In the wake of MegaUpload, another file sharing service bites the dust
When agents of the United States federal government began an international operation to raid MegaUpload, they were targeting after an organization that was allegedly engaged in a highly-illegal and highly-profitable piracy business.
But their actions have had a ripple effect across the internet, with other 'file locker' and 'file sharing' services questioning their own futures.
Presidential first as Obama hangs out on Google Plus
President Barack Obama will be the first president to use Google Plus Hangouts
to chat with voters in a 45 minute open forum after his State of the
Union address tomorrow.
During the session, Obama will answer questions submitted to YouTube, echoing his YouTube town halls of the past, as well as chat live with a select group of questioners.
SOPA debate looks set to rage despite blackout protests
On Wednesday several major websites, including Wikipedia and Reddit, took their services offline in protest at the proposed SOPA bill.
For Wikipedia, the self-imposed blackout actually had the affect of increasing traffic as people logged on to see what the fuss was about.
In a nutshell, SOPA is an attempt to crackdown on internet piracy by shutting down sites that host copyrighted material.
Opponents say that it goes too far, as sites that link to other sites that host pirated material can also be shutdown, and threatens free speech.
US Government agencies upped digital communication in 2011
It may not be the most exciting part of the technology industry, but government is increasingly using the internet to communicate and interact with citizens.
In some cases, use of the internet is becoming a requirement as agencies are required to be a part of 'open government' initiatives.
SOPA blackouts to go on, even if bill is dead (for now)
Parts of the internet will go black tomorrow. From Wikipedia and Reddit to the Cheezburger network and Major League Gaming, numerous highly-trafficked web properties say they'll shut down to protest the SOPA legislation that would make the internet far less free in the name of fighting piracy.
Even Google is going to be making a statement using its homepage.
The blackouts are going on despite the fact that SOPA is effectively dead -- for the time being.
London's 2012 social media guidelines are fair game
There have been multiple reports of social media ‘restrictions’ being enforced upon volunteers for London's 2012 Olympic.
The 70,000 volunteers – called Game Makers – have been prevented from posting behind-the-scenes updates and photos to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.
Creating a social media strategy for B2B organisations
As shown in many of the latest Econsultancy reports, a growing number of B2B companies seem to have caught up with their B2C peers and are investing in social media.
However, when we decided to create a company-wide social media strategy in the summer of 2010 there were very few examples from which to draw inspiration.
EU open data strategy could be worth $40bn a year
The European Commission has today announced plans for an open data strategy that will require all EU countries to make public data available in digital formats.
Led by digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes, this includes everything that public bodies produce, collect or pay for, such as geographical data, statistics, meteorological data or anything derived from publicly-funded research projects.
Q&A: LBI's Manley on preparing for the EU cookie directive
Manley is SEO Director at LBi, and he has been working with clients recently, preparing for the full implementation of the EU cookie directive.
This directive (here's the pdf if you have a few hours spare) was introduced in the name of privacy, but has serious implications for online businesses.
I've been asking Manley about what the directive will mean in practice for online businesses, and what they should be doing to prepare themselves...
DIY usability assessments for expert users
I firmly believe that observing real users doing real tasks is the 'gold standard' for usability testing, particularly when the designers observe it themselves and see the problems only real users can find.
However, sometimes full user testing falls outside the budget and the project manager will decide to use an expert usability assessment instead.
This works well for websites where an expert usability consultant can put themselves in the shoes of the user and work through typical tasks identifying critical usability issues.
But what if the system supports far more complex tasks, which users take years to learn?
