Daily Digest 26 September

26-09-2008

by Deirdre McArdle

HP outlines EMEA restructuring plan | Irish net users broaden their horizons online

Hewlett-Packard said it has submitted a plan for the ongoing integration of EDS in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region to its European Works Councils (EWCs). The plan offers further details about the impact of HP's global restructuring on the EMEA region; the reorganisation has been fuelled by HP's integration of EDS, the IT services company it purchased earlier this year. HP has said that the planned workforce reduction in EMEA will affect up to approximately 9,300 positions over a two-year period. This figure hasn't yet been broken down on a local basis; however, local consultations will begin in October, HP said. HP employs around 4,000 people on the island of Ireland in six different business units. In response to a query from ENN for information about Irish employees, HP said no details have been given out on individual countries yet.

Some 40 percent of Irish internet users have used the web to search for information on courses, classes and college research, according to a survey on internet usage released by the Joint National Internet Research (JNIR). The report reveals that 3 percent of internet users have booked a course online in the past 12 months, while 22 percent have gone on to book a course offline after conducting online research. The report also showed that over half (54 percent) of internet users have made at least one online purchase in the last month. The most popular of these purchases are flights (29 percent); concert/cinema etc tickets (18 percent); hotels/accommodation (18 percent); CDs (10 percent); books/magazines (9 percent); Government services (8 percent) and mobile phone top-ups (8 percent). The report data is based on the 12-month period to July 2008.

The European Commission has said it wants all Europeans to have access to broadband by 2010. In a report released on Friday, the Commission said although broadband take-up in the EU increased to 20 percent of households, averaged over all member states, rural areas around the EU are missing out. "High-speed internet is the passport to the Information Society and an essential condition for economic growth. This is why it is this Commission's policy to make broadband internet for all Europeans happen by 2010," said EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding. "But take-up requires access, and [this] is not there in parts of the EU. We need to combine all efforts to make sure that all citizens can get connected soon." Reding is to visit Ireland on 1 October, where she will speak at a conference hosted by ComReg at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin.

To mark its 10th birthday, Google has launched Project 10 to the 100th. Essentially, it's a call for world-changing ideas that could help make people's lives better, Google said in a blog. Google has committed USD10 million to fund up to five of the best ideas, as judged by Google's advisory board. Deadline for idea submissions is 20 October. On 27 January 2009, the top 100 ideas will be presented for the public to vote on. The top 20 will then be whittled down to five or less by the advisory committee and announced in February. So it's on with the thinking caps -- the ENN office is likely to be a hive of creative activity over the next three weeks.

Also coinciding with Google's 10th birthday, the internet giant's chief internet evangelist, Vint Cerf, has outlined his predictions for the future of the net. On his blog, Cerf said that in the next decade, "around 70 percent of the human population will have fixed or mobile access to the internet at increasingly high speeds, up to gigabits per second." Cerf predicted that mobile devices will become a major part of the internet, as will appliances and sensors. "Many of the things on the internet, whether mobile or fixed, will know where they are, both geographically and logically. As you enter a hotel room, your mobile will be told its precise location including room number," he predicts. Find out more about Cerf's forecast here.

Visa has announced it is developing mobile payment software for Google's Android-powered handset -- the G1. The payment giant said the service will enable Android users to receive near real-time alerts about purchases via their mobile devices. Users also will be able to use location-based mapping technology to find ATM machines and nearby shops where they can redeem special Visa offers. The software will be rolled out to US consumers by the end of the year, starting with holders of Chase Visa cards. Visa has also signed a deal to give users of Nokia's upcoming 6212 mobile phone the ability to make "contactless" payments in stores just by flashing their phone at an electronic scanner. Similar "contactless" capabilities for Android users are still under development, according to Visa.

In yet more news of Google, the internet giant has launched Moderator, a free web-based service that offers organisations a way to better manage Q&A sessions at meetings or conferences. In essence, Moderator allows meeting participants to submit questions to meeting leaders and vote in favour or against the questions they like or don't like. This means that those in charge of the event will be able to ask speakers the questions participants have deemed to be the best. Moderator also allows remote attendees to pose questions to speakers. The service was developed by Taliver Heath, a platform engineer with Google, who created Moderator initially for internal Google use.