Telecom Italia: Italy's high tech old-style telecoms incumbent.

The Telecoms Boom and Bust 1996 to 2002 has had a significant impact on the structure of the Telecommunications Industry. During the boom it seemed as if new entrant telecoms operators, entering on the back of new technologies, might even replace the incumbent operators such as Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom. But the bust has decisively reversed this tendency. The aim of this paper is to examine in detail some of the major recent changes that have taken place in Telecom Italia and the forces that have driven these changes.

New global challenges, new knowledge actors, new forms of research: what higher education can learn from the research practices of NGOs

Academic research in the UK is facing an identity crisis. Universities are responding to a national ‘impact agenda’ (HEFCE et al 2011; 2017 Nurse 2015), which calls for the evidencing of applied uses of university research (Bastow et al 2013; Brewer 2013; NESTA/Alliance for Useful Evidence (2016) and the engagement of research users/mediators in research processes (e.g. Rickinson et al 2011; Facer et al 2012; Morton 2015; Wolff 2015), and may blur traditional boundaries around the role of academic research in relation to knowledge produced by other actors (including public-sector think-tanks, private-sector consultancy firms, the media and civil society organisations) (McCormick 2013; Shucksmith 2016)

Rethinking Research Partnerships: Discussion Guide and Toolkit

In recent years, there has been a drive towards research collaboration between academics and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). These new partnerships offer exciting opportunities to improve learning and practice in international development, leading to innovation and deepened understandings of the world and, ultimately, a better impact on poverty eradication. However, they also present considerable challenges. How do organisations with different structures, goals and interests collaborate? Can they work together productively around these differences? What tensions exist and what is the impact of these? How is power distributed and which voices are amplified or lost in the process? This guide does not seek to answer these questions, but offers a way of exploring them. It is aimed at people and organisations that are considering embarking on a research collaboration, or are already working in partnership. It introduces some of the key issues that arise when working collaboratively, and suggests tools and activities to help you to critically reflect on them. The guide is aimed at those at the forefront of these partnerships – academics, INGO staff and their respective institutions. However, the content will also be of relevance to funders and others seeking to support or encourage collaborative research approaches. This guide is a toolkit for critical reflection, rooted in the idea that research partnerships must be entered into with care. Attention needs to be given to contexts, power relations and the different interests involved in order to successfully deliver truly collaborative knowledge generation that serves everyone’s interests. The risks are real – partnerships without serious considerations of the power dynamics risk reaffirming certain interests and voices and marginalising others, particularly those already experiencing structural disadvantage, undermining the real benefit that these partnerships can bring. In addition, they can end up placing unfunded and unsupported burdens on particular individuals or organisations, and reinforce existing structures that constrain the intended learning and growth

Developing Walvis Bay Port into a logistics gateway for southern Africa: Issues, challenges and the potential implications for Namibia’s future

Many developing countries wish to become the ‘gateway’ to a region or part of a continent.One strategy involves encouraging logistics cluster development. These hubs support global supply chains and may enable the economic growth of the host country through the resulting trade, as well as providing direct and indirect employment opportunities during the build and subsequent operation of the hub. Namibia intends to develop the Port of Walvis Bay to be come the preferred gateway to southern Africa and the Southern African Development Community region. This article builds on research on Caribbean cluster potential and Namibian logistics to identify the potential benefits and impact on development, as well as the drawbacks and risks of such a strategy

Models of Innovation in Global ICT Firms: The Emerging Global Innnovation Ecosystems

This report focuses on the changing models of innovation adopted by some of the largest and most innovative global ICT companies in the world, including Apple, BT, Google, Microsoft, Skype, Telefonica and Vodafone. One of the main contributions of this report is to demonstrate that in order to understand these innovation models, it is necessary, at the same time to understand the dynamics of innovation at sector level. Beginning with an analysis of the innovation process in the ICT ecosystem, the author drills down into the company global innovation ecosystems that have been created by these global companies. In addition he explores some of the implications that proliferating company global innovation ecosystems have for government policy. He concludes that whilst innovation is changing the world, changing global circumstances are in turn transforming the innovation model in companies, both large and small, around the world.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Långtidsarbetslöshet som samhälleligt problem : Tess-sysselsättningsmodellens inverkan på klientens syn på egna arbetslösheten och sysselsättningsmöjligheterna

