Convergence Conversation

Interesting news item yesterday regarding Government policy towards QUANGOs

Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

“We are absolutely committed to reducing the number and cost of quangos that we no longer need. I have already said that I want to reduce the number of these bodies by a third and we’ve achieved a lot in a short space of time. This is the latest phase of that work.

”By bringing these functions back into Government, we make their activities more accountable and can reduce the considerable administrative costs that they place on the taxpayer.”

Food for thought as regards matters Broadband, where there is yet to be proper need identification for the creation of any new QUANGOs until the market has opportunity to deliver and the actual scale and scope of Taxpayer intervention established. More...

Whilst certain folks might have mistakenly thought that the concerns surrounding INCA were subsiding, the opposite is of course the case.

The Noble Lord, Lord Laird continues to provide vital Parliamentary scrutiny service to the Nation with the net of enquiry now expanding to include the wider BDUK initiative and the relationships and agendas of Senior Civil Servants within BIS.

The more that the proposed deliverables from the BDUK Industry Day are digested then the more it seems that Taxpayers Money is being proposed to be wasted, to the tune of £200M perhaps, on totally unnecessary “Market Testing” projects which in the context of the present Age of Austerity seems quite extraordinary. More...

Thursday 15th July 2010 saw the BDUK Industry Day take place in London with invited members of the telecommunications industry, government and others.

The overall sense of the day was of bold aspirations and genuine determination on the part of ministers, Martha Lane-Fox and the new BDUK team to start delivering positive outcomes to enable the UK to compete globally with a 4th Utility infrastructure fit for 21st Century purposes.

It is to be hoped that the BDUK team is able to show some further stretch of ambition to extend the proposed three “market-testing” NGA pilots to provide many more localised real-life demonstrations of what NGA can do, ideally at least one location per each county, so that everyone in the Final Third has somewhere local to visit and see and experience the services they can look forward to. More...

The government's Digital Inclusion Unit "Manifesto for a Network Nation" has been released and it says that "home access to the Internet can make the difference between a child getting an 'A' and a 'C' at GCSE" which I'm sure will turn out to be true in our household, where no.1 son spent most of his last school year on Facebook instead of studying for his exams.  The manifesto has a simple goal:

Our ambition to make the UK the first nation where everyone can use the web.[From Home | Race Online 2012]

Why we should want everyone to use the web, when a great many people would rather access the information that they need via mobile phones or digital television, isn't really clear to me.  Surely the goal should be something meaningful in a context: More...

Margaret Thatcher gave an interview back in 1987 that was much criticised in certain quarters by those who missed the actual meaning, that society is simply an abstract shorthand for people as individuals and families and communities working together – Building a Big Society even.

In this Age of Austerity, here is a handy money-saving idea for HM Government that puts several hundreds of millions of pounds back into the Public Purse, then available for more important purposes that subsidising broadband.

Surely this is sacrilege?!

Everyone knows the Final Third won’t get superfast broadband without Taxpayer intervention right?

WRONG. More...

According to the brass plaque above, the village of Ashby in Lincolnshire got its original Village Pump Utility back in 1887.

Now some 123 summers later, Ashby is getting its Digital Village Pump delivered.

What works in rural Lincolnshire can work across the country as a whole and the recent keynote speech by Jeremy Hunt MP, now the Secretary of State with responsibility for matters Notspot and Broadband, gives confidence that there is the political will to ensure the effective priming of these Digital Village Pumps, within the Austerity Imperative of ensuring best value for any penny of scarce Taxpayers Money employed. More...

A couple of surveys running at the moment from friends & collaborators - Ajit Jaokar from Futuretext, and Mac Taylor of Moriana.

First, Mac's survey on developers:

Exposure of operators' network capabilities to third-party developers is something that I've long discussed, through my work with Telco 2.0 and more general business model innovation in telecoms. I probably don't use the term SDP (Service Delivery Platform) regularly enough on this blog, but it's clearly relevant here.

Service exposure long been part of the SDP promise. But what do operators really think about the opportunity? And will they ever be able to support and meet developers needs and demands? And what do developers think about operators? Mac Taylor of Moriana is running a survey on Service Delivery Platforms and operators' relationships with developers, which seeks to explore these issues. More...

A busy week just passed and one of the more insightful and intriguing events attended was the Northern Net meeting in Gateshead last Tuesday.

From a Final Third First perspective, the most interesting speaker was undoubtedly BT’s Simon Roberson who presented the following slide:

What is clear (and highlighted in yellow above) is that 34%, the Final Third, is now confirmed as being beyond BT’s plans for NGA investment.

This is an important step towards providing the certainty that emerging independent networks, localised initiatives and new entrants into the NGA space require in order to commit their own funds towards delivering the Final Third First

Simon was asked at the event to go that simple step further – please identify the postcode areas where BT will not be investing in NGA. More...

(Original version posted at www.nextgenus.net)

Thanks to Lindsey Annison’s pointer, here is an excellent blog post from Geoff Daily at App Rising on both the problem and solution for fixing fixed NGA for the UK

Well said Geoff! – you go right to the heart of both the UK NGA problem and point to a key part of the solution.

An option for SMART government intervention, maximum bank for buck, is to act as underwriter for that most local level of democracy and taxation, the Parish Council.

Parish Councils can levy precepts for the provision or upkeep of services in the common good.

A century ago, Parish Councils were instrumental in pioneering the provision of utility services we now take for granted e.g. More...

When the news broke on Friday afternoon of the stabbing of Stephen Timms MP, it came as a great shock to all right-minded people.

There can be no place in Civil Society for the use of violence and it is to be hoped that smart steps are now put in hand to ensure the safety of elected representatives whilst retaining the public access that is essential for the effective workings of democracy.

Whilst, on a professional basis, we have had our disagreements, life trumps politics every time and here at Fibrestream we wish Stephen well and a speedy recovery. More...