Announcements

New Book: ARNIC co-founder Jonathan Aronson's new book (with Peter Cowhey of UCSD and now the Senior Counselor at USTR and a contribution by former official Don Abelson) has been published by MIT Press. The book, Transforming Global Information and Communication Markets: The Political Economy of Innovation is available for free download under a Creative Commons license at :  http://www.globalinfoandtelecom.org.  The authors would welcome your comments, criticisms, and corrections.

 

Recent Article, Published by PrivacyHQ - Cyber Security Experts. A comprehensive Surfshark VPN Review. You can learn from it how to use Surfshark to increase your privacy online: you can find here the pros and cons, prices, how to install it, interface, compatible apps, and more.

Recent Book, by Manuel Castells, Mireia Fernandez - Ardevol, Jack Linchuan Qiu and Araba Sey: Mobile Communication and Society: A Global Perspertive, (MIT Press, 2006) [more info from MIT Press] Now available in Spanish

Recent Book, edited by Manuel Castells and Gustavo Cardoso: The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy (Washington DC: Johns Hopkins Center for Transatlantic Relations, 2006); also available in Portuguese as A sociedade em Rede: Do Conhecimento à Acção Política, Imprensa Nacional, Casa da Moeda, Lisboa , 2006. Includes chapters by Jonathan Taplin, Jeffrey Cole, Hernán Galperin and François Bar. (free download in both languages)

Recent Book, edited by Hernán Galperin and Judith Mariscal: Digital Poverty: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives
[download PDF]

Research Notes:
Tsunami Field Notes – Phi Phi Island, Thailand
Seungyoon Lee, 23rd July – 28th July, 2005
Mobile Phones for Disaster Preparedness
Arul Chib & Seungyoon Lee, September 2005

Reviews
William Davies, of the Institute for Policy Research, reviews Hernán Galperin's New Television, Old Politics in New Media & Society 7(2)

 

Inside Espaço dos sonhos, a telecenter near São Paulo, one of 600 Pontos de Cultura funded by Brazil's Culture Ministry
( photo François Bar )

The Annenberg Research Network on International Communication studies the emergence of communication innovation, examines the attendant transformation of government policies and communication patterns, and analyzes the social and economic consequences. The project is multi-disciplinary, including communication, sociology, economics, and political science approaches, and international in its scope - spanning North America and Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific, Western and Eastern Europe.

Recent News from Network Members:

Where is the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication?
See a map of our current activities

October 2008: Campaign 2008 Technology and Media Policy Watch launched. As the 2008 presidential election enters its final month, researchers at the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication (ARNIC) have found some sharp differences – and surprising similarities – in the two major candidates' positions on technology policy. [PRESS RELEASE]

September 2007: ARNIC welcomes two visiting fellows for this academic year:
- Professor Márcio Iorio Aranha, University of Brasilia (Brazil), School of Law and Centre for Policy, Law, Economics and Technologies of Telecommunications (bio)
- Dr Wally Baer, Professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an advisor to the RAND Corporation (bio)

April 2007: Manuel Castells, Hernán Galperin and François Bar took part in a worshop on "Desarrollo Económico, Desarrollo Social y Comunicaciones Móviles en América Latina”, April 20-21, 2007, Buenos Aires. The conference was convened by Fundación Telefónica to launch an 18 month research project investigating the socio-economic impact of mobile communications in Latin America.

November 2006: Under Manuel Castells' leadership, The University of Catalonia has published the second phase of the Project Internet Catalonia's research report on e-Administration. The team is made up of Eduard Aibar, Project Director and Vice-rector for Research at the UOC, and IN3 researchers Ferran Urgell and Yanina Welp. The research began in June 2004 and ended in July 2006. The document published can be consulted here.

Winter 2006: François Bar and Hernán Galperin edited a special issue of MIT-Press journal Information Technologies and International Development, focusing on "Wireless and Economic Development." It contains revised versions of several articles presented at our 2005 Workshop. This was the first issue of ITID released under Open Access.

August 2006: During a research trip in São Paulo, François Bar and Francis Pisani gave a talk on free/open source software in a telecenter located in Gaurulhos, one of São Paulo's suburbs. Read about the center in Sergio Amadeu's blog.

July 2006: Hernan Galperin co-organized a conference on "La Sociedad de la Información en Perspectiva Comparada: Las Américas y Europa", at the Universidad de San Andrés. ARNIC's Jeffrey Cole and François Bar both presented papers at the conference.

June 2006: Manuel Castells delivered the opening address at this year's ICA conference in Dresden, Germany. His presentation examined "Communication, power and counterpower." (photo credit: snurb)

June 2006: Manuel Castells and François Bar took part in the second meeting of the International Advisory Committee on policies for the Information Society and urban digital innovation, convened by Juan Alberto Belloch, mayor of Zaragoza.

February 2006: François Bar took part in the Roundtable on Communications Policy- Leveraging ICT for Inclusive and Sustained Economic Growth in India, organized by The Aspen Institute India in partnership with The Aspen Institute Communications & Society Program from February 19 to 23, 2006 in Goa and New Delhi.

