Digital Media Beyond the Web
In some cases, the technology may not even by visible to the user. With the emergence of embedded computing, the forms of persuasive technology will likely become more diverse, “invisible”, and better integrated into everyday life.
The web, which is so prominent today, will be just one of many forms of persuasive technology within another 20 years or more. The uses for persuasive technology also will expand in the coming decade, extending far beyond the primary applications we see today, such as advertising, marketing, and sales. At work, persuasive technology might be used to motivate teams to set goals and meet deadlines.
At home, it could encourage kids to develop better study habits. In civic life, it could persuade people to vote on Election Day. Wherever the need for persuasion exists I believe that interactive technology can play a significant role.
Advantages over Traditional Media: Interactivity
Traditional media, from bumper stickers to radio spots, from print ads to television commercials, have long been used to influence people to change their attitudes and behaviors. What’s different about computer and persuasion the answer? In a word is interactivity.
As a general rule, persuasion techniques are most effective when they are interactive, when persuaders adjust their influence tactics as the situation evolves. Skilled salespeople know this and adjust their pitches according to feedback from the prospect.
Persuasive technologies can adjust what they do based on user inputs, needs and situations. An interactive program to help someone quit smoking can tailor its approach to how much the personal smokes (physical addiction) abd address the often powerful psychological issues (psychological addiction) that compel the person to smoke.
Over time, as the person reports progress or failures, the system can use its knowledge about the smoker’s demographic variables as well as physical and psychological addiction issues to make suggestions (such as interactive scenarios), or provide the right kind of encouragement to help the person quit.
Traditional media cannot easily deliver such a tailored program. Today computer technology is being designed to apply traditional human techniques of interactive persuasion, to extend the reach of humans as interactive persuaders. This new new territory, both for computing technology and for human beings.
Fake Antispyware Programs’ Era
Rogue antispyware programs became one of the most popular means to infect computers and gain money of their users. These programs imitate legitimate antispyware programs but in fact are based on empty software so have no functions at all.
Most of the time, these programs are distributed to computer systems with a help of Trojan viruses. Sometimes they also spread on malicious Internet sites, imitates Windows updates, etc. However, in any case, a rogue program infiltrates without asking permission of the user and doesn’t require its authorization.
Once inside, it enters Windows Registry and makes some changes there so that it could do its job without interference. Usually it uses a fake scanner which pretends to look for infections. Then the program offers removing infections with a help of its so-called full version of a program which you need to pay for. You must beware that rogue programs are not able to detect any infections, so it simply gives fake scan results just tom trick you into purchasing a malicious application.
Moreover, rogue programs tend to display fake pop up ads and security notifications to make an illusion your system requires some attention and needs a security tool. One more thing to be mentioned is browser hijacking. A rogue program often comes with a browser hijacker which hijacks your Internet browser and makes redirections to some malicious websites promoting a rogue program as an antispyware.
One of the most popular rogue programs at the moment are AV Security Suite, Antispyware Soft, My Security Engine. Some of such programs are active for a very short period of time, others, for example, Security Tool stay active for months.
Fortunately, security experts are always ready to help fix your security problems. They not only describe this kind of infections on their websites, but also provide solutions to particular problems. If it happened to you to be infected with some fake antispyware program, you may want to read more about a particular infection. Check the website below to get more information about infections that bother you and find a way to get rid of them.
HP HDX 18t Review
Hewlett Packard recently unveiled its Premium Series Notebook, the HP HDX 18t. As what you would likely see in any hp hdx 18t Review, this can be configured to fit the users’ need especially those who demand performance and longevity.
This mammoth 18″ desktop replacement laptop has a stylish, glossy exterior, large keyboard area with touch-sensitive illuminated buttons, a built-in internal ATSC TU tuner, Blu-ray, webcam, number pad and a newfangled fingerprint reader. Professionals, movie lovers, and gamers will find the HP HDX18t to be a great desktop replacement option. The HP HDX18t packs a strong set of components that adeptly power the 18-inch, widescreen display and a NVIDIA’s GeForce 9600M GT that powers its graphics subsystem.
