The Secret History of Social Networking

Listen to this 30 mins BBC radio programme for ideas about the future of social networking

Programme broadcast Radio 4 11.00am Weds 9th February 2011 - available on iPlayer. I have tried to paste a link but don't thnk it's working

Media Watch

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/feb/07/anonymous-attacks-us-security-company-hbgary

Amy Horsley: Media Watch - "Sugar" Magazine forced to Close.

Monday 24th January 2011 - Media Guardian

Sugar magazine, the UK’s best-selling teenage girls’ title, is to be closed in a further example of the structural challenges facing magazine publishers as young readers shun print in favour of free digital content.

Hachette Filipacchi, Sugar’s owner, said it had decided to close the magazine in response to the “fundamental shift” in teen publishing, as teenagers “spend their media time on mobile and web platforms and increasingly expect to receive content for free.” It is an issue that the music industry – along with most media owners – has been struggling with for some time.

"It's an overwhelming consumer trend," says Mike Soutar, founder and chief executive of Shortlist Media, the publisher of the free men's weekly of the same name and its "freemium" sister title Stylist, launched in 2009. "You can't have something as culturally significant as digital media and not expect it to change people's habits.

Sugar's tumbling circulation, to an average of 113,320 a month from a high of 422,179 in the first half of 2000, reflected a teenage market which has shrunk 75% in a decade.

Sugar will live on via its website, Sugarscape.com, which has around 430,000 unique users a month, while Elle has looked to offer its readers a "360 degree experience" with complementary content on apps and online. On the same day that it announced the teen magazine's closure, Hachette Filipacchi issued figures showing Elleuk.com had gained its 200,000th Twitter follower. But that will have been no consolation to staff on Sugar.

"Sugar" Magazine closes, Andy Coulson resigns

Teen magazine Sugar stops production due to “the business being unviable”.

Publishers blame the slow in business on teenagers using their mobilestoo much and spending their time on the web as opposed to reading magazines.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/24/magazines-free-media-launches


Andy Coulson resigns, again.

Coulson resigned one Friday 22nd January as phone hacking rumours become more prominent. This results in Murdoch loosing a key ally, crucial to his BSkyB bid.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/21/andy-coulson-resigns-david-cameron

Wikipedia podcast

You need to listen to this 23 minute podcast and answer the questions on the handout from the lesson

Jamie Branston-NoW phone-hacking scandal: News Corp's 'rogue reporter' defence unravels

Glenn mulcaire tells the high court that the news of the world asked him to hack voicemails, however the news corporation claims that the hacking that has taken place was the work of a single rogue reporter who was hacking voicemail on their own accord.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/17/phone-hacking-news-of-the-world

Researching Long Tail Theory - James Hoye

I asked 10 people how and where they obtain/get their music. I made sure they understood that I did not mean online streaming or just listening; and that they were actually getting the Cd's or files.

How do you obtain your music?
Amazon - 2
iTunes - 3
Supermarket - 1
Illegal Download - 1
HMV - 1
Spotify (buy feature) - 2

I asked 2 people who were over 50 years old and 1 of them used iTunes and the other used HMV. This surprises me because I would expect them to use supermarkets, instead of the Internet as they are digital immigrants. One extra fact that I did find was that the elderly people I asked had trouble finding new music, as the shops did not stock the music they wanted and they rarely used the Internet to find it.

Of the 20 - 50 year olds, I got a range of HMV, supermarket, pirate bay, amazon and iTunes. Which does not surprise me, as in this age group, there will be a mixture of digital natives and immigrants. This age group will be a fan of the more mainstream music which you will find in HMV (and other msuic specialists) and Tesco, as well as on the internet where you can find more of less anything.

Finally, the youngest age group I asked was 14-20 in which they all answered iTunes and Spotify. This will be because they can get all of the chart music as well as the niche music. Consequentially giving children the largest selection.

Researching Long tail Theory - Emily, Megan and Liam

Research methodology
We chose to ask 30 16-20 year olds the following questions;

• Do you ever buy chart music?
• Where do you find out about new music?

Each of us had 10 people to ask each, 5 boys and 5 girls. We used social networking (facebook) to collect our data and came up with some interesting results.

Research results

Do you ever buy chart music?
NO: 53%
YES: 47%

How do you find out about new music?
- For this question we recieved lots of different answers. We decided to split into old and new media.

