Archive for May, 2010
Europe – EC has aksed to be notified of any activities that support the Digital Agenda
May 31st, 2010 | 
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Europe – BEREC (ERG 3.0) is to have its Office in Riga
Telecoms: Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) established in Riga
South Africa – Draft regulations to ban Internet and mobile phone pornography has been given to the Law Reform Commission
Gigaba, who approached the commission in September to look into banning pornography on television, the internet and mobile phones, yesterday accepted recommendations from the Justice Alliance of South Africa (Jasa) on a proposed Internet and Cellphone Pornography Bill which sees pornography filtered out at service provider level.
The statement from the department says the ban on porn on these mediums has successfully been achieved in the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, while Australia and New Zealand are presently considering similar action.
The Department of Home Affairs has an oversight role over the Film and Publication Board and Gigaba has long expressed his concern about the link between pornography and child and women abuse. In December last year at a workshop for political leaders in the Eastern Cape, Gigaba lashed out at advertiser and media exploiting sex and exposing children to it and television for brining it into the home. He was also critical of cellphone providers for “providing easy access” for children to pornography.
The argument is that the Film and Publication Act, which provides a ban on child pornography, while the Internet and Cellphone Bill will provide for a total ban of pornography on these electronic channels, using the wider definition of pornography already available in the Sexual Offences Act.
John Smyth director of Jasa said the recommendations are in line with the Constitution and there is sufficient technical knowledge for service providers to implement controls.
“There are sufficient decisions in the Constitutional Court when it comes to the issue of pornography and children, that the rights of children trumps the right to freedom and privacy,” he said. “The constitution recognises that parents have an obligation to protect their children and where they fail its becomes the state’s obligation.”
Arthur Goldstuck, head of World Wide Worx and internet and cellphone expert, yesterday questioned whether it was simply a case of applying technology. “The requirements of filtering out any specific type of communication are massive,” he said. “Its only technically and practically feasible in a totalitarian environment where the State has all the control over telecommunications.”
William Bird of Media Monitoring Africa, which looks in particular at children’s representation in media, was also critical of the proposal, saying while the intentions were sound it would be a step backwards. It also did not take into account peer to peer transmission of pornographic material via mediums such as Mixit, he said.
“It would be more beneficial to create space for a forum to discuss and engage with pornographic material critically and allow children to express why it makes them feel uncomfortable and what stereotypes are being depicted,” he said.
He said Childline had a lot of success on Mixit by creating an open forum where children can talk.
Bird said China has spent millions trying to control the internet and not been successful.
The eight page submission by the Justice Alliance of South Africa (Jasa) outlining the Constitutionality of a total ban on pornography will be available on its website
Uganda – Complaints about sub-contractors over construction of fibre optic cable
“Green Future sub-contracted 23 Ugandan firms, one per 30 kilometres, for the Kampala- Katuna stretch. We haven’t been paid since December yet we completed most of the work,” the source, who preferred anonymity, said.
The local media recently quoted Felix Kabyanga, Green Future’s managing director, as saying that about 3,000 casual labourers had been paid even when no money had been paid to the sub-contracted firms.
“We expect to resume on May 29 and shall pay all the companies,” he said.
Kabyanga added that a financial crisis had hit the project which forced work to halt after the Kenya Data Network incurred financial constraints.
This, he said, was caused by a feasibility study oversight where they had undermined the terrain which contained hard soils and rocks in some areas thereby increasing the construction expenses.
Kenya Data Network and Altech Stream are the main contractors of the sh16b project.
Recently, the over 5,000 workers who were hired by the sub-contractors threatened to destroy the fibre optic cables over non-payment. One of the contractors who declined to be named, said there had been unclear explanations from Green Future who blamed all the delays on the main contractor.
“This is one of the things that will undermine the East African integration efforts. Why can’t they pay us? This is a raw deal for Ugandans,” the contractor said.
South Africa – Business is concerned about ICT skills shortages holding back developments
Last year 75% of the 157 businesses surveyed by online newspaper ITWeb and the University of the Witwatersrand’s Joburg Centre for Software Engineering said the IT skills shortage was either having a major impact on their business or was affecting their viability, and in 2008 all 115 of the South African companies surveyed made this claim. With SA emerging from recession, it is arguable that this year the number making this claim could once again increase. (The 2010 survey is under way).
Despite the expansion in SA’s telecommunications industry, and the way in which technological change has increased global demand for high-end IT skills because the various separate technologies such as voice, data and video are converging in new technologies, the numbers graduating in SA with high-end IT skills is not increasing significantly, says Sandra Burmeister, CEO of recruitment specialists Landelahni Business Leaders.
“We need a higher-skilled professional, but (business) is training for their immediate needs … We are getting technicians, not engineers and designers,” she says.
Part of the problem is that technology changes so quickly that there is traction between the number of suitably skilled professionals in the new technologies, and those with skills in existing technologies, says Burmeister.
If the survey’s results are extrapolated across the whole sector it looks like SA needs about 72000 more people with IT skills, says Centre for Software Engineering applied research unit manager Adrian Schofield.
But, between 1996 and 2007 SA produced 17705 information and communication technology degree and diploma graduates, while in 2005 only 823 graduated with a degree in electronic engineering, and only 596 were awarded a computer science degree. In 2006 these numbers were 916 and 540 respectively and in 2007, 928 and 502.
The crisis is set to continue, or deepen because technology is advancing at what Burmeister calls “a blistering pace”. A ccording to the International Labour Organisation, it is “the single biggest driver of skills shortages globally” — SA business is in competition with global competitors for the world’s best and brightest graduates, including South Africans.
Graduate recruitment is getting more aggressive every year, says Prof Sonia Berman, head of the University of Cape Town’s computer science department.
IT graduates have choice — 69% of those surveyed in the 2010 South African Graduate Recruiters Association candidate survey released yesterday said they had received several job offers, second only to teachers, of whom 100% say they had several job offers.
This comes as no surprise to Intel International legal and corporate affairs vice-president Shelly Esque . It is only because her company is so widely spread across the globe that it can overcome the skills shortage, she says.
“We’re lucky. We can go where the talent is. We can open offices all over the world, but we’re almost unique. For countries this is at crisis stage,” she says.
Intel has poured billions of dollars into improving maths and science teaching worldwide and has “upskilled” more than 7-million teachers precisely because too few high-schoolers chose to study these subjects, with at least maths a prerequisite for a career in computing and technology .
US President Barack Obama has put 250m into increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and maths teachers.
In SA the school education situation is worse — SA was class dunce in the 2003 Trends in International Maths and Science Study, conducted in 46 countries and has fared badly in a study comparing maths results among southern African countries.
Schofield does not see light at the end of the tunnel.
“I do not see any rapid improvement in the supply of IT skills, largely because the necessary changes to our education system will take many years to become effective. We need to train teachers appropriately, change school curricula to raise the level of maths and science outcomes and enthuse the youth with prospects of worthwhile careers in the industry.
“Interventions at the post- school level are too late in the process ,” he says.
