11. The People’s Communication Charter

From the Publisher: If you're not a communications engineer, but your work requires you to have a basic understanding of the latest developments in telecommunications and the global information infrastructure, here's an easy-to-understand guide that explains today's hottest communications technologies in plain English. How does the Internet work? What benefits do optical networks offer? What's the potential of PCS? What's the role of satellites in the Global Information Highway? What's next in the development of High-Definition Video TV and other new digital products? You find nontechnical answers to questions like these, plus clear definitions of commonly seen, but often misunderstood, terms such as: ADSL, ISDN, HFC, DVD, and dozens of others. In addition, you learn about the potential economic impact of key communication technologies and gain insights into who the key players are in various industry segments. This is an outstanding resource for nontechnical employees in communications, computer, and information companies, and a must-have reference for virtually every business and community library.

The information industry is the main branch of the modern economy. The processes of informatization lead to qualitative changes in society itself in the direction of acquiring sustainable features of the modern information society, the technological basis of which is the global information infrastructure (GII). GII provides free access to information resources to every inhabitant of the planet and provides a set of communication services that provide an open set of applications, covers all types of information and provides the opportunity to receive it anywhere, anytime, at an affordable price and at an affordable price quality. The creation and operation of modern satellite communication systems contributes to the creation of a global information infrastructure. Satellite communications, which is a promising component of modern cyberspace infrastructure, is qualitatively changing the entire telecommunications industry and affecting the usual way of life. Personal satellite communication systems have significant advantages over mobile communication systems. Today, the use of new spacecraft with improved characteristics is expected, which will represent almost the entire range of satellite services. According to documents submitted to the US Federal Communications Commission, satellites in space will «communicate» with each other at a frequency of more than 10 thousand GHz using a laser beam. Ground stations and user terminals will be communicated on 12 GHz radio bands. The promised data rate is 1 Gbps for each consumer. Regarding potential Starlink applications, SpaceX’s management points to the risky nature of the low-bandwidth broadband satellite business and adds that SpaceX plans to use its Starlink satellites not only to provide broadband Internet connectivity in remote areas of the world, but also to connect on other planets.

A global infrastructure is emerging in the 21ST century in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are becoming more and more pervasive. Dynamic innovation processes continue to give rise to the social and technological capabilities that could release the potential of ICT for development. Products produced in this diverse field have a wide application in society. It is a field that developing countries need to harness and develop considerable technical competence. Governments, businesses and other stakeholders in developing countries need to coordinate their actions in order to amplify the social and economic benefits of ICTs and to reduce the risk of exclusion. This paper presents a perspective of the ICT infrastructure in Zimbabwe. The increasing spread of ICT opens new opportunities for Zimbabwe to harness these technologies and services to serve its development goals. By investing in its national information infrastructures, Zimbabwe can experience the predicted social and economic benefits of a global information infrastructure. The paper gives a detailed coverage of recommendations for the case of Zimbabwe.

Responsibilities in the Context of the Global Information Infrastructure

The twenty-first century military communications will depend critically on satellite systems for their global reach. The two major networking technologies underlying the global information infrastructure (GII) will be asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and Internet (IP). The seamless operation of ATM and Internet over the hybrid (satellite and terrestrial) GII will be essential for the unhampered access, dissemination and exchange of information. However, there are major challenges to achieve seamless operation for ATM and Internet via satellite systems. Specific issues related to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and internet standards to function efficiently and provide high-quality service over satellite links and networks are discussed. Standardization activities for terrestrial and satellite interoperability of ATM and Internet Protocols (IP) are described. New technologies developed to address these issues are presented, including dynamic adaptive coding, data compression, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Proxy, bandwidth on demand, and traffic management. These technologies are currently incorporated in COMSAT Laboratories products such as COMSAT Link Accelerators for ATM and IP and the LINKWAY/sup TM/ 2000.

