Local News Breaking Alternative News and Media - RINF

Keeping the Internet Neutral

Mick Meaney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:37:28 +0000

It is a concern of an awful lot of people and now a consultation has been launched by the European commission.

The consultation was announced by the Vice-President for the DIgitial Agenda, Neelie Kroes and it is intended to allow all interested parties a chance to get their voices heard. The consultation is hoping to hear from all sides of the debate – consumers, content providers, business and academia.

One of the core issues is the increasing practice of how Internet Service providers manage their traffic. In order to keep the internet neutral then traffic management will be vital. High speed connections throughout most European countries are driving the advancement of different technologies from IPTV, Internet phone calls through VOIP and numerous other functions being driven by some of the worlds most popular websites like BBC IPlayer.

There are obviously concerns that any major traffic shaping conducted by the service providers could affect the development of certain technologies and also the neutrality of the internet to people, services and applications.

There is a general agreement that some sort of definition and standard should be set to maintain the neutrality of the internet and this is perhaps the main driver for this consultation and subsequent debate.

Many groups are also concerned with the potential liberty and privacy issues that could be affected if ISPs allows certain applications or services to run faster than others. Many providers already throttle certain applications like P2P protocols from specific groups or IP addresses. This could easily be expanded under pressure for example big media companies wanting to curb such protocols suspected of distributing pirated and copyrighted material.

Already some countries have throttled and blocked access to applications and services which allow http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/library/public_consult/index_en.htm

New generation of playground equipment could help fight childhood obesity

Mick Meaney — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:30:47 +0000

For the playstation generation, technology is undoubtedly at the forefront of leisure time, however with sedentary activities topping the list of children’s favourite pastimes, it’s no surprise that childhood obesity is an ever present concern.

As games industry giants fight to introduce active gaming into their offer, conversely, outdoor play manufacturers are introducing technology to the playground to try and recapture a lost generation. Swings and roundabouts no longer hold the attention of a nation of gamers and it seems the twenty-first century playground is undergoing an unexpected makeover – of a digital nature.

New technological developments in playground equipment encourage interaction and strengthen mental and physical agility, coaxing the user into exerting physical effort without even realising; often with a series of jumps, stretches and manoeuvres to be completed against the clock. Another benefit is their environment; the child is still getting their tech-fix, but in a more health-conscious outdoor setting – hopefully opting to rediscover their enthusiasm for the traditional playground while there.

Indeed the very reason that technology is so important in play is its increasing intrusion into every aspect of our lives – games consoles have been top of children’s wish lists since the launch of the gameboy twenty years ago now, and the play industry has been forced to take notice of this.

Barry Leahey, Sales Director at Playdale Playgrounds, explains how children today have a very different perception of fun to that of their parents and grandparents. He says, “Whereas children thirty years ago were sent outside with a football, nowadays they’re more likely to be confined indoors with an Xbox 360. This means we have to find a way of combining this technology-centred idea of fun with physical exertion – remember that children are meant to play because it’s enjoyable – not because it burns calories.”

One benefit of technology-enhanced playground equipment is the feedback it can offer on the positive effects on the users’ health. For example, Playdale, who also design and manufacture school playground equipment, have developed their i.play unit to offer feedback on the number of games played, the amount of calories burned and the equivalent resulting heart rate. While calories should not be of importance to children, they are certainly a good indicator of the effectiveness of any equipment that promotes physical activity and this, along with other data generated, is likely to be of great interest to the play provider so they can gauge the popularity of their playground equipment and justify the expense too.

Certainly the play industry is aware of the challenge facing it, and is already hard at work developing new products to educate and engage young people. There may be challenging times ahead to lure children back outside, but the stakes – society’s health – are surely worth the effort.

UK Companies Not Utilizing SEO

Mick Meaney — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:35:56 +0000

According to results by ThomsonLocal.com and Analytics SEO, from the UK’s first audit of small business websites, almost 50% of all UK business websites are not using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as part of their online marketing strategy.

