In this study, presented today at the The International Association for Media and Communication Research – IAMCR conference in Mexico City, we explore the impact of public policy initiatives on e-government capacity and reach worldwide. We conducted this cross-national study on 175 countries to examine the following hypotheses:

• National policy initiatives to promote information and communication technologies (ICTs) increase a nation’s capacity for e-government, and increase a nation’s diffusion of ICTs.
• Nations that have a national telecommunications regulatory authority and have competition to provide basic telecommunication services and have competition to provide mobile services and encourage financial investment in ICTs are the most likely to have increased e-government capacity, and most likely to have wider diffusion of ICTs.

The Free Culture Research Workshop 2009 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/5486 is looking for scholars working on:

• Studies on the use and growth of open/free licensing models
  
• Critical analyses of the role of Creative Commons or similar models in promoting a Free Culture
  
• Building innovative technical, legal, organizational, or business solutions and interfaces between the sharing economy and the commercial economy
  
• Modeling incentives, innovation and community dynamics in open collaborative peer production and in related social networks
  
• Economic models for the sustainability of commons-based production
  
• Successes and failures of open licensing
  
• Analyses of policies, court rulings or industry moves that influence the future of Free Culture
  
• Regional studies of Free Culture with global lessons/implications
  
• Lessons from implementations of open/free licensing and distribution models for specific communities
  
• Definitions of openness and freedom for different media types, users and communities
  
• Broader sociopolitical, legal and cultural implications of
  
• Free Culture initiatives and peer production practices
  
• Free Culture, Memory Institutions and the broader Public Sector
  
• Open Science/ Research/ Education
  
• Cooperation theory and practice, dynamics of cooperation and competition
  
• Methodological approaches for studying the characteristics, history, impact or growth of Free Culture

It is tremendously exciting to see the commons attracting this research interest. The workshop will be held October 23 at Harvard. Submissions are due August 9. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/5486

Call for Practice Sessions: talks, posters, demos, tutorials, and exhibitions

Practice sessions aim to cover real world applications, experiences or current developments related to topics of mLife conferences. Public or private sector professionals are invited to submit a ‘one A4 page proposal’ for talks, posters, demos, tutorials, and exhibitions.

All Submissions via: http://m4life.org/openconf/openconf.php

Full call for practice sessions