Good on you O2 and good on the European Commission and its Safer Internet programme

Two good bits of news around safety of Children online and on their phones !

In 2006 O2 set out to ensure that O2 consistently delivers real, useful, practical, honest advice to customers about online child protection. We are delighted to learn from Ofcom this week that O2 has established a "clear lead" over the other mobile networks in the provision of child protection advice to customers. Over the last six weeks, Ofcom conducted mystery shopping and calling research as part of their review of the UK Content Code.


The European Commission have proposed a new Safer Internet programme to enhance the safety of children in the online environment.

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/index_en.htm Encompassing recent communications services from the Web 2.0, such as social networking, the new programme will fight not only illegal content but also harmful behaviour such as bullying and grooming. With a budget of €55 million, the programme, which builds further on the successful Safer Internet programme started in 2005, will run from 2009 to 2013. The proposed new programme will:

* Reduce illegal content and tackle harmful conduct online: actions to provide the public with national contact points for reporting illegal content online and harmful conduct, focusing in particular on child sexual abuse material and grooming.

* Promote a safer online environment: fostering self-regulatory initiatives in this field. To stimulate the involvement of children and young people in creating a safer online environment, in particular through youth panels.

* Ensure public awareness: actions targeting children, their parents and teachers. Encourage a multiplier effect through exchange of best practices within the network of national awareness centres. Support contact points where parents and children can receive advice on how to stay safe online.

* Establish a knowledge base by bringing together researchers engaged in child safety online at European level. Establish a knowledge base on the use of new technologies by children, the effects these have on them, and related risks. Use this to improve the effectiveness of ongoing actions within the Safer Internet Programme.

The fact sheet about the programme can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/doc/factsheets/018-saferinternetplus-en.pdf

Jooce V Google docs/Google Apps

Well Jooce made it in the BBC news and as a cybernomad I had a look.myself . My though was why should I keep a jooce account alongside my google account. Jooce has file storage (media player a plus) but no email so while it loks very clean why should I swap or have I missed something. I also suspect it wont work on my Ipod touch but I will try and report back

link to BBC story


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7267534.stm

Link to www.jooce.com

Brother on my blog again

Well my brother Arnold is on my blog again. This time in front of House of Lords select sub committee on Science and technology on waste reduction .

Before the committee were Mr John Whittall, Lead Technologist, Sustainable Technologies, Technology Strategy Board; Mr Arnold Black, Network Director, Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network; Mr Tim Curtis, Director of Delivery, AEA Technology; and Research Councils UK

http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=1224&rel=ok

those family green techie genes coming through again as you can see his is quite and retiring like me .

DIUS FE and Skills E-newsletter

If your interested in FE as I am do sign up for the Department of Innovation Universities & Skills newsletter. Obviously no comment from me but worth subscribing !!

http://www.dius.gov.uk/mailshots/newsletters.html

Elonex £99.00

Elonex is going to launch £99 laptop at education show . http://www.elonexone.co.uk/ElonexOnePressRelease.pdf



The times has interesting article on how these low price devices can be produced at the price

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article3374812.ece

Interestingly a description and spec of similar looking device was to be found yesterday at


http://ec.fontastic.com.tw/clients/showproducts_A9160333734983_big_P11987417213084909.html

but it today shows a product not found message interesting eh !!!

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fancy a huddle ??

Huddle has been around a while but interestingly they added a facebook application that allows integration with your face book community ( note I didnt use word friends ). this is a working sharing platform.

Launched this week at demo 08 http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=20383310695

rumours saying they are going after long term player stateside basecamp . watch this space

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Article by Ken Banks looking at Reaching out with Mobile technology with the humble SMS

Interesting article by Ken Banks at a range of uses of mobile technology in a range of countries and situations. read pdf of article at
http://www.kiwanja.net/miscellaneous/Didactics_kiwanja.pdf



What I find interesting is the range of uses his discussion on high end and low end devices .Great to see Flora and Fauna international getting a plug I have had the pleasure of working with both Martin Hollands and Mike Appleton in the past who were bothwent onto work for FFI . The link to this Wildlive project detail is here
http://www.kiwanja.net/wildlive!.htm

Ken Banks website also looks well worth a look.

