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Revolução tecnológica vai exigir reforço das politicas de apoio social

'Homeshoring' to trump offshoring? CNET News.com

The New York Times > National > U.S. Slips in Attracting the World's Best Students

The satellite signal of the controversial Lebanon-based Hizbollah television station al-Manar has also been removed from broadcasts to the United States. On Friday, Washington declared it a terrorist outlet. Last Tuesday, al-Manar's signal was dropped from the beam of the Eutelsat broadcast to the Mediterranean region, including Europe, after a French court ruling. The French satellite carrier Globecast which serves US airwaves confirmed that al-Manar's signal was gone but gave no reason. Lebanon's ambassador to Washington said the move amounted to an attack on media freedoms. Al-Manar itself accused the United States of practicing "intellectual terrorism". Al-Manar has been accused of spreading anti-Semitic propaganda.

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California will have another new law on the books when the calendar flips to 2005, and once again, businesses inside and outside the state are clamoring that they may have to reorient their privacy and disclosure practices because of it. But is S.B. 27 -- which seeks to empower consumers to find out how their personal data has been sold or traded -- really all that big a deal?
Signed into law more than a year ago by former governor Gray Davis, S.B. 27 targets the practice of surreptitiously sharing customer information with a third party. As such, many companies doing business in California, regardless of where they are based geographically, will be affected by it.
Under the law, customers can request a listing of the data disclosed to third parties during the previous calendar year from companies. They must also attempt to tell consumers about this option, either by educating employees who have frequent contact with customers about these procedures or by displaying the information on their Web site or at all business locations in California.
Each customer inquiry doesn't require a personalized response; rather, companies can send a standardized list of third parties who received personal data and the type of data that was shared. In most instances, the company must respond within 30 days.
S.B. 27 does include a handful of exemptions. It does not apply to businesses with fewer than 20 employees, some nonprofit and religious groups and some financial institutions.
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1to1.com

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At a time when the debate over the integration of foreigners into German society dominates the national headlines -- and stereotypes about immigrants persist -- a study released on Tuesday is helping to challenge some of the worst clichés.

Most notably, the study of 950 young immigrant women between the ages of 15 and 21, performed at the request of the German ministry responsible for women's affairs showed that young immigrant women are far more career aware and ambitious than stereotypes suggest. However, they suffer from certain handicaps, though oppressive, traditional families -- as stereotypes suggest -- are not neccessarily one of them. Instead, insufficient language skills was named a culprit.

The government's integration commissioner, Marieluise Beck, said she hopes to use the results to push for better resources to help young immigrant women achieve their goals.

Education and training a priority


Of the women surveyed, who came from including Yugoslavian, Greek, Turkish, Italian and other backgrounds, the majority hoped to take advantage of Germany's education and training opportunities to pursue a career -- in addition to starting a family. According to the study, 83 percent planned to contribute financially to their fanily's income.

Particularly in the case of young Turkish immigrants, who are often stereotyped as traditional and family-oriented, the results challenged the cliches, Beck pointed out at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
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Combatting Stereotypes With Facts Germany Deutsche Welle

Eis uma área que carece dramaticamente de pensamento novo para um problema complicado que não vai desaparecer

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Os beneficiários das políticas activas de emprego têm vindo a diminuir nos últimos três anos, assim como as entidades empregadoras que recorrem a estas medidas, revela uma auditoria do Tribunal de Contas, apesar de o desemprego de longa duração ter vindo a aumentar. Entre 2002 e 2003, por exemplo, os indivíduos em situação de desemprego por 12 a 24 meses aumentaram 38,8%, como revelam os dados do Instituto Nacional de Estatística.
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Diário Económico

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Os objectivos da política nacional de emprego estão a ser desvirtuados em vez de criarem emprego, estão a servir como apoio social, considera o Tribunal de Contas (TC). Estas considerações respeitam a um estudo específico de avaliação dos programas ocupacionais, integrado numa auditoria mais vasta ao sector do emprego do Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional e às políticas activas de emprego.
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DN Online: Política de emprego está desvirtuada

BBC NEWS Europe Freak storms kill six in France

Os motivos não são os melhores, e o discurso é o errado, mas esta é uma tendência que podia e devia ser explorada e trabalhada em Portugal

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Marco António Costa adiantou que a medida visa fazer frente à subida crescente das responsabilidades financeiras do Estado em relação aos lares de idosos, centros de dia e outros espaços tutelados directamente pela Segurança Social.
«A sociedade portuguesa deu um salto qualitativo enorme nos últimos 20 anos em termos de equipamentos sociais. Mas a economia não gera a riqueza necessária para os manter», disse o membro do Governo.
Até que a competitividade da economia portuguesa permita suportar a rede de equipamentos, é necessário, defendeu Marco António Costa, abandonar o quase monopólio atribuído actualmente ao profissionalismo das estruturas, apostando mais no voluntariado.
«A Segurança Social deve determinar agora que áreas podem ser desenvolvidas por voluntários, sob coordenação de técnicos habilitados, e que sectores têm de continuar nas mãos dos profissionais», acrescentou.
A campanha do Governo para recrutar voluntários envolverá o lançamento de um site na Internet, de um manual e de um cartão próprio para que os que se ofereçam em regime de voluntariado.
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EXPRESSO Online

HISTÓRICO

BBC NEWS Europe EU-Turkey talks set for October

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El comercio justo ha sufrido un importante auge en los últimos tiempos, como demuestran los datos recogidos en el último informe de la ONG SETEM, especializada en ese ámbito, que señala que ha aumentado en un 47% hasta llegar a 10,6 los millones de euros gastados por los españoles en estos productos.
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elmundo.es - Las ventas del comercio justo en Espana aumentan casi un 50%

Possivelmente um dos grandes "realinhamentos económicos" do nosso tempo.

BBC NEWS Business Millions 'to lose textile jobs'

Google writes its place in world’s history books
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The dust would be blown off volumes accumulated over hundreds of years and their contents scanned and compressed into online data accessible in thousandths of a second.

Stacks of cloistered books reserved for students and professors would be turned into racks of clustered servers distributing the sum total of human knowledge to anyone with a web connection.

The Google project, which aims to make many of the greatest literary treasures available at the click of a mouse, includes four other top libraries - Oxford's Bodleian Library, the New York Public Library and those of Michigan and Stanford universities.
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While no one doubts the nerdy librarian credentials of Google's chiefs nor their altruism, there is also some smart business thinking behind the move.

"Books are structured information that might inform [online] services yet to be created, such as question-answering," says John Battelle, author of an internet blog on the search industry.

Such services would mean revenues for Google. And, in the meantime, the quality of its results would be improved by the digitisation of millions of books, giving it an advantage over rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo in a fiercely competitive sector. Google will also share revenues from relevant advertising displayed next to the books' contents.

The project can be viewed as Google making its first serious move as a content provider, bringing structured information assets into its database.
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Much of Google Print's scanned output is likely to be books that are out of copyright and published before 1900 rather than the latest research work.

But John Battelle argues that Google can still make money from obscure titles. Fulfilling just one request for a copy of an out-of-print book at $10-$15 a time would cover its scanning costs.

"Media companies have always focused on the head - the big hits and bestseller lists - but recently digital music has shown there's a lot of power in the [back-catalogue] tail and there's no cost there in sales or marketing. There's a ludicrously large backlist in books and this could mean a massive new revenue stream."

The social networking power of the internet should also mean some unlikely titles being discovered and creating their own buzz.

"You are going to see some interesting new hits that haven't sold a copy since 1782," says Mr Battelle. "This really does fulfil a model of enlightened capitalism and it's going to do a lot of good in the world."

