tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92346132024-03-14T05:58:39.673+00:00BlogceteraAn irregular view on the emerging Internet technologies.Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-54932115464698413792014-10-08T09:44:00.002+01:002014-10-08T09:51:06.138+01:00Big Data - the coming revolutionBig Data is rapidly becoming the latest big thing in computing. The issue for us all is that its impact will be far beyond the world of computing and will effect every aspect of our lives from retail to health and everything in between. Static databases are becoming dynamic sources of unimaginable insight. The amount of structured and unstructured data that is being produced is just phenomenal. Where once databases were being compiled by user input into structured forms that companies used to provide basic trend and financial information, now we are met with terabytes of unstructured data being accumulated and stored as a result of machine generated interactions whether its in every transaction through supermarket terminals to every image stored by the millions of CCTV cameras that have proliferated in our public and private spaces. What has changed is that the cost of storage has plummeted and combined with the infinite connectivity offered by the Internet, stored data has just snowballed.<br />
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With the advent of free database search tools developed by Google such as Hadoop and MapReduce it has become possible for machines to begin to analyse this huge warehouse of unstructured data. Hadoop is a free, Java-based programming framework that supports the processing of large data sets in a distributed computing environment and MapReduce is a programming model and an associated implementation for processing and generating large data sets with a parallel, distributed algorithm on a cluster. These tools enable almost anyone to begin to analyse their data for hidden insights into their business activity or the world around them. More importantly,Big Data has the potential to alter the economics of some of our most important industries.. A recent report by McKinsey suggested that if US health care could use big data creatively and effectively to drive efficiency and quality, the potential value from data in the sector could be more than $300 billion in value every year, two-thirds of which would be in the form of reducing national health care expenditures by about 8 percent. Furthermore they suggested that in the private sector, a retailer using big data to the full has the potential to increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent. In the public sector, across the developed economies of Europe, government administration could save more than €100 billion ($149 billion) in operational efficiency improvements alone by using big data.</div>
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These are figures that should make every CEO, Politician and citizen sit up and take notice. Big Data has enormous power to change the lives of everyone it touches in ways we cannot begin to understand as yet.</div>
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In addition, whilst in the past the analysis and evaluation of data-sets was the preserve of the expert, that is also changing as computers increasingly take on the task of analysis and evaluation and learning. Computers are not only evaluating the data, they are increasingly "learning" how to improve and and extend our understanding of what the data means. For example, a computer was given the task of analyzing a vast database of cancer biopsy results and duly endeavored to identify twelve key traits that might suggest cancerous cells. The issue was that only nine traits had been previously identified in the published medical literature. The use of machine evaluating Big Data had moved the science of medical diagnosis on significantly and in doing so potentially advanced our detection of cancer and improving survival rates.</div>
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So Big Data cannot be ignored by anyone and the trend is to enable access to such tools to a wider and wider audience enabling every business and public sector body the opportunity to benefit from this key aspect of the third industrial revolution.</div>
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Is there a downside? Well the primary impact in the medium term will be to render unemployed many of the professional classes once seen as having jobs for life. Big Data has the potential to impact on highly skilled job roles which had relied upon experience and expertise built up over many years. For example, taking the cancer biopsy analysis a stage further, computers will be able to calculate radiology treatment quicker and more accurately for treatment than a highly trained and experienced consultant radiologist. On the other hand there has already identified an enormous of shortage of data analysts to drive this Big Data revolution. One thing is clear, where industrial automation and IT capabilities eliminated manual labour and secretarial jobs in the 1980's and 1990's, it will be the highly skilled white collared jobs of consultants across a range of professions in medicine, banking, insurance and engineering which will become vulnerable to Big Data.</div>
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Equally there is no going back, just as with previous industrial revolutions the genie is out of the bottle and we need to adapt to take advantage of the opportunities offered by these developments.</div>
<iframe src="http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=blogcetera-21&o=2&p=26&l=ez&f=ifr&f=ifr" width="468" height="60" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" border="0" frameborder="0" style="border:none;"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-41925697991882435182014-02-11T18:45:00.001+00:002014-10-08T10:02:05.977+01:00Is BT Infinity worth the hassle?Today BT installed BT's flagship product BT Infinity to our property. I was looking forward to superfast broadband as promised by BT's adverts. Unfortunately the service comes with a number of faults.<br />
1. The range of the wireless router appears to be rather less than 4m. This has resulted in the need to have the router balanced on a bookcase around the corner from the master socket in order to set up a "line of sight" connection to my internet enable TV. Very poor.<br />
2. The installing engineer from BT Openreach who installed the new master socket has disconnected all my home extensions. This fault didn't become apparent until after he had left. Despite numerous calls to BT Customer Service, they seem totally unable to stay on the line and have repeatedly dropped the connection.<br />
When I finally did get through I was told that they could not schedule an engineer visit until next week! To cap it all Gnesh then dropped the line again.<br />
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So if I have any advice for potential customers of BT Infinity is go elsewhere. BT are just not fit for purpose. I would not have "upgraded" had I known what a total fiasco BT would make of a simple installation.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-44456140780529960712013-12-13T15:59:00.000+00:002013-12-13T15:59:22.218+00:00Google to institute only pay if viewed!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-78xMta1OQqQ/UqsrKqjJd0I/AAAAAAAAAKg/fx9vEspdFxI/s1600/Google+Ad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-78xMta1OQqQ/UqsrKqjJd0I/AAAAAAAAAKg/fx9vEspdFxI/s320/Google+Ad.jpg" /></a></div>
Fraud has plagued the on-line advertising market since its initiation. Back in 2009, Click Forensics estimated that for advertisers and ad networks, 14.1% of the clicks on their ads were bogus, and costs them money.<br />
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All PPC (pay per click) ad providers are keen to combat click fraud and have sophisticated methods for doing so although it still represents a significant proportion of their income since it is the advertiser who will always end up paying.<br />
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However, on Thursday (13th December 2013) Google announced that it was introducing a new system to deal with how ads are viewed and consequently charged for. “If you are an advertiser and a human being didn’t see your ad, then frankly nothing else matters,” said Neal Mohan, Google’s vice-president of display advertising products at Google. “If you are a marketer, why pay if a human being did not see the ad?”<br />
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The global on-line advertising industry is worth $117bn and it is estimated that as many as half of the digital ads that marketers buy are not seen at all, with a large portion only being viewed if a website user scrolls all the way down to the bottom of a web page. This issue of how effective advertising is has always been an issue for all forms of advertising be it TV of Bill Posters.<br />
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Now Google intends to introduce an approach called Active View. Google's new Active View offering is based on an emerging industry standard called IAB/3MS, which states that an ad is only “viewable” if more than 50 per cent of it is visible on the screen for one second or longer. Advertisers will be able to see a report of how many viewable impressions they have received for any given campaign, and this data can be used to inform future campaigns.
The Active View system ensures that if your ad is buried "below the fold" and doesn't get seen then you will not be billed and if your on-line ad has been seen for at least one second then you will be billed for that impression.<br />
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I have always been rather sceptical about the value of such viewed ads which do not have any "call to action" and certainly attempts to at least bill for a viewing by a human being is a step in the right direction, but it really doesn't make for very effective use of ones advertising dollar, pound or euro. Billing for ads that didn't get seen in the past was always a very dodgy practice and this approach should have been introduced a long time ago.
Whilst this may not be click fraud, I do think it continues to call into question the billions spent on adverts which are just about brand awareness on-line and fail to trigger a genuine sales lead.
Maybe advertisers and agencies placing the ads need to think rather more carefully about what they are attempting to achieve with their on-line campaigns.
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This is a good start, but Google and the other major on-line players need to go much further to clean up this industry and ensure advertisers get the value for money they pay for.<br />
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Further reporting:-<br />
<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d7223aee-6321-11e3-a87d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2nMrICcD2" target="_blank">Financial Times</a> , <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10515431/Google-to-charge-advertisers-based-on-viewability.html" target="_blank">The Daily Telegraph</a> , <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25356956" target="_blank">BBC</a><br />
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<SCRIPT charset="utf-8" type="text/javascript" src="http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822%2FGB%2Fblogcetera-21%2F8009%2F7175fe91-483c-42bf-b0e1-f0acb93732ae&Operation=GetScriptTemplate"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://ws.amazon.co.uk/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=GB&ID=V20070822%2FGB%2Fblogcetera-21%2F8009%2F7175fe91-483c-42bf-b0e1-f0acb93732ae&Operation=NoScript">Amazon.co.uk Widgets</A></NOSCRIPT><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-62181133318693193342013-12-09T17:50:00.000+00:002013-12-11T15:55:43.273+00:00Has the Mobile Internet finally emerged as a primary retail channel in 2013Back in 2000, I worked with a former colleague from business school to raise investment for what we now refer to as a location based mobile application. The application was known as ZagMe enabled customers to send offers to users of the service in their location such as a shopping mall (<span style="font-size: x-small;">BBC <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1011798.stm" target="_blank">Zagme News report</a>).</span> Unfortunately the technology platform was based on WAP which proved unreliable and costly to use. Today companies such as Foursquare have taken the concept to a mobile broadband customer base happy to use and act on location based offers. However, 2013 has seen the break through of the mobile device including tablets etc. as a primary channel for online purchasing. Retailers have rushed to adapt to the new format and even bring out their own optimised devices such as Tesco and Aldi launching bespoke low cost tablets. According to mobile experience management platform Artisan <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">(<a href="http://www.useartisan.com/" target="_blank">www.useartisan.com</a> )</span>, 77% of consumers intend to make purchases through a mobile and/or tablet app this holiday season.<br />
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This statistic suggests that using mobile devices to purchase through sites such as Amazon, John Lewis etc. is more likely to be the norm rather than the exception. In a recent survey, OFCOM forecast the number of mobile broadband subscribers to be in the region of 5.1 million. With sales of Tablet computers of every type likely to be the most sought after gift this Christmas, that number is sure to grow dramatically and with it the opportunity for retailers to grow their online sales channel as well as location based sales by offering incentives to bring users into High Street stores.</div>
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Sadly all this furious activity in mobile sales comes to late for Zagme which succumbed to the dotcom bust when trying to raise a second round of finance. Todays location based apps have a much brighter future!</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-3920769339020114002013-12-09T16:53:00.000+00:002013-12-11T15:57:20.487+00:00UK ISP, Mobile Internet and Cable Subscriber Numbers - December 2013<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">Here
is an update of the UK ISP market covering DSL and Cable Access market as well
as the Mobile Dongle market in the UK. I have also added in the published
figures for 3G and 4G mobile access devices. I have used ITU published data for
Broadband usage numbers and Neilson Ratings and ISP published figures to get an
accurate picture as well all the reports and disclosures for each of the
companies shown below. I believe these figures represent a reasonably accurate
representation of the genuine adoption of broadband either via DSL, Cable or
mobile dongle. Broadband connections included in this data cover download
speeds equal to or faster than 256kbit/s.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">T</span></u></b><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">able 1. Broadband ISPs </span></u></b><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">(</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Source: ITU,
Neilsen, OFCOM & ISP Published Figures)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 517px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22.5pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="height: 22.5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">No.</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<td style="height: 22.5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">ISP/Provider</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<td style="height: 22.5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">User Numbers</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 22.5pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">% of UK Market (inc Mobile)</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">1</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">BT Retail</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">6,961,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">26.07%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">2</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Sky Broadband</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">5,017,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">18.79%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">3</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Virgin Media</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">4,488,600</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">16.81%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">4</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">TalkTalk Group</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">4,076,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">15.27%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">5</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Orange</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">714,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">2.67%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">6</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Kingston Comms</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">178,200</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">0.67%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">7</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Zen Internet</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">94,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">0.32%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">8</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Vodafone UK</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">85,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">0.31%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">9</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Thus Group</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">80,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">0.30%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 10; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 80.0pt;" width="107"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">10</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 101.0pt;" width="135"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Entanet</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 84.0pt;" width="112"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">70,000</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
<td style="height: 15.0pt; padding: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; width: 123.0pt;" width="164"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">0.26%</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">BT continues to grow its user base at the expense of the smaller
players. Sky Broadband has continued to
