News From You

followthemedia.com - a knowledge base for media professionals

ftm News From You

News From You

We receive dozens of news tips and press releases each week from ftm contributors. We want MORE. And we want to share the raw information as quickly as possible. NEWS FROM YOU is the forum for adding what you know to what we know. Share what you know...or what your hear. We will apply the light-touch of the editors axe for clarity. We will also accept NEWS FROM YOU in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese...without translation. (We do insist on being able to understand what you contribute.) You also must clearly indicate that your contribution is for publication in NEWS FROM YOU.

Please note: we cannot use PDF files, only text and .doc files.

Send us NEWS FROM YOU

Week ending September 27, 2014

EPC - European Commission welcomes new phase of Linked Content Coalition - September 22, 2014
from Heidi Lambert for EPC

The Linked Content Coalition (LCC), the unique media project that recently published its innovative technical framework to improve the management and communication of and access to online rights information, has been re-constituted as a permanent organization. The new LCC is a not-for-profit global consortium of standards bodies and registries with a remit to facilitate and expand the legitimate use of content in the digital network. Its Ten Targets for a Digital Future aim to ensure that every creator and every creation can be automatically identified on the net if they wish to be; that every creation can have machine-readable rights information linked to it (whether for commercial or free use); and that existing standards of different media types can be interoperable.

Angela Mills Wade, Executive Director of the European Publishers Council (EPC), the organization behind the original idea for the LCC project, said: “The LCC was set up in response to calls from the European Commission for ‘Big Ideas for the Digital Agenda’. The resulting data framework is currently being used in a project (RDI) co-funded by the European Commission to improve efficiency in licensing, and has been adopted as the data model for the UK’s Copyright Hub.

“Importantly, the LCC is not about re-inventing the wheel; LCC will do nothing that competes with existing standards, but will deal with matters of common interest across existing standards bodies including interoperability between existing standards, and the development of specific all-media standards or tools. The LCC is leading the way to create the infrastructure needed to support efficient global digital media businesses.”

Robert Madelin, Director General of DG Connect at the European Commission said: “The LCC sets out to facilitate and support the legitimate use of copyright works under any business model, including “free use” where enabled by law or rightsholder choice. We at the European Commission are delighted to have been the catalyst for the creation of the highly-effective LCC which proves that innovative thinking and data management are key to the future of effective licensing.”

UK Copyright Hub Chairman, Richard Hooper, said: “The Copyright Hub’s aim is to make copyright licensing simpler. The Hub is being built on the foundations laid down by the LCC over many years. We are working together closely and neither party is duplicating the work of the other: a genuine collaboration and meeting of minds.”

In its new Manifesto, published today, the LCC supports interoperability between the computer systems of any and all legitimate participants in the digital network – from private individuals to multi-national organizations, and including creators, rightsholders, publishers, aggregators, rights and content exchanges, retailers, consumers, cultural institutions (including libraries, museums and archives) and their agents and associations.

The six founder Board members of the LCC are EDItEUR, the International DOI Foundation (IDF), the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC), Movielabs, the US National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the PLUS Coalition. A further group of standards bodies, including many of the International Agencies for the ISO TC46/SC9 Information and Documentation identifier standards, are now set to join.

The LCC Forum is also launched to provide an open platform for anyone other than standards bodies to support and participate in the implementation, application and development of the LCC Framework.

Angela Mills Wade said “Even in the early days of the LCC, it became clear that this was something special; a two-year project that has brought together the interests, best-practice and talents of cross-media organisations around the globe. Everyone involved realized that this unique collaboration should continue which is why we are launching the LCC Forum today. The LCC has created some invaluable resources for the online community and I am proud to say that it is now set to build on this success into the future.”

ITU - Half the world will be online by 2017 - September 21, 2014
from Sarah Parkes/ITU

Over 50% of the global population will have Internet access within three years’ time, with mobile broadband over smartphones and tablets now the fastest growing technology in human history, according to the 2014 edition of the State of Broadband report.

