CNN held a debate on July 23 among the eight Democratic Party candidates for the primaries in 2008. The novelty lies in the fact that the questions were posed by citizens who had previously recorded them on video and published them on YouTube. During the televised debate, 39 videos were screened with questions on global warming, health, the war in Iraq, arms policy and other issues.

In its recent broadcast of the US presidential election debates on July 23rd, CNN has introduced an important innovation. Those asking the candidates questions were from the public at large – people who had previously recorded their questions on video and then posted them on YouTube. These tools allow knowledge of users’ needs and preferences, something that companies should take good note of.

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Title: OECD Communications Outlook 2007
Source: OECD Communications Outlook 2007
Date: July 2007
Abstract: In OECD countries, Internet is primarily accessed via broadband connections; more specifically, six out of every ten Internet users employ broadband. According to a report by this organization, there were 13.5 broadband connections per 100 inhabitants in Spain in June of 2006, a figure slightly below the OECD average, which is 15.3 percent.
With regard to prices, the average in Spain is €32.75 per month, an amount significantly higher than in neighboring countries such as France and Italy where prices are €12 per month. In fact, Spain has one of the most expensive connections in all of the OECD, behind Mexico and ahead of Portugal, which takes third place, whereas Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland are some of the countries with the cheapest broadband connections.
The report highlights the case of Japan –which uses fiber optics to connect to the Internet– as one of the leading countries with regard to connection speed, approaching 100 Mbps, ten times higher than the OECD average.
 
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In Africa, only 4% of the population has access to the Internet. The majority of Internet users are located in the northern region and in the Republic of South Africa, whereas in countries such as Liberia, the percentage of Internet users is only 0.03%. However, technology is a mechanism that could help the poorer countries move away from marginalization.
A recent report by the special UN agency for development aid (UNCTAD) concludes that if no policies are adopted to foster technological development, the poverty of these countries will rise alarmingly. The lack of telecommunication infrastructures hampers technological development in Africa, a problem compounded by other factors such as the increased cost of connections, as nearly three quarters of them go through the United States or Great Britain.

Articles in New York Times (free registry required) and Forbes

Disruptive internet companies that rose in the late 90s through innovation and managed to survive the Internet bubble are now apprehensive due to a new wave of innovation shaking the sector, especially in the field of Web 2.0 applications and services.
In the fear that younger companies could up-end their business, they are placing their bets on innovation in the major online markets, such as online video or mobile telephony.

Article in Financial Times (payment service)

Corporate blogs are on the rise, but for the time being, they are few and far between. Nevertheless, this new media could benefit companies by strengthening their brand name and improving internal communication or communication with customers, among other advantages. In the report, Los blogs corporativos: una opción, no una obligación (PDF, 670 Kb) , Professor Julián Villanueva, in conjunction with the researchers Cristina Aced and Guillermo Armelini, analyzes 100 national and international corporate blogs to ascertain the factors contributing to their success.
 
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