Plain Words eLetter
July 2003
Lead Stories
Extra
E-Business news
Games Industry To Enjoy 11% Annual Growth, Says PwC
Government Told To Back Technology Entrepreneurs
Consumers Use Internet To Research Products Before Buying
Cyber Crime Follows Moore's Law
Government Funding Key To Winning Spam War
Technology round-up
GPS to Help the Blind Navigate
Pacific Island Becomes World's First Wire-Free Web Country
Off-beat news
Lead stories
Click & Tax
The VAT man came to call on the Internet and even the world's last surviving super power couldn't stop him regulating it. Under the new Online Sales Tax Directive, non-EU firms have to charge, collect, and remit VAT on all digital transactions. European firms say it levels the online playing field. US firms say it discriminates against non-EU businesses. More...
Identity Crisis?
Identity theft is on the rise in the UK and is costing the economy nearly £1.4 billion, but new fraud detection technology is being developed to weed it out. More...
Extra
Plain Words Document Builder - Produces Documents Automatically!
Do you regularly spend time creating documents such as bids, tenders and proposals? If so, Plain Words Document Builder takes the sweat out of document production.
Using your own library of standard in-house documents, we can provide a document builder that is customised to your needs and automates the process of creating documents - saving you time and effort. With Plain Words Document Builder, you will be able to...
- Produce the document you need from any combination of documents in your database - no more cutting and pasting files manually.
- Maintain a slick, professional look for all your documents and proposals - all at the click of a button.
- Ensure that all the components you need to put together a specific document are easily available - no more searching for that elusive file.
- Guarantee important information is never omitted - simply key in what you need and the document builder does the rest.
- Adjust to changes within your organisation - just one click and all your documents are updated.
To find out more about how Plain Words Document Builder can save you time by automating the document production process, contact us now on +44 (0)1635 20 20 13. Or e-mail us at .
E-Business news
Games Industry To Enjoy 11% Annual Growth, Says PwC
Video games will emerge as the fastest growing sector of the global entertainment and media industry, according to professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It predicts an overall industry spend this year of over $1.1 trillion. The predictions, published as part of the latest edition of the firm's annual Entertainment and Media Outlook, suggest that global consumer/end-user spending on entertainment and media will increase to nearly $1.4 trillion in 2007.
The new report also forecasts that the video games market will be boosted on two fronts. On-line video gaming growth will be stimulated by increased broadband access, and the wireless market will surge due to availability of new game-capable cell phones. Next-generation console hardware will help drive the category's rapid expansion to $35.8 billion in 2007, growing at an 11% compound annual rate. More...
Government Told To Back Technology Entrepreneurs
The government has been called upon to boost investment in IT start-ups, after a new study revealed a 30 percent slump in technology investments across Europe in the past year. Seed capital now represents only one per cent of total funding across all sectors as investment companies focus on ploughing funds into existing ventures, according to the Money for Growth study from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
"The big problem is money to get things started. A lot of current government funds are aimed at the SME sector,” said Keith Arundale, European venture capital leader for the global technology industry group at PwC. "Developing funds specifically for technology companies would be helpful. We need more incentives specifically in that area.”
Investments in technology firms fell by a substantial amount to 5.3bn Euro in 2002, less than half of the peak of the dotcom boom in terms of the total amount invested, according to Arundale. More...
Consumers Use Internet To Research Products Before Buying
According to a Channel Intelligence report, nearly half (45 percent) of the respondents to a Spring 2003 online questionnaire indicated that they were researching product information, rather than making an immediate buy. The Internet was the first choice for gathering information before making a product purchase, beating all forms of traditional media, including television, radio, newspapers and magazines.
These findings were mirrored by a March 2003 AOL/RoperASW report revealing that 73 percent of European online consumers regularly or occasionally use the online medium to gather information about products to buy. Comparatively, AOL/RoperASW found that 77 percent of U.S. Internet users gathered information about products to buy, and 60 percent made online purchases.
"Content is king” may be an old adage (in Internet time, at least), but it is a true one. So is the even older adage stating that "the more you tell, the more you sell.” Large and small firms alike would do well to fill their websites with solid, not-too-biased information about their products and services, along with customer reviews and testimonials (think Amazon.com). That way, prospective customers will get all the information they need without having to click elsewhere (which increases the risk of them buying elsewhere). More...
