Virtual cartels, introduction Among the most striking development of the 1990s has been the emergence of a global commercial media market utilizing new technologies and the global trend toward deregulation. This global commercial media market is a result of aggressive maneuvering by the dominant firms, new technologies that make global systems cost-efficient, and neoliberal economic policies encouraged by the World Bank, IMF, WTO, and the US government to break down regulatory barriers to a global commercial media and telecommunication market. A global oligopolistic market that covers the spectrum of media is now crystallizing the very high barriers to entry." (Robert McChesney, author of "Rich Media, Poor Democracy") The network structure of information and communication technologies means that even deregulated markets are not "free". The functional logic of global networks only tolerates a small number of large players. Mergers, strategic alliances, partnerships and cooperations are therefore the daily routine of the ICT business. They bypass competition and create "virtual cartels".

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Acessing the Internet The Net connections can be based on wire-line and wireless access technolgies. Wire-line access Wire-less access copper wires Satellites coaxial cables mobile terrestrial antennas electric power lines fixed terrestrial antennas fiber-optic cables Usually several kinds of network connections are employed at once. Generally speaking, when an E-mail message is sent it travels from the user's computer via copper wires or coaxial cables ISDN lines, etc., to an Internet Service Provider, from there, via fibre-optic cables, to the nearest Internet exchange, and on into a backbone network, tunneling across the continent und diving through submarine fibre-optic cables across the Atlantic to another Internet exchange, from there, via another backbone network and across another regional network to the Internet Service Provider of the supposed message recipient, from there via cables and wires of different bandwidth arriving at its destination, a workstation permanently connected to the Internet. Finally a sound or flashing icon informs your virtual neighbor that a new message has arrived. Satellite communication Although facing competition from fiber-optic cables as cost-effective solutions for broadband data transmission services, the space industry is gaining increasing importance in global communications. As computing, telephony, and audiovisual technologies converge, new wireless technologies are rapidly deployed occupying an increasing market share and accelerating the construction of high-speed networks. Privatization of satellite communication Until recently transnational satellite communication was provided exclusively by intergovernmental organizations as Intelsat, Intersputnik and Inmarsat. Scheduled privatization of intergovernmental satellite consortia: Satellite consortia Year of foundation Members Scheduled date for privatization Intelsat 1964 200 nations under the leadership of the USA 2001 Intersputnik 1971 23 nations under the leadership of Russia ? Inmarsat 1979 158 nations (all members of the International Maritime Organization) privatized since 1999 Eutelsat 1985 Nearly 50 European nations 2001 When Intelsat began to accumulate losses because of management failures and the increasing market share of fiber-optic cables, this organizational scheme came under attack. Lead by the USA, the Western industrialized countries successfully pressed for the privatization of all satellite consortia they are members of and for competition by private carriers. As of February 2000, there are 2680 satellites in service. Within the next four years a few hundred will be added by the new private satellite systems. Most of these systems will be so-called Low Earth Orbit satellite systems, which are capable of providing global mobile data services on a high-speed level at low cost. Because of such technological improvements and increasing competition, experts expect satellite-based broadband communication to be as common, cheap, and ubiquitous as satellite TV today within the next five or ten years. Major satellite communication projects Project name Main investors Expected cost Number of satellites Date of service start-up Astrolink Lockheed Martin, TRW, Telespazio, Liberty Media Group US$ 3.6 billion 9 2003 Globalstar 13 investors including Loral Space & Communications, Qualcomm, Hyundai, Alcatel, France Telecom, China Telecom, Daimler Benz and Vodafone/Airtouch US$ 3.26 billion 48 1998 ICO 57 investors including British Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Inmarsat, TRW and Telefonica US$ 4.5 billion 10 2001 Skybridge 9 investors including Alcatel Space, Loral Space & Communications, Toshiba, Mitsubishi and Sharp US$ 6.7 billion 80 2002 Teledesic Bill Gates, Craig McCaw, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Alsaud, Abu Dhabi Investment Company US$ 9 billion 288 2004 Source: Analysys Satellite Communications Database

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Public Relations Clients Unlike in the United Kingdom, where members of the PR Consultants Association are required to have an updated, published list of all clients, the U.S. Council of PR decided against a proposal for the disclosure of client lists. Therefore the worlds biggest PR agencies, which are mostly U.S. based, are still in the position to make a secret of their clients. Although public relations activity is mostly associated with marketing and issues management for corporate firms, also PR for nations, politicians and NGOs is common. Among the first to pursue PR for nations was Edward L. Bernays, one of the founders of modern public relations. Besides his activity in the Creel-Committee, which was responsible for the American propaganda during World War I, he also worked as a PR consultant for Lithuania and India. With his engagement for United Fruit he was moreover actively involved in the Cold War - especially in the overthrow of the Guatemalan government of Guzman.

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Blaise Pascal b. June 19, 1623, Clermont-Ferrand, France d. August 19, 1662, Paris, France French mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities, formulated what came to be known as Pascal's law of pressure, and propagated a religious doctrine that taught the experience of God through the heart rather than through reason. The establishment of his principle of intuitionism had an impact on such later philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri Bergson and also on the Existentialists.

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Gaius Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) was a Roman Statesman who came to power through a military career and by buying of votes. His army won the civil war, run over Spain, Sicily and Egypt, where he made Cleopatra a Queen. For reaching even more power he increased the number of senators. But he also organized social measures to improve the people's food-situation. In February 44 BC he did not accept the kingship offered by Marc Anthony, which made him even more popular. One month later he was murdered during a senate sitting.

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Economic rights The economic rights (besides moral rights and in some cases also neighboring rights) granted to the owners of copyright usually include 1) copying or reproducing a work, 2) performing a work in public, 3) making a sound recording of a work, 4) making a motion picture of a work, 5) broadcasting a work, 6) translating a work and 7) adapting a work. Under certain national laws some of these rights are not exclusive rights of authorization but in specific cases, merely rights to remuneration.

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The Flesh Machine This is the tile of a book by the Critical Art Ensemble which puts the development of artifical life into a critical historical and political context, defining the power vectors which act as the driving force behind this development. The book is available in a print version (New York, Autonomedia 1998) and in an online version at http://www.critical-art.net/fles/book/index.html

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water-clocks The water-clocks are an early long-distance-communication-system. Every communicating party had exactly the same jar, with a same-size-hole that was closed and the same amount of water in it. In the jar was a stick with different messages written on. When one party wanted to tell something to the other it made a fire-sign. When the other answered, both of them opened the hole at the same time. And with the help of another fire-sign closed it again at the same time, too. In the end the water covered the stick until the point of the wanted message.

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cryptology also called "the study of code". It includes both, cryptography and cryptoanalysis

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