Government websites fail to meet standards

The vast majority of public service websites in Europe are failing to meet international e-accessibility standards.

The Register reports (28 November) that that's according to a report released by the UK EU presidency, which shows that a mere 3 percent of public service websites are fully meeting the terms of the minimum accessibility requirements as stated by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) guidelines.

According to The Register,e-accessibility promotes the participation for all in the knowledge-based economy. With the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) quickly becoming an essential part of the economic, educational and social life of European citizens, there is growing concern about whether new ICT products and services are fully accessible, especially to elderly people and people with disabilities.

The publication says that e-accessibility has been highlighted as a key priority by the European Commission in its "i2010: European Information Society 2010" initiative; for the next five years the Commission aims to promote an inclusive Information Society.

The latest estimates of internet usage in the European Union show that nearly 48.1 percent (222 million of the 460 million population) have access to the internet. Estimates also show that 39 million of the EU population are disabled and that by the year 2020 some 25 per cent of the population will be over 60.

The Register says that the report surveyed 436 public sector websites, 70 per cent of which completely failed to meet one or more of the guidelines. A further 17 percent "marginally failed" to meet the minimum criteria, while an additional 10 per cent managed to meet some, but not all, of the international guidelines.

Most of the websites fell down in the area of providing suitable text alternatives for images on their sites, with a large number of websites also failing to fully explain the relationship between frames on a website.

The Register says that in a bid to improve the poor performance of public sector websites, the report makes a number of recommendations, which include setting a clear target for making all public sector websites in the EU conform with all accessibility standards by 2010.

{mospagebreaktitle=DiData buys African telco provider}DiData buys African telco provider

South African reseller group Dimension Data is buying the other half of Plessey from Worldwide African Investment Holdings.

The Register reports (28 November) that DiData already owned 49 per cent of Plessey, now it is paying £10.75 million (120m South African rand) for the remaining 51 per cent. DiData has held 49 per cent of the firm since 1998.

Plessey is a major African telecoms provider and has run projects in 19 countries. It has offices in eight countries and employs 250 people.

According to The Register, as of 31 March 2005 Plessey turned over £79.71 million (890m Rand) and made a profit of £6.04 million (67.4m Rand) for the year.

{mospagebreaktitle=Online ads. increase - report}Online ads. increase - report

The number of users of online classified advertising services increased 80 percent this year, according to a report released yesterday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project based on data gathered by comScore Media Metrix.

The New York Times reports (28 November) that in 2005, almost nine million of those visitors went to Craigslist.org, a 165 percent increase from 3.4 million last year.

According to the NYT., the report is bad news for classified advertising sources like newspapers, which have historically dominated the market.

{mospagebreaktitle=Microsoft Plans 300,000 Xbox 360s at Europe launch}Microsoft Plans 300,000 Xbox 360s at Europe launch

Microsoft will have around 300,000 of its new Xbox 360 games console available for its European launch on 2 December, a Microsoft executive said in an interview published on Sunday.

Reuters reports in The New York Times (27 November) that industry analysts' estimates of 300,000 Xbox 360s available at launch ``were not far removed from reality,'' said Chris Lewis, the Microsoft executive responsible for the Xbox in Europe, in German weekly financial newspaper Euro am Sonntag.

Xbox 360s sold out in many US stores after the launch there on 22 November and are still in short supply, with the console selling at a premium to its US$400 retail price on internet auction sites.

Lewis said it was possible the console would sell out at its European launch too.

According to the nwewspaper, the console is the first new non-handheld machine in four years from a major manufacturer, and Microsoft aims to deliver up to 3 million units within three months of launch.

Rivals Sony and Nintendo aim to release new consoles in 2006.

{mospagebreaktitle=Apple readies Rome retail site}Apple readies Rome retail site

Apple has begun recruiting staff for its first store on mainland Europe.

The Register reports that Apple Italy is looking for the usual range of shop assistants and tech support personnel for a Rome store due to open some time next year.

According to The Register, Apple currently has four stores open in Europe, all in the UK. Since the first one, on London's Regent Street, opened last year, Apple has established stores in Birmingham's revived Bullring Centre, Manchester's Trafford Centre and the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent.

The company is known to be preparing UK stores located in North London's Brent Cross centre and Sheffield's Meadowhalls.

The Register says that Apple is also recruiting for a Fukuoka, Japan store, the company's fifth store in that country.

