Rural Uncommoning

Shared use of small-scale natural commons is vital to the livelihoods of billions of rural inhabitants, particularly women, and advocates propose that local telecommunications systems that are oriented by the commons can close rural connectivity gaps. This article extends insights about women's exclusion from such Community Networks (CNs) by considering ‘commoning’, or practices that produce, reproduce and use the commons and create communality. I generated data in interviews and observations of rural CNs in seven countries in the Global South and in multi-sited ethnography of international advocacy for CNs. Male biases in technoculture and rural governance limit women's participation in CNs, and women adopt different approaches to performing their communal identity while using technology. This situation contributes to detaching CNs from relations that are produced in women's commoning. It also illustrates processes that co-opt the commons in rural technology endeavours and the diverse ways commoners express their subjectivities in response.

A Best Practise Business Intelligence Framework for the Telecommunications Industry

This article endeavors to assess and evaluate the current level of efficiency by which the business intelligence (BI) department is able to deliver decision-making support and to propose a suitable business intelligence framework. The framework would be recommended for the local telecommunications industry towards the enhancement of decision making thereby improving productivity and overall decision-making efficiency. Every company needs a clear set of goals to achieve the maximum benefits from its BI solution. Articulating organisational BI goals are essential. An organisation must however do more than just state its goals to achieve its BI objectives; it needs a working framework that provides a blue print for success. The success of a business intelligence program depends on the approach or methodology used to implement the business intelligence strategy and the related components.

Letting Go? The Federal Communications Commission in the Era of Deregulation

Alfred Kahn's book, Letting Go: Deregulating the Process of Deregulation, suggested that regulators step aside once they have set basic rules for entry into erstwhile monopolized markets. Unfortunately, communications regulators have not heeded Professor Kahn's advice. I provide an analysis of the effects of three exercises in U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation or "deregulation": (1) the post-1996 unbundling regime designed to facilitate entry into local telecommunications markets; (2) the continuation and extension of the high-cost "universal service" program funded by the taxation of long-distance telephony; and (3) the FCC's attempt to regulate cable television rates.