The dark side of the internet

Freenet means controversial information does not need to be stored in physical data havens such as this one, Sealand. Photograph: Kim Gilmour/Alamy

Andy Beckett
The Guardian, Thursday 26 November 2009

Fourteen years ago, a pasty Irish teenager with a flair for inventions arrived at Edinburgh University to study artificial intelligence and computer science. For his thesis project, Ian Clarke created "a Distributed, Decentralised Information Storage and Retrieval System", or, as a less precise person might put it, a revolutionary new way for people to use the internet without detection. By downloading Clarke's software, which he intended to distribute for free, anyone could chat online, or read or set up a website, or share files, with almost complete anonymity.

"It seemed so obvious that that was what the net was supposed to be about – freedom to communicate," Clarke says now. "But [back then] in the late 90s that simply wasn't the case. The internet could be monitored more quickly, more comprehensively, more cheaply than more old-fashioned communications systems like the mail." His pioneering software was intended to change that.

His tutors were not bowled over. "I would say the response was a bit lukewarm. They gave me a B. They thought the project was a bit wacky … they said, 'You didn't cite enough prior work.'"

Undaunted, in 2000 Clarke publicly released his software, now more appealingly called Freenet. Nine years on, he has lost count of how many people are using it: "At least 2m copies have been downloaded from the website, primarily in Europe and the US. The website is blocked in [authoritarian] countries like China so there, people tend to get Freenet from friends." Last year Clarke produced an improved version: it hides not only the identities of Freenet users but also, in any online environment, the fact that someone is using Freenet at all.

Installing the software takes barely a couple of minutes and requires minimal computer skills. You find the Freenet website, read a few terse instructions, and answer a few questions ("How much security do you need?" … "NORMAL: I live in a relatively free country" or "MAXIMUM: I intend to access information that could get me arrested, imprisoned, or worse"). Then you enter a previously hidden online world. In utilitarian type and bald capsule descriptions, an official Freenet index lists the hundreds of "freesites" available: "Iran News", "Horny Kate", "The Terrorist's Handbook: A practical guide to explosives and other things of interests to terrorists", "How To Spot A Pedophile [sic]", "Freenet Warez Portal: The source for pirate copies of books, games, movies, music, software, TV series and more", "Arson Around With Auntie: A how-to guide on arson attacks for animal rights activists". There is material written in Russian, Spanish, Dutch, Polish and Italian. There is English-language material from America and Thailand, from Argentina and Japan. There are disconcerting blogs ("Welcome to my first Freenet site. I'm not here because of kiddie porn … [but] I might post some images of naked women") and legally dubious political revelations. There is all the teeming life of the everyday internet, but rendered a little stranger and more intense. One of the Freenet bloggers sums up the difference: "If you're reading this now, then you're on the darkweb."

The modern internet is often thought of as a miracle of openness – its global reach, its outflanking of censors, its seemingly all-seeing search engines. "Many many users think that when they search on Google they're getting all the web pages," says Anand Rajaraman, co-founder of Kosmix, one of a new generation of post-Google search engine companies. But Rajaraman knows different. "I think it's a very small fraction of the deep web which search engines are bringing to the surface. I don't know, to be honest, what fraction. No one has a really good estimate of how big the deep web is. Five hundred times as big as the surface web is the only estimate I know."

Unfathomable and mysterious

"The darkweb"; "the deep web"; beneath "the surface web" – the metaphors alone make the internet feel suddenly more unfathomable and mysterious. Other terms circulate among those in the know: "darknet", "invisible web", "dark address space", "murky address space", "dirty address space". Not all these phrases mean the same thing. While a "darknet" is an online network such as Freenet that is concealed from non-users, with all the potential for transgressive behaviour that implies, much of "the deep web", spooky as it sounds, consists of unremarkable consumer and research data that is beyond the reach of search engines. "Dark address space" often refers to internet addresses that, for purely technical reasons, have simply stopped working.

And yet, in a sense, they are all part of the same picture: beyond the confines of most people's online lives, there is a vast other internet out there, used by millions but largely ignored by the media and properly understood by only a few computer scientists. How was it created? What exactly happens in it? And does it represent the future of life online or the past?

Michael K Bergman, an American academic and entrepreneur, is one of the foremost authorities on this other internet. In the late 90s he undertook research to try to gauge its scale. "I remember saying to my staff, 'It's probably two or three times bigger than the regular web,"' he remembers. "But the vastness of the deep web . . . completely took my breath away. We kept turning over rocks and discovering things."

In 2001 he published a paper on the deep web that is still regularly cited today. "The deep web is currently 400 to 550 times larger than the commonly defined world wide web," he wrote. "The deep web is the fastest growing category of new information on the internet … The value of deep web content is immeasurable … internet searches are searching only 0.03% … of the [total web] pages available."

In the eight years since, use of the internet has been utterly transformed in many ways, but improvements in search technology by Google, Kosmix and others have only begun to plumb the deep web. "A hidden web [search] engine that's going to have everything – that's not quite practical," says Professor Juliana Freire of the University of Utah, who is leading a deep web search project called Deep Peep. "It's not actually feasible to index the whole deep web. There's just too much data."

But sheer scale is not the only problem. "When we've crawled [searched] several sites, we've gotten blocked," says Freire. "You can actually come up with ways that make it impossible for anyone [searching] to grab all your data." Sometimes the motivation is commercial – "people have spent a lot of time and money building, say, a database of used cars for sale, and don't want you to be able to copy their site"; and sometimes privacy is sought for other reasons. "There's a well-known crime syndicate called the Russian Business Network (RBN)," says Craig Labovitz, chief scientist at Arbor Networks, a leading online security firm, "and they're always jumping around the internet, grabbing bits of [disused] address space, sending out millions of spam emails from there, and then quickly disconnecting."

The RBN also rents temporary websites to other criminals for online identity theft, child pornography and releasing computer viruses. The internet has been infamous for such activities for decades; what has been less understood until recently was how the increasingly complex geography of the internet has aided them. "In 2000 dark and murky address space was a bit of a novelty," says Labovitz. "This is now an entrenched part of the daily life of the internet." Defunct online companies; technical errors and failures; disputes between internet service providers; abandoned addresses once used by the US military in the earliest days of the internet – all these have left the online landscape scattered with derelict or forgotten properties, perfect for illicit exploitation, sometimes for only a few seconds before they are returned to disuse. How easy is it to take over a dark address? "I don't think my mother could do it," says Labovitz. "But it just takes a PC and a connection. The internet has been largely built on trust."

Open or closed?

In fact, the internet has always been driven as much by a desire for secrecy as a desire for transparency. The network was the joint creation of the US defence department and the American counterculture – the WELL, one of the first and most influential online communities, was a spinoff from hippy bible the Whole Earth Catalog – and both groups had reasons to build hidden or semi-hidden online environments as well as open ones. "Strong encryption [code-writing] developed in parallel with the internet," says Danny O'Brien, an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a long-established pressure group for online privacy.

There are still secretive parts of the internet where this unlikely alliance between hairy libertarians and the cloak-and-dagger military endures. The Onion Router, or Tor, is an American volunteer-run project that offers free software to those seeking anonymous online communication, like a more respectable version of Freenet. Tor's users, according to its website, include US secret service "field agents" and "law enforcement officers . . . Tor allows officials to surf questionable websites and services without leaving tell-tale tracks," but also "activists and whistleblowers", for example "environmental groups [who] are increasingly falling under surveillance in the US under laws meant to protect against terrorism". Tor, in short, is used both by the American state and by some of its fiercest opponents. On the hidden internet, political life can be as labyrinthine as in a novel by Thomas Pynchon.

