Rev2.org

With the news that Liam Stacey, a student who made racially offensive comments via Twitter, will serve 56 days in jail, people have rightly become concerned about what they can and cannot say when online.

Speaking about the incident, head of the CPS in the North East, Wendy Williams, said “When a person makes such comments digitally, they effectively hand police and prosecutors much of the evidence needed to build a robust case against them” while the chairman of the Law Society of England and Wales criminal law committee, Ian Kelcey added “It is too easy to press the send button without considering the effect of publication.”

Mr. Stacey’s conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions for offences that have ranged from being racially abusive to encouraging riots as well as sending menacing messages, libel, and contempt of court as authorities crack down on trolls who step over the line, especially on the popular social networking platform Twitter.

The move in recent months to prosecute is being seen as many as a warning that they are not beyond the reach of the law just because they are behind a computer screen.  Ian Kelcey said “The danger of using social media, which has its own codes, without thinking, is that Twitter is available to umpteen million people, so umpteen people might see their comments.  The judiciary needs to make it plain for people who can’t think beyond the next 30 seconds to consider if what they are going to say is an offence.”

A recent survey has revealed that around 23 per cent of companies do not have a website or online presence and that more than one in six companies fails to update their website after it is initially launched.

With this figure representing one in every four businesses not having a website, perhaps the more shocking figure revealed in the survey is that one third of those companies without a website have no plans to launch one.

The survey, conducted by The Made Simple Group in association with a number of companies including Microsoft, was aimed at exploring the UK’s online presence and knowledge.  The survey revealed that one of the main factors deterring companies from establishing a web presence was the cost of web design, with more than half citing inability to fund the design of a website as the main reason they had not yet gone online.

Researchers also discovered that only eight per cent of companies updated their website multiple times daily. One in six people who took part in the survey said that they never updated their website at all. Approximately 26 per cent updated once a week and 40% did so once a month.

With over 2,000 businesses taking part in the survey from all over the UK, the information also shows that for those without a website, 77 per cent say the primary way they are contacted is through email. Online two per cent of businesses surveyed used online chat as a way of engaging with customers.

Experts are warning that London’s internet speed may not keep pace with the athletes competing at the 2012 games.  The 2012 Olympics, already being hailed as the ‘Twitter Games’ due to the popularity of the social networking site Twitter when it comes to people covering live events via tweets, might cause a deluge of data that servers could fail to cope with.

The expected amount of bandwidth potentially swallowed up by the millions of people tweeting about the games could be put under further strain if employers allow employees to stream events live in their offices. James Blessing of ISPA said, “The average connection speed for small and medium business is unlikely to allow every employee to stream the Olympics to their desk.”

In a bid to cope with the expected surge, some internet providers are considering using technology to manage the networks, especially at peak times to ensure that access is not compromised completely for all users.

A spokeperson for Vodaphone said that it is likely to be a struggle to keep up with demand especially for mobile data, saying “This summer it’s going to be the equivalent of England playing in the World Cup final on Christmas Day, every day for the 17 days of the Games.”

Another concern is the sheer volume of video that will be streamed via the internet by BBC. The corporation has plans in place to offer live coverage for an unprecedented 24 locations as well as the usual three channels of edited content.

In a recent talk given to the media at an awards dinner for the National Press Foundation, the Executive Chairman of Google detailed what he believes to be the three main problems the internet faces today.  Describing the internet as ‘not a utopia,’ Eric Schmidt talked for ten minutes on the obstacles the internet faces today.  The number one problem he noted was that of hackers and cyber-criminals, noting that the internet was not conceived nor built with criminals in mind. He suggested that inherent vulnerabilities from a lack of foresight would be around for at least another decade.

The second biggest problem facing the internet today is that there was no delete button.  As we all know, once something is out there, it stays out there, which has caused great concerns over many individuals’ right to privacy.  Subtly implying that legislation may not be the right way to tackle the issue of privacy on the internet he added, “I certainly hope that ranking and other such things will emerge that can distinguish between truth and falsehood” in relation to internet slurs that had haunted one person from their youth into adulthood.

Finally, he said that censorship, a fight very near to the heart of Google, was the third problem. He spoke about how many people do not even know what material has been censored and that “We face the very real possibility of a future where software silently deletes our thoughts, our voices and our culture.”

The new sensation to hit the social networking market has more plans in the pipeline to make it even more appealing to new users.  Pinterest will shortly be expanding its ever growing empire by introducing an iPad app for users to enjoy.

The co-founder of the site, Ben Silbermann, made an announcement to this effect at SXSW Interactive.  SXSW stands for South by South West, and it is a trade show that looks into how the media will develop in the future.  It was a good place then for Mr Silbermann to make his announcement.

We know little about the forthcoming iPad app, except that it was described as being “in the works”.  No firm date for its availability was given, so we can assume it is a way off becoming reality just yet.

In the meantime, we can expect more appealing user profiles to be launched, so Pinterest definitely has expansion and development plans to anticipate.  This site was a slow starter when it first launched, but its success in the past few months has been nothing short of impressive.  It remains to be seen whether the new iPad app draws more users to the site, or simply makes it easier for existing users to enjoy it in a different way.  Apparently, it is thought that around two thirds of Pinterest’s user base is composed of women, so it is clearly appealing to the female more than the male population.  Will this square with the new iPad app?

Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is Ben S Bernanke, under the guise of the Federal Reserve. Tweeting as @federalreserve, the idea is that it will be more transparent to the public and to anyone who is curious to know what is going on in the financial world.

It is early days when it comes to its follower count, but the fed managed to add 1,500 followers in the first hour of the Twitter feed going live.  At the time of writing, it was nearly up to 14,000 followers, so things appear to be going well at the moment.  However, there have only been six tweets so far.  These have included messages about when Mr Bernanke will be speaking about the financial crisis and a link to a report about financial services available via mobiles.  Useful links are included in these posts so it could be a good resource for those who are interested.

It is another example of how major companies are getting in on some Twitter action.  If you are famous or at the head of a big company or organisation like this, you can be sure you will get thousands of Twitter followers in a very short space of time indeed.  Going on Twitter does make the Federal Reserve more accessible for people who are firmly entrenched in the social media age.  It also provides people with ways to find out more about the Federal Reserve System, so it could be quite educational if you persist in following it.