grow, primarily by acquisition having taken over O2’s broadband user base. However, although BT Sport is still in its
early days, it is clearly impacting Sky’s organic growth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Times","serif"; font-size: 10pt;">The total UK Internet connectivity market is not only made up of
Broadband ISPs, but connection is now frequently through 3G and a growing 4G user
base. Consequently I have taken the total market as being made up of both the
fixed-line broadband and mobile internet access as I think it would be
erroneous to suggest that they are not part of the same competitive market. The
Broadband ISP market size is estimated to be just under 22 million broadband
connections. OFCOM estimates the mobile internet connectivity to be in the
region of 5.0 million mobile broadband users in addition the 21.7 million fixed
line users. So the total market is
estimated at 26.7million subscribers. Of
these super broadband users make up just 3.7million.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-76646426382521740282013-09-29T11:53:00.001+01:002013-09-29T12:02:20.411+01:00Google Announces New Search Algorithm<div class="MsoNormal">
Google has just announced their new search algorithm, codenamed Hummingbird. It is the first major
upgrade for three years and is a major step towards semantic web search.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Launched quietly about a month ago, the new algorithm affects
about 90% of Google searches. The update is designed to provide more accurate
results when faced with natural prose questions from web searchers according to
senior vice president of search Amit Singhal.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Google stressed that a new algorithm is important as users
expect more natural and conversational interactions with a search engine - for
example, using their voice to speak requests into mobile phones, smart watches
and other wearable technology.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hummingbird is focused more on ranking information based on
a more intelligent understanding of search requests, unlike its predecessor,
Caffeine, which was targeted at better indexing of websites.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“We just changed Google's
engines mid-flight - again” Amit Singhal Senior VP, Google Search.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is more capable of understanding concepts and the
relationships between them rather than simply words, which leads to more fluid
interactions. In that sense, it is an extension of Google's "Knowledge
Graph" concept introduced last year aimed at making interactions more
human.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In one example, shown at the presentation, a Google
executive showed off a voice search through her mobile phone, asking for
pictures of the Eiffel Tower. After the pictures appeared, she then asked how
tall it was. After Google correctly spoke back the correct answer, she then
asked "show me pictures of the construction" - at which point a list
of images appeared.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>SEO just the same –
Content is king!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
As regards developing successful SEO programmes, really very
little has changed. In order to be
successful in SEO the key is still to create relevant and interesting content
that delivers real value for their consumers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, a subtle change in how
the algorithm views the content is happening whereby the new Google’s ranking
algorithm focuses on the context of where content appears against search
queries rather than traditional keyword matching. Hummingbird tries to match documents based on
the underlying user intent. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The key to successful
SEO will thus require much better content editing and site writing to ensure
that the content is answering a question not just stuffing as many keywords and
phrases a text will take. The semantic
web is coming of age with a search engine to match.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-15403535943938468472013-09-08T11:22:00.000+01:002013-09-08T11:27:23.697+01:00Apple on top, but Android's position is growing stonger!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Millennial Media, the Mobile
ad platform, has released their latest Mobile Mix report, covering Q2
2013. The report lists the top 20 mobile
devices adding tablets into the mix along with smartphones and feature phones. Apple
made devices dominate the rankings taking three of the top four places,
however, the increasing importance of Android based machines is crucial. Samsung
occupies the number two spot with its Galaxy S phones and gains some additional
presence in the top ten thanks to the appearance of the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy
Note in the top 10 list. HTC and Motorola lose some representation on the list,
however and Amazon debuts with the Kindle Fire ranking number eight overall for
impressions. The fall of alternatives to
iOS and Android make the market a two horse race. Blackberry is clearly in trouble and Windows
is failing to make any impression on the market. Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia is unlikely to
turn Windows prospects around.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FSNH7W7zABY/UixOx5ig7iI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/b3VxTX135Ps/s1600/Table.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FSNH7W7zABY/UixOx5ig7iI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/b3VxTX135Ps/s640/Table.png" width="564" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><u>Top 20 Devices - Ranked by Impressions</u></i></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">The fact that Google Play is
now outpacing Apple App store for downloads suggest that the Android is
increasingly eating Apple’s lunch.<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe border="0" frameborder="0" height="90" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=blogcetera-21&o=2&p=48&l=ur1&category=consumerelectronics&f=ifr" style="border: none;" width="728"></iframe>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-3913371412386958232013-09-07T18:58:00.000+01:002013-09-29T11:57:05.859+01:00iOS Continues to dominate mobile market for mobile ads, but for how long?Most recent reports suggest that Apple's iOS continues to dominate the mobile advertising market in terms of impressions and revenue generation delivering almost 44% of all ad impressions and almost 50% of revenue (Figure 1). The mobile market is increasingly looking like a two horse race between Apple iOS and Android and whilst on the face of it Apple continues to dominate, the decline of any alternative operating system other than Android suggests that in the near term Android will soon pass iOS as it becomes the de-facto alternative operation system.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Traffic share (mobile phone OS)</i></b><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background: #4F81BD; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent1; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: background1;">OS Share<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #4F81BD; border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent1; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: background1;">% of Traffic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #4F81BD; border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent1; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: white; mso-themecolor: background1;">% of Revenue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #D99594; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 153; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Android<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D99594; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 153; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
31.24%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D99594; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 153; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
28.08%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Phone<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
30.58%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
27.76%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Tablet<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
0.66%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
0.32%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #D99594; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 153; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>iOS<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D99594; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 153; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
43.75%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #D99594; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 153; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
49.36%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
IPhone<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
30.88%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
36.44%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
iPad<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
8.04%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
10.21%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
iTouch<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
4.83%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
2.71%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>RIM<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
3.37%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
5.41%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Symbian<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
5.16%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1.56%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Windows<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
0.26%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
0.30%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 90.45pt;" valign="top" width="121"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Other<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.0pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
16.21%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="background: #F2DBDB; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-background-themecolor: accent2; mso-background-themetint: 51; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 3.0cm;" valign="top" width="113"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
15.27%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Source: Opera mediaworks<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 14px;">The challenge presented by Android is strengthening as Google and its partners increase the rate of innovation. Apple is clearly showing signs of innovation fatigue. A recent report by Goldman Sachs </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px;">pointed to several concerns, including “delayed product cycles, supply chain difficulties, product price erosion, and a slower pace of product innovation.” Apple’s ability to continue innovating at the breakneck pace it maintained over the past few years remains a major concern. The recent performance of Google Play surpassing Apple's App Store downloads particularly in emerging markets underline the direction of travel.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 25px;">This rebalancing of the market suggests that in the longer term the Android market is set to become the most important mobile advertising market.</span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-43766790169974996412013-02-20T17:12:00.001+00:002013-02-27T23:04:52.482+00:004G licences only raise £2.34 billion in auction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eUF-KV4hrgQ/USUBZdzruAI/AAAAAAAAAFE/_JbsLQfObbs/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eUF-KV4hrgQ/USUBZdzruAI/AAAAAAAAAFE/_JbsLQfObbs/s200/download.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">It beggars belief that the UK Government has only managed to raise just £2.34 bn in licence fees for the the 4G licences. It really does suggest that both the UK Government and Ofcom are totally disconnected either from the potential of the mobile internet market or they are totally incompetent at running an auction. Whilst it was clear from the start that the market would not pay the astronomical figures paid for the original 3G licences of £21 billion raised by Gordon Brown, <span style="line-height: 20.795454025268555px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 20.795454025268555px;">the value of these licences should have achieved far beyond the Office of Budget Responsibilities own projection of £3.5bn, let alone the £2,34bn delivered. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.795454025268555px;">Everything Everywhere, Hutchison 3G UK, Telefonica (O2), Vodafone (VOD) and BT (BT.A)'s Niche Spectrum Ventures secured the 4G licences. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.795454025268555px;">It is a little disappointing that the winning bids all came from the usual suspects and that we will not see any new entrant to spice up the cosy market carve up between the major mobile networks and BT.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.795454025268555px;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.795454025268555px;">Given that the UK is one the largest mobile internet markets and combined with t</span><span style="line-height: 20.795454025268555px;">he superior quality of coverage and speed of performance offered by 4G’s 800 MHz network, the winning network providers and service providers stand to make significant revenue. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 20.78125px;">The mobile broadband should provide smartphone and tablet computer users with "superfast" download speeds, and will provide £20 billion of benefits for UK consumers over the next ten years, Ofcom said. </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5AwPMOF8hFU/USUBjeMp4lI/AAAAAAAAAFM/aND0K4bhxc8/s1600/iPhone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5AwPMOF8hFU/USUBjeMp4lI/AAAAAAAAAFM/aND0K4bhxc8/s200/iPhone.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.78125px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.78125px;">However, when mobile operator EE, a joint venture between T-Mobile and Orange, became the first to launch a 4G service in October 2012 in a brief monopoly, it struggled to attract users. It was forced to cut its prices in January, lowering its entry price to £31 from £36 a month.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.78125px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.78125px;">Despite this slow take up, I still believe that 4G has the power to become the de facto communications network for Internet access in the UK - a view clearly shared by BT - which is why they entered the auction to secure 4G capacity which they are using to extend their WiFi network. 4G has the capacity to be a game changer in technology terms and could change the local access in remote locations of 100 MHz Ethernet speed access reducing the need to take fibre to the home.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.78125px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.78125px;">There may not be champagne corks popping in No 11 tonight, but I am sure they will be in the HQs of our major mobile providers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20.78125px;"><br /></span>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-48396602599201212502013-02-06T17:16:00.001+00:002013-02-21T14:28:11.511+00:00The Appscape<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are a number of interesting facts concerning the growth of mobile marketing and in particular the App market.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mUYjAEXF_UU/URKO39eYMVI/AAAAAAAAAE0/jbgdJCxVss4/s1600/android+eats+apple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mUYjAEXF_UU/URKO39eYMVI/AAAAAAAAAE0/jbgdJCxVss4/s200/android+eats+apple.jpg" width="170" /></span></a></div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Apple Apps – 700,000
(Nov 2012)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Android Apps –
700,000 (Nov 2012)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Microsoft – 120,000 (Dec 2012)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">37mins the average time spent on apps per day</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mobile apps will grow from a $6 billion industry today to
$55.7 billion industry by 2015 (Forrester)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The average Android smartphone user has downloaded 44 apps
onto their phone</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">53% of American cellphone users now have a smartphone</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">38% of people who use social media on mobile devices cite general
browsing as their main activity</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The rapid growth of Android apps is very impressive, having caught up with Apple so quickly and will undoubtedly pass Apple in 2013. The fact that Apple apply rigid "quality control" as to which apps make it on to the iPhone and Google pretty much set a minimum compliance approach cannot be the only reason Android has blossomed since Microsoft has failed to grow in quite the same way. Apple need to decide whether they are going to carry denying other smartphone users the chance to use the Apple IOS and ultimately see the market they have owned slowly (or maybe not so slowly) eroded by Android as they did twenty years ago during the PC wars.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-27089016069688655912013-02-06T16:39:00.002+00:002013-02-21T14:30:23.575+00:00iPhone 5 Decline in face Samsung Challenge?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sales of the iPhone 5 appear to be slowing dramatically in
the UK and around the world. In what seems like a bid to drum up sales, for the first time I can
recall, my mobile provider is making unsolicited calls to remind that I am due
an upgrade and have the opportunity of getting my hands on an iPhone 5 as part of my
package. Previous it appeared I needed
to be best friends with the chairman of the mobile operator to get such an offer. Furthermore, according to the Wall Street
Journal, Apple has cut an iPhone 5 display manufacturing order by half citing
"weaker-than-expected demand." The display order, which was targeted
for the January to March quarter, was cut along with other key component
manufacturing in December.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Given the crowded marketplace that the smartphone arena has
become, it is only good business that there should be changes to manufacturing
orders. However, this data seems to
confirm that globally, Samsung is beginning to get the upper hand in sales of
smartphones in head-on competition with Apple.
