evening before the opening of international e-Gov Forum, the awards were presented and everyone was happy: the agency that it was all over and the jury that they had finished in time. It was decided straight away that there would be a second edition of the e-Gov Excellence Award contest and the international e-Gov Forum and the agency has not wasted the time for preparing the second round. Many things have changed such as contest rules, but also the composition of the jury; besides a very interesting category was added and a jury system developed.

The rules for the contest have happily been refined. If the same rules of last year had been applied there was the risk that the same winners would snatch away the awards. By changing the rules, entrants are limited in their participation and receiving awards; on the other hand there will be more competition and a broader distribution of awards.

The composition of the jury was surprising. Last year the jury was composed of Bahraini and people from India, working in Bahrain, This year there are Bahraini, two Saudi, an Omani lady and two people from India, working in Bahrain. I love this open attitude. The Saudi and the Oman lady have been invited as they are also planning an e-Gov contest in their respective countries; besides Oman has offered to organise the e-Gov contest for the Gulf States by December. I met the Omani lady, Fatma, last year in Muscat, when I presented a two-day workshop there.

Interesting is also the addition of a new category, not for the ministries or governmental agencies, but for the citizens. They can deliver an eConcept for the government and the winner in this category might see his idea realised; a budget has been set aside for this purpose. I was happy to see that the category had receive a good number of entries. I still have to go through them to see how inspiring they are.

Last year the jury requested to evaluate the submissions remotely, either from their working place or from home. This year the eGoverment Agency has developed a full grown system, taking in the submissions electronically, allowing jurors to access the sites, reading the submitted material and supporting documents and recording the scoring. It looks an interesting system, which aroused already interest with the jurors, despite some teething problems. Also the remote judging will have to be proven. I will be on duty to answer questions.

The second edition of the e-Gov Excellence Award has taken a step forward in the Gulf region and in using technology for judging.

Blog Posting Number:1345

Tags: eGovernment

Buziaulane 4 years online

The blog Buziaulane was started on May 1st, 2005. In these 4 years it has published 1344 postings or 336 postings a year.

BPN 1344 FTMH - Finland’s national fiber strategy

To address Finland’s broadband needs, the Ministry of Transport and Communications as early as 2004 set up a national broadband strategy (NBS) which focused on rolling out broadband while promoting competition between networks. In February 2005 - with regional availability of broadband at about 96% (largely due to efforts by municipalities and regional councils) - the government revised the NBS objectives to focus on the type of connection, the creation of content, and the development of wireless connections. The NBS envisaged that all subscribers would be able to access at least 1Mb/s by the end of 2009, with the most common service offering being at least 8Mb/s.

This has proved under-ambitious, since much of Finland is now blessed with some of the fastest broadband in Europe. DSL is commonly available at up to 20Mb/s, while the major cablecos have significantly upgraded their networks using DOSCIS 3.0 technology to provide services at up to 100Mb/s: during 2008 TeliaSonera upgraded its entire bidirectional cable network, Elisa’s network provides 100Mb/s to some 250,000 households, while Welho provides a similar service across Greater Helsinki, and plans to increase data rates to 200Mb/s in coming years.

As developments have moved on so quickly, a further revision of the NBS was adopted in December 2008. The new national Broadband Action Plan has concentrated on funding broadband networks in remote areas, acknowledging that the State had thus far made little significant investment in public telecom infrastructure. The plan was also a response to the announcements by several telcos that they intended to cut back services in their fixed telecom network across wide areas of the country to concentrate on the more profitable urban zones. Technically, gaps in the national network have been filled by Digita’s @450 network, which makes use of the frequency band released by the discontinued NMT 450 services. Nevertheless, although customers can have wireless connections in lieu of fixed-line services, which can meet current basic communication needs, these are inadequate in the medium to long term.

The Broadband Action Plan is truly ambitious, even within Europe where there is a growing consensus among governments and regulators that with FttH as the accepted end-game for national broadband networks it is better for policy makers to flow with the stream rather than be borne down by it, as disadvantaged late-comers. Finland aims to deliver 100Mb/s fiber-based broadband for all citizens by 2015, a significant improvement on the minimum 1Mb/s envisaged in 2004. The government has committed itself to fund up to a third of the investment needed where areas where there is little commercial incentive. It is estimated that the cost to provision these areas would reach some 200 million Euro, of which the government could pay a maximum of 67 million Euro with the remainder to come from operators, municipalities and financial support from the EU.

The government has adopted a pragmatic approach to finance its share of the burden. The State’s contribution would come from auctioning frequencies in the 2.5 - 2.69 GHz band (scheduled for November 2009), with any shortfall (i.e. if the auction revenue fell below an estimated 73.6 million Euro) being met by compensatory payments collected from telcos based on the number of their broadband subscriptions. The regulator estimated that telcos would contribute 0.2% of net sales based on total combined net revenue of 4.475 billion Euro in 2007, and 0.1% of net sales based on estimated revenue for 2010. Given that revenues collected as compensatory payment would be used to upgrade the telecoms networks, these would in turn flow back to telcos which had upgraded their networks.