The hollow legs of Sealand

The often furtive, anarchic quality of life online struck some observers decades ago. In 1975, only half a dozen years after the internet was created, the science-fiction author John Brunner wrote of "so many worms and counter-worms loose in the data-net" in his influential novel The Shockwave Rider. By the 80s "data havens", at first physical then online locations where sensitive computerised information could be concealed, were established in discreet jurisdictions such as Caribbean tax havens. In 2000 an American internet startup called HavenCo set up a much more provocative data haven, in a former second world war sea fort just outside British territorial waters off the Suffolk coast, which since the 60s had housed an eccentric independent "principality" called Sealand. HavenCo announced that it would store any data unless it concerned terrorism or child pornography, on servers built into the hollow legs of Sealand as they extended beneath the waves. A better metaphor for the hidden depths of the internet was hard to imagine.

In 2007 the highly successful Swedish filesharing website The Pirate Bay – the downloading of music and films for free being another booming darknet enterprise – announced its intention to buy Sealand. The plan has come to nothing so far, and last year it was reported that HavenCo had ceased operation, but in truth the need for physical data havens is probably diminishing. Services such as Tor and Freenet perform the same function electronically; and in a sense, even the "open" internet, as online privacy-seekers sometimes slightly contemptuously refer to it, has increasingly become a place for concealment: people posting and blogging under pseudonyms, people walling off their online lives from prying eyes on social networking websites.

"The more people do everything online, the more there's going to be bits of your life that you don't want to be part of your public online persona," says O'Brien. A spokesman for the Police Central e-crime Unit [PCeU] at the Metropolitan Police points out that many internet secrets hide in plain sight: "A lot of internet criminal activity is on online forums that are not hidden, you just have to know where to find them. Like paedophile websites: people who use them might go to an innocent-looking website with a picture of flowers, click on the 18th flower, arrive on another innocent-looking website, click something there, and so on." The paedophile ring convicted this autumn and currently awaiting sentence for offences involving Little Ted's nursery in Plymouth met on Facebook. Such secret criminal networks are not purely a product of the digital age: codes and slang and pathways known only to initiates were granting access to illicit worlds long before the internet.

To libertarians such as O'Brien and Clarke the hidden internet, however you define it, is constantly under threat from restrictive governments and corporations. Its freedoms, they say, must be defended absolutely. "Child pornography does exist on Freenet," says Clarke. "But it exists all over the web, in the post . . . At Freenet we could establish a virus to destroy any child pornography on Freenet – we could implement that technically. But then whoever has the key [to that filtering software] becomes a target. Suddenly we'd start getting served copyright notices; anything suspect on Freenet, we'd get pressure to shut it down. To modify Freenet would be the end of Freenet."

Always recorded

According to the police, for criminal users of services such as Freenet, the end is coming anyway. The PCeU spokesman says, "The anonymity things, there are ways to get round them, and we do get round them. When you use the internet, something's always recorded somewhere. It's a question of identifying who is holding that information." Don't the police find their investigations obstructed by the libertarian culture of so much life online? "No, people tend to be co-operative."

The internet, for all its anarchy, is becoming steadily more commercialised; as internet service providers, for example, become larger and more profit-driven, the spokesman suggests, it is increasingly in their interests to accept a degree of policing. "There has been an increasing centralisation," Ian Clarke acknowledges regretfully.

Meanwhile the search engine companies are restlessly looking for paths into the deep web and the other sections of the internet currently denied to them. "There's a deep implication for privacy," says Anand Rajaraman of Kosmix. "Tonnes and tonnes of stuff out there on the deep web has what I call security through obscurity. But security through obscurity is actually a false security. You [the average internet user] can't find something, but the bad guys can find it if they try hard enough."

As Kosmix and other search engines improve, he says, they will make the internet truly transparent: "You will be on the same level playing field as the bad guys." The internet as a sort of electronic panopticon, everything on it unforgivingly visible and retrievable – suddenly its current murky depths seem in some ways preferable.

Ten years ago Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist credited with inventing the web, wrote: "I have a dream for the web in which computers become capable of analysing all the data on the web – the content, links, and transactions between people … A 'Semantic Web', which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines." Yet this "semantic web" remains the stuff of knotty computer science papers rather than a reality.

"It's really been the holy grail for 30 years," says Bergman. One obstacle, he continues, is that the internet continues to expand in unpredictable and messy surges. "The boundaries of what the web is have become much more blurred. Is Twitter part of the web or part of something else? Now the web, in a sense, is just everything. In 1998, the NEC laboratory at Princeton published a paper on the size of the internet. Who could get something like that published now? You can't talk about how big the internet is. Because what is the metric?"

Gold Rush

It seems likely that the internet will remain in its Gold Rush phase for some time yet. And in the crevices and corners of its slightly thrown-together structures, darknets and other private online environments will continue to flourish. They can be inspiring places to spend time in, full of dissidents and eccentrics and the internet's original freewheeling spirit. But a darknet is not always somewhere for the squeamish.

On Freenet, there is a currently a "freesite" which makes allegations against supposed paedophiles, complete with names, photographs, extensive details of their lives online, and partial home addresses. In much smaller type underneath runs the disclaimer: "The material contained in this freesite is hearsay . . . It is not admissable in court proceedings and would certainly not reach the burden of proof requirement of a criminal trial." For the time being, when I'm wandering around online, I may stick to Google.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/26/dark-side-internet-freenet

Pre-Budget submission: The National Digital Development Plan

26.11.2009
Right now our economic future depends on the digital economy. If we are to move from plans to action then we need a new National Digital Development Plan – it is time to reset the National Development Plan (NDP) so it delivers the infrastructure today’s Ireland needs. We need digital roads more than we need tarmacadam. We need Digital 21 to be given the same level of importance as Transport 21 in terms of national development.

This will require a major effort by Government and a fundamental rethink of what constitutes infrastructure. It will involve all stakeholders buying into the shift from tarmac roads to digital roads. It will guarantee a whole-of-Government approach because the capital expenditure and development budget will prioritise the infrastructure of the knowledge economy.

"While there is a correct focus on the amount we need to save
and the spending we must curtail, we must also plan for the jobs
of the future. We need to stimulate the economy as well
in order for recovery to occur."

- Minister Eamon Ryan, July 2009, Digital Ireland, May 2009

If we are to have a smart economy we need a smart NDP that builds the digital infrastructure without which the smart economy cannot exist. A digital development plan will make this a reality, and send a clear signal to all stakeholders that the knowledge economy is actually going to happen.

This is not a matter of either/or. We will still need physical infrastructure, but we must prioritise our digital infrastructure if we are to generate the recovery and jobs to pay for that physical infrastructure. Therefore the National Digital Development Plan must be a central part of any future NDP.

Over the past six months Siliconrepublic.com has covered the core areas of: digital infrastructure; entrepreneurialism; creating an innovation nation; and talent and education. Over the course of the campaign we have interviewed stakeholders and leaders from Ireland and abroad. Now prior to the December budget we present a summary of actions that sets out what needs to be done and how it can happen.

The digital jobs dividend

Ireland is the 10th-highest exporter of services in the world (financial services, technology, engineering, etc). We provide 5pc of the world’s services. The country has a target of 70pc of exports being services-based by 2020.

This will rely on world-leading digital infrastructure.

“For any economy, failure to work out the security and supply
of fit-for-purpose communications means you are failing your
public-services duty if you are the government of the day.
If you don’t have a coherent plan, move on and think of something else.”

- Lord Stephen Carter, architect of Digital Britain, Digital Ireland, June 2009

An IDC study commissioned by Microsoft predicts that the information and communications technology (ICT) industry will create 5.8 million new jobs and more than 75,000 new businesses over the next four years – three times the rate of employment in other industries.

The ICT industry is set to continue to grow at three times the rate of other industries. This is why it is vital Ireland plays to its advantages, harnessing not only the presence of ICT giants such as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, BT, HP, Vodafone, Cisco, O2 and Google, but also developing next-generation broadband networks and supporting scores of high-potential start-ups to generate thousands of new Irish jobs.