February 2006: Equinox Press just released "Connectivity in Antiquity: Globalization as a Long Term Historical Process" edited by Ystein S. LaBianca, which includes a capstone concluding chapter by Manuel Castells.

January 2006: Hernan Galperin, Raul Roman, and Paola Ruchman, with colleagues at the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, co-wrote the First Interim Report of a "USAID Last-Mile Initiative in Peru." [PDF - 500Kb] The project's goal is to expand telecommunication connectivity to isolated rural areas, emphasizing sutainable business models.

December 2005: Hernan Galperin has published a new book titled Digital Poverty: Latin American and Caribbean Perspectives. The book, co-edited with Judith Mariscal (CIDE-Mexico), presents recent research on the themes of pro-poor ICT indicators and assessment of information needs; consumer protection in a context of market concentration; and the role of new technologies and ownership models in extending service provision opportunities. It is available for download here: www.dirsi.net

 

November 2005: Hernan Galperin participated in the Pro-Poor Pro-Market ICT Policy and Regulation workshop sponsored by IDRC. The event was organized in the context of the WSIS Phase II in Tunis, November 17, 2005, and brought together researchers from Research ICT Africa, LirneAsia, and the Regional Dialogue on the Information Society in Latin America. More information can be found on the IDRC web site. .

November 22, 2005: François Bar presented a paper he co-wrote with Namkee Park on "Municipal Wi-Fi Networks: The Goals, Practices, and Policy Implications of the US Case" [PDF - 154K], at the First Transatlantic Telecom Industry Forum: Market trends, Industry metamorphosis & Regulation, Montpellier, France, November 22, 2005.

November 16-18, 2005: Hernan Galperin, Raul Roman and Sasha Costanza-Chock took part in the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis.

October 7-8, 2005: Our annual research workshop focused this year on "Wireless Communication and Development: A Global Perspective." This year's gathering brought together many of the world's leading researchers, including participants from India, Kenya, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, China, and England. They represented NGOs, governments, academic institutions, and international corporations. The workshop was a chance to begin a systematic analysis of wireless policies, deployment strategies and user practices across the developing world.

September 2005: Jonathan Aronson has been named by USC Provost Max Nikias as the new executive director of the Annenberg Center for Communication. He remains a fully committed participant in the Annenberg Research Network on International Communication, but François Bar will take over as director of the Network.

August 2005: Hernan Galperin and Jeff Cole took part in the Information Society in the Americas conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and event jointly organized by Universidad de San Andres (Argentina) and Northwestern University.

July 2005: The Annenberg Research Network on International Communication is partnering with the Grameen Technology Center and the Center for Internet Studies in launching Village Computing, "a multi-sector, international association of experts in ICT4D working to catalyze Village Computing globally. The Consortium seeks to identify and discuss emergent trends in village computing, and generate actionable insights for practitioners, policymakers, as well as technology and service developers and providers."

June 8-10, 2005. Hernan Galperin participated in the Regional WSIS Ministerial Conference for Latin America, held in Rio de Janeiro. His remarks can be found here

June 16-17, 2005: Hernan Galperin participated in Internet Use in the
Americas A Research Workshop
, held in Mexico City. His presentation discussed "Infrastructure Development from the Bottom Up: The Latin American Experience"

May 26-27: François Bar took part in "Commons Sense", a conference launching the African Digital Information Commons, in Johannesburg, South Africa. He discussed "Wireless Commons and Innovation". While in Joburg, he also gave a seminar at the LINK Center.

March 21, 2005: Arul Chib will be spending the next two months in Lima , Peru , collaborating with the Instituto de Estudio Peruano on a study of cholonautas.edu.pe. This study aims to understand and help bridge the gap in conducting social scientific research between urban and rural university students in Peru . Drawing on social cognition theory, this study explores the potential benefits of increased self-efficacy, both contextual and environmental, for users of the website.

March 8, 2005: Arul Chib, Seungyoon Lee, and Kavya Yadav, under the supervision of Jonathan Aronson, have received funding from the USC Provost Office, for research on The Potential of Mobile Phones to Act as an Effective Tsunami Early Warning System. (more)

March 5-6, 2005: Jon Taplin, Jeff Cole, Manuel Castells and François Bar presented papers at "The Network Society and the Knowledge Economy: Portugal in the Global Context", a seminar convened in Lisbon, Portugal, by His Excellency the President of the Portuguese Republic, Dr. Jorge Sampaio.

January 29, 2005: Manuel Castells, Gilberto Gil, John Perry Barlow and Lawrence Lessig discussed "Revolução Digital: Software Livre, liberade do conhecimento e liberdade de expressão na Sociedade da Informação" at the Fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. (read accounts on Novae.inf.br and Lessig's blog)
(photo credit: Eduardo Quadros)

January 29, 2005: Jon Taplin moderated a panel bringing together T Bone Burnett, Sam Phillips, Rani Singh, Danger Mouse and Richard Nichols, to discuss "Handing Down the Song: Music, Ownership & the Creative Process", as part of the Ready To Share Conference organized by the Lear Center.
(watch the video)

January 17-19, 2005: François Bar and Araba Sey took part in a 3-day workshop on "ICTs and Poverty Reduction", organized by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop brought together researchers from Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya.