Forget fashion, celebrities and cheating footballers the biggest trend for 2010 has to be philanthropy.  We’ve seen challenges set to US billionaires to donate half their wealth to good causes, Lord Sainsbury has just handed over £25m to the arts and the government is trying to revive a sense of ‘good will’ in the form of the big society agenda.

But if it wasn’t for all these wealthy givers what state would our society and economy really be in?  Philanthropy has been around for centuries, but just as society and the world we live in is fast changing pace, so must philanthropy in order to keep up.

On a recent meeting with one such philanthropist, Marcelle Speller, who has just launched Localgiving.com, it made me realise just how important these contributions, be it monetary or time, are to our society.

It also drummed home that this is a trend more brands need to embrace, given the very real appetite that’s starting to emerge among society.

Well, those of us who don’t go shopping with a strict list will know exactly how the former Labour government feels right now. Since coming to office, the new coalition has been doing the macroeconomic equivalent of going through the bank statements with a highlighter pen. But instead of pinning passive aggressive notes saying “£200 at Sainsbury’s! Have you got a tapeworm?” to the fridge door, the government has been publishing all this lovely information to the web.

And this week it has the last government’s expenditure on websites in its sights. The raw data, which has been summarised and interpreted by The Guardian can be seen here, is worth a look. At first glance it fits nicely with the coalition’s line on the last Labour government’s fiscal policy, which can be loosely translated as “they sold our lovely cow for magic beans!” But putting aside a couple of pricey anomalies, quite a few of these websites look very cost-effective indeed.

Take Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for example. It may have cost £10m to build, but thanks to it you can submit your tax returns online – a process which we’re all agreed is not perfect, but still a darn sight better than the paper  old forms. Per visitor it costs us a mere penny – a sixtieth of what we all pay towards Her Majesty’s upkeep. We could say the same of Direct Gov. A substantial investment, but it’s a site relevant to millions, and probably saves more than that in unprinted information leaflets and spurious phone calls.

Where the last government’s web strategy did come unstuck, however, was around activity targeting businesses. The costs per visitor speak for themselves, but I’m not entirely sure whether this represents credit card happiness among government officials, or just the fact that these websites naturally reach smaller audiences. More or less everyone checked Direct-Gov at the height of the swine flu epidemic, but I bet you probably only visited the Research and Development site if you were worked in development.

Which brings us to the last point. This might be raw data, but it’s data that’s been released to make a political point, so interpret it carefully. The coalition wants tech audiences to think some of these websites were a waste of money. But, to paraphrase a player in an earlier political scandal, Mandy Rice-Davies “they would, wouldn’t they?” It’s in their best interests to make the last lot look like chumps, even if they did get a few things right. Yes, some questionable decisions were made during the last 13 years, but I’d rather have most of these websites than not, wouldn’t you?

The controversy over Facebook’s privacy policy is helping those developing alternatives to the social network. Funding and users are flowing to services that claim to put members in charge of their network.

BBC – ‘Rogue’ internet firm 3FN shut down

An internet firm linked to many of the internet’s criminal gangs has been shut down. The US Federal Trade Commission said Belize-based 3FN aided gangs that ran botnets, carried out phishing attacks and traded in images of child abuse.

CIO – Boris Johnson promises city-wide WiFi coverage

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has promised that “every lampost and every bus stop will one day very soon, and before the 2012 Olympics, be wi-fi enabled.” Speaking at a Google Zeitgeist event held in Hertfordshire, Johnson added London could soon be the technology capital of the world.

Light Reading – Brits Press On With Broadband Plans

Britain’s new Conservative/Liberal-Democrat coalition government is pressing forward with plans to make the UK a so-called broadband society and has appointed a special minister to oversee developments.

The Register – Fake joke worm wriggles through Facebook

The malware, for now at least, does nothing more malicious than posting a message on an infected user’s Facebook wall that point to a site called fbhole.com. Nonetheless, the speed of its spread on the social networking site has net security experts worried.

IT PRO – Broadband minister says Digital Economy Act won’t be repealed
The Government has named its broadband and Digital Economy ministers today but they may have already caused dissension in ranks.

Internet users must be able to access whatever content they want, regardless of telecoms companies’ demands that high-bandwidth publishers pay them, according to a European Commissioner ahead of a consultation on net neutrality.

IT PRO – MoD loses data over 1,500 times in five years
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted to losing data more than 1,500 times in the past five years.

IT PRO – Public sector CIOs call for more Government IT ambition
A large majority of public sector chief information officers (CIOs) want the next Government to be more ambitious when it comes to IT, according to a new survey.