Analytics SEO set out 30 criteria as key signals of SEO quality and fed them into their pioneering SEO software that was able to automatically and simultaneously perform an SEO audit of all 1,001 sites.

Here’s a summary of the findings.

The general state of UK business websites
■ 47% of all business websites have none or very basic levels of SEO
■ Over 70% of companies with less than 50 employees have none or very basic levels of SEO
■ Unsurprisingly larger companies tend to have better websites
■ With a few exceptions, the length of time a business has been trading or the type of business has little on no bearing on the quality of its website
■ 12% of all business websites are not indexed in any search engine
■ 0.6% of business websites are under construction
■ Only 3% of all business websites could be considered to have advanced levels of SEO

Technical Configuration of Websites
■ 74% of businesses have no basic website analytics software for tracking site visits
■ Only 2% of all businesses used advanced website analytics software
■ 82% have no HTML sitemap
■ 75% have no XML sitemap
■ 69% have no Robots.txt file configured
■ 71% have no Custom 404 page configured

Website Content
■ 35% do not have unique Page Titles
■ 56% do not have unique Page Descriptions
Popularity
■ The average company with less than 50 employees has 408 inbound links
■ The average UK company has 6,874 inbound links

“Now more than ever consumers are turning to search engines like Google and Bing, as well as local search websites for help in finding the best local suppliers,” said Jill Pringle, Marketing Director, ThomsonLocal.com, which commissioned the research.

“Local businesses need to wake up to the fact that investing in better quality websites with original content can bring them new customers more quickly, and ensuring that the website they build is search engine friendly is essential in today’s market.”

Woweb, a leading UK SEO and web design company in Lancashire, said “Any business website can dramatically increase revenue with a good SEO strategy. We’re seeing companies increase turnover by upwards of £50,000 per year just from having a solid search engine plan. However SEO is not a quick fix, it takes time to achieve but rewards are great once accomplished.”

Report details startling discoveries concerning the pitfalls of natural immune boosters

Mick Meaney — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:34:14 +0000

by Solomon Jones

We all understand that it is a properly functioning immune system the keeps us healthy. Further we understand that when our immune system becomes unbalanced we invite illness and disease to take hold. That is why we take immune boosters, whether it is for fighting off a cold or flu, or some other condition we are facing, or fear we may face in the future, immune booster are becoming the excepted standard right along with our daily dose of a good multi-vitamin.

However a recently released report calls into question the ability of immune boosters to properly support immune system function. This report details the recent findings of peer-reviewed studies that prove only a small percentage of natural immune boosters actually produce results.This research has caused shock waves thought out the dietary supplement industry.

A Healthy immune defense is the greatest hope for stopping, delaying, or living through epidemics brought on by bacteria and viruses. Some facts you should be aware of;

1.One in eight U.S. women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime[1]
2.Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S.[2]
3.Businesses, homes and autos release more than 100 million tons of toxic chemicals into the air, land, and water[3].
4.More than 40% of all adults suffer adverse health effects due to stress[4].
5.More than 2 million patients contract hospital-acquired infections each year.

These are some of the reasons immune boosters have become so popular. However do they actually work? “Immune Boosters Reviewed” covers the peer-reviewed results of forty of the most popular immune support products available on the dietary supplement market today. For more information on this ground-breaking report visit http://www.vitaminpros.com/ImmuneBoosters.html now.

Many manufacturers use elaborate words to confuse us when we are determining a good performing product from a bad performing one. Statements like “boost natural killer cell production by X”, or “we use a proprietary process that reduces the size of the ingredient so small that it is easily absorbed into the immune system,” etc…Yet none of them offer any substantiated third party proof that their products actually support proper immune system function. Are you throwing your hard earned money down the drain?

Many of the most popular compounds were reviewed in this report, including Aloe, Transfer Factors, Beta Glucan , Vitamin E and many others. The most startling discovery of this study was the fact that many of the most popular immune support supplements produced the same results as the negative control of the study, proving they provided little or no immune support characteristic.

