Social Mashup

Star gazing with a Social Nostradamus

I was thinking this week about Social Networks and how I saw their potential development over the next few years. As wonderful as they are, we must remember that sites such as Facebook are only really 5 years old, and they have had to spend time defining a business model, growing awareness and user bases and of course dealing with horrible scalability issues (when a site has 200 million users the industrialisation and volumetric management becomes a ‘tad tricky’).

So let’s assume the last 5 years have been all about understanding the market, users and fundamental sizing problems. What will (or should) the next 5 years deliver?

I see this question in the context of some interesting statistics:

1. The amount of time people are spending on Social Networks has trebled

2. Revenue from online advertising now outstrips offline

3. The rise of the smartphone, advances in mobile networks, and importantly price reduction in handsets and mobile Internet usage opens up some really exciting new potential

So let’s get to some predictions… ..Continue reading..

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A bear with a sore head!

I’ve been using and very much enjoying LastFM for just over a year. Recently I noticed play back cutting out after an hour or so, and this silly graphic appearing to punctuate the irritating silence.

I thought the designers had gone insane, radio is generally a passively consumed media so the idea of wandering off, and LastFM demanding some kind of ongoing attention seemed incredibly poorly though out (dare I say vacuous).

Now take a look at that “Subscribe” link. Well, I thought I was a subscriber, perhaps not a paying subscriber, but certainly a loyal site member and consumer none the less.

Follow that link, we arrive at the page below and the “real intention is revealed”. Uninterrupted radio now costs three quid (vernacular for Pounds Sterling) a month. So, look again at the picture above. Are people concerned that I’ve been eaten by said famed bear, am listening to Internet radio whilst dusting the cat, or in reality are the site providers using “nuisance tactics” to drive fee paying subscriptions?

It makes me think seriously about purchasing one of the many dedicated Internet radio appliances (from about 40 manufactures last time I counted). Some even integrate playback with Pandora, so I could easily retain the ‘played track history’ elsewhere, all with no interruption and no recurring fees (beyond the initial outlay on the physical device itself).

I think it’s really interesting that LastFM are broadcasting over CBS networks in New York, San Francisco, LA and Chicago (as announced earlier in the week). That’s great, a fascinating ‘cross over’ story from Internet radio to traditional broadcasting (of course CBS own LastFM). However, I’m ‘dismayed’ at the decision to implement interruptive ‘tactics’ that make no sense in such a delivery model on the Web. And seriously guys, when did a certain type of icon become prestigious (bullet 4 below)?

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Centre for Secure Information Technologies

I was having a peruse of the latest (1oth – 23rd October) edition of Engineering and Technology magazine from the IET this morning. Contained therein is an interesting announcement from Queen’s University in Belfast of the opening of a new research centre for IT Security. The investment in the £30m establishment is part-funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Technology Strategy Board and a collection of industry ’sponsors’ such as BAE, Thales et al.

Interestingly the centre is researching intelligent CCTV systems that seek to filter and prioritise video, highlighting what it detects to be ‘incidents of note’ to human operators.

Other technologies being explored seek to improve router security, making them more resilient to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and seeking to prevent the propagation of DoS attacks through “IP networks”.

The diagram below illustrates the areas of application and technology focus for CSIT. Their view is that “one of the key differentiators for CSIT is the multi-disciplinary and system integration aspect of the centre. It is only by integrating some of the different technology ‘pillars’ outlined below, that creative and appropriate solutions to complex real world problems can be delivered.”

You can read more at the CSIT Website. CSIT is part of the campus of the Northern Ireland Science Park.

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