Cyber Crime Follows Moore's Law
High-tech crime is growing exponentially, with the number of hacker attacks against UK businesses mirroring Moore's Law, the National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) has warned. John Lyons, crime reduction coordinator with the NHTCU, said high-tech law enforcement needs radical changes because the danger from cyber-crime is following the growth trend observed by Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, by doubling every 18 months.
"Traditional crime has shown a growth rate of five per cent per annum, but high-tech crime is growing many times more quickly and is following Moore's Law in the past and into the future," he warned. "Some 18 per cent of companies surveyed were hacked in the past 12 months."
Lyons highlighted the extent of the fast growing cyber-crime threat by pointing to the results of a recent NOP study commissioned by the NHTCU, which found that only three per cent of UK corporates had not been hit by high-tech crime in the past 12 months. More...
Government Funding Key To Winning Spam War
The British Government can only hope to win its war against spam if it provides the Information Commissioner with greater funding, according to the London Internet Exchange (LINX) - the organisation that handles some 96 percent of Internet traffic flowing in and out of the UK.
LINX said that Internet Service Providers are well placed to crack down on people and organisations that bombard email users with unsolicited messages; they can close spammers' accounts. But the worst offenders - those that open a succession of accounts with different ISPs and move from one to the next as each account is closed - need stronger deterrents. These, said LINX, would be put in place by the Information Commissioner if greater funding is made available. More...
Technology round-up
GPS to Help the Blind Navigate
Guide dogs assisting the blind may soon get extra help from shoulder-mountable GPS (Global Positioning System) devices that lead the way. The European Space Agency and other organisations are testing a personal GPS-based navigation system that helps blind people get around better on their own.
The handheld device, dubbed "Tormes", was unveiled in Madrid in early June. It weighs less than one kilogram (about 2 pounds), comes with a Braille keyboard and a voice synthesiser, and taps the global positioning satellite system to provide verbal directions. Added software and a database of city maps give immediate feedback about the user's surroundings.
While the device - which is likely to debut in 2004 - is not intended to replace traditional tools blind people use to get around, it can help them navigate new or unfamiliar areas. "We don't say that it should replace the guide dog, it complements it", said Dominique Detain, communication manager at the European Space Agency. More...
Pacific Island Becomes World's First Wire-Free Web Country
Until a few years ago, telecommunications on the Pacific island of Niue consisted of a few hand-cranked telephones. But now the 100 square mile coral island, 1,500 miles north-east of New Zealand, has become the first country in the world to have a nationwide wireless internet system. Locals with a laptop and an aerial can surf the net at home, on the beach, in a restaurant, or from a boat.
Wireless Internet has been the holy grail of telecommunications for years. Internationally the system is found, albeit still quite rarely, on Wap and 3G mobile phones. Niue, however, according to the island's Internet users' society, is enjoying a free wireless service almost as fast as a typical broadband connection. More...
Off-beat news
Foxes Spark Police Alert
Norfolk police officers were recently led a merry dance in Norwich during the early hours of the morning by a pair of "foxtrotting" foxes. The officers rushed to Mousehold Heath (minutes from where your humble Plain Words editor lives) and started a frantic search after a member of the public out walking in the darkness phoned in at 3.45am saying he had heard the sound of a baby crying in the woods. The search team scoured the area with the aid of the walker and pinpointed the source of the screaming and screeching. Just as they were starting to fear the worst, they stumbled upon the culprits - a couple of foxes in what was euphemistically described as an "interesting position". But it turns out the pair were not mating, but enjoying a spot of dancing.
Trevor Williams, a director of The Fox Project, a Kent-based charity which rescues and homes foxes, said it was possibly "a couple of juveniles larking about". He thought it likely the pair were doing the so-called "foxtrot", the behaviour that inspired the dance of the same name. "(The police) possibly saw the foxtrot where the foxes rear up on their hind legs and put their arms on one another's shoulders. There's lots of pushing backwards and forwards and screaming down each other's throats, until one gives up. It's a show of strength." he said. More...
The Plain Words eLetter is purely a technology and e-business news source. It does not endorse any of the companies, products, or services that are mentioned in news shorts and articles.
Subscribe to Plain Words' FREE eLetter for a round up of the month's Tech & eBiz news.
to us now.