A study by Dixons has shown that digital radio sales have overtaken those of traditional sets for the first time. By the end of 2004, there were 1.3 million DAB radio sets in British homes, according to the Digital Radio Development Bureau, and Dixons expects demand for digital sets to rise by more than 50 per cent over the next year.

This is partly due to digital radios’ drop in cost over the last couple of years; however, these figures also reflect the considerable appeal of community targeted stations and services not offered elsewhere. The store has also found that the technology is being adopted by people of all ages, especially those in their forties and above, people perhaps with a greater emotional attachment to the medium.

Community orientated services have started to attract listeners in increasingly large numbers. Over half a million people now tune in to the BBC’s Asian Network every week. This digital medium has allowed local stations to target previously uncatered for groups; Southall’s Panjab Radio , for example, is specifically tailored to the UK’s large Panjabi community. The radios, which are usually easy to use and offer improved quality in sound, clearly appeal to people on a number of levels, and have helped make the broadcasting world more accessible and user friendly.

More than half of internet users in the UK are unable to name their local MP, according to a study conducted by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESCR). KableNet.com reports that the internet has failed to initiate public interest in politics.

Based on an NOP survey, the study also found that only 69 percent of internet users know the party of their MP, and less than 2 percent have visited their representative’s personal web site.

Dr. Stephen Ward of the Oxford Internet Institute, who conducted the research, believes the survey is an “antidote to the hype that often surrounds the role of the internet in the political world.” Still, Ward thinks the internet has potential to be an effective political tool if used correctly.

“Simply adding new electronic means of communication to old structures, or providing information online, will not automatically spark interest,” said Ward. “Politicians and institutions need to actively attract people outside the usual suspects by demonstrating that their contribution is valued and listened to.”

Civic leaders across the country are being encouraged to set up blogs to help them communicate more directly with the public. The e-Democracy and Directgov projects want local authority councillors and officers to record their thoughts and experiences online. They have piloted the site www.readmyday.co.uk in association with the Hansard Society. The aim is to develop direct and authentic communication, hosted on local authority websites.

Participating councils so far include Kingston, North Lincolnshire and Lewisham. Under the tutelage of Griff Wigley, who apparently makes a living out of this sort of thing, civic bloggers will learn the art of informing and educating citizens on local issues and government services. The idea is that they will do so in a more engaging way than perhaps they have been used to.

We assume that such blogs will not take the form of:

9.12am got up… 9.15am had cup of tea… 9.34am departed on ‘fact-finding’ junket at taxpayers’ expense… etc.

The Prevention of Terrorism Bill was introduced to the House of Commons this week. The Bill gives the Home Secretary powers to make control orders with a range of conditions, including a ban on internet and mobile phone use.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke was explicit in highlighting the use of technology in the fight against terrorism. This new Bill is set to replace the ‘Part 4 Powers in the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001’ with a scheme of control orders. The Home Office believes the new orders will be a valuable tool in disrupting and preventing terrorist-related activity.

The Prevention of Terrorism Bill is available at www.parliament.uk.

The Guardian Online section reports today that a group of councils in Dorset are to take down their websites and replace them with one over-arching web presence. The newly launched one-stop-site will be operated under the domain name www.dorsetforyou.com.

This intriguing move may be the start of a new presidence. With over 468 local authority websites, numerous Whitehall departmental sites and microsites perhaps Dorset will acheive in a small way what DirectGov has been trying so hard to do: provide a portal of information regardless of who is responsible.

In a ruling by the Charity Commission announced this week, charities will now be able to deliver e-Government services at a local level. According to eGov monitor, public bodies will now be able to contract out to charity, services which they have a statutory duty to provide.

A review by the sector regulators, the Charity Commission, has resulted in a change to the scope of service activities that existing charities are permitted to undertake. This paves the way for charities to act as intermediaries or even the sole deliverers of e-Government services at the local level.

The full decision can be found at the Commission’s website at www.charity-commission.gov.uk under ‘Decisions of the Commissioners’.

