29 April 2009
Digital network investment can aid UK recovery
The London School of Economics has produced a report detailing how investment in digital networks has the potential to repair the UK economy more than any other physical infrastructure spend. An investment of £15bn in broadband networks, intelligent transport systems and a smart power grid could create 700,000 jobs according to the report, which was partly funded by IBM. “Our report shows that in this severe economic climate the right investment in ICT infrastructure would have a significant effect in creating jobs now and in stimulating productivity and innovation for the future,” said Jonathan Liebenau, LSE reader in Technology Management.
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2241335/digital-network-investment
Phorm goes on the attack against ’smear campaign’
Online advertising company Phorm has gone on the attack with a new website that accuses its critics of orchestrating a “smear campaign” to “distort the truth and misrepresent” its technology. The StopPhoulPlay website describes the company’s critics as “privacy pirates” and lists them by name alongside mocking titles such as “The Angry Activist”, but those named have dismissed it as “childish” and having “already backfired”. Alex Hanff, a campaigner described on the site as “one of the prime movers of the smear campaign against Phorm”, dismissed the allegations as “ridiculously childish”. “The website is staggering – it beggars belief. The only thing I can see it achieving is to make them the laughing stock of the industry,” he said.
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2241309/phorm-goes-attack-against-smear
Vote on Reform of Telecoms Nears After EU Deal
A last-minute deal between the European Union’s decision-making bodies Tuesday paved the way for a parliamentary vote on reforms to the EU’s telecommunications law, according to a lawmaker. Some parliamentarians had pushed for language that would have made access to the Internet a fundamental human right, making a court order necessary to restrict anyone’s Internet access. However, most member states opposed the amendment, preferring a system that allows the police or another regulatory body to stop Internet service, with a right of appeal by the individual. Governments see this as a more efficient way to crack down on illegal downloading or sharing copyright material, said one diplomat involved in the talks.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124096175521465943.html
Google faces antitrust investigation over $125m book deal
Google is facing fresh accusations of anti-competitive behaviour, following reports that the US Justice Department is investigating the internet giant over its dealings with the book industry. Lawyers for the government are examining potential antitrust issues surrounding a $125m settlement made between Google and authors – in a move that could scupper the internet company’s plans to create an “iTunes for books”. The deal, struck last autumn between the web giant and authors’ groups, would see Google pay $125m for the right to digitise millions of books in the US, with the intention of selling the files online and taking a significant cut of the profit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/apr/29/google-books-antitrust
Twitter’s lack of loyalty–an Achilles’ heel?
Some interesting data from Nielsen suggests that Twitter, despite the hype and meteoric growth, appears to have a user loyalty problem, an issue not suffered by Facebook or MySpace, the two behemoths of social networking. Currently, more than 60 percent of Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention. Is this Twitter’s Achilles’ heel, where there aren’t enough reasons to come back to the service, or, is audience retention naturally lower because Twitter only offers one thing to do in comparison to the other services?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10229342-62.html
How Anonymous Hackers Triumphed Over Time
Anonymous, a motley crew of online troublemakers known for hacking Sarah Palin and inducing seizures in epileptics, pulled off an historic coup this week when it successfully rigged Time magazine’s online poll for the “Top 100 most influential people.” The loose confederation of trolls managed to outwit the techies at Time to arrange the voting results so that the first letters in the top 21 entries spell out the inside joke: Marblecake Also The Game. The fun started when Time all but invited the online horde to mess with it by seeding the list of possible candidates with “moot” — AKA Christopher Poole — who runs 4chan, an Anomymous stronghold responsible for some of the best and worst of net culture.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/how-anonymous-hackers-triumphed-over-time/
