The UK has officially become a nation of digital divides, according to a study of the UK’s communications regulator Ofcom.
The research, carried out last year, provides the first insight of the regional variations in the availability, usage and take up of fixed and mobile phone services, digital TV and radio and Internet access.
The study reveals that internet take-up and use in now higher in rural areas of the UK than in big cities.

But the research also points out that rural users are more likely to be stuck with slow dial-up connections rather than the fast broadband enjoyed in urban areas, particularly in London.

Meanwhile, people in Northern Ireland send the most texts - on average 37.5 texts per week- but scores the lowest take-up for digital TV. The assumption is that because average incomes are the lowest in the part of the UK, households would be less willing to spend money on digital television. The province also has the lowest number of mobile phone users with 3 adults in 10 not owning a phone compared with a UK average of one in five.

Ofcom’s chief operating officer, Ed Richards, said: “Clearly this split is a new dimension to the digital divide. It manifests itself now in things like digital terrestrial TV availability and increasingly in the availability of competitive infrastructure even for current levels of broadband access. It will manifest itself, in due course, in the extent to which very high speed broadband access is available to all parts of the UK. It is a very important new dimension to the communications landscape.”

Chip technology seems to have spread on the entire globe as the people’s identification standard.

In Europe, the chip system should be adopted by 2008 in Germany, France and the UK. Yet, electronic ID card formats largely differ from one country to another.

-Germany plans to stock an electronic signature but also digital prints and a face’s picture of the card’s holder. Nevertheless the data are planned to stay exclusively for administrative purposes.

-In the UK, where a more advanced debate on the issue has occurred, ID cards will stock the date of birth, name, address, iris’ scanner and also digital and facial prints. The data will be available on a national ID cards’ database linked to electronic passports systems.
Following a similar process, Spain and Estonia also want to allow the utilisation of biometric data by private organisations .

-In France, the access of biometric data will be regulated by an independent organisation. Contrary to the US chips, which are readable up to 9 meters away, chips in France will be only readable up to a few centimetres to ensure confidentiality.

A similar chip system has also been adopted in China, though the government has opted for the centralisation of the entire citizens’ information in a single database.

The harmonisation of the systems appears to be more than ever necessary between the different states. The risks and threats such systems could represent to the privacy of individuals are another issue…

In the hope of boosting industrial prestige at a difficult time, French President Jacques Chirac yesterday launched (April 25) a 2 billion euro plan to back a series of six projects including a Franco-German search engine, Quaero, intending to compete with Google.

More than a European version of Google, Quaero, which means “I search for” in Latin, is a program of industrial innovation aiming at developing multimedia search software for the general public that would be used on both computers and mobile phones.

Certain critics abroad have already emerged accusing the project to be another example of the interventionism of the French State.

The participants to Quaero, such as Thomson, France Telecom and Exalead, have underlined that the project is only a catalyst enabling to gather the dispersed progresses made over the last years.

The French state has a long tradition of spending public money in high tech projects with mixed results: only time will tell if Quaero will turn to be a success like the TGV or disaster like the Minitel…

An in-car emergency call system for all EU vehicles is up for a final vote in the European Parliament on 26 April.

eCall, a system based on the EU-wide emergency number 112, would automatically contact the nearest emergency call centre when there is a car accident. A voice connection would be established as well as providing key information about the accident such as time, location and vehicle description. If approved, the eCall Memorandum of Understanding would require all cars to be equipped with eCall by 2009.

So far, only seven of the 25 EU Member States have signed: Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia and Sweden.

There are more than 40,000 deaths on Europe’s roads every year. eCall is estimated to save 2,500 lives and 22 billion in related costs a year, thus far outweighing the costs of implementation, according to eSafety Support.

Our female readers may be interested in these FREE workshops:

The British Computer Society (BCS) and EqualiTEC are organising two one-day workshops specifically targeted at women returning to the workforce after a career break.

Workshop 1
Internet Computing
Thursday 4 May 2006 - London
Speakers from BBC and Google

Workshop 2
Health Informatics and Medical Imaging
Tuesday 23 May 2006 - London
Speakers from Fujitsu, Kodak and the NHS

The workshops are free of charge and travel costs may be reimbursed for eligible women. Places are limited and reservations are required. Go here for more info.