An important consideration for the fiber network is that at least 99% of residences and businesses will be within two kilometers of the network. This can be either the fixed-line fiber network, or one based on LTE (a note on LTE in Finland: the country is one of Europe’s leaders in this sector as well. In April 2009 the regulator allocated additional frequencies in the 1.8GHz band to TeliaSonera, Elisa and DNA to enable them to build mobile networks based on LTE, the first country in Europe to allow the use of such low frequencies for this technology). In other words, Finland is provisioning most urban areas with FttH while guaranteeing fiber in the ‘middle mile’, from the backbone network to within a reasonable distance of most rural households. It is then up to householders to pay for the last mile connection. To ease this cost burden, the government has proposed amending the Income Tax Act so that the domestic help credit in the 2009 budget is extended to cover the installation and maintenance of telecoms services and equipment.

As for costing fiber, the regulator estimated that most homes even in non-built up could be served for between 2,000 Euro and 3,000 Euro each, with some of the more remote areas costing upwards of 10,000 Euro each. These are roughly the same costs to provision houses with electricity.

The government’s vision for its citizens is as equally pragmatic and forward-thinking as its approach to delivering these services. It does not dwell on whether the average household now needs 100Mb/s connections, but rather looks forward to the economic stimulus provided by numerous entrepreneurs who will be able to develop and provide new services on a network able to handle them. The existence of these services will in turn stimulate further demand for high-speed connections.

For more information, see separate reports by Budde.com.

Tags: FttH, Fiber to the Farm, FttF

BPN 1343 FTMH - Europe’s fiber users doing it for themselves

Markets which currently enjoy the highest fiber deployment in Europe are characterised by a wide range of non-telco activity, including the direct involvement of construction companies, utilities, municipal governments and real estate investors. In many respects these efforts and initiatives have shown the rest of Europe than FttH can be developed without direct State involvement, and indeed without the involvement of incumbent telcos.

The range of initiatives is an important signal to the industry that the high cost of FttH deployment (which is nevertheless being brought down year by year through technological innovation) is no barrier to network construction.

If the mantra ‘give the customer what he wants’ is sound business practice, then the leading fiber nations have also shown that customers are willing to undertake much of the mechanical (engineering) effort themselves, rather than wait for years for their local provider to undertake the work. This truly demonstrates that fiber networks can be built inexpensively from the ground up. For operators, the involvement of customers digging their own trenches to their homes is obvious – without undertaking these costs themselves they nevertheless can take advantage of being the ‘first in’ provider.

In Sweden, The Netherlands and Norway it has become normal practice for customers in rural areas to dig their own trenches. In Norway’s Stavanger muni-fiber project up to 80% of residents have dug their own trenches to fast-track the local private energy company and telecom provider Lyse Tele to lay out fiber. The company now serves more than 130,000 customers in 280 communities, and claims a take-up rate of more than 60%.

Nor are trenches hundreds of yards long, requiring the homeowner to rent digging machinery for the weekend: Lyse Tele installs fiber directly to a customer’s front yard and provides guidance (the required depth, insulation etc) on how to extend the cable to the house. Lyse Tele also benefits the customer by providing a discount on the service installation. By these pragmatic means, about 80% of customers choose to dig their own trenches. The company has also found that customers who have become involved in their own installation (thus adopting some of its value personally) stick with Lyse Telecom thereafter: customer churn is a remarkably low 0.2%. Lyse Tele has by these means grown from being a local energy provider to a true pan-Nordic operator, as well as a beacon to others in how fibre networks can be cost-effectively delivered to customers.

(A self-help project called Fiber to the Farm is operational now in the East of the Netherlands JB)

This sumnmary is an overview of separate country reports by Paul Budde Communications Pty

Blog Posting Number 1343

Tags: FttH, Fiber to the Farm, FttF

Non-commercial announcement Heidelberg Innovation Forum

This is an invitation to the eighth Heidelberg Innovation Forum - Europe's innovative convention for the commercialisation and financing of IT research projects. Since 2005 transfer business has been successfully realised in spin-offs, licensing business and public-private R&D-partnerships. Apply now and find business partners at the Heidelberg Innovation Forum for
-Start-up financing
-R&D collaboration
-Licensing

Until 1 June 2009, R&D results close to market and business ideas focussing on Visual Computing, Simulation & Digital Media can be submitted. Examples for fields of research and application:
-Computergraphics
-Computer Vision
-Pattern Recognition/Visual Learning
-Visual Sensor Technology
-Modelling & Computational Geometry
-Simulation
-Rendering
-Virtual/Augmented Reality
-Visualization/Interactive Visual Analysis
-Human-Computer-Interaction
-Digital Media
-Games, Animation, 3D
-Applications for eHealth & Life Sciences

You can find more information on the event at http://heidelberg-innovationforum.com. You can submit proposals until 1 June 2009. The reply form is available at http://tinyurl.com/hdi-replyform

The Heidelberg Innovation Forum, taking place on 20 October 2009, is organised by MFG Baden-Württemberg mbH in collaboration with the European Media Laboratory, established by SAP co-founder Dr h c Klaus Tschira.

