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2121. Media Madness: The Revolution So Far

Author:
David Bollier and Max Frankel
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Henry, for that generous introduction. I am proud to bear the title of Catto Fellow and if I were allowed to recite your biography as you have recited mine, you would know the source of my great pride. But like Harry Evans in a similar recent situation, (and now also his wife, Tina Brown), I am reminded of the New Yorker cartoon showing a partygoer being introduced at a cocktail party while enduring the urgent plea of a spouse: “Tell them who you WERE, dear. Tell them who you WERE!” I have to emphasize who I once was not only because I have retired from executive duties but also because the Revolution that I have come to discuss often regards me as passé, out of date, an expiring person of print—you know, that dying industry. That may be so. But the revolutionary “new” media are exhausting themselves parading their newness while actually betraying highly familiar symptoms of a very old media disease. We are all mad: just not newly mad.
Topic:
Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and New York

2122. The Global Wave of Entrepreneurialism: Harnessing the Synergies of Personal Initiative, Digital Technologies, and Global Commerce

Author:
David Bollier
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
Future historians may call this period the entrepreneurial age. Rarely has such an explosion of new business ventures, technological innovation, and cultural experimentation swept across diverse cultures of the globe simultaneously. Government leaders in Beijing and Singapore, Warsaw and Caracas, Moscow and London are looking to business mavericks to energize their economies. Multinational companies are eager to instill entrepreneurial values within their workforces to boost their competitiveness. On the periphery of such power centers, meanwhile, entrepreneurs large and small are remaking entire sectors of the economy and creating high-tech boomtowns in San Jose, California; Bangalore, India; Cambridge, England; Austin, Texas; and many other places.
Topic:
Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States, India, London, California, Moscow, England, Singapore, Bangalore, Austin, and Texas

2123. Information Literacy: Advancing Opportunities for Learning in the Digital Age

Author:
Richard P. Adler
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The foregoing paraphrase of Dickens was how one participant in the Aspen Institute's 1998 Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) summed up the current state and impact of the Internet. On one hand, the Internet has provided more people with more convenient access to more information in a shorter period of time than any other medium in history. It has given rise to an enormous burst of entrepreneurial activity that has led to the creation of an entire new industry in just a few years. Electronic commerce already is a multibillion dollar enterprise and will become even more important in the near future.
Topic:
Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

2124. Reinventing The Climate Negotiations: An Analysis of COP6

Author:
Christian Egenhofer and Jan Cornillie
Publication Date:
04-1999
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Abstract:
With the cancellation of the Oslo ministerial mini-summit, the prospects for an early entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol are rapidly fading. Even if the US agrees to an outcome at a resumed COPbis in July, continued Congressional opposition and unresolved questions concerning the developing countries' commitments make US ratification highly implausible.
Topic:
Environment, International Law, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

2125. No More Secrets? Policy Implications of Commercial Remote Sensing Satellites

Author:
Ann M. Florini, Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Vipin Gupta, William Stoney, Robert Osterhout, Ray A. Williamson, John Pike, Allen Hammond, Anthony Janetos, John Baker, Adam Bernstein, Sarah A. Mullen, Kevin M. O'Connell, Daniel Dubno, Steven Livingston, Karen DeYoung, Barbara Cochran, John Barker, Daniel Schorr, and Jan M. Lodal
Publication Date:
05-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract:
We at Carnegie believe that it is beyond question that we are living in a world of very fundamental change in the meaning and the relevance of national borders; in the relationship of governments, not so much to each other, but to other entities that are capable of governance, particularly internationally and especially private business and non–governmental organizations; and even to the meaning of national sovereignty. All that is the premise that underlies a major thrust of our work here in the Global Policy Program. It is also pretty clear to us that a principal, if not the principal, driving force of this change is the information and communication revolution and the accompanying mass of information, in its new form, that we are coming to call transparency as a political phenomenon. We also think that there are pretty good reasons to believe that the advent of high resolution commercial imagery is going to be another quantum leap in this revolution. And so it was natural for us to think that it would be useful to try to organize a meeting where we could examine the possibilities and the consequence of this emerging technology in some detail, both with respect to the implications for particular sectors? national security, environment, human rights, et cetera? but equally with respect to the effects on governance on political relationships, on difficulties or advantages that will be posed on the relationships between governments and media as well as other non–governmental actors. All of these issues, as you can see from the program, are on the agenda today.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
America

2126. Residential Access to Bandwidth: Exploring New Paradigms

Author:
Robert M. Entman
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The 1998 Aspen Institute Conference on Telecommunications Policy met to consider ways of speeding the deployment of telecommunication systems that allow for robust, reliable, and innovative communications services to the home. There was wide agreement that this means, in essence, getting broadband access to as many residences as possible, as quickly as economically sensible and technically feasible. By organizing the participants into three working groups, the session was able to come up with analytical suggestions and policy recommendations designed to accomplish this central objective.
Topic:
Industrial Policy and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

