Focus New Media blog

ICANN make up any domain I like!

amy — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:10:49 +0100

How about...

best-cakes-in.theworld?

restaurant-at.theendoftheuniverse?

my-dad-is-better-than.yours?!

or, more applicably:

These are just some of the potential urls that may come out of ICANN's latest announcement regarding top level domains.

Caving into stakeholder pressure, ICANN have agreed to open up the virtual real estate of the web by making it possible for people to select their own domain names.

Currently, internet users have a limited choice of 21 domain extensions, such as .com, .org, and .uk. By this time next year people may be able to apply for whatever they like.

A major factor behind this change was the pressure and influence exerted by non-English users of the web.

"One of the most exciting prospect before us is that the expanding system is also being planned to support extensions in the languages of the world," said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN's Chairman. "This is going to be very important for the future of the Internet in Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Russia." The present system only supports 37 Roman characters.

Many pundits see this move as an act of appeasement to the Chinese, who have made many moves to implement a separate internet (going further, even than their Great Firewall). Others see it as an inevitable solution to increasing web usage, much like the periodic extension of local telephone codes.

I'm personally hanging on to get first dibs at my own name extension - hands off all you other amy wilson's!

Clever marketing from Mozilla

amy — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:04:43 +0100

Well, clever perhaps isn't the word but effective sounds a bit dull.

Creating a buzz around Firefox 3.0's launch day by attempting to make a World Record for the number of software downloads has worked rather well. Over 8.3 million users grabbed the software within the 24-hour window, a figure that is being impartially scrutinised before submission to the Guinness Book of Records.

The fact that no other software company has previously attempted this record will no doubt leave some well-paid marketing execs kicking themselves.

In terms of web development, Firefox 3.0 promises a "leaner, speedier experience", with access to sites like gmail being up to 6 times faster. It certainly has our own developers smiling!

AVG anti-malware messes with web stats

amy — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:45:50 +0100

If you've noticed your site stats going through the roof recently it may not be down to your 2nd quarter marketing efforts but an unexpected side effect of AVG's latest anti-virus software.

20 million users are estimated to have upgraded to version 8 over the past couple of months. One of the first things you'll notice upon installation is that for any search carried out in Google, Yahoo or MSN, a green tick or red cross appears by each returned result.

AVG searches all sites for malware, disguising itself as a 'real' visitor to fool the more sophisticated programmes. Which is good news for users but disastrous for website owners who rely on analytics packages to successfully measure 'real' traffic from which to base their online marketing budget.

By making an anti-malware 'probe' that is indistinguishable from a human visit, AVG may have accidentally created more problems than it intended to solve. Web developers may have to work hard to produce an answer to this mess or demand that AVG modify its package.

Source: The Register

Web development depends on faster broadband

amy — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 09:34:15 +0100

This week we'll be concentrating on broadband technology. The future of UK web development industry very well may depend upon increased investment in this area to ensure we don't fall behind other European nations in the race for average 100Mbps speeds.

What made me think of this today:

- Radio 4 program last week talking about the total lack of broadband in some areas of the Scottish Highlands.

- The BBC's front page news this morning (in the technology section).

- remembering our blog post back in January.

The unifying power of dance

amy — Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:43:25 +0100

"Honeybees can communicate with others from far-off continents by learning to interpret their dance moves, scientists have found."

I'm afraid I can't think of even the most tenuous link between this article and web development or our industry, it's just the best thing I've read in the papers all week.

Cross species communication doesn't happen all that much (unless you count how many times your pet dog induces you to yawn a week) so it's pretty exciting when it does. Especially when this involves the deployment of jazz hands (or wings oscillating wildly, which is almost the same thing).

Honeybees find food sources by sending out intrepid explorer bees to find flower food or die trying. If they return, they have to do a little dance to let other worker bees know in which direction it lies and how far to travel. Different honeybee species dance in a variety of manners (the French precariously carrying a baguette under one wing, for example).

Amazingly, if you put a bunch of Eurasian honeybees and Asian honeybees together in a hive, the latter species manage to learn the formers' funky dance moves in a jiffy - leading them to the same food sources! Brilliant!!!

