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This paper presents a research team's experience using a virtual steering group to manage a research project. The main research project was concerned with the evaluation and development of interprofessional working among health and social care staff across primary and secondary care in the United Kingdom, with a focus on older people receiving intermediate care. Intermediate care is a service aimed at preventing unnecessary hospital admission; supporting early discharge from hospital; and reducing or delaying the need for residential care in the community. Intermediate care covers multi-agency and interprofessional working across the continuum of care. We examine one aspect—the use of a virtual steering group, which is an innovative approach aimed at facilitating user and carer participation in the research in a supportive and less intimidating way. The research team includes academics, practitioners, older people and carers, and representatives from the voluntary sector—all are equal members. The team believes it is important to actively involve clients and their carers in the development and direction of research because they can provide a unique perspective ensuring that the research addresses issues of importance to them as service users. We examine and discuss the importance of preparation, support, and training to meaningfully engage in the virtual steering group and the direction of this research. The paper concludes by making recommendations about this model of involving service users in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC) exchanges sequence data on a daily basis across its three member organizations in the USA, UK and Japan. This paper studies how this sequence database in MySQL can best take advantage of the increased transfer bandwidth of a Grid-optimized data communication protocol. Within the context of the UK Government Project Grid-oriented Storage (GOS) and the EC Project EuroAsiaGrid, GOS File System (GOS-FS) has been developed in our lab, which melds distributed file system technology with high performance data transfer techniques to meet the needs of WAN/Grid-based virtual organizations. A real-world test shows that the INSDC sequence database backing up operation, mysqldump, over the GOS-FS protocol beats those over the classic NFS protocol by 6 times over the link between Cambridge and Tokyo. Best of all, the multi-streamed GOS-FS protocol remains fully compatible with existing IF infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Britain is almost unique in giving its incumbent public service broadcaster, the BBC, a leading role in driving digital, thereby hoping to hasten digital take-up, and thus allowing analogue switch-off by 2012. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part investigates the recent historical past with respect to the making of policy, drawing on the analytical framework of policy cycles. Why has the British government given the BBC a lead role in the move towards digital transmission, and how does this decision link and interconnect with other interweaving policy debates surrounding the BBC licence fee and Charter renewal? In a media environment, increasingly driven by commercial considerations, what are the key policy motivations for entrusting a publicly funded institution with a lead role in the digital era, and what have been the main challenges and policy dilemmas in doing this? Part two considers how the BBC has responded to government policy initiatives. What are the key building blocks of its digital strategy and just how comfortably do these sit with its public service remit? For digital means much more than just broadcasting, demanding responses to changes in the way that audiences are likely to interact with content in future. Yet, in positioning itself as a content provider, whose content will be available on demand on myriad future platforms, the Corporation is increasingly impinging on what commercial operators believe is their future route to profitability. In the light of this analysis, the paper concludes by assessing the compatibility of government policy and BBC strategy given their at times diverging aims and objectives, and what this means for the continuance of a public service ethos into the digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical, legal, political, and social issues have hampered efforts to broaden data sharing among UK government departments. One of the major arguments against data sharing is that it violates the citizens' right to privacy. However, the new plans for personal data subvert these beliefs, outlined in the Human Rights Act, in favor of active risk reduction for a common good defined by the state. While advocating data sharing has become easier in light of child abuse and terrorism cases, implementation remains a problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to understand how, why and what citizen-focused services local authorities might consider and deliver on digital interactive television (DiTV). In trying to make interaction with local government more joined up and easier for the citizen, digital television has been employed by around 80 local authorities in the UK to determine what is best offered via this emerging channel, how efficiencies in service delivery can be achieved and to encourage participation and democracy. Design/methodology/approach - The project was run by offering a stable, centrally-hosted, centrally-funded, multi-platform technology to local government to investigate and manage their services. Alongside just "getting involved" a large research project involving 300 homes in West London was run with accompanying qualitative and quantitative research. Findings - The evidence indicates that the public is interested in using simple transactional and informational services at this point in time, as long as they are given the "directions" to find services. There are high expectations regarding the use of a wide range of services as the medium beds in and becomes more widely available. A large percentage of citizens expect to use DiTV to contact and communicate with the local government organisations just as they use the telephone today. Research limitations/implications - The research derives from pre-structured polls conducted through closed questioning and responses from the public were therefore inevitably limited by the reference frame provided by researchers. Originality/value - This paper provides a detailed view of how citizens use DiTV and expectations of use for the future. Analysis of usage data is supplemented by a DigiTV specified research project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Parliaments, as representative institutions, serve as communication channels between the public and the process of governance. The purpose of this paper is to consider the way in which this relationship has been conceptualised and various predictions about how it might change in the age of digital interactivity. Design/methodology/approach - Findings from a survey of officials from 44 European parliamentary chambers are presented, together with findings from surveys of participants in several UK online parliamentary consultations. Findings - The survey of European parliamentary officials suggests that digital information/communication technologies are being used widely, but that there is limited use of interactive features which allow citizens to comment and deliberate on policy issues. The surveys of participants in online consultations run by the British Parliament suggest that they might increase citizens' efficacy, although this might only be a short-term effect. Research limitations/implications - The European parliamentary survey was conducted in 2003, since when some parliamentary web sites and information systems have been developed. Practical implications - The paper considers the consequences of digital interactivity for parliamentary representation, combining conceptual and empirical perspectives. Originality/value - The survey of European parliamentary officials gathered data from 44 parliamentary chambers, making it one of the most extensive European surveys of its kind. The surveys conducted before and after participants took part in UK parliamentary consultations were the first ever to explore the experience and attitudes of such a group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has as its focus two key strands that are significant to contemporary media education. The first is the increasing move towards creative production work as the central and dominant feature of media studies courses. In UK schools, this has largely been facilitated by the rapid expansion of digital technologies. Whilst this offers unprecedented opportunities for students to construct advanced and highly polished artefacts, it has also created new challenges for the media teacher in relation to pedagogy and classroom management. The second strand is the emergence of globalised, commercial media cultures and their relation to new media forms facilitated by digital technology. Here, this paper is interested in the relatively new media form of the music video which, in its dominant mode of distribution and exhibition, exists globally as part of satellite and digital packages. Music video as a form is ideal for use in Media Studies as an object of study and as a framework for facilitating creative work. Based on practitioner research methods, this paper teases out the tensions that exist between popular culture, media education and digital technology, incorporating the way a sense of community located beyond the school can create opportunities for student creative work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the cultural, economic and political pressures and influences that determined the adoption of the `European' technical system of digital radio in the UK. Debates over the potential of the new technology to expand both programming content and the range of individuals, companies and organizations with access to radio broadcasting were curtailed in favour of a bureaucratic and technocratic approach to media policy and a desire by the European Commission to establish a new product for the consumer electronics market that would be developed and made in Europe. The article shows that the development of the new system resulted in a `forced marriage' between the BBC and the commercial sector and that the convergence between DAB and other `platforms' has profound implications for the relationship between public service broadcaster, government and industry. Furthermore, in order to encourage the larger commercial radio groups to commit themselves to the new technology, they were granted new and unprecedented control over content regulation. This had the effect of further consolidating the hold of dominant interests in the UK radio sector and stifling new initiatives and approaches to the medium. Finally, the article analyses the extent to which DAB digital radio has succeeded in establishing itself in the UK media landscape against strong competition from other, converging technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK's emergency services have dropped their old analogue walkie-talkies in favor of the Tetra-based digital radios as blue light services begin to piggyback on high-speed commercial networks and standards. Airwave's Tetra is expected to become the principal network that emergency workers use to stay in voice contact. Tetra supports data transmissions, and while Tetra may become the dominant data transmission standard, other wireless-based data transmission standards are likely to continue in use. With a 20-year lifespan, Tetra will have to coexist with a rapidly changing set of commercial bearers that could ultimately supplant it. The emergency services are gradually moving from a world where they have needed dedicated communications standards to one where additional software and hardware may be enough to do most of the work. Networks such as Mobitex and Tetra may be the fall-backs when more complex services fail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor quality CCTV evidence requires a witness to make an identification of the suspect. Good quality CCTV images are often left to the jury, who are unfamiliar with the face. Psychological research has demonstrated that identification procedures for both known and previously unknown suspects should be very different. A visual comparison of high quality imagery may suggest that a more reliable decision regarding identity will be made. However, studies indicate that when an assailant is unknown, identification is poor even when the image is of high quality, regardless of format. As such, research has demonstrated that recognizing or matching unfamiliar faces even in optimal conditions is an extremely error prone process. This paper examines the current legal framework for identification from imagery in the light of psychological research. Incorrect identifications may not necessarily be safeguarded against in some situations, although further research is needed to elucidate reliable identification methods for criminal prosecutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the impact of the fusion of high-speed data networks and digital video content on broadcasting in the Great Britain. The latest Ofcom figures, released on September 15, 2005, estimate that digital television penetration has reached 63 percent of households. According to Graham Lovelace, one of the authors of the IPTV report, that the pull of broadband network television will replace the push of traditional broadcast television. With new digital technologies, telephone carriers and broadband service providers will be able to offer video services in competition with traditional cable and satellite providers.