Each proposal selected will receive 10 minutes to present the idea in front of investors and decision makers. During the breaks after each panel there will be the opportunity to "Meet the Panellists" and engage in transfer business.

Top industry representatives and researchers are expected to attend. The venues will be the tradition-steeped Studio at Villa Bosch close to Heidelberg Castle and Palais Prinz Carl in Heidelberg's old town.

Contact: i.A. Christof Lechner, Project Manager Innovation Competence
MFG Baden-Württemberg mbH
Innovationsagentur des Landes für Informationstechnologie und Medien /
Public Innovation Agency for Information Technology and Media

Breitscheidstrasse 4, D-70174 Stuttgart
Tel. / Phone +49(0)711-90715-352, Fax +49(0)711-90715-350
mailto:lechner@mfg.de
www.mfg-innovation.de; www.mfg-innovation.com; www.doit-online.de

BPN 1342 WSYA winners' list

Young People act on United Nations Millennium Goals using Internet Contents
From online music and TV communities to interactive gaming platforms to e-learning applications and HIV/AIDS resources, the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) presents young people who use Internet and Mobiles to get Action on United Nations Millennium Development goals.

Over 600 projects were evaluated in a three-round judging process by an international jury of 20 experts in the fields of youth engagement, new media and social entrepreneurship.

The Winners are:

Category 1: FIGHT HUNGER, POVERTY & DISEASE!
- "Lil' MDGs: Kids making Changes" by Dylan Mahalingam (USA)
- "Remote Patient Monitoring System" by Tanwani Ajay Kumar (Pakistan)
- "Mobile Doctor" by Andreas Jakl (Austria)

Category 2: EDUCATION FOR ALL!
- "Everything on HIV and AIDS in Iran" by Morteza Moshir Sinaei (Iran)
- "Alternatives: Findin New Possibilities for Youth" by Sanjeev Raj Neupane (Nepal)
- "Voices of Africa for Sustainable Development" by Crystal Kigoni (Kenya)

Category 3: POWER 2 WOMEN!
- "Dokhtiran: e-Magazine on Women's Rights" by Gholamzadeh Hamid Reza (Iran)
- "The Sisters 4 Peace Network" by Sejal Hathi (USA)
- "Empower Women and Meet Millennium Challenges" by George Onyango (Kenya)

Category 4: CREATE YOUR CULTURE!
- "Roots & Routes TV" by Aileen Wessely (Germany)
- "Savvy Chavvy" by Christy McAleese (Great Britain)
- "The Extraordinaries" by Jacob Colker (USA)

Category 5: GO GREEN!
- "Sewer Tourism" by Andrew Mutua (Kenya)
- "Greenlighted" by Vladimir Dubovskiy (USA)
- "Guardian of Eden" by Ricardo Quirante Martinez (Netherlands)

Blog Postingh Number: 1342

Tags: multimedia competition

BPN 1341 2009 WSA Gala – Travel Advisory to June Monterrey Events

After the excitement of the 2009 Grand Jury in India, serious clouds are showing up on the Monterrey, Mexico, horizon, the venue of the 2009 WSA Gala. The Swinbe Flu is spreading from Mexico. The WSA HQ has published an advisory and says: events will go ahead as planned

Swine Flu occurrence
As of April 25, the Swine Flu is not a pandemic, but has occurred in seven areas in Mexico and US (incl. New York). There is a risk that the influenza might spread due to a novel genetic combination which makes the virus transferable from human to humans.

No Swine Flu occurrence in Monterrey and region: The State of Noevo Leon and the City of Monterrey are not among the places where the swine flu virus has occurred.

Caution
All WSA events participants are advised to get a normal innoculation for Influenza and the AH1N1 virus. The standard vaccine against influenza of the above mentioned strain is: Agrippal from Novartis

See among others:
http://emc.medicines.org.uk/medicine/9506/PIL/Agrippal
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100004813.html

In case of Illness
Doctors and health authorities state that the virus responds well to the Neuraminidase-Blocker which is commercially available from ROCHE under the brand name Tamiflu/Oseltamivir.

See among others:
http://www.tamiflu.com
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/medicines/100004852.html

Further information
The World Summit Award Office closely monitors the situation and directs participants for any further inquiries re: swine flu outbreak to:
1. WHO information can be found at:
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2009_04_24/en/index.html
2. European Center for disease Control:
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/files/pdf/Health_topics/TA_Swine_influenza_US-090424_1900hrs.pdf
3. The WSA events will go ahead as planned and carefully so.

