Digital Britain report: Broadband for all by 2012 January 29, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentLONDON – In its Digital Britain report issued today the Government has set out its aim to develop a universal broadband service by 2012, which it called vital for Britain, one that offers nationwide broadband speeds of up to 2mb per second and includes wireless coverage.
In the Digital Britain interim report, the Government stressed the importance of ensuring “that being digital is within the grasp of everyone”
Subject to further analysis, the government believes that a speed of 2mb per second is the most realistic option for a universal service, when factoring in costs, capability and the connection of the absolute number of homes.
The Government intends to develop detailed proposals for the design and operation of a new, more broadly-based scheme to fund the Universal Service Commitment, including who should contribute and its governance and accountability structures.
It plans to encourage the development of public service champions of universal take up and intends to appoint a digital inclusion champion and expert taskforce to drive the Government’s work on digital inclusion.
It is intended that the champion “will provide a clear channel of communication between central and local government, industry, third and public sectors, and the client group, to ensure all available expertise and resource is harnessed in pursuit of a shared understanding of digital inclusion”.
Read The Rest——> Digital Britain report: Broadbarend for all by 2012
President Obama tackles first day January 21, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentPresident Barack Obama has said that he will act swiftly on the problems facing the US economy.
Mr Obama was speaking to ABC’s Good Morning America on the evening of his inauguration.
Watch an extract from the interview.
Britney more popular than Obama December 2, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBarack Obama will make history by becoming the first black US president, but in the world of internet search he trails the singer, Britney Spears.
Of the billions of searches carried out on the portal, Yahoo.com, over the last year, Mr Obama was third behind Spears and World Wrestling Entertainment.
Mr Obama was, however, the most searched-for politician during 2008.
The subjects of the most sought-after news stories were hurricanes, Caylee and Casey Anthony, and election 2008.
“Every day, people turn to the web to learn more about the world around them,” said Yahoo’s Web Life editor, Heather Cabot.
Read The Rest—>Britney more popular than Obama
End nears in Facebook legal row August 18, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentFacebook has won approval to acquire rival ConnectU despite an appeal against an agreed settlement.
In 2004 ConnectU’s founders sued Facebook claiming creator Mark Zuckerberg took his idea for a social networking site from them.
The lawsuit was settled in early 2008 but ConnectU claims Facebook misrepresented its value during talks.
The judge has told ConnectU to stick to the agreed settlement and transfer its stock to Facebook.
The row over valuation has been caused by Microsoft taking a $240m (£128m) stake in Facebook in October 2007 that valued the site, on paper, at $15 billion.
Facebook said that figure should not be used to rate the company’s worth as that valuation was specific to Microsoft’s preferred stock and the business deal surrounding it. Facebook said its real valuation stood at $3-4bn.
Court papers have shown that as part of the approved settlement, Facebook agreed to give ConnectU’s owners an undisclosed amount of money and Facebook stock.
In return ConnectU’s principals agreed to turn over to Facebook all the stock they held in ConnectU.
In their appeal ConnectU co-founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss along with fellow partner Divya Narendra claimed that implementing the agreement now would let Facebook disrupt the appeals process.
Judge James Ware of the US district court in San Jose, California ruled that before ConnectU’s appeal can be heard, the settlement made earlier this year has to go through.
“The longer the court delays in enforcing the settlement between the parties, the more like the value of the consideration subject of the settlement will change,” he wrote in his judgement. “Any further delay in enforcing the settlement will create a serious risk of prejudice to Facebook, as well as to ConnectU.”
He added: “This means the status quo cannot be preserved with a stay.”
He originally rejected ConnectU’s claims of fraud in June prompting the appeal which he has pledged to hear.
The ConnectU founders sued fellow Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 accusing him of stealing their idea for the company following work he did on a dating site for them in 2003.
Facebook said it would not comment on the case. ConnectU did not return calls for comment.
Meanwhile the Winklevoss brothers are competing for rowing gold in the Beijing Olympics. They came second in their semi-final to win a place in the men’s pairs final.
Recent figures by Comscore show Facebook is now the world’s biggest and fastest growing social networking site with 132 million unique visitors in June.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7559864.stm
BBC to debut Buffy-style internet based thriller February 20, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBBC to debut Buffy-style internet based thriller
by Darren Davidson Brand Republic 19 Feb 2007
‘Buffy’: BBC set to launch similar drama
LONDON – The BBC is developing ‘Signs of Life’, an internet-based drama in the style of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ in conjunction with ‘Big Brother’ maker Endemol.
‘Signs of Life’, which is aimed at teenagers, is believed to be the first fully interactive drama to be launched on the internet.
The BBC has invested £800,000 in the project so far through its new-media division. It will launch online in the next few months.
Ashley Highfield, the director of new media and technology at the BBC, said that show recalled the long-running ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ series, which was created by Joss Whedon. Whedon had looked at doing a spin-off supernatural series with the BBC starring Anthony Stewart Head called ‘Ripper’, based on his character in ‘Buffy’, but so far this has yet to materialise.
‘Signs of Life’ will be based in the fictional Suffolk town of Whyte and the BBC is hoping young people’s interest in the supernatural will generate interest in storylines based on astrology.
It will join a slew of supernatural dramas currently airing on TV such as ITV2’s ‘Supernatural’ and the Sci-fi Channel’s ‘Medium’.
The episodes have been filmed as live drama in loosely-framed episodes, allowing viewers to decide how long they want to stay with each episode.
Peter Cowley, director of interactive media at Endemol, said: “There have been a few experiments in educational drama like this before and back in the days of the internet boom there was a drama called Caroline On-line, which some people may remember.
“Obviously that was restricted at the time by the way it could be delivered to people. It also had a vaguely thriller-like plot too and was character-based.”
BBC Asked to Scrap Online Advertising Plan February 20, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBBC Asked to Scrap Online Advertising Plan
Two media trade groups, the National Union Journalists and the British Internet Publishers’ Alliance, have asked the BBC to scrap plans to place advertising on the BBC home page.
The BBC announced that it was examining the possibility of funding the non-UK version of BBC.co.uk through online banner advertising in March 2006. According to the UK media stalwart, its website gets more than a billion hits a month from foreign sources, and advertising there could yield a large source of income.
However, critics both inside and outside the BBC say that it would corrode the organization’s credibility and present unwanted competition to other online UK businesses. “The proposal by the BBC to sell advertising on its websites is a major concern to all commercial publishers who are investing in making the UK a centre of excellence in the digital age,” said Hugo Drayton, chairman of the British Internet Publisher’s Alliance (BIPA), in a statement.
The BIPA trade group includes numerous commercial publishers. The group is seeking government intervention that would prevent the BBC from using online ads. “It is essential to set clear limits on the BBC’s ambitions, and to ensure they do not restrict competitive services provided by the market commercially,” he added.
The BBC Trust, the BBC’s regulatory organization, is expected to announce whether or not it will be using online advertising by February 21st.
The National Union Journalists (NUJ), a trade union for journalists in Britain and Ireland followed the BIPA. “This move could lead to a greater and worrying commercialisation of the BBC website,” said NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear, adding, “…the Trust should think again before opening the door to such commercialization.”
