Looks at recent research into children’s media consumption, highlights the importance of media literacy, and reports on an industry‐related media education programme; the research is tending to show that children are deciding what and when they watch television and other media. Develops, on the basis of these findings, a model of self‐supervised media engagement which is characterised by a lack of adult mediation. Argues that media literacy is important because it helps children become critical viewers of advertising and programming on their own; media literacy involves information processing skills and as such may be the most important life skill in the age of the internet. Introduces the UK Media Smart programme, which is industry funded and since 2002 has provided educational materials to help children think critically about advertising and other media issues.
This paper takes the recent process towards standardizing the mobile phone charger in the EU as a starting point to consider the role that compatibility standards might play in mitigating the negative impact of ICT on the environment. Building on insights gained from the economics of standards literature, we explore how the inherent effects of compatibility standards -such as reducing variety, avoiding lock-in, and building critical mass -can have positive implications for the environment. While there is growing interest in how performance standards initiatives with an explicit environmental purpose can contribute to sustainability, we argue that current standardization literature and policy have overlooked this important (side) effect of compatibility standards. Having first illustrated how excessive diversity and incompatibilities in ICT generate ewaste, discourage re-use, and make recycling economically unviable, we develop an economic-environmental framework for analyzing the sustainability effects of compatibility standards and apply it to the case of mobile phone chargers. We conclude that compatibility standards are a form of ecodesign at sector level and should be recognized as a relevant complementary strategy towards greening the IT industry.ollowing a much-publicised intervention by the European Commission, the mobile phone industry finally agreed in 2009 -after dragging its feet for two years -to introduce a standardised charger based on the micro-USB plug. In the Commission's communication around the process, it was explicitly announced that by introducing compatibility there would be a reduction in the generation of e-waste and a significant benefit for the environment. The phone charger case illustrates the point we want to make in this article, which is that compatibility standards can contribute in a fundamental way towards improving the sustainability of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.In the next section we first consider the need to limit the direct impact of the ICT sector on the environment -which is negative and growing rapidly -by reviewing figures on energy consumption, use of scarce resources and e-waste. We then present our economics of standards framework. Before looking closer at compatibility standards, we briefly introduce the variety of sustainability-targeted standardization activities already being undertaken by actors worldwide, . Based on the effects of compatibility standards on the market, we extend the economic framework to include implications for the environment. These effects are illustrated by the mobile phone chargers case. Finally we discuss the potential use of standardization to achieve sustainability policy goals. The Challenge of Sustainability -Is ICT the Solution or Part of the Problem?Implicit in many recent policy reports about the contribution of ICT as an enabler for sustainability in other sectors (The Climate Group, 2008;Capgemini 2009) is the assumption that ICT itself is a clean a sector. The negative externalities 2 1 This paper...
A B S T R A C TThe imperative of realizing utopian visions of the smart grid puts unprecedented policy focus on standardization. Because standards are a prerequisite for deployment, the US federal government -in a departure from established hands-off practice -intervened to coordinate and accelerate standardization activities. This research uses narrative analysis to explore how such a policy of intervention was constructed. What emerges has elements of a hero story, describing a situation to be remedied: an aging electricity grid, plagued by blackouts and modernization hampered by an electric utility industry composed by stand-alone "silos". In contrast, the vision of a future "smart grid" with promises of improved energy security, reduced carbon emissions, renewable resources, "green innovation" and jobs. The threat: without standards, the risk that sizable public investments become obsolete prematurely. The villain: unnamed companies engaging in uncompetitive behavior. The unlikely hero: The National Institute of Standards and Technology, able to act as an "honest broker", proving that the government can as "catalyst" in partnership with industry. While succeeding in making a strong argument for government intervention, the story can be criticized for making exaggerated claims about the effects of standards, for downplaying the complexity of the process and for failure to outline policy alternatives beyond a fiveyear plan.
This paper takes the recent process towards standardizing the mobile phone charger in the EU as a starting point to consider the role that compatibility standards might play in mitigating the negative impact of ICT on the environment. Building on insights gained from the economics of standards literature, the authors explore how the inherent effects of compatibility standards – such as reducing variety, avoiding lock-in, and building critical mass – can have positive implications for the environment. While there is growing interest in how performance measurement standards initiatives with an explicit environmental purpose can contribute to sustainability, the authors argue that current standardization literature and policy have overlooked this important (side) effect of compatibility standards. Having first illustrated how excessive diversity and incompatibilities in ICT generate e-waste, discourage re-use and make recycling economically unviable, this paper develops an economic-environmental framework for analyzing the sustainability effects of compatibility standards and applies it to the case of mobile phone chargers. The authors conclude that compatibility standards are a form of ecodesign at sector level and should be recognized as a relevant complementary strategy towards greening the IT industry.
This chapter analyzes standardization of mobile phone chargers to explore the role that compatibility standards might play in mitigating the negative impact of ICT on the environment. Building on insights gained from the economics of standards literature, the authors explore how the inherent effects of compatibility standards—such as reducing variety, avoiding lock-in, and building critical mass—can have positive implications for the environment. They argue that current standardization literature and policy have overlooked this important (side) effect of compatibility standards. Excessive diversity and incompatibilities in ICT generate e-waste, discourage re-use, and make recycling economically unviable; the authors, therefore, develop an economic-environmental framework for analyzing sustainability effects of compatibility standards and apply it to the case of mobile phone chargers. They conclude that well-targeted compatibility standardization can be equated to ecodesign at sector level and should be considered as an eco-effective strategy towards greening the IT industry.
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