http://www.kiwanja.net/

kiler educational content for an ipod touch

I have recently got hold of one of these devices and would like help from blog readers of sources of

• podcasts
• vodcasts
• video downloads
• audio downloads
  

for education content across a range of educational setting from school college to informal learning . So come on regular readers post your ideas as comments..

cheers

Andy

Asus Wikki in education found via good old facebook and teachmeet

Hi all

got to give a huge heads up to Tess Watson one of those talented people in Scotland looking at how to use technology to enhance learning in real situations. She has set up a wiki at how to use the RM ( or any other importer) minibook in education http://asusdiscussion.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

I met Tess at Teachmeet in London bash and she followed me up via facebook fancy for making the effort Tess . Tessa also has a blog worth watching at http://edubuzz.org/blogs/tessawatson

From Computers to ubiquitous computing by 2020 BCS discussion event

17th -18th March in London this looks like a really good event .

see the website and download programme at link below. one of my favourite speakers Adam Greenfield is speaking.

Event website at



http://royalsociety.org/event.asp?id=6065



Some of the speakers and chairs are:-
Professor Marta Kwiatkowska, Professor Tom Rodden and Professor Vladimiro Sassone

The convergence of wireless networks with new sensing technologies and devices has started to embed computers into our everyday life. This meeting will consider this shift to 'Ubiquitous Computing' as an interdisciplinary grand challenge affecting all aspects of computer science that has massive implications for how we might reason about, build and experience computer systems with considerable issues for society.

Speakers and chairs include:
Professor Ozalp Babaoglu, Professor Gaetano Borriello, Professor Jon Crowcroft, Professor Sir Ara Darzi, Professor Rocco de Nicola, Mr Adam Greenfield, Professor Wendy Hall, Professor Tom Henzinger, Professor Andy Hopper FRS, Professor Anupam Joshi, Professor Marta Kwiatkowska, Professor Gary Marsden, Professor Margaret Martonosi, Professor Robin Milner FRS, Professor Morgens Nielsen, Professor Ronald Rivest, Professor Tom Rodden, Professor Timothy Roscoe, Professor Vladimiro Sassone, Professor Morris Sloman, Professor Jeannette Wing and Professor Jonathan Zittrain.

Bar camp to sort the world "Social Innovation Camp"

Well it sounds grandiose but the idea is good.
http://www.sicamp.org


What happens when you get a bunch of hackers and social innovators together, give them a set of social problems and only 48 hours to solve them?

We’re going to find out.

In London between 4th-6th April 2008, Social Innovation Camp will bring together some of the best of the UK and Europe’s web developers and designers with people at the sharp end of social problems.

Our aim is find ways that easy-to-build web 2.0 tools can be used to develop solutions to social challenges.

Today theyve issued a call for idea so if you got an idea submit go on. submit at

http://www.sicamp.org/?page_id=6

The key words are don't rant about social challenges if your not willing to shout about it !!!!

Guardian article on effect on China of its own web revolution

Great article worth a read whats really interesting is guardian website also has video linked to the article.


Article at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/09/internet.china

video at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/feb/09/china.internet

whats worth reading is the sheer numbers involved and Chinese flavour of the web !!

Global sales of Mobiles in 2007 source Ovum

Of the 1.1 billion handsets sold in 2007 below is the breakdown by Brand in table and a pie chart

Table

Global Sales Of Mobiles in 2007
Brand	% Market share	% change over 2007
Nokia	40	3.30%
Samsung	14	2.50%
Motorola	12	-10.50%
Sony E	9	. +0.2 0%
LG.	7	0.70%
Others	18	3.80%

Chart1

Same data as pie chart





Others include Apple, Ben Q, Danger, Garmin , Palm , RIM, Hitachi, HTC, Kyocera, Mitsubishi, NEC, Ningbo Bird , Panasonic, Sanyo , .....but exclude the GSM/3G Modem vendors inside laptops I think .

Note the limited number of well known national or purely Educational brands.
Wifi devices are also excluded from this list .

Remembering sharing the past and uncovering the future by serendipity !!

As regular readers know I live in Ipswich in the UK.

I was following up on this story from Mates at radiowaves ironically forwarded from Mike Short ( I fogot to blog it first time round oops) .

