British Times to Begin Charging for On-line Newspaper

According to an article on CNET from March 27, the News International, the British division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., announced on Friday that two of its newspapers, The Times and The Sunday Times of London, are set to begin charging readers using its sites in June.

This move is another in the growing trend of newspapers charging for on-line content, and may soon become the norm rather than the exception. Although the current economic model of newspapers has long needed an over-haul, just how readership will be effected is yet to to be seen.

dumb criminals and the internet

KENNEWICK, Wash. — A burglar who spent about five hours on a store's computer after breaking into the business gave police all the clues they needed to track him down. Investigators said the 17-year-old logged into his MySpace account while at Bella Office Furniture and that made it easy for them to find him. He also spent time looking at pornography and trying to sell stolen items, all while using the business' computer.

He was arrested Tuesday and charged with first degree burglary. Kennewick Police said he helped officers recover a cell phone stolen in the break-in

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/03/18/1122447/cops-burglar-logs-into-myspace.html#ixzz0icy2CfUq

Law Enforcement Agencies Take Advantage of Social Media to Fight/Solve Crimes

In a growing trend, more and more law enforcement agencies are taking advantage of social media to solve crimes. Some officers, such as FBI agents, have actually taken to creating fake internet identities in order to snare unwary criminals.

But, according to an article posted on FOXNews.com today, some criminals are making it super easy for authorities to catch them by posting photos of themselves "in-the-act" on their personal MySpace and Facebook pages or uploading videos on YouTube, or leaving incriminating information in their status updates. And while the evidence posted on some of these social networking sites isn't always enough to arrest the individual initially, authorities say it often leads them in the right direction in their investigation, and that does eventually lead to a solid arrest.

Be sure to check out the "Caught Web-Handed" gallery of criminals busted through the help of social media. Nothing like "stupid criminals" in a digital age!

Twitter Spreads It Wings with "@anywhere" Platform

Speaking at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Texas, Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams announced a new means for Twitter users to more conveniently use the burgeoning micro-blog. The new "@anywhere" platform will allow users to access other sites and "Tweet", without having to return to their personal Twitter pages.

"What we're doing is lowering the barriers to using Twitter," Mr. Williams said. "There's something interesting on Twitter for everbody, but not everbody knows that."

(See the complete article here.)

Twitter is fast growing in popularity with businesses, organizations, and individuals as a means of keeping in-touch and as a saavy marketing tool. This new platform has the potential to expand Twitter's effectiveness in a way that will also increase the number of Twitter users. I know it will make it easier for me!

A plan to help the US lead the world in providing its citizens with super-fast internet has been officially released.

The Federal Communications Commission, FCC, aims to ensure every American in the country has broadband connections by 2020.

It claims a third of all US households - 100 million Americans - do not have a broadband connection.

Congress will now consider whether to introduce legislation to enact some parts of the 360-page plan.

Some of the 200 recommendations will be decided on by other government agencies such at the Federal Trades Commission and Homeland Security department.

The FCC's five commissioners did not vote to approve the document because not all agree on its recommendations.

Instead they gave their backing to a statement of support for some of the plan's goals. These include ensuring every American has access to affordable high-speed internet and shifting airwaves to mobile services.

"We finally have a clear objective and a considered strategy aimed at ensuring that everyone in this country has equal opportunities in this new Digital Age, no matter who they are, where they live, or the particular circumstances of their individual lives," said Michael Copps, a Democratic FCC commissioner. Click link to see bbc complete story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/technology/8571240.stm

This is a follow up on Tracy's' post. The report has been released, but as normal the politics of Washington not everyone could agree on all of it......

FCC Announces National Broadband Plan

According to a Reuters news article, the 350+ page report entitled "Connecting America: The National Broadband Plan", was released by the Federal Communications Commission yesterday.

A couple of highlights from the report include:

"A Connect America Fund would receive up to $15.5 billion over the next decade, using money shifted from the Universal Service Fund that currently supports telephone service for the poor and rural areas."

"The plan aims to have 100 million American households get Internet speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) by 2020 - a speed that would allow a consumer to download a two-hour, high-definition movie in less than 10 minutes."

