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1371. Patents and Internet Standards

Author:
Jorge L Contreras
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
In recent years, high-pro le lawsuits involving standards- essential patents (SEPs) have made headlines in the United States, Europe and Asia, leading to a heated public debate regarding the role and impact of patents covering key interoperability standards. Enforcement agencies around the world have investigated and prosecuted alleged violations of competition law and private licensing commitments in connection with SEPs. Yet, while the debate has focused broadly on standardization and patents in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, commentators have paid little attention to differences among technology layers within ICT. A review of case statistics shows that patent ling and assertion activity is substantially lower for Internet- related standards than for standards relating to telecommunications and other computing technologies. This paper analyzes historical and social factors that may have contributed to this divergence, focusing on the two principal Internet standards bodies: the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It offers a counternarrative to the dominant account portraying standards and SEPs as necessarily fraught with litigation and thereby in need of radical systemic change. Instead, it shows how standards policies that de-emphasize patent monetization have led to lower levels of disputes and litigation. It concludes by placing recent discussions of patenting and standards within the broader context of openness in network technologies and urges both industry participants and policy makers to look to the success of Internet standardization in a patent-light environment when considering the adoption of future rules and policies.
Topic:
Science and Technology, International Security, and Information Age
Political Geography:
Global Focus

1372. Avoiding a Full Arctic Meltdown

Author:
Cathleen Kelly and Kelsey Schober
Publication Date:
09-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for American Progress - CAP
Abstract:
Supplied with new evidence of accelerating Arctic warming and approaching environmental tipping points, the Obama administration will convene science ministers from around the world in September to assess the rate and consequences of Arctic climate change and weigh global strategies for averting its worst effects. This first-ever White House Arctic Science Ministerial—which will include top science advisers, high-level officials, and Arctic indigenous community leaders—coincides roughly with the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s 2015 Alaskan Arctic trip. After his historic visit to the High North, President Obama told Vogue, “The looming crisis in the Alaska Arctic is a tangible preview of the looming crisis of the global condition.” The president is right to worry. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, setting off a cascade of dangerous changes at the top of the world that include vanishing Arctic snow and ice, thawing permafrost, and melting of the Greenland ice sheet. These changes risk triggering irreversible tipping points with perilous side effects, such as unmanageable sea-level rise and coastal flooding, more frequent extreme weather, and increased warming and carbon emissions. These changes threaten the well-being of people around the globe.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, International Cooperation, Science and Technology, and Carbon Emissions
Political Geography:
Arctic

1373. Use of Social Media and Digital Technology from the Perspective of Citizen Engagement and Democratic Participation in the Works of Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH Studies: A Positioning Paper

Author:
Dendup Chophel
Publication Date:
02-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Journal of Bhutan Studies
Institution:
Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies (CBS)
Abstract:
Promotion of socio-economic and political dialogue, and engagement of citizens in the process of governance are essential features of a democracy. Public think tank organizations have a key role to play in this regard and thus, as the only state research organization, the Centre for Bhutan Studies & GNH Research (CBS) should be at the forefront of innovations in engaging with the public through policy dialogue by exploring various communication forums like social media. According to the Act for the Centre for Bhutan Studies (2001) by which it was established, the CBS is an autonomous government organization charged with conducting multi-disciplinary research into the history, culture, economy and policy of the country among others. It is mandated with promoting the culture of scholarship and public education through dissemination of timely and quality scholarly research findings. It is also aimed at influencing public policy by providing state institutions with informed and researched inputs. For these purposes, the CBS not only conducts independent research works, the results of which are published as scholarly books, but also organizes national and international conferences, public talks, promote collaboration with global research institutions and represents the country in various scholarly international forums to present the country’s policy positioning. For example, in just the area of media and governance, the CBS has organized various conferences like the major international conference on “Media and Public Culture in Bhutan” (June 2006) and “Deepening and Sustaining Democracy in Asia” (October 2009).
Topic:
Science and Technology, Governance, Democracy, Social Media, and Participation
Political Geography:
South Asia and Bhutan

1374. Extra-ECOWAS Trade and Investment Flows: Any Evidence of Business Cycles Transmission?

Author:
Solomon Abayomi Olakojo
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA)
Abstract:
This study investigates the effects of merchandise trade and investment flows on the transmission of business cycles between members of ECOWAS and the major trading partners between 1985 and 2014. Total trade and FDI significantly influence the transmission of business cycles with elasticities of 1.1% and 0.7%, respectively in the long run. There are little variations across the major trading partners and other measures of trade flows. Intra-industry trade flows with all partners, EU and USA influences the cross-country business cycles with elasticities of 1.0%, 0.5% and 1.8%, respectively. There is a weak evidence of trade and investment relationship with China transmitting business cycles in the long run, except in the case of total trade flows in the short run. Inter-industry trade flows also show weak tendencies of transmitting business cycles.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Business, Investment, and Trade
Political Geography:
Africa

1375. Moving with the Times: How Opium Poppy Cultivation has Adapted to the Changing Environment in Afghanistan

Author:
David Mansfield and Paul Fishstein
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This “watching brief” has described a number of trends with respect to agriculture, land settlement, and opium poppy in several areas of Afghanistan. It highlights two separate but highly related issues. First, what will be farmers’ response to changes in technology and agro-economic conditions? While cost-reducing technology such as solar-powered tubewells may allow the cultivation of crops with lower returns than that of opium poppy, will farmers choose to grow these crops or will they stay with poppy? Will they even look to cultivate a second crop of opium poppy in May as some reports from the field suggest? Second, while the new technology has allowed the expansion of agricultural production to former desert areas and supported livelihoods for marginalised households, given Afghanistan’s tenuous water resources (leaving aside climate change) and population growth rate, how sustainable is an agriculture that continues to deplete groundwater resources by allowing their use on an essentially “free” basis?
Topic:
Agriculture, Science and Technology, Water, Drugs, and Farming
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

