A new portal that lets British citizens access government services online has just launched in beta. It’s fast, easy, accessible — and should save the tax payer bundles of cash. Is this a model for the future of connected government? Read more »
Machine to machine networks, sometimes called the Internet of things, are the logical extension of today’s connected society; but creating such a network will require multiple technologies; telcos to open up their networks; governments to figure out a way to assign unique numbers for each device on the network and new rules to protect security and privacy. Read more »
If you’re like many of us, you’re already thinking over some New Year’s resolutions that will make you a better “you” in 2012. But how are the tech industries’ thought leaders approaching the new year? We asked 12 of them for their resolutions. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
SOPA and PIPA supporters still have faith in their shelved bills, citing the jobs they’ll save as making the bills worthy of salvage. However, the Internet economy is a potential job creator the likes of which Hollywood — already its own worst enemy — could ever be. Read more »
SOPA is too extreme to be a practical solution, according to Tom Gimbel of Austin City Limits, but he believes we need a policy that encourages online creativity and economic growth while also protecting intellectual property. It’s not as exciting to advocate for a compromise, but that’s what’s needed. Read more »
If you thought 2011 seemed like a big year for web startup funding, you were absolutely right. According to the latest MoneyTree report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, 2011 saw the highest level of VC investment in Internet companies over the past decade. Read more »
The Internet Society is organizing a pow wow of big ISPs, web companies and networking equipment providers on June 6 to ceremonially bury the world’s current Internet protocol, IPv4, and permanently implement its successor, IPv6. Read more »
The coming era of the “Internet of Things” has many implications for the tech industry. But the shift toward total connectivity could also have lasting impacts on the broader world, making it harder to commit crimes such as theft, and raising awareness about consumer waste. Read more »
Verizon is putting LTE chips in TouchTunes’ new digital karaoke machines, but that’s not all. At CES, Verizon seemed determined to embed its latest wireless network technology into anything that could conceivably need an Internet connection, including ATM machines, robots and photo booths. Read more »
Despite many challenges — from disappointing EV sales to the headaches in subsidizing solar — the cleantech sector survived 2011. Where is it headed next? It is clear that early-stage companies and ideas hold the keys to future growth, much like the first wave of Internet ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Vint Cerf is one of the fathers of the Internet, but he argues that Internet access shouldn’t be seen as a fundamental human right — simply as a tool that enables other rights. But is this true? And what are the implications if he’s wrong? Read more »
A growing problem as the web becomes more central to how we share and work is that an average person doesn’t know how abstract laws can affect their lives and the media doesn’t expose how well (or poorly) politicians understand technology. These questions are a start. Read more »
In GigaOM’s third article in our series on New Year’s resolutions from 12 tech leaders, Coffee & Power co-founder Philip Rosedale explains why he wants entrepreneurs to think really, really really big, and way outside the box in 2012. Read more »
In GigaOM’s second article in our series on New Year’s resolutions from 12 tech leaders, Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg digs into why the Internet needs strong, independent platforms for those of us who don’t want to be at the mercy of someone else’s domain. Read more »
How are people like Sun co-founder Scott McNealy, Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, Wordpress founder Matt Mullenweg, Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior and Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley approaching 2012? We asked 12 of the best-known tech industry leaders to share their New Year’s resolutions with us. Read more »
Many of y’all are against the Stop Online Piracy Act, but it’s time for a bit of a reality check on working with Washington. While boycotting GoDaddy might feel good, here are six actions that will be more effective at changing politicians’ minds. Read more »
A bi-partisan group of senators and congressmen is proposing an alternative to the widely-criticized Stop Online Piracy Act. The new bill, known as OPEN, has already won some support from opponents of SOPA, who say OPEN’s approach to piracy is much less damaging to the web. Read more »
According to data released today as part of Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, traffic over data center networks will reach 4.8 zettabytes a year by 2015, and cloud computing will account for one-third of it, or 1.6 zettabytes. That’s more than all the Internet will handle. Read more »
The effort to figure out the biggest online shopping day of the year is still in flux, with Thanksgiving so far seeing the peak traffic, according to Akamai. Will this year be the one where turkey day beats out Cyber Monday? Stay tuned. Read more »
