Information Policy

New strategy to drive European business and government productivity via cloud computing

The European Commission's new strategy for "Unleashing the potential of cloud computing in Europe" outlines actions to deliver a net gain of 2.5 million new European jobs, and an annual boost of EUR 160 billion to EU GDP (around 1%), by 2020. The strategy is designed to speed up and increase the use of cloud computing across the economy. 'Cloud computing' refers to the storage of data (such as text files, pictures and video) and software on remote computers, which users access over the internet on the device of their choice. This is faster, cheaper, more flexible and potentially more secure than on-site IT solutions. Many popular services such as Facebook, Spotify and web-based email use cloud computing technologies but the real economic benefits come through widespread use of cloud solutions by businesses and the public sector.

Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe - What is it and what does it mean for me?: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/713&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

No, Facebook does not have 63.5 million active users in China

by Jon Russell

A new report published this week has suggested that China is Twitter’s largest global market and Facebook has 63.5 million users there — despite both being blocked by the country’s Internet censorship system — however this data is almost certainly incorrect according to information from Facebook and other sources.

Yandex.Garderobe: New Business Opportunity For Online Fashion Retailers

Online fashion is big business. The sector has become one of the largest in ecommerce today, as both retailers and consumers have embraced the digital channel for selling/purchasing fashion items of all kinds.

This is no different in Russia, where Yandex reports that about 2.4 million searches are carried out each day about clothes, shoes or accessories. On Yandex alone!

The leading Russian search company is now tapping into this lucrative market by offering a service, which enables users to compare and purchase clothes and footwear online. The new service, dubbed Garderobe (Wardrobe would be the English equivalent), is part of the company’s broader and hugely popular price aggregation service, Yandex Market, whose monthly audience exceeds 13 million. Yandex.Market was launched in 2000 and has since evolved into a marketplace with more than 48 million price suggestions in 300 categories from around 11,000 e-retailers. This makes it the biggest of its kind in Russia and the CIS.

http://www.multilingual-search.com/yandex-garderob-new-business-opportunity-for-online-fashion-retailers/25/09/2012/

Russia sets broadband target

Russia would like to see broadband services accessible to 95% of its population by 2015. Quoted by Vedomosti, Federation Council deputy PM Arkady Dvorkovich said much of the work to achieve this would be done by the national telco Rostelecom, which already has all the necessary resources and no need of additional funds. As of the end of last year Rostelecom already accounted for 37.9% of Russian internet users, or 8.2 million people. This should rise to 50% by 2015. Although Rostelecom invested around R30 billion (Euro212.4 million) in broadband last year and the total cost of constructing a national broadband network has been put at R162 billion, Dvorkovich failed to specify how much additional money the telco would have to spend.

http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2012/09/27/russia-sets-broadband-target/

Google obeys Brazilian court order, blocks YouTube political video

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The Brazilian unit of Google, the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, said on Thursday it had obeyed a court order to remove a video attacking a candidate in Brazilian municipal elections from its YouTube service after legal appeals were exhausted.