With 1.3 billion smartphones in use worldwide by end of 2012 and 465
million Android smartphones sold in 2012. Google’s operating system has now
captured a 66% global market share. Samsung has
used the Android OS to drive sales with their latest smartphone the Galaxy SIII with shipments estimated to be 18 million units for the third quarter of 2012, while
smartphone and overall mobile device shipments are projected at 59 million and
106 million units respectively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Apple is rumoured to be accelerating the launch of the iPhone 6
to combat this growing Korean threat and thus it is of little surprise that they are ramping
down iPhone 5 production to make way for a newer model. Clearly being sued by Apple is good
commercial business for Samsung since it has crystallized the belief that the
once mighty Apple may have a worthy competitor in the form of Samsung. Litigation can have unexpected consequences and certainly it seems it may be the case that Apples lawyers are better at marketing Samsung's products than helping their own side win.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-13531244237700542072013-02-06T15:56:00.000+00:002013-02-06T15:56:02.779+00:00Summary of the Latest Social Media Data.I was recent required to pull together a presentation covering the impact of social media on search engine optimisation and as part of that exercise I extracted a collection of the latest data points on the three leading social media sites of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. All the data is referenced from the companies themselves or studies they have commissioned.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LpBcDKGmvOM/URJ5gqEGvAI/AAAAAAAAAEc/kjyC2nPlCro/s1600/Facebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="50" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LpBcDKGmvOM/URJ5gqEGvAI/AAAAAAAAAEc/kjyC2nPlCro/s200/Facebook.jpg" width="50" /></a><span style="color: blue;"><b>
Facebook</b></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">1 billion – Number of monthly active users on
Facebook, passed in October 2012</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">31% - Percentage of users that check in more
than once a day.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">135 million – Number of monthly active users on
Google+.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Facebook accounts for approximately 26% of
referral traffic.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">47% – Percentage of Facebook users that are
female.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">29% - Percentage of Google+ users are female.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">40.5 years – Average age of a Facebook user.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">2.7 billion – Number of likes on Facebook every
day.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">24.3% – Share of the top 10,000 websites that
have Facebook integration.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">4.7 billion minutes are spent on Facebook daily</span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2UC1eytBDGo/URJ6KdM1ZSI/AAAAAAAAAEk/bNCfFhKueDk/s1600/Linkedin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="50" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2UC1eytBDGo/URJ6KdM1ZSI/AAAAAAAAAEk/bNCfFhKueDk/s200/Linkedin.jpg" width="50" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><span style="color: blue;">LinkedIn</span></b><br />
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<br /><ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">187 million – Number of members on LinkedIn
(Sept, 2012).</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">44.2 years – Average age of a Linkedin user.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Highly targeted professional networked audience
with 50% of LinkedIn users having a bachelor’s degree or higher</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">LinkedIn accounts for about 0.20% of referral
traffic.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">American users spend an average of 17 minutes on
the site.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">22 million visit LinkedIn every day.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">There are 2 million companies on LinkedIn</span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WXIR1CrEWgU/URJ4Z2fh7kI/AAAAAAAAAEU/xowUmzDbv8o/s1600/Twitter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Twitter" border="0" height="50" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WXIR1CrEWgU/URJ4Z2fh7kI/AAAAAAAAAEU/xowUmzDbv8o/s200/Twitter.jpg" title="Twitter Logo" width="50" /><b></b></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WXIR1CrEWgU/URJ4Z2fh7kI/AAAAAAAAAEU/xowUmzDbv8o/s1600/Twitter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<b><span style="color: blue;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: blue;">Twitter</span></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">200 million – Monthly active users on Twitter,
passed in December 2012.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">1 million accounts are added to Twitter every
day</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">9.66 million – Number of tweets during the
opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">175 million – Average number of daily tweets
sent throughout 2012.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">37.3 years – Average age of a Twitter user.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">40 million visit Twitter daily</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">307 – Number of tweets by the average Twitter
user.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">51 –
Average number of followers per Twitter user.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">163 billion – the number of tweets since Twitter
started, passed in July 2012.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">$259 million is Twitter’s projected ad revenue
in 2012</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">123 – Number of heads of state that have a
Twitter account.</span></li>
</ul>
The rate of adoption of these services remains an extraordinary phenomenon and have become key drivers of income for both themselves and a myriad of businesses utilising their technology and market concentration.<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-18169679889889829722012-12-13T01:29:00.002+00:002013-02-21T14:28:41.377+00:00Will the 4G Auction exceed £3.5bn? You bet!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although Chancellor George Osborne is unlikely to raise
anywhere near to Gordon Brown’s £21bn for 3G licences, I believe he may do
rather better than is being reported. Recent
auctions in Europe have raised £3bn which suggests that the UK 4G licences will
achieve £3.5bn. However, it is suggested
that Private equity firms, retail groups and banks as well as international
telecom players have entered the fray alongside the UK’s Big Four mobile
operators, EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three to win a slice of these 4G licences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, the telecoms
watchdog, said that it had “fired the starting gun” on an auction process that
would “release crucial capacity to support future growth, helping to boost UK
productivity”. Even in these recessionary
times, the total U.K. Internet traffic is currently projected to increase by an
average of 37 per cent each year until 2015. Although the majority of traffic
remains on fixed networks, traffic on mobile networks is growing at a faster
rate of 84% year-over-year and is expected to account for 11% of total traffic
by 2015. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mobile access to the Internet accounts for even more time spent
browsing, communicating, and transacting than this traffic data suggests, with
fixed lines being used to consume bandwidth-intensive services such as video
and mobile used more for social media. Indeed, the Internet is increasingly
being accessed on mobile devices, whether through mobile connections or Wi-Fi
networks, and the next generation of mobile communications of 4G will continue
to shift this dynamic and economists have suggested could add as much as 0.5%
to GDP in infrastructure investment alone not to mention the enhanced
capability of the mobile web usage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The superior quality of coverage and speed of performance
offered by 4G’s 800MHz network offers significant improvement over the current 3G
licences. This superior system will add
significantly to the opportunity for both network providers and service
providers to make significant revenue.
The UK is one the largest mobile internet markets and consequently the
opportunity to own a slice of this
market will in my opinion drive the value of these licences far beyond the
projected £3.5bn and along with the additional impact 4G will have on the UK
economy, the auction could bring a welcome additional windfall for Mr Osborne.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-41442345066145674872012-12-04T15:44:00.000+00:002012-12-04T15:44:10.896+00:00Guess who will ultimately pay Amazon’s UK Taxes?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The recent moral crusade waged by the Press to get the major
American Corporations such as Starbucks, Amazon and Google to pay more tax may
seem at first sight entirely laudable.
Previous campaigns by Occupy Wall Street to embarrass the likes of
Vodafone and Top Shop to pay more tax have had little effect. Certainly the press didn’t seem that
interested in pursuing Sir Philip Green as much as they seem to wish to pillory
Google. Maybe we are only affronted by
foreign companies that appear to be ripping off the state and are quite happy
for home grown companies such as Arcadia and Vodafone to avoid their share of
the tax burden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In truth, none of the companies are to blame. Rather the issue lies not with the smart
accountants exercising their abilities to save businesses millions of pounds in
tax, but rather in the labyrinthine tax system Government have evolved not only
domestically, but internationally. Government
not only use the tax system to generate income to spend on the defence of the
Realm and the NHS but they also use it to achieve certain strategic and tactical
objectives such as encouraging investment by foreign nationals to create
jobs. Equally foreign powers user their
tax systems to attract companies to their jurisdictions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So just how much is George Osborne missing out on. So let us examine the case of Google. Last year Google paid £6m on revenue of
£395m. However, the UK is the largest online ad market in Europe and Google is
the largest player in that market and given that Google’s EMEA (Europe, Middle
East and Africa) operations generated
€12.5bn (£10.1bn), the Google’s UK turnover was in the region of $4bn (£2.5bn)
and paid just £6m in corporation tax. Google
has located its European headquarters in Dublin where Google Dublin employs 2,500
employees to take advantage of Ireland’s favourable capital arrangements and
consolidates its ad revenue through this subsidiary. Google Ireland had pre-tax
profit of just €24.3m last year on turnover of €12.5bn. Google’s consolidated accounts suggest a
different picture of earnings generated by their operations of $11.7bn on just
under $38bn turnover. This suggests the
true profit contribution from Europe should be in the region of $3.85bn. By the same logic, the earnings contribution
for the UK market would have been $1.2bn or approximately £800m profit or
equivalent to £208m in Corporation Tax.
So there we have it, the UK Treasury is missing out on just over £200m
in corporation tax. Given that Google
employ just 1,500 people in the UK there can hardly be said to be a jobs bonus
whereby we are getting significant PAYE revenues instead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Amazon is a somewhat different case. Amazon is the largest on-line retailer in the
world and has come to dominate the market.
However, in the UK, Amazon generated sales of £3.35bn, 25% of Amazon's
sales outside of the US and paid just £1.8m in Corporation Tax to the UK
Treasury. However, in fairness to Amazon
they have created 15,000 jobs in the UK, which is ten times that created by
Google, and make a far smaller margin on sales of the many products they ship
from Books to Microwaves. Equally those
15,000 employees are significant payroll taxes and Amazon continues to invest
heavily in the UK infrastructure. Yes
Amazon the Luxembourg holding company rouse, but I believe their contribution
to the country is far greater than Google’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Harmonisation of the European Union’s Tax laws as regards
companies and individuals would eliminate many of these distortions and
clamping down on the BVI (British Virgin Island) corporations would also
eliminate many of the tax loop holes that multi-national companies take
advantage of. However, these are
probably a step too far for most UK based politicians and unlikely to
occur. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The HMRC could go toe-to-toe with these
multinationals and try and get more out of them. However, the most likely outcome is the cost of
all these activities will eventually be borne by the consuming public through
increased prices. Years ago we used to
consider that the same cost of a good in the US compared to the UK was on the
basis what cost $100 in New York cost £100 in London. Much of this <i>Atlantic Margin</i> has been eroded
by the Internet and in no small part in the role taken by both Amazon and
Google. So I would not necessarily jump
to the conclusion that we would be better off if the HMRC managed to get more
out of the likes of Amazon and Google. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-86603507877250423452012-11-27T23:46:00.000+00:002012-11-27T23:46:32.772+00:00Does Searle’s Chinese Room argument establish that the mind is not a computer program?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I recently looked at the case for artificial intelligence
and I revisited the arguments laid out by John R Searle in his argument that so
called strong artificial intelligence cannot evolve from a computer program. Using the Chinese Room (CR) argument advanced
by John R Searle, I examine whether his contention that the mind is not a
computer program is true in the context of what constitutes artificial
intelligence (AI) and thus the computational theory of the mind is false. In order to do this I will establish the
agreed basis of artificial intelligence, outline the Turing Test for evaluating
machine intelligence, describe the CR thought experiment and then evaluate the
Seale’s principle claim that the CR experiment is merely a syntactic process
requiring no semantic understanding and demonstrating strong AI to be false.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In order to evaluate Searle’s CR argument we first need to
have a clear understanding of artificial intelligence and in particular the
form of AI, so-called ‘Strong AI’, at which Searle is directing his thought
experiment. Strong AI is the
philosophical thesis that appropriately programmed computers have minds in
exactly the same sense that we do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">During the 1950s, Alan Turing proposed a simple test to
evaluate whether a machine is making an adequate simulation of the human
mind. The ‘Turing Test’ states that ‘if
a computer can pass for a human in online chat, we should grant that it is
intelligent’. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This leads us to divide AI into four specific categories:-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> AI1 Computers are capable of thought;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> AI2 Only computers are capable of thought;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> AI3 A machine can think simply as a result
of instantiating a computer program;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> AI4 Computer models are useful in the study
of the mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Clearly AI4 is the weakest form of AI and is not considered
to be particularly controversial. However, the AI argument builds from AI3
through to AI1 as the claims become stronger. Indeed if AI2 is true then we are
all computers! The combination of AI1
and AI3 suggest that a thinking machine is possible and all we need to do is
write the appropriate program and run it to demonstrate a thinking machine
(Wilkinson, 2005, pg 100). Strong AI of this form suggests that a suitably
programmed computer can understand natural language and actually have other
mental attributes similar to humans whose abilities they mimic. For this reason
if the AI3 form of AI can be undermined the entire strong AI argument is
invalid. Consequently AI3 is the form of AI that Searle considers ‘strong AI’
and which his CR argument is intended to show to be false and hence the mind is
not a computer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Searle’s CR experiment is a thought experiment which
imagines an English speaker who knows no Chinese, locked in a room full of
boxes of Chinese symbols (the database) together with a book of instructions
for manipulating the symbols (the program).