If the statistics above are not enough to worry you on whether or not your immune booster is doing its job, consider the following;

1.The average kitchen dishcloth contains 4 billion living germs.
2.The average computer keyboard and elevator buttons contain more germs than a toilet seat.
3.Each year, more than 164 million school days are lost due to illness.
4.The common cold is actually caused by one of 200 different viruses that produce similar symptoms.
5.One germ can multiply to more than 4 million in just 8 hours.
Why do you need this report?

1.Maintain your health
2.If you are taking vitamins to stay healthy, because adding immune boosters to your diet is just as important, if not more so, especially in these challenging time.
3.If you are presently taking Immune Boosters, you owe it to yourself to make sure you are taking products that workfare considering taking them you need this free report.

For more information on this ground-breaking report visit http://www.vitaminpros.com/ImmuneBoosters.html now.

Ref notes:
[1] National Cancer Institute
[2] American Heart Association
[3] Greenpeace, Health & Energy
[4] American Institute of Stress

Blogging Tips For A Better Internet Marketing Strategy

Mick Meaney — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:28:37 +0000

by Amanda Music

It seem that blogging is becoming more and more popular among people of all ages. This is becoming more and more evident through social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. As more and more people join social networking websites, fellow members want them to check out their blog or click their link. It is just proof of how quickly the blogosphere is changing.

I think blogging can one day become something that everyone is involved in. Blogging is about sharing information. Some people may not enjoy reading the newspaper, but you can bet that there is a blog out there for everyone to love. If people become more involved online, in the blogging world, in the social world, then I think we will have much happier people. Being online gives people a sort of confidence, so they can hide behind their computer screen and say whatever they want. But no one actually takes anything anyone says on here seriously, and I think that is the most important thing to think about. If people don’t like your blog, they won’t come back, and so you most likely won’t have to deal with those people anyway.

There are other benefits of blogging, too. More and more webmasters are quitting their full-time jobs offline to keep up with their full-time job online, and they really are making money doing it. I never would have imagined that to be possible for so many people. Even better than that, being popular is becoming more and more possible, even for “geeks”. People begin to trust your opinion and that feels really good. Basically it’s like a club, and whenever you post, it is like a club meeting. And subscribers will actually look forward to them, and to what you’re writing!

However, though all of this sounds fine and dandy, it takes a lot of work. It isn’t easy and I think that is what holds so many people back from taking part in this world. Blogging can take up a lot of your time in the beginning. You have to promote your blog before you can have the popularity and the trust. Though more and more people are starting to blog, about three fourths of them give up too soon. If you’re interested in blogging, don’t give up! You can find tons of blogging tips here at my own personal blog: http://elephantintheblog.com and I can personally recommend several of my fellow bloggers to you, if you’d like, but here are some ways you can get more involved online:

Join a forum. Tons of people will start to notice you in the threads.

Publish articles online. If you post them to places like eHow, they will get a lot of visitors and you will gain readers.

Comment on other blogs. If you comment on other blogs that you’re interested in, people will see what your opinions are too.

Hold a contest. People like winning things, so this always gets a lot of attention if you do it right!

It is important for bloggers to know that they should just be themselves and add personality to their blog and they will find readers with a little work. Interact with other bloggers as well, and not just potential readers! They will help you.

MySpace Relaunch?

Mick Meaney — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:15:15 +0000

As Facebook hits 500 million members, News Corp. which bought MySpace for US$580 million in 2005 has revealed plans to relaunch the site and will target a younger audience.

MySpace currently receives 65 million to 70 million unique users a month in the United States.

News Corp. chief digital officer Jon Miller said the site will “go younger, go youthful” and will put a premium on both “creativity and self-expression.”

“A little more rock and roll, we are pregnant with product,” Miller said. “It’s really starting to roll out over the course of the next few weeks and well into the fall leading into a full relaunch of the service,” he added.

Why does Turkey censor the Internet?

Mick Meaney — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:01:38 +0000

by KLAUS JURGENS

Has surfing the Net become a crime? Are we not entitled to live in a knowledge-based economy? We must resist the temptation to judge the Turkish civic liberties book by its cover and instead find out who the real players are behind the recent domestic crusade against the free flow of information.

