Category: internet

another catch-all really for internet related posts

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Engineer internet voip

The BT Real Time Quality of Service Proposition

Coming down the broadband pipe this year to a telephone exchange near you is BT’s Real Time QoS product. QoS might not be of interest to your everyday surfer. It does however have the potential to revolutionise the User Experience when using the internet with better control of voice and gaming quality.

What is QoS?
Quality of Service (QoS) in a network is usually the term used to describe the process whereby certain types of network traffic are prioritised above others. QoS is typically required in a network where time-critical applications are being supported. In most cases this means Voice over IP or video but can be applied to financial transactions and gaming (to improve the experience). There isn’t a definitive list. By and large if you design a network with enough capacity to accommodate your bandwidth needs you don’t have to implement QoS.

In practical terms, where ADSL is concerned, this usually means providing a dedicated broadband connection for

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Business internet

BT market research into ICT buying habits of SMBs

I am always happy to hoover up any market research data up for grabs and at yesterday’s ISP Forum  BT analyst John Kiernan presented a summary of a study that BT had conducted into the ICT buying habits of 255 small and medium sized businesses.

The following factors were ranked in order of importance:

  • price is the major factor – no surprise here
  • SMBs then wanted to be able to buy services as part of a bundled package
  • the ICT product or service that they bought needed to last/be future proof but SMBs are prepared to try something new
  • SMBs need strong tech and after sales support
  • being local is not a major consideration – only 22% of those questioned felt this was important

Most SMBs look to the internet and their own existing suppliers to keep up to date with products and services. They have little interest in buying as a result of sales calls.

The last couple of years have been tough for UK SMBs with GDP falling for 6 x quarters in a row. According to JK growth was slow or non existent for most SMBs in 2009 and only slightly better for larger business.

A few other sound bites that were interesting:
Only 60% of SMBs have a website.
Only 14% see competitive advantage from ICT – smaller biz recognises it best

Finally what keeps SMBs awake at night? Finding new customers, leaving the recession behind growing their business, profit and cashflow. I can’t see these factors being specific to SMBs however.

I’ve got the slides if anyone is interested – I’m sure that BT would be happy for me to let you have them.

PS that’s the 20 minute talk distilled into a 20 second read 🙂

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Business internet

ISPs to help QCDA combat exam cheats

ISPs have been asked again this year to cooperate with takedown requests by the Qualifications & Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), which is concerned about the risk of unlawful publication of test questions on the internet.

The QCDA wants ISPA Members to provide them with alternative contact information which would be used to notify an unlawful publication of test materials and to request an emergency take down during the exam period for National Curriculum Tests, which begins on 10th May.

As the father of a son taking his A Levels and daughter taking O Levels (I still can’t get around to calling them GCSEs sorry) I am very supportive of this and will be providing the QCDA with the contact details they need.

Good luck to Tom and Hannah. I now know how my mum and dad felt – it is far more nerve racking having your kids go through the exams than doing it yourself (I’m sure that the memory plays tricks with the passage of time 🙂 ).

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Business internet

View from the top of BT Tower during the BT ISP Forum

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broadband Business internet

ISPs Plunge Knife into Broadband Enabling Technology (BET) #digitalbritain #finalthirdfirst

A Digital Britain session at today’s BT ISP Forum at the BT Tower saw a vocal opposition to Broadband Enabling Technology (BET) as a prospective technology to meet the Government promise of a 2Mbps Universal Service Commitment by 2012.  Bit of a mouthful that.

Firm pricing is not yet available, but we are potentially looking at an installation cost of £850 for a single line with 1Mbps capability, £1,050 for two lines with up to 2Mbps.  Moreover, although the minimum demand per exchange has not yet been firmed up, it is likely to be 15 subscribers.

There was absolutely zero interest in this product from the 60 or so (guess) ISPs in the room. It is seen as too expensive, to the point where it is not dissimilar in price, if you need 15 users in an exchange to sign up, to the

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broadband Engineer internet

Wholesale Broadband Connect Hits 1 Million ADSL2+ Lines in March 2010

21CN Network

Launched two years ago, BT’s Wholesale Broadband Connect pushes past 1 million lines, still a ways to go.

Wholesale Broadband Connect (ie broadband on 21Century Network) was launched by BT two years ago this month. There is always pressure to get new products out in a timely manner and BT is no different though their job is harder because the size of the ship makes for difficult steering.

