Wednesday 18th June

OK, I know I may not be the smartest kid on the block, but I've been saying this for ages… "Internet doomed unless everyone switches to IPv6" – you've read it here before! My concerns and attempts to rally lobbying have been met with such a wall of silence that I was beginning to think I'd got it wrong, so I'm heartened to read that much brighter people than I are now saying the same things. What's not said in this article is that I understand that you need IP4 addresses available to facilitate the move to IP6 (which is also fundamentally more secure than IP4) - so waiting until they run out most certainly is not an option.


Also reported this week was Lincolnshire County Council's decision to sell advertising on its web-site. It will not allow advertising on the Trading Standards section, as this is not appropriate. I assume that it has also established an ethical code that prohibits advertising of some products, such as booze, especially on sections of the site that may be seen by minors – but how should items such as pay-as-you-go 'phones be categorised? I would guess that commercial exploitation of web media by Councils to defray costs and support efficiency goals is inevitable, but Local Authorities s have a duty of care to their communities written into their legislative remit. They cannot control the accessibility of their web-sites, unlike advertising hoardings, for example, close to schools. Lots of advertising doesn't have obvious harmful connotations - such as smoking and alcohol on health - but can be quite predatory - tempting young, vulnerable or desperate people into debt and bad deals, for example. Don't Councils have a responsibility to consider these issues in relation to their web presence?


I cleared most of my correspondence backlog, today, and prepared my presentation for GMIS, at which I am also representing LOLA ("Linked Organisation of Local Authority ICT Services"), will be promoting Newham, and intend to play the Digital Inclusion Team's "Think About IT" slides on addressing the Digital Divide.