Category Archives: Opinion

Opinion

2011 Look Ahead

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Predictions for 2011

What will the year 2011 bring in the hosting and domain name world? Here are some predictions for the next 12 months.

  • Joomla 1.6 will be released. Version 1.5 of the free content mangement system was released in 2006 and it looks like finally a new release is imminent.
  • Tomcat 7 will come out of beta. Tomcat 7 promises Servlet 3.0, JSP 2.2 and EL 2.2 implementation, plus a focus on improved security.
  • A large number of new domain name extensions will get the go ahead at ICANN, although .xxx may not.
  • Drupal 7 will be the most popular release of this already very successful content management system.
  • Junk e-mail (SPAM) will continue to blight the Inboxs of email users. WebSense reports 8 of 10 messages are Spam. Messaging between individuals via non-email methods such as Facebook will rise. Users will turn to service providers for server-side mailbox filtering.
  • New internet infrastructure advances such as DNSSEC and IPv6 will go onto business managers “must-have” list when procuring new services.

These are just a few of the changes we’ll probably see in the coming year. Virtualisation and Cloud computing will continue to influence every aspect of computing and the number of people using the internet consciously and unconsciously will continue to rise. 2011 could see the number of internet connected devices (“the Internet of things”) exceed the world population for the first time [1],[2].

Opinion

Digital Economy Act judicial review

TalkTalk and BT have won the right to get a judicial review of the controversial Digital Economy Act.

BT and TalkTalk argued that the legislation had been “rushed through parliament” before the election.

Internet service providers (ISPs) are unhappy with the part of the act that requires them to take action against suspected illegal file-sharers. The act also set out powers that could allow the government oversight over Nominet, the registry for .co.uk domain names.

During the parliamentary debate about the Digital Economy bill, held in the final days before the parliament was dissolved before May’s general election, some MPs complained that it needed more debate because of its complex nature. Andrew Heaney, director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk said “only 6% of MPs attended the brief debate”.

A judge will conduct a full review in February, considering whether the parts of the act that deal with illegal file-sharing are in breach of the e-commerce directive, which rules that ISPs cannot be held liable for traffic on their networks.

The act will also be measured against EU privacy and technical standards legislation.

One of the most controversial elements of the law relates to tougher penalties for people who download music, films and other content without paying.

ISPs will be required to send notices to people identified as net pirates, with persistent offenders being added to a blacklist.

Opinion, Technical

Vint Cerf addresses 6::UK event

Vint Cerf at 6::UK

Vint Cerf, founding father of the internet, spoke yesterday at the first 6::UK conference to promote adoption of the next generation IPv6 IP addressing system.

2020Media was at the event and was pleased to find our preperations and progress are already well ahead of most of UK business.

2020Media published its plans for IPv6 last year here. It’s anticpated that all IPv4 addresses will be allocated from the central pool by summer 2011, so the 6::UK group aim to encourage all UK stakeholders to act now to be ready for the new addressing system.

Any broadband customer who’d like to start using IPv6 on their connection can do so right now, for free, using our free tunnelling service. Please contact us to request a tunnel.

Opinion

Choosing an Ecommerce Service

There are any number of ways of adding an online shop to a  website – we looked at 3 extensions for Joomla here if you’d like to know more. But in the posting, we will look at payment methods – once your customer has chosen to buy something, how are they going to pay for it? It’s at this point of the sales process that a lot of sales are lost, so it’s crucial to get it right.

The Easy Option

Paypal and more recently Google Checkout are the most common payment methods found on e-commerce websites. Why? Because they are so easy to set up, require nothing more than an email address, credit card and bank account. The registration process is very easy for the shop owner, and they support all credit card types at the same rates. The integration process is typically straightforward with lots of examples and pre-built buttons provided.

But from the customer point of view are Paypal and Google Checkout ideal? Perhaps not. Usually the customer will have to leave your website entirely so they may be wondering where did the e-shop go? They may also face additional advertising and “become a member” links on the payment processors site.

For the business owner, use of these processors can be frustrating. If you are selling downloadable products it’s highly unlikely that PayPal or Google Checkout will accept some proof of purchase, even a commercial invoice, as a valid argument not to refund the customer.

The Alternatives

There are of course a number of alternatives to Google and Paypal. These include credit card processors, off-line payments and even payment on delivery.

Taking payments online can help increase your sales

If you do support a number of payment methods, it’s a good idea to give the customers a choice during checkout – but don’t go overboard.  Too much choice can confuse – the customer just wants to complete the purchase, not read through 10 different payment options.

For online payment with a credit or debit card the process involved requesting a Merchant Number from your bank – these are normally only provided for businesses, so you’d need to be a limited company or sole trader. Once you have the merchant account set up (for which you’ll be paying the bank a monthly fee), you can go shopping for a payment processor. These charge by different methods but typically you might pay a fixed monthly fee plus a percentage or small fixed fee of each sale. Providers include Paypoint, WorldPay, SagePay.

Benefits over Paypal and Google Checkout include your name on the customer’s statement, control over the process, negotiable fees, transparent checkout process and lower costs for high volumes.

2020Media can help you with adding ecommerce to your website.

  • Secure SSL Hosting
  • SSL certificates from multiple sources – get the best for your application
  • Experience with multitple payment processors – ask us for a referral.
  • Accept Direct Debit – ask us for a referral.
Opinion

The Economist migrates to Drupal

The Economist runs Drupal

Drupal is used on many thousands of websites, but a recent convert to Drupal is The Economist. The Economist is now using Drupal 6 to serve the vast majority of content pages to its primary web site, economist.com. Drupal powers the homepage, along with all articles, channels, comments, and more.

The site is incredibly busy – over 100,000 stories and a Posting rate exceeding a comment per minute. It also boasts 20-30 million page views per month with 3-4 millon unique visitors over the same period.

The Economist has a large varied dataset and moving from the previous system (based on ColdFusion and Oracle) was no easy task. They hired  a specialist company called Cyrve who’ve written and open-sourced a Drupal module to enable migrations of existing complex databases to Drupal. Read more about the migration, or check out Drupal Hosting from 2020Media.