The first (brave leading edge) service providers started to offer ADSL2+ services based on Wholesale Broadband Connect in the Autumn and by March 09 there were 10k subscribers. At this point BT probably kept quiet about the actual number of customers.

One year later the dial has moved significantly and BT now talks openly about the size of their 21CN estate having broken through the 1 million customer barrier in March 2010. In the intervening year their systems have also improved and fault rates come down to approaching those of the mature 20CN broadband product, ADSL Max.

I realise that we all want every thing faster, better, sooner but progress is being made. Still a long way to go mind…

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Engineer internet

Advanced registration opens for end of IPv4 address pool party #ICANN #IPv4 #ARIN #RIPE

IPv4 address space is down to 7% on the exhaustion counter – see the right hand column on this blog. 

I’m never sure when it clicks over because I’m not watching it all the time. I’d like to be there when it clicks down a number. It’s a bit like seeing the mileometer in your car click over a significant mileage – as my Peugeot did recently when it hit 240,000 :-).

I started watching IPv4 addresses in January 2009, certainly as far as this blog is concerned. The number dropped below 10% in September 2009 so in 6 or so months another 3% has gone. Not long now.

I’m going to organise a party next year to coincide with the notional IPv4 exhaustion date. If you want to come get your name down here. I envisage this will be an international event.

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broadband Business internet ofcom piracy Regs

Ofcom Terms of Reference for Tackling Online Copyright Infringement in Digital Economy Act #debill

Check this Ofcom announcement. It basically covers their terms of reference for the Copyright Infringement piece of the Digital Economy Act (was Bill – feels kinda final).

There is going to be a lot written on this between now and the end of the year.  There are no surprises at this stage though the statement does confirm that the process has to take no more than 8 months including 3 months for the Code of Practice to be approved by the European Commission.

The draft CoP also has to be in place no later than May.  There is an option for stakeholders to jointly propose a draft within this timeframe but I can’t see it happening.  I may be wrong.

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broadband Business internet ofcom piracy Regs

Digital Economy Bill: Business Already Starting to Worry about the Effects #debill #digitalbritain

ofcom Digital Economy Bill

Customers want to know effects of Digital Economy Bill. Don’t we all?

I’m off to a meeting with a customer the week after next.  Nothing unusual in that of course.  In fact I like meeting customers. It gives me a chance to find out how we are doing.

This particular customer however provides in room internet services to hotels. They want to know how the Digital Economy Bill will affect them. The reality is that we won’t know until Ofcom has completed its work on the Code of Practice. It is right that they start looking at the subject now though because it does have the potential to harm them in a big way.

Customers downloading copyright material from the internet will be long gone by the time Rights Holders catch up with the ISP. In fact who is the Service Provider in this case?  Timico, who owns the infrastructure, or Timico’s customer who has the relationship with the hotel? Or is it the hotel, which has the relationship with the paying guest?  Hmm!

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broadband Business internet Regs

Labour has Upped Broadband Universal Service Commitment in Manifesto #ge2010 #digitalbritain

I know I keep going on about the lack of understanding of technology and the internet amongst the establishment. Another classic faux pas in this space has happened in the Labour Party Manifesto:

Labour Part Manifesto promises 2megabytes USC
Labour Part Manifesto promises 2megabytes USC

where they talk about a minimum broadband Universal Service Commitment of 2megabytes per second.

Most readers of this blog will be savvy enough to know the difference between megabytes and megabits. The latter is what they really mean, the former is 8 x the speed of the latter.

The point is that this is such a basic mistake that it just serves to highlight the total lack of understanding of technology. It also highlights why many MPs voted in favour of the Digital Economy Bill.

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End User internet

Luxury living and the shape of things to come – laptops at the dinner table #digitalbritain

This is what I call luxury living though I’m sure many will disagree. I’m sat at the dinner table indulging in tortilla chips and dips with my two eldest.  Mum and the other two are away (at Chester Zoo).

The luxury bit, apart from the company of the kids, is the involvement of laptops at the table.  There is plenty of space with the others away :-).  We are actually talking to each other although we are also engrossed elsewhere, in my case writing blog posts.

And before anyone starts calling me a bad dad I gave them total freedom in choice of dinner – Quesadillas on this occasion. Long live Tex Mex and long live the internet!

PS gives another slant on eating off your laptop – iPlayer dinner anyone?

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Business internet ofcom Regs

Royal Assent for Digital Economy Bill – we now need to move onto the Code of Practice for damage limitation #debill

The Queen nodded the Digital Economy Bill through last night, in keeping with her custom and practice. It seems that MPs have been getting above their station in taking a similar approach to get it passed into Law (my words not Her Majesty’s). 

It would appear that Stephen Timms has offered via twitter to arrange a session between ISPs and the Rights Holders:

“#DEBill Good dialogue, music/film people & Internet people, opposing views,could help find common ground. Much needed. Anyone interested?”

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Business internet Regs

Information overload STOP #timmsguidetoIT #debill Stephen Timms Out of Parliament

We have to STOP.  The information society is grinding life to a halt.  There is so much good content out there on tinternet that I am drowning in it.

It is even becoming harder and harder to write relevant blog posts in a timely manner. Points that I might want to get across, links to useful websites etc etc etc have already been distributed, at the speed of light (or copper or air – we don’t all have fibre – believe it or not!) via twitter (mostly) and Facebook.

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Engineer internet

HD voice workshop London #HDvoice

I’m chairing a High Definition Voice Workshop in London on 27th April if anyone is interested in coming along.

The workshop is being organised by the Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association and will be held at their premises at 111 Buckingham Palace Road, starting at 2.30.

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Business internet Regs

Digital Economy Bill will influence voting behaviour #debill #ge2010

Don’t you just love the internet.  Yesterday’s Digital Economy bill non debate has spawned some highly creative responses, which to a large extent goes to show why we should keep the internet free and open.

Did your MP turn up for the debate? – find out on didmympshoupornot.com.

Also some highly illuminating stats on last night’s action can be found here.

Register opposition to the bill here.

I haven’t made my mind up how to vote yet in this Election. It is the hardest decision I have had to make of all the Elections I have voted in.  There is a groundwsell of opinion forming though that people might well vote against the Government that created this mess. This is despite the fact that the opposition by and large seems also hell bent on helping to make it a mess.

My vote will probably stay a secret but it would be interesting to hear others’ views on this.

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broadband Business internet Regs

Rural Broadband: Mixed Messages for Outlying Communities #digitalbritain #ge2010

Rural Broadband Fibre England

In an action (not so packed) Parliamentary session yesterday the Government dropped it’s plans for the 50 pence tax on phone lines. So that’s the money that was going to be used to fund rural broadband access gone then.

On the other hand they also dropped plans to hike tax on cider – so that rural dwellers can continue to drink themselves into oblivion over the fact that they can’t get broadband!  There is a perverse logic in there somewhere.

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Business internet piracy Regs

Social Networking in action #debill

#debill actually made it to a trending topic on twitter today.  This reflects the huge amount of interest around the country on the subject of the Digital Economy Bill.

I watched it both on iPlayer and via Tweetdeck where I could see real time comments on what was being debated.  MPs inside the chamber were also following twitter – you could see them referring to their mobile phones whilst others were speaking.

I’ve actually changed my view on twitter since getting involved in #debill.  It is a hugely powerful medium and one that can spread messages globally very quickly.  For example one of my blog posts was retweeted by Jeff Pulver who has somewhere in the region of 355 thousand followers.  If you have a message to get across and push the right buttons twitter is huge.

Interestingly because #debill was a trending topic on twitter, ie one of the top topics being followed by people it also attracted its fair share of spam – people jumping on the bandwagon – notably today by people trying to flog iPad.

We are all still finding our way in this connected world.

PS there can’t have been more than 20 MPs in the house debating such an important subject – democracy in action. It is getting harder and harder to decide which way to vote.

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Business internet ofcom piracy Regs

Stop UK Government From Breaking the Internet on April 6th #DEBill #digitalbritain

As a general principle and in support of the rule of law, nobody involved in the campaign process against the implementation of the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) supports the theft of someone else’s property as is the case when downloading a pirate copy of a music track. However, before we examine the history of the legislation, let’s take a reality check about where we are.

The cat is well and truly out of the bag. The downloading of copyrighted material is now so widespread and with faster and faster broadband and bigger and bigger hard drives it is never going to stop. Infringers will just move on to alternative means – encrypted P2P for example. On this basis all the hard work on the DEB is likely to be a complete waste of time. It is also very difficult to prove who has used a specific broadband connection to indulge in this copyright infringement; what’s more the burden of proof in this bill lies with the accused to prove themselves innocent. This is totally wrong and goes against all the principles of modern UK society.

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broadband Engineer internet

Six Million Litres of Water Pumped from BT Paddington Exchange Yesterday

A BT employee has reported through our tech support grapevine that apparently the London Fire Brigade pumped 6 million litres of water from the flooded (and burnt) Burne House Exchange in Paddington yesterday.

Sounds like a self extinguishing fire system to me.

We had a quite a few customers affected by the incident with some still offline at the time of writing.

Categories
Business internet ofcom piracy Regs

Report from “Bring Democracy to the Digital Economy Bill” reception at Westminster #debill #ldsavenet #digitalbritain

Just got back from the “Bring Democracy to the Digital Economy Bill” reception kindly sponsored by “Consumer Focus”. There was a great speaker line up. My shorthand is non existent but this is pretty much what was said. If not verbatim then it provides the gist and I’m happy to modify and if I have any of it wrong – but I don’t think I have.

Tom Watson MP
Opening remarks. Not against change per se – just against doing it without adequate scrutiny. DEB is a bad law.

John Grogan MP
The probability is that the PM will go to the Queen to seek dissolution of Parliament on the morning of 6th April. This is likely to be before the 2nd reading of the DEB has started in Commons!. There is no precedent for this!

Noted that at a similar event sponsored by BPI 5 or 6 lobbysists claimed ownership to clause 120A. There was clearly a lot of effort being put in. It is reasonable to expect that things are not considered in haste.

Stephen Timms and Jeremy Hunt have apparently agreed to a clause 18 amendment today but word is the Lib Dems are not going to sign up to it.

The process is going to be concertina’d to 1 hour in the Commons and 1 hour in the Lords.

Not many MPs will be around during the wash-up. Most will be out on the campaign trail. It is important to garner as much support as possible against this bill at this last minute. It won’t be end of world if this bill is delayed so that we can have a proper debate.

Jim Killock, Executive Director, Open Rights Group
20k people have written to their MP. 2 k people have emailed Harriet Harman. £12 – £14 k raised in one morning to pay for an advert protesting overt the lack of scrutiny in this bill. MPs should be asking themselves whether this bill is legitimate

Simon Milner, Director of Industrial Policy, BT
BT wants to see reduction in piracy – after all BT sells music online. However the company wants to see that the law is balanced and proportionate. In this case the Government views have been too influenced by the music industry. For example people will be cut off because they haven’t taken suitable steps to stop music piracy. This isn’t right and could be unenforceable in law. Consumers could be left with an unholy mess.

Andrew Heaney, Executive Director of Policy and Regulation, TalkTalk
Used the example of his mother. If one of mum’s neighbours hacked into her broadband connection she could be cut off without being able to resort to legal aid. She would have to prove she has taken reasonable steps to stop it. This would cost her money perhaps a few hundred pounds? This is disgraceful / shameful.

Andrew had spoke with Stephen Timms about this. His reply was “But we have to do something don’t we?”.

Scott Taunton, Managing Director, UTV Media GB
Future of local radio is at stake here. There is not enough time to scrutinise the bill properly. The Secretary of State will have the ability to turn off AM and FM frequencies & move people to DAB. There are 120 m analogue radios around the country. This debate has come late in the day. Up to 120 local radio stations could be left behind in the switch off. DAB was 1st broadcast in 1988 radio technology has moved on to better things. Ofcom records only 3% of population has dissatisfaction with radio so why are we doing this?

(Note I haven’t given the non ISP bits of the bill any thought but it does seem outrageous that the Secretary of State seems to be awarding himself powers left right and centre)

Lord Whitty, Chair, Consumer Focus
Lord Whitty had lost his voice and his place was taken instead by that would be Adam Scorer, Consumer Focus Director of reputation and impact, or short, campaigns.

“This is a wholly unsatisfactory process. The idea that consumer interest is served by ISPs policing by decree is more than a shame in what is otherwise a good DEB.”

To finish off I was told this evening that Stephen Timms and Jeremy Hunt (cons) have apparently agreed to a clause 18 amendment today and that the Lib Dems are not going to sign up to it.

At this point I don’t know which way it is going to swing. Watch this space.

PS both MPs speaking were impressive individuals – you should vote for them.

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Cloud Engineer internet

Flagship MPLS project

I don’t normally go about overtly selling Timico in this blog but sometimes, when the customer is doing it for you in the trade press, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do*.

Flagship Housing is a recent customer of Timico.  We implemented an MPLS network for them. They love it enough to

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Engineer internet Regs

Google, deckchairs and Digital Economy Bill #debill

Paid a visit to Google in London on Friday morning. Fascinating offices. Refreshments available in reception whilst you checked yourself in and then breakfast from the breakfast bar afterwards.

I was there to meet Google’s regulatory bod, Luc Delany to discuss the company’s approach to the Digital Economy Bill. Google has a fairly light approach to regulation – the company claims to spend only 10% of what Microsoft spends on lobbying.

The Government, with it’s recent embarrassments, would do well to note that in the USA organisations have to disclose how much they spend on lobbying – down to individual lunches. It would be interesting to see how this mapped out in the UK in respect of the DEB stakeholders.

Of course clause 17 (or is it 18 now?) is the one that concerns Google. That’s the one that potentially gives Peter Mandelson powers to decide which websites are acceptable and which aren’t.

There is a feeling that we have all done everything that can be done on the DEB now, aside from last minute noises. We are now just waiting for judgement day. If the DEB does go ahead in its current form I will say that there is going to be one heck of a stink during and after the election.

I have to say that visiting Google is a pleasure. We played a bit of pool, I picked up an electric guitar and had a strum and spent some time in the surround vision version of Google Earth. It has a name but I can’t remember it. You stand inside a ring of large monitors and move a joystick to guide yourself around the world. Great.

Also chilled out in a deckchair for a bit (in the atrium – under the palm tree) before we both had to move on to other meetings. Life’s a beach.

One thing I didn’t realise is that much of the development of Google mobile operating system, Android, happens right there in the London offices. It made me proud to be a Brit (don’t often say that – I’m normally proud to be Welsh).

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End User internet security social networking

Facebook messages bringing a link to a website with a virus – look out

Just seen a wall post on Facebook from a friend warning of a virus being sent out from his account.  Next minute I got a Direct Message from him with a link in it. Fortunately I had just seen his warning and was able to delete it. 

This is going to be a problem I can see. I wonder what can be done about it?

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Business internet Regs

Budget watching – internet usage grew by 22% during Alistair Darling speech #digitalbritain

Readers might be interested to know that internet usage on the Timico pipes grew by 22% over the same period yesterday as punters went online to watch Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s Budget speech.

This is roughly the same growth that we saw during the Olympics and also during last summer’s Ashes cricket tests and the Open golf.

In a sense they are similar events – jeering crowds, cheering crowds etc. I’d rather be watching the sport though.

Anyway he did confirm the 50 pence tax on phone lines.

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broadband Business internet

Superfast Broadband and the FOURTH LAW OF THE INTERNET – It’s All Hype #digitalbritain

Some of you might remember the book “Masers and Lasers; How They Work, What They Do.” (1964, M. Brotherton. The McGraw-Hill Book Company). In my well thumbed copy page 5, talks about laser beams and uses the term “superhighways” for communication.

The January 3, 1983 issue of Newsweek: talked about “…information superhighways being built of fiber-optic cable will link Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D. C. in a 776-mile system on the East Coast.”

In the December 19, 1991 issue of the Christian Science Monitor Senator Al Gore called NREN the “information superhighway” – a catalyst for what he hoped would one day become a national fiber-optic network. Clearly in 1991 normal channels (TheRegister et al) were not around to make these announcements so he had to make do with the Christian Science Monitor.

I’ve already blogged that by last year BT in the UK had 11 million kms of fibre in the ground. I would expect that Al Gore might consider the Information Superhighway to well and truly have arrived.

Actually he would be reasonably right for a good proportion of internet users. This post though is not a rave about the digital divide. It is actually about marketing hype.

The latest political buzz-phrase seems to be “superfast broadband”. I personally think these hyped up phrases have had their day. Politicians across the ages have obviously latched on to them in their own messaging and marketing campaigns.

