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A Techie's Call To Baghdad
by William New
James LeBlanc, a former Canadian government official active in the northern Virginia technology industry, has accepted a 12- to 18-month senior appointment as the National Democratic Institute's country director for Iraq.
LeBlanc will lead an experienced team of Iraqi and foreign professionals in implementing the institute's programs in the country. Those programs include developing political parties, coalitions, and grassroots and nonprofit groups; monitoring elections and governance; offering training and advice to political leaders; and running women's programs.
LeBlanc said he will promote and develop technology for the democratic process and for institutions. "Anything you would use technology for here, we're going to ramp up the use of there," he said.
LeBlanc currently serves on the executive committee of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and is board liaison to the council's international committee. He is president of S&H/LeBlanc International.
Of his decision to go to Baghdad, LeBlanc said, "It's going to be the biggest professional challenge of my career."
The al Qaeda network, meanwhile, is increasingly using the Internet for terrorist activities, a discovery that could renew concern about cyber security, the Los Angeles Times reports.
An al Qaeda manifesto posted on the Internet in December 2003 identified Spain for attacks in retaliation for cooperation with the United States and to influence approaching elections. The bombings on March 11, 2004, influenced election results the next day, with the pro-U.S. government replaced by one that promised to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.
Experts said those events show the ability of al Qaeda to use the Internet for communications, training and recruitment. Web sites run by al Qaeda and supporters have become "virtual classrooms for terrorists," offering instructions for activities such as kidnapping and using cellular telephones to detonate bombs, the Times said.
Jim Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Internet gives al Qaeda a communications system that rivals that of a superpower but without the risks.
Competition Laws Could Cause Trade War
The divergence in approaches to competition law by the United States and the European Union could lead the trading partners into a major trade war, two U.S. industry representatives argued this week.
"Despite the polite tone and optimistic rhetoric, the growing divergence could easily devolve into a trans-Atlantic trade war and create critical problems for the future of global business, especially in the information technology sector," Jonathan Zuck and Laurent Ruessman said in an International Herald Tribune column.
Zuck is president of the Association for Competitive Technology, and Ruessman is the group's antitrust counsel in Brussels, Belgium. ACT counts Microsoft, which has been charged with violating EU competition law, among its members.
Zuck and Ruessman said the level of antitrust enforcement in the United States has fluctuated over the past 100 years, but the current divergence is "substantial and dangerous." Europe focuses dangerously on the welfare of competitors rather than consumers, they added, and the European system has become very attractive as a "second chance" court for antitrust claims by U.S. companies that lose in American courts.
A Brussels-based representative of another Microsoft-backed trade association, the Business Software Alliance, said on Friday that to some degree the "boundaries" of intellectual property law are found in competition law. Francisco Mingorance urged that competition law continue to be addressed in a "pragmatic and carefully weighed manner" under newly named EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes-Smit of the Netherlands.
Tech Tidbits From Europe To Canada
The United Kingdom communications regulator Ofcom released a report showing that the British have increased the amount of time they spend on the Internet by eight times over the last four years. During that time, they also tripled their time on mobile phones and increased radio listening and television watching.
Nine out 10 people in the kingdom own cell phones, and 55,000 new high-speed Internet connections are made every week, as 90 percent of the population has access to broadband.
Separately, a new survey by Visa Europe shows that more than three-quarters of Internet users choose passwords that could be guessed easily by hackers. The survey found the favorite for passwords are nicknames, at 21 percent, followed by birthdays and anniversaries (15 percent), pets (15 percent), family members' names (14 percent) and memorable dates (7 percent).
In addition, about 33 percent of responders use the same password for just about everything. Visa recommends random passwords.
Also in Europe, the fifth Worldwide Forum on e-Democracy will occur Sept. 29-30 in Paris. It will be led by Andre Santini, a former minister, member of Parliament and city mayor. Numerous French and international personalities are expected to participate with the aim of weighing the impact of information and communications technologies on citizen-based democracy.
And in Canada, police departments have proposed adding 25 cents to telephone and Internet bills to cover the cost of wiretapping, the Globe and Mail reports. Bell Canada counters that costs should be borne by telecommunications agencies and law enforcement, not consumers. A police spokesman compared the fee to the current fee paid for 911 emergency services.
The News From Asia To Africa
More than 90 percent of China's 336 largest cities have created their own Web sites, a recent report on the development of China's e-government shows. However, China Daily reports that few of them have effectively delivered public services as expected.
The Chinese government has rapidly developed the e-government infrastructure but now needs to turn its attention to improving online public services, the publication reports. The estimated value of China's e-government market is nearly $5 billion, but there are complaints about government Web sites not being easy to use and needing more and better information.
Also in China, mobile phone photographs were permitted as court evidence this week for the first time, ChinaTechNews reports. Beijing Haidian People's Court allowed a photo of an exchange of money taken of a student whose parents allegedly were defrauded by a man posing as a Chinese education official.
In Japan, the Tokyo district court on Wednesday sentenced a man to three years in jail for attempting to extort money from the Internet service provider Softbank by threatening to publish data on the company's subscribers. The sentence was suspended for five years. The man is a 62-year-old former company executive, Japan Today reports.
Also in Japan, SiliconValley.com reports that Microsoft expects a long fight with Japanese antitrust authorities over a licensing provision that has hurt the company's public image there. But Microsoft will continue to fight a Fair Trade Commission ruling last month ordering the company to retroactively remove the clause from licensing agreements that blocks patent and copyright suits against Microsoft.
And in Africa, Zambia's parliament unanimously passed a tough law to reduce cyber crime. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the law subjects convicted computer hackers and frauds to jail sentences ranging from 15 to 25 years.
The "computer misuse and crimes" law was passed without debate on Tuesday and will take effect after approval from President Levy Mwanawasa. The financial industry welcomed the law. An estimated one in 1,000 people have access to computers in the southern African nation.
Separately, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency granted Uganda $318,000 for a feasibility study of an e-government network.
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