"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

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

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 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?!

I - like 99.9999% of the worlds population - hate spam.  This blog seems to receive more than its fair share of the stuff, despite the CAPTCHA filter we included as standard - human spammers making easy work of the bot-proof challenges.

I'm therefore rather pleased to hear two of the 90's most active spammers have been fined $234M for their relentless spamming assault on MySpace.

Having contravened the 2003 federal law known as CAN-SPAM, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines were awarded this judgement after they failed to turn up to their court hearing last week. 

Source: Associated Press