Only abstract. Paper copies of master’s theses are listed in the Helka database (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Electronic copies of master’s theses are either available as open access or only on thesis terminals in the Helsinki University Library.Vain tiivistelmä. Sidottujen gradujen saatavuuden voit tarkistaa Helka-tietokannasta (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Digitaaliset gradut voivat olla luettavissa avoimesti verkossa tai rajoitetusti kirjaston opinnäytekioskeilla.Endast sammandrag. Inbundna avhandlingar kan sökas i Helka-databasen (http://www.helsinki.fi/helka). Elektroniska kopior av avhandlingar finns antingen öppet på nätet eller endast tillgängliga i bibliotekets avhandlingsterminaler.Under de senaste decennierna har välfärdssystemen i västvärlden omprövats och förändrats. Villkoren för arbetet har förändrats och konkurrensen om arbetsplatserna är stenhård och utbildning garanterar inte längre fastanställning, eller ens arbete. Den ekonomiska depressionen på 1990-talet lämnade efter sig en hög arbetslöshetsgrad och långtidsarbetslöshet. Då arbetslöshet tidigare var någonting som drabbade vissa yrkesgrupper, är arbetslöshet idag något som kan drabba vem som helst oberoende av utbildningsnivå och arbetserfarenhet. Som en följd av den höga arbetslösheten har olika aktiveringsprogram och sysselsättningsprogram uppkommit. Ett av dessa sysselsättningsprojekt är Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen i Helsingfors. Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen fungerade under åren 2000-2006 vid Månsas socialbyrå i Norra Helsingfors. Grundidén inom Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen är att arbete i sig rehabiliterar och sysselsättningsmodellen försöker ersätta onödig skuldkänsla över att vara arbetslös med känslan av att duga, vara arbetsför och till nytta för samhället och andra. Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen skiljer sig från andra sysselsättningsprojekt i och med att den baserar sin ideologi på Ulrich Becks teori om risksamhället, där arbetslösheten ses om en följd av samhällsutvecklingen och globalisationen. Ulrick Becks verk om risksamhället utgör utgångspunkten för diskussionen kring arbete och arbetslöshet i det senmoderna samhället i denna avhandling. Studiematerialet bestod av sju (7) intervjuer med klienter som en längre eller kortare tid deltagit i Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen. De intervjuade hör till dem som vid det första mötet med Tess-handledaren bedömdes ha en någorlunda god eller nöjaktig arbetsförmåga. Som metod användes en halvstrukturerad intervju där frågorna är indelade i teman och med öppna svarsalternativ. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka på om och i så fall på vilket sätt ett deltagande i Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen, förändrat synen på den egna situationen och arbetslösheten samt på vilket sätt deltagarna har uppfattat det stöd som Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen erbjuder. Resultaten visar att Tess-sysselsättningsmodellens klienter inte ser den egna arbetslösheten som deras eget fel, utan anser att orsakerna till arbetslösheten finns i samhällets strukturer. De orsaker till arbetslösheten som de intervjuade lade fram, stöder den allmänna uppfattningen om den strukturella arbetslösheten. Överlag var de intervjuade positivt inställda till sysselsättningsmodellen. Stödet som Tess-sysselsättningsmodellen erbjuder ansågs vara tillräckigt och anpassas väl efter klientens behov

Promoting fair and equitable research partnerships to respond to global challenges

This report presents the findings from a programme of strategic research funded by UKRI through the GCRF. The research sought to elicit a 'partners' perspective' on participation in UKRI-funded research by generating data from three groups of partner: i) academics based in the global South; ii) civi society practitioners based in the global South; and iii) international NGOs and research capacity providers based in the UK. Drawing on this data, the report identifies eight principles for understanding and improving fair and equitable research collaboration which form the basis of a series of targeted learning modules for 6 groups of stakeholders: UK-based research funders; UK-based academics; research brokers and capacity providers; international NGOs; academics based in the global South; and civil society practitioners based in the global South

Telecommunications

What is the telecommunications industry? How does it relate to other activities in areas such as computing, software, semiconductors, the internet and electronic commerce, and the media? Where are its boundaries? What products and services should be included within it? What are its major markets? Which companies should be included in the industry? In this paper, we tackle these important questions by developing a layer model in order to map the industry. Layer models generally have a long and distinguished history in the telecommunications and computing fields. In the area of engineering and software design, they allow engineers to reduce and render tractable the awesome complexity of complex systems. They help to achieve this purpose essentially by decomposing the system into relatively autonomous subsystems that interact with each other through an interface that is often standardized in order to facilitate coordination. But, in this paper, the layer model does more than merely decompose a complex system into component subsystems. While each layer may be thought of as a subsystem (usually further subdivided into sub-sub-systems, and even further subdivided), the layer model also, by its nature, draws attention to the interdependence of each layer on the layers below and above it. By decomposing the telecommunications industry into different layers, and further by analysing the interdependence between the major layers that compose the industry, we will provide a detailed assessment of an industry, characterized by recurrent technological innovation and faced with an increasing diversification of demand. The reader should note that this article draws heavily on our telecoms website: http://www.TelecomVisions.com.