Blog Posting Number: 1341

Tags: contest, multimedia competition

BPN 1340 - 2009 WSA Grand Jury - Winners' list

Today the Board of Directors of the World Summit Award and the convenors of the World Summit Award, among which the Austrian government have confirmed the winners and have offcially announced them.

e-Business & Commerce

Title: AvaGuide
Affiliation: InteliWISE S.A.
Country: PoCountry
URL: www.inteliwise.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: ngpay
Affiliation: JiGrahak Mobility Solutions Pvt. Ltd
Country: India
URL: http://www.ngpay.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Remediation Check
Affiliation: sicht-bar
Country: Austria
URL: http://www.sicht-bar.at
Platform: broadband/online

Title: AWEB China http://www.aweb.com.cn/ broadband/online
Affiliation: Beijing aweb Digital Science & Technology Co., Ltd.
Country: China
URL: awebinfo@126.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Karma currency
Affiliation: Spin Communications
Country: Australia
URL: www.karmacurrency.com.au
Platform: broadband/online

e-Learning & Education

Title: CELL - Centre for ExperientiaL Learning
Affiliation: QBGROUP spa
Country: Italy
URL: http://www.qbgroup.it
Platform: kiosk/installation

Title: Human and Nature. ICT-based integrated course of natural sciences for classes 5, 6
Affiliation: SPC, UAB
Country: Lithuania
URL: http://www.sviesa.lt
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Our Space
Affiliation: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Country: New Zealand
URL: http://ourspace.tepapa.com
Platform: cross media

Title: E-DysGate
Affiliation: E-Learning concepts Rietsch KEG
Country: Austria
URL: http://www.elearningconcepts.at
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Lingorilla
Affiliation: Lingua-TV GmbH
Country: Germany
URL: http://www.lingorilla.com
Platform: broadband/online

e-Inclusion and Participation

Title: ICT for Illiteracy Eradication (ICT for IE)
Affiliation: Egypt ICT Trust Fund
Country: Egypt
URL: http://www.ictfund.org.eg
Platform: CD-ROM

Title: TradeNet (Esoko)
Affiliation: BusyLab
Country: Ghana
URL: http://www.michaelocansey.com
Platform: cross media

Title: Voices of Africa
Affiliation: Voices of Africa Media Foundation
Country: Netherlands
URL: http://www.voicesofafrica.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Homeless Nation
Affiliation: Homeless Street Archive
Country: Canada
URL: http://www.eyesteelfilm.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Impaired Aid
Affiliation: Jinasena Properties Limited
Country: Sri Lanka
URL: -
Platform: DVD, CDROM

e-Government & Institutions

Title: E.V.A. - Enhanced Vehicle Automation
Affiliation: Arma dei Carabinieri
Country: Italy
URL: http://www.carabinieri.it
Platform: mobile contents

Title: National Broadband Map
Affiliation: State Services Commission
Country: New Zealand
URL: http://www.ssc.govt.nz
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Royal Court Affairs - Mobile Recruitment
Affiliation: Royal Court Affairs (RCA)
Country: Oman
URL: http://www.rca.gov.om
Platform: mobile contents

Title: Government Information Center(GIC)
Affiliation: ICT Agency of Sri Lanka(ICTA)
Country: Sri Lanka
URL: http://www.icta.lk
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Integrated Court System (ICS)
Affiliation: Sarawak Information Systems Sdn. Bhd.
Country: Malaysia
URL: http://www.sains.com.my
Platform: broadband/online

e-Culture & Heritage

Title: Twelve Canoes
Affiliation: Wanted Digital
Country: Australia
URL: http://cora.spear@wanteddigital.com.au
Platform: broadband/online

Title: iPod Tours
Affiliation: iPod Tours
Country: Mexico
URL: http://www.ipodtours.com.mx
Platform: mobile contents

Title: Congoblog
Affiliation: Congo Blog
Country: Republic of the Congo
URL: http://www.congoblog.net
Platform: broadband/online

Title: A Journey into Time Immemorial
Affiliation: Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Country: Canada
URL: http://www.sfu.museum
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Mark of 'Uru'
Affiliation: Mayhem Productions
Country: Nigeria
URL: http://www.mayhemproductions.org
Platform: broadband/online

e-Health & Environment

Title: The BioMAP project (Monitoring and Assessing of Biodiversity of Egypt)
Affiliation: Nature Conservation Sector - EEAA
Country: Egypt
URL: http://www.zone.biomapegypt.org/hiaa
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Mamaherb
Affiliation: Mamaherb.com
Country: Israel
URL: http://www.mamaherb.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: MPedigree
Affiliation: mPedigree
Country: Ghana
URL: http://mpedigree.org
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Catalonia Shared Medical Record
Affiliation: Department of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia
Country: Spain
URL: http://www.gencat.cat
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Tree People
Affiliation: Lowe Sydney
Country: Australia
URL: http://www.lowesydney.com
Platform: broadband/online

e-Entertainment & Games

Title: Casebook
Affiliation: Areograph Limited
Country: New Zealand
URL: http://areograph.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: IQ Training & Testing
Affiliation: Dominativ
Country: Croatia
URL: http://www.dominativ.hr
Platform: offline/DVD, CDROM or video materials

