At last year’s general election, less than two-thirds of the public actually turned out to vote. Even worse, from 18 to 24 year old bracket only 37 per cent of them bothered to dis-attach their headphones, power down their PC’s and put down their beers long enough to help decide upon their future government.

Which brings me onto my main point – surely if there’s money to be invested then the best outlet would be implementing an e-voting option? With many UK counties trialing online voter registration and the recent online Census option, surely the security risks could be mitigated with the best-in-class technology?

In a nutshell, NFC is a tiny chip within a mobile device which allows us to pay for small purchases (say, under a tenner) by simply waving our mobile phone in the general direction of a NFC reader. Payments are instant and secure and mean that the days of digging around in our pockets for change whilst at the bar could effectively be at an end. No more shrapnel at the end of a night out, no more holes in pockets, no more coins down the side of the sofa.

NFC is not new, boffins at the Dutch semiconductor company NXP had the standard approved in 2003. Barclaycard users will be familiar with it through the innovative Visa payWave on certain credit cards. However it hasn’t taken off on mobile phones as planned, largely because the big players in the industry haven’t reached a consensus on how to deploy the technology.

Could Apple now lead the way and finally extend the benefits of this pretty cool technology to the rest of us?

According to an article yesterday in Total Telecom, global smartphone shipments have surged 43% to 60 million units as more and more of us take up using the devices. It isn’t just consumers or business users either; militaries around the world are looking at uses for smartphones.

The US military has recently been considering ways to take advantage of social media, and no doubt the mobile internet will be a part of that. Smartphones in the hands of soldiers wouldn’t just be for Twitter though. Defence companies have been working on mobile apps for war. IT Pro today has posted a story about software that gives a soldier the ability find enemies in the surrounding terrain using a mobile phone with the Android operating system.

The software could be powerful enough to pick up aerial images from unmanned aircraft or satellites and then focus in on details like license plates or facial features.

It sounds like neat stuff, and would be very interesting if it ever makes it to the consumer market; Google maps to a scary new level! But we may not have to wait for consumer-friendly versions of military apps to be released before we get a sneak peak, if figures this week from the UK MoD are anything to go by. An iPhone 4 Gizmodo style leak might be expected.

From SC Magazine, it turns out that the MoD has been having a hard time trying to hang on to their gear. A freedom of information request has revealed that 440 laptops were lost or stolen in the past two years. As well as laptops, they’ve lost hundreds of DVDs, CDs and disks, 96 hard drives and 13 mobile phones. Worst of all, much of the data on lost devices wasn’t encrypted. Who knows what cool software or data is waiting on a forgotten phone in the tube’s lost and found.

Photo by Flickr user iamian_, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

When judging the level of risk a bird species is at, scientists compare modern data to historical accounts on where the birds have been found. If there is a dramatic decrease in sightings of a bird species, then it is considered for a protected status. This study found that “far less data is currently being collected on common species than in the past.”

According to Imperial College London: “Data from websites where members of the public record bird sightings accounted for less than one percent of the data the researchers collected, but the team hope that the internet will enable citizen scientists to make a big impact on future biodiversity research.”

I agree. I hope the internet will enable “citizen scientists” to make a big impact on future biodiversity research and I am a little surprised that it hasn’t already.

Here at Speed, I like to think we are quite environmentally conscious. One of our MDs is a bicycle commuter and the other is striving towards sustainability with his farmhouse in rural Northumberland. In the past I have worked with environment groups and am even listed as a contributor to a breeding bird atlas. We are also all online, social and obviously into our tech. What’s stopping people like us from becoming “citizen scientists” and contributing to this much needed research on common bird species? It isn’t like there aren’t any birds of interest in urban London.

With the rise of social networking and mobile technology, there is so much potential for a cool solution to this data crisis.

An iPhone app combining Foursquare with a bird guide is a solution that first comes to mind. Combining location-based functionality, a guide for identifications, a social aspect to share sightings on Facebook and even competitive aspects, with badges or rewards, would do the trick. I want to be Mayor Twitcher of Leicester Square!