1376. The Role of Information and Communication Technology in Africa's Sustainable and Inclusive Development: Understanding the Capacity Challenges

Author:
Saulos Klaus Chilima
Publication Date:
08-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)
Abstract:
This ACBF’s 9th development memoir features Right Honorable Saulos Klaus Chilima (PhD), vice president of the Republic of Malawi. In this series, he shares his memoirs, insights, and experience on The role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Africa’s sustainable and inclusive development: Understanding the capacity challenges. Malawi, like other landlocked countries in Africa, faces additional challenges in connecting to high-speed undersea internet cables like the East African Submarine Cable System and the East African Marine System. But the country has scored some considerable gains in ICTs and telecommunications. Currently, there are six major ongoing initiatives encompassing e-government, e-education, e-infrastructure, digital repositories, e-health, and e-banking.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Digitization, Information Technology, and Banking
Political Geography:
Africa and Malawi

1377. Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa

Author:
Marco Manacorda and Andrea Tesei
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Afrobarometer
Abstract:
Can digital information and communication technology (ICT) foster mass political mobilization? We use a novel geo-referenced dataset for the entire African continent between 1998 and 2012 on the coverage of mobile phone signal together with geo-referenced data from multiple sources on the occurrence of protests and on individual participation in protests to bring this argument to empirical scrutiny. We find that mobile phones are instrumental to mass mobilization during economic downturns, when reasons for grievance emerge and the cost of participation falls. Estimated effects are if anything larger once we use an instrumental variable approach that relies on differential trends in coverage across areas with different incidence of lightning strikes. The results are in line with insights from a network model with imperfect information and strategic complementarities in protest provision. Mobile phones make individuals more responsive to both changes in economic conditions – a mechanism that we ascribe to enhanced information – and to their neighbours’ participation – a mechanism that we ascribe to enhanced coordination. Empirically both effects are at play, highlighting the channels through which digital ICT can alleviate the collective action problem.
Topic:
Politics, Science and Technology, Innovation, Emerging Technology, and Mobilization
Political Geography:
Africa

1378. Complaint Calls as a Proxy for Perceived Quality: The Turkish Dishwasher Demand Estimation

Author:
Çağlar Yurtseven
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Rest: Journal of Politics and Development
Institution:
Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (CESRAN)
Abstract:
The paper estimates dishwasher demand and supply in Turkey. The constructed Stackelberg type oligopolistic competition, with its strong testable implications is demonstrated to be consistent with a stable market composed of a leader firm and followers. The paper has an important contribution to demand estimation literature as well. The complaint calls rate for a product is offered and shown to be a valid proxy to help the problem of omitted variable bias due to the unobserved characteristics as perceived quality or after sale service quality. Elasticities calculated for each demand determinant can help durable good firms in emerging countries to use their investment and marketing resources more efficiently.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Demand, Supply, and Consumerism
Political Geography:
Europe, Turkey, and Asia

1379. Ethnicity and ethnicities Part I

Author:
Shokhrat Kadyrov, Olga Brusina, and Isaac Scarborough
Publication Date:
12-2016
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Nowa Polityka Wschodnia
Institution:
Faculty of Political Science and International Studies, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Abstract:
Scientific paradigm changes are frequently accompanied by the reconsideration of central terms and ideas. This article demonstrates how this process is currently underway in Russian anthropological studies [narodovedenie] as part of a broader move away from ethnography to theoretical ethnology. The article also shows lines of succession and divergence between various paradigms currently dominant in Russian anthropology, including primordialism and constructivism, and presents the author’s vision of a definition of “ethnicity”, instruments needed to study ethnicities, the nature of “ethnicity,” the underlying axioms on which ethnicities are conceptualized. An initial attempt has been made in the article to outline the central positions that would provide for a principally new ethnological paradigm by way of a new definition of the phenomenon of ethnicity
Topic:
Science and Technology, Ethnicity, Anthropology, and Constructivism
Political Geography:
Russia, Eastern Europe, and Global Focus

1380. The Impact of Green Innovation on Energy Intensity: An Empirical Analysis for 14 Industrial Sectors in OECD Countries

Author:
Jules-Daniel Wurlod and Joëlle Noailly
Publication Date:
03-2016
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
This paper analyses the impact of green innovation on energy intensity in a set of 14 industrial sectors in 17 OECD countries over the 1975-2005 period. We create a stock of green patents for each industrial sector and estimates a translog cost function to measure the impact of green innovation on energy intensity, next to other factors such as input substitution and autonomous technical change. We find that green innovation has contributed to the decline in energy intensity in the majority of sectors: the median elasticity of energy intensity with respect to green patenting is estimated at -0.03 in our sample. Hence, a 1% increase in green patenting activities in a given sector is associated with a 0.03% decline in energy intensity. The magnitude of the effect is larger in energy-intensive sectors and in more recent years. We also find that the impact of an additional green patent on energy intensity is larger than an average non-green patent. Our results are robust to alternative definitions of patents.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Green Technology, Innovation, Industry, Patents, OECD, and Energy
Political Geography:
Global Focus