Is Security Lost in the Clouds? Marjory S
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Foreword Rest assured, COMMUNICATIONS & STRATEGIES will not be joining those who discover with poorly feigned astonishment that the Web is also home to criminal activity and manipulative strategies! On several occasions, our journal has chosen to highlight the tremendous contributions that the Internet has made to the various forms of innovation. This now allows us to take an unambiguous look at the darker side of the Web, namely cybercrime, through articles that examine the different dimensions that underpin Internet users' trust and security. Thinking about the future of the Internet also means finding effective ways of combating criminal activities online, even if they do not appear to be in any way hampering the growing use of the Web and its many applications. This battle has to include informing users of the dangers, while also stepping up coordinated discussions on digital identity, paying full attention to privacy issues, and planning for the next steps in Internet governance while also distinguishing it clearly from the much less legitimate demands for increased control over the network of networks. I'll also take this opportunity to announce the upcoming publication of our popular DigiWorld Yearbook (*). In it, readers will find key data and an exploration of the overriding trends in telecom, Internet and media markets, prepared by IDATE analysts, along with a look at the outstanding events in our sectors that played out in 2010. As for upcoming issues of our journal, they will be devoted to: - A single market for eCommunications? (June) - ICT and Health (September) - Net Neutrality: what next? (November) And, finally, we are especially proud to announce that this 81st issue marks the 20th anniversary of COMMUNICATIONS & STRATEGIES! This gives me a chance to reiterate the editorial policy we endeavour to uphold: to provide a journal devoted to exploring the central issues shaping the telecom, Internet and media industries, offering up analyses from the finest economists and academics from around the globe. Enjoy the issue! Yves GASSOT Executive Director of Publication (*) For more information, visit us online at: www.digiworld.org Call for papers Dossier to be published in no. 82 – 2nd quarter 2011 A Single Market for eCommunications? Edited by Denis LESCOP, Lorenzo Maria PUPILLO & Ulrich STUMPF The single market is a key objective of the European Union. A single market for digital services is among the priorities of the Commission's Digital Agenda. Among the main initiatives of the Commission to support a digital single market, one can identify: • Promotion of European-wide content rights, towards which European rights owners have to balance the static risks of lower possibility to discriminate and optimise value and the dynamic opportunities of a European-wide market. This balance may differ between video, music, books or game types of contents. • Regulating inter-state roaming prices to converge to domestic prices by 2015 as announced by Commissioner Kroes. This has to be balanced with the potential impact of such evolution on domestic mobile prices and on the economic transfers between Member States and customers which may result of the regulation. • Impulse consistent and timely spectrum policies in Europe, in particular concerning the availability of Digital Dividend. In that respect, the implementation of service or technological neutrality principles should be pragmatic in order to preserve the benefits of standardisation and of the technical efficiency of spectrum utilisation. • Harmonise the implementation of European regulation leveraging the outcome of the review of the European framework adopted in December 2009: the role of Berec and enhanced European powers to monitor regulatory remedies in national markets. However, harmonisation to date has often been experienced by market players as alignment on the more severe level of regulation which may explain some reservations on the harmonisation process. Policies such as specific provisions for new member states or the promotion of geographical segmentation in regulatory market analysis may also be part of the single market program: • Specific provisions for new Member States are meant to bridge the gap, in particular in terms of infrastructures, between all Member States, provided European rules of State Aids or of Services of General Economic Interest are respected. • Geographical segmentation of market analysis may help to differentiate remedies, where the competitive conditions in parts of the territory justify a lighter touch on, or the withdrawal of, existing regulatory measures, or regulatory forbearance, where new measures are considered. However, the detailed implementation of such analysis needs to be discussed. Despite the strong impulsion given by the European Commission in favour of efficient and competitive fixed and mobile market in European Member States, its digital agenda recognizes the failure of Europe at achieving digital successes similar to those the USA have generated over the last decade. To which extent European policies have influenced this outcome needs to be discussed. First, there are general issues such as the European tax regimes, which non-European firms are better placed than European ones to take the maximum benefit of. Concerning specifically Information Society regulation, recent research has, for instance, shown that the enforcement of the e- privacy directive in Europe had an important negative impact on the relative efficiency of European on-line advertising business compared with its international competitors. Also, European policy has concentrated the constraints of regulatory pressure on electronic communications services providers which is the part of the digital value chain where European players had the strongest position world-wide. In that respect, Single Market may also mean consolidation of the market structure and reduction of the number of players: should European policy favour or limit such trends? These examples show that in the future, the strength and competitiveness of European digital industry in the world-wide competition for digital services may also need to become a critical element of European digital policy. Contributions to this special issue on Single Market may refer either to the global questions or to any of the relevant specific topics mentioned above. Please send proposals (full papers) before April 4th 2011 to: [email protected] Call for papers Dossier to be published in no. 83 – 3rd quarter 2011 ICTs and health Edited by Steven ANDLAUER, Elettra RONCHI & Graham VICKERY A healthy active population is widely recognized as one of the main drivers of economic growth and prosperity as well as being a fundamental building block for modern societies. Improved access to health services and better health care delivery are important steps in maintaining and improving the level of health in the general population, underpinned by advances in medical technology. However, health budgets have ballooned in all countries and health care expenditures take a larger and continually increasing share of household and government expenditures. This is due to many factors, including more widespread care delivery, aging populations in many countries, increased costs associated with technological and medical advances, and increasing demand from patients and the general population for more advanced treatment for illness and diseases, many of which are increasingly costly to treat. Against this background Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are seen as providing important tools and solutions to improve the level of health and contain costs. ICTs can be used in a wide range of applications ranging from distance health care and monitoring aging populations to new areas of medical research. However one of the most widely heralded and most difficult to implement technologies has been in the area of electronic health records. These in principle should allow patients and health-care professionals to access the medical history of patients and the general population, enable immediate updating and modification to reflect changing health profiles, improve health delivery and health system efficiency, while saving costs. With improvements in communications and widespread Internet access health records and patient-centred health care strategies should be increasingly enabled The papers of this C&S dossier will address both theoretical and empirical aspects of developing and using electronic health records to improve health performance including: • Technology trends and developments • New Web-based developments in access • Case studies at regional and national levels • New combinations of health information and access • Applications in particular areas of health-care • Patient-centred health care records Please send proposals (full papers) before April 30th 2011 to: [email protected] Submission of papers All papers submitted for publication will be reviewed using the "double blind" system by at least two referees, selected based on the subject matter of the paper, from the journal's panel of referees. Shorter articles appearing in the "Features" section are refereed at the discretion of the Editor. Proposals must be submitted in Word format (.doc) and should not exceed 6,500 words, including the footnotes and references. Please ensure that all illustrations (graphics, figures, etc.) are in black and white - excluding any color - and are of printing quality. Bibliographical references should be included at