Internet Use/New Technologies
12 August 2007
Telecoms in Africa: Not so EASSy The Economist
A plan to run a submarine cable down Africa's east coast runs into difficulty: The East African Submarine Cable System (EASSy), a project to wire up several African countries with high-speed optical fibre, is not living up to its name. The plan, hatched in 2003, was simple enough: lay an 9,900km (6,200-mile) submarine cable along the east coast of the continent, from Sudan to South Africa, touching at several points along the way, and then link it up with the rest of the world. But the scheme has become entangled in disagreements between operators and governments over its business model.
11 August 2007
Worldwide E-Learning To Draw Nearly US$53 Billion By 2010 Information Week
E-learning has emerged as the second most popular method for organizational teaching, in terms of hours spent, and is quickly increasing in use.
10 August 2007
Web 2.0 set to boom in Asia-Pacific ZDNet
Expect Internet businesses in the Asia-Pacific region to start ringing the cash registers in two to three years, according to a new study released by IDC.
Technology and being green
A few stories on technology and the environment - failing technologies because they're too cramped and emit too much heat (OK, not quite a green story); minimising heat and power waste and cutting energy in data centres. Oh, and Apple seem to be claiming they realise their products contribute to energy use with their new iMacs!
09 August 2007
More time spent on Web than newspapers, study finds Sydney Morning Herald
A study finds that U.S. consumers are increasingly shifting their attention away from traditional, advertising-supported media in favor of entertainment such as the Internet, video games and cable TV, which consumers pay for. As a result, the boom in online advertising is expected to continue, with all Internet advertising spending - including ads on Web sites of traditional media outlets - overtaking print newspaper advertising in 2010 as the largest advertising category, according to a report released Tuesday by Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media investment firm.
China tries to cure Net addicts at summer camp CNet
China is launching an experimental summer camp for 40 young adults to try to wean them off their Internet addiction, state media said Tuesday. The 10-day program will accept those aged between 14 and 22 once they have undergone a psychological test and evaluation.
Paris leaps ahead with broadband
With debate around the world, and in particular in Australia with a federal election due (most likely) later this year, about high-speed broadband, there's an interesting story on BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight (Tuesday, 8 August) on what's happening in France, or rather, Paris. A fibre-to-the-home network is being built, with France Telecom and Free offering download speeds of up to 100mbps.
08 August 2007
Cost-conscious consumers transform European mobile phone market International Herald Tribune
Across Europe, experts say, growing ranks of cost-conscious consumers like Knight are transforming the Continent's mobile phone market by bypassing established networks and forcing big operators to reinvent themselves to stay competitive.
07 August 2007
The Ultimate Search Engine Information Week
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and dozens of search specialists, including those catering to business customers, are racing to develop next-generation technologies that do a better job of getting people the information they seek. With emerging tools, people will no longer have to dumb down their queries with the pidgin language understood by first-generation search engines. They'll be able to ask questions in English and other languages--or pose no question at all and automatically receive results based on their earlier queries or the applications they're using.
05 August 2007
comScore Releases Rankings For Top Japanese Web Properties comScore
comScore released its first report on Japan's top Internet properties and top gaining properties for June. The study was based on data collected through the comScore World Metrix audience ratings service and took into account all unique visitors age 15 and over, who accessed the Internet from a home or work computer. ComScore found there were a total of 53.7 million unique visitors online in Japan in June, or 49 percent of the country's population, age 15 or older; Yahoo! was the most popular property, with 41.5 million unique visitors. Yahoo! now reaches 77 percent of the total Japanese online population, and averaged 33 visits per visitor in June and the average Japanese Internet user spends 15 days per month online.
What's Good for a Business Can Be Hard on Friends New York Times
Cellphone plans that encourage subscribers to talk mainly to people in the same network are having unintentional social effects.
04 August 2007
Google working on own-brand handset to grab share of $11bn mobile adverts The Times
Google is angling for a huge slice of the potential US$11 billion mobile advertising market with the launch of a "Google phone" especially tailored to its services. Google is understood to be developing a handset that is customised to showcase its products, such as its search engine, e-mail and Google Maps.
Millions want mobile internet services vnunet
The mobile internet will never hit the mainstream unless mobile network operators and device suppliers can "cross the marketing chasm" necessary to attract consumers, experts warned today. According to new research from Point Topic and YouGov, there are millions of potential customers who are keen to use the mobile internet if the prices and service options are right.
03 August 2007
Facebook continues its rise, but not in Asia The Times
Facebook has continued its inexorable rise as the social networking site of the moment, but questions remain about its ability to tap the Asian market, where other sites are significantly more popular.
