Obama picks US information chief

US President Barack Obama has named Vivek Kundra as his chief information officer.

When Mr Kundra takes up his role, he will decide which technologies the Obama administration uses to govern and how they will be deployed.

He will build on the broad use of technologies, such as the web, used by President Obama's campaign team during the US elections.

Mr Kundra will be in charge of a budget thought to total $70bn (£49bn).

Currently Mr Kundra works as head of technology for Washington DC - a role in which he championed Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as better ways for administrators to communicate with citizens.

In a statement about Mr Kundra's appointment President Obama said: "I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations."

When he starts his job, Mr Kundra will work alongside whoever is picked to act as a President Obama's chief technology officer. A decision on who will take on that role is expected soon.

Speaking after his appointment, Mr Kundra said he wanted to ensure the US has "the ability to run an open, transparent, participatory and collaborative government."

Mr Kundra said he would explore how government could use so-called "cloud computing" which would involve much greater reliance on web-based resources.

He also planned to create a data.gov website through which US citizens would get much easier access to official statistics and other government information.

ToysRUs pays $5m for toys domain

Toy retailer ToysRUs has paid $5.1m (£3.6m) for the Toys.com domain name.

The amount has surprised onlookers and hints at a deeper commitment to online retailing for the toy giant.

It is believed to be the biggest payout for a domain this year but has some way to go to beat the $14m paid for sex.com in 2007 or the $9.5m paid for porn.com.

UK domain name seller Sedo said it had seen prices halved for .co.uk domain names since the economic downturn started to take hold.

Brand kudos

But, said Sedo's business development manager Nora Nanayakkara, more small- to medium-sized businesses are buying domains.

"Sales have tripled as businesses see the value in having a presence online," she said.

"In the case of ToysRUs it could be that they are thinking of rebranding or increasing its online presence," she said.

"Toys.com is going to put them in the top search ranking and is likely to give them kudos in terms of brand recognition," she added.

In the US, domain name prices have remained stable, according to Ron Jackson, editor of the Domain Name Journal.

He said that the average .com domain was selling for $2,688 (£1,904) in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to $2,788 (£1,976) for the same period in 2007.

Selling online

For many online, it is a way to buck the downturn, he thinks.

"The severe recession is forcing businesses to look for the most cost effective, efficient way they can possibly operate and for many that means establishing or reinforcing a web presence," he said.

"This is especially true of brick and mortar retailers. There is much less overhead involved in selling toys for example online than through hundreds of cash-draining big box retail stores."

The Toys.com auction, which took place last week, saw a series of bidders for the domain. But as the price hit $3m (£2.1m), only two were left - ToysRUs and National A-1 Advertising.

The domain had previously been up for auction and went to a company called Faculty Lounge for $1.25m (£886,000).

Tech support calls can be costly

A survey from Which? Computing has found that most internet service providers are using premium rate numbers for their technical support.

The consumer group compared the technical support costs of 45 firms.

While a handful used a freephone number, firms including Tesco broadband, Supanet and Roxio use premium rate 090 numbers.

Tesco has said that it is planning to change to a cheaper tariff "as soon as possible".

"The cost of calls to Tesco broadband technical support is something we've been looking at and listening to customer feedback on," said a spokeswoman for the retail giant.

"As a result we'll continue to provide a very high quality of technical expertise to all our broadband customers but calls will now be charged at a local rate.

"We'll be contacting all our customers as soon as possible to let them know about the change in price," she said.

Covering costs

Six firms including BT, O2 and UK Online, offer a freephone 0800 number.

But 32 of those surveyed used higher-cost numbers for their helplines.

"Some companies are using higher-cost numbers at their customers' expense," said Sarah Kidner, editor of Which? Computing.

" If other companies can offer a freephone number, why can't they all?," she said.

Those using premium rate numbers told Which that they did not profit from the calls, but used the revenue to "cover the costs of a technical support service".

The survey also found that nearly a third of broadband users were frustrated by customer support.

Time spent waiting to be connected does seem to have improved. Only 12% were dissatisfied and the survey found that the average waiting time was just 1 minute 33 seconds.

Plusnet customers have the longest average wait - at nearly eight minutes.

The Which? Computing survey looked at 45 technology companies, including ISPs, software and laptop manufacturers.

