Posts in Internet
Convergence Conversation, ‘Publishing 2.0’ on 25 March 2010
Date: Thursday 25 March 2010
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Venue: Intellect Offices, 10-12 Russell Square, WC1B 5EE
Chair: Ved Sen, founder and CEO, ThinkPlank
Speakers: Simon Bell, British Library, and
Jonathan Glasspool, Bloomsbury Publishing
Topic for this Conversation: ‘Publishing 2.0’
Amidst the doom and gloom of media and advertising, newspapers (w More...
How Google's Chief Magician Stole the Show
Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, bedazzled the 2010 GSMA Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona. In his keynote address he told the industry exactly which parts of their lunch that Google will eat, simultaneously appeared to offer peace, showcased mesmerising new technologies, effortlessly took 45 minutes of questions from the floor, and then disappeared to widespread applause.
Don't get us wrong - we were impressed too. It was a great speech and a great show. Dr. Schmidt is a very, very capable and inspiring person, and there is no doubt that Google is brimming with ideas, vision, and ability to make things happen. More...
Hadopi Router Officially Exists...
A few months ago, when the Hadopi debate was in full swing in France, a fake ad started to circulate for a wifi router that would automatically hack into nearby wifi networks. Since Hadopi assumes that users are legally responsible for their wifi access, such a router would effectively render the law in applicable since it would make every user incapable of controlling what happens on his/her access.
Now that Hadopi is no longer a presidential dream but an honest to god institution (albeit one that indulged in copyright infrigement from day one...) the Hadopi router also becomes a reality. Vendor Wifi-Box now sells a product of the same name that will break into locked wi-fi networks as a matter of fact and without any necessary user expertise. More...
Broadband drives Economic Growth... in some ways
Giga Om's Stacey Higginbotham wrote a really interesting article yesterday (Broadband Boosts Economic Development... To A Point) on a study undertaken by the Public Policy Institute of California. I'll let you read the article (and the study if you have the time) but what I take out is this: while there is a clear impact on employment in a given location once you get real broadband competition in place in that location, the employment gain might not be for inhabitants of that location (as new workers will come to places of employment) and it's not evenly distributed amongst professions. More...
Taxing Times Ahead for Rural Communities?
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...
The killer app is not an app...
For many, the Internet as it stands is still inaccessible. Why? Because of literacy standards. Because it is still text based. Because it is still mainly in English, not Swahili or French or Spanish etc. Because it is 'scary'. Most people do not conduct their daily communications via text or through a keyboard - they speak, gesticulate, roll their eyes, react to body language and so on. Yet, this is still difficult for the average person to do using the current technology available to the masses. More...
NGNN: Next Generation News Networks
This is a picture that helps understand the impact of open access and interoperability in the information/news business (although its intention was different). These two valuable qualities, inherent in the Internet world, have enabled the uncontrolled and unconditional dissemination of diverse information for the benefit of the consumer. It has also facilitated the creation of business models in each of the layers and the accumulation of wealth by non traditional market players. Internet has, completely transformed the news business for ever. Today, it’s clearly difficult to imagine vertical business structures in the electronic information and news industry. More...
Infrastructure is politics
When we implement communications infrastructure, we implement politics. Even if we don't realise that's what we're doing, we make implementation choices that embed political structures. I think we should take these choices seriously. To see what I mean, consider a superficially simple case: Should people be allowed to have "anonymous" prepaid mobile phones (well, SIMs) or not? It's a simple question, but a complicated subject. And it's worth exploring because it helps us to have a real, focused discussion about practical privacy and security issues. More...
Internet HDTV and ADSL Quality in Greece
Last Sunday I watched the “el classico” of the Greek footbal via a High Definition broadcast from SKAI.gr, a pioneer radio/TV station of the country. With a 720p resolution and a relatively low bit rate (around 700Kbps) the broadcast made a decent watch. The thing is that it would not be possible to watch the match at a bit rate higher than this. And even its actual rate could not be sustained for a long continuous period (i.e. 90 minutes) by the network. Hickups and stalls happened all too often.
Maybe, those who argue that ADSL in Greece is enough to meet the service demand in the country should reconsider!
On a different tone this broadcast has many firsts for Greece. More...
Cloud Computing - a mathematical inevitability?
We're delighted to have Joe Weinman, VP of Strategy for AT&T Business, on the Cloud Computing 2.0 panel at the America Executive Brainstorm next week in Orlando. As a warm-up, some analysis he's just published on the "Mathematical Proof of the Inevitability of Cloud Computing" is here.
