Unconferences plan first responses
Some Unconference organisers will be attending the official launch of the final Digital Britain report with Lord Carter at the RSA today. Ben Bradshaw introduces the report in the House of Commons at 3.30pm.
They will be meeting afterwards to discuss their reactions and consider next steps.
As soon as we have a PDF or electronic copy of the report we will be putting it up on the Digital Britain Unconference website (http://digitalbritainunconference.wordpress.com) together with a poll to gauge everyone’s thoughts. The aim will be to get an overall sense of what people think (the poll) and a more detailed reponse within the comments section of the blog post.
Those outside London please do think about meeting up on Tuesday evening also and writing your combined responses/blog posts into the comments.
Cornwall Social Media Café meet tonight (Tuesday) for a timely discussion of Digital Britain report.
Details, booking
The Future of Broadband for Cornwall
If there isn’t an event near you: meet with friends and colleagues, discuss, blog, and link.
You know you’re going to hear from Birmingham on Wednesday. If you can attend, call in and take part in the discussion. Stephen Carter will. You should as well.
Final Report Unconference Registration
Any other Unconferences? Please let me know and I’ll post them here.
Live video stream, online Q&A
On Wednesday, from 11.00 am
Watch live as Lord Carter unveils the long awaited Digital Britain final report at the ICC regional launch and debate. This will be the first opportunity for regional experts to review the report’s contents and to quiz Lord Carter directly on its recommendations. The invited audience will include representatives from the region’s thriving digital media, telecoms, creative, technology and education sectors. The Live stream is supplied by Aquila TV and can be viewed at http://events.digitalbirmingham.co.uk/digitalbritain/video
Prior to the event put your questions to
Tom Loosemore 4IP,Marc Reeves Birmingham Post, John Hemming MP, Helen Milner UK Online Centres, Councillor Paul Tilsley and Glyn Evans, Stephen Dodson DC10
http://www.yoosk.com/digitalbirmingham/
Rhubarb radio live stream on Wednesday
“Exclusive interviews and highlights will be broadcast live throughout the day on www.rhubarbradio.com . Mp3 podcasts will also be available to download from the site.
Lord Carter is due to speak at 11 a.m. and his keynote talk will be followed at around 12.15, by Iain Gray, Chief Executive Officer of the Technology Strategy Board, who will outline how the detail of the report will be delivered.
Roundtable debate and workshops that explore the report’s key themes will continue throughout the afternoon and listeners will have the opportunity to participate in the live debate by posting their comments on the station’s blog.”
Press, events and video
VIDEO: Stephen Carter on Digital Britain
Stephen Carter speaks to Broadcast about universal broadband, online piracy, local news and a potential tie-up between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4
Broadcast
Digital Britain: What to expect sector by sector from Lord Carter’s report
Broadband
Copyright protection
Local and Regional media
Broadcast: Channel 4 / BBC
Excellent overview of who wants what and what the report is likely to contain
Guardian
Digital Britain: BBC and C4 yet to agree venture
‘still issues of substance as well as detail to iron out’
Financial Times
Crowd -sourcing online engagement plans for DB final report
Neil Williams’ Mission Creep blog covers the plans for publishing in ways which are “as interactive, accessible and re-usable as possible. However, it has to be remembered that this is the final report, so feedback can’t alter its content”
Mission Creep blog
Birmingham events on Wednesday
Lord Carter to make regional launch of Digital Britain in Birmingham
Birmingham Post
Digital landscape shapers’ unconference at 09 Festival
Birmingham Post
Final Report Unconference Registration
Virgin: Unlimited music, comes with disconnection policy
Paid Content reports:
Virgin Media has announced a new subscription bundle offering
“streaming and even download of an unlimited number of tracks. Virgin confirmed to us that the new service will use DRM-less MP3s.