New guidelines on behavioural ads

The online advertising industry has launched a set of guidelines for a genre of adverts that have been causing controversy.

The code of practice drawn up by the Internet Advertising Bureau looks specifically at behavioural advertising.

This form of advertising delivers ads based on people's browsing activity and is therefore far more targeted.

UK ISP BT is planning to roll out such advertising developed by US firm Phorm.

The guidelines which have been signed by key players including Phorm, AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo agree on three core commitments:

• Notice. A company collecting and using online information for behavioural advertising must clearly inform a consumer that data is being collected for this purpose

• Consent. A company collecting and using online data for behavioural advertising must provide a mechanism for users to decline behavioural advertising and where applicable seek a consumer's consent.

• Education. A company collecting and using online data for behavioural advertising must provide consumer with clear and simple information about their use of data for this purpose and how users can decline.

Behavioural advertising, in which customers who, for example, browse websites about cars are sent advertisements about cars, has long been controversial with privacy advocates.

The industry is keen to stress that advertisers do not know who individual users are because the information collected is anonymous.

"There is no personally identifiable information. They don't have your name, address or phone number. Instead search terms are linked to a random cookie number in a general geographic area," said Nate Elliott, a principal researcher at Forrester.

He said he had been surprised at the level of controversy raised by Phorm's partnership with BT.

"There are dozens of companies that have been doing this type of advertising for years. Google stores search information and uses it to better target future searches, for example," he said.

According to Forrester 26% of European online advertisers used behavioural-based systems during 2008.

The IAB estimates that behavioural advertising could generate an income of £200m for UK online advertisers.

Opt-in

The promise to make it easy for customers to opt out of such services will not go far enough for some who want to see all such services offered on an opt-in basis.

BT told the BBC that it is likely to offer its Webwise service, the technology devised by Phorm, on an opt-in basis.

It has not yet given a date for when the service will roll out but has completed several trials of the technology.

The first two of these trials created controversy because they were conducted without the consent of BT customers.

The European Commission is still considering whether it will take action against BT on this matter.

Privacy campaigner Richard Clayton thinks the code of practice is doomed to failure because it doesn't address the opt-in debate.

"The bottom line is that if I'm prepared to tell advertisers where I browse and what adverts I want then all well and good, but I don't want them snooping on me," he said.

"The IAB has gone to great lengths to ensure that the industry protects and educates consumers on their rights and choices," said Nick Stringer, head of regulatory affairs at the IAB.

"Behavioural advertising has clear benefits to consumers, delivering more relevant advertising and keeping most of the content and services we enjoy free of charge.

"However it's in its infancy and we need to let consumers know they are in control," he said.

BT awaits fast broadband ruling

BT will find out on Tuesday if it can proceed with the roll-out of a high-speed, fibre-optic broadband network.

The firm wants to invest £1.5bn in the network, giving up to 20 million UK homes access to speeds up to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps).

BT has made clear it will only make the move if regulator Ofcom allows it to get a decent return on that investment.

Ofcom boss Ed Richards has already indicated he is likely to pave the way for BT to build the network.

If given the green light, the network will be completed by 2012.

In an interview with the Financial Times last month, Mr Richards said: "Regulation will not be a barrier to this kind of investment."

The network would see the installation of fibre-optic cables to street-side cabinets, offering speeds of between 40 and 60Mbps, with about 1 million homes having fibre to the home and speeds of 100Mbps.

Current barriers

BT in the past has urged Ofcom to nurture a "supportive and enduring regulatory environment" which includes removing current barriers to investment and making sure that anyone who chooses to invest in fibre optics can earn a fair rate of return.

The communications company hopes to lease access to its new network to third-party Internet Service Providers and be given pricing freedom in order to earn a financial return on its investment.

Currently Virgin Media is the only other provider of a fibre-optic network to a large number of people in the UK. Its fibre-to-the-cabinet offers speeds of up to 50Mbps.

Andrew Ferguson, editor of ThinkBroadband.com, said on the site it would be "no major surprise if Ofcom approved BT pushing fibre further out from the exchanges".

He said: "The options for Ofcom were limited since if it refused BT then the only next generation like network approaching national coverage would be Virgin Media who currently offer no form of wholesale access."