FT.com

Yahoo! News - Insurers to Pay Record Disaster Damages

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As the World Bank and others mark the one year anniversary, there's a call for all countries --particularly rich countries -- to sign onto the pact.
World Bank Institute governance director Daniel Kaufmann, who led the Bank’s team at the signing ceremony a year ago, says it was a really significant achievement for the UN to get consensus around the globe to combat corruption, through the convention.
However he says all countries that have ratified it are from emerging economies.
"It is therefore critical that rich countries accelerate their ratification process, with a view for this convention to come into full force (after 30 ratifications) early in 2005.
Kaufman says corruption is not a "popular topic" in official circles. Nor it is easy to embrace like attacking poverty.
"No matter how politically sensistive it may be though, corruption is a major impediment to any strategy to attain sustained growth, reduce poverty and infant mortality, and to reach key developmental and also global security objectives," he says.
"Corruption and misgoverance are still highly prevalent today - worldwide - although the extent, manifestations and consequences vary from setting to setting."
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News - A Call for Action on the Anniversary of the UN Anti-Corruption Convention

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As its name suggests, the software lets computer users share large chunks of data. But unlike other popular file-sharing programs, the more people swap data on BitTorrent, the quicker it flows — and that includes such large files as feature films and computer games.


Because of its speed and effectiveness, BitTorrent steadily gained in popularity after the recording industry began cracking down last year on users of Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster and other established file-sharing software.


The program now accounts for as much as half of all online file-sharing activity, says Andrew Parker, chief technology officer of Britain-based CacheLogic, which monitors such traffic.


"BitTorrent is more of a threat because it is probably the latest and best technological tool for transferring large files like movies," said John Malcolm, senior vice president of anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America. "It is unusual, perhaps unique, in that the moment you start downloading you are also uploading," he added. "It's what makes it so efficient."


Cohen created BitTorrent in 2001 as a hobby after the dot-com crash left him unemployed. He says the aim was to enable computer users to easily distribute content online — not specifically copyrighted content.


"It seems pretty clear that a lot of people are actively interested in engaging in wanton piracy," said Cohen, 29, of Bellevue, Wash. "As far as I'm concerned, they're just pushing around bits, and what bits it is they're pushing around is not really a concern of mine. There's not much I can do about it."


BitTorrent has proven to be resistant to some of the countermeasures the entertainment industry has taken to sabotage file-sharing, including a process known as file-spoofing in which incomplete or decoy versions of songs or other material are uploaded to discourage piracy.


"Spoofing is very difficult on BitTorrent, if at all possible," said Mark Ishikawa, chief executive of online tracking firm BayTSP Inc. "There's no defense for this one."


Programs such as Kazaa and Morpheus allow users to link their PCs to computer networks and then query a search engine for the file or title they're seeking. The software then churns out a list of other computers sharing the file.


The process is simple and straightforward, which makes it relatively easy to corrupt with spoofed files.


With BitTorrent, however, users don't find whole files. The program seeks out torrent files, also known as seed files, that are hosted by a number of Web sites.


The files on the Web sites are not songs or movies but serve as markers that point the way to other users sharing a given file. BitTorrent then assembles complete files from multiple chunks of data obtained from everyone who is sharing the file.


Attempts to upload bogus files to corrupt the process fail because the BitTorrent program follows a blueprint of the original file when piecing it together.

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Associated Press

The Supreme Court, accepting urgent pleas from the recording and film industries, agreed on Friday to decide whether the online services that enable copyrighted songs and movies to be shared freely over the Internet can be held liable themselves for aiding copyright infringement.

For the entertainment industry and for everyday consumers, the case is likely to produce the most important copyright decision since the Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that the makers of the videocassette recorder were not liable for violating the copyrights of movies that owners of the devices recorded at home.

The earlier decision, Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, ushered in one technological revolution. The new case, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster Ltd., No. 04-480, comes as another is already well under way. More than 85 million copyrighted songs and a smaller but rapidly growing number of movies are downloaded from the Internet every day by people using file-sharing services.

A lawsuit filed by the entertainment industry in 2000 eventually put the earliest file-sharing network, Napster, out of business. The industry then brought suits against individuals who shared copyrighted material over the Internet, but that proved inefficient. The defendants in the case the justices accepted today are two of the newer services, Grokster and StreamCast Networks, which offers peer-to-peer software called Morpheus.

Two lower federal courts in San Francisco, the federal district court there and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, ruled that the technology of the new services is different from Napster's in a way that immunizes them from liability for aiding copyright infringement.

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NYT

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An antivirus vendor is warning people to be on the lookout for a worm disguised as nude glamour pinups, though the virus's threat level is very low.
The Maslan worm appears to be politically motivated, with infected machines intended to launch a denial-of-service attack against Web sites run by Chechen separatist supporters, antivirus firm Sophos said in an advisory Thursday.
According to Symantec, W32.Maslan.C@mm is a mass-mailing worm that opens a back door and exploits system vulnerabilities on a compromised computer. The worm also steals passwords using a keylogger. In addition, it attempts to attack a series of firewalls and antivirus settings on an infected machine.
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CNET

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The e-mails, often forwarded by friends, vary in wording, but the underlying message is always ominous: Soon, all cell phone numbers will be made public to telemarketing firms. That means, according to one version, that "your cell phone may start ringing off the hook with telemarketers" and your precious, limited cell phone minutes will be eaten up with calls you don't want.

It's not clear where the e-mails originated, but industry and government officials say they are an urban myth; they are not true. There is no list of cell phone numbers being turned over to telemarketers, and telemarketers are barred from calling cell phone numbers.

Even so, in the past two weeks, more than 3 million numbers have been added to the government's national do-not-call list, and government officials suspect that the unexpected increase is due to the e-mails that are being passed around like a national game of telephone tag.
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Telemarketing officials say companies review their lists twice a month to eliminate any cell phone numbers, as FCC rules require. Even without such a rule, "we don't want to call people's cell phones," said Tim Searcy, head of the American Teleservices Association, which represents call centers. "We know it eats up their minutes, annoys them, and the likelihood of them buying anything is very low. It would be a waste of our time."


Yet the mere prospect was enough to get people to add their cell number to the national registry -- as well as pass along the e-mail. Mallory Walker, head of the real estate lending firm Walker & Dunlop in Bethesda, signed up immediately after he received the disconcerting e-mail this week. Then, he forwarded the message to more than 100 other people, friends and employees. "I can't tell you how many people called me and thanked me," he said.

Some of the e-mails say that consumers have to sign up by Dec. 15 or forever lose the opportunity. That's wrong, said the FTC's Greisman. "There is no deadline; there never has been a deadline to register."

If consumers are concerned, Greisman said they may register their cell phone numbers, either by signing up on the Internet, at www.donotcall.gov, or by calling 888-382-1222. Consumers signing up by phone need to call from the phone they want to add to the list.

Washington Post

The growing popularity of online gaming could spell problems for net service firms, warns network monitoring company Sandvine.
It issued the warning following analysis which shows that traffic on the Xbox game network increased fourfold on the launch day of Halo 2.
The 9 November traffic explosion has continued into December, said Sandvine.
Service providers now need to make sure that their networks can cope with the increasing demands for bandwidth.

