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It's official then! Women now account for at least 46 per cent of all UK surfers. Two separate pieces of research from respected research companies have ended the male dominance of the Internet. Jupiter MMXI claims it's nearer 50 per cent, while Forrester Research comes in at the lower end. But do the figures have any significance?
As a woman should I feel relieved, patronised, happy, sad or just let it wash all over me with another deep sigh? Mr William Reeve, group director of European data products at Forrester Research, said: "The UK Internet is no longer a hobby for a sophisticated, wealthy and educated, male elite."
Excuse me, but when was it ever any of those things? Number one, a hobby? Just tell that to all those many thousands employed in the sector or who use the Internet for work and have done for years. Sophisticated? The guys I know who use the Internet for work or play may consider themselves sophisticated, but seen in the context of Lloyd Grossman, fail on all accounts. Wealthy? Mmmm, students kind of blow that one out of the water. Educated? I suppose by that we are to mean graduate level but even the above research companies tell us that the demographics of the web have been changing rapidly and the so-called Cs and Ds are on the Internet in huge numbers, accessing by many different means.
And the final numbing comment - male elite? Well sorry for getting my hormones in a twist but hasn't this man got his PCs confused? Of course, the offending word here is not 'male' on its own or even 'elite', it's putting them together that bothers me. The only male elite I ever encountered was the Red Arrows display team - and that's not beyond change.
Not to be too blunt here, but what the dear man was trying to say was: gone are the days when the web was simply used for quick and easy access into the porn industry. Now it has developed into an industry in its own right with equal rights for everyone. Now that wasn't too difficult to say, was it...
Annie Millar.
Managing director, XXIST.com
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| DTI PLAN TO NURTURE START-UPS |
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As part of the government's plan to make the UK the best environment in the world for e-commerce, the DTI is to launch a portal for Internet entrepreneurs. Called Beyond Bricks, the idea behind the portal is to give practical help to Internet start-ups. It will provide access to experts in online information, electronic marketplaces and community building as well as offline networking and traffic building specialists.
At a time when the government had more or else admitted that their plans had perhaps been a little too ambitious, e-commerce minister Patricia Hewitt said: "Beyond Bricks aims to help Internet companies by giving them the advice and help they need. It gives us the opportunity to help create an environment which embraces and nurtures Internet entrepreneurs in this fast-devolving sector."
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| NEW GUIDELINES TO SETTLE CYBERSQUATTING DISPUTES |
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WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organisation) has published a best practice paper aimed at encouraging country-level domains (ccTLDs) such as dot.co.dot.uk and dot.org.dot.uk to provide a way to settle cybersquatting disputes. WIPO said that though the organisation had no powers to impose their recommendations, they hoped that ccTLDs would take on a dispute resolution policy to avoid situations which at present end up in expensive court battles.
The UK's ccTLD, Nominet, criticised the proposals as not going far enough and said that WIPO was not only ignoring the value of mediation in settling outstanding disputes but failing to protect the intellectual property of non-trademark holders. WIPO admits these rights need to be looked at but says that the organisation is already addressing the issue in relation to global domains such as dot.com,dot.org and dot.net.
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| FARMERS FIND SOLACE ON THE WEB |
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Farmers embroiled in the current FMD crisis are turning to the Internet for both practical and emotional support. FOL Networks runs Farming Online which includes a discussion forum for farmers in the livestock industry and up-to-date weather reports for crop growers. Farming Help, on the other hand, gives links to online rural crisis networks. There are also sites offering everything from sheep market reports accessible via WAP phones to sites providing cheap deals on second-hand farm machinery.
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| LOGGING ON FOR FILM REVIEW |
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The most premature trailer for a film ever released by Warner Brothers has just appeared on the Internet. Lasting just 110 seconds, it attracted thousands of fans. No prizes for guessing they were flocking to the official Harry Potter web site for their first glimpse of the film which is not released until November. For real fanatics there is also a discussion forum where they can analyse the precious seconds in detail. For the time being at least, Warner Brothers is also easing off its bid to force young operators of Harry Potter web sites to surrender their domains.
http://www.harrypotter.co.uk
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| BIGGER, BOLDER INTERNET ADS ON THE WAY |
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A new generation of bigger and more prominent Internet adverts has been agreed by a group of the web's biggest web sites. There are seven shapes including rectangles, which can run down the sides of the screen and rectangles to be placed in the centre. According to the IAB (The Internet Advertising Bureau) the new formats will open up more opportunities for advertisers to get their message across.