This paper discusses the process of digital switchover and assesses the role the BBC services have played in driving overall digital take-up and therefore bringing forward the likely date of analogue switch-off. The first part examines the advantages and drawbacks of digital switchover, and identifies a number of challenges and policy dilemmas of making switchover an achievable objective. Part two presents an overview of current developments of digital television in the UK and outlines various measures proposed for encouraging digital take-up. The third and final part deals with the contribution of the new BBC services to digital take-up, considers free terrestrial platform Freeview's likely effect on commercial rivals, and assesses the effectiveness of the proposed free satellite platform FreeSat to accelerate digital adoption. The paper concludes that the new digital BBC services have played a significant role in enhancing consumer interest in DTV services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systems are being developed with the aim of managing the use of copyright protected works within the digital communications network. Such fights management systems are considered integral for the commercial exploitation and control of protected works within the new media. A central technology in such systems is fights expression languages, computer languages used to define and represent legal rights and relationships central to protected works in electronic licences. An electronic licence constructed with a rights expression language, however, may have difficulty in adequately representing and implementing legal rights and relationships central to copyright law. This difficulty is illustrated by examining how mandatory copyright exceptions under UK law for databases and computer programs might be incapable of proper representation and implementation. The particular difficulties for databases and computer programs might be representative of a larger theoretical difficulty with the digital management of legal rights and relationships. In particular, the abstraction and distillation of fights and relationships by rights expression languages recalls difficulties encountered by developers of legal expert systems. Discussion of formalism and legal expert systems might be of assistance in appreciating the shortcomings of rights representation objectives, and, in a broader sense, the difficulties in using technology to represent legal rights and relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the role digital television is playing in increased functionality of electronic services and on its implications for communication policy in Great Britain. Digital broadcasting delivers a range of new applications, including interactive services and online connectivity, to the home. Currently, there is a rapid development in fields of digital broadcasting and e-governance. There has been an agreement among media scholars that, in order to foster participation in common life, and in the interests of avoiding social exclusion, a broadcasting system should offer audiences shared and adequate access to a diverse and well-balanced menu of services that reflect, and provide for, the information and communication needs of society. The paradigm of Western European inheritance of public service broadcasting as regulated, free-to-air provision of generalist programme schedules has been conditioned by technology. Analogue transmission limited the effective spectrum, restricting terrestrial television carriage to a small number of channels. In September 1999 the British government announced its intention to terminate all analogue broadcast transmissions and switch over to an all-digital communications environment by the year 2010. In December 2001 the Digital Television Action Plan was launched selling out a series of actions to promote the take-up of digital television and ensure the switch-over to digital television is implemented by 2010.

