LINK Centre Public Seminar Series

The LINK Centre at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management is proud to offer - as a service to the ICT sector - an ongoing series of occasional public seminars on issues of telecommunications reform, ICT applications, e-economy and the information society.

The seminars take place at the School of Public and Development Management (see below for the specific lecture room in each case), 2 St David's Place, Parktown, and are usually followed by light refreshments and informal discussion with the guest speaker. Attendance is free, but, as space limitations sometimes apply, please register your planned attendance in advance.

Copies of presentations, papers and, occasionally, relevant links are available in respect of each seminar.

  Funding the SABC as a Public Service Broadcaster in the Digital Age

The Faculty of the Humanities, The Weekender, and the Link Centre at Wits University, in association with the Save Our SABC Coalition, invite you to an interactive public debate on “Funding the SABC as a Public Service Broadcaster in the Digital Age”.

The current crisis at the SABC has made the debate on how to fund the public broadcaster more pressing than ever. Across the world public broadcasters are grappling with the problem of funding models. Licence fees - one of the traditional ways of funding public broadcasters - are under threat. People today are less keen to pay this tax for specific public broadcasting channels. They ask why they should when there is so much choice? Further, advertising is now splintering across a plethora of channels and Internet platforms.

So what is to be done? How should the SABC be funded in this new environment? Is public funding the answer? Will increased public funding lead to state control? Or is full privatization the ultimate solution? Is the license fee an anachronism? Is the advent of a multiple channel environment due to digitisation the real answer?

The University of the Witwatersrand, in association with The Weekender, invites you to a public debate on these key issues.

  South Africa, communications services and 2010 - e-readiness or e-rockiness? - Will Hahn, Gartner Analyst

This seminar is a must for everyone interested in ICT sector issues, from both a policy and a regulatory point of view, as well as from a business perspective.

Will Hahn is Gartner’s Principal Analyst, Carrier Operations and Strategies Worldwide, where he is part of the worldwide communications group. He assists with a variety of worldwide and public sectors, including public services in Latin America and Middle East/Africa. He tracks the submarine cable markets worldwide, and he is insight lead for the carrier operations and strategies team. Prior to joining Gartner, Will worked as an inquiry analyst for Northern Business Information in New York City. Before that, he taught ancient-medieval history for 13 years at private preparatory schools in upstate New York.

  The changing landscape of telecom policy and regulation in Canada - Charles Dalfen

• 07 March 2007, Wednesday, 16:30 - 18:30, Mwalimu House, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, No 2 St David's Place, Parktown, followed by refreshments
• Charles M. Dalfen, Immediate past Chair, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
• Click here to download a copy of the paper

The LINK Centre at the Graduate School of Public & Management, Wits University , cordially invites you to a free public seminar by Charles Dalfen entitled The changing landscape of telecom policy and regulation in Canada .

  Free Markets, More Rules: Confronting the Paradox of Telecommunications “Deregulation” - Dr Hudson Janisch

The LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand cordially invites you a free public seminar by Dr Hudson Janisch, entitled 'Free Markets, More Rules: Confronting the Paradox of Telecommunications “Deregulation"'.

The seminar will start by identifying the nature of the underlying paradox in which the more there is a move towards greater reliance on competition in the provision of telecommunications services, the more regulation is considered still to be necessary.

Rather than a rapid transition to competition and reliance on competition law, in telecommunications there has been a lingering transition accompanied by the introduction of more and more intrusive regulation.

What is it about the nature of competition in this sector that has led to this paradoxical outcome? Is there any way in which it may be avoided? These and related issues will be addressed.

Hudson Janisch has spent much of his academic career wrestling with what should be the most appropriate form of legal regulation to govern the rapidly changing telecommunications industry. As a professor of law, his approach has sought to combine academic insights with an understanding of their practical application in a variety of legal regimes ranging from sectoral monopoly regulation to general competition law and policy.

