Around the World: Update September 2010

This update provides an overview of the latest issues of interest to ICT professionals both in Australia and Internationally. We hope that you will find this information useful.

Please feel free to forward this update to any of your colleagues or friends who may be interested.

To contact a member of our Information Communications & Technology team, please click here

Kind regards

Craig Ng | Partner
Direct 61 3 8615 0324
craig.ng@maddocks.com.au

Domain names in conjunction with www.auda.org.au

Domain names

.AU To Get More Secure with DNSSEC
AuDA has announced the launch of a phased plan for the deployment of DNSSEC in the .AU domain. Full Story 
 
au: Naming your business: the naked truth
What's in a name? quite a lot, actually. ... It's also worth taking the time to look online at the domain names that are available. Registration of a business name does not guarantee the availability of the same website address. But if the two are not identical, there are fallback options. Full Story

Verizon: Businesses Need Move on IPv6
Verizon Business has a message to companies still reluctant to migrate their networks to IPv6: You're better off doing it now than later. Full Story 
 
Lack of vision, high costs hinder IPv6 migration
Some Southeast Asian markets can't anticipate Web addresses required for future growth, says analyst who adds countries must look at Internet and mobile usage growth to maintain long-term economic growth. Full Story

The window of opportunity for ccTLDs by Jon Lawrence
The announcement that .co has already achieved over 450,000 new registrations since the opening up of the second-level a month ago demonstrates that there is strong demand in the global domain name marketplace for quality new domain spaces. Full Story

4m .NL Domains Means One Domain Registered for Every 4 Dutch People
The four millionth .NL domain name was registered this week. SIDN also announced they are the ccTLD with the highest number of registered domain names per person in the respective country with almost one domain name registered for every four of the 16.8 million residents of The Netherlands.
Full Story

Top ccTLD Sales Continue to Grow At Non-.COM’s Expense
Using Domain Name Journal’s lists of top reported sales for the period to 30 June 2010, sales of ccTLDs have increased from 6.9 per cent of the top 100 sales (sales can total more than 100 due to ties for 100th position) in 2007 to 19 per cent in 2009, while dipping to 15.9 per cent in the first six months of 2010. Full Story

Google Now Enables International Targeting of .Co Domain Name
Google finally enabled targeting the .co domain name to locations other than Colombia. .Co is the country code domain name for Colombia, so Google generally considered web sites on .co as targeted only to Columbia. Full Story

Internet Use

Smartphones good for business
The smartphone fad will boost the digital economy, but Australians' love of technology will drive up energy use, a report has found. Article 1  Article 2
 
Oxford Dictionary faces internet-only future
It weighs in at more than 130 pounds, but the authoritative guide to the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary, may eventually slim down to nothing. Full Story
 
uk: Ofcom report highlights 'multi-tasking media users'
The average Briton spends almost half of their waking life using media and communications, data suggests. Full Story

The internet: is it changing the way we think?
American writer Nicholas Carr's claim that the internet is not only shaping our lives but physically altering our brains has sparked a lively and ongoing debate. Full Story

What's the carbon footprint of ... the internet?
All carbon footprints are hard or impossible to pin down accurately, but the internet is a particularly complex case.  Full Story 
 
Five billionth device about to plug into Internet
Sometime this month, the 5 billionth device will plug into the Internet. And in 10 years, that number will grow by more than a factor of four, according to IMS Research. Full Story

Internet Use Tied to Depression in Youths
A large Chinese study suggests that otherwise healthy teenagers are much more vulnerable to depression if they spend too much time on the Internet. Full Story

Australian newspaper industry 'to bounce back by 2013'
The author of a report on the media industry says speculation over the death of the newspaper is unfounded, despite a massive downturn in the sector last year. Full Story

Consumer spending to grow Australian entertainment & media industry
The Australian entertainment and media industry will grow 28 percent over the next five years, largely due to growth in consumer spending, especially on interactive gaming, internet access and subscription television according to a report released today.  Full Story

