Tag: Politicians

Bob Piper back Online

With Bob Piper back on line I can now return to barely noticing his thoughts as they drift past on my feedreader. Chicken Yoghurt has the best summary of what has transpired with a list of 190+ bloggers who got aeriated about lawyers silencing bloggers who’d said nothing about their clients. Ministry of Truth is thoughtful and thorough about what this might mean for the UK, blogging and libel laws:

Hosting blogs in United States is a useful workaround but one that is far from being the ideal solution. What would be better would be for Britain’s framework of libel and defamation laws to be brought out much more into line with those of United States of America – and a proper constitutional law guaranteeing freedom of speech would be even better still.

We need to change the law, it’s as simple as that. But the $64,000 question is how?

There is a simple change that could easily be made that would improve things almost immediately by freeing UK-based web hosts from the threat of litigation as nominal publishers of third-party content hosted on their server…

Read the whole post for suggestions on how bloggers might nullify juries in libel cases.The Bondian villain is captured in the cartoon from Ralf Zeigermann.

Sex, t'internet and Government

Directgov has just published a survey of what we want from the internet. Below are the wish lists according to different categories.

Apparently motorists haven’t noticed that you can already renew your tax disc online, parents want to watch their children in class (yeurgh) and nobody mentioned sex! Equally the survey seemed to fail to spot people’s desire to watch someone getting hurt on youtube, submit photos of semi-literate cats, or talk to their gran in spain. Disabled users said they wanted to have a conversation with a “digital person” . oh yeh! I bet they would have preferred to be asked if they wanted to use the net to communicate with an old fashioned person person.

I sense very limited questioning based on what we understand the internet could do yesterday, rather than ambitions for what it can do for tomorrow. Hat Tip.

What parents want from the internet

1. Immediate online alert if child hasn’t turned up at registration
2. View my child’s school disciplinary record online
3. Have a say in the running of my child’s school e.g. online PTA meetings
4. Track my child’s journey to or form school
5. Have a webcam in my child’s classroom

What teenagers want from the internet – top 5 responses
1. Take a virtual tour of colleges or universities
2. Have virtual driving lessons
3. Earn money through using your skills online
4. Have job interviews
5. Have school lessons / tutorials

What over 50s want from the internet – top 5 responses
1 Find out about local services aimed at older people
2 Use webcams/video conferencing to stay in touch with friends, relatives
3 Tracking pensions
4 Planning for new life after retirement
5 Be able to use online services regardless of physical situation or impairment

What disabled people want from the internet – top 5 responses
1. Create a complete journey planner mapped by accessibility
2. Have face- to-face check ups
3. Meet people from local disability and other support groups
4. Have face- to-face meetings e.g. job interviews or benefit claim meetings
5. Ask questions and receive verbal information from a digital ‘person’

What motorists want from the internet – top 5 responses
1. Renew car tax
2. Calculate carbon emissions and receive personalised advice on reducing them
3. Check car history
4. Get insurance quotes following an accident
5. Report a bad driver

Glocal Audio Activism: 100 Birmingham Voices Against Poverty

Less than 4 weeks ago I was sitting in the Birmingham office of Oxfam talking to them about how they might use podcasting and blogs etc to drive their part of the your voice against poverty campaign. With apparently little experience, but intelligence, energy enthusiam and passion they’ve already produced this blog and the first podcasts of the one hundred brummies who want their voices against poverty heard. Amongst them is the endorsement of BRMB voice Tammy Gooding:

I think one of the greatest things about us Brits is our conscience. We’re a charitible nation and when the chips are down, it’s the UK that tends to dive in with a big heart.

Well I know Brummies have a reputation of not being afraid to speak their minds so I’m really pleased to be joining in with so many of you to speak out against poverty. I was approached to lend my voice to a cause, I simply couldn’t say no.

They’re now crashing towards a deadline of June 2nd for the World Can’t Wait Rally in London prior to the G8 in Germany next month. These voices want the G8 to honour their commitments on debt relief – although Oxfam also has a second message on funding carbon neutral development.

What does this prove about non-profit organisations, campaigning and new technology? For me it’s the old truth that the technology is not the point – it’s the desire to change things which makes the possible do-able.

By the way if you like this Oxbrum campaign please vote for it on upyerbrum – Birmingham’s local Digg for the things which make the city great.

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