From 1978 to 2004, Dr. Janisch taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto where he held the Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt Chair in Law and Technology. From 1995 to 1998 he was the law school’s Associate Dean, Graduate Studies. In addition to teaching specialized seminars on telecommunications regulation and Internet governance, he supervised a number of graduate students interested in telecommunications regulation from South Africa, India, Jamaica, Russia, UK, Japan, China and Canada at both the masters and doctoral levels.

He has written extensively on telecommunications regulatory matters, including most recently on the topic of his lecture: “Telecommunications in Turmoil: New Legal, Regulatory and Policy Challenges,” (University of British Columbia Law Review); “Fairness and Transparency in Telecommunications Regulation,” (Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice); “Competition Policy Institutions: What Role in the Face of Continued Sectoral Regulation?” (in Doern et al (eds), Changing the Rules: Canadian Regulatory Regimes and Institutions, University of Toronto Press); and “Effectiveness of CRTC Hearings, Decision Making and Appeal Process” (in Conklin (ed.), Adapting to New Realities, Richard Ivey School of Business).

Born in Cape Town, he matriculated from Bishops in 1956 and earned his B.A. from Rhodes University in 1959. Thereafter, he studied at the University of Cambridge (M.A. 1961, LL.B. 1962) and the University of Chicago (M.C.L. 1963, LL.M. 1965, J.S.D. 1971).

In 2005, Dr. Janisch acted as consultant to TELUS, Canada’s second largest telecommunications company in connection with its extensive submissions to the Telecommunications Policy Review Panel. This blue ribbon panel is reconsidering for the government of Canada the whole issue of the future role of regulation and competition law and policy in the further evolution of Canadian telecommunications. In October 2005, Dr. Janisch was inducted into Canada’s Telecommunications Hall of Fame as an inaugural laureate in the Advocates and Academics category.

  The future of open business, and its significance for entrepreneurs

The LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand cordially invites you a free public seminar by visting international experts on the future of open business, and its significance for entrepreneurs: a presentation and discussion of practical examples from the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa.

Entrepreneurs, artists and creators of intellectual work often have limited means of getting their intellectual outputs published. Invariably the needs of the creator are secondary to those of the large, corporate publisher who relies on a business model that takes a sizeable cut of the profits, and endeavours to hold all the rights to the intellectual work.

Within this business model there is little scope for creators who would like to not only make a living from their work but would also wish to provide their audiences and target markets with greater freedom to sample, copy, share or build upon their works in order to develop a useful and sustainable pool of resources for the community. In this sense OpenBusiness entrepreneurs are realizing that collaboration, sharing, and giving can be economic activities, while they are at the same time a cultural and social form of interaction.

However, any of these creators who wishes to move away from the traditional publishing business model that strictly controls the rights, dissemination and profits of the work, often have to rely on their own intuition. There is no well structured overview of how creative entrepreneurs can integrate into their business models, open-content licences which offer both the user a variety of freedoms and the creator a number of protections.

A collaborative research project entitled OpenBusiness is currently being compiled by academic institutions based in Brazil (FGV Law School in Rio de Janeiro), the United Kingdom (Oxford University, London School of Economics and Michael Young Foundation) and South Africa (LINK Centre, at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg), to provide entrepreneurs, artists and creators with practical guides about how to incorporate Creative Commons open-content licences and other open-content licences into their business models.

The team involved in the OpenBusiness project will be presenting the OpenBusiness concept and findings to date on the 8th February 2006. The presentation will include:

• an introduction to the project
  
• objectives and outcomes of OpenBusiness
  
• country-specific examples of successful OpenBusiness projects from the UK, Brazil and South Africa
  
• the future of OpenBusiness, and
  
• general discussion and debate.

Christian Ahlert is a public project lead of Creative Commons England and Wales. He is a fellow at the Michael Young Foundation, where he is establishing an organization to support and protect the cultural and
intellectual commons in a sustainable way. He is Research Associate of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, where he is also a Senior Research Associate of the Centre for Brazilian Studies.
Previously, he worked at the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at Oxford. In addition he managed a number of European Commission projects in the area of internet and media policy, as well
as international development and technical assistance projects.