The HP glassy black sleek and glossy exterior complements the modern home and office environment. The problem with this very handsome machine is that it attracts fingerprints and smudges like honey. You will leave your fingerprints to the polished exterior with just a brush of a fingertip.
This 18-inch display isn’t as cumbersome as you think – with the 16.9 aspect ratio that keeps its dimension manageable as a true high-definition performance experience. With the 16.9 aspect ratio, viewers could watch movies without the annoying black bars that appear above and below the image. The viewers won’t need a pair of eyeglasses because the display is great and the applications or side by side windows are highly visible.
Along with its superb keyboard are a numeric keypad and the mouse button which is very silent and easy to press. Daily web surfing, photo and video editing, and HD video won’t hang up the HP HDX18t laptop even if you do all of them simultaneously. The HP HDX18t’s Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 CPU clocks in at 2.8GHz which give processing speed more than enough processing power to crush recommended system requirements on the best games. It’s a Centrino 2 processor, a 1-GHz that increases the frequency of front-side bus, a new Wi-Fi chip, and DDR3 memory. What is more remarkable is that, the HDX 18t finished video-encoding test in less than a minute!
Remarkably, it is furnished with a 3GB of RAM and up to 640 GB of hard drive – it is so large that you could fit an entire Library Collection on a hard drive. If you’re serious gaming, you will appreciate the video card because it is powered by the GeForce 9600M GT card. In terms of battery life, the HDX18t is clocked on MobileMark 2007 with up to 2 hours and 48 minutes which is very reasonable for a large laptop.
HP HDX18t laptop with a Blu-ray drive and an18 inch display isn’t the cheapest desktop replacement but it is a luxury worth paying for. That who wants first-rate performance but doesn’t need a maximized configuration can save a few hundred dollars by toning down the processor speed and selecting a smaller hard drive.
Overall, these huge 18-inch displays with its fast components establish HP HDX18t as a superior desktop replacement. The wide screen is perfect for movies and multiple applications. According to the hp hdx 18t review, this powerful performer excels in terms of its features and performance, which earns it the Editors’ Choice.
ATI Vs Nvidia Graphics Cards
If you’re a gamer, it’s all about graphics quality. The best graphics card produces the best image quality – vital if you’re immersing yourself in a shoot ‘em up or an MMORPG scenario. Even if your applications are a little more serious such as CAD auto programming or graphics packages, your work will only be as good as the tools you use. The proliferation of high quality graphics cards have given the discerning PC user plenty of scope for upgrading and the two most popular suppliers have been ATI and Nvidia. But which is better?
Nvidia – cutting edge graphic tech
Nvidia rocked the graphics world last year with its introduction of a dual 3D-card SLI set up. But an SLI setup requires a motherboard upgrade, high voltage power supply and two identical SLI graphics cards. All pretty high tech stuff, and not for the uninitiated. Thankfully, both Nvidia and ATI supply a range of graphics cards to suit all pockets, all levels of technical competence and all types of requirements. Take that latest buzzword, 3D. You don’t have to go down the dual SLI route to achieve a 3D effect.
Nvidia has products that will have you ducking incoming fire or zooming through the blue-tinged world of Avatar in glorious 3D. ATI, although not 3D ready just yet, are working hard to get their cards 3D-capable and bring them to market. However, 3D ready cards are going to require a hefty investment of several hundred pounds. If you’re a committed gamer then that may seem like small change, but for sporadic gamers or those who merely want better graphics without the 3D bells and whistles, it might seem a bit steep when compared to other graphics cards on the market.
For those who have invested in the latest Windows 7 package with DirectX 11, both ATI and Nvidia have graphics cards to complement. The ATI 5000 series and Nvidia’s 400 series are all DirectX 11 compatible and provide gamers with exceptional quality graphics, quick frame speeds and multi-screen gaming capabilities on the very latest cards.
