Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category

Google Maps

As someone with an unfortunate combination of a terrible sense of direction and the complacency to assume I’ll somehow find the way (not to mention the common male trait of being reluctant to ask for directions), online maps have saved me many an hour of aimless wandering around unfamiliar areas. Any tool that helps me to spec a place out must, then, be a Good Thing. More - I can see your house from here!

Wow Media - truly a WOW … Birmingham teenager Matt Lovett has set up his own online marketing business called WOW Media, which is a collection of cash-back websites and makes its money by charging the retailers to advertise on the site, an inspired teenage entrepreneur who could be the inspiration for more Birmingham youth.

Swinging against the tide of current headlines about young people and their antisocial and criminal behaviour it is very refreshing to read about a local youth whom, even after a less than positive experience at school and failing most of his GCSE’s except ICT, has managed to turn his life around and at the tender age of 17 is running his own international company employing six people and with a monthly turnover of £25,000 per month … that can’t be bad!

WOW Media currently has 400,000 UK subscribers as well as 35,000 in Australia and 24,000 in Sweden and looks set to go from strength to strength - the website looks engaging and easy to navigate and smacks of a level of professionalism that belies Matt’s years.

With the current numbers of 17 - 18 year olds in Birmingham currently in education (or work-based learning) at 81% and the regional unemployment figures continuing to climb, due in part, to the current economic climate; the influx of young adults due to be seeking vocational support will increase come the end of the summer term and although dotcom start-ups have had a bad press over the last few years, this story just goes to show that with a bit of thought, imagination and a little business acumin … the worldwide web could be your oyster.

The next generation of superfast broadband was given approval by Ofcom on Tuesday … the new £1.5 billion fibre-optic network will be 25 times faster than today’s speeds. Songs will take just two seconds to download and DVD-quality films less than two minutes in the 100 megabit per second system.

“There are no regulatory barriers in the way of investment in super-fast broadband, we want to promote investment but also ensure that there is fair and effective competition for the future.” stated Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards.
So, here at Digital Birmigham we are making the assumption that BT will no longer be subject to Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) as they were under the ADSL roll out, which will no doubt be a huge impetus for its implementation.
BT is investing £1.5bn in a fibre optic network that will deliver download speeds of 100mbps to UK broadband users. The move follows increasing competition, particularly from Virgin Media, which plans to introduce a 50mbps broadband service in September.

BT aims to put 10 million homes on the fibre network by 2012. To control costs, the network will be built in two parts. One million new-build homes will receive the fibre network directly. For the remaining nine million residents BT plans to replace the copper cabling that connects kerbside cabinets in streets to the local BT exchange with fibre optic cabling.

It has been recently reported that one in three teenagers are suffering bullying by mobile phone, text messages, messenger or on the Internet.  Tuesday saw the launch of a team of online Cyber Mentors to help teenage victims of bullying and they were deluged with calls for help with hundreds of victims and friends of victims logging on to chat to one of the 700 specially trained teenagers about their problems. More - Teenagers Tackle Cyberbullies

What does the average Joe on the street know about how galaxies are formed? Well, apparently we know more than we think: www.GalaxyZoo.org allows anyone to help researchers at Oxford University identify the shapes of one million galaxies photographed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope.

This is the latest example of how computers and humans can not only co-exist, but can combine their strengths in new and innovative ways to achieve things that neither could achieve alone. More - What do you know about galaxy formation?