Ronaldo Lemos is the director of the Center for Technology & Society at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) Law School in Rio de Janeiro. He is the project lead for the Creative Commons project in Brazil, and a member of the International Commons Board. He is an LL.B. and an LL.D. from the University of Sao Paulo, and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School. He is one of the founders of the collaborative site www.overmundo.com.br.

Carolina Rossini is a member of the Center for Technology & Society at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) Law School in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She coordinates the the regional Open Business project in Brazil, which includes actions in two other Latin American countries and also in Nigeria. She earned an MBA in E-Business from the Instituto de Empresas de Madri, Spain, and a Master Degree in International Negotiation from the joint program offered by UNICAMP/UNESP/PUCSP, São Paulo, Brazil. Carolina is a lawyer graduated from Universidade de São Paulo (USP) and studied International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo (PUC). She worked for 6 years as the legal counsel for the Telefonica Group in Brazil.

  Rethinking Broadband: Some Policy Challenges

The LINK Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand cordially invites you a free public seminar by Professor Ewan Sutherland, entitled 'Rethinking Broadband: Some Policy Challenges'.

With the questions of broadband access, affordability and rollout very much in the public eye, Professor Sutherland (Executive Director, International Telecommunications Users Group (INTUG), Brussels) will examine broadband market developments and technology choices in a range of countries, highlighting policy issues and challenges confronting operators, regulators and policy-makers.

Ewan Sutherland is the Executive Director of INTUG, the International Telecommunications Users Group (INTUG), based in Brussels. He took up this post in August 1999, prior to which he had been an individual member of INTUG for ten years.

He spent fifteen years as an academic, latterly a dean in the University of Wales. He has taught at the Universities of Wolverhampton, Westminster, Stirling and Wales, plus a semester as a visiting professorial lecturer at Georgetown University (Washington, DC). His teaching has concentrated on the strategic and policy aspects of business use of telecommunications and information technology.

Ewan is a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde, both in his native city of Glasgow, Scotland.

He has presented papers at ITU, OECD, APECTEL, ITS, PTC, TPRC and a range of regulatory authorities, telecommunications conferences and universities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa.

  The Wireless Commons & Innovation

The LINK Centre and the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering at Wits invite you to this free public lecture by leading communications academic François Bar of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC).

Prof. Bar’s presentation will trace the evolution of community-based WiFi internet deployment in a so-called “junk” frequency band in the United States. It is an examination of the innovation that can occur when a “commons” approach is taken to telecommunications spectrum regulation.

Prof. Bar has held a range of professorships at leading universities and his research interests include comparative telecommunications policy; the economic, strategic and social dimensions of computer networking; new media; and the internet. His research has been published in books of collected studies, in policy reports, and in such journals as Telecommunications Policy, The Information Society, Organization Science, Infrastructure Economics & Policy, Communications & Strategies, Réseaux, and the International Journal of Technology Management.

  Innovation, creativity and culture: Digital approaches to the commons

This free public lecture is presented by respected scholar, writer and activist, Professor Lawrence Lessig. Lessig, of Stanford University Law School, California, is author of several books on copyright, innovation and creativity in the digital age, and the Chairperson of the Creative Commons alternative copyright licencing system.

Writings by Prof. Lessig include:
· Code & Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999);
· The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (2001);
· Free Culture (2004).

Prof. Lessig's public lecture - entitled "Innovation, creativity and culture: Digital approaches to the commons" will examine how the networked digital environment creates potential for both the flourishing - and for the "lock-down" by big content firms - of creativity, cultural expression and technological innovation.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear an incredible speaker!

