Academic year 2013-14
Public Policies in ICT
| Degree: | Code: | Type: |
| Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science | 21456 | Optional subject |
| Bachelor's Degree in Telematics Engineering | 21759 | Optional subject |
| Bachelor's Degree in Audiovisual Systems Engineering | 22669 | Optional subject |
| ECTS credits: | 4 | Workload: | 100 hours | Trimester: | 1st |
| Department: | Dept. of Information and Communication Technologies |
| Coordinator: | Jordi Bosch |
| Teaching staff: | Jordi Bosch, Jorge Infante |
| Language: | English, Catalan (Jordi) and Spanish (Jorge) |
| Timetable: | |
| Building: | Communication campus - Poblenou |
The course in Public Policies in ICT (PPTIC) is part of the block of Regulation subjects. This block consists of two elective courses for all grades (Grade in Audiovisuals Systems Engineering, Grade in Telematics Engineering and Grade in Informatics Engineering).
The second course, the ICT Sector Regulatory Framework (MRTIC), will be deployed in the near future.
Public Policies in ICT (PPTIC) introduces students to a different perspective on the activities related to the ICT sector, this is, from the standpoint of the public sector.
The public sector is very broad. We will see, from every level of public administration (Europe, Spain, Catalonia, provincial, country councils, municipalities...) and from each field (telecommunications, information society, culture, media, e-government, industry...), the different responsibilities and actions in environments such as legal, regulation, promotion, development or procurement.
Policies are never neutral, involving different mental models of society, economics and country which students need to know and interpret. This is a subject with both, a theoretical and practical clear approach, where student participation is very important. The ability to understand the implications beyond day to day facts is something that students are expected to develop throughout the course.
It will, moreover, allow the student to identify the public sector as an environment in which to develop his professional career.
No existence
| Cross-disciplinary competences | Specific competences |
|---|---|
|
Instrumental INS3. Capacity to apply knowledge to the analysis of situations and to problems solving. INS4. Ability to search and manage information. INS5. Ability in decisions taking. Interpersonal INT1. Capacity for team working. INT2. Capacity to work in International and interdisciplinary contexts. INT3. Capacity of leadership, coordination and initiative. Systemic SIS1. Capacity to implement with flexibility and creativity the new knowledge and to adapt it to new contexts and situations. SIS2. Capacity to autonomous and continuously progress in training and learning processes. SIS3. Capacity to recognize and understand diversity and multiculturalism. SIS4. Capacity of motivation by quality. SIS5. Capacity to generate brand new ideas |
P6. Ease in handling specifications, regulations and mandatory regulation. P7. Capacity to analyze and to assess the social and environmental impact of technical solutions. P8. Understand and apply basic elements of P9. Ability to work in a multidisciplinary and T6. Ability to conceive, develop, organize and manage networks, systems, services and telecommunications infrastructure in certain residential, business or institutional contexts with responsibility for its implementation and continuous improvement and to meet its economic and social impact. |
General evaluation criteria:
|
Topic of assessment |
% of mark |
Threshold |
Retake at July call? |
Retake |
| Attendance | 10% | >=70% | NO | -- |
|
Seminaries |
40% |
>=30% |
NO |
-- |
| Practices | 15% | >=30% | NO | -- |
| Final exam | 35% | >=40% | YES |
July Call New exam |
1. One of the richness of this course is the practical contribution that is made from the world of public administration and the participative discussions in class. That's why it cannot be passed the course without active participation.
2. Each seminar or practice will contribute equally to the weight contribution to the overall mark for the corresponding topic. For example, if there are 2 debates, each one will contribute 50% of the weight reserved for debate activities.
3. In each of the concepts composing the mark, thresholds must be passed. If threshold is not exceeded in all topics, subject will be considered as failed.
4. Only the final test can be retaken in July if result is below 40%.
5. This final test can also be retaken if having exceeded the threshold in all areas but the mark of the test is not enough to pass the course.
6. If a student is in an exceptional situation, it must be notified during the first week of course to the Director of Studies.
Attendance
All students must attend to a minimum of a 70% of the classes (including theory sessions, practices and seminars). Students attending fewer classes will fail the subject. Attendance cannot be recovered in the special exam after the trimester. A signature sheet will have to be filled by students at the beginning of each class.
