Sixth Sense ESP - ESP News March 2010

Issue #12

Welcome to the latest issue of our eNewsletter: ESP News, we hope you like it!

Microsoft have been in court again, this time on the subject of patents for Word and the results didn’t go the way they wanted. The Internet as a whole could be following in the Nobel Prize winning footsteps of Barrack Obama which gives us a neat segue into a story about technology and democracy – Twitter believe that social network websites will become the way we communicate with our governments.

We stay with politics where the Conservative Party have pledged to give Britain the fastest broadband in Europe and finally, Google Street View has completed its photography of the UK. Who was in your front room when the Google mobile passed your house?

We’ll keep doing our best to make sure we send you genuinely useful snippets and if you have any comments or suggestions for a future article, please drop us a line. And don't forget to tell your friends!

Mark Nutburn
Director, Sixth Sense ESP

	Microsoft loses appeal in Word patent case Microsoft has lost an appeal against a court judgement that told it to pay $240m (Ł160m) in damages. In August 2009, a US court awarded the damages to i4i which claimed Microsoft had infringed its patents. The patents cover the use of XML which is a mark-up language that preserves data formats across different programs. The judgement also demanded Microsoft to remove the i4i technology from its Office software suite and stop selling the infringing programs. > Read More
	Internet 'in running' for Nobel Peace Prize The internet is among 237 individuals and organisations nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. The number of nominations passes last year's record of 205 nominations. The internet's nomination has been championed by the Italian version of Wired magazine for helping advance "dialogue, debate and consensus". > Read More
	Evan Williams says Twitter fundamental to democracy Twitter co-founder, Evan Williams has said "Social networks will become the fundamental way we communicate with our governments". He said that Twitter will be expanding into regions where only the simplest of technology is available, such as in Haiti or parts of India. In areas where censorship stops freedom of speech, he hopes the "open exchange of information will prevail". > Read More

Tories to pledge 'fastest broadband' in Europe

The Conservatives have pledged to give Britain the fastest high speed broadband network in Europe if they win the general election. This sounds very inviting but what is said and what is done are pretty much two different things, but that could change.

The Conservative party say their plans will boost business and create jobs.

> Read More

Google Street View goes national

So many of you will obviously know about Google Street View but very recently they have brought everyone's attention to the fact they cover pretty much everywhere in the UK now.

From the very bottom of Penzance, England, to the very tip of John O' Groats in Scotland, Google has now got it covered. Google Street View was only available in 25 cities in the UK and has now been expanded to include more than 238,000 miles of road.

> Read More

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