A new blog that may be of interest to some of you.... Sirc.blogspot.com Published by the Singapore Internet Research Centre at Nanyang Technological University. We post news items and academic research concerning the social, cultural, economic, and political impact of the Internet and other new media technologies in Asia. Some recent posts: China web dissident 'soon free' Liu Di's grandmother told Reuters news that she could soon be free; however it was unclear whether her release would have any bearing on other people arrested at the same time for posting critical material on the internet. India: Campaigning through the Internet and SMS The Congress and BJP, two leading political parties in India have announced that they will be campaigning through emails and sms in addition to using the more traditional methods such as posters and banners. Shopkeepers who specialize in selling campaign paraphenalia are however not as excited by this new form of campaigning. Singapore Ranks Top 5 in Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide In a joint study by the E-governance Institute of Rutgers University-Newark and the Global e-Policy e-Government Institute of Sungkyunkwan University, Korea, and was co-sponsored by the UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management, and the American Society for Public Administration, Singapore ranked in the top 5 and Jakrta in the top 20 countries of 100 countries world wide. Pakistan: IT education to be introduced on a large scale IT education will be introduced in 2000 government high and higher education schools across Pakistan. Amongst other things, it is aimed at introducing the benefits of the ICT revolution to the common man. Randolph Kluver School of Communication and Information Nanyang Technological University 31 Nanyang Link Singapore, 637718 (65) 6790-5770 Fax (65) 6792-4329