Accepting “change” as a constant factor both in business as well as everyday life is no easy task. In many instances “change” is in fact linked to the advent of information technologies (IT). This article, actually, is perhaps based on online research done by visiting banned websites and clicking onto certain unrestricted Internet access providers that no court or politician can block, thereby bypassing the ban like everyone else in Turkey.

Both from a technical and judicial perspective, it is of course possible to limit access to the Internet for a specific geographic location or website. The question though is about the “why” and not the “how”; why would a government wish to censor the free flow of information, and in such a large capacity? Estimations for Turkey are surprisingly high. According to the BBC’s Jonathan Head (July 2, 2010) local campaigners for Internet freedom say that at present around 4,000 websites in Turkey are blocked.

While the Turkish government passed the initial law concerning the regulation of Internet sites in 2007 (Law No 5651, BBC ibid.) the Turkish courts were given the ultimate decision-making authority to enforce it; they were also granted the power to interpret which sites should be regulated. Since May 2008, the popular website YouTube has been added to the infamous list of banned websites, the court having concluded that several of the videos featured “criminal” activity. The sad truth is that many are still lost as to which “criminal offenses” the YouTube videos depicted.

In a remarkable piece of investigative journalism the BBC met with Chairwoman Tansel çölaşan of Turkey’s Atatürkist Thought Association (ADD) goes without saying that çölaşan is not at the forefront of promoting free speech, especially if it involves debate concerning Turkish politics. With the vindication of a strident Turkish nationalist, she speaks with very little concern about how foreigners might interpret the country’s free speech laws. She told the BBC: “(…) for us Atatürk is a symbol of democracy and women’s emancipation (…) I am not bothered by the impact of the court decision,” referring to the YouTube ban in particular.

As a matter of fact, the ADD itself is behind most complaints that ultimately led the government to engage in limiting the free access to the Internet. At the heart of the matter is the fact that foreign websites’ contributors have insulted the founder of the modern Turkish Republic, which in itself is considered a criminal offense in this country.

The question is, where do we draw the line in defending free speech? Let’s first step away from the specific issue of the Internet bans to focus on the free speech issue in a more generalized context. Should we, for example, ban movies with Louis de Funés because in one of them he portrayed a successful bank robber? Shall we eliminate national televised access to “Sponge Bob” because children see cartoon characters maiming each other for the sake of amusement?

It is time in Turkey for the government to decide if it is for free speech, with all of its complex social side effects, and to accept that people are able to discern for themselves what material is useful and appropriate. Banning Internet access defeats the point of the Internet in the first place, which is to provide widespread access to all kinds of information. With the current government ideology in place suggesting that the public is incapable of managing itself in the face of “criminal” imagery, the next “logical” step is then to ban satellite television, foreign print media an even (gasp!) cross-border travel. While pressure groups like the ADD are, of course, entitled to lobby the government, they should not attempt to run it.

Integrity begins at home. This life-long learning process operates on the assumption that over time we learn the difference between right and wrong. Insulting past leaders of certain countries may be an offense depending on local laws, but banning certain websites because less than 1 percent of their content may be offensive is a greater sin than any.

Maybe I am too optimistic, but democracies should mature. Either we need to accept that some people disagree with what we believe and let them publish it, or we move backwards into the Stone Age. If, for example, we need governments to tell us that becoming a suicide bomber is bad, mankind should urgently reconsider its state of affairs. Unhindered access to the Internet is a democratic right, not a privilege.

I wish to end my contribution by a quote that one of our readers sent in by Alfred Whitney Griswold: “Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.” (New York Times, Feb. 24, 1959)

High Court Rules Fast-track Deportations Illegal

Mick Meaney — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:56:29 +0000

A High Court judge has ruled that fast-track deportations of foreign nationals in the UK as unlawful.

Emma Ginn, of Medical Justice, said the UK Border Agency (UKBA) admitted that the fast track removal process was used in 24 cases in its first year but that the figure had then risen to 145 a year. The practice was growing, she said.

