In a typical knee-jerk response in the wake of the barbaric murder in Woolwich last week of Lee Rigby, allegedly by a couple of religious nutjobs, Theresa May, the UK’s control freak Home Secretary has threatened to revive the so-called “Snooper’s Charter” (news passim). In this move she has been joined on the bandwagon by […]
Next month on the weekend from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th, BarnCamp 2013 – a weekend of hacktivism, workshops, entertainment, politics and fun in the sun – will be taking place. BarnCamp is three days of workshops, discussions, demos and practical how-to sessions looking at how technology can be useful (and dangerous) for campaigners, community […]
Yesterday the world witnessed an annual bit of Ruritanian pantomime that passes for the unwritten British constitution in action: the state opening of Parliament and the Queen’s Speech. According to a report in today’s Guardian, it would appear that the so-called Snooper’s Charter (news passim) is proving harder to kill than a particularly stubborn vampire. […]
A student from Bath University’s Department of Computer Science has been shortlisted in the 2013 ‘.Net Awards‘ as one of the top ten ‘brilliant young web developers’ to watch. Jack Franklin is a 3rd year BSc Computer Science student who is currently on his placement year with Kainos in London as a Software Engineer. He […]
If one believes the words of politicians, the Snooper’s Charter (news passim) is dead. Earlier this morning Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg appeared on a phone-in programme on London radio station LBC. When questioned by a caller on the Communications Data Bill (aka the Snooper’s Charter), he is reported to have answered: What people dub […]
Today the Open Rights Group, Big Brother Watch and https://www.privacyinternational.org/ sent an open letter to the UK’s major ISPs – BT, Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk – and others, asking them to stand up for their customers against the excessive surveillance of UK citizens proposed under the government’s illiberal Communications Data Bill (news passim). We reproduce […]
The pressure is continuing to mount on the UK government’s proposals to monitor all of the UK’s internet and telecommunications usage and store users’ communications data under Home Secretary Theresa May’s proposed Communications Data Bill, also know as the Snooper’s Charter. On Saturday, the Daily Telegraph reported that the Home Office is facing legal action […]
Ben Hammersley, an adviser to 10 Downing Street on the Tech City (aka Silicon Roundabout. Ed.) project, has emerged as the latest critic of the government’s proposed Communciations Data Bill or Snooper’s Charter (news passim). Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Hammersley is quoted today as saying: As a society, it would be stupid to build […]
Are you looking for a temporary job? Do you enjoy editing Wikipedia and can you teach others to do it too? If the answer to these questions is yes, a current vacancy at the National Library of Scotland may interest you. The National Library of Scotland and Wikimedia UK are joining forces to support and […]
In conjunction with both Fossbox and Flossie, BCSWomen, the British Computer Society’s specialist women’s group, is organising 3 open source career taster days for women in London next month. The days involved are 13th, 20th and 28th May and the sessions will run from 10.00 am to 5.00pm. All the taster days will be held […]
Even before the Home Office has even finished consulting on the revised version the Communications Data Bill (news passim), let alone redrafted the Bill, it seems that the associated mission creep long predicted by its opponents has already begun. Saturday’s Daily Telegraph carried a report entitled “Town halls join rush to use the snoopers’ charter”, […]
Regular readers will realise that Bristol Wireless has grave concerns about the Communications Data Bill, otherwise known as the Snooper’s Charter (news passim). As an organisation we contacted the Home Office urging for proper consultation on the Bill, which is currently being redrafted. However, it now appears that the Home Office is not interested in […]
A day’s training in editing and using Wikipedia in Oldham (reputed home of the country’s best black puddings. Ed.) has been announced by Wikimedia UK, the charity supporting the work of the US-based Wikimedia Foundation. The training day will be held on Saturday, 27th April from 10:00am to 4:00pm at Oldham Library, Greaves Street, Oldham, […]
We learn today from the Wild Webmink blog that the controversy over the Communications Data Bill – aka the Snooper’s Charter – is still rumbling on (news passim). To quote: The UK’s Home Office continues to push for maximum surveillance powers with minimum accountability in the latest adjustments to the Communications Data Bill. Although the […]
Some years ago, computer retailer Dell made an abortive, half-hearted effort to offer a limited range of machines – one entry level desktop system and a couple of laptops – running Ubuntu Linux (news passim). It’s now back with another Ubuntu offering in the UK and Germany, according to a report in the H Online. […]
An Open Data Insitute blog post of the first ever survey* into civil servants’ awareness of open data reveals an astonishing level of ignorance. Among the survey’s main findings were the following: 78% of civil servants do not know about government plans for open data and the benefits that follow; 75% say they don’t know […]
The BBC website posted an article today highlighting the concerns expressed in a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) that a lack of skilled workers is hampering the UK’s fight against cyber crime and that it could take up to 2 decades to fill the skills gap. The internet economy in the UK accounts […]
Bristol University announced yesterday that it is taking part in a unique code-breaking competition as part of this year’s Cyber Security Challenge UK. Four UK university computer science departments have accepted the challenge to develop their own cipher – a puzzle based on encrypted messages – that will be released to other participating universities and […]
OSS Watch, a service for higher and further education institutions in the UK, has this week published a list of open source alternatives to proprietary software for schools, according to a report posted today on Joinup, the EU’s public sector open source news website. “Where possible, we’ve included real-world examples of their usage,” said OSS […]
Professor Alan Winfield of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory has announced via Twitter that the library of the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol has installed a 3D printer that’ll be free for staff and students to use and is this is a first for an academic library in the United Kingdom. Just […]