OLD MEDIA (T.V, Radio, Newspapers/Magazines, etc.) : 53%
NEW MEDIA (Internet, iTunes, Blogs, etc.) : 47%

Conclusions
We have found that there is an equal balance in old and new music media and people haven't totally given up on the old ways of finding out about new hits. We have also found that nowadays there are many different charts and there is a wide range of genres for people to choose from and that is available to buy online or in stores.

Long Tail Research - Sophie, Laura, Marianna, Charlotte, Perry and Amy

Research Methodology

In order to gain our results, 5 of us asked 10 people each "Which kind of Channels do you watch more - Channels 1-5 or other channels that apply to a more niche audience".

Research Results

36% of respeondants are still watching the mainstream television channels.
64% are the amount of respondants that are members of the niche market.

Conclusion

As far as television consumption is concerned, the niche market has now overtaken the mainstream market and have become incredibly successful as a result.

Take the Web Behaviour Test

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/webbehaviour/

follow this link - you will need to log -in to the BBC site before you can start

Media Watch- Perry 12/1/11

Progress on tablet computer for developing nations

The non-profit OLTPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project is in it’s 5th year of development and is now aiming it’s sites at the tablet market, after the success of Apple’s Ipad. The goal of the project has always rested on providing extreme LEDC’s with cheaper digital devices. The focus is to provide poorer, more digitally starved countries with the devices they lack in order to “bring school children into the computer age.” This was to be done by supplying developing nations with the worlds currently cheapest laptops (around £100), that have been designed with prolonged battery life, and durability in mind.



That being said, it still has impressive features; an LCD screen, HD sound output, and is capable of Bluetooth and wireless Internet browsing. It can double up as an e-book, and is even able to keep track of all other connect XO laptops in the area via an application called ‘neighbourhood’. Also, it flaunts a video camera, sound recorder, and capacitive touch screen.

So far over 2 million laptops have been supplied to the school children of LEDCs, however there are an abundance of improvements to follow with the introduction of their newest model, the XO-1.75 tablet. The battery life has been extended to over 10 hours, whilst remaining thoroughly resistant to dust water, and other physical damage.

The company are hoping to make the XO-3 the next big step in their ‘mission’. By changing the design and user interface the company are continually able to make the device cheaper, tougher, and easier to use. It was said in the accompanying video that “The rotating hinge on the laptop costs $4. Just removing that is a financial improvement.” It is this kind of excess OLTPC would like to trim, in order to improve the cost and functionality of future XO models.

The computing company MARVELL have already pledged $4.6 million towards the product’s development, and released the prototype tablet ‘moby’ (seen below). It’s suspected to cost no more than $99 and will be a big step up for OLTPC once mass produced. The battery life is estimated at 20-30 hours, a 10 inch 1080p screen, and will support Windows mobile. The finished model should be available by 2012.

Interview with OLPC's chief technology officer Ed McNierney:

"A lot of tablets are designed for entertainment and consumption, but that is not what we do," he said.

"We really think the tablet needs to be a fully-functioning educational experience that is designed for creating, sharing, editing, enjoying and collaborating with other children and teachers."

“The XO-3 tablet will have a screen the same size as Apple's popular iPad at 9.7in (25cm).”

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12144651

http://www.olpcnews.com/laptops/xo-3/first_version_xo-3_laptop_to_b.html

http://one.laptop.org/about/hardware

The Virtual Revolution - the cost of free

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/digitalrevolution/2010/02/virtual-revolution-episode-thr.shtml

This is the blog set up by the BBC for viewers to post their feedback after watching the programme. Read the comments and then post your own response on THIS blog - not the BBC blog. Tell me what you think about the implications of the capture of personal data on the web - is this a serious problem? Remember to put your own name on your comment!

Media Watch - Sophie and Laura

4 January 2011 Last updated at 12:32

BBC

Facebook used in hunt for Jo Yeates' killer

 

Detectives have begun a Facebook campaign in a bid to catch the killer of Jo Yeates.

Her body was found on Christmas Day, in Longwood Lane, Failand, eight days after she was reported missing from her home in Clifton, Bristol.

The campaign involves an advert that will allow people to contact the incident room via the social networking site rather than calling in.
Police said Facebook was more effective than posters and leaflet drops.

