blog archive.

Coldharbour Systems have today launched their new E-learning initiative, which they hope will help their clients make the most out of the products.

Much of Coldharbour’s custom comes from a loyal client base of organisations boasting large work forces.  Feedback from many of these identified a need for new staff to attend a series of training sessions.  Coldharbour have responded with the most time and cost effective solution – the provision of online tutorials accessible via their website’s client extranet.

The e-learning project marks an important milestone for Coldharbour – streaming rich media content to clients via their website is a big step forward both in terms of customer service and technical innovation.

Going live today, our Youth Unlimited website aims to promote positive activities for young people aged between 13-19 living in the South Gloucestershire area. and help them to quickly find essential local services.

Young people have been involved throughout the website design process, and will continue to take the lead role in managing the website alongside staff at South Gloucestershire County Council.  Adding to the news stories, updating the events calendar and participating in discussions on the chat forum are all part of this remit.  By giving young people responsibility for the upkeep of the site it is hoped that the content stays fresh and relevant for their peers.

Coming soon to the site
Additional interactive elements, such as podcasts, competitions and ultimately a YU Virtual World will be added throughout summer '08 so keep checking the site to see the latest changes.

B-Active has been created to give young people in Bath & North East Somerset (BANES) easy access to information on positive activities. Whether looking to play club football after school, find out where the nearest recording studio is, or discover a friendly place to grab a coffee, young people will be able to find it all by searching B-Activities.

One-off socials, gatherings, meetings and even after-school clubs will be featured in What's On, an online events calendar giving details of local activities. Users of the site can give their feedback and rate events they've been to.

The forum has been created to give BANES youth an informal way to discuss topics relevant to them. This area of the site is monitored by a trained team of moderators, there to ensure that the B-Active house rules are respected.  Young people are also actively encouraged to learn about staying safe online with links to Think U Know and the Virtual Global Taskforce clearly displayed on every page of the site.

The idea behind B-Active is to get as many young people using the site as possible and to help the site administrators keep it up-to-date and relevant.  Comments are very welcome - good and bad - so that B-Active can be shaped into the most useful resource possible.

We're delighted to announce the appointment of two new board members at Focus New Media.

Lisa Lee is appointed Business Development Director following a successful three years in our Account Management team. And Neil Smith has joined us as Technical Director with overall responsibility for the design and development teams. Both appointments are with immediate effect.

"This is a well earned reward for the hard work that Lisa has put in since day one", explains Simon Newing, Managing Director. "We know that she will lead with confidence and develop lots of fresh ideas. I'm sure those of you that have met Lisa would like to join us in congratulating her on her promotion."

"Neil has a wealth of experience in the development of large scale web applications in a variety of senior roles, and we're really pleased to have him on board. There's no doubt his presence, leadership and enthusiasm will have a huge impact throughout the company and the work that we do."

The appointments are part of our continued ambitious expansion plans for 2008 - more news of which will be revealed in the very near future. 

"The New Economics Foundation is launching a network today to allow UK ethical investment consultants and researchers to share information on calculating social return on investment...." (read the rest of the article here)

I like this idea - yet as the article ends I too wonder about the validity of qualitative results regarding often intangible commodities (such as workforce goodwill) weighed against the (highly quantifiable) financial bottom line.

Having been a member of Triodos bank for years I understand that social return is a sellable quality to a public yearning for more meaning in their everyday lives.  Incorporating both social and environmental considerations into your long term business plan is something all forward thinking organisations should do, yet presenting this in a 'ROI' context alongside your financial profit margins does feel rather souless.

I'll be really interested to see how the NEF network develops this idea - if it works I would predict widespread adoption of the concept across all sectors.

Source: Third Sector Online

All of us in the development team have recently had the unpleasant task of turning our attention to the dark underbelly of the internet – the world of online sexual predators. 

Lisa's training with Tony Domaille certainly opened her eyes further to the full extent of the problem – and to what lengths professionals are going in order to monitor and control the situation.  Most of us in the office have also watched the recent Panorama documentaries - One click from Danger and One click from Capture.  The planned changes put forward by Justice Minister Maria Eagle to the The Obscene Publications Act therefore comes as welcome news. 

The Act currently makes it illegal to sell or distribute photos of child abuse but it is still legal to own drawings and computer-generated images.  The plans, if implemented, will criminalise the latter too, with a penalty of up to three years in prison for owning any images of child abuse.

Having spoken to a number of people about this I was surprised at how many dismissed the issue of online predation as an uncommon problem, hyped up by a media eager to sensationalise any story.  Thinking back, I was as equally sceptical a few months ago before I began looking into the problem as part of my job. 

Unfortunately I think that in this instance the stats don't lie – they only show the tip of the iceberg:

*  Over 13 million child sex abuse images and videos have been assessed by the NCMEC since 2002.

*  5million of the above images were collected in the last year alone.

*  An average of 400 reports a month of sexual abuse online are recorded by the CEOP.

To me, the link between the wide distribution of pornography via the internet, and the rise in sexual abuse – on and offline – seems too obvious to ignore.  Explicit images and messages have become part of the irritating load of spam that collects in most people's junk email folders, yet the sheer weight of it is feeding a hungry market.  In essence, the internet has normalised pornography to such an extent that individuals already at risk of sexually offending have a ready outlet for their desires.  

This is why I believe that restricting the dissemination of child abuse images should be of utmost priority to the entire industry – ISPs, IM services, large file sharing companies like Pando and social networking sites to name but a few.

*Sources
CEOP
NCMEC
BBC

According to Digital Spy it sounds like it will only be a couple of years before everyone has a web browser in their TV set. It might be locked into to specific shopping channels, but I can't imagine that would last long - someone would bring out a better version that supported browsing the web in general.

The Mobile Internet World Europe Summit convened a few days ago to discuss ways to "capitalize on the fastest growing marketplace in the converging media, entertainment and telecommunications industries."

The blogosphere seems to be rather tight-lipped on the findings or perceptions of this conference, leading me to believe that either the conference bombed or the participants are keeping very quiet about their conclusions.

With such high sums at stake wouldn't you?!

I - like 99.9999% of the worlds population - hate spam.  This blog seems to receive more than its fair share of the stuff, despite the CAPTCHA filter we included as standard - human spammers making easy work of the bot-proof challenges.

I'm therefore rather pleased to hear two of the 90's most active spammers have been fined $234M for their relentless spamming assault on MySpace.

Having contravened the 2003 federal law known as CAN-SPAM, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines were awarded this judgement after they failed to turn up to their court hearing last week. 

Source: Information Week

The last comment made in a recent BBC article concerning hi-tech crime made me pause for thought this afternoon.

Paul Henry from Secure Computing put forward the idea that the only sure way to reduce identity theft and related crime would be to lower the value of personal identity to the point where it no longer holds value for hackers.

Is this a valid argument?

Advertising agencies and corporations will pay a fortune to know your personal details. Ok, so these data are more to do with what kind of car you drive, or your breakfast cereal preferance. Yet if they are willing to invest vast sums in behavioural marketing technologies, so will black market traders be interested in other elements of your digital footprint.

This point requires more thought... I'll be back with more coherant thoughts...