Australia online shoppers elude retail data crunchers
Australia's official economic data is struggling to capture growing online sales as the country's consumers belatedly embrace e-commerce, suggesting that soft retail trade data is missing part of a fast-growing market. Full Story

Internet advertising to dominate as NBN tipped to stimulate media growth
The internet will overtake newspapers and free-to-air television in 2014 to become Australia's biggest advertising medium. Full Story

au: Helping kids who play computer games to be active
CSIRO has developed computer software that aims to encourage children to be more active when playing computer games. Full Story

Unleash your creativity
News Limited chief John Hartigan has argued mobile technologies have created a "tipping point" that requires journalists to be more entrepreneurial. Full Story

Cigarette firms 'are using product placement on web'
Tobacco companies may be using interactive websites such as YouTube to market their products to young people, according to a study.  Full Story

Ford Uses Wi-Fi to Customize Cars
The auto industry is getting fired up about wireless technology in cars and trucks but it's not just for connecting passengers' laptops or streaming Internet radio stations. Full Story
 
Google and the Search for the Future
Where once everything seemed to go Googles way, along came Apple's iPhone, launching a new wave of Web growth on a platform that largely bypassed the browser and Google's search box. The "app" revolution was going to spell an end to Google's dominance of Web advertising. Full Story

Social Networking

Older Adults and Social Media
While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Full Story

New Technologies

Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain
... It was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal: to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects. Full Story

Intellectual Property

Nespresso Rivals Vie for Dominance in Coffee War
... A coffee war has broken out in Europe pitting the Swiss food giant Nestlé against the struggling American food group Sara Lee as well as a former Nestlé executive. They are at odds over the worldwide monopoly Nespresso has long held on the lucrative espresso pods that fit its coffee-making machines. ...  Full Story 
 
Budvar win ends Budweiser EU trade mark hopes in 100-year legal battle
Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar has won a 14-year legal battle to defend its trade mark for the name 'Budweiser' for its beer in Germany and Austria. Full Story

Online TV & Music

U2 manager still thinks ISPs are freeloading
This month's U.K. edition of GQ Magazine contains a fairly substantial article from U2 manager Paul McGuinness in which he blames Internet service providers and technology companies directly for the falling sales of recorded music.  Full Story

Mobile / Wireless

RIM looks forward as India and other challenges loom
Research In Motion, its global growth and its secure-email niche challenged by both rivals and governments, is preparing for a long fight it may yet lose on a shifting battlefield. Full Story

Mobile-Phone Farming in India
Which pesticide will protect my crops? It's a question most farmers in insect-ridden rural India ask themselves or their neighbors. But it's also a question to which very few have the correct answer.
Full Story

Spies, secrets and smart-phones
All last week, as it negotiated with the Saudi, UAE and Indian authorities over their demands for monitoring, the smart-phones' Canadian maker, Research In Motion, was dodging journalists' demands for proper explanations about what exactly is negotiable about the phones' security. Full Story

Spam

Rustock botnet responsible for 39 percent of all spam
Botnets are now responsible for sending 95 percent of all spam, up from 84 percent in April, and almost half of that spam comes from a single botnet, Rustock. Full Story 
 
Explosion of mobile phone spam
Nuisance SMS texts are of growing concern for the industry's watchdog, which says you can act.
Full Story 
 
New SMS mobile rules to stop rogue operators
Consumers will not be billed for premium SMS and MMS from suspect mobile premium service providers under new rules introduced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Full Story

Online Crime, Security & Legal

Secret US military computers 'cyber attacked' in 2008
A 2008 cyber attack launched from an infected flash drive in the Middle East penetrated secret US military computers, a Pentagon official says. Full Story
 
Cameron Diaz ranked most dangerous web celeb
She may be known for her playful giggles and killer looks, but now movie star Cameron Diaz has become the most dangerous celebrity on the Internet. Article 1  Article 2