The article analyzes the existing legal mechanisms for managing critical information infrastructure in Ukraine. The instruments for their improvement are proposing in this article. An important component of critical infrastructure is its information component – a critical information infrastructure. The sphere of protection of critical information infrastructure in Ukraine is at the initial stage of formation. The current legislation defines only certain objects of socio-economic sphere, in which extraordinary events can lead to socially dangerous consequences. In view of the fact, that the term “critical information infrastructure” does not having a consistent interpretation in different countries, we propose our opinion. “Critical information infrastructure is a system of information management of critical facilities and information and communication networks that provide defense capabilities and security of public and private institutions, whose operation may flow to the national security of Ukraine” (KII). In the KII we can identified information and network components. Information environment of KII is a system for information management of critical objects, including computing and information resources that form automated control systems (ACS). The network component of KII consists of a set of telecommunication devices, communication lines and network equipment, systems of open protocols for the exchange of information between elecommunication devices, global system of digital addresses and digital identifiers, software. The Internet network can be considered as a technological add-on over a telecommunication network that provides the provision of data transmission and processing services (e-mail, teleconferencing, file transfer, access to computing and information systems in local area networks). The main threat to the safety of ACS of critical information infrastructure objects is targeted actions on information systems, information and telecommunication networks by software and hardware. KII legal security include two main components – national and international. The national component may be forming by a set of principles, legal institutions and norms, which are enshrined in the national legislation regulating public relations in Ukraine in the area of counteracting the security threats of the ACS of critical objects. In order to protect the most important objects of KII, it is necessary to identify these objects. The current legislation defines such categories of objects, for which special conditions for ensuring their protection and functioning are established. Some of them, in whole or in part, may be classifying as objects of critical infrastructure. The specificity of providing information security was reflecting in such Ukraine laws like “On the Fundamentals of National Security of Ukraine”, “On the Concept of the National Program of Informatization”, “On the National Program of Informatization”. As well as the Concept of Development of the Security and Defense Sector of Ukraine, the National Security Strategy of Ukraine, the Strategy of Cybersecurity Of Ukraine. The National Security Strategy identifies actual threats to national security and sets priorities for information security, cyber security and security of information resources and critical infrastructure. At the same time, the implementation of the state policy in the field of security of KII requires the further development of legal principles and norms governing the relevant social relations, that is, the national component of the legal security of KII. Ukraine should ensure the establishment of a nationwide system for assessing risks and threats to critical infrastructure, and after the legislative definition of the main terms, the implementation of the Identification of Critical Information Infrastructure objects. Identification of objects of critical information infrastructure can be accomplishing by introducing the certification of objects of critical information infrastructure. Such passports must contain general data about the facility, data on the main sources of danger, data on hazardous natural conditions, technological processes and response to threats. The international component of the legal security of KII provides for the regulation of a set of principles and norms defined by international treaties and recognized by the state, regulating issues of international cooperation in this area. Ukraine has signed the Convention on Cybercrime together with the member states of the Council of Europe and other States. It is aiming at stopping actions against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer systems, networks and computer data, as well as abusing such systems, networks and data by installing the criminal responsibility for such behavior, the provision of powers sufficient to combat criminal offenses, and the conclusion of agreements on rapid and reliable international cooperation. In addition, the plan of measures for 2017 on implementation of the Cybersecurity Strategy of Ukraine provides for the implementation of Directive 2008/114/EC on the protection of critical infrastructure, in particular on cybersecurity and cyber defense of critical infrastructure objects. Development of the system of international information security, the following main groups of international relations that requirenormative legal regulation within the framework of the legal security of KII: definition of the boundaries of the national KII in the global information and communication infrastructure and fixing signs of computer incidents in the control system of critical objects information infrastructure. The absence of generally recognized borders of state sovereignty of States in this space is a significant obstacle to the application of international law to the actions of other states. In particular, this impedes the establishment of limits of responsibility of states for violating the security of the KII and organizing international cooperation in the field of countering computer crime. The urgency of the legislative consolidation of signs of computer incidents in the automated control system of critical information infrastructure objects suggests the widespread use of the concept of “incident” in international law. An incident in cyberspace usually associated with a violation of the functioning of the components of cyberspace – an electronic collection environment and automated processing of information that determines the processes of the implementation of these operations, as well as information systems and automated control systems. The essence of the general definition of the “international incident” in the field of KII will be determining, firstly, by the nature of international relations between states that are violating by the “incident”. This event may be the result of unforeseen actions of the state, including actions that harm the interests of public bodies of one or more states, or, conversely, be one of many intentional but minor provocations carried out by agents of one state against another state. Given that international relations in the field of incidents in the field of KII are not regulating by international treaties, the main and, in fact, the only source of international law in this case serves as an international custom, however, its application to the sphere of KII is accompanying by considerable difficulties. For Ukraine, it is possible to introduce the positive experience of other states in the security of the KII. In particular, the problem of security of information technologies has been enshrined in the international standard ISO / IEC 15408 “General criteria for assessing the safety of information technology”.