Their Past Your Future is a project run by the Imperial War Museum, funded by The Big Lottery. More information about the project can be seen here: tpyf.uk

The last trip to France and Canada was a huge success. 24 young people from a Secondary School in Guernsey reported live during the trip and pulled in an online audience of 3000 people in just 2 weeks. They posted over 600 mobile blogs, videos and podcasts online which anyone in the world could view and comment on. Over 300 comments were left, not only from friends and family but also from previously unconnected young people, teachers and veterans.

The MoBlogs can be seen here: http://www.radiowaves.co.uk/Network/blogs.aspx?lngNetworkID=755

Some examples of the comments left:

“Ladies I am sure that it was very emotional for you all. last year at the age of 65 I managed to visit my Fathers grave in Brussels cemetery in Belgium, he was killed in 1944,he was an Irish Guardsman, just after my second birthday so I do not remember him at all. I do know that when I stood at the foot of his grave I cried, I was remembering him, and some of my old service comrades. So well done girls, you will have experienced feelings and emotions that a lot of people think do not exist.” Veteran

“I've just read about your commemoration service and I had tears running down my face - the way you explained what you all did and how you felt was so moving.” Student

The Next Trip….

The next trip to Australia and Thailand commences in April and we will be developing Video mobile blogging to give the students more immediacy to their reports and enable us to pull in a wider audience, logging in for each instalment. We are hoping to generate a campaign around this trip, encouraging teachers to use the site as a resource, encouraging students to learn from the first hand experiences of their peers and interact by asking questions and leaving comments.

There will also be a trip in August to Japan to visit Hiroshima and interview Japanese veterans.

Listen to the stories www.radiowaves.co.uk/tpyf

I did some follow up googling and this is what I found !!

When I discovered this http://northgatemfl.blogspot.com

great stuff and guess what Northgate school is less than a mile away and my sons primary is one of its feeder Schools . Great stuff Northgate really really cool to see your blog . keep up the great work. Nice site .

Size matters – iWear puts a whole cinema in your pocket

UK consumers can get their hands on the brand new iWear video glasses from US company Vuzix. Already a big hit with consumers in the US, iWear plugs into most video playing gadgets, including iPods and other portable media players, mobile phones, DVD players and even gaming consoles like the Wii, Xbox 360 and Sony PSP, to create the ultimate personal viewing experience. The iWear glasses start at just £99.99 for an iPod-only version, all the way to the top of the range glasses which use the latest LCD technology to create a 62 inch virtual cinema screen. The full iWear range is available to buy from www.vuzix.co.uk

Small enough to fit in your pocket, iWear come in a soft carry pouch and all the connectors and cables you need. The iWear range all deliver great stereo sound through discreet over-ear speakers, and the built-in lithium ion battery gives up to 5 hours of video playback from a single charge.

“Portable media players may be great for listening to music when you’re out and about, but watching movies and video clips on such tiny screens just isn’t a good experience,” said Paul Travers, CEO of Vuzix. “iWear mean you can turn anything on the small screen into a big screen experience - and at a price that won’t break the bank.”

What really sets the iWear apart from the competition is its amazing ability to show video in super-sharp 3D using the same technology Hollywood studios are using to create blockbuster movies like Beowulf. With the iWear, all you need is 3D content, and you’ve got your very own iMax experience!

Vuzix iWear AV920 – the ultimate in ‘large screen’ video eyewear

Priced at only £199.99, the iWear AV920 deliver a massive 62-inch virtual screen, bringing video content to life for all personal devices with video-out connections. The AV920s use high quality LCD technology to faithfully reproduce video in brilliant, vibrant colour. Weighing just 2.9 ounces, the ergonomically designed AV920 is fully adjustable for an enjoyable and comfortable large screen experience while mobile.

iWear AV230 – entry-level video eyewear

Priced at £149.99, the entry-level iWear AV230 offers crystal clear video, giving users the experience of watching movies on a massive 44-inch screen. They connect to almost any video-capable device such as iPods, digital media players, DVD players, games consoles, camcorders and even a number of mobile phones including the Nokia N95.

http://www.vuzix.co.uk

Blog first Mike Short, Head of Research & Development at O2 reveals predictions for Mobile World Congress

Thanks to Mike Short chairman of Mobile Data association for this . Mike a legend in his own lunchtime ;-))) in the mobile world has supplied an insight into what's likely to be hot at mobile world congress . In Mike typical modest style he has canvassed opinion of colleagues in the sector. Unusually I quote his words directly .

