Ken Novak: Digital DevelopmentCommunications and info tech in developing countries, especially wireless broadband and high-value applications(Untitled)- January 28, 2006 Lessons of post-Cold War development: Summarizes and links to papers by Harvard's Dani Rodrik, especially an excellent review of economic development policies since 1990, "Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion" For example: "While it is true that over the past ten years scores of developing nations have not experienced economic growth, and in some cases have actually fallen backwards, despite following the rules of the Washington Consensus, paradoxically, that...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2006/01/27.html#a3325 (Untitled)- January 28, 2006 Text messaging, thumb drives, and Web mail for disasters: "Communications systems were largely useless when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region, &147;but text messaging did work,&148; said John Lawson, CIO of Tulane University in New Orleans. Lawson and other officials who were on the ground during Katrina&146;s aftermath told a gathering of public-sector CIOs that because text messaging requires so little bandwidth, and in very short bursts, it became a primary means of...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2006/01/27.html#a3322 (Untitled)- January 18, 2006 111m surfers in China: "The number of Web users in China, the world's second largest Internet market, grew by 18 percent in 2005 to 111 million, the Economic Daily reported on Wednesday. Some 8.5 percent of the country's 1.3 billion people now had access to the Internet, the newspaper reported, citing a survey released by the China Internet Network Information Center. .. The 2005 gains represented an acceleration from 2004, when the number of Internet users grew 16 percent to 94...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2006/01/18.html#a3313 (Untitled)- January 11, 2006 Why Do Some Turks Have Bird Flu Virus but Aren't Sick: I wonder if surviving a mild version of bird flu immunizes against the bad version. "five cases in Ankara hospitals are different from those elsewhere in Asia. Four of the five display only mild symptoms, or no symptoms at all.. Doctors are unsure whether they are for the first time seeing human bird flu in its earliest stages or if they are discovering that infection with the A(H5N1) virus does not always lead to illness..http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2006/01/11.html#a3302 (Untitled)- January 10, 2006 Getting in early as China cleans up: "Stories on environmental disasters come out of China and other Asian developing countries regularly. A review of impacts and the resulting investments: "Environmental damage from pollution is costing China the equivalent of 7.7 percent of gross domestic product annually .. Other sobering statistics in the report, called "Connecting Asia," include estimates of 6.4 million work years lost annually in China to air pollution, 178,000 premature...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2006/01/10.html#a3300 (Untitled)- January 9, 2006 Uganda in trouble: Uganda's government has been a model of moderation and economic liberalization for over 10 years. But now the long-standing Museveni government is cracking down on opponents. This reports on a demonstration for an opponent just released from jail, which was attacked with teargas and batons by police. "From 1986 to 1996, one of them told me, crowds of this size would meet Museveni wherever he went and whomever he was with. A decade later, a...http://www.novak.com/weblog/categories/digitalDevelopment/2006/01/09.html#a3299 |