Detectives investigating the murder of the 25-year-old landscape architect have said there was no evidence she was sexually assaulted, but they have not ruled out a sexual motive.
The force has appealed for sightings of a 4x4 seen near to where her body was found.
'63,000 views'
Her landlord, Chris Jefferies, 65, who was arrested on suspicion of her murder, is free on bail.
Det Ch Insp Phil Jones, of Avon and Somerset Police, said he hoped the Facebook appeal would encourage more people to come forward with information.

The force has already received 260 messages through the website

"The majority of people these days are spending time on Facebook and other social networking sites; this has become part of everyday routine for many people," he said.
"This advert allows us to point people to special features on our website with all the latest information, it allows them to contact the incident room direct online rather than calling in.

"I would once again urge anyone who may have not contacted my team and may have information that could help this enquiry to contact us. Let us decide if this information is significant."
He said police had successfully used Facebook in a number of high-profile cases because information could be shared more widely than by poster.
Scott Fulton, head of e-services at the force, said: "On this inquiry alone we have had shares of the story from the force's Facebook page of 24,220.

"Additionally there have been over 63,000 views of the news updates on our website, a further 18,000 on the dedicated Jo page and over 70,000 views of the CCTV clips on our YouTube channel.
'Dangerous chemicals' "Through the website we have had 260 inbound messages to the incident room through the website."
Crime scene investigators are continuing to examine Miss Yeates' flat in Canynge Road.
There was a sign outside the building saying "Do not enter, dangerous chemicals" and officers wearing white suits came out of the flat wearing masks.

A number of uniformed officers were also seen entering Mr Jefferies' flat on the opposite side of the building.
Miss Yeates was last seen at about 2000 GMT on 17 December after she had been drinking with colleagues in the Bristol Ram pub in Park Street in the city.
She visited three shops on the way home and was filmed on CCTV.
She bought a pizza in one of the stores - the receipt was discovered in her flat but no evidence of the pizza or the packaging has been found.


"Facebook began as a geek's hobby. Now it's more popular than Google"http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jan/04/faceboook-mark-zuckerberg-google

Facebook faces challenges in reaching one billion users, not least because Europe and North America will soon reach Facebook saturation, and markets such as China and Russia are dominated by domestic rivals. But the developing world is a huge opportunity for Facebook and one it has already begun to address by working with at least 50 local operators to offer Facebook Zero, a pared-down version of the site that users can access for free via mobiles.
Already the web's biggest photo site, Facebook has disrupted sites such as Photobucket and Yahoo-owned Flickr. Facebook has provided a vast platform that allowed games studios Zynga and Playfish to flourish; Zynga's revenues alone are estimated at $600m for 2010.

Television is lined up next; Facebook is an important app being built into many internet-connected TVs from Samsung's Smart TV to Yahoo's Connected TV that will allow users to Facebook message friends about the shows they are watching together, finally giving TV the potential for targeted advertising.

The volume of information generated by Facebook globally is daunting. In any 20 minutes, Facebook typically sees 1m shared links, 2.7m photos uploaded and 10.2m comments. Facebook also records 7.7m "likes" every 20 minutes, generated not just by users on facebook.com but on more than 2m other sites across the web that have embedded Facebook's commenting tools.

Media Watch - due for whenever it's due... 4th?

Media Guardian (Online) - Friday 31 December 2010 (15.15 GMT)

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/31/anonymous-hackers-zimbabwe-wikileaks
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/29/ofcom-rupert-murdoch-bskyb-buyout

1.) Anonymous hackers target Zimbabwe government over WikiLeaks

"Robert Mugabe's wife Grace is suing the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper for publishing information released by WikiLeaks that links her to the alleged trade in illicit diamonds."

Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, has become the latest victim of online attacks by supporters of WikiLeaks, it was claimed today.

Cyber activists said they had brought down government websites after Mugabe's wife sued a newspaper for publishing a WikiLeaks cable that linked her with the alleged trade in illicit diamonds .

The Zimbabwean government website was unavailable today, while thefinance ministry website displayed a message saying it was under maintenance.

Anonymous, a loose-knit group that has vowed to paralyse sites that act against WikiLeaks, said on its website: "We are targeting Mugabe and his regime in the Zanu-PF who have outlawed the free press and threaten to sue anyone publishing WikiLeaks."

Grace Mugabe has launched a defamation suit against Zimbabwe's Standard newspaper for $15m (£9.5m) for publishing details released by WikiLeaks suggesting that she had gained "tremendous profits" from the trade in illicit diamonds.