The growth of the global Internet is causing a dramatic change in both the kind of people who access information and the types of information itself, ranging from unstructured multimedia data to traditional record-oriented data. To cope with these new needs, the interaction techniques traditionally offered to DBMS users have to evolve and eventually integrate in a powerful interface to the global information infrastructure. In particular, from the user's point of view there is the need for both effective visualization of multimedia information and retrieval tools able to overcome the existing dichotomy between browsing and querying. This article concentrates on the mutual relationship between database querying and Internet navigation by reviewing some important contributions from different areas, such as information retrieval, database research, and visualization techniques.

Barely more than 10 years after the birth of the World Wide Web, the Global Information Infrastructure is daily reality. In spite of the many applications in all domains of our societies: e-business, e-commerce, e-learning, e-science, and e-government, for instance, and in spite of the tremendous advances by engineers and scientists, the seamless integration of information and services remains a major challenge. The current shared vision for the future is one of semantically rich information and service oriented architecture for global information systems. This vision is at the convergence of progress in technologies such as XML, Web services, RDF, OWL, of multimedia, multimodal, and multilingual information retrieval, and of distributed, mobile and ubiquitous computing. Semantic Information Management (SIM) can be identified as the discipline that studies the integration and management of multi-modal information from distributed, heterogeneous, and autonomous sources based on their meaning. SIM is deemed necessary since there is an increasing tendency of inter-business and inter-applications sharing of data. The data can be written and stored using different standard and format. Hence, we need a platform to manage the data so that it can be universally understood. SIM as a research has variety research challenges. The first challenge is the identification of suitable meta-model that can ensure the quality of the integrated data. The next challenge is the adoption of ever-increasing number of standards used by enterprises. To comply with standards, enterprises have to represent their data uniquely and thus, the challenge to integrate them with data from other enterprises increases. XML has become a standard data format widely used in many organizations, thus leading to a growing need for exchanging and integrating multiple XML data sources across different application systems. XML has been regarded as a de-facto standard for data exchanges in enterprises. Integrating these sources requires an integration of their schemas. The main challenge is schema integration where the semantic is maintained. Aligning with the previous challenge, many enterprises these days have to comply with various government and professional regulations in managing their data. It makes the integration of data from multi-discipline enterprises and cross-regulated regions even more difficult. Another challenge is the ability to trace back the integrated information to its original source and format. The issue of forward and backward compatibility is far more complex than in traditional data integration research domain. The issue becomes more complex in a social network setting. Social networks consist mainly of groups of inter-connected people. This has played an important role in changing the way people interact with each other. Social networks analysis focuses on studying patterns of communication and exchange of information between people, which may influence not only on the individuals who adopt them, but also on the societies and organizations that enclose them. Since social network is not only heterogeneous, SIM in social networks imposes even a greater challenge, since each social group may have their own information semantic, and therefore, semantic in a global information exchange is a complex problem. The availability of cloud computing makes SIM even more challenging. Cloud computing has been increasingly regarded as a revolution in the computing practices through the concept of utility computing, whereby computing services are provided as utilities. There are various number of services provided by the cloud, from computing power, storage, to various software applications. SIM in the cloud will provide Information as a Service, a totally novel concept. The main challenge will be to manage such information so that the G. Kotsis (*) : I. Khalil Department of Telecooperation, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenberger Strasse 69, 4040, Linz, Austria e-mail: gabriele.kotsis@jku.at

The evolution of the Classic Enterprise Information Infrastructure into Sustainability and Global Enterprise Information Infrastructure is defined. However, it is not the end of evolution. Since the SE operates within larger entities, such as Local, National, Global Information Infrastructures, these ones create the Civilization Information Infrastructure. The latter is the foundation for modern civilizations and furthermore is the foundation for the emerging Global Civilization with its repercussions for lower-level infrastructures as well as for the World Civilization. If such civilization wants to survive, it must be able to monitor and predict its sustainability in relationship with enterprises. In conclusion some recommendations will be addressed for the pathways to a sustainable future.

