Global Innovation Policy Index

Ranks fifty-five nations' strategies to boost innovation capacity: policies on trade, scientific research, information and communications technologies, tax, intellectual property, domestic competition, government procurement, and high-skill immigration

Telecommunications infrastructures and policies as factors in regional competitive advantage and disadvantage

There has been a revolution in telecommunications technologies in recent years. New technologies with myriad applications have helped transform markets, industrial structures and the organisation of firms throughout the economy. These changes have had important spatial effects which are the subject of this paper. The processes of adoption and diffusion of telecommunications technologies are discussed. The argument that the spread of such technologies means that"distance no longer matters" is scrutinised. There is a theme in the literature that this decentralising tendency has particular implications for peripheral regions, that new communications technologies could have a significant impact in reducing the traditional economic disadvantages of such regions. However, there is a contrary argument that there remain strong centralising tendencies. Indeed, new communications technologies may be associated with an increasing polarisation of economic activity. These theoretical arguments are revisited in the context of a case study of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. This is a particularly interesting region because, although it is a peripheral, rural area, it has a highly developed telecommunications infrastructure. This case study deploys the results of a recent study of the use by firms in the Highlands and Islands of communications technologies. The paper finds little significant evidence that telecommunications initiatives in the Scottish Highlands and Islands have significantly altered the competitive position of the region. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the implications for national and local policy makers in encouraging the take up and effective use of new communications technologies.

The Tension Between Privacy and Security

A Review of President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, Liberty and Security in a Changing World, 2013 and United Nations Office of the High Commissioner, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy, Joseph A. Cannataci, 2016

Evaluation of components, subsystems, and networks for high rate, high frequency space communications

The development of new space communications technologies by NASA has included both commercial applications and space science requirements. NASA's Systems Integration, Test and Evaluation (SITE) Space Communication System Simulator is a hardware based laboratory simulator for evaluating space communications technologies at the component, subsystem, system, and network level, geared toward high frequency, high data rate systems. The SITE facility is well-suited for evaluation of the new technologies required for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) and advanced commercial systems. Described here are the technology developments and evaluation requirements for current and planned commercial and space science programs. Also examined are the capabilities of SITE, the past, present and planned future configurations of the SITE facility, and applications of SITE to evaluation of SEI technology

Changing organizational culture in terms of information and communications technologies

Organizational change can be considered a genuine moment of evolution and development of the entire organization and decision of change is closely related to the company's mission, the objectives that wish to achieve in order to ensure their competitive advantage. At the same time, information and communication technologies as well as growing competition, changes in both production methods and organizational structures of companies. New forms of organization and management models based on different concepts and skills involving clear needs of employees with new skills, new roles, behaviors and values. It appears, therefore, a new culture of the organizationorganization, organizational culture, communications technologies

Connecting the nation : an historical institutionalist explanation for divergent communications technology outcomes in Canada and Australia

Australia's slow rate of progress in rolling out broadband technologies became a major election issue in 2007, resulting in the National Broadband Network (NBN), the largest public infrastructure investment in Australia's history. Numerous international comparative reports reveal that Australia's lag in the deployment of broadband technologies in relation to Canada, another geographically large, sparsely populated federal system, is significant. Nevertheless, Australia's poor broadband performance is no different than the sluggish adoption of many other forms of electromagnetic communications technologies since the time of the telegraph. This thesis adopts an historical institutionalist approach to explain why Australia trails behind Canada in the take-up of communications technologies. The thesis identifies the different approaches to enabling, coordinating and regulating communications technologies in each country. Importantly, different federal powers for communications technologies have resulted in longstanding differences in the deployment of communications technologies. The Australian government's exclusive powers to legislate for communications technologies resulted in a series of centralised, top-down, single national solutions. Conversely, Canada's decentralised, bottom-up, provincial and municipal solutions approach stems from the provinces' powers to legislate for communications technologies within the provinces. Constitutionally, the Canadian government's powers are for the most part restricted to issues of interconnection between the provinces. Australian policy-makers favour standardised national systems designed to provide equality of service provision which invariably takes longer to deliver services to citizens. While Canada's approach leads to different standards of service provision, the approach is faster in delivering communications technology services to citizens. In explaining why a decentralised approach to deploying communications technologies results in faster take-up of new communications technologies, the concept of varieties of particularism is developed. The term 'varieties of particularism' refers to the unique social, political, economic, technological and geographical peculiarities that exist at the nexus of government, business and communications technologies. These various characteristics differ for each region, jurisdiction, provider and user and present a complex series of challenges for the deployment of new communications technologies. In the broadband era, the traditional monolithic telecommunications carrier model is increasingly obsolete. The research finds that single national solutions designed to meet citizens' communications technology requirements (such as those adopted by Australian policy makers) do not adequately address the varieties of particularism and therefore are slow to be deployed and to be taken-up by citizens. Further, the centralisation of political power in the communication industries prevents many citizens from participating in policy development - a 'build it and they will come' scenario - which neglects the human element of the 'network society'. Consequently, the centralised approach results in policy focused on particular technologies or devices predetermined by government, rather than user functionality which can be delivered by a mix of available technologies. The research finds that Australia's centralised approach discourages innovative uses of available technologies, whereas the Canadian decentralised approach enables citizens to be active policy and network participants where political issues are resolved at the regional or local level. In light of the NBN, the comparison with Canada demonstrates that Australia's centralised approach has important ramifications for future communications technology deployment

Already at a disadvantage? ICT in the home and children's preparation for primary school. (ICT Research Bursaries 2004 - Final Report)

The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on pre-school children's development of competences in information and communications technologies (ICT). The study focuses on children's experiences of ICT in the home and in pre-school settings in the year before they begin formal education, and seeks to investigate concepts of advantage and disadvantage in this context. The study also aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of children's ICT competences on entry to school