Mid range cards
For those on a limited budget but who still want to upgrade their graphics capability, then both suppliers have a plethora of graphics cards that do the business. Both ATI and Nvidia have cards that are reasonably priced, give you fast frame speed, 3D graphics and excellent image quality.
Bargain basement
The two arch rivals have one thing in common – they both know that their market isn’t just made up of cash-flush hardcore gamers willing to spend top money on their graphics cards. The trouble is with the low range cards though, is that many of them will not have the frame speed or image quality to play the most recent games on, and the whole experience will be lacking that special something – namely not having to wait every few seconds for the frames to load.
However, if your PC uses an integrated graphics chip and as long as you’re not trying to run too many applications at once, a low price graphics card should be able to cope with a reasonable amount of processor demand without completely pixelating your images. It may be tempting to opt for a graphics card that has its own 128MB of memory and doesn’t piggyback off your main processor, but by using a card that does borrow from the system memory cache you can effectively get a cheap alternative to dual processing.
Both ATI and Nvidia have their plus points, particularly in the more high end packages. But, as we asked at the beginning, which is better? Well, the honest answer is neither – they’re both as good as each other depending on your requirements, your OS and how deep your pockets are. The standard rule for graphics cards applies – the more you pay, the better the results. And with more gaming manufacturers embracing 3D, it might be time to think about putting a little more financial investment into your graphics package.
Use Wireless Spy Cams For Security of Kids
Are we in a safe environment? This answer puts us in doldrums as we can hardly have a peace frame of mind about our kids and belongings at all times. Look around and there is an increase in the crime, theft and violence in the world we live in today. We are in a vulnerable state and it is crucial to take extra steps to ensure that you are well protected. It is not a safe world for especially the kids, read any news story and you will see many which are pertaining to the violence against kids. Having a nanny to take care of your child in your absence is not a new concept, but the fear of them misusing your trust always prevails back of your mind. When you are at work in the office, you do not want to put the lives of your kids in jeopardy. Today with the latest gizmos you can be in control and be rest assured with installing a nanny cam. A nanny cam is an ideal solution to put all your tensions to rest. Having to leave your kid and going to work is an inevitable choice that a parent has to make and you can use a hidden camera now and be rest assured in no time. A nanny cam is just like any other object that monitors very discreetly and records any unauthorized activity within the radius. Placing it in the nursery is an ideal option since you can keep a closer eye on the area where the baby spends most of its time. However the options of placing them can be changed to any area from that of a living room to every room if you need supervision in the villa. The options that are available in the market will surprise you from teddy bears, photo frames, pens to discreet wall clocks; they are readily available. The latest advancement of wireless models are most preferred primarily as they are easy to use and lightweight. Ted Martin is an expert on wireless cams and is in love with security gadgets. It has been his passion to learn more about the latest advances in the gizmos available today. He firmly believes that every family or business should be protected with durable and high quality gadgets in this vulnerable world. We live in a susceptible world and make sure you get access to affordable, reliable wireless nanny cameras which deter unauthorized access. Being a person who has firsthand experience with many spy gadgets such as spy pen, key logger, nanny camera, spy camera want to share my expertise with novice users.
Why is SEO so important?
Internet has become a part of life. These days, we do everything from communication to shopping, from gathering information to providing information about our business. If you are not ‘online’ you don’t exist. This trend has given way to a whole new venue where businesses can grow and operate.
There are millions of people who are running their business through the internet and are earning great profits from it. Now you must be wondering, why some websites are so popular, while a large number of websites stay in obscurity? Why do some websites pop up in the first few search engine results while others come in later pages?
The answer to this question is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO means optimization of the content of a website in a way that it’s ranking in search engines rise. Search Engine Optimization involves using the right number of keywords and keywords that are in the right place in the content. This ensures that when those particular keywords are searched, the website is shown in the first few search results.
