Just a quick one from me again as we’ve all been a bit rushed off our feet today! More…
ARIA is a W3C standard for making complex JavaScript & AJAX-powered web apps more accessible to people with disabilities. Unlike most accessibility initiatives, this is more than just theoretical chit-chat: Firefox 2 & 3 already implement it and recently Google Reader announced an ARIA-enhanced version. John Resig has a good introduction to how it works.
It’s great to see movement in an area where we’ve almost grown used to stagnation and huge, complex, impractical recommendations (c.f. WCAG 2.0).
It’s Tuesday… and typially, it’s home time, and it’s raining. Of course, that was obvious since I didn’t bring my jacket this morning 
Had some problems with the Community site server this afternoon but fixed just in time to get this post out! More…
I’ve just spent the last hour or so going through my last-minute check-list of things to sort out before I fly to India on Friday to kick-off some new projects with our Software Development teams over there.
One of the things on my list was “Investigate cost effective WiFi service at Heathrow and Doha Airports”. As I spend a lot of time travelling on trains and in airports, I often need access to the Internet from my laptop (when Internet access on my phone isn’t quite enough). The usual answer to this is to pay £5 a go for an hour’s worth of WiFi Hotspot access on BT Openzone (using my PlusNet WiFi minutes), T-Mobile or The Cloud or whatever else is in range; hardly a cost effective way of doing things.
My investigation lead me to some interesting software that I can install on my phone that will turn my phone into a WiFi hotspot. I can then connect to this hotspot with my laptop and surf away.
The good news? The software is free and I don’t pay for data usage on my phone.
For those people that are interested in this sort of thing:
• The software is called Joiku
• My laptop is a very small Sony Vaio; Great for taking on the plane.
• My phone is a Nokia N95 8GB
There are a few limitations, mainly that the Joiku software only works with HTTP and HTTPS traffic, so if I want Instant Messaging access I need to use Fring on my phone or a browser Instant Messaging interface such as Meebo, but I can live with that.
If anyone else has any recommendations that can beat this then I’d be very pleased to hear from you. I’ll report back with my findings as to how well (or otherwise) this goes…
Matt Grest
Head of Future Development
PlusNet
Twitter: MattGrest
Each year, we publish what we plan to do over the course of the year. You can see what we set out to do last year in our Plans for 2007 post and what we actually did in our update. We might have bitten off more than we could chew…
Here is a quick review of last year and a view of our plans for the next 12 months. So read on to find out what’s coming up More…
Posted on behalf of “McGurka” (who appears to be a touch on the insane side)
A day in the life of PlusNet…
It all starts at 10am, trying to find the roll shop and wandering round pretty much *all* (well, a lot) [Ed. 2 roads] of Sheffield to find it…. only to realise it was right next door. Typical….
A Nation of shopkeepers?
Napoleon’s comments about the UK being a nation of shopkeepers might now look somewhat misplaced. The diversity and range of UK businesses would make the Frenchman eat his words.
Small and medium sized enterprises are a growing and vital part of the UK economy. There are an estimated 4.3 million SME’s in the UK, a figure which is continuing to rise and they are not all shopkeepers Monsieur. SME’s represent more than 99% of all businesses in the UK and together they account for more than half of the employment (58.5%) and turnover (51.3%) in this country.
The rapid evolution of communications services and the internet in particular, over the past ten years has revolutionised the way that UK SME’s do business – for example, offering new channels to market, helping to deliver improved customer service, delivering improved internal communication and enabling the production of higher quality products and services. It has also facilitated considerable internal operating benefits – increasing mobility and flexibility in the workplace and the sharing of information across organisations.
A SME can be defined as being any actively trading business with between one and 250 employees. OFCOM data indicates that 84% of SME’s use the internet, 90% have PC’s, while 98% have fixed line telephone services.
Difficulties and perceptions
The person responsible for information technology in around half (55%) of SMEs is the owner/manager. This is totally understandable as it is the main priority of owner/managers to keep their business running. IT forms a relatively small part of their role and can get buried or forgotten in the normal day to day management of their business. Typically, IT issues are found to account for less than one-third of the decision-maker’s time. One-fifth of SMEs (20%) employ ‘dedicated’ personnel, spending more than two-thirds of their time on IT issues.
In many small businesses, IT is not necessarily catered for in the business plan as a specific item and dedicated IT personnel are generally not involved in business planning or strategy meetings. Only the most ‘progressive’ SMEs have a proactive approach to new investment as a result of integrating communications services into the overall business decision-making process. Most SMEs are still dealing with IT on a reactive, ad-hoc basis, funding projects without access to a pre-assigned budget or without a lot of forward or strategic planning.
Going forward
Although the majority of SMEs have embraced Information and Communications Technology to some degree, many do not feel confident, competent or effective when dealing with technology. It appears to be widely accepted among SMEs that dealing with ICT can bring difficulties and indeed headaches. This arises from the struggle in determining the benefits that technology can bring and the investment of time and energy required to take advantage of it. It’s the old and never ending cost per benefit argument. On the one hand technology is a powerful tool that can have a huge impact on the business in terms of providing ‘quicker, cheaper, smarter’ ways of doing things; on the other hand it is a constantly changing entity which is very difficult to keep up-to-date with, let alone plan ahead for.
Many businessess are not aware of leading edge technology and if they have come across new products such as VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or bonding, they won’t necessarily see how the business will benefit. Service providers have a responsibility to ensure that product information is clear and concise and indeed where possible, jargon free. The ability to speak with and communicate directly with any business customer is vital to ensure that their needs are met and that their understanding of the products and services on offer is crystal clear.