New laws such as the Stop Online Piracy Act threaten to give new powers to Congress and to content companies, and have serious implications for the web — they make it clear that content companies are in many ways fundamentally opposed to the way the internet works. Read more »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Just like TV, mobile usage is highest during prime time, peaking at 9 p.m., according to Flurry. But just as important is the fact that mobile app use is relatively higher throughout the day than both Internet and TV, only eclipsed by TV in prime time. Read more »
The Federal Communications Commission’s controversial net neutrality rules have been officially filed with the Federal Register and will go into effect Nov. 20. But it’s expected to prompt new legal challenges from carriers who question the FCC’s legal authority to implement the rules. Read more »
Buried in the talk about security, privacy and transnational data laws, it looks like the federal government’s cloud computing push also could bring progress on broadband accessibility. If Congress actually does push more, faster broadband, I think the promise of economic growth will drive it. Read more »
Internet companies are in a unique position to consume, promote, educate and get involved with clean power. Not only by directly buying it to run their power-hungry servers, but also through their intimate access to millions of Internet users. Read more »
As the digital world and connected devices take over more and more aspects of people’s lives large Internet companies are becoming more and more conscious of the need to invest in clean power and alternative resources. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A British study found that people who went without the internet for 24 hours were “upset” and experienced “withdrawal.” But is this really surprising? It’s become obvious that internet access is a core function of modern life — talking about it as “addiction” misses the point. Read more »
For several days now, journalism professor Jay Rosen and author Nicholas Carr have been debating whether the internet makes journalism better or worse. In the end, neither side wins — or both do — because the internet amplifies both the good and the bad things about the media. Read more »
Apple isn’t about to miss out on sales of its new Mac OS to those who don’t have a solid Internet connection. The company is going to put Lion on a USB stick and sell it for $69 starting in August. Read more »
New research seems to show that our memories are less accurate when we know the information is stored somewhere else. Some feel this is going to make us less human in some way, but I for one am glad to outsource parts of my brain. Read more »
The efforts to convert corporations to the next-generation Internet addressing scheme are falling on deaf ears. According to Ovum, a mere 3 percent of web traffic is IPv6-enabled and enterprises either aren’t convinced of the need to switch, or think they already have. Read more »
Another month, another summit in Paris to discuss the future of the Internet — and another debate that ends up in the same old arguments about copyright infringement and law enforcement. Are we doomed to keep repeating our mistakes, or can we ever move on? Read more »
A common misperception is that the bulk of the energy consumption associated with the Internet and connected-computing comes from massive data centers. In reality, the billions of end devices — computers, set-top-boxes — are currently the bigger and more wasteful culprits. Read more »
WAN-optimization startup Infineta has raised $15 million for its product that speeds traffic flows between data centers. Unlike many WAN-optimization products that speed traffic between user sites and a data center, Infineta targets data moving between data centers at up to 10 GbE speeds. Read more »
As countries like Iran and Syria step up their attempts to filter and even shut down access to the Internet, a new UNESCO report looks at the attempts by repressive governments around the world to censor and corral free speech on the Internet. Read more »
Gomez, a provider of Internet performance stats has compiled its knowledge into a visual map of the world that uses colors to show how fast web sites are performing for customers i various geographies. The map showcases aspects such as DNS lookup times, throughput, response times. Read more »
Along with our latest gadgets, cell phones, electrical meters and cars, light bulbs and lighting systems, are increasingly getting embedded with chips, connected to wireless networks and moving into the Internet age. Here are some examples from the annual lighting convention Lightfair this week. Read more »
The Grand Old Party is keen to look a little less, well, old: Republican politician Newt Gingrich plans to officially announce his candidacy for President on Wednesday through messages posted on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, signaling a sea-change in how Republicans run for President. Read more »
Starting on May 2, AT&T DSL customers have a cap of 150 GB, and U-verse customers have 250 GB of bandwidth (combined upload and download) per month. Here are 10 tips to economize your bandwidth usage and prevent unexpected overages both for the newly oppressed. Read more »
Yahoo Mail is down for a sizable chunk of users and the company is working to fix the outage. This is another black mark against the company, which has seen its revenue slide, is selling off beloved web properties and is generally struggling to remain relevant. Read more »
