technology

Third generation technology, or 3G, is championed by the wireless industry as the next step of innovative cellular technology. It brings high-speed Internet and data transmission to cellular phones and increases data capacity for cellular phone applications. But a bottleneck exists in the United States that keeps a 3G roll out in the distant future – there is a shortage of available electromagnetic spectrum. Several obstacles block the wireless industry from acquiring the spectrum 3G requires, as a number of regulatory bodies shape spectrum’s availability based on supply and nature of proposed use. This paper seeks to identify the key players in spectrum allocation, the sources and means by which more spectrum can be made available and how an effective dynamic between government and private sectors can be constructed to identify spectrum that can be made available for 3G use. In light of other important spectrum users, including public safety users and the military, it will take a long term, forward-looking assessment of spectrum management to make 3G attainment possible. By marshalling relevant public and private sectors towards a thorough evaluation of all options to increase available spectrum, the U.S. wireless industry can mitigate the effects of the current spectrum shortage and, over time, bring third generation wireless technology to its market.

In both society and its cinematic representations, technology and culture are bound together, acting and reacting to one another. These bonds have combined to transform gender. In this paper, I will examine the relationships between technology and gender in one of the most widely recognized and popular film collections of modern film studies: James Bond movies. In this context, the relationships between various women and Bond, as well as the relationships between women and technology, are extremely enlightening as to the gender ideologies that exist in contemporary society. These interactions reveal deep-seated conventions involving romance and sexuality between men and women that add complexity to modern womanhood in film and in society; I will examine this intricate set of ideologies through the lens of the Bond films, focusing most closely on the films made in the 1990’s post-internet culture: Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough.

The widespread deployment of Internet technologies is dramatically impacting the world’s information infrastructures thereby reducing the planet to a much smaller place. New worldwide connections are made that link individuals from diverse cultures, classes, and socioeconomic backgrounds. While online technologies offer unprecedented communications opportunities, escalating reliance on them is causing a new problem. Cultural segregation, historically a “have – have not” phenomenon, is exacerbated when some cultures have better access to the Internet. Some international development workers are focused on using the Internet as a way to “leapfrog” weaker countries into forward motion and are trying to establish methods for doing so. Development workers in the Cambodian villages of Rovieng are currently addressing this challenge. They feel that by employing the Internet, Rovieng’s economy will benefit from a virtual marketplace and subsequently transfer profits towards the people’s basic needs and physical infrastructure. However, can this be achieved without the fundamental needs of the community being addressed first?