The Benefits - How can broadband help your business?
ICT and the internet in particular can bring huge benefits to any business. Broadband can help your business be more competitive. With broadband, staff can make greater use of the Internet to source information, improve processes, download services and applications – all helping to deliver improved efficiency and customer service. Improved efficiency brings cost benefits.
Fast Access
A broadband connection gives you fast access to the Internet. The connection is always on and available immediately. This constant connection allows businesses to take greater advantage of the Internet in a number of ways.
Improved efficiency
An always connection to the Internet can change the way your business works. Linking together your back-office systems to your website can help you do business more quickly and reduce administration costs. Being online also enables you to automate certain tasks such as transactions, order tracking and stock ordering. Linking remote sites to back end systems improves stock control, sales analysis and order management.
Cost benefits
By paying a flat fee for broadband access, companies can see cost savings whilst also making more and better use of the Internet. In many cases, no new phone line is needed as the benefits can be realised from upgrading an existing line. The initial outlay should be easily recouped, thanks to a more streamlined and efficient way of doing business. Introduce VOIP and watch that phone bill reduce massively.
Better customer and supplier relations
Broadband lets you get closer to your customers and suppliers. Businesses can use it to offer customers round-the-clock access to account information, order status and project details. Suppliers can collect data to improve their service to you, leading to increased responsiveness to your needs.
Improved communications and management
Broadband makes it easier for everyone to have and use individual email addresses, enabling staff to communicate more effectively, and helping reduce phone and postage bills. There is also the option of greater collaborative working and videoconferencing, which could reduce meeting and travel costs.
Flexibility
With a broadband connection, your business can become more flexible and adapt to your staff, customers’ and suppliers’ needs. Mobile or home-working staff can access your network remotely, which can save you money on office space whilst enabling them to access and contribute to each other’s documents. Flexible working makes your organisation more effective and competitive by saving time and unnecessary journeys. The ability to work from home increases productivity and can improve employee satisfaction.
Whats next
So my first article is complete. The benefits of business broadband are there but we still have some myths to dispel and some facts to delve into. I’ll expand on the benefits of broadband for businesses in future articles, commencing with the increasing trend in home working or teleworking. As PlusNet’s Business Services Manager, part of my job is to ensure that we deliver the best products, services, account management and support to business customers. Our high quality, dedicated business team, coupled with our intelligent traffic management and our knowledge gained from 10 years of providing services to businesses, puts us in a superb position to deliver what UK business needs now and in the future.
Quality business products with dedicated UK-based support
PlusNet is the perfect partner for business broadband. We’ve been supplying businesses for over 10 years so we know what your business needs from an Internet provider.
Partner with us and you’re partnering with an ISP that’s won numerous awards for delivering a quality broadband service.
The PlusNet Partner Programme is aimed at Channel Partners, IT resellers, SMEs, SoHo and corporate clients.
For resellers and partners, you can offer PlusNet broadband to your customers and clients and add value and margin to your existing product portfolio. You will own the relationship with your customers; the partner programme works much like a white-label offering.We have a dedicated team to support you, from helping you sell broadband through to training, support and provisioning.For corporate customers needing multiple broadband connections, we offer centralised billing, making payment easy.
It’s another Friday and the end of another week just seems to have flown by. Well that means the weekend is almost here, only another couple of hours before I go home. More…
The last few days I’ve been playing around with a service that I discovered some months back, but it only really became a viable option due to a new cellphone plan that I have recently moved to. The name of the service is Qik and the reason why it has become viable is that I no longer have to pay for mobile data, wherever I am in the world (this is a big deal for me, for other reasons – see other blogs of mine).
So, what’s this Qik service all about and how is it going to change the world? Well, Qik is a small application that you can install on your mobile phone (only Nokia S60 Operating systems so far). It then allows you to stream live video direct from your phone and onto a web page. The quality is excellent and the delay is only around 3 seconds.
So, what’s the big deal then? Well, there is a growing Qik community forming already and due to the bottomless-pit of creativity from the users out there we’ve already seen live coverage from all manner of events; a guy running the Boston Marathon strapped his phone to his chest and broadcast his entire run live; we had the aftermath of a shooting at an American school last week streamed live from the campus, we’ve had live feeds of flash-mobs, Olympic torch protests, you name it, it’s been Qik’ed.
What we have here is a new level of immediacy with news reporting. With the likes of Flickr, YouTube, Picassa et al we have documents of history (albeit recent) that are subject to censorship, but Qik allows the user to broadcast live video and audio feeds from wherever they all in the world, cutting out the media corporation middleman. Certainly, with a laptop and webcam and the various “live-cam” services available you can do similar, but ultimately you’re somewhat tethered by the technology; running it off a mobile phone changes the playing field altogether.
Qik is also trying to maximize distribution possibilities for live and on-demand video watchers by building widgets for blogs and Facebook, enabling alert systems on Twitter and Pownce, as well as tying into other video services like YouTube, Mogulus, Seesmic and Justin.tv.
Qik recently received $3m series B funding in order to invest into their software platform, so it will be interesting to see the developments, to both the company and those that use it..
Matt Grest
Head of Future Development
PlusNet
Here at Plusnet we're always trying to use clever open source things to make our lives easier. Sometimes we write our own and make other people's lives easier too!
We sell broadband, phone, VoIP and more to homes and businesses in the UK. Winner of 9 out of 11 Categories in the 2008 USwitch survey. Winner of "Best Consumer ISP" at 2008 ISPA awards. Voted number 1 in the Broadband Choices 2008 survey.
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