BBC
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Lenovo's purchase of IBM's PC business is such an unprecedented coup for a Chinese technology company that even some local journalists joined the cheers when it was announced on Wednesday. But that does not mean all their compatriots will be rushing to buy PCs and laptops from the “new Lenovo”.
Ma Liyuan, a government worker in Shanghai, says Lenovo is “really something” to have pulled off such a deal, but adds that her next PC is more likely to be from rival Hewlett-Packard.
“I didn't think much of the Lenovo PC I used to have and I feel IBM has now suddenly lost a lot of its cachet,” she says.
Previously loyal IBM user and network engineer Song Yingqiao is more blunt: he will not buy IBM again. “It's a gut feeling. It feels uncomfortable; international IBM has become domestic Lenovo.”
Such reactions in Lenovo's home market, where it accounts for an estimated 27 per cent of PC sales, is a stark reminder of the challenges facing the company's $1.75bn attempt to transform itself from national champion to global computer powerhouse.
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If Lenovo can acquire the brand loyalty commanded by IBM along with the US company's laptop production lines, product developers, and distribution networks, then it will be well on the way to success. If it cannot, on Wednesday's deal could prove an expensive disaster.
Competitors are already circling hungrily. Lenovo's acquisition will “create a lot of turmoil within IBM accounts” from which HP will benefit, says Duane Zitzner, head of HP's PC division.
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DMEurope
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Go to Google, search and scroll results, click and copy. When students do research online these days, many educators worry, those are often about the only steps they take. If they can avoid a trip to the library at all, many students gladly will.

Young people may know that just because information is plentiful online doesn't mean it's reliable, yet their perceptions of what's trustworthy frequently differ from their elders' — sparking a larger debate about what constitutes truth in the Internet age.
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In a study on research habits, Wellesley College researchers Panagiotis Metaxas and Leah Graham found that fewer than 2 percent of students in one Wellesley computer science class bothered to use non-Internet sources to answer all six test questions.
And many students failed to check out multiple sources. For instance, 63 percent of students asked to list Microsoft Corp.'s top innovations only visited the company's Web site in search of the answer.
It's a paradox to some that so many young Americans can be so accepting of online information whose origin is unclear.
"Skepticism ... is part of their lives, yet they tend to believe things fairly readily because it appears on the Internet," said Roger Casey, who studies youths and pop culture at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.
One concern is commercial influence online; some search engines run ads and accept payments to include sites in their indexes, with varying degree of disclosure.
"If I'm going to go to the library, chances are somebody hasn't paid a librarian 100 bucks to point me to a particular book," said Beau Brendler, director of the Consumer Reports WebWatch.
Another potential minefield is the growing phenomenon of collaborative information assembly. The credentials of the people writing grass-roots Web journals and a committee-written encyclopedia called Wikipedia are often unclear. Nevertheless, some Internet users believe that such resources can collectively portray events more accurately than any single gatekeeper.
In many ways, the greater diversity of information is healthy.
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Adults who should know better get duped, too.
Georgia Tech professor Colin Potts said he recently received by e-mail a photograph said to be a 1954 projection of what a home computer would look like in 2004. Instead of the small boxes we know of today, the image shows a giant contraption that resembles an airplane cockpit with a large steering wheel.
"I thought this was hilarious and filed it away in a scrapbook for my lecture next semester on the perils of technology forecasting," Potts said. "I also forwarded it to several people. Unfortunately, as another colleague informed me by e-mail a few minutes later, it's a hoax."
Peter Grunwald, president of Grunwald Associates, said many older Internet users, familiar with the editorial review that books and newspapers go through, may assume incorrectly that Web sites also undergo such reviews.
Youths, many of whom have created Web sites themselves, tend to know better.
In the end, it's just a matter of adjusting to how information gets around now that the Internet has revolutionized communication.
Every new medium has its challenges, said Paul Saffo, a director at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif., yet society adapts.
Referring to the 1903 Western "The Great Train Robbery," Saffo said audience members "actually ducked when the train came out on the screen. Today you won't even raise an eyebrow."

Com o objectivo de estimular a criatividade, a iniciativa e o sentido de responsabilidade dos seus funcionários, cinco empresas do Norte associaram-se à Fundação de Serralves para exibir, a partir de amanhã, cinco quadros de Paula Rego.Sonae (com História I, de 1986) e RAR (História II, do mesmo ano) são as primeiras a acolher nas suas instalações obras da pintora no âmbito do projecto «Arte e Empresa», que em Novembro reuniu vários especialistas numa conferência internacional realizada no Porto. Seguem-se, nesta nova fase denominada «A Arte Connosco», a Cabelte (Sem Título, 1995), Portgás (Hyacinth Reclining Hippo, 1995) e o gabinete de advogados Castro, Pinho, Peres e Xavier (História III, 1986).Haverá um fórum de discussão online aberto a todos os trabalhadores daquelas empresas (www.artempresa-serralves.com) e uma visita guiada à exposição de Paula Rego, patente no Museu de Serralves até 23 de Janeiro.A iniciativa, que conta com a participação da própria artista e de João Fernandes, director do museu, inclui também uma experiência directa: «Ver como se monta uma peça de dança contemporânea [Mão na Boca, de Joana Providência], que também tem ingredientes de um projecto empresarial - muito pouco dinheiro, uma data de lançamento, recursos humanos e um juízo imediato», adiantou ao DN António Gomes de Pinho, presidente do Conselho de Administração da Fundação de Serralves.Já testada pelo Learning Lab da Dinamarca, centro de pesquisa dedicado à aprendizagem, esta abordagem visa, segundo Gomes de Pinho, «uma reflexão sobre o modo como a criação artística pode influir nos novos modelos de criação empresarial».

DN

Weak demand in the eurozone baffles economists

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After a relatively strong first six months this year, growth in the 12-country eurozone has slowed sharply. Gross domestic product rose by just 0.3 per cent in the three months to September compared with the previous three months, as export growth slowed and household spending remained flat. The ECB has backed away from its earlier forecast of an acceleration in activity at the start of next year and on Thursday revised downwards its forecast for 2005, blaming the impact of higher oil prices on growth. Private sector economists have followed its example, reducing projections for growth in coming quarters - and adding the strength of the euro against the dollar to the list of the eurozone's economic woes.
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While consumer spending seems to have staged a slight recovery in Germany and France, the eurozone's two largest economies, this quarter, other data point to slowing growth in output. In November, the purchasing managers' indices for eurozone manufacturing and service sectors - regarded as leading indicators of likely output trends - showed manufacturing growth slowing sharply, with services not far behind. If the indicators are correct, manufacturing output is already contracting in Germany and Italy.
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So why is the outlook for the eurozone economy so gloomy? Higher oil prices are one reason and the euro's strength has, at the very least, acted as a brake on export growth. At the same time, eurozone economies have not enjoyed the fiscal stimulus seen in the US.
But there are more fundamental reasons behind the eurozone's malaise. Strong growth in exports has not fed through into domestic demand in the way that would have been expected from the experience of previous cycles. Capital spending has grown modestly but consumer spending has barely moved, rising by just 0.2 per cent in both the second and third quarters.
Michael Dicks, economist at Lehman Brothers, says that traditional economic models for forecasting consumer behaviour have broken down: they no longer explain why so much is being saved rather than spent. His explanation is that the eurozone - especially Germany - is suffering the short-term side effects of the push towards structural reforms by governments and restructuring by companies, both with the aim of boosting longer term labour flexibility and international competitiveness.
Mr Dicks warns that the increase in "precautionary savings" by eurozone consumers "might become a permanent phenomenon if the authorities are seen reneging on the social contract and no longer deliver the sort of services that people have come to expect from the welfare state". John Lipsky, chief economist at JP Morgan, argues that the "corporate adjustment process" was much more "brusque" in the US, and was largely completed by the end of 2002. "In the eurozone, the corporate adjustment has not yet been completed."
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The ECB is forecasting a “gradual recovery” in eurozone growth over the next two years. Mr Issing expects private consumption to pick up in line with real disposable incomes. Unemployment has stabilised and wages have increased moderately, he says. “This is all very modest but we would expect that the labour market would improve slowly. Our projections are based on this kind of scenario - not something spectacular.”

Financial Times

A few years ago, a Microsoft poster near Liverpool Street station that originally read “Suddenly Everything Clicks” was altered to read “Suddenly Everything Sucks”.