Practices
Practices are organized around five sessions. The first and last one will be the introduction and concluding sessions of the subject. The three practices sessions (2nd, 3rd and 4th) will consist on three lectures that will be given by recognized experts in the field of public policy. For each of the practices, students must prepare in small groups of three persons, one question for the speaker. The question will be based on a paper that will be supplied to students in advance and the question is to be delivered in hand, in the session before the lecture.
Evaluation rules
In the practices guide available at Moodle you can find more detailed information about deadlines for each practice.
Seminars
Seminars will follow the “debate” model in a similar way that was done by students in the subject “Introducció a les TIC” done in the first course. Specific instructions for seminaries are given in the corresponding document to be published in Moodle.
There is a relevant difference with the debates followed in the first course, that must be taken into account by students. Debates in the first course were introductory, and the grades were assigned considering that the work was done by new young students. In the case of the debates for this subject, the assessment will be done considering that students are in the last grade of the studies. This means that both, the position papers and the sentences should be rigorous, well documented on empirical evidence and good references, and well written as expected from a telecommunication engineer.
In total there will be 3 debates and a special activity. For the last session of seminar, a special activity will be prepared. This activity will consist on responding to a public consultation launched by the European Commission in the summer of 2013 about the evolution of the converged audiovisual world. Students will read in advance the green paper from the European Commission, and in the activity session they will have the opportunity of raising questions on the document and the scope of the public consultation. A week later each student will deliver her/his response to the public consultation taking the role of a type of stakeholder (content provider as a TV operator, Internet Access Provider, Consumer association, Google, etc.). Students will be assigned a mark on the quality of their response to the public consultation (well documented, points raised, well reasoned, etc.)
1. Public Policies in ICT
1.1. Public Administration
1.2. Public Policies
1.3. Vectors of Interest
1.4. Universal Service
1.5. Promotion Public Policies
1.6. Sectorial Public Policies
1.7. Public Policies by Laws
1.8. ECS Regulation in the EC
The methodological approach of the course focuses on designing a teaching-learning process based on three types of activities, divided into three clearly defined approaches:
| Activity/Approach | Presence (in class) | Directed (out class) | Independent (out class) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Lectures |
Traditional classroom for basic theoretical contents |
Proposal of readings and research of material to complement lectures |
Necessary to complete the learning process |
| Practices (Key Speakers) |
Components focusing on specific learning goals |
Previous preparation of the activities carried |
Research of material and |
| Seminaries (Debates) |
Making specific group activities in class under the supervision of the teacher |
Preparation of activity before the seminar |
Completion of deliverables with added value |
Most of the material to be read by students and be used as supporting material for debates, special report and study is available in the website of the main institutions involved in the analysis and definition of public policies and regulation for ICTs:
· European Commission: All the directives, and in general legislation in force produced by the EC is gathered in the portal on eCommunications. This portal also includes public consultations and external studies commissioned by the EC on different issues related to public policies and services/networks regulation. Exhaustive information about the situation and public policies applied in the EU.
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/index_en.htm
· Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): This is a very well known think tank on economic and policy issues where the governments from the most developed countries in the world participate. Among other very different issues, the OECD addresses policy issues related to public policy and regulation issues for ICTs, identifying best practices among the most advanced countries. It is a very good source of information for data and public policies in the USA, advanced asian countries as Japan, Korea and Australia, and comparison with public policies applied in Europe.
www.oecd.org/
· International Telecommunications Union (ITU): ITU is an agency of United Nations focused on telecommunications issues. Apart from their work in
standardization of telecommunications protocols (ITU-T), and spectrum coordination in the world (ITU-R), ITU-D is focused on development and public policy and regulatory issues for ICTs. It is a good source for information about public policy issues and data for the less developed countries.
www.itu.int
· Board of European Regulators for Electronic Communication Services (BEREC): BEREC is an EC Agency formed by all the National Regulatory authorities in the European Union (CMT among them). BEREC assists the Commission and the national regulatory authorities (NRAs) in implementing the EU regulatory framework for electronic communications, to give advice on request and on its own initiative to the European institutions and to complement at European level the regulatory tasks performed at national level by the regulatory authorities. In their website you can find very interesting reports on regulatory issues and public policies on many of the topics addressed in the subject.
www.erg.eu.int
· Secretaria de Estado de Telecomunicaciones y Sociedad de la Información (SETSI): This is the part of the Ministry of Industry involved in public policies and regulation for ICTs. You can find here the most relevant legislation in force in Spain, as well as descriptions on plans and projects on public policy from the Spanish central government.
