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By Alan, on May 14th, 2012
In the past year and a half it has been estimated that around 2.5 million people in the country have been given access to the Internet thanks to volunteers and staff who work at libraries across the country. The reason for this is because these library staff have been helping people build their Internet use skills so they can get online.
This announcement was made by the Society of Chief Librarians and it is part of a pledge they made two years ago to encourage half a million people to get online by the end of this year. This project was called the RaceOnline programme and it was organised by Martha Lane Fox. Incredibly, the project has been a huge success and it has exceeded its initial goal of 500,000 people by five times.
It is now currently estimated that only 30 percent of households in the UK do not have any access to the Internet. This is a significantly lower number than in previous years, but for those people, they still must go to a local library if they want access to the Internet. This is something that they can do for free of charge at the vast majority of libraries in the country.
Martha Lane Fox is also a digital champion for the government and she has praised many government schemes for helping the librarians organise this drive to get people confident on the Internet. She commented, “There are people all across the country working so hard to bring the Internet to people who haven’t used it before.”
An example of someone brought online by this scheme was Mrs Brooks. She lives far from her family and on her own. The library allowed her to boost her confidence in Internet usage and she now keeps in touch with her family via Skype.
By Alan, on May 11th, 2012
White Pine Trading have a company called WP Diamonds and they are a business that recover gems from scrap jewellery. They’ve recently started a new platform which is going to start buying diamonds directly from consumers who no longer want them. There is going to be a purchasing service which is run through the post and it is said to be there to meet the growing demand for people who want to sell their diamonds.
The director of European operations for White Pine Trading is Tim Phillips and he has commented, “We have an increasing presence online and we think this is a new way to reach customers who are interested in selling their diamonds. We are going to offer them all of our capabilities as well as excellent prices.
“We’ve decided to launch this business because we know it is a time where consumers might need access to cash, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to liquidate some of their assets, such as jewellery. We want to create a trustworthy service that also offers customers a quick turnaround time.”
A free evaluation of the worth of the diamond can be gained by the customer filling out a form on the company’s website. The operation is going to be based in Birmingham and if the customer wants their diamond to become completely valued then they can send it in to the company. If the customer is not happy with the valuation, the company will return the diamond free of charge and all postage will be paid for and fully insured.
Once a customer has decided to make the decision to sell their diamonds, the company can provide the money to them within 24 hours. Diamonds are then sold by the company to a global network of jewellers.
By Alan, on May 10th, 2012
The nonprofit organisation TED is famous for spreading ideas through its video website. It is just announced that is going to be launching the second part of its initiative with the launch of a groundbreaking website which is going to allow teachers to create lesson plans around the website’s content.
The project is called TED-Ed and it is going to be able to get some of the talent from the best teachers in the world and provide this to other educators around the planet in order to facilitate the learning of people everywhere. The first stage of the project began in March when a channel was launched on YouTube. There was also a call for animators and educators to create lessons and animation reels for the project. Within just five weeks the project attracted over 2 million views on YouTube and has over 40,000 subscribers.
Every video that has been uploaded to the site deals with traditional subjects and these are labelled by tagging. The materials are designed to be used as supplementary material for a teacher and should help in the understanding of complicated subjects. There are also many materials available on the website which teachers can use such as multiple choice questions and other sorts of information.
There is also a piece of functionality on the website which allows teachers to ‘flip.’ This allows a teacher to take the content, customise it, and hosted on a private web page. This means that the teacher can distribute it and it allows them to also track the progress of their students. The whole project has been created in order to make it easier for teachers to have a greater reach with their students and be more involved with their learning process by opening new opportunities to them.
By Alan, on May 4th, 2012
Falcon Guides are very popular for those who are interested in outdoor recreation and they have recently redesigned their popular website so that outdoor enthusiasts are going to be able to become more of a part of the community.
There are many new features that have been introduced into the website including a destination map on which people can highlight their favourite activities and where they can do them. This is a map which can also have video, photos and other sorts of information added to it. It also has the ability to share a timeline so people know what the best time of year to visit this particular site is.
The site is also going to have a great deal of free content for people to help themselves to. There are hiking guides available for downloading which highlight some of the best walks available in the U.K.’s national parks. There are also going to be many contests run where people can win a great deal of prizes. The website also has interviews and how-to videos with well-known outdoor enthusiasts including the BASE jumper, Steph Davis.
There is also much more information about the people behind the website and there are bios about all of the staff at Falcon and information about the work they do. What is clear from all this information about them is that they are very passionate about the work that they do and it is likely that if you’re visiting this website you are going to be like-minded.
The website is very interactive and encourages people to feedback about what they like, and don’t like. Along with the launch, the website have also launched complementary pages on Facebook and have opened a twitter account. The website can be visited at www.Falcon.com.
By Alan, on May 4th, 2012
When you browse the Internet your computer collects something called cookies from websites. These are actually small text files which let your Internet browser and websites know when you are going back to websites you have been to before.
These cookies are often used for targeting advertising towards specific users. For example of the user has been visiting certain webpages, the cookie will remember this and when the user visits another site, advertising can be specifically targeted towards that user based on their web browsing history.
This is the only use for cookies however and they can also be helpful in your online browsing experience. For example if your cookies say that you are interested in a particular topic, when you visit a website, that website can direct you to the most appropriate part of it for you.
There is often been a lot of controversy about cookies because they are thought to be something that can invade your privacy. Most web companies have stated that they are just something to make the Internet browsing experience easier, but the EU disagrees. An EU directive has recently said that cookies do pose a significant risk to people’s privacy on the Internet.