Imagine the people outside the room send in other Chinese symbols (data
input) which, unknown to the person in the room are questions in Chinese. By following the instruction book, the man is
able to pass out Chinese symbols and answer the questions correctly (the
output). Searle contends that the man in
the CR has actually passed the Turing Test for understanding Chinese without having
to understand a word of Chinese. Put
simply the Searle argument may be sum up as follows:-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Premise 1.</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If
‘strong AI’ is true, there exists a program for Chinese such that if any
computing system runs that program, that system may be considered to understand
Chinese;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Premise 2.</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
program may be operated by anyone, without understanding Chinese;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Conclusion.</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Therefore,
‘Strong AI’ is false (from premise 2).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Premise 2 conforms to the CR and as such the inevitable
conclusion is that running a program does not constitute understanding. Searle’s central claim is that the CR
experiment shows that it is not possible for syntax to result in semantics. Syntax in this context refers to the way in
which the Chinese symbols are manipulated as opposed to semantics which relates
to the meaning of the symbols.
Essentially the program is purely a syntactical symbol system which
merely manipulates the symbols and entirely lacks semantic properties without
any understanding of their meaning (Wilkinson, 2005, pg 105).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Before I consider the case against Searle’s CR experiment,
it would be useful to describe the programming process. For a process to be programmable, the process
must be able to be constructed as an algorithm.
For a process to be algorithmic the following must apply:-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Every step is specifiable entirely without
ambiguity;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->At every step, there is no ambiguity about what
the next step must be: no insight, inspiration or creativity is needed;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Provided each step is correctly executed, the
procedure will produce the desired result in a finite number of steps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 54.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">All computers, whether based on traditional step-by-step von
Neumann architecture or parallel processing, are programmed in an algorithmic
manner (Wilkinson, 2005, pgs 100 - 101).
The key issue is the ability to ‘frame’ the question in an algorithmic
format to enable the computer to work.
Searle considers the computer program based on the algorithmic
formulation to be purely syntactic, therefore, unable to be semantic and hence
computer programs cannot produce minds.
Searle’s contention may be shown as follows:-<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Premise 1. Programs
are purely formal algorithmic processes (syntactic);<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Premise 2. Human
minds have mental contents (semantics);<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Premise 3. Syntax
by itself is neither constitutive of, nor sufficient for, semantic content;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Conclusion. Therefore,
programs by themselves are not constitutive or sufficient for minds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Premise 3 supports the CR thought experiment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Now there are a number of criticisms to Searle’s CR argument
against Strong AI, however, they are essentially variants on the so-called
‘System Reply’. Essentially the counter
argument is that no single element should be considered as the ‘mind’ of the CR,
and certainly the man at the centre running the process does not understand the
Chinese language, but rather it is the whole system operating together that
develops an understanding of Chinese and hence a semantic grasp of the Chinese
symbols. Searle replies that if the man
in the room were to memorise the instruction book and the database of Chinese
characters and become the entire system, he still would not be able to attach
any meaning to the formal symbols even though he is now the entire system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Others criticise the fact that the man in the room is
deprived of any sensorimotor connection to the world and that these are vital
missing factors. Searle counters that
the Chinese characters could be the outputs of a television camera and the
outgoing symbols be the commands to a robotic arm. He now has a connection, but
still no understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Others suggest that the CR does not model the way the brain works
as complex neural network. Searle
counters by applying Ned Block’s Chinese Gym thought experiment, whereby
millions of people in a huge gym are connected to one another by walkie-talkie
radios passing instructions to one another acting as individual neurons participating
in a neural network. On the other hand,
the same issue regarding semantics applies in this case as well. The Chinese Gym does not understand Chinese
any more than the CR.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Daniel Dennett’s challenge to the CR is based on the issue
of complexity. He contends that Searle’s
experiment is far too simple and that this is the reason for no apparent
understanding being present within the system.
Dennett argues that with increasing complexity you will get unexpected
results resulting in radical changes in behaviour known as emergent properties
which only occur when a system is sufficiently complex. Such radical changes in behaviour or
properties of complex systems are common in the natural (Wilkinson, 2007, pg
113-114). Consequently, Dennett argues
that any system capable of conversing in Chinese would most likely be far more
complex than the CR experiment and it would be difficult to say confidently
that the computer system did not understand Chinese. Searle contends that running increasing
complex programs are no more than more complex algorithms and are just as
syntactic as previously described and not capable of semantics however complex. Whilst I agree that a complex computer
program is just an assembly of multiple simple routines, increasing complexity
often leads to increased computing capability and can result in unexpected
capabilities and even outcomes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In the same vein, the challenge posed by Patricia and Paul
Churchland suggests that the issue is one of interpretation and speed, in that
the CR experiment is operating at a very much slower speed than the brain
operates and as such ‘understanding’ cannot be detected. They use the analogy based on Maxwell’s
theory of light being made up of electro-magnetic waves. In their thought experiment, a man stands in
a darkened room and waves a magnet up and down.
Although light is indeed made up of electro-magnetic waves, no light
would be detected. The man waving the
magnet does not disprove Maxwell’s theory that light consists of
electromagnetic waves. The missing component
is speed. The Churchlands’ thought
experiment slows down the waves to a range to which we humans no longer see
them as light. By trusting to our
intuitions in the thought experiment, we falsely conclude that rapid waves
cannot be light either. Similarly, the
Churchlands’ claim that Searle has slowed down the mental process to a range we
humans no longer think of it as ‘understanding’. Thus the Churchlands contend that the same
applies to Seale’s experiment and that if we were to meet the man from the CR
who seemed to converse intelligently in Chinese, but was really deploying
millions of memorised rules in a fraction of a second, it is not so clear that
we would deny he understood Chinese (Pinker, 1997, pgs 94-95).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In conclusion, in consideration of the narrow interpretation
of Searle’s claim that the mind is not a computer program I would accept his
argument to be valid and that the computer program itself does not ‘understand’
as we interpret that word. I found
Seale’s dismissal of the counter arguments to be reasonable, with exception of
Dennett’s and Churchlands’ arguments. The Churchlands’ thought experiment it is
based on a very simple premise and easy to understand and Dennett’s emergent
properties argument compelling. Speed
and complexity could be key factors in strong AI. What is undoubtedly true is that the ‘Turing
Test’ is no longer a sufficiently subtle evaluation of artificial intelligence.
Progresses in computing have advanced to
a stage whereby it is entirely possible to converse with a computer and believe
you are conversing with a human being.
The key issue in achieving a true computer ‘mind’ comes back to the
framing issue. This relates to the
ability to program algorithmically beyond the essentially mathematical and
logical tasks to consider such areas as intuition, belief or even love. These functions of the mind are frequently
considered irrational and illogical, but they are what make us human. The
ability or functionality to program ‘illogically’ is probably beyond
algorithmic programming of digital computers as we know them today. Equally Searle’s argument hinges on our
understanding of the semantics of language.
What do we mean by ‘understanding’ or ‘meaning’? Or finally, is it the limitation of English
as a language which is unable to provide an adequate explanation of differences
and similarities between the mind and artificial intelligence? Regardless, Searle’s valid dismissal of
strong AI will not slow the pace of computing development and the likely move
from the physical limitations of silicon-based computer architectures to
bio-computers which utilise biologically derived molecules to perform
computational processes. The future of
‘strong AI’ probably lies in the rapid development, dare I say growth, of such
bio-computers!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Wilkinson, RJ (2007) ‘Chapter 3 Monism (Conclusion) and
Artificial Intelligence (Beginning), Robert Wilkinson Minds and Bodies, 2007,
Open University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Pinker, S (1997), Chapter 2, ‘Thinking Machines’, Steven
Pinker, How the Mind Works, W.W.Norton & Company Ltd., 10 Coptic Street,
London. WC1A 1PU</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: dimgrey; letter-spacing: -0.75pt; line-height: 115%;">Copyright©</span> John Tomany</span> 2012</i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-67536823147498152842012-11-27T11:10:00.000+00:002012-11-27T11:10:51.539+00:00Can you Google the Economy?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">With over a billion searches a day, Google is arguably one
the wonders of the modern world. Search
for almost anything and you will be returned tens of thousands, if not millions
of results in a fraction of a second.