Bored with the same old screen saver?

Then check out the latest Labour campaign website: www.davethechameleon.com, which features a colour-changing, helmet-clad reptile riding a bicycle.

The website aims to show the Tory leader’s evolving view of himself as a “Conservative to the core,” a “liberal Conservative” and the “heir to Blair”.

A short film featuring Dave the Chameleon will air tonight on BBC2 at 5.55pm, on ITV at 6.25pm or on BBC1 at 6.55pm, during a Labour local election broadcast. It is also available on the website.

The website also features an array of electronic items bearing the Dave the Chameleon logo, including mobile phone wallpaper and ring tone, and a colour-changing computer screen saver.

The Tories have not responded to the humorous attack yet – it has only appeared as a news item on Conservative Home. Perhaps they are waiting for the big debut this evening.

I wonder if it will do the same thing “New Labour. New Danger.” did for the Tories back in 1997?

If you’re fed up reading about of the Google Calendar, come join the New Statesman discussion that is heating up about the Euston Manifesto - a document drawn up by a small group of bloggers and academics that calls for a new, pro-war left. After just 18 hours, it’s getting more hits than the NS home page so check out what all the buzz is about and debate is taking off.

Ambulances in England will have access to Ordnance Survey’s digital geographic information as part of a pilot agreement between the data collection agency and NHS, reports Public Technology.

Other health services participating in the pilot, which started in November 2005, are already using the data for planning the distribution of reousources, espcially for deprived areas.

I am sure this will please the Technology Guardian’s Free our Data campaign.

Big Mouse Mother
Disney is launching a mobile phone service that will enable parents to track their children’s phone activity, reported the BBC. Parents will also be able to limit calls and locate their child using GPS. The service, called Disney Mobile, will debut this summer, provided in conjunction with Sprint.

Blogger Bylines?
Pluck is launching BlogBlast today, a blog syndication service that will provide commentary from 600 bloggers to newspapers, “further blurring the lines that divide blogs and mainstream media,” reported Wired. The service is starting in the US but is expected to expand to overseas publications. Newspapers already signed up are The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle, along with the whole Gannett Corporation, which owns USA Today. Newspapers are likely to use blog content, edited by BlogBlast staff for quality control, in sections that do not have dedicated writers like travel, food, technology and local news.

A military video game with no weapons
University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute has developed a video game to teach American soldiers about Iraqi non-verbal communication dos and don’ts. In the Tactical Language Training Program, “players navigate a set of real-life scenarios by learning a set of Arabic phrases, culturally relevant gestures and taboos,” reported Wired. Players advance by building a rapport with other characters.

“Cultural taboos unknown to Americans can also lead to problems. For example, in Iraq, introducing yourself without also introducing everyone else with you is impolite. Hannes Vilhjalmsson, the project’s technical director, recounts one situation in which an Iraqi man gestured to a female soldier by rubbing his fingers together. It was meant to indicate friendship, but the soldier interpreted the action to have an offensive sexual connotation.”

So far, about 300 soldiers have used the program, but that number is expected to be in the 1000s by year’s end. There is even the possibility that a civilian version of the software will be developed.

By September 2006, 150 local authorities in England are required to offer an online school admissions system, reported Public Technology.net. Part of the eAdmissions National Project, the online system allows parents and caretakers to enroll students in school quick and easy – without the paperwork.

Since the project’s launch in February 2004, 58 local authorities have implemented an online admissions system. That leaves another 92 to go by the September deadline, but they will be ready, according to Public Technology.

Response has been positive in the areas where the system is already in place. Some authorities have experienced more than 35 percent take-up.

An eAdmissions survey found that two-thirds of respondents who had access to an online school admissions system experienced no difficulties whatsoever.

We were concerned that an online system would mean those parents with internet connections would be able to get their enrollment form in faster, thus giving priority admission to their student. But a quick call to eAdmissions put our worries to rest.

The online system is “an alternative service channel,” said Amanda Derrick, program manager for the eAdmissions National Project.

There is no enrollment advantage to using the online admission system over the paper form, Derrick said. Each local authority has their own enrollment procedure and this system does not alter how enrollment is ultimately determined.

If nothing else, it will definitely save a few trees!

The eAdmissions National Project is sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Department for Education and Skills.