The term “brandalism” has been used to describe this behaviour. It represents a consumer backlash against corporations who present a brand image that they don’t live up to in their behaviour.
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There are three trends that give the consumer the power to brandalise. First, through the internet, people can communicate with millions of fellow-consumers at almost no cost. Second, there is a growing distrust of big corporations, especially among young consumers. The anti-globalisation movement, and books such as No Logo, have popularised the perception that a brand is often little more than a pretty face for a grubby global corporation. Third, the increasing cynicism among consumers toward advertising.
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On the face of it, all this seems worrying for brands. However, brandalism actually stems from people’s willingness to interact with branded communications, and it’s important to realise that this presents fascinating opportunities for companies and brands.
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FT.com (requires subscription)

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The idea of using the power grid as a communications network—known as “broadband over power lines” (BPL) in America and “power-line communications” (PLC) in Europe—has been around for ages, but is at last being implemented. Mr Powell made his comments at a meeting where the FCC gave its formal blessing to BPL. Crucially, the agency ruled that utilities that follow certain rules (chiefly concerning radio interference) would be given a wide berth to operate as “unlicensed” entities, unencumbered by America's baffling telecoms rules.
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It finally looks as though BPL's day has come. The happy collision of Mr Powell's desire for broadband competition and Mr Wood's dream of grid reliability is spurring on BPL technology. Revealingly, European officials, who have in the past been cautious about PLC technology, applauded the FCC's decision in October: similar pan-European rules may be in the offing. The result could be better internet access for customers—and, just possibly, a step towards the intelligent, self-healing power grid of tomorrow.

The Economist (requires subscription)

Lisboa debate-se com um sério problema de envelhecimento da população. Em 1991, a população com mais de 65 anos representava 14% do total e em 2001 esse valor subiu para 24%, segundo um estudo feito pela TIS, de José Manuel Viegas, sobre a mobilidade em Lisboa. A população com mais de 65 anos concentra-se sobretudo nas zonas centrais da cidade e ao longo do corredor ribeirinho ocidental. Aqui a população com mais de 65 anos representa mais de 25% do total. Na zona de Alvalade a percentagem de idosos é superior a 33%.De acordo com o estudo, o envelhecimento da população conduzirá a uma maior utilização do transporte colectivo em detrimento do transporte individual, facto que aconselha a que os operadores de transportes e a autarquias adaptem as redes de transportes a este utilizadores.A par do envelhecimento, Lisboa está a braços com uma quebra da população. O número de pessoas que dependem de Lisboa por razões de estudo ou emprego tem vindo a diminuir, na casa dos 10%, sobretudo porque o número de residentes na cidade está em quebra. Em contrapartida aumenta o número de não residentes que trabalham ou estudam em Lisboa.De acordo com o estudo da TIS, nos últimos 20 anos, a população residente em Lisboa reduziu-se em cerca de 30%, passando de 807 mil habitantes em 1981 para 565 mil em 2001. No mesmo período, a área metropolitana de Lisboa viu a sua população aumentar em 7% para 2,7 milhões de habitantes, o que aconteceu à custa do crescimento dos concelhos de Sintra, Sesimbra, Alcochete, Seixal, Mafra, Palmela e Vila Franca de Xira.De acordo com o estudo, a cidade de Lisboa tem uma densidade populacional muito baixa quando comparada com cidades europeias como Londres, Paris ou Barcelona. As zonas mais antigas da cidade são as que têm densidades mais elevadas, caso de Arroios, Bairro Alto, S. Vicente, Beato/Centro e Castelo.No que respeita ao emprego, as zonas de Lisboa com maior concentração são o eixo Av. da Liberdade e da Almirante Reis até ao eixo transversal definido pela Avenida das Forças Armadas e a dos Estados Unidos da América. As avenidas novas concentram cerca de 15% do total de emprego na cidade.O estudo constata a perda de competitividade da capital para atrair emprego qualificado a favor de zonas como Oeiras, no caso do sector terciário, e para Sintra, Vila Franca de Xira ou Azambuja no sector secundário. Tanto é que a oferta de emprego em Lisboa tem caído.O trabalho e o estudo trazem muita gente a Lisboa. Todos os dias entram na cidade 231 mil veículos, além dos 185 mil que atravessam a cidade, 44% do total. Os corredores que descarregam mais veículos em Lisboa é o de Cascais, com 66 mil/dia; e o Amadora/Sintra com 56 mil/dia. No total circulam 628 mil veículos/dia em Lisboa.

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Em termos da mobilidade, estima-se que os residentes em Lisboa realizem cerca de 1,09 milhões de viagens por dia, das quais cerca de 22% é realizada a pé, 32% são realizadas em transporte individual e 44% são realizadas em transporte colectivo. A taxa de motorização evoluiu de 232,5 veículos em 1993 para 281,8 veículos por mil habitantes em 2003, o que permite estimar que o parque automóvel da população residente em Lisboa ronde 159 mil veículos.Cerca de metade das viagens que se desenvolvem na cidade são realizadas por pessoas a regressarem a casa. Os motivos obrigatórios, como trabalho e estudo, representam 21% do total.No que respeita aos não residentes, estima-se que a população da AML realiza 1,19 milhões de viagens por dia (52% do total), com pelo menos um extremo da viagem em Lisboa. Destas viagens apenas 4% são internas à cidade.Em média, a população não residente em Lisboa realiza 2,10 viagens por dia, com pelo menos um extremo na cidade.Quando se considera o motivo das viagens terminadas em Lisboa, os motivos obrigatórios (trabalho e estudo) representam metade do total de viagens com extremo em Lisboa.O modo de transporte mais utilizado pela população não residente é o transporte colectivo (52,9% do total de viagens terminadas em Lisboa), muito embora a tendência vá no sentido da perda da sua importância.No total, são realizadas em Lisboa 2,284 milhões de viagens/dia com pelo menos um extremo na cidade. A repartição modal das viagens com extremo em Lisboa é favorável ao transporte colectivo, 49% do total, e 35% são feitas em transporte individual.O estudo conclui que existe uma estabilização das viagens terminadas na Baixa, Sta Marta e Av. António Augusto de Aguiar.Assiste-se a uma diminuição das viagens terminadas nas zonas das Avenidas Novas e de Arroios, devido à migração do emprego para outras zonas; aumento generalizado das viagens nas zonas de maior aumento populacional e em que a população é mais jovem; e diminuição das viagens nas zonas ribeirinhas ocidental e oriental.
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Diário Económicohttp://www.diarioeconomico.com

