Because we’ve all bought into the techno-utopianism of the early Internet, we tend to assume that it’s always going to be open to everyone. But as more and more of the world goes online, it’s clear that we’re heading in a very different direction — towards an online world dominated by huge, primarily foreign-owned, corporations which are creating walled gardens in which internet users will be corralled and treated like captive consumers, much as travellers are in UK airports now. The dream that the Internet would make everything available to everyone on equal terms is fading fast.
Month: March 2013
Link roundup
I find this stuff so you don’t have to:
- Crime and Justice: an open data challenge
- Simple steps towards local prosperity
- Editorially is the collaborative writing tool we’ve been waiting for
- Google’s Keep: is it for keeps? Probably not
- The coming of the industrial internet
- Ready for Doc Ready
- Only open systems are effective for knowledge sharing
- BBC global survey shows evolving news consumption habits across multiple screens
- RPG inside an Excel workbook
- The power of the RSS reader
Let’s do the LocalGovCamp again
It’s probably about time we sorted LocalGovCamp out again!
For various reasons it’s going to be running after the summer rather than before, as has previously been the case.
So, the two potential dates are 21st or 28th September. Let me know if you feel strongly one way or another in the comments.
Location will be Birmingham as usual, although I am on the lookout for another (cheaper) venue than Maple House, which rather busted the budget last year and made the vein on the side of my forehead swell to an unpleasant degree.
It will be an interesting time to run the event, as cuts bite deeper into local authority budgets. I’m hoping there will be some discussion about how digital can help councils deliver better services for less, and also how we can tackle some of the digital inclusion issues that will emerge around welfare reform.
As always, I’ll be on the lookout for sponsors once I have an idea around costs – the usual benefactors will get an email soon, but if anyone new wants to chip in, just let me know. An Eventbrite page will be up once the details are all confirmed.
Using the internet in 1995
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XluovrUA6Bk