In the figures for Ireland, ICT spending in 2009 will be €2.9bn and will grow at 0.4pc per year, compared to GDP growth of -1.3pc per year. ICT-related activities will generate €4.8bn in taxes in 2009. Over the next four years, ICT-related taxes are expected to increase to nearly €5bn.

That spending growth means employment in ICT-related companies will rise by 8,000 jobs in the four years from the end of 2009 to the end of 2013, up from a 2009 base of 148,000. That represents growth of 0.4pc a year from now through to 2013, while overall employment is expected to shrink.

In its own Technology Actions to Support the Smart Economy report, launched in July 2009, the Government predicts that up to 25,000 new jobs could be created in the digital economy over the next decade.

“If Ireland breaks its faith with its science commitment the reputational
damage to our smart economy will be enormous.”

- Frank Gannon, director-general of Science Foundation Ireland, Digital Ireland, July 2009

Government action

Over the past year the Irish Government has focused its attention on putting in place key components to support the development of a digitally enabled smart economy. If implemented, these plans have the potential to actually deliver the digital dividend of jobs, foreign direct investment and economic recovery.

In its Technology Actions to Support the Smart Economy report, the Government set out to identify key actions that will deliver the “critical technology infrastructure necessary for the development of a Smart Economy”. This plan, and in particular the promise to develop the strategy as a “whole-of-Government” approach, in consultation with all key stakeholders, was widely welcomed by the Irish technology

What is clear from this report and from the subsequent smart-economy delivery plan is that there is no shortage of commitment and good intentions from Government. The Government should be rightly applauded for its visionary investment of €150m in the ‘Smart Schools = Smart Economy’ computers for schools initiative.

However, historically in Ireland attempts to create a cohesive, integrated, world-leading digital economy have fallen well short. The Information Society Commission report of the late Nineties remains a blueprint.

“Continued innovation and investment in information technology will help
jump-start recovery from the current recession. If you don’t get these things
right, the whole country could lag behind. And in this space that’s very
difficult and problematic. Once you lag behind, it’s hard to catch up.”

- Robert Atkinson, leader of the Climate Change and Chemicals Team
of the US Government's Global Environment Facility, Digital Ireland, August 2009

A decade on, we have the opportunity to turn good intentions into specific actions. This time it is the only show in town in terms of jobs and sustained recovery. It is what we do now to turn these plans into reality that will decide the future of jobs in Ireland.

If the current plan is to receive buy-in from the digital leaders and from society at large it will have to quickly move from planning to development and execution. The approach and possible barriers are clearly recognised by Government in the Technology Actions report of July 2009:

“Extensive stakeholder consultation will take place and the strategy will be developed in a whole-of-Government approach. Society at large will need to understand and embrace this new direction. The benefits and impacts of this knowledge-based approach will have to be clearly defined in order to ensure a wide buy-in and the active involvement of the public.”

The construction of critical fibre infrastructure is more vital to the Irish nation than the construction of future roads. Ultimately the issue of access for homes and particularly business needs to be resolved. Various estimates put such an investment at between €2bn and €3bn over the next five years. This needs to be enshrined in the National Development Plan (NDP).

A National Digital Development Plan

The future of job creation and economic recovery in Ireland is dependent on prioritising the digital economy and investing in the infrastructure that will power it.

Nations across the planet are in a race to be in the vanguard of the global digital economy. Countries are investing now in digital infrastructure and services because they recognise that these are vital to economic growth, recovery and job creation.

The digital economy underpins our whole economy and its competitiveness. Investment in digital infrastructure and services must take precedence over almost everything else. It is the bedrock on which all other sectors depend; it is the key to our recovery and future economic success.

If we prioritise digital, we will create the growth to fund other development. If we fail to make this a national imperative, then all other future revenue will be adversely affected.

"We should be supporting our young right now,
instead of scaring them to death. For €10 million a year,
you could have 200 companies a year."

- Dylan Collins, founder and CEO of Jolt Online Games, Digital Ireland, September 2009

So, the fundamental challenge is how to move the smart-economy plan onto a development footing and how to get stakeholder and society buy-in for the plan and to send a positive message out to the global players in the eco-knowledge economy.

Right now our economic future depends on the digital economy. If we are to move from plans to action then we need a new National Digital Development Plan – it is time to reset the NDP so it delivers the infrastructure today’s Ireland needs. We need Digital 21 to be given the same level of importance as Transport 21 in terms of national development.

This will require a major effort by Government and a fundamental rethink of what constitutes infrastructure. It will involve all stakeholders buying into the shift from tarmac roads to digital roads. It will guarantee a whole-of-Government approach because the capital expenditure and development budget will prioritise the infrastructure of the knowledge economy.

If we are to have a smart economy we need a smart National Digital Development Plan that builds the digital infrastructure without which the smart economy cannot exist. A digital development plan will make this a reality, and send a clear signal to all stakeholders that the knowledge economy is actually going to happen.

This is not a matter of either/or. We will still need physical infrastructure, but we must prioritise our digital infrastructure if we are to generate the recovery and jobs to pay for that physical infrastructure. Therefore the National Digital Development Plan must be a central part of any future NDP.

"Broadband leadership will be a precondition
for economic growth in the next 10 to 20 years."

- Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google, Digital Ireland, October 2009

The creation of this National Digital Development Plan will be a clear statement of intent from Government and will send out a positive message to international markets that Ireland is the place to invest if you are in the digital and green-economy space – exactly the type of investment we are looking to attract. It will provide existing multinationals with the certainty they need to secure the investment they are pitching for.

Our existing critical mass of knowledge-based industries, combined with our industry and Government partnership model, means we are in a unique position to become a world leader in the digitally powered, knowledge-based economy of the future.

The creation of a National Digital Development Plan 2010–2021 will send a message to the world of Ireland’s digital credentials, and offer wider society a clear vision of a strong future for them and for future generations. It will send a strong message to our fellow Europeans that Ireland is ready to lead a strong digital Europe into the future.

We, the Irish technology leaders, call on the Government to take action now to secure Ireland’s digital future. Our future prosperity and the well-being of our society depends on it.

To read the 15 key actions of the National Digital Development Plan, click here.

By John Kennedy

www.digital21.ie - Digital 21 is a campaign to highlight the imperative of creating an action programme to secure the digital infrastructure and services upon which the success of the economy depends.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14488/

Online advertising overtakes TV advertising

26.11.2009
The technology press has been joined by the blogosphere, twittersphere, and social-networks-sphere in heralding the news from the UK that online advertising spend has overtaken TV advertising spend for the first time, a good 12 months ahead of predictions. And whilst everyone is commenting on the clear sea change that this represents, I can’t help but wonder if the research has revealed an even more important underlying trend that has gone unnoticed.

The research carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in conjunction with the Internet Advertising Bureau in the UK (IABUK) reports that online advertising spend grew 4.6pc in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, whilst TV spend shrank 16.1pc, meaning that for the first time ever online’s £1.75 billion sterling spend trumps TV. Justin Pearce, editor of New Media Age, is one of many who celebrated this milestone arriving at least a year sooner than many experts predicted.

Crying foul

On the other side of the debate, Thinkbox, a marketing body for UK commercial TV broadcasters, immediately cried foul. Arguing that online advertising spend is made up of a range of disparate channels, including email, classified adverts, display ads and search marketing, they said the good people of PwC and IABUK weren’t comparing like with like. And it is this further observation that contains what for me is the real change dynamic illustrated in the figures.