Recent studies are now suggesting that search patterns can tells us more
than just the cheapest source of the must have gadget or who was the lead
character in ‘Bonanza’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Internet advertisers have long understood the power of
search to establish trends in usage and demand for products and services to
produce instantaneous views of economic activity known as ‘nowcasting’, but
recent research is considering whether these trends in web activity can
actually provide an accurate forecast of what is happening in the economy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">If you think that your random search for a suitable
Christmas gift for your partner is of little interest to anyone other than
yourself, think again! Last year no
lesser august body than the Bank of England reviewed all the recent studies on
Google search activity to understand whether there was any validity in the
proposition that economic forecasts could be based on our search behaviour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">In particular, the Bank homed in on two particular areas of
interest in order to consider search as a suitable allegory for an accurate
economic forecast. They focused on
unemployment and the housing market, both areas which are frequently quoted a
real world factors related to economic activity. They found that Internet search data have a
number of appealing properties as economic indicators. They are extremely
timely and cover a potentially vast sample of respondents (approximately 50% of
the adult population in the United Kingdom now use the internet every day). In
contrast to most traditional survey methods, they are collected as a by-product
of normal activity, rather than requiring individuals or firms to respond to
survey questions after the event. This can avoid problems associated with
non-response or inaccurate responses. And it also means that information is
continually collected on a wider range of issues, rather than just on a few
pre-determined questions. As a result, search data can help analyse issues that
arise unexpectedly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Although it remains early days, this analysis suggests that
internet search data contain valuable information for analysis of unemployment
and house prices. These applications treated the search data in a similar manner
to existing surveys in conducting standard regression analysis. However,
internet search data also has the potential to answer different sorts of
questions to existing indicators. Such data has the particular advantage that it
can help analyse issues that arise unexpectedly at short notice. Whereas survey
data must be consciously collected based on pre-determined questions whereas internet
data is collected based on behaviour at the a particular time and trend data
going back into the recent past helps to flesh out our understanding. Such data is generally generated without
engendering any form of bias that studies and surveys often find it difficult
to avoid. Equally the idle musings of
millions of internet users may well provide a great deal of ‘noise’ which
obscures the key trends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">However, without doubt the internet and associated social media
reflect the pulse of today’s society and as such reflect our collective social
mood. People learn what others are thinking and express what they themselves
are thinking by posting and promoting their thoughts and opinions on websites
like Twitter, Facebook, and on blogs. People reveal what is on their minds by
querying topics on search engines and together create a learning process and a
continuous feedback loop, whereby people form, express, and reveal expectations
in real-time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee;">If the revealed expectations derived from <a href="http://www.google.com/trends">Google Trends</a> suggest genuine predictive
power for future outcomes, then the symbiotic nature of social media and
internet search behaviour suggests that these channels may facilitate
self-fulfilling prophecies and if the predicted outcomes relate to economic
events, then analysis of Google’s search trends can become important tool for the
Bank of England to gauge and manage inflation expectations.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-62082004984066708442012-11-27T10:21:00.000+00:002012-11-27T10:24:15.209+00:00Is the Pop-up a Pep-up for the High Street?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What started as a fad in US shopping malls is increasingly
evolving into a permanent feature of the UK High Street. Pop-up shops are temporary retail outlets
that take over an empty shop and are open for just a few days or weeks or
sometimes hours to offer fashion goods or some surplus or other at
significantly discounted basis. Local
authorities and landlords are renting out empty shops for very short-term lets
in order to cash in on the demand for short term retail space. <span style="line-height: 115%;">These
initiatives have a tendency to pop up unannounced, quickly draw in the crowds,
and then disappear or morph into something else</span>. The run up to Christmas has become well
established as a period when all types of retail opportunities are set-up to
cater for every conceivable taste and interest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">During 2012, big brands including JJB Sports, Clinton Cards, Blacks
Leisure, Game and Peacocks have either disappeared or scaled back their
presence in town centres after going into administration and most recently with
the collapse of Comet, the demise of the High Street is in full swing. Caught between recession, unrealistic commercial
rents and the internet resulting in upwards of one in ten retail shop-fronts
lying empty, can the pop-shop provide a realistic answer. The pop-up shop is often set-up as an
extension of internet campaign are taking over some of these retail units for
just days at a time often as extensions of some market-stall activity or sale
of bankrupt stock creating a flash crowd of interest. However, they are frequently used by major
brands seeking to create some short-term buzz or more often to promote some
wider event or PR launch.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whilst this may work effectively in our major cities and shopping malls,
with High Street stores increasingly seen as show room extensions of internet
web sites this trend is likely to grow and go mainstream with major retail
brands and reach the smaller towns and villages being whose High Streets are
frequently becoming ghost towns as the money goes to the out of town shopping supermarkets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Undoubtedly, the pop-up shop has become an additional solution for marketers
and major brands to promote their goods and services, but we need to see local
authorities and landlords beyond the major cities embracing this trend and
encouraging more small businesses to try out this approach in the hope of revitalising
the traditional High Street. More over
the greater encouragement to connect the online world with bricks and mortar
reality is something that needs encouragement. The more opportunities to demonstrate and support such initiatives the greater the opportunity that some business may
developed into longer term tenants beyond the seasonal rush.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-82412203638035783382012-11-22T14:23:00.003+00:002012-11-22T14:26:05.455+00:00UK ISP, Cable, Dongle and 3G and 4G User numbers November 2012<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here is an update of the UK ISP market covering DSL and
Cable Access market as well as the Mobile Dongle market in the UK. I have also added in the published figures
for 3G and 4G mobile access devices. I have used ITU published data for
Broadband usage numbers and Neilson Ratings and ISP published figures to get an
accurate picture as well all the reports and disclosures for each of the
companies shown below. I believe these figures represent a reasonably accurate
representation of the genuine adoption of broadband either via DSL, Cable or
mobile dongle. Broadband connections included in this data cover download
speeds equal to or faster than 256kbit/s.</span></span><br />
<ul class="weebly-content-area" id="secondlist" style="background-color: white; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-height: 380px; padding: 0px; position: relative !important; width: 732px;"><div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">T</span><span style="color: #990000;"><u style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">able 1. Broadband ISPs </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(</span></u><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: ITU, Neilsen, OFCOM & ISP Published Figures)</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 517px;">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 3876; mso-width-source: userset; width: 80pt;" width="106"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 4937; mso-width-source: userset; width: 101pt;" width="135"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 4096; mso-width-source: userset; width: 84pt;" width="112"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 5997; mso-width-source: userset; width: 123pt;" width="164"></col>
</colgroup><tbody>
<tr height="30" style="height: 22.5pt;">
<td class="xl66" height="30" style="height: 22.5pt; margin-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 80pt;" width="106"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-small;"><b><u>No.</u></b></span></td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center; width: 101pt;" width="135"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-small;"><b><u>ISP/Provider</u></b></span></td>
<td class="xl66" style="margin-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 84pt;" width="112"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-small;"><b><u>User Numbers</u></b></span></td>
<td class="xl66" style="text-align: center; width: 123pt;" width="164"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: x-small;"><b><u>% of UK Market</u></b></span></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">1</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">BT Retail</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">6,444,600</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">30.43%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">2</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Virgin Media</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">4,413,400</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">20.84%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">3</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Sky Broadband</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">4,103,000</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">19.47%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">4</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">TalkTalk Group</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">4,043,000</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">19.09%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">5</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Orange</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">723,000</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">3.41%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">6</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">O2</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">579,000</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">2.73%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">7</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Kingston Comms</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">178,200</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">0.84%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">8</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Zen Internet</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">94,000</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">0.44%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">9</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Entanet</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">92,000</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">0.43%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 80pt;" width="106"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">10</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl63" style="width: 101pt;" width="135"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">Thus Group</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 84pt;" width="112"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">87,000</span></b></div>
</td>
<td class="xl65" style="width: 123pt;" width="164"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">0.41%</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">The major change over the past year has been been the continued growth of Sky Broadband which has seen it rise above TalkTalk. Undoubtedly the combination of the Sky bundled offerings with its satellite TV content has driven this growth. Recent launch of Talk Talk's TV set-top box plus the major BT play into football are both aiming at trying to redress this strategy. Clearly Orange and O2 are seeking to enhance their position in the UK market through growth in the connected Tablet market which is experiencing </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px; line-height: 18.984848022460938px;">phenomenal growth as eluded to below.</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"> </span></span></span><br />
<div style="color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The total UK Internet connectivity market is not only made up of Broadband ISPs, but connection is now frequently through 3G and most recently 4G mobile network connections. The Broadband ISP market size is estimated to be just over 21 million broadband connections. The figures for mobile connectivity is much harder to obtain, however, given that there are now many millions of Internet enable phones in use today. However, OFCOM indicate in their latest facts on the market that there are 5.1 million mobile broadband users in addition the 21 million fixed line users.</span></span></div>
</div>
</ul>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-46372632775677204582012-11-22T13:46:00.001+00:002012-11-22T13:46:41.150+00:00Are the rise of networks and ICTs transforming the international system?<span style="line-height: 150%;">The rise of networks and ICTs has
had a transformational impact on the development of international commerce and
in particular the interconnected world of global finance. However, to what extent have the development
of networks, in the form of the Global Civil Society, helped political
activists to expand their activities by increasing their capacity to mobilise
dissent against particular states and international groups. Equally have governments become increasingly
astute in their ability to manage the information revolution to increase
political control and suppress opposition.
Consequently is the Internet in both the expansion and suppression of
dissent may be considered a network enabler in transforming the international
system.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
So what constitutes the
international order of states and how might networks and ICTs impact on this
order? The transformation of the
international order rests with the ability to manage, control or influence
power within sovereign states and across the international system. The Westphalian treaty of 1648 established the
territorial state as the basis of the modern state system with its focus on
establishing the international boundaries as legal boundaries between one
country and another and defining their sovereignty (Teschke,2009, pg
51-56). The modern state has evolved a
hierarchical structure with clear borders and directed with downward
authority. Within the state system,
power is considered to be a zero-sum commodity.
The more power that one actor acquires, the less relative power there is
for others. From a realist perspective, the
changing power of the modern state resulting from Westphalia operates within an
international system of anarchical relations in which states jockey for power
and leadership against a background of the changing balance of power resulting
from economic, military and cultural developments. With this in mind, in a refinement of
realism, the ‘English School’ suggests that a 'society of states' operates at
the international level, despite the condition of anarchy, being able to
co-ordinate some of their interactions to mutual advantage. This approach may be seen to a large extent
in the formation of the United Nations (UN), the WTO, the Bretton Woods
Institutions (BWI) and NATO as a response to a purely realist perspective Within
these international organisations, the major powers control and manage
relations through the ‘green door’ process in which key decisions are taken
behind closed doors and they are unwilling to open up that process to a more
democratic process as it will dilute their influence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Let us now look at the theoretical
basis of international transformation of realism and liberalism and then
consider if networks empowered by ICT are indeed bringing about change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
The fundamental dominant process of
realism is the balance of power between states.
If the state system remains in the Westphalian model and there is a
plurality of powers and states continue to pursue their national interest, then
there is no change of system. However,
this approach may in fact miss the subtlety of change that is resulting in the
re-alignment of states and powers.
Liberal theory of international relations provides a more nuanced
explanation of inter-state relations shaped by economic and societal interests
as well as the political. The liberal model of international order is a
bottom-up model built on three elements.
Firstly, political activity is made up of individuals and interest
groups influencing the formation of state policy; secondly, state policy, both
domestically and internationally, is based on the interests of a subset of
society and group interests and, finally, the international outlook reflects
the policy prerogatives of the most powerful states. The bottom-up basis of the liberal model is
almost tailor-made for the involvement and influence of networks. The dominant process of international
interaction of liberal theory contends that the positive-sum interdependence
among individuals and private groups may be so extensive and powerful as to
effectively transform the self-help nature of anarchy and the compulsions of
the balance of power (Bromley & Smith, 2009, pgs 528-529). Equally, it may
be for this reason that in those cases that networks empower non-state actors,
they are most likely to influence government in societies that embrace and
value liberal norms of the liberal model.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
It is against this background of
the structure of the international system that we need to consider how networks
and ICTs have impacted. Networks have
always been a feature of political campaigns waged by different sections of
civil society. The campaign to end
slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth century networked across like-minded
members of civil society in Britain, the United States and Europe. Equally the campaign for women’s suffrage
straddled civil society on both sides of the Atlantic (Brown et al, 2009, Audio
7). Networks in the context of modern networks
of dissent are defined as a set of interconnected nodes that have no centre and
are based on the binary logic of inclusion/exclusion (Castells, 2009, pgs 19-20). Unlike states, networks are not governed by
such purposive authority, but are organised around concepts of trust, shared
values and interests or loyalties. Global
Civil Society (GCS) is organised like a network, “characterized by voluntary,
reciprocal, and horizontal patterns of communications and exchange” (Keck &
Sikkink, 1999, pg 9). The major
difference between campaigning networks of the past and those of today has been
the impact of technology to speed up the effects. For example, the campaign to abolish slavery
in the West took over fifty years whereas the campaign to ‘Make Poverty
History’ took just four years. Indeed, according
to Manuel Castells, a major driver of the growth of networks in contemporary
society is the development of information and communications technology
(ICT). He views the advent of new
technologies as resulting in an historical change in the international order as
the contemporary era passes from the industrial age into the information age
(Bullion, 2009, pg 95). In order to provide some insight into the international
system, Table 1 outlines an analysis of the international system by comparison
of the sovereign state and global civil society as an example of a network
enabled by ICT against the four basic elements(Bromley & Smith, 2009,pg
524):-<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal">The
basic units that comprise the international level;</li>
<li class="MsoNormal">The
structure of relations among those units;<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal">The
technological and organisational interaction capacity within the system;<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal">The
processes of interaction that take place in the system.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
The key distinction between the
state and the network characterised by the Global Civil Society is how power
passes through and around the system.