The data could be collected and made open and available to research groups, and hopefully improve on the less that one percent of bird sightings that currently come from members of the public.

I thought for sure that a solution like this would exist already, but I have been searching in the App Store and online with no luck.

I think it is definitely something that a charity like the RSPB or the Leverhulme Trust, the group who funded the research, should look into putting some budget towards.

Or, perhaps there could be a grassroots solution. If you’re a bird-loving iPhone app developer or a publisher who owns the rights to a birding guide, please get in touch with a comment, tweet or email.  Maybe we could link up and work on something together.

If such an app already exist, do let me know. I’d love for an easy to get busy adding my bird sightings to important research.

UPDATE:

Getting some great feedback. Thanks! I thought I’d collect and share it here:

A couple folks have said that similar things to what I’ve described do exist. There is Project NOAH for the iPad and BirdsEye, which sounds great but is North American only. Both have lots of potential, if only they were geographically and technologically accessible! Maybe an open source program that collects data on a shared website might be the answer. That way people can submit data through a variety of apps and websites.

Some people think that birders aren’t interested in gadgets, but I don’t that prevents this from being a good idea. Birders are already submitting data. With a fun game-like app, non-birders and newbies can start adding the much needed sightings of common birds, improving the amount of data.

Anyway, someone has said that their birding group are using mobile email from BlackBerrys as they are out in the field to report sightings. So clearly there is potential for birders using an app.

Tom from the RSPB said:
iPhone applications are something we have been thinking about for a while. It is clearly a great idea which has evidently gained public interest, but this is not something which the RSPB currently endorse due to the complex array of copyright issues involved getting such a product off the ground. but a great idea!

Thanks so much all the ideas and feedback. Please keep it coming!

UPDATE (30/06/10):

Got some great feedback from the academic and tech communities. This is getting really exciting! Pieces are coming togther and should have more details to share soon.

Photo by Flickr user cowfish, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The one topic that is constantly being debated in our industry is whether print will die off. It dominates Twitter discussions, gets analysed in blogs and is discussed at networking events. Most of the time the debate is focused on newspapers, with many people ignoring trade magazines and simply assuming that they will be (or already have been) tossed onto the print scrap heap.

Being a PR focused on the technology industry, I engage with a plethora of trade publications.  The editorial focus can range from HR to outsourcing, IT to facilities management.

The majority of these publications have a website which holds the bulk of their content, yet many appear to be reluctant to let go of their print offering, despite a few becoming incredibly thin. So will we see the death of the printed trade publication in a few years? I am not sure we will.

I think that trade publications will continue to hold their breaking stories and 24 hour news online, it’s the only way to compete effectively, however their print titles will become less frequent, more features focused and perhaps a little more exclusive.

I can see weeklies becoming monthlies, and monthlies becoming quarterlies. These new trade titles will include special reports, well researched features and exclusive interviews.  News will simply be a roundup. More money will be spent on design and aesthetics, in order to make the new magazines a bit of a luxury item and appeal to the C suite executives that they are trying to reach.

Trade titles have a lot more to give the print world than we all think, so long as they make the right changes, now.

So o2 has announced that it is scrapping its unlimited mobile data plans in favour of Smartphone tariffs. These range from 500mb plans, costing £25-£35 a month, to 1GB plans for a staggering £60 a month.

Being an o2 customer I was obviously a little cheesed off, but to be honest, it makes perfect sense.

I spend more of my time tweeting on Tweet Deck, reading the news on my Guardian app, checking in on Foursquare and updating my Facebook status on my iPhone than I do calling people or texting. It seems that I am not alone; Vodafone recently announced unprecedented revenue growth in its data services and expects this growth to continue.

Data access is taking over as the primary driver for mobile technology, leaving phone calls and texts by the wayside. With the iPhone 4 adding technology that further thrusts it into the Skype world; of course mobile operators are going to focus their billing on data usage rather than voice minutes.

But there needs to be give and take. By all means charge me for my data (reasonably) but then give me unlimited free phone calls and texts in return.  I can assure you I won’t use them much.