All of TV’s £1.7-billion advertising spend is traditional interruption marketing, involving identifying a target demographic, targeting a time/programme/station where they are gathered, and interrupting their viewing with an advert. Online’s £1.75 billion is broken into search (63pc), classified and email (19pc), and display advertising (18pc); thus 82pc of online advertising is permission based, or at least behaviourally based. Surely this leaves us not with the narrow conclusion that TV advertising is on a terminal downward slope, but the wider conclusion that interruption marketing is on an unstoppable decline?

Online vs television

If the discussion is limited to the thin confines of online versus TV, the TV executives can point to the ready availability of faster, cheaper broadband, e-commerce sites slashing high-street costs, the online multimedia and video revolution and the measurability of the medium. They can take comfort, citing the recession as contributing to people looking for a bargain online and spending more time online rather than going out.

However, once the debate tackles the big question about the changing nature of consumer expectations around corporate communication and how they understand brands in an online world, they may have more uncomfortable questions to answer. If the recession is to blame, then TV advertising will recover when the economy recovers. If the recession is merely an accelerator then TV will have to acknowledge that its reducing revenues are not the cause, but rather a symptom of the fact that interruption marketing is in decline, and that the patient is not going to recover.

Gareth Dunlop is managing director of the Belfast- and Dublin-based internet agency Tibus. Their customers include Emergency Planning Society, Irish FA, FAI, Irish Internet Association, Business and Leadership, Lidl, and Marketing Institute of Ireland.

Photo: Gareth Dunlop.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14483/

Magnet cuts prices of next-gen 24Mbps broadband

30.11.2009
Magnet has cut the price of its 24Mbps broadband service to €29.99 a month from €39.99, a saving of €120 annually.

Entitled Magnet Force Max, the service is available to almost 600,000 homes nationwide.

“While with this service we are 1Mbps off the recommended 25Mbps speeds defined as next-generation broadband, this is still the fastest and most widespread service available on the market today,” said Magnet CEO Mark Kellett.

“It’s now also the cheapest when you take account of the add-ons and the fact that the line is not shared with anyone else.”

Unique service feature

Line sharing, or contention, is a unique feature of Magnet’s service and one that gives the company a leading position when comparing its broadband to that from other providers, said Kellett.

“Subscribers to other broadband services often find that their speeds slow dramatically in the evening when they want to use it. This comes down to having to share their line with up to 48 other subscribers. With Magnet, you don’t share with anyone, meaning you get the same fast broadband speeds all day long.

“Online programme catch-up service RTE Player, YouTube and other bandwidth-hungry services can now be viewed without any of the inherent long delays and glitches that they may be suffering currently,” Kellett added.

On offer

Until 13 December, Magnet Force Max will include free local and national calls plus 200 minutes of free international calls to 20 destinations free for two months.

The free TV service that comes with it offers customers live, full-screen television viewing on their computers for stations RTE1, RTE2, TV3, 3e TG4 and MTV

By John Kennedy

Photo: Mark Kellett, Magnet CEO

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14545/

Intune to unveil future of high-speed networks at Snow Patrol gig

30.11.2009

Next weekend the scenic town of Dingle will be the backdrop for a world-first showing of the laser-based next-generation network (NGN) technology that Intune Technologies will roll out across the rest of the world.

RTE’s popular Other Voices programme, which captures rare performances from celebrated artists from St James’ Church in Dingle, will provide the test bed for the world-changing communications technology developed by Intune.

Government-chosen

The Irish Government this year selected Intune to build the Exemplar Network that will be the route through which the future of global fibre and wireless communications may travel. The company is creating more than 300 new jobs on the back of the deal.

The demo will involve live, high-definition streaming from the Snow Patrol concert in the church to a number of locations in Dingle connected to a fibre-optic network.

For example, the concert can be viewed live in high definition on screens located in Benners Hotel, or by connecting into to a local Wi-Fi spot using a laptop or mobile device. Several other technology providers supplied user-access equipment to connect to the Intune network, including Envivio, Magnet and ADB.

What makes this different to a normal broadcast is that it is delivered over an optical burst packet switched fibre network and guarantees uninterrupted, premium-quality content – something that has been unachievable before now.

Platform suitable for Intel

“The Other Voices event in Dingle is the perfect platform to demonstrate and showcase Intune’s technology for the very first time,” Intune’s CEO Tim Fritzley explained.

“The technology was invented and developed in Ireland and it is fitting that a cultural event like Other Voices and world-renowned band Snow Patrol have partnered with us for this demonstration. This combination will help underpin Ireland’s international reputation as a vibrant, dynamic, innovative society that values its living traditional and future technical cultures.

“More of life is shared and accessed on the internet than any other medium and that trend will continue unabated with internet traffic doubling every two years.

“The world will need a next-generation optical burst switch such as Intune Networks’ that will deliver the quality of personal experience that everyone has come to expect. Our technology will do this with a very low carbon footprint, as it tackles the issue of the internet’s power consumption, which continues to dramatically rise with the increased use of existing network equipment,” Fritzley said.

Other Voices' background

Since 2002, Other Voices has been bringing established international and Irish musicians and emerging talent of every musical genre to Dingle, Co Kerry, to participate in a series of off-season recorded sessions at St James' Church.

Now in its eighth year, Other Voices has grown over the years but it has always remained true to its core and continues to be an exhilarating gathering of musical minds.

By John Kennedy

Photo: John Dunne, chief marketing officer, Tim Fritzley, CEO, and Tom Farrell, chief technology officer at Intune Networks.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14546/

Confusion dogs growth of cloud computing

24.11.2009

More than half of European CIOs are unfamiliar with cloud computing and this is a factor that is prohibiting its growth.
The rate of adoption of cloud computing is directly linked to levels of knowledge about cloud services, according to a report published by COLT, a leading European provider of managed services and business communications.
As the understanding of cloud computing increases, the rate of adoption of cloud services could be set for explosive growth with research indicating 77pc of CIOs who are familiar with cloud computing are currently evaluating, are in the process of implementing, or have already implemented, cloud-computing services.
Survey particulars
The COLT report, based on research conducted among CIOs and senior IT decision makers across 13 European countries by leading research firm Portio, also revealed that overall levels of familiarity with the term are low, with 56pc of executives surveyed saying they are not familiar with cloud computing.
The public sector ranks lowest in terms of familiarity with the service, with only 37pc of IT decision makers saying they are familiar with cloud computing.
“This research clearly shows that for many IT decision makers, cloud computing is integral to their strategies, however, it is concerning to see that 56pc of respondents have said that they are not familiar with cloud computing,” said Maggy McClelland, managing director of COLT Managed Services.
“There is a lot of hype around cloud and this can blur the real facts. It falls to trusted advisers to inform CIOs and senior IT decision makers about the potential benefits of cloud computing. The opportunity is clear: exponential growth of cloud services will happen, but only if the industry makes large strides in improving levels of knowledge amongst IT decision makers.”
Cloud aloud
COLT has adopted and is promoting the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) definition of cloud computing and believes that, central to the job of informing CIOs about cloud computing, is the provision of industry standards.
“Cloud computing is certainly set for growth, but for the industry to develop and retain credibility we must ensure there is cohesiveness in working standards for cloud computing," McClelland said. "Standards definition and consensus around what represents good practice will contribute to greater credibility in the market.
“This will also act as a foundation for service providers to establish simple, transparent messages based on the business benefits of adopting cloud services, rather than the confusion of technical jargon that currently dominates the sector … this is a vital step in bringing cloud computing to maturity.”
By John Kennedy
Photo: A lack of knowledge among CIOs of what constitutes cloud computing is inhibiting its adoption, a report published by COLT suggests