The state and intergovernmental and transnational organisations
invariably operate a Weberian hierarchy with states as actors who use power as
an instrument of coercion, and even in organisations separate from the discreet
structures in which those actors operate. However, networks such as GCS work on
a more Foucauldian model whereby power is everywhere, diffused and embodied in
discourse, knowledge and regimes of truth (Foucault, 1978, pg 93). The idea
that ‘<i>Power is everywhere’</i> and ‘<i>comes from everywhere’</i> is neither an
agency nor a structure, but is diffused into the network. Interestingly Foucault also equated power
with knowledge and, given that the ‘information revolution’ is a key aspect of
the Internet, there is a clear parallel with how the network empowered by ICTs utilises
information as knowledge and hence power.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h5>
Table 1. Analysing International Systems: Realist & Liberal States
versus Global Civil Society<o:p></o:p></h5>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" valign="top" width="151"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 348.7pt;" valign="top" width="465"><h5 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050;">Sectors
of the international system<o:p></o:p></span></h5>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" valign="bottom" width="151"><h5>
<span style="color: #00b050;">Elements of the international system<o:p></o:p></span></h5>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 118.8pt;" valign="bottom" width="158"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Political Sector of authoritative rule - Realism<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" valign="bottom" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Political Sector of authoritative rule - Liberalism<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 116.5pt;" valign="bottom" width="155"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Global civil society<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Principal units in the international system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 118.8pt;" valign="top" width="158"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sovereign states system operating
individually and as networks configured to build/defend particular aims and
objectives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" valign="top" width="151"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Individuals and private groups
that use state system to conduct political exchange and advance their
collective interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 116.5pt;" valign="top" width="155"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Networks organised around
concepts of trust, shared values and interests or loyalties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Structure of relations among units.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 118.8pt;" valign="top" width="158"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Hierarchical structures
co-ordinating network based on realist determination of need. Inter-governmental and transnational
organisation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" valign="top" width="151"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Interdependence, which may be
positive-, zero or negative-sum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 116.5pt;" valign="top" width="155"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Horizontal voluntary networks
based on a liberalist/cosmopolitan view of transformation and analogous to
the non-hierarchical mesh structure of the Internet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Interaction Capacity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 118.8pt;" valign="top" width="158"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Defined by flows of information
and communication made possible by ICTs – Internet etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" valign="top" width="151"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Defined by flows of information
and communication made possible by ICTs – Internet etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 116.5pt;" valign="top" width="155"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Defined by flows of information
and communication made possible by ICTs – Internet etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" width="151"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #00b050; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Dominant process of interaction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 118.8pt;" valign="top" width="158"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Networking that serves to include
some and exclude others (green room process – alignment around shared needs or
objectives), balance of power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 4.0cm;" valign="top" width="151"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Varies from harmony through
bargaining to conflict, depending on the configuration of interdependent
preferences.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 116.5pt;" valign="top" width="155"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Networking that serves to include
some and exclude others; the network rather than individuals is the key mover.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
The network characteristics of the GCS
are directly comparable to the network structure of the Internet. Consequently, as the Internet has become
increasingly available, the networking power of GCS has been enhanced. This
network aspect is important as it enables the sharing of information and allows
the co-ordination of collective action.
John Fisher stated that the Internet is particularly empowering as it
enables individuals with few resources to have equal opportunities for
political debate and involvement (Yanacopulos & Mohan, 2009, pg 422). Non-government
organisations (NGOs) which lie at the core of GCS have traditionally lacked
significant amounts of hard power resources that governments control. The Internet and the associated information
revolution have enabled NGOs to make more effective use of their political
tools. This has resulted in a
realignment of power to make change happen (Drezner, 2010, pg 38). There
are examples of campaigns which have ‘gone viral’ and spread around the world,
such as the breakdown in the negotiations of the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment (MAI) in 1998, the campaign against Nike’s use of child labour in
2001, and the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign (MPH) in 2005. MPH made significant claims around the
mobilisation of civil society through the internet and mass media to pressurise
the G8 at the Gleneagles Conference in 2005 to agree debt cancellation programmes
and increase aid budgets. One group that
is particularly interesting is the web-based group called Avaaz. It is a global civic organization launched in
2007 to promote activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption,
poverty, and conflict. Its stated
mission is to "close the gap between the world we have and the world most people
everywhere want" (www.avaaz.org, 2012).
It has 13 million members and many more ‘friends’ in the social
networking parlance. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Not all activists utilising the
power of the Internet are quite so legitimate in their approach. The idea of
Global networked civil society suggests an image of civic-minded activists
committed to Western liberal norms of democracy and freedom. However, the reality is sometimes quite
different. Groups such as <i>Anonymous</i>,
an amorphous worldwide network of computer hackers, use more direct tactics
such as denial-of-service attacks and other types of network disruption to call
attention to a series of political causes.
Anonymous closed down the websites of the US Department of Justice, the
FBI and the UK Home Office demonstrating a very different aspect of civil
society in action (<i>The Daily Telegraph</i>,
2012). Other extreme nationalist groups
have harnessed the web to spread their own brand of racial hate. Conspiracy
theorists push their own fictional interpretation of global events. The list of users of the darker side of the
web is just as extensive as legitimate pressure groups. The web is democratic in one sense in that
anyone regardless of political stance can share the same platform and often one
that would not be normally acceptable in liberal society.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
The extent of Internet access and
associated ICT tools such as mobile phones clearly has a bearing on whether
there is a truly ‘global’ civil society emerging empowered by such networking
tools. Limited access would suggest not
so much a global network society, but the emergence of a form of civil society
envisaged by Antonio Gramsci in which a global networked elite achieves dominance
by manipulating the global society so that its worldview is imposed as the
societal norm and is accepted by every social class as a universally valid
ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, and beneficial for
everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the
ruling global networked elite (Yanacopulos & Moran, 2009, pg 424).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
So if access to the Internet is a
key measure of the capability of the network society to exercise power, how
widespread is access to the Web? Today,
the world’s population is now over 7 billion and there are 2.3 billion internet
users, which accounts for 32.7% average penetration. With near universal access
in Western nations there is clearly sufficient access to support the claim of a
network society. However, outside the
OECD countries, access is far more patchy in some the most populous areas such
as Africa and Asia (Internet World Statistics, 2011). The increase from the 6.7% as a percentage of
Internet users of the global population in 2000 (Thompson, 2009, pg 370) to
32.7% in 2012 is significant and some of fastest growth has been in areas such
as China and India, penetration rates are still far below those of the OECD
nations (Internet Usage Statistics, 2012).
The evidence suggests that a global networked society is really only
emerging in the West and many of the concerns and issues promoted are by those
who are ‘left leaning and interested in technology’ as suggested by Peretti in
the Nike case (Yanacopulos & Mohan, 2009, pg 419). However, if access to a computer and the internet
are economic barriers to joining the GCS, then recent developments, such as web
enabled mobile phones, are challenging the Internet’s picture of inequality of
access. Recent surveys indicate there
are 5.9 billion mobile subscribers, which is equivalent to 87% of the world
population and more importantly growth is led by China and India, which now
account for over 30% of users (Global mobile statistics, 2012). So with camera phones able to upload images
straight to the web and messages sent to anywhere in the world via text or
networks such as Twitter, there is clearly an argument to suggest that we are
nearing equality of access to the web and therefore enabling the opportunity to
participate in the GCS. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Whilst the MPH and MAI campaigns are
good examples of civil society having influenced decision making of liberal sovereign
states, they are not good examples of networks and technology coming together
to create genuine change in the international order. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
However, one of the most
interesting transformational moments of recent times has been the ‘Arab Spring’.
There have been extensive claims that technology was central in creating
revolutionary fervour amongst suppressed civil society across the Arab world
and mobilised the wider global civil society to bring pressure to bear on their
own, invariably Western, governments to bring pressure to bear on the
repressive Arab regimes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
The Arab Spring began in Tunisia,
where the underlying source of the uprising lay in government corruption,
inequality, censorship and joblessness. Much of the organisation of the
opposition took place on the Internet.
Pictures of the demonstrations recorded on mobile phones fuelled the
revolt and provided a window on events for the Western media. Similar anti-government demonstrations spread
quickly across the region. Protests
spread to Egypt within days of the successful overthrow of Tunisia’s President
Ben Ali. Egyptian opposition leaders
declared a “Day of Rage” on which protesters would take to the street against
President Mubarak’s 30-year rule. These
protests lasted 18 days and once again protesters used the web to disseminate
videos, photographs and called on Egyptians to protest. Protesters provided minute-by-minute ‘<i>Tweets</i>’ concerning where to assemble in
an effort to outwit police. More than
90,000 people signed up on a Facebook page for the first protest, positioned by
the organizers as a stand against torture, poverty, corruption and
unemployment. Despite the Egyptian
Government’s attempts to block the Internet and mobile phone networks, the
damage was done and Mubarak also fell from power. Similar protests spread across the
middle-east with protests occurring in 20 Arab countries; initial analysis
suggested the empowerment of civil society networks by ICTs was a key factor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
However, whilst undoubtedly the Internet
played an important role in empowering the protestors, Internet access in many
of these Arab states is far lower than the average world-wide penetration of
32.7% and so any network effect clearly depended on other factors such as word
of mouth at Friday prayers. Equally the
states involved used all their repressive paraphernalia to block access and
even identify key ring-leaders (<i>The
Guardian</i>, 2011). One of the most
interesting factors of the Arab Spring, identified by Keck and Sikkink in <i>Activist Beyond Borders</i>, was the ‘boomerang
effect’ in which activists who are unable to change the conditions in their own
countries leveraged power by networking with those transnational activists
outside their country, who in turn publicised abuses by the reactionary governments
to the outside world and also lobbied their own governments. During the Arab Spring, pressure by
transnational activists through the international media and direct lobbying in the
USA and the European Union resulted in pressure, particularly by President
Obama, to get Mubarak to stand down. This perhaps identifies the key point. The real change came about in Egypt and more
particularly in Libya when the international community of states decided enough
was enough. In Egypt diplomatic pressure
and threats of sanctions were enough to convince the Egyptian Army to take
action to remove Mubarak. In the case of
Libya it took the direct involvement of the UN and the military action of NATO
to collaborate to provide the necessary airpower to enable regime change. Where international consensus is reached
among the leading/dominant sovereign states then change happens. Arguably Syria is the case that proves the
point. Despite widespread condemnation
and citizen journalism blogging the tyranny of the Assad regime, there is no
consensus among the international community of sovereign states to intervene
directly.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Indeed whilst technology in the
form of Twitter and Facebook clearly played a role across the Arab world and
continues to do so in Syria in getting the videos out to the Western media and
mobilising support and generating this ‘boomerang’ effect, Malcolm Gladwell
points out, successful social movements long pre-dated social media (Gladwell, <i>The New Yorker</i>, 2010). Gladwell disputes the importance of social
media in the Arab uprisings and asserts that protesters could have organized in
other ways, noting that East Germany overturned a government when only 13% of
the population had landline phones. Becoming
a ‘friend’ or ‘liking’ an entry on Facebook is easy, as it does not constitute
a decision to join the barricades!
Activism that challenges the status quo is not for the faint hearted. It depends on a network of strong personal
contacts to amplify the cause and the individual’s personal connection to the
cause. You are only going to take the
risk of protesting if you know you are not alone and are connected to the cause.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
However, the power of the Internet
is not only at the disposal of global civil society to spread their message of
dissent or support for particular campaigns.
States have also proved adept at the use of the web and applying it to
their particular needs: In the
traditional cockpit of international politics, states have used the Internet in
a number of novel ways: cyber-attacks allegedly by Russia on Estonia in 2007
disabling much of their state and banking infrastructure or Stuxnet, a
malicious computer programme, downloaded into the Iranian Nuclear development
agency’s centrifuges to delay their alleged weapons programme. Whilst these examples of cyber-warfare are of
interest, the ability of the state to adopt and apply the building blocks of
the information revolution have proved as effective as any GCS campaign at
controlling and regulating their own populations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
States have successfully utilised
the Internet and associated technologies to exert greater control and tyranny
to impose a digital version of Bentham’s concept of the panopticon and
Foucault’s popularisation of the approach to enable the state to track all its
citizens via the internet and encourage self-censorship by the networked
society (Farinosi, 2011, pg 63). The
usual non-technological measures of the repressive state have been used to
interfere with the use of the Internet, including the imprisonment of relevant
individuals, active policing, high taxation of Internet access and pressure on ISPs. Cuba outlawed the sale of personal computers
to individuals and Myanmar outlawed personal ownership of modems until 2002.