Naturally, the higher a website is shown in the search engine results list, the more traffic it will get. This is the main reason why some websites get more traffic and bigger profits than others. For example, suppose you run a travel website about tourism in London. Just writing good content won’t be enough to get good traffic to it. You will have to make sure that the people who are trying to gather information about tourist activities in London get to see your website. For this, you will have to use the right keywords and key phrases in the content. This is what we call SEO.
Search Engine Optimization can be a tricky thing because you must know exactly the right keywords and phrases and put them in the right places. You must also know which keywords are searched most and which keywords will be beneficial for your website. In SEO, there is not a “one size fits all” rule. Each website is different and its optimization should be according to the specifics of that website. That’s why you must hire a professional SEO service to optimize your website.
Why SEO Services?
SEO Services will use the right keywords to ensure better ranking for your website. A good SEO service will make sure that your website content includes the popular keywords which are searched frequently in the niche of your website.
A SEO service will increase visitors to your website by presenting your website when they are looking for products, services and information that your website provides. It will definitely increase your online business. This practice is known as SEO Marketing.
SEO Marketing is one of the best tools to promote any website because it solves the basic problem with any online venture. It solves the problem of getting enough exposure in the search engines. It doesn’t matter how much you try to publicize your website through other means of internet marketing unless and until you get your website optimized. Therefore, hiring SEO Services is a step in the right direction.
The best and the most effective method of SEO optimization is through organic SEO. This kind of optimization is perfect for people who are working with a limited budget, but still want to reach large audiences.
What is Organic SEO?
Organic SEO is search engine optimization in its truest form. These days, many search engines offer paid SEO services. This service allows a website owner to “buy” a few keywords and phrases of his choice. When those phrases are searched, his website is displayed in the top search results. In return, the website owner is required to pay a certain amount for every click to his website. This is known as pay per click optimization.
Organic SEO, on the other hand, has no such formalities. In this kind of SEO, the website is optimized by good and popular keywords and the rest is left to the search engines. No amount is paid to anyone. Organic SEO has many benefits such as:
· People trust organically optimized websites more
Anyone can buy any keywords in the pay per click method, so potential site visitors cannot be sure of the legitimacy of their content. This is why people are more likely to trust the organically optimized websites in favor of pay per click optimized sites.
· It’s affordable
Organic Seo is much more affordable than the pay per click method. One doesn’t have to keep making regular payments to search engines using this method. Plus, the pay per click method carries the risk of getting increased traffic, but potentially fewer sales, i.e., you can lure people to your website through this method but can’t force them to buy. This sometimes becomes a raw deal for website owners.
· Relevance
Organically optimized websites ensure relevancy of the content. The search engines display these websites because of their content and not because they were told to pick them, so this relays a better image to internet users.
In short, organic SEO is the safest and best choice for website owners who want to create a good and substantial website that people can trust in the long term. This is also very good for those who want to increase traffic to their website without spending too much money.
If you want to get your website optimized, then you should contact an SEO service that provides guaranteed SEO for the website. This means, hire a service that has expertise in this field and that knows how to optimize in the best possible manner.
There are hundreds of websites on the internet which claim to give the best and guaranteed SEO services. You must make sure that you hire the best by checking their previous records, the testimonials and reviews on their website. This will give you an idea of their performance.
In the end, all I can say is that there is hardly any popular website that hasn’t been Search Engine Optimized. And if you want your website to be popular, you now know what to do.
The writer of this article owns a website called “Seo-Services.Com” which is a great place for SEO Marketing. If you are looking for All type of SEO Services that gives you high class web promotion and provides you superb seo solution then this is the place for you. Also Visit our Organic SEO.
Link Building – Why You Need to Get the Best
Link building has become one of the most important tools to use in internet marketing. This is an incredibly effective and profitable way to provide good exposure for a website. This tool works on the simple principle of letting people know about your website and what it offers. But before you try this service out for your website, let us explain to you how link building works and benefits a website.
How can link building benefit your website?