The five member FCC board will be voting this coming Tuesday on whether to release of a summary of the plan. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold hearings on March 25th on the FCC's proposals.

Online TV Audience Reaches 26 Percent

I watch a lot of shows online, so this caught my eye.

You can read the article HERE.

NEW YORK (AP) - Getting people to pay for news online at this point would be "liketrying to force butterflies back into their cocoons," a new consumer survey suggests.

That was one of several bleak headlines in the Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual assessment of the state of the news industry, released Sunday.

The project's report contained an extensive look at habits of the estimated six in 10 Americans who say they get at least some news online during a typical day. On average, each person spends three minutes and four seconds per visit to a news site.

About 35 percent of online news consumers said they have a favorite site that they check each day. The others are essentially free agents, the project said. Even among those who have their favorites, only 19 percent said they would be willing to pay for news online - including those who already do.

There's little brand loyalty: 82 percent of people with preferred news sites said they'd look elsewhere if their favorites start demanding payment.

"If we move to some pay system, that shift is going to have to surmount significant consumer resistance," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the project, part of the Pew Research Center.

Last year, online advertising saw its first decline since 2002, according to the research firm eMarketer. Four of five Americans surveyed told the project that they never or hardly ever click on ads.

Despite a lot of choices, traffic on news sites tends to be concentrated on the biggest - Yahoo, MSNBC, CNN, AOL and The New York Times.

"There was this view that we're retreating into our own world of niche sites and that's not true," Rosenstiel said.

That offers a glimmer of hope for establishing a pay system if operators of the biggest sites could somehow agree on how to do it, he said. The survey found that if forced to make a choice, consumers prefer some kind of subscription service to a pay-as-you-go plan.

The Wall Street Journal requires readers to pay for content and The New York Times recently announced plans to charge for full access to its Web site. Starting next year under a metered system, Times readers will be allowed to click on a certain number of stories for free each month, with fees kicking in for readers who exceed that level.

In addition to attempts to reach back and charge readers for content they have become accustomed to getting for free, news executives hope that advances in technology and changes in consumer habits will provide future revenue opportunities.

The Associated Press last month announced a new business unit, AP Gateway, designed to develop and promote products that will help the cooperative, newspapers and broadcasters create revenue-producing products. The AP, for instance, will charge for an application it is developing for use on the iPad, Apple's tablet computer.

While consumers may seem reluctant to pay for news, they're more likely to pay for the functionality of news products on various devices, including smart phones, said Jane Seagrave, senior vice president and chief revenue officer at The Associated Press.

"I'm more hopeful now than I ever have been," Seagrave said. "There seems to be a broad understanding that there is a value to professional journalism that is at risk right now."

Pew's survey also noted how news habits are changing rapidly. Blogging is declining in frequency, one quarter of Americans now say they get some news on their mobile phones and people are looking for news more frequently on social Web sites, the survey found.

For the online survey, the project interviewed 2,259 people from Dec. 28, 2009, to Jan. 19, 2010. The margin of error is plus or minus five percentage points.

Beyond the online activity, the study found that cable news, led by Fox News Channel, seemed to be the only sector of the news industry thriving.

Newspaper advertising revenue fell 26 percent in 2009 compared to the year before, the study said. Local TV and radio ad revenue were both off 22 percent. Network television ad revenue was down 8 percent.

Network news division resources are down more than half since the late 1980s, and that doesn't count ABC News' recent announcement that it could lose as much as a quarter of its staff due to cutbacks.

Newspaper spending on reporting and editing has fallen roughly 30 percent over the past decade, probably more at many big-city dailies, Rosenstiel said.

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On the Net:

Life without Internet connection?

BBC conducted a very interesting experiment to find out how powerful in a contemporary society the Internet is. Two South Korean families agreed to live a week without the Internet access.

Read the article and find out what happened to them!

Internet Regulation

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday called for Internet regulations and demanded that authorities crack down on a news Web site he accused of spreading false information, according to media reports.

"The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. No, every country has to apply its own rules and norms," Chavez said during a televised speech, according to reports by Reuters and the Associated Press.