Title: Street Dance School - the Center
Affiliation: Future Media Ltd.
Country: Bulgaria
URL: http://www.fmediastudio.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: My Machine
Affiliation: Intercommunale Leiedal (Intermunicipal Body)
Country: Belgium
URL: http://www.leiedal.be
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Wreck a Movie
Affiliation: Star Wreck Studios Ltd
Country: Finland
URL: http://www.wreckamovie.com
Platform: broadband/online

e-Science & Technology

Title: Videolectures.Net
Affiliation: Jozef Stefan Institute
Country: Slovenia
URL: http://ct3.ijs.si
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Water World
Affiliation: vogel audiovision
Country: Austria
URL: http://www.vogel-av.at
Platform: cross media

Title: Genomics Digital Lab
Affiliation: Spongelab Interactive
Country: Canada
URL: http://www.spongelab.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Newstin
Affiliation: Newstin a.s.
Country: Czech Republic
URL: http://corp.newstin.com
Platform: broadband/online

Title: Fossil Web
Affiliation: Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Chinese Academy
Country: China
URL: http://www.nigpas.ac.cn/qt/qtcy/2004929131714.html
Platform: broadband/online

Blog Posting Number: 1340

Tags: content, e-culture, heritage, e-science, technology, e-learning, education, e-business, commerce, e-government and institutions, e-health, environment, e-Entertainment, games, e-Inclusion and Participation

BPN 1339 FTMH - The vote for fiber is yes

The meeting of the owners’ association was disappointing. There was no representative of AlmeerNet. In one or another way I had misinterpreted the point on the agenda. No representative to answer my four questions.

So the members of the owners’ association were asked to vote in favour of a motion, whereby AlmeerNet can link every apartment to the mainline. Voting for this motion was easy. It does not cost anyone a dime; besides the apartment is easier to sell with a link to glass fiber than without. The motion was passed with a large majority. Next step in the project will be the linking.

It brings closer the question, which company to choose. So far there were three parties involved: UPC, AlmeerNet and KPN.
UPC is the incumbent cable operator which has upgraded its cable network to fiber, but the optical cable ends in the headstations (Fiber to the Curb). The last mile consists of coax/copper cable. The UPC upgrade allows speeds of 25, 60 and 120Mbps with a Eurodocsis cable modem. For the 120Mbps connection UPC asks resp. 50,50, 60,50 and 80,50 euro a month, exclusive of telecom and radio and television..
AlmeerNet runs the open network. They do not deliver the services to the subscribers, but keep the network going technically. AlmeerNet is an initiatiive of the Almere Fiber Consortium, consisting of the municipality Almere, the housing corporations Goede Stede, Ymere, Alliance Flevoland and Reggefiber (51 pct majority by KPN).
KPN is a service provider to AlmeerNet. It will offer telephone, television and internet. Other services such as security will also be offered in the future. KPN offers three speed packages of 30, 50 and 60 Mbps download with 3,5 and 6 Mbps upload for the price of resp. 65, 80 and 110 euro, including free telecom traffic and resp. 50, 70 and 100 tv channels.

New is the announcement of Online as provider for AlmeerNet. Online is the latest platitudinous name for the former Orange broadband service; Online is part of the joint venture Orange and T-Mobile. So far Online has offered ADSL and cable services; now it has added fiber subscription. However the offer of Online is not known yet. Besides more service providers would be welcome, preferably with smaller TV channel offers (who can watch 100 channels a day; ridiculous).



Looking at the table there are two remarks. UPC makes an offer for fast internet, exclusive of a required basic TV package and optional telecom. KPN makes an offer for less fast internet, but inclusive of television and telecom. These are however the offers on internet. UPC and KPN have introduction offers. In Almere, UPC and KPN have now special offers. Both companies play with the television and telecom extras.

And there are more differences such as the speed. UPC offers 120Mbps, while KPN offers 60Mbps as maximum on AlmeerNet for our neighbourhood. This is strange, for I know for sure that a month ago KPN offered 100Mbps. There is still another difference in the speed. UPC offers internet from a headstation to more subscribers in the same area. AlmeerNet and her providers like KPN and Online offer a one-to-one connection to the subscriber. This means that the UPC speed will vary depending on the number of users, while the AlmeerNet speed will be stable.