Focuses on the deployment of asynchronous digital subscriber line 2 (ADSL2) broadband connectivity standard in Great Britain. Data rates supported by ADSL2 2; Advantages of ADSL2; Bandwidth provided by ADSL2 to users for upstream-intensive services.

Focuses on the operating systems of mobile phones in Great Britain. Integration of pocket computers into advanced mobile phones; Characteristics that make mobile phones unique and result in the need for a specifically designed operating system; Diversity of mobile phones that can be created with Symbian Operating Systems.

Recent years have seen a frenetic public debate in Great Britain concerning the desirability, feasibility and timing of the introduction of digital television. The debate has occurred in the context of impending convergence between television, computer and telecommunications technologies, auguring radical changes in the media ecology, and the numerous uncertainties - economic, technological, regulatory and cultural - that accompany such shifts. Some writers, observing these unstable conditions, argue that public service broadcasting (PSB) faces new threats. Others argue that PSB bears new responsibilities. Little empirical light has been shed on how the public service broadcasters are responding to digitalization and convergence. This article, based on recent research, analyses the response of one of Great Britain's two main public service broadcasters, Channel Four. By late 2001 about 35 percent of British households had one of the three available platforms, and of digital households 65 percent had subscribed to Sky's digital satellite service, the dominant platform.

The growth of mobile digital communication devices has seen a corresponding growth in the data created by users in the course of their mobile communications. The ease with which such data - including sensitive time-dependent location information - can be collected and stored raises clear data protection and concerns. The value such data offers to both law enforcement agencies and the private sector has complicated regulatory responses to such data protection concerns. This has lead to the contradictory situation in which mobile data is used by the law enforcement agencies and the private sector to identify individual users, yet this same information is not considered to be 'personal data'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the digital radio market in Great Britain. Factors that hinder the acceptance of digital radio; Promotion of digital radio; Licenses awarded to broadcasters.