Kent County Council Social Services is revolutionising social care and community health by investing in three ground-breaking electronic services designed to enable people to stay in their own homes and take greater responsibility for their own care.

According to e-Gov monitor the new Telecare package will be launched on Friday 4 March and will be piloted among 275 people across Primary Care Trusts in Kent, with a £1 million cash injection from KCC.

In partnership with US firm Viterion, Kent’s Telehealth element of the package will employ touch screens, video link-up and digital cameras to enable people to self-monitor conditions. So have the days of shuffling along religiously to your friendly GP, ‘who’s such a lovely chap’ gone? Telehealth provides communication with health and social care professionals via hi-tech user-friendly computer based unit through a telephone line to a secure web-based facility… That’s a no then.

Other services to be launched are client cards, electronic ordering and invoicing systems and a self-assessment website for community care. The intention is to increase efficiency in order to free up money to reinvest into front line services.

Leader of Kent County Council Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart said: “These projects, based on the most advanced thinking in Britain and America, are partnerships with the private sector and have the potential to make a national contribution to modernising public services and improving the quality of lives for residents of Kent and beyond.”

It seems it might be good for your health to be IT savvy.

The communities of Brighton & Hove and the London Borough of Newham will have the chance to discuss issues online, in forums launched this week. Using the new open source e-democracy tool GroupServer, it is hoped more communities across the UK will be encouraged to use the system during 2005.

As part of the government funded UK Local E-democracy National Project, the forums are designed to be a neutral space for local communities and officials to communicate and galvanise change within their localities. Hosted by E-Democracy.org, the forums aim to empower citizens by offering them a public platform to voice concerns.

E-Democracy.Org is a non-profit, non-partisan, citizen based project intending to increase participation in democracy through IT. It began in 1994 as the internet’s first election-oriented website designed to help citizens increase their civic participation. It has adopted new and innovative open source technology developed in New Zealand to host the UK forums. GroupServer technology allows participation via e- mail or the web by utilising a number of emerging social networking techniques that effectively bring communities of people together online.

It is the intention of these forums to build community cohesion within a socially diverse local population, the key to the future of local democracy being ‘any time, anywhere’ participation.

British net users now lead the world in downloading American TV shows, according to research by web-tracking company Envisional. Fans eager to see new episodes of shows such as 24, Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under are illegally downloading episodes hours after they are broadcast in the US.

18% of downloads are from within the UK, with downloads of TV programmes increasing by 150% in the last year. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people in Britain are now estimated to download TV shows. A typical episode of 24 is downloaded by 100,000 people around the world, 20,000 of whom are British. Australians are the second biggest culprits, accounting for 16% of downloads.

Traditionally, British telly addicts have had to wait weeks or months to see US shows. Now however, six million people in the UK have broadband, allowing them to download new episodes very quickly. About 70% of downloaders do so using the file-sharing software BitTorrent.

David Price of Envisional said: “It’s a double whammy for advertisers. First, they are losing eyeballs. Second, the people whose eyeballs they are losing are the demographic they want, young and technologically savvy with high disposable incomes. TV companies must take a leaf out of the record industry’s book, set up legal download sites and bring lawsuits against the worst offenders.”

A trend towards millions of Americans downloading episodes of Richard and Judy and Countdown has not yet been spotted.

“Will the internet reconnect Britain?” is the subject of an event to be hosted by the All Party Group for e-Democracy, the All Party Internet Group, e-Society and the Hansard Society. It will be held on Tuesday 8 March 2005, at 5pm-6:30pm in the Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House in Westminster, and chaired by Derek Wyatt MP.

Speakers and topics are:

Can we close the Digital Divide? - Catherine Bromley (Research Director at the National Centre for Social Research)

New Technology, New Politics? - John Curtice (Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University)

e-Democracy in Parliament – Brian White MP (Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on e-Democracy)

The event is free and open to the public. The short presentations will be followed by a Question and Answer session. To reserve a place, email edemocracy@hansard.lse.ac.uk.