Increase in Traffic: Link building creates a lot of doors through which your targeted traffic can enter your website. Links to your website are submitted to various websites whose content is related to the subject of yours. This way, you can naturally divert the traffic on those websites to your own.
Increase in Search Engine Rankings: Most search engines consider the number of links and amount of traffic on a website while determining its ranking. Hence, link building will almost certainly result in an increase in the search engine ranking of your website.
Better one way links: Traditional link building is two-way link building in which both websites display each other’s links on their web pages. One way links are links to websites whose links you don’t display on yours. One way links are great to improve a website’s image as they prove that the content on the website is so good that other websites agree to display its links without any reciprocation. A good link building service works hard to get as many one way links for your website as possible. One way links improve traffic to your website because the one way links look natural and not paid for.
Web Promotion: Most websites have different pages for the different things they offer. However, often some of the pages don’t get much traffic because the visitors don’t know about them. Link building popularizes different pages of your website. Unlike other marketing tools which focus on the entire website as one, link building works at a more detailed level. It promotes each and every page of your website in different venues.
More targeted audience: Link building naturally attracts a large number of the people who are looking for a website like yours. Since those people find links to your website on other websites related to your niche or industry, you will catch the attention of more people who are looking for the services or products you are offering on your website.
In order to have a successful link building campaign, you must keep the following things in mind.
• Ensure that you have site content that is relevant, easily understood and likely to be approved and appreciated by your readers.
• Ensure that your content has no grammatical or spelling errors.
• The site should have an accessible privacy policy and an “About Us” section that describes you and your company so that you present an image of credibility. Add your picture to add authenticity and personalization
How can our Link Building Service help you?
Now that you have in depth understanding of the process of link building and its benefits, let us explain how our Link Building Service will help your website improve its search engine rankings:
i. We will review your website pages and contact various websites in your niche and industry and ask them to display links to your website on those websites.
ii. Another method of building one way links is through the use of pay per click tools. This can be a great marketing technique, helping drive visitors to your site and increasing brand exposure as well.
iii. We can also syndicate an article at major article sites like EZINE. These sites are frequented by many people and so they normally rank higher. When your articles are listed in a place which is itself highly ranked, you are more likely to receive increased traffic to your own site.
iv. We can submit to news sites articles which include links to your website. We can also syndicate press releases both of which are other methods proven to improve one way link building. You can then track visitors who choose your articles and offer them unique exclusive content as well as relevant news.
v. If you have quality articles, we will try submitting them to paid directories.
ii. We can create affiliate programs on your website whereby your affiliates send their visitors back to your site.
Enlisting the help of a specialist, professional or an expert in the field of search engine optimization is one of the most important things you can do for your website and one of the best ways of ensuring your one way link building project becomes a success.
The writer of this article owns a website called “LinkBuildingSolutions.Com” which is a great place for One way links. If you are looking for quality One way link building service that gives you top class link building solution then this is the place for you. Your one stop shop for all your Link building needs.
Hundreds of jobs on the line as MySpace considers cuts
MySpace is considering closing down a number of offices around the world as it attempts to cut costs and recover from a slump that has left it trailing its rivals.
Senior executives at the social networking site are currently discussing the possibility of shutting down operations in California, Italy, France and Spain, sources have told the Guardian.
The closures – which could be announced as early as next week – could result in the loss of hundreds of jobs.
One office under threat is the company’s base in San Francisco, which only opened at the end of 2007 and is home to around 200 members of staff. It is not yet clear if those jobs would be cut as a result of such a shutdown, or whether some workers would be offered the option of relocating to MySpace’s headquarters in Los Angeles.
It is also expected to cut a number of jobs in its European offices as it struggles to meet revenue targets for advertising amid falling user numbers. Workers in Paris, Madrid and Rome could be affected, and 20 people are already believed to have been fired from MySpace UK in February, including the head of IT and head of facilities.
Guardian Technology revealed on Thursday that MySpace has seen falling user numbers and time spent on its properties in the UK and US, while rival sites including Facebook have continued to increase their audiences.