Clearly designed to coincide with Tuesday’s Digital Britain announcement, Virgin also says it will “implementing a range of different strategies to educate file sharers about online piracy and to raise awareness of legal alternatives”. The company told us that will range from an extension of the letter-writing campaign trialled by ISPs and labels last year, “under Universal’s auspices”, to “a temporary suspension of internet access … as a last resort for persistent offenders“.
Paid Content
Open Rights Group comment
“… clear implication that the agreement of Universal was made contingent on imposing sanctions on Internet users without court action. Virgin will disconnect accounts temporarily when they are found to have been used to ‘persistently infringe’ copyright, but without judicial oversight.
This raises several questions. Firstly, it shows the perils of mixing up the role of ISP and content provider. As content provider, they have motivations around protection of their products and services, whereas as ISP, their business depends on providing connectivity.
Secondly, Virgin could be breaking their terms and conditions of service with their customers … “
Open Rights Group
FT reports licence fee, regional news changes
” People familiar with a late draft of the paper, which maps out the future of the country’s creative and communications industries, said that its author Lord Carter proposed as expected that some of the BBC’s funding should be used to pay for independent production companies to make regional news programmes on ITV. The cost of the scheme has been estimated at £40m to £100m, depending on its scope.
But the people also added that at least £30m more could be made available to independent producers to create other kinds of programmes either for television or the internet, such as current affairs documentaries, as long as they fulfilled the criteria of public-service broadcasting.”
The report indicates the BBC will mount a robust defence of the licence fee.
Financial Times
A week of Digital Britain Reports
Some you might have missed. Catch up, grab the RSS feed.
June 9th to 12th
Confirmed: Lord Carter will attend Unconference
Final report publication details
Mobile broadband: 1Mbs average
Times: Lord Carter to quit government
French anti-filesharing law overturned
Welcome, Tim Berners-Lee 
Digital Entertainment Survey
Broadband: how fast, how much, who pays?
Unions fear job losses, blame downloading
Bradshaw trails video games announcement
Commons Digital Britain questions
June 5th to 8th
Channel 4 to put back catalogue online
BT: 93% population can get 2Mbps coverage from upgrade
High cost of copyright: 6 million days
Carphone Warehouse chief: idea ISPs can stop illegal downloading “naïve”
‘No need for network neutrality’
BBC may be forced to share licence fee with ITV
Pact lobbies for retained IP in publicly funded content
Bandwidth Wars Are Back As BBC Protests BT iPlayer Throttling
Ben Bradshaw to replace Andy Burnham as culture secretary
UK Film Industry Calls for Broadband Speed Restrictions on Illegal Users
Web pirates placed in ’slow lane’
Phone firms to meet Carter in bid to salvage broadband deal
Media execs lobby Carter
Confirmed: Lord Carter will attend Unconference
The Birmingham event management team have confirmed that Lord Carter will visit the Unconference at Fazeley Studios on 17th June.
Better book now Fazeley Digital booking
Final report publication details
Blog post from Digital Britain team.
The report will be published in commentable form
‘using WordPress and the Commentariat theme developed by the Engagement Team at the department formally known as DIUS. This will go up towards the end of next week.’
Also, ‘a Uservoice forum, where anyone will be able to submit public questions, and to vote on which ones they think need an answer. The most popular will then be answered – probably on a video.’
All this and a social media news release.
‘The publication of the report is just the start of this process, not the end. We need everyone to stay involved and engaged to help us make Digital Britain a reality.’
Digital Britain Forum
Unconference people get ready.
Mobile broadband: 1Mbs average
The average download speed for a UK mobile broadband user is only 1Mbps.
“British mobile broadband users are not getting anywhere near the speeds that ISPs are advertising, according to a new survey.
Broadband monitoring company Epitiro said that UK mobile broadband users only received on average 24 per cent of advertised download speeds, and that the average download speed achieved was just under 1Mpbs.
The survey also claimed that web browsing was 34 per cent slower than speeds achieved with equivalent ASDL broadband services.”
Study based on monitoring 1,300 UK mobile broadband users and operators O2, 3, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media and Vodafone.
IT Pro