: The United States is an information and information systems dominated nation. Because of its dependence on information and information technology, the United States has become one of the most vulnerable nations to information warfare attacks. This study examines vulnerabilities in the global, national and defense information infrastructure and information operations attacks (information warfare) in the context of the national strategy for protecting the information infrastructure. It reviews directives, regulations, and policies currently in place to protect the information infrastructure and recommends the part government should play in this effort. It concludes with recommendations regarding a coordinated government and private sector office at the national level to provide the leadership required for such an effort.

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) readiness and societal changes have transformed and moved the world economy towards modern economy rooted in ICT. Against this backdrop, the influence of e-readiness on the economy is increasingly presenting a challenge and sparking heightened debates. As a result, a number of studies have witnessed an increase of income but also a notable increase in the e-readiness level. However, some countries have paid more on e-commerce, e-network and e-government than others, which raises the question of why, a dilemma that this study set out to fill. To reduce this knowledge gap, the study aimed to investigate the influence of e-readiness on economic growth based on nationwide income levels. This study employed an exploratory research design of a sample of 129 countries purposively selected out of 189, with Smart PLS version 4.0 applied for data analysis. The study adds e-readiness as key to economic growth, hence its contribution to the existing body of knowledge. Moreover, the study provides useful implication to practitioners and policy makers on the use of ICT facilities to integrate each country into the global networked economy and to adopt holistic long-term strategies for ICT development and the design of a region's information infrastructure and its integration into the global infrastructure so as to bridge the "digital divide" and improve e-readiness in order to realize the potential of technology for sustainable economic growth.

Digital image and audio communications: toward a global information infrastructure

Jurisdictional Disputes and Intermediary Liability in Cyberspace

Looks at some practical approaches to improving the process of interacting with information distributed over the global information infrastructure, specifically for the World Wide Web. The introduction of NCSA Mosaic changed the way we get information over the Web. With the click of a button, Mosaic's graphical user interface made it possible to browse and retrieve literally any information accessible through the Web. This is true if you know the document's Universal Resource Locator (URL), an identifier expressing its location. You type in this address and sooner or later (depending on document size and traffic at the time), the document appears on your screen. If you do not know the URL, or even which documents contain the requested information, you might want to browse or search the Web. Interacting with information on the Web starts with browsing and searching; continues with selecting, digesting and assimilating information; terminates with generating new information; and begins anew. The user's needs and desires must occupy center stage during development of Web systems and sites. The approach chosen should let users interact easily and effectively with the information contained throughout large arrays of documents. Visualization, computer graphics, and just plain common sense in designing Web pages and presenting information make the process better for users. This article discusses how to construct effective presentations (Web pages).

The popular, business, and scientific media are full of predictions and promises for the national and global information infrastructures. However, one key problem is enabling interoperability in an open communications environment. In digital communications, simple examination does not reveal what a stream of bits represents-bits are bits. Headers and descriptors, a labeling mechanism, provide important identification for bit streams and thereby enable interoperability. Our work on headers and descriptors is part of a continuing effort to understand and foster the convergence and interplay of computing, communications, and interactive media. The header/descriptor concept, as represented here, began with US based efforts to define an advanced television system, high definition television (HDTV). Cross industry harmonization objectives, especially interoperability with digital computer and telecommunications systems, became formal selection criteria for the Federal Communications Commission's advanced television selection process. We explain the objectives and rationale underlying our work on headers and descriptors, and propose specific design concepts for achieving a truly universal header. An attractive, accessible, and sustainable information infrastructure depends on easy data sharing and preservation across varying systems. This larger goal, not simply the market needs of advanced television, drives our efforts.