Rap infects all popular culture. The Jubilee campaign led to billions of dollars of developing world debt being written off. Linux is one of the biggest challengers to Microsoft. The Sims is one of the most popular computer games ever. These developments have one thing in common: they were all driven by Pro-Ams, innovative, committed and networked amateurs working to professional standards... According to many commentators, the 1990s were a decade in which large corporations were rampant, their control over society virtually unchallenged. Yet the rise of Pro-Ams suggests counter trends were at work as well.
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Change This
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The Pro-Am Revolution is published by Demos on Tuesday 30 November. The report defines Pro-Ams as amateurs who pursue a hobby or pastime –which in many cases is an all-consuming passion – to a professional standard. Pro-Ams are involved in ‘serious leisure’, which requires specialist knowledge and a major time commitment.
As people live longer with active retirement years, or downshift mid-career to improve their quality of life, the authors predict that ‘serious leisure’ will become a growing part of our lives.
“Pro-Ams are a new social hybrid who force us to rethink they way we think about work and leisure time,” say the report’s authors, Charles Leadbeater and Paul Miller.
“Their activities blur the traditional definitions of professional and amateur. In recent years a variety of rather derogatory names have been used to describe real enthusiasts, including nerds, geeks and anoraks. We think a better term to cover all these kind of activities is Pro-Ams.”
The Pro-Am survey of 2189 adults conducted by MORI in June 2004 revealed a nation of committed enthusiasts. When presented with 20 popular categories of hobby or pastime, well over half of regular participants in most categories said they had ‘good skills’, and that rose beyond 75% for some activities.
Pro-Ams are more likely to be men than women; they tend to be well-educated people with annual household incomes over £30k. Pro-Ams are evenly split between part-time and full-time workers, but people who don’t work are far less likely to be Pro-Ams.
The report uses a working definition of Pro-Ams as people engaged in a regular activity, at which they say they have good skills. The survey suggests that as a percentage of the total adult population in Britain:
18% are Pro-Am gardeners
6% are Pro-Am photographers
2% are Pro-Am alternative therapists
Traditionally committed amateurs have made a significant contribution to society, from lifeboat men to army reservists to the Samaritans. However Pro-Ams are now making an impact in less traditional disciplines.
For instance, Pro-Am astronomers have made significant contributions to our knowledge of the universe. And Pro-Am software programmers who are part of the ‘open source’ movement are providing the only real challenge to Microsoft’s dominance of the personal computing market.
The authors conclude that government should invest in people’s hobbies as a way to build communities. The report makes a series of policy recommendations aimed at encouraging Pro-Am’s contribution to their communities and helping children develop Pro-Am activities at school.
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Demos
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Change This Weblog
Demos Weblog

Fast web access is encouraging more people to express themselves online, research suggests.
A quarter of broadband users in Britain regularly upload content and have personal sites, according to a report by UK think-tank Demos.
It said that having an always-on, fast connection is changing the way people use the internet.
More than five million households in the UK have broadband and that number is growing fast
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More significantly, argues the report, broadband is encouraging people to take a more active role online.
It found that one in five post something on the net everyday, ranging from comments or opinions on sites to uploading photographs.
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BBC

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“Patent offices are under incredible pressure,” says Dominique Guellec, the chief economist at the European Patent Office in Munich. Applications at many patent offices have doubled in the past ten years, and the average length of each submission has increased by 50%. The average quantity of work required to examine an application is three times greater than it was a decade ago. “Of course that can't be neutral in terms of quality,” says Mr Guellec.
In recent years, the scope of patents has broadened to encompass new technologies, as well as software, and in some instances business methods. Meanwhile, the legal power of patents, once awarded, has increased, and they are more zealously sought. This, combined with an alleged decline in the quality of patents—that is, how accurate their claims are and whether they are truly novel or non-obvious—is deeply troubling, especially as, once awarded, a patent is hard to revoke.
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A study by M-CAM, an intellectual-property consultancy, found that over 30% of patents make duplicate claims, raising questions about their validity. America's PTO dismisses the criticism as anecdotal. “We're seeing lots of new industries being born, that is why there are a lot more patent applications,” says Mary Critharis of the PTO.
The number of patent applications to the PTO is growing at around 6% a year. The wait for a decision is on average 27 months—and much longer for complex applications in advanced sciences. Last year, the PTO received around 350,000 applications and currently has a backlog of over half a million to review. It is a global concern: foreigners account for around half of all patents granted.
Similar growth is occurring elsewhere, including in countries that previously showed little interest in intellectual property. Applications to China's patent office increased fivefold from 1991 to 2001. As countries such as China, South Korea and India spend more on research and development, they are filing more patents.
The mission creep of America's patent system into more contentious areas is also spreading elsewhere. Later this month, the European Council of Ministers will discuss draft legislation on harmonising policy on computer-implemented innovations. Many small software companies in Europe, as well as “open-source” software developers that make non-proprietary software, oppose the initiative. They fear that it is a first step towards adopting controversial software patents, already awarded in America, which could block different implementations of the same features. Were further proof needed that this may not be an entirely positive development, look no further than the mighty software monopolist, Microsoft, whose chairman, Bill Gates, has called on employees to increase the number of patents that the company files.
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The Economist (requires subscription)

Angela Merkel, leader of Germany's centre-right CDU opposition party, on Monday called her country's bid to foster multiculturalism a failure and urged foreigners to identify with "cultural values based on freedom and democracy".

Speaking at the CDU annual conference in Düsseldorf, Mrs Merkel identified patriotism and conservative values as the core of her party's agenda ahead of national elections in 2006, echoing unease across Europe at efforts to accommodate the cultural differences of immigrant minorities.
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Germany has Europe's largest population of foreigners, with more than 7m non-Germans, but the CDU leader said the idea of a multicultural society "leads to [ethnic] communities living besides each other, rather than with each other."
She went on: "We [in the CDU] are against seeing foreigners as our enemies", adding that foreigners must adopt "certain values and standards", such as learning German and ensuring women from ethnic minorities enjoy full legal rights.
Mrs Merkel said that she supported conservative family values, attacked equal rights for homosexual couples and - by referring positively to Germany's "guiding culture" or Leitkultur - she backed a provocative phrase that reminds many Germans of their country's Nazi past.
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FT.com

AS EVERY lover of Bach or Beethoven knows, a Leitmotiv is a dominant theme in a piece of music. What, then, is Leitkultur, the new buzzword in German debates? Roughly, it means the guiding or dominant culture, or set of values, in a society. A growing number of Germans think their country needs one.
The very fact that people are discussing values more, including patriotism, is a big and recent change. For most of the past two years, politicians and pundits were talking technicalities; they sparred over arcane proposals to fix the economy. Since mid-November, however, there has been a palpable shift away from this dull techno-talk. Pragmatic approaches are being played down in favour of ethical ones.
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Politics aside, there may be something deeper at work. Germany has always boasted a peculiar mix of liberal and conservative values. Particularly since unification, it has—by American standards—been quite a secular country, though less so than other west European countries. Only a third of Germans deem it “necessary to believe in God to be moral” (see chart). Institutions such as family, marriage and the nation resonate less among younger Germans. At the same time, most Germans have looked to government to protect the environment and guarantee a social balance. However, this mix seems to be changing—and becoming more “American”. People are less inclined to see government as the solution to most problems, and traditional values and concepts are coming back, says Paul Nolte, the author of an influential book on the “metaphysics” of economic reform.
National identity is only one of the issues regaining salience, he adds. Having children is again considered important, though not necessarily in a traditional family; people are increasingly unhappy about egotism in society and irresponsible behaviour by the mass media; and even leftists now recognise the role of religion in society. Some of this reflects insecurity in an era of rapid change. But Warnfried Dettling, another pundit, sees a different reason. The government can no longer make much difference in big questions of foreign policy and the global economy. So people want it to focus on things nearer home, such as education and immigration
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The Economist (requires subscription)

A new line in cocaine. Colombian police have identified a genetically modified tree that yields up to eight times more cocaine than a traditional shrub, a discovery that underscores the lengths producers are going to thwart US efforts to curb the drugs trade.

FT.com

Opec's exposure to dollar reduced sharply since 2001

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Oil exporters have sharply reduced their exposure to the US dollar over the past three years, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements. Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries have cut the proportion of deposits held in dollars from 75 per cent in the third quarter of 2001 to 61.5 per cent. Middle Eastern central banks have reportedly switched reserves from dollars to euros and sterling to avoid losses as the dollar has fallen and prepare for a shift away from pricing oil only in dollars.

