New Media Awards 2005 Weblog

Study out today suggest that the impact of online voting could encourage 5.5 million non-voters to vote.

The research, commissioned by Cisco Systems and undertaken by YouGov, was completed online using a nationally representative sample size of 2,136 British adults.

Researchers found that sixty-six percent of those who did not vote in the general 2005 election, would have voted online had it been possible. The research revealed that older citizen were more likely to have voted using new technology than the younger voters. Of the those questioned, 74 percent of non-voters over the age of 50 would have preferred to vote online compared to 63 percent of 30-50 year old non-voters and 65 percent of 18-29 year olds.

Angela Salt, Director of Communication at The Electoral Commission said, “While we don’t believe that e-voting would, on its own, solve the problem of lower voter turnout, we do know that voters want a choice of convenient, secure ways to vote. Provided that levels of security and confidence in those methods can be ensured, we are committed to working towards a 21st century democracy where electors choose the method, day and time to vote.”

Electronics maker Fujitsu has develops what it claims to be the world’s first bendable color electronic paper, which can continue to display images without an uninterrupted electric supply.

The 0.8 millimeter thick electronic paper has three display layers ( red, blue and green) sandwiched by flexible plastic films. It can display images of approximately the same quality as colour photographs in newspapers. The paper has an image memory function that means it has no need for electricity other than a minimal amount when changing the picture.

According to AFP, Fujitsu is planning to commercialise the product by the end of March 2007, for use in advertisements hung from the ceilings of train carriages, as well as those posted on curved walls. The company is also seeking uses for the new bendable display as a medium for electronic newspapers and magazines, as well as for showing product information at retail shops.

To mark the anniversary of the first manned Moon landing, the goofy folks at Google have put together a map of the lunar landscape using NASA imagery. The interactive image pinpoints where all six moon missions touched down, starting with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969.

If you’re really interested in the surface on which Neil Armstrong’s footsteps fell, zoom as far as you can for proof of a childhood tale and Google’s geeky (but perfect) sense of humour. Visit Google Moon to find out more.

After 60 years of transmitting television signals powerful enough to reach beyond the earth’s atmosphere, bloggers now have the chance to beam their blogs into outer space.

The free service, BloginSpace.com - set up by MindComet - will transmit web feeds of weblogs, into deep space via a powerful satellite broadcast.

Ted Murphy, president and CEO of the Florida-based firm MindComet said: “We are giving bloggers the opportunity to send a piece of their lives into space to potentially connect with extra-terrestrials.”

“I’ve always believed that other intelligent life forms are out there, and now, for the first time, they will be able to peer into the life of average homo sapiens,” said Mr Murphy.

MindComet wants to offer any alien beings a new way of looking at Earth. “This program gives us the opportunity to show our race in a different light.”

An Iraqi news web site is set to have a makeover to become the country’s first independent commercial news service.

According to the New York Times, the charitable foundation of the Reuters news agency plans to turn Aswat al-Iraq (which translates as ‘voice of Iraq’), into a fully-fledged news wire managed and staffed by Iraqi journalists in Baghdad. It will use $800,000 from the United Nations to create a newsroom and to base reporters in each Iraqi province. When the service goes live in a few months, it will feed breaking news to both Iraqi and foreign news outlets.

The web site has been relying on 30 freelance workers and help from three independent Iraqi newspapers to produce its articles. This new investment aims to encourage more Iraqi journalists to gain control of the news gathering process. Assem Abdel-Mohsen, an Egyptian and veteran Reuters correspondent in the Middle East who now edits Aswat al-Iraq from Cairo, said: “The standards of Iraqi journalists, were, in general, pathetic. Now they are enthusiastic and progressing rapidly.”

A study of food choice in schools has taken the existing smart card system of meal payment available in schools, and upgraded it to research children’s food choices at mealtimes.

A team led by the Institute of Food Research spent two years recording children’s eating behaviours at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys, an independent school in Hertfordshire. Through the personalised smart cards, which electronically record the food chosen, researchers worked out that only 41 per cent of 1,900 meals eaten contained the minimum amount of fibre, iron and vitamins required.

