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SCIENCE JOURNALISM GROWING OVERSEAS
[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Cristine Russell]
The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has long been a mecca for journalists searching for stories of all shapes and sizes—from basic brain research to broad environmental policy issues involving land, oceans, and the atmosphere. Particularly remarkable was the increasingly international focus of the 175th meeting, which attracted about 6,800 participants, including roughly 800 members of the science media. The number of science reporters and journalists-in-training from far-flung parts of the world—the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, as well as Canada, the U.K., Germany, Sweden and other parts of Europe—has expanded at AAAS. At the same time, the presence of working American science reporters from major newspapers and magazines has declined over time, their ranks often replaced by a diverse group of freelancers and digital journalists who write, blog, and Twitter for a variety of startup and established news and information Web sites.
http://benton.org/node/22211

TELECOMS BOSSES URGE LESS REGULATION
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Parker]
Leading European telecoms companies on Tuesday urged governments to ease the regulations on them, so the industry can play a major role in lifting economies out of recession. Spain's Telefónica and Vodafone of the UK said telecoms companies could fuel economic recovery, but warned that their efforts were hampered by regulations, notably from Brussels. Vittorio Colao, Vodafone's chief executive, complained the industry was suffering from "regulatory activism". Telecoms companies are using the world's largest mobile phone conference in Barcelona to highlight how the industry makes a significant contribution to gross domestic product. At the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, César Alierta, Telefónica's chairman, complained that stimulus packages devised by governments were not paying sufficient attention to the role the telecoms industry could have in fostering economic recovery. He highlighted how fixed line operators were contemplating multibillion-euro investments in superfast broadband networks that could improve productivity.
http://benton.org/node/22253
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THE INTERNET OF THINGS
[SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, AUTHOR: Scott Duke Harris]
ZeroG Wireless is introducing a new chip that provides a tiny bit of Wi-Fi connectivity to literally billions of electronic devices that today are unconnected. Companies may use the chips to collect usage data on all kinds of electronic appliances. With three patents approved and several more in the works, ZeroG is rolling out a Wi-Fi chip and module that already has Federal Communications Commission approval and can be easily integrated into micro-controller units made by companies such as Microchip Technology, Freescale Semiconductor and Atmel. It announced a new "early access" partnership with Microchip on Monday that will enable electronics manufacturers to test the chips for commercial use.
http://benton.org/node/22252
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REGULATION, PUBLIC POLICY AND INVESTMENT IN COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE
[SOURCE: Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law, AUTHOR: Johannes Bauer]
Regulation and other forms of public policy toward infrastructure industries were and are designed to support the necessary large-scale investment. Throughout history, with few exceptions, rather pragmatic approaches guided policies. A more rigorous lens was only applied more recently although it often focused on narrow aspects of regulation. In contrast, this paper attempts to develop a broader, integrated framework to analyze the effects of regulatory and other public policy choices on sector investment. During the past decades, regulation has gradually abandoned instruments that allowed regulators to influence investment decisions directly. Presently used forms of wholesale regulation such as unbundling and network neutrality requirements work indirectly, creating complex and sometimes contradictory incentives for the affected stakeholders. Regulation cannot anymore "control" investment. Rather it functions as a "tuning variable" that influences the level and the structure of investment activity in various direct and indirect, often non-linear ways. Fiscal and monetary policy instruments also can be used to influence investment choices but they have their own advantages and disadvantages and do not work under all conditions. Due to the multi-faceted effects of regulatory measures, fiscal and monetary policy is preferable to regulatory measures to create short term economic stimulus. Whereas the overall effects of a combination of regulatory and other public policy measures on communications sector investment levels and structure are difficult to predict, basic guidelines for the design of a coherent approach can be specified.
http://benton.org/node/22217
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