Blog Posting Number: 1339

Tags: fiber, cable

BPN 1338 FTMH - Fiber in the ground; next step

During my stay abroad, the laying of fiber in the neighbourhood has continued. In the streets behind the apartment building where we are living, street by street was cabled, by opening up the pavements, laying the cable, branching it to the houses and filling the holes and reconstructing the pavements. But the cable has also been laid for the vintage boats in front of our apartment building, as most of them are used as house boats and people are living on them permanently; so with water, electricity and telephone, they now get fiber to the boat (FTTB). In the meantime also our apartment building has been passed. It is a kind of funny as they had to negotiate a corner with a head to end box of the cable operator UPC (see photograph). Now the circus of linking up to the homes and apartments starts as well as the signing up for subscriptions.

From our offices we can oversee the work in the street at backside of our apartment building. With military discipline, the fiber was laid, street by street.









Also the house boats will be provided with a fiber connection.









This is where fiber crosses the UPC headstation.








In our apartment building the linking up will start after tonight’s meeting of the owners’ association. In order to reach the highest floor, AlmeerNet needs the permission of the people living under the highest floor. As the linking up does not cost anything, it is likely that no one will object to the linking. But after that the battle for subscriptions between UPC and AlmeerNet will start. For the time being there will be a battle between UPC and KPN, as no other provider is yet available on AlmeerNet. The local press even speaks of a moratorium of one year for KPN, as they and Reggefiber, a joint venture with KPN, are financing the network.

Tonight the owners ‘association of our apartment building will meet for the annual meeting. A representative of AlmeerNet will be present. I am eager to hear how he answers questions like:
1. What is the difference between UPC net and AlmeerNet?
2. Is it true that KPN will have the sole right for one year to sign up subscriptions as there are no other providers, while in Amsterdam there are at least five providers.
3. What will be the costs of subscriptions as they have not been published officially and are different from town to town.
4. When will the AlmeerNet be available to new subscribers?
I think I can answer these questions now, but it will be interesting to see how the AlmeerNet representative handles the questions.

Blog Posting Number: 1338

Tag: fiber

BPN 1334 2009 WSA Grand Jury- Talking to Rudi

The iPhone is immense popular. I see people walking around with the device and using it for normal things like the weather, maps and of course for telephoning. I see them also use it for crazy applications like filling the screen with an image and sound of beer. It is a useless application, but something to talk about, when sitting at a bar. But for there are also applications which looked complicated in using all kind of devices.

One of those applications is the song finder. You keep your iPhone to a radio and let it listen to a song. In a short while it will recognise the tune and tell you, what song it is and who is the singer. Of course you are one tick away from ordering the song for storing in your iPhone.

While talking to my Mexican eminent expert, Rudi Laddaga Lopez, he told me that he with his company was developing an application on hieroglyphics. He told that the Maya temples contain hieroglyphics. I told him that I had never realised that. But the application already in the test phase takes a picture of a set of hieroglyphics and processes them into the Spanish language. Interesting, isn’t it. I will be in Mexico later this year, so Rudi should demonstrate the application to me at a Maya site. I immediately saw new applications. In fact as we were with an international group of eminent experts, I told the story to my dear Egyptian colleague Effat El Shooky (the lady next to Rudi), as they have hieroglyphics in the Egyptian temples, pyramids and monuments. It would be really a time shifter or century breaker. Click a photograph and a few seconds later you can read the text in English or Arabic. Of course, the application can also be used for handwritten manuscripts for example in Old Dutch. I guess that the application needs some more calibration. But text can be read by you or even read for you and translated to the current language.

Playing with the idea of the song finder, another idea came up. There is a great group of bird watchers. They observe birds in flight, but often stand still when they hear the sound of a bird. You need a good memory for bird sounds. But recording it on the iPhone and processing it against a sample bank of bird sounds, should deliver the name of the bird, a picture and extra information. Of course you can after validation send the place of observation to a central point for recording and mapping. And all this with an iPhone.

Blog Posting Number: 1334

Tags: song finder, hieroglyphics

BPN 1333 Fourth screen presents new opportunities

India has the potential to take the lead in the mobile content industry, said WSA Chairman Prof. Peter A Bruck during the Grand Jury process in India. He observed, that the costs of using mobile communications are the lowest in India from all 150 countries surveyed by the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva. The skyrocketing use of mobile phones with 15 million handsets added just last January makes the mobile handsets the most common smart devices in history, says Bruck. There are already 4 times as many small screens around the world than TV sets. Mobile will be the fourth screen and present new opportunities for content distribution, certainly with the spread of smart phones.

To produce good contents and innovative applications is the challenge for the next ten years and India has the talent and skills as well as the freedom and creativity to make the most of this, adds Bruck.

Mr. R. Chandrasekhar, Special Secretary to the Department of IT (DIT), from the Union Government’s Ministry of Communication and IT, welcomed the 35 delegates from 35 countries to India and its still growing IT industry. The Grand Jury event and the Summit create most welcome networking opportunities for Indian actors in the content industry and the application development. India’s IT businesses are still growing, albeit at a reduced rate, and they need now the best of international connections to further grow, says Chandrasekhar. The DIT hosts the Summit in order to promote the different developments in the market.

