Convergence Conversation

There follows an invitation FibreStream recently accepted to consult with the VOA as regards the potential imposition of business rates to WiFi and WiMAX networks.

As previously highlighted, this development threatens particularly to discriminate against rural communities by significantly impacting the costs and therefore viability of delivering broadband services to local residents and businesses, as the lower population density in rural areas makes wireless First Mile delivery solutions attractive from a Social Inclusion perspective.

FibreStream invites all interested parties in the wider community broadband constituency to tell us your concerns and opinions about this development which we will collate and share with VOA. More...

With the UN summit on climate change being undertaken in Copenhagen from 7th to 14th of December the globe switches the attention to the severity of the situation and the high need for swift actions from all levels of the international community. If you cannot make it to the summit you can find a variety of ways to participate and contribute by simply visiting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As a prelude to the conference 1minutetosavetheworld.com launched a competition for a one-minute video about climate change. Here’s two I’d love to share with you. More...

Lots of people get it. The vision of NGA, the benefits, purpose, reasons, ways to achieve it, JFDI and so on. And some really don't...

Sadly, those that don't appear to get it seem to include those who really, really need to get it. These include people in government, MPs, ministers, govt departments, consultants and agencies employed by govt departments, RDAs, quangos set up to deliver on IT and Digital Britain targets, journalists, the health service, councils, housing developers, education chiefs, teachers, communities, consumers, planning agencies, public figures...I know you don't want me to go on. More...

A very happy holiday to all the turkey gobblers across the pond. Here in Britain we are thankful for our universal right to untrammelled internet access, er, d'oh!

Here’s a few links that I spent time on during the last week. They worth the attention:

eGov versus We.Gov: who wins? EU decide: Features an interesting report on European Commission’s ePractice workshop on Web 2.0 entitled “Public Service 2.0″ that reflects how web2.0 services and concepts can enrich and enhance public administration process and efficiency.

Is Denmark a lead user of user driven innovation?: An excellent read on the plan of Denmark to promote innovation (in business, society and political administration) by enabling citizens and end-users engagement in it. More...

Here is a round-up of some of the vociferous commentary on the Digital Economy Bill. Please feel free to add more links, including to your own commentary/blog/articles so we - at 5tth.blogspot.com  -  have a reasonable resource to present all sides of the story. Thanks

Guardian looks at the Mandelson copyright issue in the run up to the Bill

Digital Economy Bill group on Facebook

Official Statement by Telnic Limited on Digital Economy Bill Section 5.2.3

Tumbled Logis Blog - The Problems with the Digital Economy Bil Part 1
part 2

BIS Press Release - The Digital Economy Bill, introduced today, sets out Government plans to ensure the UK is at the leading edge of the global digital economy. More...

Do this government just not get it about the digital economy or is there something else going on?

The latest announcements about the Digital Economy Bill have many of us with our jaws on the floor.

In the speech, the Queen 'reads', "My government will introduce a bill to ensure communications infrastructure that is fit for the digital age, supports future economic growth, delivers competitive communications and enhances public service broadcasting".

Right, all well and good, but how exactly do they intend to do that? And when? For further details, it seems we need to wait till Friday when the Bill is published, but I can sense a furore coming on when it is.... More...

Multi-vendor femtocells and a change in spectrum policy - a key to convergence.

I was at the Intellect conference on Identity & Information in London last month, where Edgar Whitely from the LSE gave a super presentation on data minimisation that I have blogged about over on Digital Identity. One of the speakers kicked off by pointing out that the US "information industry" is massively bigger than the EU information industry and they talked about this as if it was something to do with the weather, or an accident of geography. But the European information industry is crippled because we chose to make it that way.

Back in 1996, the EU implemented something called the Database Directive. More...

Here's a taster from Intellect's 'Switched On' publication.

'Switched On' is a monthly whistle-stop tour around the big news stories breaking in digital communications, crammed with bite size news chunks.

With our fingers firmly on the pulse of cutting edge technology news, we continue to push the boundaries of digital knowledge, covering an enormous number of topics as wide and varied as digital communications itself. To recieve switched on direct to your inbox sign up here.

Enjoy....

Switched On!

Here's a quick top-up of the biggest and boldest stories
since the last edition of
Switched On. More...