The offending article quotes from a US embassy cable that alleged she was among a group of elite Zimbabweans making "several hundred thousand dollars a month" from the sale of illegal stones mined in the politically sensitive Marange district. Grace Mugabe denies the allegations.

Zimbabwe's attorney general has formed a commission to investigate the WikiLeaks cables with a view to bring charges of treason against anyone found to be colluding with "aggressive" foreign governments. This has been seen as a thinly veiled attempt to target the country's prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Anonymous, a 1,000-strong group of activists, rallied on behalf of WikiLeaks after Amazon and other companies terminated business services with the website. It launched Operation Payback to give firms deemed hostile to WikiLeaks a "black eye".

The websites of Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and the company that hosted WikiLeaks were all brought down after severing ties with the whistle blowing site.

The Swedish prosecution office's website was also attacked after it pressed for the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, from the UK to face trial over alleged sexual offences.

Anonymous's so-called "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks, which bring down sites by overpowering them with repeated requests to load, are illegal in the UK.

2.) Ofcom to demand further inquiry of Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB buyout

Rupert Murdoch’s £8bn controversial buyout of BSkyB could be subject to a further six-month long inquiry. - (basically, they are still debating if letting him have full control will be bad for the public and the media)

The media regulator Ofcom is this week expected to recommend thatRupert Murdoch's £8bn controversial buyout of BSkyB should be subject to a further six-month long inquiry – and in so doing hand culture secretary Jeremy Hunt the toughest political decision in his time in office. On Friday, Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards will send over the conclusions of a "public interest" inquiry into whether News Corporation's buyout of Sky will damage media plurality in the UK – and while the document will initially remain confidential most expect the regulator to demand a further investigation by the Competition Commission. That leaves Jeremy Hunt – the cabinet minister suddenly brought into the inquiry after Vince Cable's ill-advised "war on Murdoch" comments – with about 10 working days to decide whether to follow Ofcom's advice or not. Although his discretion is free, it will be a major surprise if he deviates from the interim verdict. At issue is whether, by controlling 100% of BSkyB, Rupert Murdoch will have a disproportionate influence over the British media – in which News Corp has unprecedented cross-media power with titles accounting for 37% of the newspaper sales and control of the biggest broadcaster by turnover in the UK. Critics – an unlikely alliance of normally competing Fleet Street owners, including the companies behind the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mirror and the Guardian – argue that the power and influence of a company with at least £7.5bn of UK turnover will inevitably lead to the diminution of rivals. Contact between the owner of the Times and the Sun and Ofcom in the run-up to Christmas left insiders at News Corp's Wapping headquarters braced for a referral. But that has not stopped sniping between the two with News Corp complaining that Richards did not attend any pre-Christmas case conferences between the two sides. Even Vince Cable's spectacular fall from grace just before Christmas, when the Liberal Democrat business secretary was stripped of his responsibilities for media regulation after he was secretly recorded saying: "I have declared war on Rupert Murdoch [pictured right] and I think I am going to win," is not expected to have changed that outcome because of the quasi-judicial nature of the Ofcom examination. So sensitive is Ofcom's work on the Murdoch enquiry that Richards has had to take personal responsibility for it. The regulator only took Christmas Day and Boxing Day off to conclude an inquiry that has taken two months to tackle issues of Murdoch power over the British media that have been rumbling on for years. Ofcom has only to meet a fairly low threshold to conclude that the Murdoch merger needs to be examined further. A lawyer advising one of the newspaper groups opposing the deal said: "All the regulator has to prove is that there is a potential for a reduction in plurality in the UK. If there is such a potential then it has to recommend that it be referred to the Competition Commission." The regulator's conclusion passes to Jeremy Hunt and he then has about 10 working days to decide what to do – a decision that in law he must take alone, and not in consultation with David Cameron or other members of the cabinet. James Murdoch, who runs News Corp's operations in Europe and Asia, and his team are hoping they will be given the chance to "make representations" to Hunt. Before Christmas Labour queried whether Hunt was a "fit and proper person" to adjudicate, given that he has said: "It does seem to me that News Corp do control Sky already, so it isn't clear to me that in terms of media plurality there is a substantive change." However, Sir Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary, said he was satisfied that Hunt had not pre-judged the issue. If held, a Competition Commission inquiry would amount to a more exacting test of the issues. The second regulator would not necessarily follow the judgment of Ofcom. As in Ofcom's case, the commission's verdict is not binding on Hunt.

