Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Was the IWF right on the Wikipedia issue?
December 17th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
In the last few weeks, the Internet Watch Foundation – which I chaired for the six years 2000-2005 – has been in the centre of a storm over its decision to put on a blacklist a page on Wikipedia which contained an image which it judged to be potentially illegal. The most thoughtful piece that […]
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Computing and blind persons
November 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
I recently had occasion to visit the London Head Office of the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) as a result of an invitation from a colleague of mine on the new Communications Consumer Panel (formerly known as the Ofcom Consumer Panel). Leen Petre works for the RNIB as Principal Manager: Media and Culture. […]
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Ever heard of the Internet of things?
November 20th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
One way of looking at the evolution of the Internet is to see it in three stages: first, a fixed Net essentially connecting desktop PCs; second, a mobile Net connecting hand-held mobiles; third, what we call the Internet of things. I’ve explained this next stage in my latest monthly column on Internet issues here.
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Back to 6,000 visits a day
October 30th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The traffic figures for my web site (which embraces my two blogs NightHawk & CommsWatch) follows a couple of cyclical patterns. On a weekly basis, traffic usually peaks on a Tuesday (when people have got on top of the new week’s e-mails?), slowly falls down to Saturday, and starts rising again on the Sunday (when […]
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Has blogging has its day?
October 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
“Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug. Writing a weblog today isn’t the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge.” This […]
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Surfing good for you
October 17th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Apparently new research suggests that, for middle-aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power. A University of California Los Angeles team found searching the web stimulated centres in the brain that controlled decision-making and complex reasoning. More information here. So looking through my web site would actually be good for […]
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The ToUChstone blog
September 22nd, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The ToUCstone blog is a new on-line forum for policy people at the Trades Union Congress (TUC). The organisation has some really excellent people covering different policy areas, but you only tend to hear from them whenever they’ve finished a huge new report, which isn’t so often, so they’ve created a blog where they can […]
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Hatred on the Net
July 29th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
My web site and this blog seek to promote an inclusive and tolerant world view – but not everyone shares my vision. This recent “Economist” article gives many examples of hatred on the Net and what it calls cyber-nationalism and I have a section on my site which examines “Extremism On The Net”. All the […]
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How many on the Net?
July 24th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
According to IDC’s Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast, a quarter of the global population – that’s 1.4 billion people – will regularly use the internet during 2008. So it looks like that Internet thingy is here to say. Looking at growth prospects, it is suggested that the number of Net users is set to jump […]
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A clever use of the Net
July 17th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The British trade union Unison is running a campaign on behalf of 600,000 local government workers who are taking action because employers are asking them to take a pay cut. The union’s web site provides six ways to use the Net to contribute to the campaign. Check out the campaign here. I’m delighted to see […]
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