Digital politics is different

Surveillance is a fact of life in many of the UK's towns and cities

Online coverage gives events enduring significance, says Bill Thompson

In November 1988 Stuart Weir, at the time editor of the New Statesman, published a special edition of the magazine asking those concerned with the health of British democracy to stand up and be counted. The proposal, which he called 'Charter 88', called for a new constitutional settlement, one which would guarantee civil liberties and the rule of law.

Shortly afterwards 348 people paid for and signed an advert in the Guardian newspaper asking people to offer support, and a year later an organisation called Charter 88 was founded to take the campaign forward, with Anthony Barnett as its first Director.

The Charter was eventually signed by over 85,000 people, including me, and the organisation it inspired continues to campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms as Unlock Democracy.

It would be fascinating to trace the history of this important movement, and perhaps watch some of the barnstorming speeches that took place at its many public meetings over the years, but there seem to be no recordings and few accessible records of what happened in the early days.

Google's archive search of old newspapers will sell me a scan of a 1988 article from the Miami Herald that talks about Charter 88 for only $2.95, but I can find no public scans of the original advertisement and there are no video or even audio recordings of any meetings, while the Wikipedia entry for Charter 88 is flagged '"his article needs additional citations for verification".

There's a book, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original Charter 88, but that is only available to order as a printed volume and Amazon won't let me search inside it.

Since I am fortunate enough to have access to the British Library and even to the offices of the New Statesman, where I'm an occasional contributor, I could hunt down the original 1988 edition if I really wanted to and see just how the case was argued.

As I'm a friend of Anthony Barnett's I could ask him if he has any old material I could look at, and if I was really keen I could offer to digitise it and put it online for him, but I probably won't because time is short and building digital archives takes a lot of time and effort.

My interest in Charter 88's history came about because yesterday I was one of over a thousand people who attended the Convention on Modern Liberty at the Institute of Education in London's Bloomsbury district, organised by that same Anthony Barnett and journalist Henry Porter.

Repressive actions

It brought together dozens of different organisations and hundreds of speakers in seven cities across the UK, beginning with a passionate defence of our civil liberties from Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti and finishing with an informal debate that included blogger Cory Doctorow and songwriters Billy Bragg and Feargal Sharkey.

Although there were many horror stories about the repressive actions of the representatives of the British state there was also significant optimism and a sense that things could be changed if we choose to change them.

And unlike the early Charter 88 meetings, some of which took place in the same lecture hall I was sitting in, every moment of the convention was being recorded and documented in detail.

The plenaries and panel sessions were being filmed and webcast live, with transcripts taken and posted online as soon as possible after the words were spoken, while the wireless network throughout the building enabled me and many others present to twitter about what we were doing.

Large number of photographs were uploaded to Flickr, Moblog, Tweetpic and other photo-sharing sites, and as well as coverage in the obvious media outlets like the Times and the BBC there are already dozens of blog postings, some from those who were there, some from those who participated online.

The interaction and engagement that these services facilitate was a vital part of the convention, tying together the eight separate meetings with video feeds and online debate and turning them into one nationwide event. The online presence also meant that many people who could not be there were able to participate, using the two-way nature of the web to feed back into the real-world meetings and not simply sitting there are observers of a broadcast video feed.

But the real significance may come in six months, a year or even five years, when the issues the convention raised form the basis of political campaigns, government policy or even a new Bill of Rights for the UK. Charter 88 grew up before we had moved into the digital age and what little was recorded remains analogue, offline and inaccessible.

Yesterday's event was self-documenting, and much of what happened left traces online, traces which will be visible to anyone who wants to know what happened. Ben Goldacre's jokes, David Davis' call for action and Philip Pullman's eloquent and moving condemnation of a government that refuses to believe in the British people will be there, to be watched, read, linked to and commented upon over the coming months, and this in itself will help to strengthen and build the movement that seems likely to emerge from the Convention.

Of course, it also means that the authorities will have no problems tracking down who was there or what they said, but transparency and sharing always carry the risk of undesirable side-effects.

Pirate radio 'puts lives at risk'

By Daniel Emery
Technology reporter, BBC News website

Authorities have been increasing their efforts to crack down on pirate radio stations in the UK.

Regulator Ofcom says the broadcasts can put lives at risk by interfering with emergency service frequencies, and can also block legitimate stations.