FT.com

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VONAGE, Skype, Net2Phone, 8X8—these are not exactly household names today. Time Warner and Verizon in America, and BT in Britain, by contrast, are almost universally known, if not always loved. What would happen if all of these firms—a band of specialised upstarts, the giant cable companies and the traditional telecoms titans—were to clash head-on in a global battle to provide a new communications technology that is certain to replace the one most commonly used today?
That is what is about to take place. According to Global Advertising Strategies, a marketing consultancy, “brand wars” will break out in the next six months, as the communications technology in question, called “voice over internet protocol” (VOIP), moves “from the early adopter to an early majority market stage”. The consequences of this migration—which, in effect, makes traditional telephone networks obsolete—are enormous.
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Will the cable and telco giants squash the specialist upstarts? Cyrus Mewawalla at Westhall Capital, an investment-advisory firm in London, suggests that the niche players, such as Vonage, unable to offer bundles of services, “will die out”. Yet the giants have their weaknesses too.
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Moreover, today almost all broadband connections in the world are fixed links provided either by telcos or cable companies. But in the next couple of years a handful of promising new wireless technologies, the best known of which is WiMax, will start to blanket large regions with broadband access over the airwaves.
This will be a huge boon to consumers, who will be able to bypass the broadband duopoly of cable and telecoms companies. It will also help the VOIP specialists by combining the benefits of VOIP with the convenience of wireless mobility (at least within regions with wireless broadband coverage). Vonage and others are already working with equipment vendors to make portable handsets based on short-range Wi-Fi technology, for use within homes and offices. These should be available next year. WiMax handsets could follow in 2006. If he can keep his lead until WiMax arrives, says Mr Citron, he could leave his cable and telco rivals in the dust.
Who will be the biggest losers? Not the fixed-line telcos, even though their revenues may fall by 25% by 2010 due to VOIP, according to Mr Mewawalla. The mobile operators are likely to be the big losers, with their revenues plunging by 80%. Together, VOIP and wireless broadband could fatally undermine their costly third-generation (3G) networks.
In short, VOIP upends the entire telecoms landscape. As consumers flock to make cheap calls over the internet, a whole industry must find ways to turn VOIP from a threat into an opportunity.
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The Economist (requires subscription)

From Iraq to Afghanistan, to Colombia and the Balkans private companies are involved on the battlefield more than ever.
During the first Gulf war one private contractor served on the ground for every 50 US soldiers. By last year’s war in Iraq, there was one contractor for every 10 military personnel.
Since hostilities formally ended, the number of private contractors has risen. An estimated 10,000 privately-employed armed men, mostly former soldiers, are providing security in Iraq. By this estimate, private soldiers make up the second-largest armed contingent in the country, ahead of the British.
The business of war is being progressively privatised around the world. By one estimate the private military industry is now worth up to $100bn a year.
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FT.com (requires subscription)

La Asamblea Nacional francesa ha adoptado casi por unanimidad la proposición de ley que, sin legalizar la eutanasia, permite "dejar morir" a los enfermos sin esperanza de curación o en fase terminal. Considerada como una tercera vía, la ley había sido propuesta por una comisión por iniciativa de diputados de los dos principales partidos franceses, el conservador y gobernante UMP y el Partido Socialista.
La proposición de ley, que contó con 548 votos a favor y sólo tres abstenciones, se basa en tres pilares esenciales: Respetar la voluntad del enfermo, evitar la "obstinación irracional" en ciertos tratamientos médicos y luchar contra el sufrimiento.
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El Mundo

Cendant, the world's largest travel group, on Monday sounded a negative note on new “metasearch” internet search engines, which have been hailed by internet giants Yahoo and AOL as the next evolutionary step for online travel.
Sam Katz, chief executive of Cendant's travel division, said there were “a lot of negatives” to metasearch engines, which search online travel agents as well as the websites of hotels and airlines. “It's a proposition that has not been thought through,” he said.
The emergence of metasearch is the latest technological development in the travel industry, which has already been reshaped by the internet and online booking.
Cendant recently bought Orbitz, the second-largest online travel company in the US, for $1.25bn. Mr Katz said the company had taken steps to prevent unauthorised searching of its sites by metasearch companies. Cendant's brands also include Budget car rental.
Metasearch companies such as SideStep and Mobissimo aim to create a one-stop shop for prospective travellers by trawling the internet to find results from online agencies as well as “supplier” websites owned by hotels, airlines and car rental companies.
But the technology has divided the industry, because some suppliers and online travel shops object to having their content searched by a third party.
Metasearch engines aim to attract consumers who show little loyalty to particular sites. The average consumer checks about three websites before making a purchase.
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FT.com

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This announcement was brought to my attention via email from Norway-based Rich Ling, one of the earliest social scientists to follow the adoption of the mobile phone. When I asked Ling what he thought the DVF Mobile meant, he referred to Georg Simmel, who observed the psychosocial aspects of fashion at the beginning of the 20th century: "Following from Simmel," Ling replied, "fashion consists of two types of tension. The first is the tension between individual and group identity. The second is the tension between the avant-garde and the dowdy. With the first of these, individuals are involved in trying to develop their own special ways of being or façades while at the same time also using their display of clothes, language and other artifacts (including the mobile telephone) as a sign of membership in a group. With the second of these, the individuals are, in effect, trying to surf on the edge of a dynamic change in society. If they are too far ahead, then they are discordant. If they are too far behind they are an echo of that which has come and gone. The ownership and use of the mobile phone (as an object of consumption) allows one to show their competence as a 'correct' (or perhaps not so correct) consumer of up-to-date technology. In addition, the device is a networking tool that in itself helps to develop and maintain group interaction. Further, the way we use it, the way that we display it and the way that we place it in our presentation of self provide others a sense of our fashionability."
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The Feature
Howard Rheingold

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Employers will have to trust their workers much more in future if mobile working using the latest technology is to forge ahead.
That was a key point in research by Dr Carsten Sørensen of LSE’s Department of Information Systems, published in the report The Future Role of Trust in Work.
He describes how the old classical management hierarchies of the past are being replaced by flatter networked structures. He explained how micromanagement causes people to spend a lot of time proving that they are working, instead of getting on with actually working. The trick will be setting up a system where the workers see a benefit in being monitored. ’But building the kind of trust between management and workers can take years, and it can be erased in a second,’ Sorensen notes.
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London School of Economics (downloadable report)

Musicians are embracing the internet as a way of reaching new fans and selling more music, a survey has found.
The study by US researchers, Pew Internet, suggests musicians do not agree with the tactics adopted by the music industry against file-sharing.
While most considered file-sharing as illegal, many disagreed with the lawsuits launched against downloaders.
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For part of the study, Pew Internet conducted an online survey of 2,755 musicians, songwriters and music publishers via musician membership organisations between March and April 2004.
Mary Madden, Pew Internet They ranged from full-time, successful musicians to artists struggling to make a living from their music.
"We looked at more of the independent musicians, rather than the rockstars of this industry but that reflects more accurately the state of the music industry," Ms Madden told the BBC News website.
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MUSICIANS AND THE NET
87% use it to advertise and post music online
83% offer free samples
77% have a website
69% sell songs online
Source: Pew Internet
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BBC
Pew Internet