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14494/

RTE invests €4.5 million in national digital microwave network

24.11.2009

Ireland’s State broadcaster RTE has invested €4.5 million in deploying the national digital microwave network – a critical piece of infrastructure required for the successful rollout of the planned digital terrestrial television (DTT) network.
The broadcaster’s networks division RTE Networks Limited (RTÉNL) has awarded the €4.5-million contract to EMR Integrated Solutions, a specialist in the provision of radio communications and SCADA system.
The system provided by EMR delivers high-speed resilient communications linking 24 radio and television broadcast high sites with studios in Donnybrook, Cork, Limerick, Sligo and Donegal.
Transmission backbone
The new network, which represents an investment of €4.5 million in critical infrastructure, also provides the backbone for the transmission of all existing national radio and television channels for both RTÉ and the commercial stations, including TG4, TV3 and Today FM.
“This strategic piece of infrastructure will be central to the roll out of future services by RTE,” explained Mark Quinn, managing director of EMR Integrated Solutions.
“This project drew on our 20 years of experience in the sector and helped to ensure that the rollout of the network was seamless despite the fact that it had to be done while the broadcasting network remained on air.
“The development and build of the Digital Microwave Network involved a major integration effort that comprised microwave, power, multiplexers and codec. We are very proud that the entire project was completed on time and within budget.”
Short amount of time
The development and rollout of the new network was done within a tight time frame and involved significant technical challenges. The integration of a variety of technologies presented significant technical challenges, all of which were overcome as a result of the co-operation between the RTENL and the EMR engineering teams. EMR used its own in-house SCADA system integration capability to integrate the individual network management software systems with RTENLs proprietary SCADA system.
The network is already in use on a day-to-day basis and is helping RTE deliver its range of broadcasting services in a seamless manner.
“EMR has helped RTÉNL build a distribution system which will meet all the terrestrial broadcast demands within Ireland for the foreseeable future as digital broadcast technology replaces the existing analogue broadcast system,” said Eamonn Reid, head of projects, RTÉNL.
“This distribution system is the backbone from which all terrestrial services are provided in Ireland and a successful switch over from the old system to the new system was a key goal for this project.
“This objective was achieved thanks to the great efforts from both the EMR and RTÉNL engineering teams. Overall, this project has proved to be a great success for RTÉNL and EMR deserve praise for their efforts in ensuring that this was the case,” said Reid.
By John Kennedy
Photo: RTE has invested €4.5 million in deploying the national digital microwave network.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14502/

Next-generation broadband ‘unlikely’ in 3-5 years

25.11.2009

ComReg has defined next-generation broadband as 25Mbps and higher. However, unless there’s a co-ordinated effort by industry and State, widespread next-generation access is unlikely in Ireland in the next 3-5 years.
The overwhelming view of respondents to a ComReg survey on next-generation broadband is that unless there is a concentrated effort by key stakeholders, the widespread geographic deployment of next-generation broadband is unlikely in the next 3-5 years.
Next-generation broadband will be fundamental to the future of the Irish economy and arguably these super fast roads of commerce will be far more vital to regional economic regeneration than tar roads.
The Top 3
There are three pillars on which Ireland’s Smart Economy will rely – education, science and communications infrastructure. Without the right communications infrastructure, the €8-billion investment in science over the past decade and the €150-million investment in schools’ IT infrastructure will suffer in an era of super-fast communication and collaboration globally.
The clear and present danger is that other countries can and will race ahead. That time may be sooner than we think.
A survey of stakeholders took into account of views of individuals and groups like ALTO, BT, Chambers Ireland, Eircom, E-net, Ericsson, Forfas, HEAnet, Hutchison 3G Ireland, Imagine, Ireland Offline, Irish Rural Link, Magnet Networks, Satellite Broadband Ireland, UPC and Vodafone, to name few.
Without doubt, a large number of respondents agreed that Ireland’s future network will have to be a hodge-podge of varying technologies with fibre, cable and wireless platforms having a key role.
Investments in future
However, some investments are unlikely to take place in certain areas of Ireland until 2010, and respondents agree that widespread geographic coverage of faster broadband speeds is unlikely in the medium term.
They stressed that a parallel strategy of investing in next-generation broadband access in urban and rural areas should be considered and argued a co-ordinated approach of using the State’s vast array of stranded fibre-optic networks would help.
Open and fair access on a wholesale basis to next-generation broadband (NGB) emerged as a key issue – especially as to whether there is a case for allowing a differentiated regulated rate of return for Eircom in relation to potentially more risky NGB investments.
Without giving statistics, ComReg said some argued there is no case for this while others said only if there was functional separation and true open access for wholesale customers.
ComReg said that while the telecoms sector in Ireland is not as badly hit as other areas of the economy, current conditions will have an impact on the timing and scale of a large-scale NGB rollout.
What is NGB?
In trying to define what NGB actually is versus current services in the market today, ComReg said 25Mbps should be considered a useful differentiator.
If this is the case, then ComReg said: “There will undoubtedly be geographic areas where the market, left to its own devices, is unlikely to provide NGB in a timely fashion, possibly even not at all. In this context, some form of appropriate intervention by the State may be necessary.”
The regulator said such intervention should only take place once a clear picture has emerged as to what coverage will be provided by the market itself. “This position is consistent with the DCENR’s position of seeking to encourage private-sector investment in NGB through targeted Government action.”
In defining what are the risky aspects of NGB investment, ComReg pointed out that fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) has a higher investment profile than fibre-to-the-curb (FTTC), FTTH would have higher operational efficiencies and would in time reduce the level of ongoing investment.
In English, rather than awkward, stumbling Irish State legalese: while it may be expensive, FTTH would be a better investment in the long run.
No proof yet
Although the industry has been talking about a collaborative approach to investing in next-generation access for two years now and studies have been commissioned, evidence of any kind of collaboration strategy has yet to emerge. A TIF study by Analysys Mason suggests that a next-generation access strategy would cost the State €2.5 billion over 10 years.
To hurry along the construction of next-generation access networks, ComReg points out that for as yet unbuilt NGB networks, an opportunity presents itself for Eircom (or indeed any operator) to design and operate its NGB network in such a way that eliminates bottlenecks at the outset and is not detrimental to future competition.
“This could be achieved through the commercially driven provision of effective open and non-discriminatory access to third parties which facilitates the development of sustainable competition at the retail level. In such circumstances, the regulatory regime that would apply could be materially different to that which currently exists and could, for example, allow for greater freedom to set wholesale prices, possibly subject to an appropriate ex ante margin squeeze test supported by any necessary transparency requirements.”
If Eircom were to go ahead and roll out such a network, ComReg said that in terms of incentives for the construction of a retail and wholesale next-generation network, a Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) of 10.21pc is an appropriate return for Eircom on capital/investment.
The regulator said it would take a technology neutral stance on NGB regulatory issues and will endeavour to create a clear and predictable environment to allow operators to make investments.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Next-generation broadband will be key to the Irish economy's future