Project leader Dr Nigel Lambert said: “School dinners are currently a highly political and emotive social issue. The government has pledged to tackle menus, but measuring children’s eating habits at school is fraught with difficulties. Accurate information is necessary to support the government’s public health policies. Smart card technology could provide a practical and accurate solution.”

The aim of the reseach was to find out whether smart card technology could be used to collect such information, according to Dr Lambert the study has been a success."No questionnaires were required, nor an army of researchers, but the system succeeded in objectively recording food choice with 99% accuracy. It can also be continued long term, unlike the more usual three to seven day ’snapshot’ studies.”

Researchers now plan to collect school meal data across four mixed state schools to monitor the effectiveness of healthy eating campaigns .

In an ambitious attempt to raise its online presence, CBS News is launching an on-demand 24-hour broadband news channel .

Through a video player called ‘The EyeBox’, viewers will be able to watch more than 25,000 video clips, including stories that have not yet been broadcast on television. In late summer, the new site will post a blog called “Public Eye,” edited by media writer Vaughn Ververs, wiht the aim of offering people better insights into the news gathering process.

“This major expansion of CBSNews.com is designed to capture an audience that is increasingly looking for news and information at all times of the day, not just during scheduled periods, and using the Internet for that purpose,” said Larry Kramer, president of CBS Digital Media.

This new endeavour by CBS was also prompted by projections that homes connected to high-speed internet or “broadband” will equal or surpass homes serviced by cable and satellite by 2010.

CBS joins other networks who have taken the step to become multi-platform news providers. Fox News offers free video on its website, and CNN began its own free broadband video service last month. ABC has its own subscription digital cable channel, which includes a live channel and video-on-demand service. BBC News and Sky News also offer an online free video service.

After Thursday’s tragic events mobile phone data has gained a higher status in both media and law enforcement.In fact Guardian Unlimited believes that the democratisation of media has arrived.

The London bomb showed how ordinary tube travellers were transformed into on scene reporters and photographers. As hundreds of mobile phone videos and images flooded the television networks, it was clear that the public had gained an upper hand on the news crews. The iconic image of the devastated bus at Tavistock Square was only one of the many images taken by members of the public.

While the media begins to examine the implications of the events that unravelled in the capital, the police are also calling for people to send their mobile footage to images@met.police.uk, to help with their investigations.

In addition The Metropolitan Police have asked mobile phone and internet companies to store the content of voicemails, emails and SMS text messages that were in their systems last thursday. Police believe the data could provide vital information for the investigations into the blasts.

Currently the police have no legal authority to force the telecoms companies to store phone call and mesage data. Home Secretary Charles Clarke has said that London would seek new European Union rules to make telecom companies store records for much longer. “We believe that telecommunications records, whether of telephones or emails, which record what calls were made from what number to another number at what time, are of very important use for intelligence.”

Clarke also said he would raise the issue on Wednesday at a meeting in Brussels of European Union Interior Ministers, which he called to discuss a joint response to the bombings.

As bomb explosions tore through the capital, for the first time television networks used mobile phone images to illustrate the gravity of the attack.

A grainy mobile phone video, taken by one survivor, gave viewers worldwide a glimpse at the London Underground bombing. The image showed passengers standing in the aisle of a carriage, with its windows shattered after a co-ordinated explosion. “It was a clip that we used no more than two, three thousand times,” joked John Moody, the Fox News Channel senior vice president. The video taken by a commuter, was first aired on Britain’s Sky News. Sky found the image using moblog.uk, a free wireless photo, audio and video blog for the mobile community.

Chuck Lustig, ABC News director of foreign news, said that the amateur footage of the blasts was valuable to television networks, as it conveyed a real sense of what was going on."It took the viewer to an event as the event was happening and that’s always something that’s astonishing.”

NBC News President Neal Shipiro said: “I think you’re looking at a portend of things to come.”