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The sausage campaign was organized by a small, three-year-old company in Boston called BzzAgent, but that firm is hardly the only entity to have concluded that the most powerful forum for consumer seduction is not TV ads or billboards but rather the conversations we have in our everyday lives. The thinking is that in a media universe that keeps fracturing into ever-finer segments, consumers are harder and harder to reach; some can use TiVo to block out ads or the TV's remote control to click away from them, and the rest are simply too saturated with brand messages to absorb another pitch. So corporations frustrated at the apparent limits of ''traditional'' marketing are increasingly open to word-of-mouth marketing. One result is a growing number of marketers organizing veritable armies of hired ''trendsetters'' or ''influencers'' or ''street teams'' to execute ''seeding programs,'' ''viral marketing,'' ''guerrilla marketing.'' What were once fringe tactics are now increasingly mainstream; there is even a Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
Marketers bicker among themselves about how these approaches differ, but to those of us on the receiving end, the distinctions might seem a little academic. They are all attempts, in one way or another, to break the fourth wall that used to separate the theater of commerce, persuasion and salesmanship from our actual day-to-day life. To take what may be the most infamous example, Sony Ericsson in 2002 hired 60 actors in 10 cities to accost strangers and ask them: Would you mind taking my picture? Those who obliged were handed, of course, a Sony Ericsson camera-phone to take the shot, at which point the actor would remark on what a cool gadget it was. And thus an act of civility was converted into a branding event.
This idea -- the commercialization of chitchat -- resembles a scenario from a paranoid science-fiction novel about a future in which corporations have become so powerful that they can bribe whole armies of flunkies to infiltrate the family barbecue. That level of corporate influence sounds sure to spark outrage -- another episode in the long history of mainstream distrust of commercial coercion and marketing trickery. Fear of unchecked corporate reach is what made people believe in the power of subliminal advertising and turn Vance Packard's book ''The Hidden Persuaders'' into a best seller in the 1950's; it is what gave birth to the consumer-rights movement of the 1970's; and it is what alarms people about neuroscientists supposedly locating the ''buy button'' in our brains today. Quite naturally, many of us are wary of being manipulated by a big, scary, Orwellian ''them.''
In this case, however, it is not just ''them.'' It turns out that Gabriella and the rest of the sausage agents are not paid flunkies trying to manipulate Main Street Americans; they are Main Street Americans. Unlike the Sony Ericsson shills, Gabriella is not an actress. She is an accountant, with full-time work and a 12-year-old daughter, living in Bayonne, N.J. Aside from free samples, she gets no remuneration. She and her many fellow agents have essentially volunteered to create ''buzz'' about Al Fresco sausage and dozens of other products, from books to shoes to beer to perfume. BzzAgent currently has more than 60,000 volunteer agents in its network
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NYT (requires registration)
BzzAgent
BzzAgent Blog

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Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, the three major credit reporting agencies in the United States, on Wednesday began offering free reports to consumers in Western states under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, a federal law passed last year to deal with growing concerns over privacy and disclosure of sensitive financial data. Compliance is being phased in regionally this year, with consumers in 13 Western states the first to benefit.
None of the agencies would disclose precise numbers, but each reported a rush of requests through their joint site--www.AnnualCreditReport.com--Wednesday morning, with tens of thousands of online reports processed the first day.
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CNET

From a minor annoyance for home-PC users to a major plight on enterprise environments around the world, spyware (also known as adware, malware, scumware and a host of other sordid names) is infecting millions of computers with multiple purposes: stealing personal information, enabling identity theft, tracking users' online activity and selling the information back to anyone willing to pay. The need to identify and eradicate these parasitic programmes is to drive anti-spyware software revenues from €9m in 2003 to €229m in 2008, according to new research from market advisory firm IDC.
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DM Europe

In the past 12 months, the number of people actively surfing the web from home each month in Europe has grown by 12 per cent to 10m, according to numbers from internet research firm Nielsen NetRatings. France has enjoyed the highest growth, with 16 per cent in the last 12 months, followed closely by Italy (15 per cent), the UK (13 per cent) and Germany (12 per cent). The use of high speed internet connections has also increased dramatically. In the 12 months to October 2004, the number of people in Europe accessing the internet at high speed from home increased from 34.1m to 54.5m – an increase of 60 per cent. The largest increases occurred in Italy (120 per cent) and in the UK (93 per cent).

DM Europe

Over five million new domain names were added to the internet in the third quarter of this year - the highest growth in registrations ever.
The VeriSign Domain Name Industry Brief found the total number of domain names registered topped 66.3 million, with .com still the most popular suffix and .uk names the fourth most registered.
It's the third quarter in a row of record growth for domain names, with an upturn in the economy and the advent of pay-per-click advertising thought to be driving the boom.
As well as the new entrants to the market, aged domain names aren't lying down yet - 72 per cent of previously registered domain names have been renewed and the number of live sites have increased by seven per cent on the previous quarter.

Silicon.com

Are Brazilian teenagers staging a takeover of the world wide web? Quite possibly, judging from the strange developments over at Orkut, a website created last year by Google to tap into the internet's "social networking" craze. Like the best- known site, Friendster, Orkut lets users maintain a network of friends online, and through them reach others to find a date, land a job, or buy a car. For a while, the Google site was the coolest place for Silicon Valley's technorati to hang out. But internet communities develop a life of their own, and now more than 60 per cent of Orkut's users are Brazilian. Does this mean that Brazilians are more social than the rest of us? Adam Freed, head of international products at Google, is at a bit of a loss. "I'm not sure we know why [Orkut has turned Brazilian]," he says. "Communities will grow organically where they grow - we just try to support it." Orkut is not the only site to have succumbed to the Brazilian invasion. Fotolog.net, which lets users post their pictures to a personal webpage, seems to be the preserve of bronzed, bikini-clad bodies from the beaches of Rio. The site lists more than 300,000 Brazilian users - roughly five times as many as in the US, where it is based. Worse things that could happen.

FT.com

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are quietly developing new search tools for digital video, foreshadowing a high-stakes technology arms race in the battle for control of consumers' living rooms.
Google's effort, until now secret, is arguably the most ambitious of the three. According to sources familiar with the plan, the search giant is courting broadcasters and cable networks with a new technology that would do for television what it has already done for the Internet: sort through and reveal needles of video clips from within the haystack archives of major network TV shows.
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Video is in the spotlight as the Internet begins to mature into an entertainment platform and becomes a viable companion for television, convergence devices that combine PC and TV features, and the networked home.
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CNET

Last year, the number of foreign students at American colleges and universities fell for the first time since 1971. Recent reports show that total foreign student enrollment in our 2,700 colleges and universities dropped 2.4 percent, with a much sharper loss at large research institutions. Two-thirds of the 25 universities with the most foreign students reported major enrollment declines.

The costs to the American economy are significant. Educating foreign students is a $13 billion industry. Moreover, the United States does not produce enough home-grown doctoral students in science and engineering to meet our needs. The shortfall is partly made up by the many foreign students who stay here after earning their degrees.

Equally important, however, are the foreign students who return home and carry American ideas with them. They add to our soft power, the ability to win the hearts and minds of others. As Secretary of State Colin Powell put it, "I can think of no more valuable asset to our country than the friendship of future world leaders who have been educated here."
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Joseph S. Nye Jr, NYT (requires registration)

Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE:HLT) has announced that bookings on its proprietary brand websites during October 2004 exceeded call center bookings from 800 numbers for that month, representing a company first since the advent of website reservations. During October, brand.com sites overall reported more than 972,000 room nights, whereas approximately 863,000 room nights were booked from 800 numbers through the 16 Hilton Family call centers worldwide. The company also has experienced record-breaking revenues month after month through its brand sites.
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Hilton Hotels

Os voluntários que recolhem e separam a comida para o Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome estão a aumentar a olhos vistos: na campanha que ontem arrancou e hoje termina são mais quase cinco mil do que em 2000. Uma subida que é acompanhada pelo acréscimo de comida oferecida e do número de pessoas à mesa de quem chega.

Espera-se que "em clima de abrandamento económico, em que há mais carências e mais necessidade de apoio", a generosidade esteja em alta, afirma a presidente da Federação dos Bancos Alimentares Contra a Fome, Isabel Jonet, a propósito do arranque da campanha dos dez bancos alimentares do país que decorre em 525 estabelecimentos comerciais de todo o território.

Estão mobilizados 10.725 voluntários, mais 4805 do que no Natal de 2000, mais 525 do que no ano passado. Ainda recorrendo ao voluntariado, o produto da campanha será distribuído localmente a partir da próxima semana, através de instituições de solidariedade social previamente seleccionadas.