Media Guardian- Media Watch Monday 13.12.10 By Sam Walton

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here Guardian writers look back at 12 months of highs and lows- and forward to 2011.

DIGITAL:

Look back at 2010:

• The ipad launch was in April and the device sold 7.5 million in the first six months and it inspired thousands of imitators, launching with rather more success than the iphone 4.
• Google faced a threat from privacy campaigners after admitting its Google Street, view cars had been gathering users passwords and emails.
• Viacom's three year battle with YouTube over copyright infringement ended in June with YouTube eneding up as the winners.
• Viacom is appealing.
• The music industry ended up shutting down pirate bay.
• In April, Mp's ensured an outcry when they passed the clumsy Digital Economy Act with harsh penalties for ill-defined copywright infringment.
• The new government commited themselves to a centre for technology excellence. They then caused controversy when it pledged 50million for superfast broadband rollout without addresing BT's infrastructure monopoly.

New for 2011:

• Competition will get fierce between Google, Facebook and Apple.
• Google will be chasing the smartphone and related advertising markets thorugh its Android handsets.
• Apple is more than likely to refresh its ipad and MacBook Pro lines and Facebook will try to drive its vast audience towards one billion users.
• It is already at 633million and boosted by the film Social Network, the world's biggest website is staking out our social interactions as the advertising territory of the future.

A brilliant summary about how social networking has changed the nature of protest

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11953186

'Beeb gears up for internet struggle' Wednesday 13 October 1999 by Conor O'Sullivan

I wanted to explore how others imagined the internet before the 'big boom' occurred. I think this is a really good example of how the BBC visualised (and wasn't named then) their iPlayer, and how they feel the internet could expand their channel.

Within five years, more people will receive BBC programming via the internet than through television or radio, according to Bob Eggington. That forecast, from the BBC executive spearheading the broadcaster's headlong expansion into online news services, is one of the most striking indications of just how far and how fast the BBC believes its audience will embrace the cyber world.

Eggington is the project director of BBC News Online. His task is to develop the online news operation into a machine capable of delivering rolling bulletins in text, graphics, audio and video over the internet for delivery to a host of devices, including mobile phones, laptops and palmtops, PCs, and conventional television sets, once they can be used on the net.

Eggington and his team of 100 journalists are based at Television Centre, alongside - but separate from - television news. On the other side of the A40, in BBC Worldwide's offices, sits Drew Kaza, managing director of internet and interactive operations. He is about to unleash a huge shake-up at the corporation's commercial internet operation, Beeb.com.

Kaza is planning a much clearer separation between the commercial web site, which carries advertising and acts as a vehicle for e-commerce, and the BBC's public service web sites, which are funded by licence payers. He is set upon an aggressive pursuit of e-commerce business around the world, leveraging the BBC's brand name to reassure customers that they can buy safely through its web sites.

Kaza and Eggington represent the two extremes of the BBC's internet approach; a news service untainted by commerce on one side and the aggressive merchandiser utilising of the broadcaster's huge number of valuable brands on the other.

News Online has ambitious plans for expansion, including the imminent launch of a video-on-demand operation offering viewers the ability to call down up to date news reports as required. Eggington insists that the BBC's service offers more than rivals which, he says, re-version wire copy and add little else. The BBC is aiming to make its internet operation a synthesis of different media, and therefore the first choice of users.

He says that broadcasters have a natural advantage over newspaper internet operations because a rolling service is embedded in their culture. Newspapers, he suggests, are still wedded to batch production. In reality it cuts both ways: Eggington's staff have had to learn how to produce graphics fast and in far larger quantities than normal in television news, where high production values and short bulletin times mean they are used sparingly. If anything, the news operation has most in common with a wire service. News Online aims to have coverage of a significant event on its site within two minutes of the BBC being alerted to its existence. Later takes on the story add graphics, context, audio and video. In total, the staff handle about 300 stories a day.

Behind the journalism sits technology devised to make the stories compatible not just with the internet, but also the Ceefax text service for television, mobile phones, interactive television and portable wireless devices. The technology is supposed to be as versatile in the newsroom, allowing journalists to pull together different types on material - text, video, pictures - into seamless coverage.