Hi everyone,

Last year, as the last European Chairman of the Global GSM ASSOCIATION, I was asked by many people heading over to Barcelona, what I thought the big trends from Mobile World Congress 08 (MWC) would be. As Head of Research & Development at O2 and Chair of the UK Mobile Data Association I see a lot of innovation and new initiatives in the mobile space. So I thought I would repeat the exercise this year. Below are my key takes about what will be the most talked about themes at this year’s hotly anticipated show:-

Mobile Data and Applications

There will be a lot of experience shared around the 3G evolution, mobile internet and mobile email space again this year as we head towards a much richer and comprehensive data market.

The growing influence of the web will also come through in both business and consumer applications, touching new sectors such as Transport, Health and Education

Mobile Commerce and banking

Support for the GSMA Pay-By-Mobile initiative took off last year with a range of handset manufacturers and operators such as Nokia, Motorola, O2, Vodafone and Orange pledging to examine the use of NFC for contactless payments. With the UK’s first large scale NFC trial – the O2 Wallet – going live in November 2007, Mobile World Congress will be a platform for further brands to review and discuss their plans for using NFC technology in 2008.

This may also be complemented by GSM A led money transfer initiatives, to help the unbanked through mobile around the world.

Mobile advertising

2008 will be the year that mobile advertising comes of age. With more consumers than ever now browsing the web through their mobile handsets, there is a significant and largely untapped audience for advertisers to target customers appropriately with relevant messaging. At MWC expect operators, partnering with advertising specialists, to discuss how they can provide better targeting and measurement for mobile advertising, campaigns, from behavioural and demographic to geographic and channel-based targeting.

Screens, eyewear and accessories

When Bluetooth was first unveiled, largely for headsets, back in 1998 it did not achieve immediate consumer acceptance until around 2002. Talk has now moved to the adoption of screens and video eyewear. MWC 2008 should see the start of products such as pico projectors. With companies like Plastic Logic, Polymer vision, Vuzix, Microvision, and MyVu on show it will be interesting to see how this market develops as we move from a verbal to a visual world of mobile. It may not be long now before wearing video eyewear on the beach to watch the latest episode of Lost, whilst still getting a tan and protecting your eyes from the sun may not be far off.

Mobile communities and social networking

The steady growth of Facebook, Bebo and MySpace means making these communities truly mobile will generate excitement as well. The mobile industry has dabbled in this area with messaging and applications that can be downloaded straight to a handset there are still a lot more to be understood and implemented. We will see further offerings coming down the line later this year, potentially around what the future holds for user generated content (UGC) on mobile. The recent announcement of EYEVIBE by O2 and 3 in the UK is just one illustration of this.

M2M Forecast

Machine to machine or M2M will continue to grow as mobile provides new opportunities for machine as well as people connectivity. Telematics services are already growing rapidly now that GSM/ 3G modules have fallen in cost, and can be designed into longer term telematics applications from health care to transport, from environmental management to energy .

With more (mobile) phones than people in most developed nations the global forecast of M2M could be as high as 60 Billion by 2020, based on there being 10 times more machines than people around the world, but this will only happen with broader cross sector cooperation and partnerships.

Barcelona tapas – something for everyone

• Mobile video and TV - expect many more demos and trials to be announced, but no one single standard adopted globally .
• Mobile bar code standards
• GPS will be integrated more fully into networks and devices enabling many new innovative mapping and location based services
• Environmental /climate change solutions – the role that mobile can play in this
  

I am sure there will be a million more thoughts and ideas that will come out of Mobile World Congress and I would love to hear your views on the big stories and trends.