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14508/

EU citizens to get better broadband and privacy rights

25.11.2009

Some 500 million EU citizens will soon benefit from more consumer choice, better coverage with faster internet broadband and from greater rights to privacy, thanks to a telecoms reform package the EU Parliament agreed upon yesterday.
The EU Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday voted to go ahead with the package that will ensure EU citizens benefit from better competition, better quality broadband and from a stronger entrenchment of their right to privacy with regard to telecoms operators.
New rights
European consumers will also enjoy a substantial number of new rights, such as the right to switch fixed or mobile operators in one working day while keeping their number; the right to be better informed about the services they subscribe to; and the right to be informed about data breaches from their telecoms operator.
Operators must also give consumers the option of signing a contract which lasts no longer than 12 months.
Under the new EU rules, national telecoms authorities will furthermore have the power to set minimum quality levels for network transmission services so as to promote "net neutrality" for European citizens.
Telecoms reform
In addition, European consumers will see their fundamental rights regarding internet access reaffirmed and strengthened by the telecoms reform.
A new internet freedom provision, included in the package at the insistence of the European Parliament, makes clear that in view of the fundamental rights that EU citizens enjoy, including the right to privacy, national authorities cannot restrict internet access for public policy reasons unless there has been a prior, fair and impartial procedure and effective and timely judicial review.
The European Parliament’s approval of the reform follows a political agreement reached on 5 November between Parliament, council and commission negotiators that paves the way for the entry into force of the EU telecoms reform in December this year.
Deadline: 18 months
Member States, including Ireland, where broadband competition particularly around Local Loop Unbundling can be considered a market failure, have 18 months to transpose the reformed EU telecoms rules into their national telecoms laws.
“The EU telecoms reform will bring more competition on Europe’s telecoms markets, better and cheaper fixed, mobile and internet services and faster internet connections for all Europeans. Thanks to the strong support of the European Parliament today, Europe has put citizens in the centre stage in telecoms regulation," said Viviane Reding, the EU’s Telecoms Commissioner.
“It is good news for Europe’s consumers that the new powerful tool of functional separation will help national regulators to address persistent competition bottlenecks in telecoms markets, thereby enhancing consumer choice. I am also grateful that the European Parliament has supported the commission in helping to bring about a more integrated single market in the telecoms field.
“The establishment of the new European Telecoms Body BEREC, the institutional set-up of which has been substantially designed by European Parliamentarians, is a very visible sign that we are serious when we say that Europe’s telecoms operators and consumers should no longer feel national borders in network access and the delivery of communication services. A true single market for Europe’s telecoms operators and consumers is now within reach," Reding promised.
Sign on the dotted line
The new legislation that will drive the reforms of the new EU telecoms package will be signed by the presidents of the European Parliament and council on 25 November.
The whole telecoms reform package will enter into force with its publication in the European Journal on 18 December.
EU member States will have to transpose the telecoms reform package into national legislation by June 2011.
By John Kennedy
Photo: Viviane Reding, the EU’s Telecoms Commissioner.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14509/

Legal issues could impede the march of the Semantic Web

25.11.2009

Legal challenges around the area of data protection and defamation are likely to raise their head with the arrival of the Semantic Web, the next version of the World Wide Web, or Web 3.0 to some.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Irish Software Association, the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) and Mason Hayes+Curran today, Philip Nolan, partner at business law firm Mason Hayes+Curran, outlined the legal and business issues relating to the Semantic Web, the next evolution of the World Wide Web.
What is the Semantic Web?
“The Semantic Web is essentially about making data smarter and linking that data up,” Nolan explained. “This vision of a web of data instead of the current ‘web of documents’ is seen by backers of the Semantic Web as the core aspect of Web 3.0, the next generation of the World Wide Web.
“From a legal perspective, while many aspects of the Semantic Web are uncontroversial, there are some features which do give rise to identifiable legal challenges, primarily around data protection and defamation.
“Irish companies who use the internet to interface with their customers and the public will need to keep abreast of these developments as these issues apply to a range of industries, including the public sector, financial services, media and healthcare sectors; given that organisations in all these industries hold personal data,” Nolan said at the event, which will be podcast on MHC.ie at a later date.
Working with data
Nolan said that from a data-protection perspective, one of the main aims of the Semantic Web is to make data easier to process and re-use.
“This leads to the question however, what becomes of the protection of personal data in such an open, universally accessible web of interlinked data? This is particularly important because Semantic Web applications are likely to be far more effective than traditional search engines at piecing together personal information, thus increasing the risk of identity theft,” Nolan added.
At the event, Nolan discussed the requirement for safeguards to protect user data, as well as policies to ensure people understood how their information would be used.
He also highlighted risks of inadvertently defaming individuals and of publishing incorrect data as Semantic Web technologies dig much deeper into data than traditional search engines.
Potential for limited scope
Legal implications could potentially limit the scope of such semantic-based applications.
“There is the risk, however, that the resulting information may be false or misleading. For example, consider Powerset, an online semantic application which extracts data from Wikipedia. If I enter the search term ‘Lee Harvey Oswald’, one of the first statements that crops up is ‘killed – John F. Kennedy’.
“The plain English text from which this statement is extracted carefully qualifies this famously controversial allegation, eg, ‘according to three United States government investigations …’ or ‘the Warren Commission concluded that …’, without stating directly that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy.
“The nuances that these qualifications provide are stripped away by the extraction process, leaving only the blunt assertion. As any newspaper editor will tell you, it is precisely these types of nuance and qualifications which save publications from many defamation suits. Clearly this type of error or distortion is a source of legal risk,” Nolan added.
Legal risk
While it might be argued that statements generated by a machine are unlikely to damage the reputation of a plaintiff in the eyes of a reasonable person, recent case law demonstrates that automatically generated content may indeed give rise to legal risk.
For example, a Dutch news portal was successfully sued earlier this year because the Google-generated summary of one of its articles gave the misleading impression that the plaintiff was bankrupt.
“The success of the Semantic Web will in part depend on the ability of those in the field to address these concerns, while enabling the technology to flourish.
“Perhaps one of the most exciting prospects for Semantic Web technologies lies in the possibility that many of the legal challenges which they give rise to may themselves have semantic solutions.
“Averting the legal risk may not so much require the intervention of lawyers and regulators, but rather making the smart data smart enough to control its own legal effects,” Nolan said.
By John Kennedy
Photo: The arrival of the Semantic Web, the next version of the World Wide Web, or Web 3.0, may bring with it its own set of legal issues.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14513/

Twitter confirms paid-for pro accounts

23.11.2009

Paid-for business accounts will be rolling out sometime next year on popular micro-blogging service Twitter - the first direct revenue stream the company has incorporated following recent syndication deals with both Google and Microsoft to have real-time tweets show up in the companies' search-engine results.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14482

World's first streetcasting project kicks off

17.11.2009

If you've ever felt that perhaps uploading your video to YouTube just didn't have the same immediacy as busking or street performance, you might be a candidate for Zozzy TV, the world's first-ever "streetcasting" project broadcasting user-generated content to the general public across Dublin city.
ZozzyTV, sponsored by Vodafone Ireland, is basically three virtual busking spots for the entire population of Ireland: there are large screens at Grafton Street, Henry Street and in Temple Bar that will play footage for eight weeks until 9 January, 2010.
Launched Sunday, 15 November, ZozzyTV was named after Dublin's legendary street performer, Zozimus.
If you're the next Jimi Hendrix, John Belushi, Joan Rivers or Joaquin Phoenix ... or even just Jedward, go to ZozzyTV.com, register and upload your video footage for a chance to be broadcast on ZozzyTV.
"We have just launched our Christmas campaign and ZozzyTV provides a different dimension for accessing existing and new customers close to the point of sale during the festive season," said Carolan Lennon, consumer director for Vodafone Ireland.
"This is a world first and what makes it even better is the fact that it's totally Irish, from the technology to the people who will be using it."
Each clip gets 30 seconds of screen time and it is estimated that around 7 million viewers will see the screens in the eight weeks ZozzyTV is on.
Aside from video, there is also a ticker tape scrolling across the bottom of the screen, where text messages from viewers are shown in real time.
"We are expecting the funniest, wackiest, heart-warming and creative videos that only the Irish public can deliver," said Billy Brennan, managing director of ZozzyTV.
"We are very fortunate that Vodafone has recognised the potential of ZozzyTV and the benefit of real interaction between viewers and our video stars."
By Marie Boran
Photo: Dustin the turkey gets in on the act.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14430/

Some Courts Raise Bar on Reading Employee Email

Companies Face Tougher Tests to Justify Monitoring Workers' Personal Accounts; Rulings Hinge on 'Expectation of Privacy'

By DIONNE SEARCEY
Big Brother is watching. That is the message corporations routinely send their employees about using email.
But recent cases have shown that employees sometimes have more privacy rights than they might expect when it comes to the corporate email server. Legal experts say that courts in some instances are showing more consideration for employees who feel their employer has violated their privacy electronically.