Definir o perfil do voluntário típico é tarefa inglória, defende Isabel Jonet. Há-os de todas as idades, de estudantes a pessoas na casa dos 80 anos, reformados e pré-reformados e muitos escuteiros.
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Público

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Ao contrário da tendência verificada nos países europeus tradicionalmente exportadores de mão-de-obra (Espanha, Itália ou Grécia), o número de portugueses residentes na Europa continua a aumentar: 929 mil em 1990, 1.009 mil em 1996 e 1.037 mil em 2001.

Apesar deste ligeiro crescimento, a percentagem de portugueses no total de estrangeiros nos países europeus diminuiu de 5,8% em 1990, para 5,2% em 1996 e 4,9% em 2001.

O número de estrangeiros residentes em Portugal, Finlândia, Irlanda, Itália, e Espanha duplicou nos anos noventa, segundo o estudo da ONU.

O número de estrangeiros em Portugal passou de 108 mil em 1990, para 173 mil em 1996 e 224 mil em 2001.
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Agência Financeira

Trip Hawkins has a big idea for online games: think small and cheap.
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Now, says Mr Hawkins, the rules of the game are changing. The internet - particularly on mobile phones - is opening up a big new market for entertainment. But it is very different from the one that gave rise to the current $17bn (£9bn) games industry. According to this view, technology should no longer be directed towards producing ever-higher fidelity, delivering visual effects that come closer and closer to life. Other considerations have become more important.

"What people want is interactivity and control," says Mr Hawkins. "They're totally willing to give up fidelity to get it."

They also want to socialise. With an estimated 30m participants around the world, he says, fantasy sports leagues are proof that playing online is often more about hooking into a bigger community than finding an immersive experience.

The arrival in the mass market of "feature phones" - handsets with colour screens and a modicum of computing power - has produced a platform that can meet these needs in new ways.
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FT.com (requires subscription)

AT THE START of 2003, an impressive effort to govern globalization got underway: The international diamond trade, which had fueled civil wars and international crime, became subject to a regulatory system backed by the United Nations and known as the Kimberley Process. An unlikely alliance of governments, the diamond industry and constructive nongovernmental organizations united behind two simple ideas: Freshly mined diamonds should be sealed in registered containers that certify their country of origin, and diamond importers should not accept unregistered gems that might profit insurgents or criminals. Diamonds from conflict areas have sustained guerrillas in Liberia, Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone; they are thought to form part of terrorist financial networks.
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Washington Post

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Although the net is becoming part of local and central government, its potential has not yet been fully exploited to create an online "commons" for public debate.

In its report, Is Online Community A Policy Tool?, the IPPR also asks if ID cards could help create safer online communities.

Adopting an eBay-type model would let communities create their own markets for skills and services and help foster a sense of local identity and connection.
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E-government initiatives over the last decade have very much been about putting basic information and service guides online as well as letting people interact with government via the web.

Many online communities, such as chatrooms, mailing lists, community portals, message boards and weblogs often form around common interests or issues.


With 53% of UK households now with access to the net, the government, suggests Mr Davies, could act as an intermediary or "middleman" to set up public online places of debate and exchange to encourage more "cosmopolitan politics" and public trust in policy.
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BBC

Weblog - A Manifesto for a Digital Britain

les enfants lisent. Mais pas comme leurs parents, ni même comme les enfants d'hier. Dans une étude réalisée pour le département de la prospective du ministère de la Recherche (1), Sylvie Octobre souligne une «mutation du rapport au livre».
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«Les 10-14 ans ne sont pas réfractaires à la lecture, mais celle-ci n'est pas au centre de leur univers culturel et tend à s'en éloigner avec l'âge»
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Les écrans (télés, ordinateurs, etc.) ne nuisent pas forcément à la lecture. Au contraire : il y aurait un «effet de cumul» : «Les lecteurs sont, avec des intensités similaires, téléspectateurs, auditeurs de musique et utilisateurs d'ordinateurs.» Bref ceux qui lisent beaucoup ne regardent pas moins la télévision. Par contre, lecture et jeux vidéo semblent s'exclure : plus d'un quart de ceux qui jouent quotidiennement ne lisent pas.
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Sylvie Octobre conclut : «La forte dispersion des centres d'intérêt des 6-14 ans [...] a favorisé le déplacement de la lecture vers des ouvrages thématiques et des supports de presse, faisant de la lecture de la littérature de façon solitaire non plus l'aune à laquelle il faut mesurer les comportements de lecture mais une des modalités possibles, par ailleurs minoritaire, du rapport à l'écrit.»
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Liberation

La Documentation Francaise

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L'originalité de ce travail est d'en donner la mesure concrète, en s'appuyant sur un matériau inédit : l'enquête «Emploi», qui est publiée chaque année par l'Insee et qui, pour des raisons de commodité, est réalisée auprès d'un échantillon de 4 000 petits îlots d'habitations (de 30 à 40 logements). Cette formidable base de données n'avait jamais été exploitée sous l'angle territorial. En l'explorant, Eric Maurin a découvert que 42 % des îlots étudiés ne comptaient pas de salarié aisé (défini comme se situant parmi les 10 % les plus riches de la population française), alors qu'une répartition aléatoire aurait dû donner un résultat de 16 %. Quant aux 10 % les plus pauvres, ils sont, eux, absents dans 32 % des îlots. Les pauvres sont donc moins concentrés et «les ghettos les plus fermés sont des ghettos de riches».
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Liberation

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De fait, le « ghetto français » n'est pas tant le lieu d'un affrontement entre inclus et exclus, que le théâtre sur lequel chaque groupe s'évertue à fuir ou à contourner le groupe immédiatement inférieur dans l'échelle des difficultés. À ce jeu, ce ne sont pas seulement des ouvriers qui fuient des chômeurs immigrés, mais aussi les salariés les plus aisés qui fuient les classes moyennes supérieures, les classes moyennes supérieures qui esquivent les professions intermédiaires, les professions intermédiaires qui refusent de se mélanger avec les employés, etc. Bref, en chacun de nous se découvre un complice plus ou moins actif du processus ségrégatif.
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La Republique Des Idees

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So much for toys that will pull your children away from the television. This holiday the hottest new products for kids, from cuddly dolls to trivia games, have one thing in common: They all interact with the tube, whether by means of sensors (the Batwave Batmobile) or radio-wave technology (that would be Serafina) or the regular old TV remote control.

With this year's toys, kids can essentially crawl inside their favorite series, cueing up video clips, propelling the plot forward and answering questions posed by characters.

Tying toys to the TV is by no means new -- for years, a walk down the toy aisle has felt like a romp through the Saturday morning cartoons. What's different this year is the type of interaction.

Toymakers and television show producers say they want kids to begin playing with TV shows -- or at least their content, sometimes transferred onto a DVD -- rather than just watch them passively and then play with their spinoff toys afterward
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Washington Post

As receitas de jogo de Macau deverão superar as de Las Vegas já no próximo ano, disse terça-feira, em Hong Kong, Grant Bowie, presidente da Wynn Resorts, uma empresa do sector.
Os 12 casinos que operam no ex-território sob administração portuguesa facturaram 2.708 milhões de euros no ano passado e, no primeiro trimestre deste ano, as receitas aumentaram 38% em termos homólogos, de acordo com os dados oficiais. Las Vegas, por seu lado, facturou cerca de 3.610 milhões de euros em 2003.
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MillenniumBCP

Merriam-Webster said "blog" headed the list of most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months.
During 2004 blogs, or web logs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media.
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Its list of most looked-up words is drawn up every year and it discounts terms such as swear words, that everyone likes to look up, or those that always cause problems, such as "affect" and "effect".

TOP 10 WORDS OF 2004
1. blog
2. incumbent
3. electoral
4. insurgent
5. hurricane
6. cicada
7. peloton
8. partisan
9. sovereignty
10. defenestration

Merriam-Webster said "blog" was the word that people have asked to be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months.
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BBC
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