Digital Empowerment Foundation Chairman Osama Manzar is organiser of the Summit together with the World Summit Award, which is the United Nations Flagship Initiative in the framework of the Tunis Summit Conferences. We have to lead by example and a mechanism, such as the World Summit Awards uses the mechanism of a global contest, to find best practices. With the India Summit conference and WSA Grand Jury, the most eminent experts in e-content from all continents have come to India to share their experience in areas such as e-government and e-learning, e-entertainment and e-health.

India has the technology available and the trained skills to take a lead in the e-content for the small, mobile screen, says WSA Chairman Bruck. The World Summit Award will offer a screening of entries and a benchmark for the development. The World Summit Award Grand Jury 2009 is being hosted by the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Govt. of India.

Blog Posting Number: 1333

Tags: mobile

BPN 1332 2009 WSA Grand Jury - Goodbye India

The plane left Dehli in time and was on time in Vienna. After going through the ritual of checking in for a Schengen free traffic country, I boarded for Amsterdam. However there was a delay of roughly an hour because of fog in Amsterdam.

Left: 2003 Grand Jury Dubai; right: 2005 Grand Jury Bahrain







Left: 2007 Grand Jury Croatia; right: 2009 Grand Jury India






I had the time to think over the whole Grand Jury project. This was the fourth Grand Jury. Grand Juries were held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) in 2003, Manama (Bahrain) in 2005, Brijuni (Croatia) in 2007 and New Delhi in (India) in 2009. Dubai was the venue for the first Grand Jury. The organisation in Dubai was perfect: hotel, transport, jury venue and facilities as well as the social agenda. In Manama the organisation was also perfect; there was even a trip to the GP circuit. Brijuni was a heavenly island; pityful, the jurors will keep a painful memory of it. New Dehli was a fast fix. After the 2009 Grand Jury in New Dehli, other countries have indicated that they would like to organise the 2011 Grand Jury. Of course, the event is still two years away and governments might change.

New Dehli was different in many a way. Up to the end of last year the 2009 Grand Jury was supposed to be held elsewhere; in fact our man on the ground Osama Manzar pick it up in a late stage and started to organise the Grand Jury. First Hyderabad was going to be the place, but three months before there was a switch to New Dehli. Yet it turned out to be perfectly organised. The hotel was okay, the Grand Jury venue was at the hotel compound and the computer facilities were okay, despite the breaks in electricity. Also the social agenda gave some idea about India. Altogether, the WSA Grand Juries have been lucky so far with their hosts. And in India we have been lucky to have Osama Manzar and his wife as organisers. Their contacts with government officials helped the organisation of this Grand Jury from departure to arrival at home again. It is clear that India is striving after leadership not only in hardware and software, but also in content. And they have a challenge ahead. As mobile is more common in India than internet, India can be the cradle of mobile content.

Overlooking the 2009 Grand Jury, India has been an exemplary host. Osama and his wife are the heroes, supported by the army of tutors. The WSA staff consisting of Anastasia, Emilia, Cecilia, Angelika, Karin and Pedrag had everything prepared minutely. Of course the corps of jurors was great.

Blog Posting Number: 1332

Tags: mobile content

BPN 1331 2009 WSA Grand Jury - Day 8

Last night the last presentations of the panels were made. There was also the final voting for the five winners per category. It was a long ceremony, followed by writing up the laudations of the five winners per category for the catalogue. For the last day only one more task was left, at least for the people that were still there; in the meantime some people had left already to catch their plane home. The departure is never a clean goodbye, just like the start is always in phases.

The last task consisted of three parts: the constituting of the Arab e-Content Awards, the jury distinctions and the final leg of the World Summit Youth Awards. The last one is a separate contest, putting the UN Millennium Development Goals into action. Out of 620 submissions, 280 projects were tested ready for evaluation. Having had the kick off for this years jury process, the exciting but challenging task of finding the most inspiring projects combining Internet Content with the UN MDGs, was to be completed in New Dehli. The WSYA winners will also be celebrated in Monterrey, Mexico, thanks to a grant of the Knight Foundation.

In the afternoon there was still a tour around the city. So far we had seen only the Hilton Hotel and the Qutb Minar. But this afternoon a small group was bussed to the three main touristic points of the Dehli: government city and the red fortress.











But there was still a surprise: Humayun’s Tomb. This tourist attraction was important as most of the jurors did not have a chance to go to the Tash Mahal (some lucky ones did and our Mexicon hostess Angeles even saw the world miracle at sunrise; how lucky she was and jealous I am). But Humayun’s Tomb is the next best. We arrived at the complex just in time to see the sunset on the beautifull marble dome; a few minutes later the dome was dull as can be seen on the video).