However, states have also used technological measures to control and regulate
the Internet through the creation of firewalls, proxy servers and software
filters to block access to content and applications that they consider
undesirable. Saudi Arabia routes all web
access through government controlled proxy servers. China
controls access to the Internet on the grounds of national security and
requires all ISPs to self-censor, removing content that is considered illegal
from search results. Such measures have
been utilised by repressive states to control the use of the Internet by
activists within their borders whilst allowing the economic benefits of the
technology to be used unencumbered. Remarkably Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!
have accepted such controls in order to pursue commercial interests even
allegedly co-operating with the Chinese government by providing email details
of known dissidents (Drezner, 2010, pg 35-37)! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
There is a cost for both the state
and activists. Economically the Internet
has proved to be one of the most powerful business enablers of our time. States
that block Internet access pay a heavy cost, preventing them from enjoying the
many commercial benefits of e-commerce.
On the other hand, individual citizens who break these rules pay a far
greater cost if they are caught breaking the repressive state’s rules. However, cost-benefit analysis by states
clearly suggests that repression works.
The rise of the internet has not only dramatically cut costs for
businesses and social networks, but it has also cut the costs for governments
to monitor their populations. Even where
governments choose not to censor online political activity, the Internet
enables a step change in the ability to monitor, anticipate and manage civil
protest (Drezner, 2010, pg 35-37).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Repressive states are not alone in
seeking to coerce the web to their will.
Even in liberal democracies such as the United Kingdom, the Government
is seeking to introduce legislation to allow the monitoring of all the calls,
emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK (<i>The Daily Telegraph</i>, 2012). Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) will be required to give the intelligence agency GCHQ
access to communications on demand, in real time. The UK is not alone, similar laws are
planned in the US and across many of the OECD states.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
In conclusion, networks have always
existed since the earliest times. In
particular networks of dissent have often formed around issues and campaigns
for change such as the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage. However, I cannot agree with the statement
that networks and ICTs are transforming the international system as yet. I believe that the impact of a networked
Global Civil Society enabled by the Internet is rather more a normative idea than
an empirical one. Genuine power to cause
transformation of the international order continues to rest with sovereign
states that come together to operate in a co-ordinated fashion as was seen in
the G8 response to the MPH movement. The
liberal norms of the Western Democracies that make up the G8 enabled the
networking effects to be effective.
However, nothing would have happened had the states, such as the Western
democracies making up the G8, felt that debt-relief for sub-Saharan Africa was
not in their global economic interests and that pressure could be applied to
the World Bank and the IMF to co-operate.
The MPH global network was effectively pushing on an open door whose
time had come. On the other hand, within
states, and particularly those with a liberal democratic tradition, the
additional tools of hard power offered by the various communication
capabilities of the Internet have given the NGO sector an additional channel to
publicise their case.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
In many ways the increasing use of
the Internet and growing penetration is adding support to pre-existing dynamics
between sovereign states and civil society whether domestic or global. In liberal democracies, the growth of the
Internet, social media, citizen journalism etc. clearly empower civil society
to influence government policy. In this respect,
liberalism may be viewed as a critical theory of transformation in which GCS
and the Internet are key actors. However,
it would be a mistake to overstate any transformation impact of Internet
empowered network campaigns that did not already have some form of political momentum
behind it. Outside the West the power of
the Internet has been frequently used as a means of oppression as often as
liberation. In those states where
liberal norms do not pervade, governments have successively adapted the
Internet for their own purposes to continue to repress their citizens and to operate
in a realist manner pursuing their own national interest.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
However, it would be a mistake to
ignore the potential that an Internet enabled GCS has in bringing about
transformation of the international order.
The role of civil society and ICTs in the Arab Spring were not
necessarily pivotal, but they were undoubtedly important in maintaining
momentum and helping to generate widespread international support. Networks
empowered by the Internet continue to grow in influence and are gaining main
stream support as Avaaz has demonstrated.
Today’s political networks have not replaced the state in international
relations, but they are becoming increasingly important and cannot be ignored.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Real power for change is still in
the hands of the key hierarchies of sovereign states and the many
inter-governmental and trans-governmental organisations. The case of Syria is an object lesson in how
extending consensus beyond the liberal West to involve both Russia and China is
needed if the international system of states is to act. Change will only occur when the circumstances
are seen as beneficial to all interested parties in the state system and not because
of the wishes of the Internet enabled global civil society. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<b>References:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Bullion, A, (2009)
‘Networks and international order: challenging states?’, Chapter 3. Edited by
William Brown. Reordering the International, Open University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Bromley, S, Smith, M.J,
(2009) ‘Transforming International Order?’ Chapter 15, Edited by William Brown,
Simon Bromley & Suma Athreye.
Ordering the International, Open University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Brown, W, Yanacopulos, H,
Bromley, S (2009) DU 301 Audio 7: Technology, Networks and International Order,
Open University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Castells, M, (2009),
Communication Power, Oxford University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Drezner, DW (2010),
'Weighing the Scales: The Internet's Effect On State-Society Relations', Brown
Journal Of World Affairs, 16, 2, pp. 31-44, Business Source Complete,
EBSCOhost, viewed 1 June 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Farinosi, M, (2011),
'Deconstructing Bentham's Panopticon: The New Metaphors of Surveillance in the
Web 2.0 Environment', Triplec (Cognition, Communication, Co-Operation): Open Access
Journal For A Global Sustainable Information Society, 9, 1, pp. 62-76,
Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 3 June 2012. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Foucault, M,( 1978), ‘The History of Sexuality Volume 1: The Will
to Knowledge’, Harmondsworth, Published by Penguin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">8.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Gladwell, M,(2010), ‘Why the revolution
will not be tweeted’, October 4, 2010, <i>The
New Yorker</i>, New York, USA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">9.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Global mobile statistics (2012),
http://www.itu.int/ITU D/ict/statistics/at glance/KeyTelecom.html<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Hafner-Burton, E, Kahler,
M, & Montgomery, A (2009), 'Network Analysis for International Relations',
International Organization, 63, 3, pp. 559-592, Business Source Complete,
EBSCOhost, viewed 1 June 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">11.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Internet Usage Statistics
2012 http://www.internetworldstats.com<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">12.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Keck, M, & Sikkink, K
(1999), 'Transnational advocacy networks in international and regional
politics', International Social Science Journal, 51, 159, p. 89, Academic
Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 June 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">13.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Teschke, B, (2009) ‘The
origins and evolution of the European states-system’ Chapter 2.</span> <span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Edited
by William Brown, Simon Bromley & Suma Athreye. Ordering the International,
Open University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">14.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Daily Telegraph</span></i><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">, (20<sup>th</sup>
January 2012) ‘Anonymous attacks FBI website over Megaupload raids, <i>The Daily Telegraph</i>, London.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">15.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Daily Telegraph</span></i><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">, (1<sup>st</sup> April
2012) ‘Internet activity 'to be monitored' under new laws’, <i>The Daily Telegraph</i>, London.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">16.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Thompson, G, (2009)
‘Global inequality, economic globalization and technological change’, Chapter
11. Edited by William Brown, Simon Bromley
& Suma Athreye. Ordering the
International, Open University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">17.<span style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yanacopulos, H and Mohan,
G, (2009) ‘The global network society and transnational networks of dissent’,
Chapter 12. Edited by William Brown,
Simon Bromley & Suma Athreye. Ordering the International, Open University
Press.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-6988242357037567692012-07-30T13:40:00.002+01:002012-07-30T13:40:10.415+01:00Why Stephen Hester should visit O2<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recently two of the UK’s largest companies, the bank RBS and
the telecoms company O2, suffered serious technical problems that had a
critical impact on millions of their customers.
In June, during a ‘routine’ software upgrade RBS managed to corrupt
their entire High Street banking operation of RBS and NatWest which left
millions of customers unable to access and operate their accounts. Mortgages went unpaid, deposits were not
credited and customers were unable to access their via ATM machines. The outage caused huge disruption and lasted
more than a week and effected both retail and business customers.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a similar computer upset, O2 had a network failure of
their 2G network. The outage lasted two days before it was resolved.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is interesting is the difference in the response to
customers that each company adopted. RBS
took several days to make the problem public and communicate their concerns via
the media. The severity of the problems
was never fully exposed and when RBS Boss, Stephen Hester, was interviewed, he seemed
unable to explain what had gone wrong nor whether they would compensate
customers. They only made a vague
promise that no one would be out of pocket.
As a business customer of RBS I have not received any apology from
either the staff in my local branch or from my ‘Account Manager’. Not even a phone call to check I was having any problems even though payments for thousands of pounds into and out
of my business account had ‘failed’. I
was left to apologise to suppliers to avoid having my credit rating damaged.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contrast this with O2, with whom I am also a customer. Despite the fact that as a 3G network user I didn’t appear to have
any problems, O2 immediately contacted me and apologised for the outage and as
soon as the problem was resolved provided me an email detailing compensation in
the form of a 10% reduction in my monthly contract and a voucher to use in
their O2 shops. This was a genuine no
quibble guarantee.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What a difference it makes when a company is genuinely customer
focused. I have always found that O2 has
a world class customer service operation and their reaction to their recent
problems was case study in how to deal with a major business problem. RBS on the other hand only seems to be
focused on their bonuses and not the customer.