Social Networking Goes Global comScore
comScore released the results of a study on the expansion of social networking across the globe, revealing that several major social networking sites have experienced dramatic growth during the past year. Social networking behemoth MySpace.com attracted more than 114 million global visitors age 15 and older in June 2007, representing a 72-percent increase versus year ago. Facebook.com experienced even stronger growth during that same time frame, jumping 270 percent to 52.2 million visitors. Bebo.com (up 172 percent to 18.2 million visitors) and Tagged.com (up 774 percent to 13.2 million visitors) also increased by orders of magnitude.
comScore Reports Top U.K. Sites for June comScore
comScore found the total U.K. online population to be higher than everin June - some 31.7 million unique visitors, representing 63 percent of the total U.K. population age 15 and older. The average user of the Internet in the U.K. spent almost 35 hours online during the month. Google remained the most visited property in the U.K. with 27.7 million unique visitors in June, reaching 88 percent of the total U.K. online population, down slightly from May. Microsoft and eBay remained the second and third most visited properties in the U.K., with 26.8 million and 22.1 million unique visitors respectively.
Feeling okay? Millions of cyberchondriacs seek health advice New Zealand Herald
Worried about that niggling pain in your arm? Concerned about those persistent headaches? If you've searched online for information about medical woes you're not alone. The number of so-called cyberchondriacs seeking health information on the web has soared to about 160 million in 2006 - a 37 per cent rise over two years, according a new poll.
id: ICT stakeholders prepare roadmap for convergence AsiaMedia
In order to anticipate changes and to channel advances in technologies and ideas into a coherent growth stream, stakeholders in the information and communication technology sector have created a formulating roadmap. "The roadmap basically says how we want the ICT sector to move forward, considering all the existing challenges faced by all the stakeholders involved," Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Body member Heru Sutadi told The Jakarta Post after a seminar on fixed-mobile convergence in Jakarta.
us: FCC Hands Google a Partial Victory New York Times
The Federal Communications Commission moved cautiously toward creating an open wireless broadband network as it weighed the interests of cellphone carriers and other contenders.
01 August 2007
Second Life Goes Legit Forbes
Players in Second Life break plenty of physical laws, flying and teleporting around their virtual world and crafting made-to-order bodies and buildings. Federal laws, however, aren't so flexible. Following an FBI investigation, Linden Labs has banned all forms of gambling from Second Life, according to a posting on the company's blog. Linden Labs had announced in April that it was cooperating with FBI scrutiny of the virtual world, including law enforcement officials' visits to the game's casinos.
Half of European calls to be mobile by 2008 The Register
Mobile calls are replacing fixed-line usage across Europe, according to a new report from Analysys, but people aren't talking more, they're just using fixed-lines less. The change has been most stark in Finland, where 2006 saw another 10 per cent of calls migrate onto mobile networks; bringing the total to 74.6 per cent at the end of the year.
Time-wasting staff given a slap in Facebook The Times
Tens of thousands of workers have been banned from using social networking sites such as Facebook by employers seeking to curb the wasting of office time. IT experts say that companies are asking for help in blocking access to Facebook, MySpace and Bebo after realising that they could not prevent their staff from surfing the sites in work hours.
Second Life Loses Gamblers But Finds God Information Week
An Italian Catholic priest is urging the faithful to participate in Second Life as a way to keep people from losing touch with the real world, though Linden Lab's decision to ban gambling may reconnect more people with reality than spiritual intervention.
31 July 2007
Surfing at Work? Join the Club PC World
Americans who feel bored and underpaid do work hard -- at surfing the Internet and catching up on gossip, according to a survey that found U.S. workers waste about 20 percent of their working day. An online survey of 2,057 employees by online compensation company Salary.com found about six in every 10 workers admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour working day.
30 July 2007
comScore Publishes Review of Latin American, French & German Internet Usage
comScore has published reviews of Latin American, German and French internet usage. Highlights include Brazil had the largest online population with 15.8 million users, 11% of the country’s population over 15. However Chile, with 45% of its population online, had the highest Internet penetration; the average Latin American Internet user spent 29 hours online during the month. In Germany Google was the most visited property, attracting 22.8 million unique visitors. Google reached 69% of the total German online population and recorded an average of 40 visits per visitor over the course of the month – almost double that of any of the other Top 10 ranked properties. Microsoft Sites and eBay remain second and third. In France, comScore found the French online population was 26.1 million in June, 2% up on May. The average visitor spent over 27.5 hours online in the month. Google remained the most visited property in France with 18.1 million unique visitors, and now reaches 70% of the French online population. Microsoft and France Telecom remained the second and third.
