The Metaibrary is the only on-line research resource focusing exclusively on standards and standard setting. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/metalibrary/ This article presents an overview of the evolution of technologies, standards, and deployment from second to fourth generation mobile networks with emphasis on current and future trends in the areas of wireless networking, multimedia technology, network architecture, and network services. Related research in the development of future mobile systems has been highlighted. Issues of system integration, global roaming capabilities, handoff, high speed multimedia support, ad-hoc networking, quality of service, and physical layer problems has been addressed. In addition, global developments in multimedia network services and terminals have been discussed. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/metalibrary/ Rapid developments in computing and communication technology have made broadband Internet service over the wireless phone networks possible. This so-called 3G (third generation) mobile services promise to usher us into an era of a seamless marriage between Internet data and mobile phone services. However, despite the much-hyped fanfare in the media, the actual diffusion of 3G services has been much slow and disappointing in most countries. South Korea has been one of one of few countries that have experienced rapid development and diffusion of 3G and the less-advanced 2.5G (two and half generation) mobile services. Given the rapid and ubiquitous penetration into everyday use in Korea, broadband mobile services in Korea offers an unique opportunity for us to examine how complex technology gets accepted in a larger scale. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/metalibrary/ Just about everything you do on a computer, especially things you do on the Internet, is based on some sort of industry standard. This has always been the case, and everyone knows it to some extent, but the business of standards in the computer industry has been changing over the last few years, fed mostly by shorter product life cycles and the insatiable desire of Internet firms to develop new technologies that interact with existing infrastructures. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/metalibrary/ Arguments about Europe’s democratic deficit are really arguments about the nature and ultimate goals of the integration process. Those who assume that economic integration must lead to political integration tend to apply to European institutions standards of legitimacy derived from the theory and practice of parliamentary democracies. We argue that such standards are largely irrelevant at present. As long as the majority of voters and their elected representatives oppose the idea of a European federation, while supporting far-reaching economic integration, we cannot expect parliamentary democracy to flourish in the Union. Economic integration without political integration is possible only if politics and economics are kept as separate as possible. The depoliticisation of European policy-making is the price we pay in order to preserve national sovereignty largely intact. These being the preferences of the voters, we conclude that Europe’s ‘democratic deficit’ is democratically justified. The expression ‘democratic deficit,’ however, is also used to refer to the legitimacy problems of non-majoritarian institutions, and this second meaning is much more relevant to a system of limited competences such as the EC. Now the key issues for democratic theory are about the tasks which may be legitimately delegated to institutions insulated from the political process, and how to design such institutions so as to make independence and accountability complementary and mutually supporting, rather than antithetical. If one accepts the ‘regulatory model’ of the EC, then, as long as the tasks delegated to the European level are precisely and narrowly defined, nonmajoritarian standards of legitimacy should be sufficient to justify the delegation of the necessary powers. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/metalibrary/ This paper uses contract-level data to presents stylized facts about how firms organize collaborative R&D agreements. It finds several dominant modes of collaboration, including outsourcing R&D, specialization and separation of R&D activities, and more integrated “learning” approaches. It also finds that when consortia participants are direct competitors in existing product markets, they are more likely to outsource their “collaborative” R&D. The results suggest that many consortia organize to avoid spillovers, and therefore do not achieve the cross-pollination of know-how the National Cooperative Research Act was designed to achieve. http://www.consortiuminfo.org/metalibrary/