Driving the change in how these cases are treated is a growing national concern about privacy issues in the age of the Internet, where acquiring someone else's personal and financial information is easier than ever.
"Courts are more inclined to rule based on arguments presented to them that privacy issues need to be carefully considered," said Katharine Parker, a lawyer at Proskauer Rose who specializes in employment issues.
In past years, courts showed sympathy for corporations that monitored personal email accounts accessed over corporate computer networks. Generally, judges treated corporate computers, and anything on them, as company property.
Now, courts are increasingly taking into account whether employers have explicitly described how email is monitored to their employees.
That was what happened in a case earlier this year in New Jersey, when an appeals court ruled that an employee of a home health-care company had a reasonable expectation that email sent on a personal account wouldn't be read.
And last year, a federal appeals court in San Francisco came down on the side of employee privacy, ruling employers that contract with an outside business to transmit text messages can't read them unless the worker agrees. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Ontario, Calif., police officers who sued after a wireless provider gave their department transcripts of an officer's text messages in 2002. The case is on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lawyers for corporations argue that employers are entitled to take ownership of the keystrokes that occur on work property. In addition, employers fear productivity drops when workers spend too much time crafting personal email messages.
"Employers are right to expect their employees when they are paid for their time at work are actually working," said Jane McFetridge, a lawyer who handles employment issues for the Chicago office of Jackson Lewis.
Many workers log in to personal email accounts from the office. In a 2009 study by the Ponemon Institute, a Traverse City, Mich.-based data-security research firm, 52% of employees surveyed said they access their personal email accounts from their work computer. Of those individuals, 60% said they send work documents or spreadsheets to their personal email addresses.
Data security experts say such actions could invite viruses or security leaks.
More corporations are monitoring employees' email traffic. In a June survey of 220 large U.S. firms commissioned by Proofpoint Inc., a provider of email security and data loss prevention services, 38% of companies said they employ staff to read or otherwise analyze the content of outgoing email, up from 29% last year. More companies also say they are worried about information leaks: Thirty-four percent of respondents said their businesses had been affected by the exposure of sensitive or embarrassing information, up from 23% in 2008.

The growing concerns about security and privacy comes as expanding technology muddies the waters between personal and professional.
"Computers are becoming recognized as being so much a part of the ongoing personal as well as professional life of employees and everyone else that courts are more sympathetic all the time to granting greater recognition to privacy," said Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment attorney at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. Employees often assume their communications on personal email accounts should stay private even if they are using work-issued computers or smart phones. But in most instances when using a work device, emails of all kinds are captured on a server and can be retrieved by an employer.
Still, in some cases courts are finding that unless they have explicitly told the employee they will monitor email, they don't have the legal right to do it -- even if the email in question was a personal one sent using a work account, rather than a personal address.
In a case earlier this year in New Jersey, a worker on the brink of resigning from her job at the Loving Care Agency Inc. used a personal, password-protected Yahoo account on a work laptop to email her lawyer to hash out the details of a workplace discrimination suit she was planning to file against the agency. After the employee, Marina Stengart, left her job and filed suit, her employer extracted the emails from the hard drive of her computer laptop.
A lower court found that the emails from Ms. Stengart were company property, because the company's internal policies had put her on sufficient notice that her emails would be viewed.
But a New Jersey appellate court disagreed, ruling in her favor in June, ordering the company to turn over the emails to Ms. Stengart and delete them from their hard drives. The court's ruling went so far as to dissect the company's internal policies about employee communications and decided they offered "little to suggest that an employee would not retain an expectation of privacy in such [personal] emails."
"We reject the employer's claimed right to rummage through and retain the employee's emails to her attorney," the appellate court ruling said.
Loving Care, which declined to comment, has appealed the ruling. The case is pending in the New Jersey Supreme Court.
In another case this year, Bonnie Van Alstyne, a former vice president of sales and marketing at Electronic Scriptorium Ltd., a data-management company, was in the thick of a testy legal battle in Virginia state court with the company over employment issues when it came to light that her former boss had been accessing and reading her personal AOL email account. The monitoring went on for more than a year, continuing after Ms. Van Alstyne left the company. Ms. Van Alstyne sometimes used her personal email account for business purposes, and her supervisor said he was concerned that she was sharing trade secrets.
The supervisor, Edward Leonard, had accessed her account "from home and Internet cafes, and from locales as diverse as London, Paris, and Hong Kong," according to legal filings in the case.
Ms. Van Alstyne sued Mr. Leonard and the company for accessing her email without authorization. A jury sided with her, and the case eventually settled.
Nicholas Hantzes, a lawyer for the company and Mr. Leonard, said employers could learn from the case that to avoid legal tangles they "should do everything they can to discourage employees from using personal email for business purposes."—Sarah Needleman contributed to this article.
Write to Dionne Searcey at dionne.searcey@wsj.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A17

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125859862658454923.html

#140con: The Twitter millions create the story, says Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry: has just passed 1 million followers on Twitter. Photograph: Steve Forrest/Rex Features

Writer, broadcaster and high-profile Twitter user Stephen Fry pays tribute to campaigning users of micro-blogging servic

John Plunkett and Mercedes Bunz
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 November 2009 13.15 GMT

Stephen Fry has today paid tribute to the campaigning "Twitter millions" who create stories such as the backlash against Jan Moir's Stephen Gately column, but warned big business not to try to use the social networking website as a marketing tool.
Fry, who passed more than 1 million followers on the micro-blogging service at the weekend, described himself as one of the "Twillionaires", who "can cut out the press from our PR requirements".
However, he played down his own role on two of the most high-profile Twitter campaigns of late – the Trafigura affair and Moir's Daily Mail column about the death of Gately.
He said that he gets blamed for "inventing" such stories because of the number of Twitter users who follow him, but added that it was really the "Twitter millions" who create the story.
"There was the case of Trafigura, which forbade the Guardian to write about it," said Fry, speaking at the first 140 Characters conference at the O2 in London.
"It caused a storm on Twitter, which I joined in quite late as that morning I came from the gym – it is pathetic, I can't believe I said that but it is true, and the thing reached such a heat by 1pm or 2pm that the lawyers had to do something about it. This can be considered a victory," he added.
Fry also played down his role in the Twitter campaign last month against Moir's Gately column, which many users interpreted as homophobic and led to an unprecedented 25,000 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission.
He said he did not make a "big deal" out of the Moir column. "But I saw this brilliant answer from Charlie Brooker [on Twitter] and so commented and pointed there. And then they said, 'Who the hell does Stephen Fry think he is forbidding this journalist to think freely?' Well I never did," Fry added.
"But because of the weight of my numbers I am now credited or blamed for inventing these stories. But this is not the way Twitter works. The Twitter millions create the story. You can only point them in a direction. It is like with your parents, when you come home and say you did this because a friend told you and they go like: well if he told you to stick your head in the fire, would you do that?
"Twitter is about participating – by which I mean you tweet and read other people's tweets. Then you understand it, and get its rhythm. But remember: It is about being authentic. These things are human-shaped."
Fry said people who had previously dismissed Twitter as a waste of time were now busy drawing up their business strategies.
"A year ago, nearly no one heard about Twitter. But things move so fast today – and the bewilderment, content, disbelief with which Twitter was greeted. They called it the most banal and pointless waste of time. And do you know what they say now? Now they say: 'Our Twitter strategy is...'," he added.
"It is a very odd thing when people think they are being smart when they speak not as humans but as business people ... It will come as no surprise that as the next big thing it wasn't designed as business for business. Twitter was created to babble to each other. Remember it was called Twitter and not marketing tool.
"It is important for all of us to understand its nature. It is human shaped, not business shaped. And the swell will move elsewhere if you try to make it all neat and attractive. The greatness and the magnitude of its energy will all move."
Fry compared Twitter to the invention of the printing press and the "huge upheaval" it caused. He said it enabled celebrities to bypass traditional news outlets, such as newspapers journalists.
"There was no class more contemptuous of Twitter than the commentating journalists. Why should we care about what Britney Spears had for breakfast, they said. So may I ask you, why do you write about it in the paper? The journalists said, 'Who needs this Twitter thing?' and in the next moment you read: 'Follow the Daily Mail on Twitter at ...'," he added.
"But like with the printing press, Twitter changed the situation. People like me, Twillionaires, we can cut out the press from our PR requirements. It used to be a pact with the devil. You wanted to inform the press about a new film and they said they will interview you, but only if they are allowed to ask you around other themes about your private life.
"Today, Britney Spears tells her PR manager, 'Why should I care about this journalist of this newspaper with a big circulation? I will reach their circulation just by typing into my keyboard.' So well, whole newspapers are on the one side filled with resentment against Twitter, on the other side they are using it and searching Twitter messages."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/17/140con-stephen-fry-twitter