It is now a month on from their problems and they have still not
contacted me other than sending out their usual bank charges without any reduction for the outage period. Bankers still do not seem to get it. Customers are the people they should be
concerned about losing, not their highly paid investment bankers. Stephen Hester should be beating a path to O2’s
customer service department and find out how to build a customer focused
business operation rather than continuing to defend their bonus policy.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-4476912656835912262011-01-31T11:00:00.006+00:002011-01-31T12:13:22.706+00:00UK ISP, Cable and Dongle Users January 2011<span style="font-size:11pt;">Here is an update of the UK ISP market covering DSL and Cable Access market as well as the Mobile Dongle market in the UK. I have used ITU published data for Broadband usage numbers and Neilson Ratings and ISP published figures to get an accurate picture as well all the reports and disclosures for each of the companies shown below. I believe these figures represent a reasonably accurate representation of the genuine adoption of broadband either via DSL, Cable or mobile dongle. Broadband connections included in this data cover download speeds equal to or faster than 256kbit/s<br /></span><table style="width: 425px; height: 306px;" class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr style="height: 27.8pt;"><td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 27.8pt;" width="161"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><b style=""><span style="font-size:10pt;">ISP</span></b></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 27.8pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 27.8pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><b style=""><span style="font-size:10pt;"> Total</span></b></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 27.8pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><b style=""><span style="font-size:10pt;"> % of UK Accts.</span></b></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">BT (inc Plusnet)</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">5,341,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">27.00%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Talk Talk<br /></span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">4,249,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">21.50%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Virgin Media<br /></span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">4,242,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">21.49%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Sky</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">3,006,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">15.20%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Orange</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">795,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">4.00%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">O2 (Be Broadband)<br /></span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">663,800</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">3.40%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Royal Mail<br /></span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <span style="font-size:10pt;"><br />600,000</span><p></p><br /></td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">3.00%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">3 (Mobile Dongles)</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">255,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">1.30%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">T-Mobile (Dongle)<br /></span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">195,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">0.90%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Vodafone (Dongle)</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">190,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">0.80%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Kingston</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">178,200</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">0.70%</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15.75pt;"> <td style="width: 120.5pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="161"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Thus</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 35.45pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="47"><br /></td> <td style="width: 63.8pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="85"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">93,000</span></p> </td> <td style="width: 99.2pt; padding: 0cm; height: 15.75pt;" width="132"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;" align="center"><span style="font-size:10pt;">0.50%</span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size:11pt;">The UK Broadband market has become very concentrated with almost 20 million broadband accounts with over 98% concentrated in the top twelve providers with a high degree of consolidation among the top 5 players. The standard speed offering has increased from around 2Mb to 8Mb over the past two years, however many of the grand claims of the leading providers offering 20Mb broadband access is far of the mark with most only achieving 7-8 Mb on average.</span><span style="font-size:11pt;"><br />The super fast 40Mb and 50Mb deals are beginning to enter the market but mainly only appeal to specialist hard care users in the consumer market.<br /><br />Whilst the growth of mobile dongles has slowed the market continues to evolve. There are a number of players offering a range of speeds and costs. The market for the iPad and Kindle 3G devices is growing very quickly through sim only offerings. The new tablet applications such as the iPad and Samsung Galaxy and the soon to be launched Motorola Zoom represent the most exciting sector of the market and the mobile networks are likely to be climbing over each other to offer the 3G broadband connectivity. A quick look at the offerings below reveal the developments in the dongle market which will form the basis of any 3G Sim deals for the new tablets.<br /></span><h3>Who offers mobile broadband via mobile broadband dongles?</h3> <ul><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>Vodafone offers a range of mobile broadband dongles, the most popular being its small and speedy "USB Modem stick" starting at £15 a month. With speeds of up to 7.2Mb and download allowance of 3Gb, this offer is a real no-brainer.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">3's mobile USB modem dongle comes free on many of the 3 packages. Offering 1Gb downloads and speeds of up to 7.2Mb, 3’s £10 per month offer is great value for money.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>T Mobile's USB dongles offer speeds of up to 7.2Mb and download allowances of 3Gb - 9/10 T Mobile customers say it "works like a dream".</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>Orange's dongle is the sleekest and fastest they've ever made, offering speeds of up to 7.2Mb.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span>Virgin Media was late to the </span><span style="font-size:85%;">mobile broadband market, </span><span style="font-size:85%;">but it is making some very attractive offers speeds of up 7.2Mb at excellent price points.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">O2 dongles get you online at speeds of up to 3.6Mb and start from just £10 per month. </span></li></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-89780519517598622292009-04-16T10:09:00.001+01:002009-04-16T10:12:34.476+01:00Amazon to side step Phorm!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/Seb2Jvijr2I/AAAAAAAAADY/MXiUVFwLYzU/s1600-h/amazon.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 131px; height: 41px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/Seb2Jvijr2I/AAAAAAAAADY/MXiUVFwLYzU/s320/amazon.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325214256652857186" /></a><p class="first" style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-mso-bidi-font-weight: boldfont-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">In an increasingly heated debate over privacy, Amazon UK has stated that it will not allow the online advertising system of Phorm to scan its web pages to produce targeted ads.</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt;outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial;outline-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">Amazon is one of the most popular sites in the UK and indeed worldwide and its decision to block behavioural targeting of the type promoted by Phorm is a huge blow to the approach and will no doubt influence other major sites such as eBay to review their policy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">This decision will be a major embarrassment to BT who had hoped to roll out Phorm’s technology later this year under the name Webwise.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Both BT and Phorm have come under fire from privacy campaigners over the the “secret” trials that BT conducted last year.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt;outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial;outline-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">In a statement, Amazon UK said: "We have contacted Webwise requesting that we opt out for all of our domains."<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The company declined to comment further on the reasons behind its decision.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">In response, Phorm said: "There is a process in place to allow publishers to contact Phorm and opt out of the system, but we do not comment on individual cases."<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt;outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial;outline-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">Last month the Open Rights Group wrote to the chief privacy officers at Microsoft, Google/Youtube, Facebook, AOL/Bebo, Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay urging them to opt-out of Phorm. Amazon is the first company to give any sort of response at all but are unlikely to be the last.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt;outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial;outline-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">Earlier this week the European Commission said it was starting legal action against the UK over its data protection laws in relation to Phorm's technology.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The European Commission has described the technology as an "interception" of user data and wants UK law to reflect more explicitly the need for consent from users in order for the service to be implemented.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p style="margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:11.25pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:8.5pt;color:#464646;">Given the recent announcement of Google to introduce their own form of behavioural tracking on to users search queries, it will be interesting to see whether Amazon et al decide that they wish to avoid all forms of intrusive targeting and whether the EU will take on the behemoth Google.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-91528128575044695322009-04-15T11:03:00.005+01:002012-06-20T21:24:32.513+01:00eBay puts Skype up for sale.<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/SeWx1-N07II/AAAAAAAAADI/Jgi3p1UffRA/s1600-h/skype.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324857675227655298" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/SeWx1-N07II/AAAAAAAAADI/Jgi3p1UffRA/s320/skype.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 124px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 124px;" /></a><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/SeWxtEWpiuI/AAAAAAAAADA/_GxX_m1rDF0/s1600-h/ebay.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324857522256448226" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/SeWxtEWpiuI/AAAAAAAAADA/_GxX_m1rDF0/s320/ebay.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 75px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 137px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Last night eBay, the internet auction site, announced plans to spin off Skype the internet calls business in an initial public offering some time next year.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Four years after paying $3.1 billion for Skype, eBay has finally admitted what every other industry insider realised years ago that it there really weren’t any valuable synergies to be gleamed from adding Skype to its core auction business.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The decision to sell the company opens the door for any private equity buyers to move in on Skype although it seems unlikely that anyone is already in the frame..</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">However, it leaves open the possibility that the creators of Skype, the billionaire Scandinavians, Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, could repurchase the company since their other venture Joost is hardly creating much of a stir. It is reported that they are working with the private equity firm, Warburg Pincus, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">to make a bid for Skype and eBay’s move may be interpreted as putting pressure on them to put up or shut up!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">John Donahoe, the chief executive of eBay, said: “Skype is a great stand-alone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum. But it is clear that Skype has limited synergies with eBay. We believe operating Skype as a stand-alone publicly traded company is the best path for maximising its potential.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">EBay's plans were cheered by investors, who sent the shares up 56 cents, or 3.9 per cent in after-hours trading on Wall Street. They saw Skype as an unnecessary distraction that was tying up capital.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In 2007 eBay, which is being advised by Goldman Sachs, conceded it had massively overpaid for the calls company when it took a writedown of $1.4 billion. Last year Skype generated revenues of $551 million, up 44 per cent from 2007. Its user base - now at 405 million - leapt 47 per cent from 2007.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If Friis and Zennstrom do buy back Skype, eBay is unlikely to receive anything close to what they paid for the company back in 2005, but they will be able to focus on growing the eBay business as the recession comes to an end and those “green shoots” of recovery start to take root.</span></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-86089974822046457152009-04-14T16:30:00.003+01:002009-04-14T16:45:50.614+01:00Europe steps into save UK Users from Phorm's snooping!<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><div style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 3px; padding-bottom: 3px; padding-left: 3px; width: auto; font: normal normal normal 100%/normal Georgia, serif; text-align: left; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 9pt; line-height: 14.4pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Finally someone is willing to fight for our rights to privacy in the UK. Sadly it isn't our Government. The European Commission has today started legal action against the Government over its failure to protect the privacy of British Internet users.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The case was sparked by BT’s covert use of the controversial user-tracking technology Phorm on customers using BT’s internet service in 2006 and 2007.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Phorm, </span></span></span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">a UK-based company founded in 2004, monitors users’ favourite sites and searches, and uses the information to deliver individually targeted advertising. The European Commission has been concerned about the way Phorm was secretly tested in the United Kingdom. Last year, the Government through the Information Commissioner, backed Phorm after a complaint by Brussels.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">However, Vivian Reding, the European Union's Commissioner for Information Society and Media, announced the first stage of legal action, saying that the UK Government had failed to implement European laws that protect Internet users under the terms of '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003'.</span></span></i></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"Technologies such a Internet behavioural advertising can be useful for businesses and consumers but they must be used in a way that complies with EU rules,” the Commissioner said. “These rules are there to protect the privacy of citizens and must be rigorously enforced by all member states.”</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">BT</span></span></span><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> has already admitted that it conducted trials of Phorm without users’ consent in 2006 and 2007. A further, invitation-only, trial was conducted last year.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ms Reding’s statement continued: “I call on the UK authorities to change their national laws and ensure that national authorities are duly empowered and have proper sanctions at their disposal to enforce EU legislation on the confidentiality of communications.”</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ms Reding’s contention is that UK laws must be tightened to protect consumers and comply with the ePrivacy Directive, which the UK Government signed up to in 2002. It came into force at the end of October 2003.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Commission has now given the Government two months to respond to today’s “infringement proceeding” - the first stage of a legal process which could end up in the European Court of Justice for an alleged breach of the directive. The directive states that user consent must be “freely given, specific, and informed”, and it requires EU member states to impose sanctions in the event of breaches of the rules.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Ms Reding reinforced her stern message to the British Government in her weekly video message, delivered via the European Commission’s website.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“Privacy is a particular value for us Europeans; a value reflected in European laws for many years,” she said.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“However, in spite of the many advantages of technological development, there is an undeniable risk that privacy is being lost to the brave new world of intrusive technologies. On the global information highways, personal information is increasingly becoming ‘the new currency’. And I believe that Europeans… must have the right to control how their personal information is used.”</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“European privacy rules are crystal clear,” she said. “A person's information can only be used with their prior consent. We cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored, in exchange for a promise of ‘more relevant’ advertisements! I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty.”</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Phorm </span></span></span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">has already been investigated by the police and the Information Commissioner over privacy concerns. It has attracted interest from UK ISPs including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk although no company has yet fully introduced the system.</span></span></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Tim Berners-Lee spoke out passionately against Phorm at a meeting in the House of Commons in March this year. "It is very important that when we click, we click without a thought that a third party knows what we're clicking on," he said. "'What is at stake is the integrity of the Internet as a communications medium. It's important there should be no snooping on the Internet."</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It has always been the contention of Blogcetera and many other industry observers that what Phorm was engaged in was both against the 'spirit' and the letter of the law as laid down in the EU directive that the British Government and Parliament passed into law.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Similarly there are privacy concerns as regards Google’s plans to use behavioural targeting to deploy “</span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">relevant” </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ads to users.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It will be interesting to see whether the EU Commission targets Google as well as Phorm.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Links :</span></span><b><i><a href="http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20032426.htm"><span style="color:windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003</span></span></span></a></i></b></span><span style=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Additional Reporting: <a href="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6091811.ece">The Times</a></span></span></span></i></b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-GBfont-family:";"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p></p></div></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9234613.post-14642522853822393992009-04-09T14:03:00.006+01:002009-04-09T14:19:43.911+01:00Phorm to pay for opt-in customers.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/Sd31RXoCxGI/AAAAAAAAACs/VO5c8M0sV5A/s1600-h/Phorm.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 107px; height: 80px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VTbHJmfHq_Q/Sd31RXoCxGI/AAAAAAAAACs/VO5c8M0sV5A/s320/Phorm.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322680013370344546" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family:verdana;font-size:12px;"><p style="text-align: justify;color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Phorm, the targeted web advertising company, is considering offering customers who opt-in a payment related to their surfing activity. Phorm is considering contributing to the customers broadband bill or is even willing to make a donation to charity, for any user that signs up for the service.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">With BT contemplating rolling out Phorm's service to known as BT "Webwise" it may be that BT customers will be able to receive a reduction in their broadband bill.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The fact that BT and Phorm had been conducting secret trials of the system without BT’s customers’ knowledge caused major concerns over privacy last year and led to the Information Commissioner suggesting that the scheme should only be implemented as an "opt-in" service. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Given the general suspicion that users have in respect of their surfing activity being tracked, the payment to encourage "opt-in" will need to be significant for most users to accept such a service.</span></span></p></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">The author is an Internet consultant and journalist.</div>Blogceterahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07575309591111319331noreply@blogger.com10