But video on demand is where the future lies. Eggington calculates that video makes up just 5% of the online market now, but demand is doubling every four months. As new technology makes video transmission to homes faster and clearer, so video news will become increasingly important.

For Eggington, carrying advertisements on his service is unthinkable - would be tantamount to an admission that BBC news was no longer independent. Culturally, he and his staff live at the opposite end of the BBC spectrum to Kaza, whose strategy is to do what BBC executives in the UK would consider unthinkable - exploit the BBC brand to develop e-commerce revenues around the world.

To ensure there is a clear distinction between the public service web sites and their commercial counterparts, he is shifting content associated with programmes - Top Gear, Top of the Pops, Gardener's World - off Beeb.com and on to the public service sites. The licence fee is, after all, funding this content. A link will take the user across the divide into the commercial arena, but only with clear indications that an e-commerce site is coming.

Kaza wants to exploit these programmes and the BBC's huge magazine stable by selling associated goods. There will be car, music and gardening sites, for example, as well as an auction operation. "Best of Britain" is the phrase on his lips. He will dis tance the BBC slightly from the merchants at first, by not taking any share of the transaction charges. That will help maintain the BBC's claim to impartiality, he says. He will also police the site, and promises to respond quickly to complaints. But his plans involve e-commerce operations around the world, and the BBC may find this a considerable burden.

The aim is to replicate in the commercial world the role the BBC has been seeking for some time in entertainment and news, to be the trusted hand guiding the user through the net. The difference is, of course, that Beeb.com is introducing the viewer/user to people keen to take his or her money

Wikileaks cables blame Chinese Government for 'Google Hacking' (Lyle Petts 6/12/2010)

- According to classified information sent by the US diplomats to Hillary Clinton's state department in Washington, the hacking, which forced the search engine to withdraw from mailand China was down to a senior member of the communist Politburo.
- He searched his own name on google to find that he was being personally criticised, prompting a politicallly inspired assault on Google which led to them losing out on a market of 400 million internet users.
- The politician allegedly collaborated with a second member of the Politburo to try and force Google to drop one of its Chinese links.
- The cyber assault was described as '100% per cent political in nature' and having 'nothing to do with removing Google as a competitor to Chinese search engines.'
- Google claimed that last december it was hit by a 'Highly sophisticated and targeted attack on its corporate infrastructure.'
- Although they claimed in January that 'there was no evidence that the attackers were successful.'
- Google retained a link to the unfiltered Google.com on its Google.cn website, which prompted months of tension before the January incident.
- Dan Piccuta, the US chargé d'affaires recently discovered that Google's worldwide site is uncensored after he allegedly entered his own name and found results critical of him.
- Google claimed that removing the link to google.com is against company policy.
- The Chinese government blocked access to Google for 24 hours after claiming that it was not effectively filtering porographic sites.
- After Google made the attacking public, Hillary Clinton made a speech in Washington, titled 'remarks on internet freedom'
- She was by far in favour of Google, stating that 'countries that restrict free access to internet information risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century.'

 

Extra £50m pledged for superfast broadband everywhere in UK by 2015

- The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, will today announce a further £50m of funding for new projects to push forward the government's ambitions to get superfast broadband to every community in the UK. The intention is to get a "digital hub" connected by fibre optics in every area by 2015


- But critics say the new plans do not address fundamental problems with the way that BT controls the infrastructure needed to install new fibre systems, nor ease inequalities in the way that BT is charged for fibre compared to small companies.


- An Ofcom study published last week showed that only 0.2% of UK households have a fibre-optic broadband connection, compared with 12% in Sweden and 34% in Japan, which leads the world. If successful, the proposals would mean fibre-optic links to telephone "cabinets" in every area, which would then connect to subscribers' homes by their existing copper lines.


-This compromise system is known as FTTCand is generally reckoned to offer a maximum speed of about 40Mbps, compared to FTTH – fibre to the home – which can achieve 100Mbps or more, but requires fibre connections into the house, replacing existing copper wiring.


- A study by the London School of Economics calculates that having a superfast network throughout Britain would create 280,000 new jobs. The Federation of Small Businesses says that it could add £18bn to the UK's GDP. The UK is also an "acknowledged leader" in e-commerce, Hunt says, spending more online per capita than any other country in the world. 


Emily and Megan

Update on wikileaks - the US government is trying to block access to the website

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-knocked-off-net-dns-everydns