Twitter chief tells Murdoch: internet paywall will not work

Rupert Murdoch plans to charge for online news and prevent stories being linked to by sites such as Google. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

Charging to read news content is like 'putting genie back in bottle', says Twitter co-founder Biz Stone

Richard Wray
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 November 2009 20.26 GMT

The co-founder of Twitter today warned Rupert Murdoch that his plans to charge for online content, and block Google from using stories produced by his News International titles, were a vain attempt to "put the genie back in the bottle".
In recent weeks Murdoch has launched a vitriolic attack on Google and other web companies, accusing them of "stealing" content created by his titles, including the Times and the Sun. Management at News International is working on plans to introduce an online paywall next spring and prevent stories from being linked to by sites such as Google News.
Twitter co-founder Biz Stone today warned that Murdoch "should be looking at it as an opportunity to do something radically different and find out how to make a ton of money out of being radically open rather than some money by being ridiculously closed".
Speaking at an event organised by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) in London, Stone added that the speed of change on the internet meant Murdoch's plan was likely to "fail fast". He was joined in his attack by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of networking site LinkedIn, who added: "I am sure that during the transition from horses to automobiles there were some people bemoaning the loss of horse transport."
In contrast, Stone said Twitter's future lay in making more of the service available to application developers and other partners so they could build on the stream of "tweets" created by its users. The social networking site's users post more than 500 messages per second. The service is increasingly being used by news organisations as a way of discovering breaking news.
"I don't know what the future of traditional media is," said Stone. "But from my perspective and Twitter's perspective I think there is a wonderful co-operative alliance there in terms of the wisdom of crowds, and as we add things to Twitter… maybe we can help."
Twitter, which was valued at more than $1bn just over a month ago, is looking to drive revenues and eventually start making a profit.
It plans to introduce some new features over the coming months. Stone, who set up the company just two years ago, said that by the end of the year it would have begun to offer its corporate users a suite of new analytical tools to help them use Twitter to keep in touch with customers and keep an eye on their brands. An increasing number of corporations, from mobile phone companies to airlines, have added Twitter as a means by which customers can get in touch.
Twitter is also considering giving its users reputation scores, which would help traditional news organisations using the social networking service to spot breaking news stories.
Twitter recently announced search deals with both Google and Microsoft's Bing and the deals added fuel to recent speculation that the micro-blogging site might be a takeover target for either business.
But Stone emphasised a sale was not on the cards: "That was never something we were interested in talking about".
Instead, the company was interested in doing more partnership deals. "One of the things we are seeking to do as we have already done with Myspace as we have done with LinkedIn, as we have done with AOL, as we have done with Google, as we have done with Bing, is to share our data and form partnerships that are long standing... Twitter wants to work with social networks, with mobile networks, with TV networks with search engines… we want to put a little Twitter in everything."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/19/twitter-murdoch-paywall-charge-content

21Mbps will be next mobile broadband baseline: industry

19.11.2009

Just months after the Global Mobile Suppliers Association confirmed that 7.2Mbps had become the baseline for mobile broadband globally, it now predicts that 21Mbps will be the next baseline for 3G mobile broadband.
Mobile broadband is continuing to grow at a fast pace due to the ever-increasing introduction of new technologies, new networks, new devices and competitive innovation in the market.
On 27 July last, the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) announced that 7.2Mbps had become the new baseline for mobile broadband globally.
At that time, half of the HSPA networks in commercial service globally were capable of supporting a peak downlink data speed of 7.2Mbps or higher, supported by almost 600 user devices capable of 7.2Mbps or higher which had been launched in the market.
Some HSPA systems already support a peak downlink data speed up to 14.4Mbps.
Operators' next step
HSPA Evolution (HSPA+) is the next step for many operators, which increases data rates by using higher order modulation schemes and multiple antenna technology (MIMO).
3GPP Release 7 introduced 64 QAM modulation, increasing the downlink peak data bit rate by 50pc to 21Mbps. In the uplink, 16 QAM doubles the peak data bit rate from 5.76Mbps to 11.5Mbps. Release 8 allows for combining 64 QAM with 2×2 MIMO for peak rates up to 42Mbps downlink and 11.5Mbps uplink (per 5 MHz carrier).
Further evolution of HSPA will utilise combinations of multi-carrier and MIMO to reach peak rates of 84Mbps downlink and 23Mbps uplink. Sixty-two operators worldwide have committed to HSPA+ network deployments.
The announcement by GSA of the 7.2Mbps benchmark prompted the question from a number of industry players about what the next baseline might be, when, and why.
In other words, what would be the mainstream mobile-broadband technology capabilities – interpreted as meaning more than 100 networks in service, with a supporting ecosystem of several hundred user devices in the market.
Survey says
GSA launched an industry-wide global survey lasting 10 weeks, via its website and on the ground at conferences, etc, to obtain industry views first-hand from network operators, suppliers and other stakeholders in mobile broadband.
The results are now available in Mobile Broadband - The Next Baseline, and show most people believe that the next baseline for mobile broadband peak downlink data speed will be 21Mbps HSPA+.
There was little difference between respondent groups (operators, suppliers, others) as the majority in each group selected 21Mbps as the most likely.
Most agreed that the new baseline of 21Mbps peak downlink will be reached by 2010 due to it being reasonably cost effective and straightforward to achieve, and is thus seen as the next logically evolutionary step for mobile broadband.
Not just about speed
Some respondents said that speed alone is not a sufficiently complete indicator for the user experience. An end-to-end approach is required when considering the user experience, and a Holistic Indicator for Quality of User Experience has been proposed.
This holistic indicator would embrace context awareness and the essence of the network capability to deliver services and applications to a mobile user. GSA will consider this aspect further.
The survey also asked for views about when HSPA+ as a technology will become the new benchmark, ie, supporting some HSPA+ features but not necessarily a higher peak data rate, for example, utilising such features as:
- Discontinuous Transmission and Reception (for extended battery time).
- CS Voice over HSPA (increases talk time).
- Shorter set-up times.
The results confirmed that most (59pc) believed this would be reached in 2010, 29pc stating it would be 2011, and 12pc indicating 2012 or later.
Building will take time
While accepting the majority view for 21Mbps as the next benchmark, it will take time to build the terminals market for widespread availability, especially where MIMO is to be implemented, since this will add complexity and cost to devices.
Operators may also be unwilling to increase subsidies for such devices. And although 2010 is the time frame that more than 60pc agree on for 21Mbps, it will be a key challenge for the industry to ensure sufficient terminals in the market by that date, which in the end might be more like 2011/12.
The latest GSA survey on Global HSPA+ Network Commitments and Deployments confirms that 62 operators in 35 countries have committed to HSPA+ network deployments.
By John Kennedy
Photo: The introduction of new technologies, new networks, new devices and competitive innovation in the market is contributing to mobile broadband's fast rate of growth.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/14457/