We were back in time to join the caravan for a party at an estate in the middle of Dehli. In the middle of this city there was an oasis of rest en green lawns; but we did not see too much of that as we arrived late. It is owned by a family of which the son is now one of the publishers of English newspapers. I had a chance to talk with him about newspapers. Was he feeling the churn of the subscriptions? No he said, not at all; in fact he was still experiencing growth. This is not surprising if you realise that India with a population of 1,2 billion people has a lot of illiteracy; but this illiteracy is slowly being combatted. So if one percent of the inhabitants are new readers, the publisher has real growth. This while in the western world, newspaper publishers only see a downturn of subscriptions and street sale. We had only a chance to be at the party for a little bit more than an hour as we had to depart for the airport.

The night of the nineth of april I was flying back to Amsterdam through Vienna. We had been warned of long queus at the airport, but that appeared not to be a problem. I was ready for 6,5 hour flight to Vienna with Austrian Airlines. I had promised myself to read the book Do Good Design by David B. Berman, one of the inspiring new jurors, but I fell asleep (and it was not because of the content of the book).

Blog Posting Number: 1331

Tags: newspapers

BPN 1330 2009 WSA Grand Jury – Day 7

The Grand Jury deliberations are getting to the final listing of the five winners in each category. Today we still have four categories to go. And if you think that this will an hour per category, well you are wrong. Discussions take longer with sharp observations. But the final list of winners in each category will be complete today. All the voting will be done, and all the votes will be recorded in the minutes to be submitted to the board of the World Summit Award and to the convenors of the competition, amongst others the Austrian government.

By now we have all the definitive statistics of the contest available.

a. 157 participating countries

b. Registrations per platform
Online 464
Offline 47
Mobile Contents 7
Games Platforms 4
Interactive TV 2
Cross Media 28
Kiosk / Installations 8
Total 560

c. Registrations per Category
e-Government & Institutions 79
e-Health & Environment 65
e-Learning & Education 85
e-Entertainment & Games 57
e-Culture & Heritage 72
e-Science & Technology 53
e-Business & Commerce 74
e-Inclusion & Participation 75
Total 560

d. 35 jury members from 35 countries

Blog Posting Number: 1330

Tags: content, e-culture, heritage, e-science, technology, e-learning, education, e-business, commerce, e-government and institutions, e-health, environment, e-Entertainment, games, e-Inclusion and Participation

BPN 1329 2009 WSA Grand Jury – Day 6

Today the presentations of the eight nominee winners are presented. This is the finest part of the Grand Jury. Discussions about the products are held. Each panel of the eight panels makes a presentation with their nominee winners. And you can see the skills of the various jury members. Some presentations are matter of fact, but some have been embellished on a template and with pictures of the nominated sites. After every presentation there is time again for chatting with the jurors.

Shinta Dhanuwardoyo from Indonesia is the founder and CEO of Bubu.com. She acquired her Bachelor degree in Architecture form the University of Oregon and her MBA from Portland State University. As the Chief Execuitve Officer (CEO), with her artistic talents and business know how to spur business growth at Bubu Internet. Active in contributing to the IT industry in the country, she is now considered an “IT icon” and one of the successful women entrepreneurs in Indonesia. Bubu.com is a digital/interactive media company, which focuses its service in designing websites, intranet solutions, e-commerce, multimedia, Internet marketing, etc. The company is considered as the pioneer and the leading in the web development business in Indonesia. Bubu.com is representing major clients such as Telkom, Gudang Garam Surya 16, Kalbe Nutrition, Hutchinson Three, Total Indonesie and British Petroleum.

Another new lady in the Grand Jury was Beatriz Alonso Becerra from Cuba. Graduated in 1980 in Industrial Engineering; she took Graduate degree courses on Specialization in Automated Systems of Management and in Information Technologies, in Cuba and abroad. She is Master of Management Science since 1997. Ms Alonso has been working in the sector of Science since 1980 and has accumulated a wide professional experience in the field of ICTs. with 28 working years. She was Head of the Department of Systems Design at the Center of Automated Systems Design -CEDISAC (1984 at 1988) and later Director General of said institution (1988 at 1999); and since 1999 she has been Director General of Information Technologies and Advanced Telematic Services (CITMATEL) and member of the Council of Management of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment for many years. Beatriz has been member of Organizing Committees for National and International events associated to Information Technologies. She is a member of national commissions in ICT-related topics, such as the National Editorial Council. Ms Alonso represents Cuba in the Country Code Top Level Domain of Latin America (LACTLD). She has participated in and organized numerous events as well as national and international seminars and participated as a member of the Cuban delegation in the 1er and 2nd phases of the World Summit of the Information Society in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunisia in 2005. She has written and published more than 25 articles and manuals on topics related to Information and Communication Technologies. She leads The Program “Developing the Cuban Science Network”, a digital network of contents, products and services resulting from Science and Technological Innovation.

Today four categories were presented. Tomorrow the last four will be presented and final decisions taken.