1. Does the North East’s technology industry have a future? (The Telegraph)
Horror stories about the North East’s digital sector aren’t hard to come by. Allegations of incompetence and inexperience are regularly levelled at bodies set up to help small businesses, such as Business Link, while London VCs wonder why, when millions of pounds have been pumped into raising the profile of the North East’s digital sector, its start-ups rarely appear on their radars. Will technology start-ups in the North East survive? Milo Yiannopoulos reports.
2. Surrender Monkeys and the Schminternet: What the Web says about Google and Verizon’s net neutrality compromise (GigaOm)
On Monday, Google and Verizon announced a controversial framework for compromise around the contentious issues of network neutrality: the idea that ISPs shouldn’t discriminate against certain types of web traffic. The issues are so complex that Congress has tried three times to make some sort of law regarding the idea, says Stacey Higginbotham.
3. RIM must explain or suffer (Gartner)
The RIM saga rumbles on despite – or perhaps because of – the fact that a ban in Saudi appears to have been averted. Nick Jones pointed out when a ban was first threatened that even if it occurred it would be financially insignificant to RIM who ship under 1% of their handsets in the Middle East. The problem is that the dispute with UAE and Saudi has opened up an lot of questions about RIM security, and RIM isn’t providing the answers that people want to hear.
4. The golden age of open source? (451 Chaos Theory)
Matthew Aslett asks: What is the fourth stage of commercial open source? In short: a return to a focus on collaboration and community, as well as commercial interests.
5. Facebook breaks with Google on net neutrality (The New York Times)
When Google teamed up with Verizon on Monday to announce a set of proposed rules to govern Internet access, Google’s former allies in the years-long campaign for net neutrality were among its most vocal critics, says Miguel Helft.