www.minetur.gob.es/telecomunicaciones/es-ES/Paginas/index.aspx
· Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunciaciones (CMT): CMT impose exante obligations for operators, solve disputes among them and monitor the telecommunication markets in Spain. In this website you can find market analysis, relevant legislation and information, as well as a very complete annual report on the situation of the Spanish market for telecommunications.
www.cmt.es
· Generalitat de Catalunya (GenCat): The government of Catalonia have also their own plans and public policy on Telecommunications and Information Society issues. In their website students can access to specific data for Catalonia, as well as studies and policy plans on ICTs.
www20.gencat.cat/portal/site/societat-informacio
Additionally, most of these organizations publish annual reports on the situation of telecommunication and information society markets, providing very useful information on penetration of services, competition, advances, etc for each subsector. The more important ones that can be used by students to get data for its use on debates and assignments are the following ones:
· Informe anual de la CMT (2012): http://informecmt.cmt.es/
· Digital Agenda Scoreboard (European Commsision):
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/communications_reports/index_en.htm
The following list of references can be used to learn about the issues addressed in the course:
[Atkinson, 11] “Economic doctrines and network policy” R.D. Atkinson. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 35 Issue 5. June, 2011.
[Belloc et al, 2012] “Whither policy design for broadband penetration? Evidence from 30 OECD countries”. F. Belloc, A. Nicita and M. Alessandra Rossi. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 36 Issue 5. June, 2012.
[Ceccobelli et al, 2012] “ICT capital and labour productivity growth: A non-parametric analysis of 14 OECD countries”. M. Ceccobelli, S. Gitto and P. Mancuso. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 36 Issue 4. May, 2012.
[van Eijk & Poort, 2012] “Universal service and disabled people”. N. van Eijk and J. Poort. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 36 Issue 2. March, 2012.
[Greenstein & McDevitt, 11] “The broadband bonus: Estimating broadband Internet’s economic value”. S Greenstein and R. C. McDevitt. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 35 Issue 7. August, 2011.
[Hau et al, 11] “Multihoming, content delivery networks, and the market for Internet connectivity”. T. Hau, D. Burghardt and W. Brenner. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 35 Issue 6. July, 2011
[Kim et al, 11] “Access regulation and infrastructure investment in the mobile telecommunications industry”. J. Kim, Y. Kim, N. Gaston, R. Lestage, D. Flacher. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 35 Issue 11. December, 2011.
[Mueller & Asghari, 2012] “Deep packet inspection and bandwidth management: Battles over BitTorrent in Canada and the United States”. M. L. Mueller and H. Asghari. Telecommunications Policy, Vol. 36 Issue 2. March, 2012.
Sources of information for learning. Complementary bibliography
As a source for complementary bibliography, students should consult papers on the following two journals that are the most cited ones and addresses up-to-date issues on public policy and regulatory issues:
· Telecommunications Policy (The Internanations Journal of ICT Economy, Governance and Society). Edited by Elsevier.
· Communications & Strategies (International Journal of digital economics). Edited by IDATE.
Both journals are available in the UPF library, both, in paper and in the “Recursos-E” web access (after student authentication).
Finally, students are recommended to access the following courses from the Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT) addressing issues related to the topics analysed in the subject:
· Course on Communications and Information Policy (Spring, 2006)
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/engineering-systems-division/esd-68j-communications-andinformation-policy-spring-2006/index.htm
· Course on fundamentals of public policy (Fall, 2004):
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/urban-studies-and-planning/11-002j-fundamentals-of-publicpolicy-fall-2004/index.htm
· Introductory course on technology and policy:
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/engineering-systems-division/esd-10-introduction-totechnology-and-policy-fall-2006/index.htm
Teaching resources. Subject teaching material, support materials and tools
Moodle will be used for communication between students and teaching staff, and through this:
- The teaching material produced by the teaching staff and complementary bibliography articles will be available, as well as models of the documentation to be submitted by the students. This includes:
· Lecture notes and compulsory reading for each theoretical session
· Guides for Seminars, Practices and other assignments.
- All deliverables from students will be submitted via Moodle tasks.
- The partial and final grades will also be published by teachers in Moodle.
- The relevant warnings and information for following the subject will be published also in Moodle.