You can read the proper articles about honey bees here and here. For more stories about shaking pandas and cannibalistic ladybirds, go here and here.

Sources
Guardian
Science Daily
Null Hypothesis
Animal of the Week

Facebook charged with Canadian privacy laws violation

amy — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:03:34 +0100

Facebook has just been charged with a series of privacy violations by a Canadian public policy group.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before this happened, especially after the latest BBC reportage indicated how easily a rogue program could be created to harvest personal information from the site.

Canadian officials have called for a full review of social networking rules. In terms of web development, this appears to be an essential next step for one ofthe fastest-growing areas of our industry.

Source: ComputerWorld

Social ROI

amy — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:52:12 +0100

"The New Economics Foundation is launching a network today to allow UK ethical investment consultants and researchers to share information on calculating social return on investment...." (read the rest of the article here)

I like this idea - yet as the article ends I too wonder about the validity of qualitative results regarding often intangible commodities (such as workforce goodwill) weighed against the (highly quantifiable) financial bottom line.

Having been a member of Triodos bank for years I understand that social return is a sellable quality to a public yearning for more meaning in their everyday lives. Incorporating both social and environmental considerations into your long term business plan is something all forward thinking organisations should do, yet presenting this in a 'ROI' context alongside your financial profit margins does feel rather souless.

I'll be really interested to see how the NEF network develops this idea - if it works I would predict widespread adoption of the concept across all sectors.

Source: Third Sector Online

Changes planned for Obscene Publications Act

amy — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:24:23 +0100

All of us in the development team have recently had the unpleasant task of turning our attention to the dark underbelly of the internet – the world of online sexual predators.

Lisa's training with Tony Domaille certainly opened her eyes further to the full extent of the problem – and to what lengths professionals are going in order to monitor and control the situation. Most of us in the office have also watched the recent Panorama documentaries - One click from Danger and One click from Capture. The planned changes put forward by Justice Minister Maria Eagle to the The Obscene Publications Act therefore comes as welcome news.

The Act currently makes it illegal to sell or distribute photos of child abuse but it is still legal to own drawings and computer-generated images. The plans, if implemented, will criminalise the latter too, with a penalty of up to three years in prison for owning any images of child abuse.

Having spoken to a number of people about this I was surprised at how many dismissed the issue of online predation as an uncommon problem, hyped up by a media eager to sensationalise any story. Thinking back, I was as equally sceptical a few months ago before I began looking into the problem as part of my job.

Unfortunately I think that in this instance the stats don't lie – they only show the tip of the iceberg:

* Over 13 million child sex abuse images and videos have been assessed by the NCMEC since 2002.

* 5million of the above images were collected in the last year alone.

* An average of 400 reports a month of sexual abuse online are recorded by the CEOP.

To me, the link between the wide distribution of pornography via the internet, and the rise in sexual abuse – on and offline – seems too obvious to ignore. Explicit images and messages have become part of the irritating load of spam that collects in most people's junk email folders, yet the sheer weight of it is feeding a hungry market. In essence, the internet has normalised pornography to such an extent that individuals already at risk of sexually offending have a ready outlet for their desires.

This is why I believe that restricting the dissemination of child abuse images should be of utmost priority to the entire industry – ISPs, IM services, large file sharing companies like Pando and social networking sites to name but a few.

*Sources
CEOP
NCMEC
BBC

Further convergence news

Mr G. — Tue, 27 May 2008 09:30:21 +0100

According to Digital Spy it sounds like it will only be a couple of years before everyone has a web browser in their TV set. It might be locked into to specific shopping channels, but I can't imagine that would last long - someone would bring out a better version that supported browsing the web in general.

the mobile web - that €57 Billion untapped market

amy — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:02:00 +0100

The Mobile Internet World Europe Summit convened a few days ago to discuss ways to "capitalize on the fastest growing marketplace in the converging media, entertainment and telecommunications industries."

The blogosphere seems to be rather tight-lipped on the findings or perceptions of this conference, leading me to believe that either the conference bombed or the participants are keeping very quiet about their conclusions.

With such high sums at stake wouldn't you?!