The idea is that the ads will be big enough to contain enough information so that web users do not have to click through to the advertiser's own site. But they will also be more intrusive than the existing banner ads, which have recently been heavily criticised.
The IAB group which devised the new formats included representatives from AOL, Yahoo!, Doubleclick and MSN. However, the UK Division of IAB is preparing to announce it's own recommendations for the UK. Geoffrey Wheating, chair of the working standards committee at the UK IAB stated that while they welcome the initiatives from the US, "we may adopt a separate set of standards." The implications if that happens is that the UK IAB may no longer stay part of the IAB in the US and could possibly start a completely new trade body more suited to the dynamics of the UK. What this means to the industry is that standardised global advertising is less likely if each region sets its own standards.
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| FREE INTERNET SERVICES ON THE WAY OUT |
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The UK's most popular web sites are making moves towards pay-per-view services. MSN, Yahoo! And Freeserve, the largest Internet portals have admitted that they are looking at ways of charging users for access to what they call "premium events" such as music and sport.
This comes at a time when global advertising revenues are falling and predictions for this year are that Internet marketing expenditure could well remain flat. Consumers have so far proved reluctant to pay for online content, but recent research shows that more than 40 per cent of users accept that it cannot all remain free forever.
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The old image of computer techies in their sandals speaking a language only they understand is on the way out and information technology is the new hot subject. There has apparently been such a surge of interest in the subject that there is now a shortage of academics to fill the growing number of teaching posts.
Several UK universities have had IT chairs vacant for quite lengthy periods and there is a similar trend in America where the International Association for Management Education has reported a dramatic increase in demand for technology-related courses. But there is a change of emphasis in the type of training required from pure technology courses to including the importance of the human factor in integrating IT with wider business strategy. The other aspect of the new training is how to interpret complex systems across different cultures.
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| WHICH? UNIMPRESSED BY ONLINE SUPERMARKETS |
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The consumer magazine, Which? condemned online supermarkets as slow, difficult to use and unreliable. The criticism came after a panel of 25 readers had made 40 online trips to web sites run by Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Iceland. Only Tesco was praised for the ease with which items could be found and one regular shopper reckoned she could do her weekly shop in just half an hour. The magazine's editor, Helen Parker, commented: "E-supermarkets have lots to offer but at the moment, they bring plenty of disappointments, too. Shoppers had problems finding everyday items and sites were slow and crashed fairly regularly."
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| RESEARCH SURFING ON THE UP |
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The number of Internet surfers trawling sites for information on big ticket items rose sharply in January, compared to the previous month. Some of the most attractive sites were Ebookers, Easyjet and the car site Autotrader. But overall the total number of UK Internet users did not increase in the same time period. The research from Nielson/NetRatings showed that those already signed up tended to use the web more. Europe still lags behind America, though, with figures showing that usage in Europe was only one sixth of that in the US.
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| LAPTOPS FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN BROUGHT A STEP CLOSER |
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A new national body has been launched with the aim of helping all British children over the age of four to have a laptop by 2006. Four start-up companies - BenefitsU, Bladerunner, Businesshr and Chalkscape - have put equity donations into the foundation that is now hoping to attract others. The government has set aside 5.5 million pounds while Microsoft which developed the foundation model with Arthur Anderson and the Charity Commission has given one million pounds.
The idea is that the foundation supports thousands of local e-learning foundations based on schools that will be able to generate VAT savings as purchasers. Those parents who could afford it would make a contribution through covenants which in turn would generate tax benefits for laptops for all. The first six bids - involving local authorities and the new business-led learning and skills councils - are centred on Nottingham, Greenwich, Birmingham, Sheffield, South Yorkshire and Blackburn.
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| ANOTHER CELEBRITY DOTCOM FAILS |
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The Internet toy retailer, Toyzone.co.uk whose backers include TV personality Jonathan Ross, is the latest celebrity dotcom to collapse after failing to attract new funding. The e-commerce arm will close while the retail outlets continue to trade. Another celebrity-backed site to feel the financial pinch is Deckchair.com, set up by Bob Geldof which has just made a quarter of its staff redundant.
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