{mospagebreaktitle=Study:likely court defeat over stolen material}Study:likely court defeat over stolen material

One third of all requests to internet service providers to remove stolen copyrighted material from their servers could likely be defeated in court, according to a study of some 900 notices by two legal experts.

The Register reports that the survey examined takedown notices served to Google and another large internet provider under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Section 512. Two provisions of that section require that hosting providers and search providers remove content and links to content in order to gain exemption from possible copyright lawsuits. The music and movie industry typically use a different provision of the section to ask for suspected infringers to be cut off from the internet, says The Register.

The publication also reports that, according to the study, thirty percent of the notices could be readily challenged in court on clear grounds, such as a substantial fair-use argument and the likelihood that the material is uncopyrightable. One out of 11 notices had such a significant legal flaw - such as not identifying the infringing material - as to render the notice unusable. Moreover, more than half of the notices for link removal that were sent to Google were sent by businesses targeting apparent rivals, the report said.

{mospagebreaktitle=Swisscom's Eircom deal lies in tatters}Swisscom's Eircom deal lies in tatters

Swisscom's plans to acquire Irish incumbent Eircom have been ripped to shreds after the Swiss government said it would not allow the telco to make overseas investments for at least the next 12 moths.

The Register reports that if the Government sticks by its decision it means that Swisscom's plans to acquire Irish incumbent Eircom now lie in tatters. And any ambitions Swisscom might have had to snap up Danish telco TDC are also heading for the shredder.

The publication says that a spokesman for Swiss government told Reuters: "We have told Swisscom that the government does not want them to get involved there (with Eircom). The (government's) board representative has been instructed to vote against such an engagement."

The Swiss Government owns 66.1 per cent of the country's leading telco and reckons Swisscom's acquisitive plans are too risky.

{mospagebreaktitle=Sony PlayStation to get parental controls}Sony PlayStation to get parental controls

Sony has become the latest of the video game console makers to announce parental controls in it newest machine, according to the Entertainment Software Association.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (28 November) that now, all three major console makers are promising parents the means to help restrict their children's access to violent video games.

Sony will place the controls on its forthcoming machine, PlayStation 3, according to the ESA. Users of PlayStation 2 could limit access, but only to movies, not games.

{mospagebreaktitle=Momentum grows to meld tech platforms}Momentum grows to meld tech platforms

As easy as it is to connect these days by Internet, cellular, Wi-Fi and plain old telephones, the networks that make all that possible can't communicate well with one another, according to an Associated Press report in The New York Times (28 November).

The Associated Press report says that technological standards vary from network to network. The traditional phone system and the internet use completely different protocols. Even a single mobile provider's voice calls and data services are largely separate and incompatible.

But, says AP., now there's momentum building for a new standard that could enable network operators to bridge these gaps, opening the way for melded services such as simultaneous walkie-talkie and video exchanges between a cell phone and a landline.

AP says that the standard -- Internet Protocol for Multimedia Subsystems, or IMS for short -- is only a springboard for convergence between future services, not today's, nearly all of which would need to be adapted or replaced over time to enable them to intermingle.

From simple phone calls, voice mail and call waiting, to wireless text messaging and multimedia downloads, most existing telecom services were designed to perform their specific functions as if walled off into distinct silos on the network.

IMS attempts to knock down these silos by introducing a common interface for creating sessions, reports AP., adding that, that way, data can be intertwined or bridged across networks to different devices.

AP says that the technology has been generating buzz within the industry for several years, but recently took a big leap off the drawing board with a series of contract awards by some of the largest US telephone companies.

Earlier this month, BellSouth announced it was buying IMS network systems from Lucent Technologies. Two weeks earlier, AT&T and Cingular Wireless, which is co-owned by AT&T and BellSouth, also signed on to buy Lucent's IMS technology.

{mospagebreaktitle=One in six US web users sell online}One in six US web users sell online

One in six US internet users have sold goods and services online and 2 percent do so on a given day, a new study found.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (27 November) that sales are typically done through such online classifed ads sites as Craigslist or through an auction like eBay, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said Sunday.

Those who use the internet more frequently, have high-speed broadband connections or have been online longer are more likely to be an online seller, the study found.

Online selling is also higher among men, the more affluent and the better educated.

According to AP in the NYT report, the study is based on a random, telephone-based survey of 1,577 adult internet users.