ITVT – Discovery Taps Total Immersion to Develop Augmented Reality Game for “Deadliest Catch”
Augmented reality specialist, Total Immersion, contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that it has been tapped by the Discovery Channel and the latter’s media agency, PHD, to develop an interactive augmented reality game to promote the sixth season of the action-documentary series, “Deadliest Catch”

The Guardian – iPad to be available in the UK through Vodafone, O2 and Orange
Vodafone, O2 and Orange have all signed up to supply the iPad to customers in the UK from next month.

BBC News – Man fined for Bebo friend request

A man who invited a woman to be his friend on social networking site Bebo has been convicted of breaching bail conditions not to contact her.

ZDNet – Digital divide shifts from access to application

The vice chancellor of the Open University has said the digital divide is now between people who do and don’t understand how to exploit IT fully.

The publication of the Tory Technology Manifesto initially got my hopes up. At last an election that puts technology at the heart of the debate. But on a closer look the definition of ‘technology’ is woolly to say the least.

Most people will agree that opening up government data, increasing superfast broadband speeds, ending central government mega-projects and increasing the use of open source are generally ‘good things’. I’m less sure about the vague idea of crowdsourcing during the discussion of legislation – but that’s a personal worry about the fine line between the wisdom of crowds and the baying of the mob.

What is less easy to understand is how many of the other proposals fit under ‘technology’. A new high speed rail network? Measures to force every local authority to publish expenditure over £500 online? MP expenses available via the web? Whatever you think of these, I wouldn’t class them as technology policies.

This isn’t just being pedantic – the risk is that if this is what politicians see as ‘technology’, the real benefits of properly applied IT and a vibrant UK tech sector will get lost in wrangles over trains and expense claims for duck houses. Time to reclaim technology for what it actually is and what it can really deliver to the country.

The www.data.gov.uk site has now gone live, providing developers with access to government data to power useful applications for us citizens. There are already some great little apps out there, from property prices to crime maps.

But at the moment there are two things missing if the initiative is to really fly. Firstly, it doesn’t have Ordnance Survey data, although apparently negotiations are continuing on this. Secondly, and I think more importantly is a way of getting these apps out to the widest possible audience. The risk is that lots of bright people will do cool things with the data but the general public simply won’t know about them.

What’s needed now is proper marketing of the apps, not just the concept, and a programme that mandates the public sector to publicise/include them on their own websites. Otherwise the risk is that the outputs of data.gov.uk will remain the preserve of a digital elite.

CBR – Intel unveils app store for netbooks
Intel has launched a beta version of its software application store, the Intel AppUp centre for netbook computers and four other Intel partners Acer, Asus, Dell and Samsung are collaborating with Intel to bring their apps to consumers.

Computerworld UK – Google Energy to trade electricity
Google continues to broaden it business focus, now seeking permission to buy and resell electricity.

The Financial Times (online) – Component shortages set to push up computer costs
The cost of assembling personal computers will rise this year for the first time in six years because of shortages in some key components, industry analysts have forecast.

IT PRO – Mandelson launches new IT courses for adults
New IT courses are set to give thousands of adults the computer skills they need, according to a new Government initiative.

Computer Weekly – Nokia to shut high street shops to focus on online sales
Nokia is closing its high street retail outlets worldwide in favour of an reinvigorated online sales strategy and greater use of mobile network operators’ retail outlets.

BBC – UK trails on super-fast broadband say OECD figures
The UK is trailing when it comes to next-generation access, new figures show. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the UK is places 21st out of 30 in terms of speed.

CRN – Channel delight at scaled-back NPfIT
Public sector VARs have welcomed news the government could scrap its £12.7bn NHS National Programme for IT.

The Financial Times – Loophole to be closed on UK broadband tax
Ministers are seeking to close a potential loophole in the government’s planned broadband tax by saying consumers should pay the levy even if they only use their phone lines for internet services.

Computer Weekly – Dell increases Twitter sales
Dell has sold $6.5m worth of equipment by using microblogging website Twitter. This represents a late surge because in June this year the company said it had made $3m of sales on Twitter over the previous two years.

CBR Online – Cloud computing adopters fear becoming “guinea pigs”: Atos UK CEO
Keith Wilman, the UK CEO of IT services firm Atos Origin, said that the firm’s clients do not want to act as “guinea pigs” by becoming cloud computing early adopters.

The Register – US Congress probes accidental top secret file sharing
US Congress wants to know if new federal laws are needed to protect government employees from accidental file-sharing.

Computer Weekly – IT sector showing signs of recovery, says OECD
An OECD report says there are “signs of recovery” in the global IT industry after positive month-on-month growth for most countries between May and June.

Computer Weekly – Public sector union fears increased outsourcing
The Public and Commercial Services union fears that the government will start outsourcing more roles in civil and public services as public sector organisations face reduced budgets.