Released today in New York at the 10th meeting of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development the report reveals that more than 40% of the world’s people are already online, with the number of Internet users rising from 2.3 billion in 2013 to 2.9 billion by the end of this year.

Over 2.3 billion people will access mobile broadband by end 2014, climbing steeply to a predicted 7.6 billion within the next five years. There are now over three times as many mobile broadband connections as there are conventional fixed broadband subscriptions. The popularity of broadband-enabled social media applications continues to soar, with 1.9 billion people now active on social networks.

Produced annually by the Broadband Commission, The State of Broadband is a unique global snapshot of broadband network access and affordability, with country-by country data measuring broadband access against key advocacy targets set by the 54 members of the Broadband Commission.

The Republic of Korea continues to have the world’s highest household broadband penetration at over 98%, up from 97% last year. Monaco now surpasses last year’s champion, Switzerland, as the world leader in fixed broadband penetration, at over 44% of the population. There are now four economies (Monaco, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands) where penetration exceeds 40%, up from just one (Switzerland) in 2013.

The US ranks 19th globally in terms of number of people online, ahead of other OECD countries like Germany (20th) and Australia (21st), but behind the United Kingdom (12th), Japan (15th) and Canada (16th). The US has slid from 20th to 24th place for fixed broadband subscriptions per capita, just behind Japan but ahead of Macao (China) and Estonia.

In total, there are now 77 countries where over 50% of the population is online, up from 70 in 2013. The top ten countries for Internet use are all located in Europe, with Iceland ranked first in the world with 96.5% of people online. The lowest levels of Internet access are mostly found in sub-Saharan Africa, with Internet available to less than 2% of the population in Ethiopia (1.9%), Niger (1.7%), Sierra Leone (1.7%), Guinea (1.6%), Somalia (1.5%), Burundi (1.3%), Eritrea (0.9%) and South Sudan (no data available). The list of the ten least-connected nations also includes Myanmar (1.2%) and Timor Leste (1.1%).

“As we look towards the post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals, it is imperative that we not forget those who are being left behind,” said ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, who serves as co-Vice Chair of the Commission with UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. “Broadband uptake is accelerating, but it is unacceptable that 90% of people in the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries remain totally unconnected. With broadband Internet now universally recognized as a vital tool for social and economic development, we need to make connectively a key development priority, particularly in the world’s poorest nations. Connectivity is not a luxury for the rich – rather, it is the most powerful tool mankind has ever had at its disposal to bridge development gaps in areas like health, education, environmental management and gender empowerment.”

“Despite the phenomenal growth of the Internet, despite its many benefits, there are still too many people who remain unconnected in the world’s developing countries,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. “Providing Internet connectivity to everyone, everywhere, will take determined policy leadership and investment. As we focus on infrastructure and access, we must also promote the rights skills and diversity of content, to allow women and men to participate in building and participating in knowledge societies. As the new State of Broadband report shows, ICTs are making a significant contribution to social development, economic development and environmental protection, the three pillars that will underpin the post-2015 international development agenda and move us towards a more sustainable world.“

A separate report of the Commission’s Working Group on Financing and Investment, led by the Inter-American Development Bank, was also released at today’s meeting, alongside a report from the Commission’s Task Force on Sustainable Development, led by Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg.

Other highlights of today’s meeting included a special session on new business models for the Internet age featuring Craig Barratt (VP, Google) and Yael McGuire (Director of Engineering, Facebook), discussions on new regulatory models led by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and African Development Bank Vice President Alex Rugamba, and contributions from other special guests including AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson and World Economic Forum Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab.

The Commission’s advocacy around the importance of broadband has seen the number of countries with a National Broadband Plan in place grow from 102 in 2010, when the Commission began its work, to 140 today, according to the new report.

The State of Broadband 2014 is the third edition of the Commission’s annual report. Released annually in September in New York, it is the only report that features country-by-country rankings based on access and affordability for over 160 economies worldwide.