  Panel Discussion: The Future of Digital TV in South Africa

There is an international trend towards digital transmission of television signals – via satellite, wired/cable systems and wireless terrestrial platforms (Digital Terrestrial Television). This drive to digital aims to make better use of broadcast frequency spectrum, to lower the cost of transmission, and to provide for greater consumer choice and interactivity. But the migration to digital is not without its difficulties -- including the costs of new transmission infrastructure and “double illumination”; the need to develop new services to drive migration; and issues of consumer affordability/Universal Access.

Thus the need for a public seminar of this kind, to examine the pros and cons of various digital TV scenarios for South Africa.

As a backgrounder to the discussion, LINK Centre Associate Chris Armstrong and LINK Visiting Professor Richard Collins of Open University in the UK have prepared a LINK Public Policy Research Paper, entitled “Digital Dilemmas for South African TV,” which outlines some of the main issues. Click here to download this paper in Acrobat Reader format. It will be distributed in booklet form to all who attend the Sept. 3 seminar.

  e-Democracy in Europe - The use of ICTs for citizens participation in policy making: Prospects and Problems

According to many, Western democracies are in a deep crisis. Since the 1970s voting rates are going down steadily, membership of political parties is declining, right wing political parties are gaining strength. There is a growing gap between institutionalized politics and citizens. More and more institutions believe that citizens participation in policy making might reverse the evolution. Since the 1980s different countries have experimented with participatory policy making exercises. Over the last few years ICT's and especially the Internet have raised the hope that larger groups of people could participate in political discussions and processes of policy making. On the basis of a review of literature and pilot projects in Europe the authors assess the prospects, possibilities, bottlenecks and problems connected to e-democracy. The lecture is based on a report written for viWTA-Society & Technology, an independent institute associated with the Flemish Parliament, stimulating the public debate on science and technology.

  Ubiquitous networks: service on fixed and mobile networks

Dr Sutherland will look at how developments in various parts of the world are shaping up to deliver unified services across multiple and heterogeneous networks.

  Transnational Civil Society in the Networked Society: the relationship between ICTs & the rise of a transnational civil society

During the 1990s transnational civil society seems both to be strengthening and to have major impacts on some aspects of international decision-making. In 1997 122 countries signed an international treaty to ban landmines. The treaty was largely the result of a long campaign by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a coalition of more than 300 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from different walks of life.

At the end of 1999 more than 40.000 workers, students, environmentalists, developmentalists and concerned citizens from all over the world gathered in Seattle to protest against the 'globalisation' as conceived and pushed forward by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It was the first in a series of protests against neo-liberal globalisation and its worldwide consequences.

Many authors suggest that the Internet plays a crucial role in the rise of transnational civil society. They assume new technologies have an impact on the organisational structure of national and transnational civil society, making more decentralised and participatory forms of organisation possible. However, little empirical research supports the often overdrawn conclusions.

Leo Van Audenhove (SMIT/VUB Brussels) & Bart Cammaerts (LSE London) have over the last years conducted empirical research into the relationship between ICTs and transnational civil society. This lecture provides a more indepth insight into the relation between ICTs and transnational civil society. It is based on a comparative analysis of five case-studies, representing the progressive leftist movement. To access the full text of their paper, click on the following link: Transnational Civil Society in the Networked Society (1,6 mb).

  Next Generation Internet and its Governance

  Performance Review of the ICT Sector in South Africa

  National Convergence Policy in a Global World: Preparing South Africa for Next Generation Networks, Services and Regulation

  Information and Communication Technologies for African Development: a report on the contents of a book recently prepared for the UN ICT Task Force

  Making Underserviced Area Licences Work

  >Stimulating Investment in Information Infrastructure Development after the Dot.com Collapse: the Roles for Policy and Regulation

  Wireless Technology, Spectrum Policy and Opportunities for Rural Network Development

  Next Steps in Mobile Market Competition and Regulation: Do recent UK and EC Developments have Implications for South Africa and Other Developing Countries?

Contact the LINK Centre for more information.

  Top...