The author describes the extent to which digital television has penetrated the UK, claimed to be Europe's leading digital television market. He argues that digitalisation of television is driven by two high level Government objectives, efficiency in radio spectrum use and promotion of online connectivity. Reference to survey research suggests considerable delay in achieving the Government's target of digital switchover by 2010. The author considers the role of the BBC, the Government's principal instrument for achieving its digital policies, and argues that there is evidence to suggest the effect of the BBC's digital services is to reduce competition and diversity. This argument is supported by data drawn from interviews with executives of competing digital channels. The author concludes by considering the likely effect of the Government's Draft Communications Bill 2002 on the digital television market and the BBC in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses characteristics of interactive digital media and explores the challenges faced by the 'Digital Synergies' program in Great Britain. Overview of the program; Necessity for a Content Management System in the media production process; Views on the gap between theory and practice of the program; Outlook for multi-platform production process.

The convergence of broadcasting, telecommunications and computing raises the question of whether the converged markets will continue to meet the public interest. That interest is in seeing the full potential benefits of convergence - including benefits to the economy, to consumers and to society. Neither the marketplace, nor external regulation of the marketplace, will online deliver those benefits to the fullest possible extent. The BBC's role is more important than ever, in helping to ensure that the powers of digital technology are harnessed for the benefit of all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Algorithms affect practices of reading and writing as well as broader patterns of language use, communication and consumption. • This paper describes a participatory project, in which university students explored their 'folk beliefs' about algorithms. • The participants articulated six metaphors through which they and their classmates understand how algorithms work • Engaging learners in 'folk beliefs' about algorithms can contribute to critical online reading practices. Most accounts of the way digital technologies have changed practices of reading and writing have focused on surface aspects of digital texts (such as hypertextuality, multimodality and the development of new registers). There are, however, less visible aspects of digital communication environments that have had an equally profound effect on reading and writing – namely the algorithms that lie behind texts that monitor the actions of readers and writers and alter the form and content of the texts they are exposed to. Algorithms have the potential to affect not just local communication practices, but also broader social practices, as they work to encourage and reinforce patterns of language use, communication and consumption. This paper describes the results of a two-year long participatory project, in which university students in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom explored the communication and inference forming practices they engage in when interacting with algorithms. The participants articulated six primary metaphors through which they and their classmates understand how algorithms work: (1) Algorithm as agent; (2) Algorithm as authority; (3) Algorithm as adversary; (4) Algorithm as communicative resource; (5) Algorithm as audience; and (6) Algorithm as oracle. Engaging learners in articulating the 'folk beliefs' that govern people's interaction with algorithms, it is argued, can contribute to the development of the kinds of digital literacies they will need to better understand the ways algorithms affect the kinds of information they are exposed to, the kinds of inferences they form about this information, and the ways their own acts of reading and writing can be used by algorithms to manipulate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on how the introduction of digital television has changed media and communications policy, with emphasis on the United Kingdom. Why the introduction of digital television in the UK is unique; Benefits of digital communication; Challenges which the convergence of telecommunications pose for a regulatory regime.

In 1985 Telecom Eirearnn and British Telecom took the lint steps in initiating a project which has become known as the BT-TE No. 1 Submarine Cable System. The project was for the provision of a high-capacity unrepeatered optical fibre submarine cable system between Ireland and the U.K. The following article outlines the planning, surveying, construction, installation, overall testing and performance of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being first is generally seen as a good thing. The UK was the first country to industrialise and to complete a national rail network. British Marconi was the first company to develop commercial radio. But simply getting to the goal ahead of everyone else isn't enough; you have to identify new goals and achieve them too you have to innovate. Digital audio broadcasting (DAB) is a prime example of this. The UK was the first to develop a digital alternative to the analogue FM and AM signals in the late 1980s, when many music fans were compelled to re-buy albums and junk their vinyl counterparts. Could there be an alternative to crackly radio signals, just as ethereal optical storage had usurped scratchy 33s and 45s? Most likely as the development of digital radio was tied up to the same technology that had made CDs and laser discs possible. DAB radio technology had been under development since 1981, but in 1993 the UK was the first to step up to the plate with public demonstrations. Commercial DAB receivers were on sale by 1999. By 2001, over 50 radio stations were available in London alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The final Digital Britain report was published in June as to set out the Government''s final proposals and updating an interim version that has been published in January this year. This article builds upon an earlier article in [2009] 25 CLSR 263, which analysed the interim report in depth. The intention is not to repeat that earlier analysis, but rather update it and draw the reader''s attention to those key areas of change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]