As a result, pressure has built on the company to regain its momentum – leading the site to bring in a new chief executive and undergo a series of redesigns to help woo back users who have deserted it.
Those changes have so far failed to halt the slump, however, and sources within the company say that Travis Katz – the London-based general manager of MySpace’s international division – has made a series of short-notice trips to the US to talk to senior executives about possible cutbacks.
He is believed to be returning again for further discussions on on Monday.
It is understood that the closure of offices could be announced as early as next week, leaving European staff concentrated in two offices in the UK and Germany.
MySpace UK declined to comment on Katz’s movements or the prospect of job cuts and office closures. Asked whether it could offer staff confidence in their jobs for the coming fortnight, a spokesperson declined to comment.
Rumours of job losses first began circulating earlier this week, when the Silicon Valley news blog TechCrunch reported that “massive layoffs” of up to 25% of the company’s workers were on the cards.
The cuts would come at a turbulent time for the website and its parent company, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, which bought MySpace in 2005 in a surprise deal worth $580m.
In April the site’s co-founders, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, were moved out of their jobs at the top of the company and replaced by Owen Van Natta, a former Facebook executive.
The moves, which took place suddenly, are thought to have been brought about by Jonathan Miller – the former head of AOL who is now Rupert Murdoch’s lieutenant for digital business.
The mood in the UK office now was described as “damp” by one source, who said that there was a realisation that Facebook had trumped it.
Sales staff were also struggling to fulfil their revenue targets due to the advertising downturn, putting extra pressure on the company as the falling number of users and time spent means it cannot command as much for adverts compared to growing rivals such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
The prospect of a $900m ad deal with Google running out next year will put extra pressure on the site.
Twitter makes millions for Dell
Dell stirred up a little commotion earlier today when it said that sales made through its DellOutlet Twitter account had earned the company around $2m. In fact, says Dell tweeter Stefanie N, it may be even more than that:
We’re also seeing that it’s driving interest in new product as well. We’re seeing people come from @DellOutlet on Twitter into the Dell.com/outlet site, and then ultimately decide to purchase a new system from elsewhere on Dell.com. If we factor those new system purchases that come from @DellOutlet, we’re actually eclipsed $3 million in overall sales.
This all sounds great for Dell and its public relations (it’s going gangbusters, says the Register ), and equally good news for Twitter, making some wonder whether this is the sort of thing the site should be charging for.
However, I think it’s worth looking sceptically at the numbers.
$2m is not even a drop in the ocean compared to Dell’s overall sales of $12bn in the last three months (stat fans: Twitter is the sales channel for 0.008% of Dell stock) and overall the company’s sales are taking a beating – down 23% for the most recent quarter.
So it’s worth considering whether this is actually about gaining customers, or just building a new relationship with customers Dell already has. Like the arguments over whether a music track downloaded illegally is a lost sale, we can ask whether every sale on Twitter is a sale gained, or just an existing customer who is using a different method to get what they’re looking for (often with an extra discount).
Ultimately, it’s impossible to know without surveying Dell’s customers.
So, if you’ve bought through this method, let us know in the comments why: would you have bought Dell otherwise?
It’s worth trying to get to the bottom of these numbers to try and make some sense out of them before the marketing gurus start spinning the line that you can make millions from Twitter.
The internet reacts to Digital Britain
Reaction on Twitter and blogs was fast and furious, quite literally, in some instances to the proposals coming out of the Digital Britain report.
I’ll be collecting reaction as it comes in live and highlighting different parts of the report, if you want to send a comment or a blog post along, feel free to send me a message on Twitter. I’m @kevglobal. This post will grow over time, and I’ll add things under the different headings as I go along.
After a while of watching the tweets flow in, the general impression I get is that the digitally savvy on Twitter were disappointed by the report. They thought it didn’t go far enough, that it focused on piracy and problems for media companies while lacking focus on internet users.
Mark Adams, the chair of Charity Citizens Online, wrote:
2mb is visionary, like a “Speaker of House of Commons” is visionary.
