Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Happy birthday (and thank you) to Wikipedia
January 15th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
On 15 January 2001, a new online encyclopaedia was born: it was originally called Nupedia. The concept then was to invite experts to contribute articles and, by the end of the first year, they had a grand total of 22. The next year was not that much better. The plan changed dramatically when the founders […]
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Regulation of the Internet: then and now
January 12th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
Once again, we have a fierce debate about Internet content that may not be illegal but could be harmful and is certainly grossly offensive. In this case, it is sexualised images of people without their knowledge or consent created by the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok supported by the social media site X. In Britain, the […]
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It’s time that I came to terms with AI
June 16th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Like many men in now their 70s, I came late to computing – and I would probably have come even later if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was asked to become Head of Research when the Communication Workers Union (CWU) was created in 1995. This made me head of a team of […]
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It will take you 18 minutes to listen to this talk – but you won’t regret it
April 20th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
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Normal service will now be resumed
January 6th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
I’ve had a personal blog called NightHawk for 22 years now but, for the last three weeks, I’ve had a technical problem which has prevented me from blogging. This has been one of the longest down times in the life of my blog and it has been deeply frustrating. But, thanks to an IT wizard, […]
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What was most popular on Wikipedia in 2024?
December 5th, 2024 by Roger Darlington
Seventeen years ago, I wrote a column with the title “Is Wikipedia the best site on the web?”. I thought then – and I think now – that it is an amazing resource and I use it every day. It is totally non-commercial and funded by subscriptions. I’ve long donated annually and fore the last […]
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Three-fold increase of abuse imagery of 7-10-year-olds as IWF detects more child sexual abuse material online than ever before
January 13th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the UK body established by industry to combat child abuse images online. It has just published its annual report and the headline messages are: Record amount of child sexual abuse material taken down after action by IWF. More reports investigated in 2021 than in the whole first 15 years […]
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Why has it taken so long for the UK to move on regulation of the Internet?
February 13th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
For six years (2000-2005), I was the first independent Chair of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an industry-funded body which combats illegal content, primarily child abuse images, online. We had significant success, certainly in eliminating the hosting of child abuse images in the UK. However, I was concerned that there was other material online which, […]
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Online connectivity and confidence still a work in progress
July 19th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
This week, I attended an event at the British Library organised by the communications regulator Ofcom under the title “Making Sense Of Media”. At this occasion, Ofcom launched a Making Sense Of Media Network and a Making Sense Of Media Advisory Panel. The proportion of non-users of the Internet in the UK is unchanged since […]
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“Observer” journalist Carole Cadwalladr calls out the tech giants in this TED talk
April 22nd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
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