Chavez singled out Noticiero Digital, a Venezuela news Web site he said falsely reported the assassination of one of his ministers.

"We have to act. We are going to ask the attorney general for help, because this is a crime. I have information that this page periodically publishes stories calling for a coup d'etat. That cannot be permitted," Chavez reportedly said.

Chavez, who frequently clashes with the media over critical reports and broadcasts, said: "It can't be that they transmit whatever they want poisoning the minds of many people--regulation, regulation, the laws!"

Chavez's comments come as Internet companies grapple with governments over Internet censorship. Google is reportedly close to shutting down its Chinese search engine amid an investigation into alleged Chinese hacking of prominent U.S. Web properties. A Chinese official warned Google on Friday that should the company stop filtering search results at its Chinese Web site, it "will have to bear the consequences."

The Chinese government also recently announced new Web regulations that will require Web site operators to offer photographs of themselves and meet Internet service providers in person.

The Iranian government, which has been blamed for blocked text messages and sluggish Internet speeds in Tehran, has reportedly said it would shut down Google's Gmail and replace it with a national e-mail system.

Meanwhile, Rep. Christopher Smith, a New Jersey Republican, recently announced a bill to give federal grants and prizes to corporations such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to develop "deployable technologies to defeat Internet suppression and censorship."

William Shatner's New Social Network: MyOuterSpace.com

Yep! You read that correctly space cadet! William Shatner has created a new social networking site called MYOUTERSPACE.COM. The network is designed for fans of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror, and especially those fans seeking careers in the Sci Fi industry.

You can find information on which schools will best serve you depending on your area of interest, develop a network of professional contacts, and many more features designed for the serious career minded. There are areas for every type of artist: graphics, game designer, writer, director, videographer, etc. And, even if you're not interested in a Sci Fi career, Shatner's outer space world is well, out of this world!

I wonder how many other "niche" social networks this might spawn, or if this one will be successful? I have to admit, it just might become a guilty pleasure for me. After all, who doesn't just love watching Shatner emote?!

Courts Cracking Down on Texting Jurors

If you show up for jury duty, you'd better leave your cell phone, pager, pda, or other Net enabled electronic device at home.

After the courtroom antics of jurors have led to misstrails and criminal cases being overturned, judges and court officials are moving to create greater restrictions on electronic devices and tougher penalities for those who violate those restrictions.

See the complete article here.

My favorite "bad" courtroom behavior, the six jurors that became Friends on Facebook during the trial. Duh!

Internet Addiction - Life or Death?!

Internet addiction features prominently in two of today's new articles, but while one demonstrates unthinkable consequences, the other points out the potential benefits that may be had through an online gaming platform.

In the first article, news reports say a South Korean couple addicted to an Internet game about raising a virtual child were arrested for neglecting their real three month old daughter and letting her starve to death.

In the second article, World Bank has developed and funded an on-line game called Evoke that bills itself as a "10-week crash course in changing the world." According to the article, 'Evoke, which was launched Wednesday, "offers young users points for completing 10 weekly challenges that call for "world-changing" skills like collaboration, creativity, sustainability and local insight. In May, the game's top performers will win prizes like online mentorships with "social innovators" and business leaders, as well as scholarships. ' Critics of the game argue that the money would have been better spent directly in South Africa, the country that is supposed to be benefitting from the game, rather than on a dubious experiment.

While the death of a child is an obviously horrific and very real consequence of the South Korean couple's internet addiction, (the two met online, are currently unemployed, and spend hours each day at Internet cafes playing online games), is enticing young people to learn how to "change the world" online a valid concept or playing with fire?

Dr. Kimberly young, founder and director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery, was quoted as saying "That while online gaming can be addictive to some, it can be a great way to promote social benefits."

1 in 4 Americans Get News Via Cell Phone

According to a new report by the Pew Research Center, the way Americans get the news is changing. And while the weather is the top concern, people are using their cell phones for news information as well. (Here's a quick summary of the report.)

I'm actually surprised the numbers aren't higher since many, if not most newspaper, radio, and television Web sites utilize technology that allows users to receive breaking news updates via their cell phones. I expect it's just a matter of time before more individuals take advantage of the available technology.