Rosena Angeline wrote:
the 50p a month levy per landline to pay for #digitalbritain is a tax — and did we get a vote on that? let me think … thanks #gordonbrown
Terence Eden sent me this message via Twitter:
Practically, the USO has to be low; but 2MB? University students for the last 10 years have got used to 100Mbps. 2MB is unambitious & feeble
Julian Kücklich, who works with video games here in London, said:
defines p2p file sharing as “a civil form of theft.” Why did they not just let the content industry write the whole thing?
He sent me this folllowup comment via Twitter:
Oh, wait, maybe they *did* let the content industry write the whole thing?
Education
Leon Cych, who describes himself on Twitter as a “web designer, coder, teacher, poet, artist, broadcaster, journalist, educationalist”, paid particular attention to the details in the report about education and said that they were “still too top down”. He also said:
References to Digital Skills in the Digital Britain Report – 245 – references to Digital Literacy – zero -
Manchester “writer, bon vivant and grumpy old man” Frank Collins also felt the report was wrong to leave out digital literacy:
Digital literacy is the most important aspect of this not illegal P2P file sharing That’s for the rights holders to sort out
Piracy
Much attention was paid to the goal of requiring internet service providers to cut illegal filesharing by 70%.
Brighton record producer Simon Thornton said simply of the goal: “Well that’s not gonna happen. Next!”
Frank Collins said, “Arguments over file sharing are muddy. ISPs won’t want to cut their customers off no matter what they’re illegally sharing.” Piracy was for the “media giants” to sort out, he said, adding, “Much piracy is because they use outmoded distribution patterns for films & music”.
Peter Marcus, a “PR man” in London, noted it wasn’t the ISPs who would be responsible but rather Ofcom if the reduction targets were met. He wrote, “Ofcom to trigger blocking/capping of repeat offenders after a year if no. of illegal filesharers not reduced by 70%”.
Landline levy
There was a lot of scepticism about the levy on landlines to support the roll out of broadband to underserved areas.
Simon Thornton said:
so the govt to add surcharge to a private service to create new fibre nets that then those private services will charge us money to use?
Software architect Dominic Sparks asked:
Why charge Phone customers for broadband improvements? -They are unrelated -They as may well put a tax on Mars Bars to fund it.
A Twitter user called cyberdoyle, who describes herself as a “Twitterita in quest to get Fibre to my Farm”, was a keen reader of the sections of the report looking at expanding access, especially to rural areas. She remained unimpressed and felt that piracy and the concerns about the continued viability of the media were a “smokescreen”. She said:
the real issue is they r gonna patch up an obsolete network and charge us to do
In a running commentary in 140 characters, she repeatedly challenged the report:
is thr anything in the report that benefits net users or is it all abt regulation & 4 industry?
not impressed, 2meg will enable bt to patch up obsolete instead of building new infrastructure 4 #digitalbritainand in 2017 they will look at rural broadband?
The 50p digital levy doesn’t come in until 2010 – analysts expect the election b4 the budget so it may nevr C light of day
£150m from the digital levy equates to just 0.4% of the money put into Scottish banks
‘Stuff there to work with’
Technology journalist Bill Thompson said that the levy “might work”, and he seemed impressed with the final report, saying:
It is clear that the work done since the interim #digitalbritain report and this one has been substantial – there’s stuff here to work with.
Thompson has quickly written a very measured and largely positive response to the report on his blog. Unlike the comments on Twitter that saw an obsession with piracy, he thought the authors of the report resisted efforts from the music and movie industry to exert control over the internet. He had criticised the interim report but had praise for the final version:
The result, though far from perfect, offers a good basis for work on the detail of implementation and legislation, and there are clear signs that those who want to engage will be able to do so.
Thompson calls on those who already live in a fully networked world to help bring that to the rest of Britain:
There’s a glimpse of that world through the Digital Britain report, and it is one that those of us who already live a networked life need to clarify, share and work to build