I wish people would just stick to the facts. In this case max possible speed 40Mbps, min 15Mbps, probably 25Mbps on average, certainly if we are talking FTTC. Clearly I will never make it in the marketing game.

I have though invented two Laws of the Internet.

The THIRD LAW OF THE INTERNET says that cups of tea always go cold before you finish drinking them when surfing. It’s a proven fact with a lot of laboratory research to back it up.

The FOURTH LAW OF THE INTERNET says that marketing hype accelerates faster than Moores Law. They are completely unconnected – I know that his will be a difficult concept for some to grasp (bit like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity but different).

The practical implication of the FOURTH LAW is that we will soon have to invent new words to describe how fast a connection is.

Today it is superfast broadband. Tomorrow it is going to have to be “this broadband is so fast you won’t be able to touch your router because it is so hot”. It’s a fact. It’ll give politicos a problem though – not a quick soundbyte phrase.

Ah well. My thanks to the internet (phrase circa1996) for access to Wikipedia for the historical stuff. Marvellous.

PS the FIRST and SECOND LAWS OF THE INTERNET have yet to be discovered.  They might not even exist. Scientists tell me we will need better search engine technology than is available today to find them.

PPS if someone else already invented different third and fourth laws, for clarity these are trefor davies’ third and fourth laws of the internet.

Categories
Business internet security

New scheme for replacing copper with fibre

I note the new scheme for pressurising BT to replace it’s copper local access network with fibre has not been completely going to plan as thieves today accidentally stole lengths of fibre by mistake. Doh.

The gang, who must surely be Fibre To The Home activists, are obviously from a Rural Cadre. I can only think their education suffered early on due to not having access to the internet and they found it difficult to tell the copper (Cu) apart from glass (Si). 

Also their thinking is misguided if they think that BT will replace the stolen copper with fibre.  The BT insurance policy is almost certainly “like for like”. So stolen copper has to be replaced by more copper. Doh again!

In any case on this occasion they went and pinched some Virgin Media fibre in Leeds. Obviously couldn’t spell either!! BT – Virgin Media – hard to tell the difference eh?

There is of course a serious side to all this in that thieves are apparently going around stealing copper as it has doubled in value in the last year.  BT’s network is easy game. Thanks to @bungieboy for the lead via twitter and ElReg’s Chris Williams for the detail.

Categories
Business internet piracy Regs

UK Gov to block access to Google? Chinese to follow suit?

I note that Google has stopped censoring Chinese searches and is routing its traffic via servers in Hong Kong in order to be able to do this. One wonders whether the Chinese will take measures to block access to these servers!?

I wonder also whether the UK Government has considered blocking access to Google within these shores.  After all millions of people will be using the search engine to find out how they go about indulging in a bit of Music Piracy.  How to avoid detection.

When I do a search for anything using Google I get a list of websites that match my search criteria.  If I was a naughty boy and wanted to download free music in breach of the copyright laws, that Google search would probably contain information as to where I can get this music and probably a link to the relevant song/page. Surely this is wrong! Isn’t it?

Will the Home Secretary be using the new found powers he is awarding himself through the Digital Economy Bill to block UK access to Google and thus prevent this miscarriage of justice from happening?

This might sound a bit extreme but I think the scenario shows the absurdity of what UK gov is trying to do with the Digital Economy Bill.

Categories
Business internet Regs

Gordon Brown speech on Building Britain’s Digital Future #bbdf

The election campaign is in full swing with Prime Minster Gordon Brown this morning giving a speech, entitled “Building Britain’s Digital Future” and broadcast live at about 8am on number10.gov.uk.

I’m not going to provide a detailed analysis of this.  You can catch that from all the tweets at #bbdf. The PM covered a wide range of subjects that fall under the banner of Digital Britain. Much of the content I am concerned with was just a regurgitation of what has been said for the last year – 50p tax on phone lines, high speed access for all etc. etc. I don’t really see the evidence that this is going to happen yet, or at least not much progress.

What was important in my mind was the recognition or reinforcement of the point that UK.gov has to embrace web technology.  There is a long way to go here as well. I note that the speech was broadcast on the number 10 website. I found out about it on twitter via @hadleybeeman. When I “tuned in” there were 87 watchers.  By the time I had to leave to go to work there were 157. That’s only 157.

