Monday, March 10, 2003

International Relations and Security Network and other News The International Relations and Security Network (IRSN) has an article on the Bush administration's request for at least five US firms to bid on reconstruction work in Iraq.  The requested work would include reconstruction of electrical grids, some bridges and highways, and provide 550 emergency generators.  Haliburton has already been given a contract for firefighting operations at Iraqi oilfields.  What seems to be shaping up appears a lot like a redo of the Afghanistan conflict and reconstruction.  Can Bush/Blair find an Iraqi Karzai? Craig Neilson points out that Utah is the 20th state to certify the eSlate electronic voting system. Governor Leavitt and US Education Secretary Rod Paige announced the creation of the WGU Teachers College today. This is an excellent summary of web design tips that should be used in creating and maintaining a website, including the use of RSS to maintain fresh content. 10:42:27 AM    comment []

Afghanistan Joins the Web Community Saturday morning, I was reading an article by Thomas Barnett entitled, "The Pentagon's New Map."  I was intrigued this morning to open up Phil Windley's weblog and find that he had been reading the same thing.  The article talks about globalization and the dangers found in areas disconnected from it.  Afghanistan has always been among the most disconnected nations which is an example that Barnett points to in creating his hypothesis.  That's why I was interested to see that the Afghans have now staked their claim on a piece of the internet (BBC News).  The internet was banned during the Taleban era and the new regime has just reserved the af top level domain (TLD) name.  According to Mohammed Masoom Stanakzai, For Afghanistan, this is like reclaiming part of our sovereignty. That's great.  This is an important step in Afghanistan's journey towards connectedness.  The UNDP in Afghanistan actually has the first active website with the .af domain. 6:54:03 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.