“The UKBA were only using it in exceptional circumstances,” Ginn said, “for example when they were dealing with unaccompanied children or those at risk of suicide. What’s so vile is that it was the most vulnerable who were being targeted by this policy.

“They will now have to give 72 hours notice but since they can give it on a Friday night it will still only provide people subject to immigration controls with one working day’s notice of deportation.”

The BBC reports:

A judge ruled that the Home Office policy meant people were being given “little or no notice” of removal and were deprived of access to justice.

The policy was quashed by the High Court in a victory for Medical Justice.

The organisation provides independent medical and legal advice to detainees in immigration removal centres.

At a hearing last month, Dinah Rose QC, appearing for Medical Justice, told the High Court that the general practice was to give those facing deportation 72 hours’ notice of removal.

But she said an “exceptions policy”, introduced in March 2007 and widened in January this year, created cases in which the timeframe involved was much shorter.

In some cases, she said, immigration officers were swooping late at night and escorting people to flights leaving only a few hours later.

Home Office lawyers argued that the deportation policy was “sufficiently flexible” to avoid any human rights breaches, and that detainees were given as much notice as possible before removal.

Government changes good for outsourcing industry

Mick Meaney — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:22:59 +0000

With Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s recent plans outlined in his white paper entitled ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ The move to create new and cost efficient spending plans for government funds is increasing and affecting more business units than ever before.

Despite patients and doctors being promised a bigger role in health services many care trusts and strategic health authorities will be phased out in favour of spending power moving over to GPs.

The health related online systems are likely to be at the forefront of new implementations in order to deliver services in a form that is quicker and easier for patients to access.

To enable some of these changes many IT infrastructure and support elements will need to be carefully considered and with potential competition from locally sourced IT providers who can offer localised facilities and arrangements which the new less centralised budgetary focus will highlight.

The likely outcome is that these localised practice owners will form their own strategy that incorporates all of their specific opportunities for sourcing. Outsourcing, procurement and shared services.

In conjunction with this there is a growing need for strategic sourcing advisories like Elix-IRR who are a uk based group of consultants who have cross-discipline experts who have a breath of experience and knowledge covering all sides of the new strategic and creative approaches required for these changing and dynamic new situations.

With all of the reforms currently going on there will be many people with little or no previous experience of developing sourcing strategies that encompass the current diverse and creative approaches needed. These people will need to rely on expert advisors who can assist them in creating and delivering new sourcing strategies and renegotiating existing contracts that are soon due for renewal.

Outsourcing slump requires creative thinking

Mick Meaney — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:19:01 +0000

Sourcing advisory companies like Elix-IRR, the uk strategic sourcing advisory are likely to do very well from the current economic slump as government contracts shift to the private sector and cost-cutting exercises happen in most large companies trying to keep afloat while their customers freeze or remove the budgets they expected to use for work this year.

During the last 18 months as predictions about economic crisis have turned into reality it’s been harder and harder for businesses to make their financial numbers add up. Everything from corporate restructuring to outsourcing large swathes of internal processes are giving executives a lot to think about.

For the people ending up with the project of finding new sourcing strategies the job can be a lot bigger and more urgent than they would expect or hope for. The decisions need to be more creative, more impactful and include considerations for many types of business strategy rather than be in the forum of traditional cost based resource reallocation.

For some executives this is too much to handle alone and it’s necessary to bring in experience corporate sourcing experts who understand how to create an impressive strategy that can actually be put into practice and seen through to delivery and beyond.

Many executives are also facing the prospect of having to soon renew existing relationships but with the understanding that they’ll need to be modified to incorporate their new sourcing strategy and may have legal implications which need to be carefully considered before they can be finalised.

Locking themselves in to an unsuitable contract with a supplier than understands the leverage they have over a desperate client who is busy restructuring can break an otherwise successful newly developed sourcing strategy.

Elix-iRR’s customers include corporate giants like Lloyds TSB, O2, Royal Mail and American express which means they are very likely to be leading the industry pull for creative and powerful new sourcing initiatives for near-shoring, off-shoring, buy side, sell side, legal and advisory consulting projects in 2010.