Can I also say I would love to hear any visitors to WMC . if you cant be there check the website out at http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/aboutcongress.htm

Looking forward to MLearn2008

I know its months away but book early !!!
I was lucky enough to visit one of the venues while presenting at the "The Learning Lab" as part of there seminar program . They've got

• web 2.0
  
• text messaging in education
• iPod technologies for learning innovation
• ePortfolios- Profiles for Employability

see the full list here

The website for Mlearn2008 in October is here

I also visited a location of part of the event at Ironbridge often cited as the birth place of the industrial revolution .

see the slidr show below of the few shots I took.
Created with flickrSLiDR.

Learners are the stars !!

Great stuff of the vodcasting sort . I introduced those talented types at Radio waves to the hard working team at Parklands CLC in South Liverpool at the end of last year where we giiged together .

Well Radio waves got invited back for the Enhancing Learning and Teaching with ICT conference for Liverpool City Council, Children Services alongside Sir Ken Robinson and Professor Stephen Heppell.

The learners interviewed these stars . I dont know Sir Ken Robinson but Stephen and Tim I know well and really suspect their view on things really great stuff see all interviews at http://www.radiowaves.co.uk/station.aspx?lngSiteID=1335

see Stephen Heppells below



and read what Tim said about the event on his blog http://www.timrylands.com/blog/2008/01/23/ict-conference-liverpool-letter-heading/

New academy goes down umpc route fro year 7 and 8 pupils

The highly innovative New Line Learning Academy in south Maidstone, comprising 3 original secondary schools, has adopted an equally innovative interactive "Anytime Anywhere Learning" strategy.

video is worth a watch.

http://www.localgov.tv/cgi-bin/details.pl?action=prog&id=356

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Anglian Ruskin host international conference on serious games

23-24 June date for your diary if your interested in serious games
!!http://www.inspire.anglia.ac.uk/serious/

looks an interesting line up.

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UNCTAD information economy report 2008 - Science and technology for development

Has just published the

The Information Economy
Report 2008 - Science and technology for development: the new paradigm
of ICT, analyses the current and potential contribution of information
technology to knowledge creation and diffusion. the BBC has picked up on this report and the fact that mobiles are narrowing the divide but I urge you to read at least the highlights of the UNCTAD site as well

BBC news story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7232264.stm

UNTCAD website
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=9479&intItemID=2068〈=1

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free WiFi network for "wireless social hippies"?

This is from Frontier science a blog by Denmark based blgger http://frontiersciences.spaces.live.com
interesting post on a system very similar to the fon shared wifi type concept.

blog post read
Join the world wide wippie revolution" is the slogan for a new WiFi service from Finland..FREE for wireless hippies! posted today on the frontier sciences network and the mobile monday network Free WiFi network for "social hippies"? af Scott Hill, 7. feb 10:14 the Finnish company Saunalahti announces ’Wippies’ (from ’Wireless Hippies’), a WiFi-sharing newtork smiliar to FON which is already very popular in Europe. At the moment, Sanualahti is offering FREE WiFi routers to new customers in Finland and Sweden, as well as free webmail accounts, under the slogan "join the wireless hippies revolution". The FON concept is already very popular in Denmark, with thousands of sites already, and is spreading like wildfire through Europe and the US...however FON requires a startup fee and you have to pay for the router... We will be following the progress of "Wippies" closely
http://frontiersciences.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!A1E4CC21DE41A7DD!263.entry

RSC Yorkshire and Humber spreading the Mobile Message via an event

Well done interesting event that if your working in the areas of Further Education Work Based and Adult Community learning and interested in mobile is worth a look.

Great to see the JISC Regional support centres in the thick of development and helping mainstream mobile learning . event details canbe found on their blog at http://rscyhexchange.edublogs.org/2008/02/06/rsc-yh-event-supporting-learners-with-mobile-devices/

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Guardian article on mobile device use

interesting article with great strap line.

"Texts leap 40% amid newer varieties of mobile traffic" worth a read and a think . Read article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/06/mobilephones

Touch of blogging

well finally getting some time to give my recently purchased IPOD Touch a look at .

things its great at

• Youtube viewing
• browsing email though lack of email client is a pain (more of that later)
• music and video viewing
  
• web browsing

The only thing it isn't great is blogging from I need Apple to allow third party Apps as using blogger on it is difficult .

There is an upgrade available at the cost £12.99 with google maps notes weather etc and an email client. It comes as standard on 32gb Ipod launched . So go on guys give us exisitng users a free upgrade !!