Webhead

I've been looking at and watching webinars about Google Wave the next thing from those every so nice people that brought us Gmail and Calendars and other handy little gadget. "The Wave" is the "personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google amidst much applause at the I/O conference on May 2009 (see the abridged video below)

The Wave is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. The plan is that it will be supported by extensions that can provide, for example, robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages amongst others.

The preview hit the wild on September 30, 2009, with the initial 100,000 users each allowed to invite up to twenty additional users. If its as successful as Google plan, it could be a major rival to things like Facebook and Twitter providing the sort of real time collaboration and communication that the others have yet to achieve.

Watch this space folks!

With many countries less than happy about American control of the internet, Washington has said it will allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system. ICANN – the official body that ultimately controls the development of the internet, said it was ending its agreement with the US government.

Icann has previously been operating under the direction of the US, which dominated as the birthplace of the internet and home of the dot com domain name.

The changes will see other countries take a deciding role in the future in the shape of the net. NOMINET - the British organisation that handles the day-to-day running of .uk domain names - said that Icann had started a trend for companies with internet influence to appear more open and accountable.

The new agreement, replacing the 1998 agreement comes into force today.

Strapped for cash or cutting edge technology? The Conservatives have launched a new campaigning website, claiming it the most advanced of its kind since the pre-election Obama site.

MyConservatives.com,aims to simplify the campaigning and fundraising process so that members of the public will find it easier to support the party.

MyConservatives.com, was developed by web agency LBi, and is run by Sam Coates a speech writer for Cameron.

'Micro-fundraising', popular in the charity sector through websites such like Just Giving, will be an important part of the site. Users will be able support local candidates and issues or wider national campaigns. The site will house tools to allow people to set up telephone canvassing systems from home, connect with other supporters, set up campaigns or recruit other activists.

The Conserverative overhauled their web site last year for the first time in some years.

On a similar theme, what's the feeling about moving to Google's premium services instead running an office server etc...

Just to add to this a little a quick vox pop elsewhere has come out in favour of Gmail but added the caveat that there is a lot to be said for Exchange as well. I suppose my initial thought would be does Exchange play nice with Linux and OS X otherwise its a bit of a non starter in the mobile stakes...

Now that Windows 7 is out in wild, I would be interested to know what people think - good and bad - of the new OS from Microsoft? Comment to this post and let me know.

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