Orbicom /Expert meeting in Beijing to discuss Cyber Network for Learning LanguagesUNESCO and the Chinese National/'Emerging Development Opportunities:

Orbicom
Orbicom is an international network that links communications leaders from academic, media, corporate and government circles with a view to providing for the exchange of information and the development of shared projects. While Orbicom is supported by internationally-based institutions, media, governments and corporations, Orbicom's mandate derives from UNESCO's New Communications Strategy unanimously adopted at the 1989 General Conference. This Conference foresaw that new communications technologies would have a significant impact upon the complex processes shaping economies, the environment, social justice, democracy, and peace.

Expert meeting in Beijing to discuss Cyber Network for Learning LanguagesUNESCO and the Chinese National:

UNESCO and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO are organizing an expert meeting in Beijing, from 26 to 27 March 2009, in order to study the feasibility of establishing a Cyber Network for Learning Languages.

The Cyber Network for Learning Languages is a proposal introduced by China to UNESCO’s Executive Board in September 2008, aiming at harnessing the power of information and communication technology to advance the learning of languages and establishing an online-based network for learning languages. It also has for objective to give wider and more affordable access to language learning resources worldwide.

The meeting will gather around 20 experts from all regions of the world working in the field of computer assisted language learning, including educators and teachers, computer and information technology specialists, as well as managers of existing online platforms for language learning.

The promotion of languages and multilingualism lie at the very core of UNESCO’s mission and objectives. Languages are the vehicle for communication, for understanding between cultures and for dialogue among civilizations. In this context, the learning of languages is a crucial dimension, for which facilitating the development of open learning resources and open source tools for e-learning of languages is an important avenue.

Source: UNESCO-CI
'Emerging Development Opportunities: The Making of Information Societies and ICT Markets'

The first presents a comparative analysis of the stage of ICT development across a large number of countries, as well as the progress made in recent years. It does so though the conceptual notion of Infostates and relies on the most recent data released earlier this year by the ITU, in the form of the ICT Opportunity Index. It adopts a regional perspective and contains detailed analyses for economies in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa.
* The second part breaks new ground by targeting the ICT sector and attempting to shed light on its magnitude, composition and evolution across several countries.'

Orbicom, 2007.

Much remains to be learned or understood better as the diffusion of ICTs continues to expand, technologies continue to evolve and numerous applications proliferate. Throughout, good research needs solid quantitative evidence, which is by itself part of the sought-after body of knowledge.

The research contained here hopes to contribute to this direction, both through the findings it presents and through the research horizons it seeks to open up. The publication comprises two parts.
The first presents a comparative analysis of the stage of ICT development across a large number of countries, as well as the progress made in recent years. It does so though the conceptual notion of Infostates and relies on the most recent data released earlier this year by the ITU, in the form of the ICT Opportunity Index. It adopts a regional perspective and contains detailed analyses for economies in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa.
The second part breaks new ground by targeting the ICT sector and attempting to shed light on its magnitude, composition and evolution across several countries.
While such work has produced valuable insights in developed countries, the systematic quantification of the sector has not been attempted in developing ones. Such work becomes increasingly important as it provides a good framework to examine the much-talked about technological convergence, and offers a platform for a more substantive dialogue across jurisdictions within countries.
Expanding the scope of ICT investigations from the confines of telecommunications to the other manufacturing and computer services industries that comprise the sector, leads to a more comprehensive examination of national strengths and weaknesses. It also affords linkages with issues such as domestic capacity, human resources, trade, and science and technology. The second part of this volume also contains additional demand-side analysis in selected countries.

'Creative Content Online'

This website provides a 2006 European Commission Policy Paper on audio visual content that can be provided online. The policy was based in part on a public consultation also available on the website. The policy paper proposes 2 main measures:

* a new public consultation to prepare a recommendation on creative content online.
* a new stakeholder discussion group - the 'Content online platform' – which will look at forthcoming challenges.

and identifies 4 main areas requiring EU action:

* availability of creative content – if online content services are to develop, more good content is needed, actively licensed and accurately priced for use via the new platforms.
* multi-territory licensing of creative content - the lack of multi-country copyright licences makes it difficult for online content to fully benefit from potential access to the entire EU market.
* digital rights management systems (DRMs) – these technologies, often used to restrict access to high-value content (e.g. sports and movies), need to be made more interoperable, i.e. designed to work with all types of hard- and software.
* piracy / unauthorized file-sharing - cooperation is needed between service providers, producers and consumers, to:

- ensure an adequate online supply of easily available and attractive content

- adequately protect copyrighted works

- raise awaren
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Re Edited by :MUKTI MAJID on behalf of 'The Monthly Muktidooth',Dacca,Bangladesh.