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I have a gripe that started perhaps in the late 90s but certainly in the (frankly awfully named) noughties: creative thought has died a horrible death. We live in a stagnant nostalgia culture which praises the out-dated and defunct.

It sounds harsh, but I sincerely believe that it is true. I challenge you, dear reader, to name one item in the arts world of the last decade which was the fruit of a truly original and creative idea. I’ve tried, but I keep coming back to the point at which artistic ideas come from rehashed remembrances of another era’s creativity.

The art world has never really recovered from the post-modernism movement. Music hasn’t produced anything fresh since early 90′s hip-hop. All the films being made at the moment are sequels or 80′s remakes.

Technology is often pointed to as something which defines us in the 2010′s (no one seems to have come up with a snappy shortening for this decade yet), but our technical prowess is only just starting to catch up with the imaginations of authors from the 60s 70s and 80s. Our latest toy, the iPad, has a long legacy stretching back at least 23 years to Star Trek the Next Generation (if you will forgive the geeky reference), which provided almost every member of its crew with a PADD. It is not yet quite that ubiquitous in our society, although this kind of device will inevitably play a bigger part in people’s lives.

The last decade of fashion and clothing, following an almost identical pattern to music fashions, started in the 60′s and has shifted, decade to decade, to the 80′s now. Bad hairstyles and big white shoes are almost everywhere. 30 years of culture rehashed in 10. Next up will be the 90′s, which is bad enough (parachute pants and heat reactive t-shirts anyone?). Will “noughties-60′s retro” be the new fashion? Such meta-referencing plays well to post-modernism, but isn’t that a bit old hat now?

Do we now live in a pastiche culture? Where are our creative geniuses? Have they all been wasted regurgitating past glory days? Looking to the past is an important part of understanding who we are and where we came from, but that’s not where new ideas come from.

Working in the creative industries, the decline of creativity is something that concerns me greatly. We have to innovate to progress. We need people in the creative, artistic and technology industries to step-up to the mark and drive things forwards, we can’t sit around and wait for other people to do it for us. I’m willing to help drive change, but I can’t do it alone – are you willing to really change the future?

The process was very interesting and great to be a part of. The teams consisted of a variety of people, like doctors, community planners, marketers, social workers, iPhone app developers, activists and even a comedian. A great mix.

Most of the top entries made the most of technology to help spread their ideas for social innovation. Pop up fitness is an idea to interrupt computer screens at set intervals to remind office workers to stand up and move around. The Go London Game aims to make London a bit more fun, with a combination of a Foursquare-type smartphone game and a scavenger hunt. Splashpath looks to unify the format of leisure centre and health club timetables, making the data open and accessible, and then create a customisable and embeddable widget with swimming pool lane times for nearby pools.

The winner was a combination of two ideas, but all of the entrants received encouragement and offers of support to continue their efforts. They’ll be interesting to watch going forward and hopefully result in a healthier city.

For Paul Fletcher, manager of Star Labs security, 4 May 2000 started like any other day. By the end of the day nothing would ever be the same again.

The Times – Foursquare at right time, right place to be next big thing

Online social networks used to be about making virtual connections with your friends; now they are about meeting up with them.

Information Age – Google invests in wind power, 3D desktops and ‘time-based search’

Search giant Google has this week revealed a number of investments that concern such diverse technologies as wind power, 3D desktops, online payments and search.

The Daily Telegraph – Zettabytes overtake petabytes as largest unit of digital measurement

The size of the “digital universe” will swell so rapidly this year that a new unit – the zettabyte – has been invented to measure it. One zettabyte is equal to one million petabytes, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 individual bytes.

Management Today – MT Expert – Innovation: Use technology to keep customers happy

Technology is crucial to creating an engaging customer experience. And it doesn’t even have to cost you. There are currently strong links between good customer service and a good bottom line. The same applies to the relationship between technology use and improved customer service.

ComputerWorldUK – Amazon launches Virtual Private Cloud service in Europe
Amazon Web Services has launched VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) in Europe, the company said. The service lets companies connect their existing data centres to isolated computing resources in Amazon’s European cloud using an encrypted VPN (virtual private network) connection.