• Microsoft’s Bill Gates isn’t yet ready to be wired up to a computer.
• Scientists in China have implanted chips into the brains of mice to make them respond to human speech. However some fear similar chips under the skin of consumers is the devil’s work.
• Robots will soon be patrolling Japanese shops and offices, and in a different guise are being used in therapy work for the elderly. Huggable models are preferred.
• Mobile phones are opening more doors in Japan.

St Albans City and District Council is to launch a free internet guide to disabled access with DisabledGo. It will detail over five hundred establishments in the area that are deemed disabled-friendly, including pubs, shops and restaurants. The purpose of the guide is to facilitate the smooth running of everyday activities for those with hearing, vision or mobility impairments.

To nominate an establishment for inclusion email anna.borthwick@disabledgo.info by Thursday 21 July. Otherwise you can turn up at The Community Consultation between 11am and 1pm at St Albans City and District Council Chamber on the same day.

DisabledGo is also of value to those not in the St Albans area. It allows users to search the site by area or destination and covers towns and cities including Brighton and Hove, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds and York.

In line with start of the G8 summit and the large focus on world poverty, seven internet training centres have been set up in developing countries around the world.

The Internet Training Centre project organised by the International Telecommunication Union and funded by the EU, provides two streams of Internet and ICT training to end users and advances users.

Through a train-the-trainer approach, this capacity-building project also supplies learning courses on “How to design and set-up an e-secure web-based business” using free and open source solutions.

The ICT centres are currently taking place in the following countries:

- Syria: Training Centre at STE, Damascus
- Suriname: Training, Research and Development Centre
- Bhutan: Royal Institute of Management, Thimphu
- Mongolia: Mongolian University of Science and Technology
- Fiji: University of South Pacific
- Kenya: Kenya College of Communications Technology, Nairobi
- South Africa: University of Venda for Science and Technology

One of the main aims of the project is to organise the start of student classes, for around 700 students per year with special focus on marginalised communities.

Librarians in England, Canada and North America have joined forces to produce a new live service, answering people questions around the clock.

The People’s Network, Enquire , service is led by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and has pulled in Hampshire County Council and other library authorities around the globe to provide a continuous information service.

The web site is quick and easy to use. Simply log on to www.peoplesnetwork.go.uk, type in your name and e-mail address and submit your question, the magic begins. Within a few moments a new window opens and a librarian somewhere in the world sends the answer to your question through an instant message box.

According to e-Gov monitor librarians are aiming to turn the questions around as quickly as possible- although in some cases the question may be answered more fully later on that day or the next day.

Librarians in England run the service from 9am-5pm on Mondays-Fridays and librarians in the USA and Canada take over, answering queries the rest of the time.

The Hansard Society is to release a report on the 5th of this month called ‘Spinning the Web: Online Campaigning in the 2005 General Election’. The panel for the launch event will include the director of the society Clare Ettinghausen and MP Lynne Featherstone, whose website has been shortlisted for our own New Media Awards.

The report will detail how new technology impacted upon the election and its voters. Online resources were considered crucial by all parties in the campaign. The report follows the society’s consideration of the online element of the 2001 election. With the advance in new media in the four years since, the findings should make for interesting reading. Innovations made by both the political parties and citizen-led campaigns are to be the focus.

10 concerts, 100 artist and a projected 2 billion viewers –Live 8 is set to be a huge world event. While the focus will be on the plight of the world’s poorest nations, marketers such as AOL are hoping a few consumers take notice too.

Time Warner’s America Online will broadcast every performance from all the Live 8 concerts around the world. For a further six weeks after the event, access to streaming video archives will also be made available. Marketers hope that this move will help raise consumer awareness of AOL’s upcoming switch to free, all-access, ad supported operation. As means to drive users to their online channel - AOL Music - it will also provide exclusive content free.

Jim Bankoff, AOL’s programming chief said: “You will literally be able to jump back and forth with a mouse between the concerts in London and Rome and Philadelphia.” He added: “There’s no better way than with a massive global event to proclaim we’re now open for business on the Internet around the world.”