Archive for November, 2006

More on India’s new community radio policy

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

There's continued reaction to (and coverage of) the news of India's new community radio policy, with many noting the significance of this development:In South Asia, Nepal is the only country where such radios have flourished. In India, citizens' groups have long argued for a 'third layer' of broadcasters, apart from ...

India creates community radio policy

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

India has become the first [clarification: I left out the word "developing"] country to develop a policy on community radio:The policy says that the license will be given only to a 'non-profit' organization with at least three years social service to local communities and the Community Radio Station should serve ...

Pew report not the full story

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

There's been a flurry of coverage of the Pew report on podcasting earlier this week showing that 12% of (US) internet users have downloaded podcasts. Most reports have framed this as "only 12%" or looked below the fold at the 1% who claim to download podcasts every day, concentrating on ...

Province 5 television to launch service on cable, online

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

Word from Kevin Mac Namidhe that Province 5 television, the community service in Co. Meath which had been operating under Ministerial Order, and which just recently signed a 10 year contract with the BCI to cover future operation, is launching its service on 7 December on Chorus and also online. ...

Urban sprawl causing problems in Dublin, Europe

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

Not surprising, but a disturbing report on urban sprawl from the European Environment Agency is, somewhat damning:New member states are being warned to take note and not let their cities go the way of cities such as Dublin and Brussels.Now, I like Dublin, in large part, but the suburbanization is ...

ePetitioning the UK government

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

There was an interesting discussion on the AoIR list recently about a new initiative on the Downing Street site, allowing people to host petitions on the site and submit them directly to government. Now an article in the Times of London raises some of the same issues discussed in that ...

Instant run-off voting gaining ground in United States

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

A New America Foundation press release points to the recent successes of movements for instant runoff voting across the US:In California, where San Francisco became the state's first Instant Runoff Voting city in 2004, voters in the cities of Oakland and Davis approved the idea, which would allow voters to ...

Always roses: a tribute to my grandfather

Monday, November 20th, 2006

My grandfather passed away in July, severing finally the [last few] tendrils that bound him to this human realm. In truth they were few enough at the end, those threads. When I went to see him - to visit with him, I should say - a few days earlier, he ...

Curiouser and curiouser

Thursday, November 16th, 2006

The EPP and the European Parliament engage in some very confusing activity.

EU to relax rules on product placement, TV advertising

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

European ministers have voted to remove EU restrictions on product placement on TV (other than in children's programming and news) and to allow more frequent commercial breaks in certain types of programming:Movies, news and children's programmes could be interrupted by advertisements every 30 minutes, but no commercial breaks are allowed ...