There is clearly a disconnect between the PMs speech being made available on line and people knowing it was there or feeling inclined to watch it. There is a long way to go before Government is properly online.

It was probably to some extent down to the timing – during the morning rush hour.  Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of much of what the Government is saying about Building Britain’s Digital Future. Regular readers will know that this doesn’t extend to how they are going about it though. 

The appointment of Sir Tim Berners-Lee as joing head of a new Institute of Web Science might sound good but web technology, once it got off the ground has proliferated because private industry recognised that there was money to be made. That same private industry is even prepared to take big punts where it isn’t quite  clear where the money will come from (eg twitter).

So in my mind the main area of focus should be creating the environment for ideas to flourish. An Institute of Web Science can no doubt contribute to this – just by being there.  More important is to make sure that all the contradictions we keep hearing about – digital inclusion versus blocking of websites and cutting off internet access; the improvement of the rates  set up for fibre; reforms to the online copyright licensing regime etc etc.

If anyone wants to add to the list by making a comment on this post that would be great. After Easter the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) is going to be working on its own manifesto stating what the ISP industry thinks Government should be doing. All inputs considered.

Categories
Business internet Regs

Gordon Brown speech on Building Britain's Digital Future #bbdf

The election campaign is in full swing with Prime Minster Gordon Brown this morning giving a speech, entitled “Building Britain’s Digital Future” and broadcast live at about 8am on number10.gov.uk.

I’m not going to provide a detailed analysis of this.  You can catch that from all the tweets at #bbdf. The PM covered a wide range of subjects that fall under the banner of Digital Britain. Much of the content I am concerned with was just a regurgitation of what has been said for the last year – 50p tax on phone lines, high speed access for all etc. etc. I don’t really see the evidence that this is going to happen yet, or at least not much progress.

What was important in my mind was the recognition or reinforcement of the point that UK.gov has to embrace web technology.  There is a long way to go here as well. I note that the speech was broadcast on the number 10 website. I found out about it on twitter via @hadleybeeman. When I “tuned in” there were 87 watchers.  By the time I had to leave to go to work there were 157. That’s only 157.

There is clearly a disconnect between the PMs speech being made available on line and people knowing it was there or feeling inclined to watch it. There is a long way to go before Government is properly online.

It was probably to some extent down to the timing – during the morning rush hour.  Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of much of what the Government is saying about Building Britain’s Digital Future. Regular readers will know that this doesn’t extend to how they are going about it though. 

The appointment of Sir Tim Berners-Lee as joing head of a new Institute of Web Science might sound good but web technology, once it got off the ground has proliferated because private industry recognised that there was money to be made. That same private industry is even prepared to take big punts where it isn’t quite  clear where the money will come from (eg twitter).

So in my mind the main area of focus should be creating the environment for ideas to flourish. An Institute of Web Science can no doubt contribute to this – just by being there.  More important is to make sure that all the contradictions we keep hearing about – digital inclusion versus blocking of websites and cutting off internet access; the improvement of the rates  set up for fibre; reforms to the online copyright licensing regime etc etc.

If anyone wants to add to the list by making a comment on this post that would be great. After Easter the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) is going to be working on its own manifesto stating what the ISP industry thinks Government should be doing. All inputs considered.

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Business internet security

UK cybercrime defences are good says House of Lords but Estonia’s are rubbish

Doesn’t quite match does it? The House of Lords telling us that the UK has strong defences against cybercrime. It is quite possible that your average crusted baronet has no idea what cybercrime is.

I’m being a bit unfair here in the interest of humour.

This week the House of Lords European Union Committee published its report into protecting Europe against large-scale cyber attacks. The report looked into the resilience of Europe’s and the UK’s internet infrastructure which is deemed part of critical national infrastructure.

The report argued that there is a wide variation between Member States on this issue, with the UK having “sophisticated and well-developed defences to guard against attacked and disruption”.

Estonia however, and for example, which as a nation is heavily dependent on the internet, is knackered (my word not their Lordships) if subjected to even a minor cyber attack.

The Committee made a number of findings including: the public sector should take the initiative on how cyber-security could be developed on a global basis; EU and NATO should work closer together, and the Government should encourage this to happen; and the European Commission should propose establishing national Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTS).

More here