Police officers raided an address in North London which, they say, housed an illegal pirate radio station.

Five people were arrested and officers seized thousands of pounds worth of broadcasting and musical equipment.

Ofcom says there are more than 150 pirate radio stations operating across the UK, half of which operate in London and the South East of England.

Last year, officers raided 43 studios used by illegal stations and shut down 838 illegal transmitters.

Ofcom's head of investigations, Paul Mercer, told BBC News that pirate radio was not a victimless crime.

"Ofcom receive complaints from the emergency services. The two services that are most affected are the National Air Traffic services and the London Fire Brigade.

"In both instances, because of the proximity of the frequencies used by those services and the illegal broadcasters, they can suffer some difficulties when trying to use their radio systems to communicate."

However, one pirate radio DJ told the BBC that while pirate stations may have interfered with the emergency services in the past, it was now a rare occurrence.

Steve, who manages the pirate radio station Ice Cold FM, said: "Problems can occur if people use a badly built link box that connects the studio to the transmitter.

"These systems, called Band 1, can put out multiples of their frequency, so a link on 50Mhz could spill out onto 100Mhz and other high band frequencies.

"I would say 90% of pirates don't use Band 1 links any more. We all use microwave links that are completely interference free," he said.

He added: "I'm not saying there aren't exceptions, but we check all our stuff to make sure it's clean and on the band."

Ofcom says that if there were other avenues open for legal broadcasting, such as setting up a community radio station.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has provided money for the Community Radio Fund, managed by Ofcom, which so far has awarded £215,900 to 15 applicants.

But Steve from Ice Cold FM said that it was difficult to win a community radio station licence.

"I wanted to go legal. We tried to get a community based licence and even went off air for a while.

"But once we looked into it, they wanted us to show that we had £25,000 in sponsorship to prove that we could establish the business for a length of time, which is far more than we would actually need.

"Even to apply costs money and Ofcom can still say no, so it's just not worth the effort."

Online shops look to prosper

By LJ Rich

The credit crunch might be bad news for high street stores who see fewer people step through their doors but it is proving to be good news for web retailers.

Many hope their green credentials and more secure payment systems will encourage more customers to take their mouse shopping rather than their car.

Chris Russell, Director of eDigital Research said: "Consumers are spending more online, and this surge in traffic means that e-retailers have a massive opportunity to capitalise on the increased attention they are experiencing.

"If they don't, then they will be missing out on a chance to build customer loyalty and repeat business, something no organisation wants to do in economic times such as these."

Retailers are already beginning to plan stock and quantity levels for next Christmas, suggests research by eDigital. In 2008, 60% of people turned to the web when sourcing presents.

Pick and mix

Jason Gissing, founder of Ocado which works with supermarket Waitrose, said he believed the switch to online shopping would continue.

"Consumers' understanding and interaction with the internet has changed. I think the services that online retailers offer have improved," he said.

"I often talk about the MySpace generation when I look at friends of mine who have children that are spending their entire times online and texting each other.

When they start working, they're going to embrace the internet in a way that we can only dream of."

In its warehouse Ocado uses eight miles of conveyor belts to move shopping around as orders from shoppers are picked and put together.

To ensure food stays frozen, the shopping basket travels from the top floors, which are cupboard temperature to the bottom floor, where the fridge and freezer food gets added at the last minute before finally being loaded into delivery vans.

Said Mr Gissing: "We actually have a lower carbon footprint per pound of sales than walking to a supermarket yourself, because everything that you see here is in one place.

"We don't have big open chillers and freezers with nasty refrigerants that you get in a big shop, and heating to make customers feel happy as they walk around and shop."

Money market

And it is not just in green issues that online shops want to be seen to be concerned about.

Online security has been another priority for retailers in their efforts to boost sales.

One possible solution is chip and pin, widely used outside in the real world, that is now starting to be used for web shopping too.

Credit card giants Mastercard and Visa have already launched their online verification tools.

UK-based Pinoptic has developed a slightly different system. Those using it generate a code they enter into an online keypad but, instead of the code being four numbers, it is two numbers and two icons.

Each time the code needs to be entered, the icons will be in a different place on the keypad. This makes it very difficult for keyloggers to figure out an individual code, claims Pinoptic.