2127. Nonlethal Technologies: Progress and Prospects

Author:
Richard L. Garwin
Publication Date:
07-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Council on Foreign Relations
Abstract:
The 1999 Independent Task Force on Nonlethal Weapons (NLW) was sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations to assess the current status of nonlethal weapons development and availability within the Department of Defense (DoD), in light of their potential to support U.S. military operations and foreign policy. The Task Force found that the DoD has made only limited progress developing and deploying nonlethal weapons since 1995, when a previous Council Task Force studied the issue. This shortfall results from a continued lack of appreciation for NLW among civilian and military policymakers. It will take stronger leadership to overcome the traditional reluctance of individual military services to share information with each other and create a truly joint program in nonlethal weapons and technology. Until this happens, the administration will continue to lose key diplomatic and military opportunities. In situations in which the decision has not yet been made to use lethal force, nonlethal weapons could give policymakers a more potent weapon than economic sanctions, which tend to be both indiscriminate and ineffective. Used alone, NLW could penalize civilian economies without high civilian casualties. NLW could also add weight and credibility when used in conjunction with economic sanctions, thus strengthening America's diplomatic hand. A new emphasis on nonlethal weapons would reinforce current American information warfare and psychological warfare capabilities. It would also enhance the tactical ability of U.S. forces to control crowds and focus firepower on troops or paramilitary, rather than on noncombatant civilians. Senior civilian and military leaders should make NLW development a priority. Once developed, these weapons must be deployed coherently, in synergistic coordination with information/psychological warfare technologies and conventional weaponry. Finally, various NLW programs dispersed throughout the individual services should be coordinated by the existing Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD).
Topic:
Defense Policy and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States and America

2128. Technological Change in the Telecommunications Industry

Author:
Judith Mariscal
Publication Date:
01-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
Abstract:
This document examines technological change in the telecommunications industry at the international level, from the perspective which sustains that this change as the driving force behind policy reform, based on the public interest theory of regulation, argues that the emergence and diffusion of new technologies has transformed the market structure in this sector ad as a consequence the nature of government policy. The dramatic technological innovation that this industry experienced transformed the once stable role of the state in telecommunications. Until recent years telecommunications policy amounted to a rather narrow one, that of determining fair rates of basic service provided by a regulated telephone monopoly. The resulting increases in productivity of these new technologies has led to a high segmentation of this industry; to a proliferation in the number and kinds of firms providing telecommunications services which in turn transformed the role of government in this industry. This document will provide an understanding of the traditional technologies available in telecommunications and explore the mergence of new technologies. The most significant result of innovation has been declining costs along with an increased capacity of equipment unites and reliability. Because of this rapid technological change, new firms have entered the market bringing differentiated and new products and services. The objective is to identify how technological innovation decreased costs and allowed the entry of new competitors. The policy consequences were to erode the natural monopoly standing of this industry, to make it more contestable and with this to transform its traditional regulatory structure. The first section of this document will examine the prevailing literature on regulation as sustained by the public interest theory of regulation. The following sections will describe the conventional technology employed in telecommunications, the technological innovations that have occurred as well as how these technologies have transformed this industry at a worldwide level.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology

2129. Acoustic Weapons—A Prospective Assessment: Sources, Propagation, and Effects of Strong Sound

Author:
Jürgen Altmann
Publication Date:
05-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Abstract:
Acoustic weapons are under research and development in a few countries. Advertised as one type of non-lethal weapons, they are said to immediately incapacitate opponents while avoiding permanent physical damage. Reliable information on specifications or effects is scarce, however. The present report sets out to provide basic information in several areas: effects of large-amplitude sound on humans, potential high-power sources, and propagation of strong sound.
Topic:
Defense Policy and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

2130. Thinking About the Future: Economic Aspects

Author:
Emilio Gerelli
Publication Date:
11-1999
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Union Studies Center
Abstract:
Building scenarios of the future has been defined "the art of thinking the unthinkable". And in fact the successful author of scenarios must be able to combine both an open and creative mind, and analytical capabilities to envisage different and sometimes counterintuitive combinations of actors, factors and trends. Our author is often also "heroic", since he knows that most probably he will be disproved by facts. However it is worth bravely accepting the challenge of uncertainty, since "illustrating the future by means of scenarios is a way to overcome human beings' resistance to change. Scenarios can thus open mental horizons to allow the individual to accept and understand change, and so be able to shape the world. Scenarios may help in seizing new opportunities ahead as well as avoiding undesirable effects of misconceived actions". In this connection a historian notes: "it is desirable, possible and even within certain limits necessary to forecast our future…However the process of forecasting must be based necessarily on the knowledge of the past".
Topic:
Economics, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States