NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 13 March
13-03-2009
by Bryan Collins
Ireland most expensive for line rental | World Wide Web celebrates 20th birthday
Ireland is the most expensive country in the world for line rental. That's according a survey conducted by International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which also found Ireland is the 17th most expensive country in the world for prepaid mobile phone calls. The ITU surveyed 150 countries and found fixed-line telephony in Ireland costs USD42.20 to install. Its findings prompted Liz McManus, Labour's spokesperson on communications, to call on ComReg to conduct an immediate investigation into "these apparently massive comparative costs for line rental in Ireland".
The Ideas Campaign has released details about its members and how its plan of action will be created. The Ideas Campaign is a private group formed after the managing director of IT consultancy Amas, Aileen O’Toole, appeared on Prime Time to speak to Mark Little about ways to help the economy. The Ideas Campaign's Advisory Group comprises ten figures from business, policy, academia, economics, and the voluntary sector. Following submissions by an external team of experts, the group will draft a plan of action for the economy in April. This will be presented to the Government and, according to Taoiseach Brian Cowen, "fast-tracked to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Renewal for assessment and implementation".
The World Wide Web celebrates its 20th birthday on Friday. In March 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, employee at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland, submitted a paper entitled 'Information Management: A Proposal' to his manager Mike Sendall. His manager gave him the go-ahead to proceed, writing "Vague, but exciting" on the document's cover. In September the following year, Berners-Lee took delivery of a computer called a NeXT cube, and by December 1990 the web was up and running, albeit between just a couple of computers at CERN. In celebration, Berners-Lee is giving a keynote speech in Geneva which will be broadcast at http://webcast.cern.ch . "CERN has come a long way since 1989, and so has the web, but its roots will always be here," said Berners-Lee. Robert Cailliau, one of Berners-Lee's collaborators, is also using the birthday to launch a website for young people highlight CERN's research through films, games and various other multimedia applications.
The number of people using mobile banking and related services is to reach 913 million users by 2014, according to Berg Insight. Currently 20 million use these services, but the market analysts predict a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 89 percent from 2008 up to 2014. The company expects Asia-Pacific to become the most important regional market, accounting for 65 percent of the total user base, and says mobile banking will play a key role in bringing financial services to the Middle East and Africa. Berg also predicts that mobile banking will attract 110 million users in Europe and 80 million users in North America by 2014.
Irish aid agency Trocaire and social networking website Bebo have launched a video diary series to show people the reality of trying to survive in war-torn, violent countries like Sudan. 'Osman's Run' is a fictionalised story of a young boy from Darfur, who flees his home after his family is attacked by armed men. According to Justin Kilcullen, director of Trocaire, "the whole idea of working with Bebo is for Trocaire to let young people know what's going on in the world. The world is a big place where 26 million people have been forced from their homes because of war, where 1 in 7 people don't have enough food to survive. "
PopCap Games is giving away a free computer game as part of a Paddy's Day promotion. The casual gaming software company is inviting people to visit www.popcap.co.uk and download a free copy of its PC computer game 'Big Money' between March 13 and March 24.
The Centre for Telecommunications Value-chain Research (CTVR), has welcomed a report citing Ireland's commitment to science and technology research and higher-level education. However, the CTVR warned Ireland needs to "maintain focus" on these areas to address the economic downturn. The report, entitled 'The Atlantic Century: Benchmarking EU and US Innovation and Competitiveness', was published by US research institute the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and showed the number of researchers in the science and technology space here increased by 40 percent between 1999 and 2006. "There is obviously a huge amount of pessimism as to Ireland's economic prospects. This report shows that we are getting some important things right, such as producing the right kinds of researchers," said Professor O'Mahony, director of CTVR.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 