The directive from the EU breaks cookies down into two types. Those that it regards as necessary for doing important online tasks, such as banking, and those which are not necessary, such as those which target advertising towards users.
If a website wants to install cookies on your system, then they are going to have two inform the user what the cookies are going to be used for, and asks the user whether they want them to be installed. This is something that is going to be a problem for online advertisers as they won’t be able to target their adverts so effectively.
By Alan, on April 28th, 2012
AbilityNet, the charity for disabled people that use computers, claims that many of the best price comparison websites available to the UK public do not properly address the needs of older people and disabled people in terms of web accessibility.
The charity’s main purpose is to help those with disabilities use the internet and computers to help improve their quality of life, and their latest claim is that comparison websites are hard for disabled people to use after a team of experts looked over give of the major price comparison websites in March of 2012.
Included in the research were Confused.com, Compare The Market, Kelkoo, Gocompare.com, and mySupermarket. The websites were viewed from the vantage point of elderly users and disabled users and were put through a series of manual checks.
In addition, the websites were each tested using adaptive technologies that those with disabilities may have to use to communicate such as voice recognition software and screen readers. According to AbilityNet, only Kelkoo was able to get a two star rating for accessibility while the rest all received one star. There stars is considered to be at least satisfactory for those with disabilities therefore all of the websites fell under unacceptable terms.
Head of digital inclusion for AbilityNet Robin Christopherson who also happens to be blind stated that people with disabilities that are cash strapped are missing out on great deals and online bargains that other people have access to simply because the web pages are badly designed and not accessible to them for use.
One main problem is that pictures of text are often used in the place of actual text on the websites which means that users with vision impairment cannot change the text color or size to make it easier to read the content.
By Alan, on April 27th, 2012
A new research finding indicates that the average UK website has 14 tracking cookies or tools enabled on it that can be used to store users’ data and browsing history. Therefore, the average British internet user will come across as many as 140 cookies by just visiting one website, out of which a shocking 68% will have come from third parties that have struck an agreement with the website owner.
The findings come from privacy solutions provider Truste; which published its latest findings about one month before tighter regulations on cookies and web use are enacted in the UK. Starting on the 26th May, the Information Commissioner’s Office will enforce the European directive for cookie use with the goal of offering internet browsers more privacy while surfing online.
Businesses and organisations who own websites that use cookies will have to receive consent from all users before they can store or access their information via the cookies. They will also be required to offer ‘clear and comprehensive’ information to make sure that users are aware that cookies are active on their website and what they will be used for if consumers choose to allow the use of cookies while they browse.
Despite the fact that companies have had time to prepare for the new regulations, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham warned that many companies are not yet prepared for the new legislation and do not understand how it will affect them.
With only a month to go until the new legislation takes place, most websites have not yet introduced a new feature that will ask users for their consent to run cookies while they browse. Of the policies that are in place, Truste found that most are too long for most consumers to take seriously and most do not offer a summary section that makes their intent clear to consumers.
By Alan, on April 13th, 2012
The EU justice commissioner has stated that new changes to the privacy policy by Google are in breach of EU law. Viviane Reding told the BBC this week that the authorities have decided that the transparency rules are not being followed by Google.
The chance in the Google privacy policy went into effect last Thursday and allows Google to now share privacy data collected by one Google service with another. For example, different Google platforms can share information about users including Gmail, YouTube and Blogger.
Google responded that they believed their new policy would meet the restrictions of the EU law, but France data regulators questioned how legal the move was and decided to launch an investigation wih the EU. The new privacy policy involved the merger of over sixty sets of guidelines that were streamlined into one policy to be used collectively for all Google services instead of on an individual basis.
This means that web history and browsing data that is gathered when a user logs into a Google account can be shared with all services allowing for a larger web of data collection activities to be merged together. The business model of Google is based on selling ads that reflect an individual’s behavior online and there relies heavily on being able to collect information about how its visitors choose to browse.
In the past different Google services did not share this information with each other; therefore, each service was only able to collect information based on a user’s activities while they were using the service. For instance, YouTube could only collect browsing data about videos and Gmail could only collect data from emails. However, now advertising results can be compiled based on how user’s choose to access both Gmail and YouTube as well as any other Google services that are used.
Under the terms of the new agreement, users cannot choose to opt out of the data sharing among services unless they decide to stop using all of the services that Google offers. Therefore, a user cannot choose to continue to use Gmail and keep their information isolated to the one service.
The regulator asked Google to hold off on making any changes until the investigation was complete, but Google rejected the offer and now all users are subject to the new agreement. More concerning may be the fact that only half of UK Google users were even aware that a change was made in the policy agreement, and out of these only 12% actually read the agreement terms.
By Alan, on April 12th, 2012
As the competition for consumer spending and shelf space continues to become the tightest that it has been in decades, many food and drink companies are starting to pay attention to how the quality of their contents and the materials that they decide to package them in.
Croxsons, the glass packaging specialist, has launched a new website that has received a large amount of praise from producers that want support to make sure that their products stand out on the shelf when displayed next to other products. After all, the first step towards making a sale is catching a consumer’s eye.
Whether the product in question is a preserve, spice, beer, food, or drink it needs to have the appearance of a premium product in order to get people looking at it. This new level of demand is drawing many people towards the expertise of Croxson’s with web traffic to the website increasing by almost 250% when compared to initial traffic reports in January.
Customers can also learn about design services at the same time that they browse to see the jars, bottles, and closures that are already available from the leading family owned business.
By admin, on April 5th, 2012
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