text:
Voice and representation
Representing the voluntary and community sector at a local level is a key part of our work. We ensure that our members' voices and expertise are heard at a range of partnerships, boards, and informal meetings with key people across the local area.
Our members elect representatives from within our membership every two years to undertake this work and we co-opt additional reps as necessary.
Our sector representatives
The last election for representatives for Brighton and Hove took place in November 2016.
In September we will be launching the reps nomination process for 2018 and will inform you about this via our e-lists, website and newsletter.
- Your elected Reps May 2018 (PDF)
Help to become a representative
We have an informal shadowing programme for anyone within our membership who is considering standing in a future election or being co-opted.
The shadowing programme gives you the opportunity to meet existing representatives, observe meetings and learn more about the role of a representative.
To find out more about our informal shadowing programme get in touch on email@example.com or 01273 234023
Key principles for representation
Our representatives work is framed and informed by our key principles for representation (PDF).
These principles speak to a range of stakeholders in the city and promote the unique strengths that the sector has to offer.
They also act as a platform for influencing, a basis for creating policy statements in priority areas and an opportunity to identify interests shared with public sector organisations and local businesses.
We gathered our members views through a number of workshops and through our 2014 members survey. This input shaped five evidence gathering, discussion documents which are organised by our network themes:
- Theme 1 Communities (Draft 1) March 2014 (DOC)
- Theme 2 Volunteering (Draft 1) March 2014 (DOC)
- Theme 3 Small Groups (Draft1) March 2014 (DOC)
- Theme 4 Commissioning (Draft 1) March 2014 (DOC)
- Theme 5 Children and Young People (Draft 1) March 2014 (DOC)
To find out more about our representation work get in touch on email@example.com or 01273 234023
Small groups and charities
We greatly value the work and impact of small groups and charities locally, and also recognise that they have unique support needs. We've worked with our small groups network to develop a position statement which describes what a small group is, and what they need to help them to grow:
Feedback from our representatives
Our representatives provide feedback from the meetings and events they attend on behalf of our members.
Recent feedback includes:
- Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee 20 July 2016 (PDF)
- Neighbourhoods Communitites and Equalities Committee 11 July 2016 (PDF)
- Strategic Houisng Partnership 10 May 2016 (PDF)
- Safe in the City Partnership meeting 5 April 2016 (PDF)
- Neighbourhoods Communitites and Equalities Committee 14 March 2016 (PDF)
- Issues around Lewes Road, London Road and the Level, 26 November 2015 (PDF)
- Neighbourhoods Communitites and Equalities Committee 23 November 2015 (PDF)
- Safe in the City Partnership, 8 October 2015 (PDF)
- Homeless (Better Care) Operational Services Forum 30 September 2015 (PDF)
- Fairness Commission Update to members from Sally Polanski 28 Sept 15 (PDF)
- Local Safeguarding Children Board, 22 September 2015 (PDF)
- Homeless Integrated Care Board 15 September 2015 (PDF)
- Neighbourhoods Communitites and Equalities Committee 20 July 2015 (PDF)
- Advice Partnership Meeting 20 July 2015 (PDF)
- Strategic Housing Partnership 7 July 2015 (PDF)
- Public Health Reps update, July 2015 (PDF)
- Housing Rep report, April 2015 (PDF)
- Older People's Rep report, April 2015 (PDF)
- Brighton and Hove Connected, 17 March 2015 (PDF)
- Safe in the City Partnership Meeting 16 March 2015 (PDF)
- Childrens Committee, 9 March 2015 (PDF)
- Advice Partnership, 25 February 2015 (PDF)
- Update on SEND Review (including joint Children's Committee and Health and Wellbeing Board, 3 February 2015) (PDF)
- Housing Rep Feedback Report February 2015 (PDF)
- Integrated Homeless Board, 27 January 2015 (PDF)
- Brighton and Hove Connected, 16 December 2014 (PDF)
- Safe in the City Partnership Board, 16 December 2014 (PDF)
- Older People's Council, 16 December 2014 (PDF)


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SOURCE: TiVo
May 30, 2012 16:01 ET
-- Grew total subscriptions year-over-year by 524,000 subscriptions; doubled year-over-year growth rate from the fourth quarter
-- Service & Technology revenue was $54.5 million, up 40% year-over-year
-- Posted Adjusted EBITDA loss of $10 million; significant improvement over last year when excluding the one time impact of the past damages from the DISH Network settlement
-- Reported net loss of $20.8 million
-- Comcast's XFINITY® On Demand through TiVo now available in the San Francisco Bay Area; additional markets to roll out this summer
-- TiVo's TV Everywhere efforts take significant step forward through the upcoming launch of TiVo Stream and with TiVo's TV Everywhere web portal for operators expected to initially launch with RCN
-- Grew total subscriptions year-over-year by 524,000 subscriptions; doubled year-over-year growth rate from the fourth quarter
-- Service & Technology revenue was $54.5 million, up 40% year-over-year
-- Posted Adjusted EBITDA loss of $10 million; significant improvement over last year when excluding the one time impact of the past damages from the DISH Network settlement
-- Reported net loss of $20.8 million
-- Comcast's XFINITY® On Demand through TiVo now available in the San Francisco Bay Area; additional markets to roll out this summer
-- TiVo's TV Everywhere efforts take significant step forward through the upcoming launch of TiVo Stream and with TiVo's TV Everywhere web portal for operators expected to initially launch with RCN
ALVISO, CA--(Marketwire - May 30, 2012) - TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), for consumers, television service providers and consumer electronics manufacturers, today reported financial results for the first quarter fiscal 2013 ended April 30, 2012.
Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo, said, "Our first quarter represented a solid start to the year for TiVo with our results in line with our financial outlook and as we continued to execute on our key objectives. Global adoption of TiVo progressed as we grew our subscription base 27% year-over-year, or by 524,000 subscriptions. Further, we delivered 40% year-over-year service and technology revenue growth, made considerable progress in our efforts to protect our intellectual property and continued to innovate announcing a number of products related to the TV Everywhere experience."
For the first quarter, service and technology revenues were $54.5 million, an increase of 40% year-over-year. This was in line with guidance and compared to $38.8 million for the same quarter in fiscal 2012. TiVo reported a net loss of $20.8 million, compared to net income of $139.0 million in the same quarter in fiscal 2012, which included one-time past damages from the DISH Network settlement of $175.7 million and related interest income. Net loss per share this quarter was $0.17. Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA loss was $10.0 million, and compared very favorably to first quarter fiscal 2012 Adjusted EBITDA loss excluding the $175.7 million in litigation proceeds from the DISH Network settlement that related to damages from prior periods. Total subscriptions grew by 524,000 or 27% year-over-year to approximately 2.5 million subscriptions and we currently expect subscription growth rates to accelerate as fiscal 2013 progresses.
Rogers continued, "We are experiencing these subscription increases because cable operators are demanding a product that can tame an increasingly chaotic array of content choices. We believe TiVo provides the best solution for searching and organizing this complex world of video content. And through our ability to seamlessly bring together live and recorded television, video on-demand, and over-the-top content via broadband and integrate all of it into a simple, easy-to-use approach is unmatched in the market today. Our elegant user interface brings that content to the consumer and increasingly across multiple screens, meeting a key need for consumers and the operator community that increasingly understand the importance of what we offer.
"Our differentiation and innovation have given us a leadership position in providing an advanced television solution to operators. We are constantly pushing ourselves to deliver the very best television experience, and this quarter we announced some critical additions to our growing suite of products.
"First, TiVo Stream, our latest offering will easily deliver all the content available on TiVo Premiere to second screens such as iPads and iPhones. This product fills a real hole in the marketplace. The best indication of which programs people most care about are those they record and yet to date the cable industry has had no way to get recorded programs to the tablet, which has become an increasingly important viewing device. TiVo now solves for that.
"Second, we announced a thin IP set-top box that helps cable operators make available the TiVo interface across all the televisions in a customer's home, and does so in a very cost-effective way that is highly responsive to a cable operator's desire to come up with advanced TV plans that involve lower capex investment. This new set-top box gives consumers access to live and recorded TV, operator VOD in most cases, plus broadband-delivered content on every TV in the house -- in the same way as with a set-top box with a hard drive.
"In addition, we will be launching our TV Everywhere web portal for operators in the near future, beginning with RCN, that will enable them to offer content both in and out of the home on the iPad, on a computer or connected device. This will allow the operator to make sure there is a common interface and thus a common experience across all the devices a consumer may want to use to access their TV content. In so doing, it makes television that much easier and simpler for the subscriber because there is no need to learn a new interface and customer experience every time you pick up a different device.
"This continued innovation has led to the recognition by many operators to view TiVo as the clear leader in this rapidly evolving television landscape. Operators are currently deploying the TiVo offering in aggregate to an increasing number of customers and seeing improving customer satisfaction and more video on-demand usage because of our advanced television solutions. As these relationships are still nascent in terms of the distribution, we are excited about the potential as they reach full distribution. While we have completed deals with operators that have a footprint of approximately 10 million subscribers, excluding DIRECTV and Comcast, the fact is we have less than 10% of this amount penetrated. We believe this provides tremendous opportunity in the coming quarters and years. This success is contributing to a strong level of discussions with operators who are looking to make decisions on deploying advanced television technology in the near term.
"Virgin Media continues to be a wonderful example of how strategically important our product has been in bolstering pay-TV offerings. Virgin Media recently reported it added another 242,000 TiVo subscribers, bringing the total to 677,000, or 18% of its entire base in just over a year's time. Virgin Media is growing its pay-TV subscriber base faster than its key competitors, which is a significant reversal in trends and remarkable given the tough economy in the United Kingdom. We believe this is evidence that TiVo is fueling a substantially improved competitive position for Virgin Media.
"Beyond Virgin Media, we continue to produce very good results from our other operator relationships. Both ONO and Grande doubled the number of TiVo subscribers since last quarter; RCN and Suddenlink continue to contribute to our momentum; and DIRECTV is now live nationwide. Additionally, we continue to work closely with Charter to get broader distribution of our product beyond the Dallas Forth Worth market as well as integration with future platforms.
"Our Comcast offering, which enables access to its XFINITY® On Demand content on TiVo Premiere, is now live in the San Francisco Bay Area with marketing just getting underway. This is the first and only offering in the country that brings together linear television, operator video on-demand and key over-the-top services, such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Amazon, in a one-stop-shop approach, using TiVo's user interface. We also expect to launch this product in additional markets this summer.
"Regarding our recent deal with Pace, last week at the Cable Show we unveiled our first offering that ports the TiVo user experience onto the Pace set-top box. The TiVo-Pace XG1 set-top box is a six-tuner gateway. Very importantly for operators, the features of the new TiVo-Pace XG1 will enable them to utilize TiVo's whole-home capabilities which include support for both traditional set-top as well as IP clients, while also embracing TiVo's mobile and tablet applications. We feel this will be a real potential accelerant for deployment of TiVo.
"On the intellectual property front, our efforts to protect our innovation continued with a favorable claim construction ruling in our Verizon litigation rendered in March, and the scheduling of a trial date in the fall. We also responded to the Motorola suit against TiVo by asserting three patents, including our Time Warp patent, in our amended counterclaims against Motorola. As part of this action we also asserted these same three patents against Time Warner Cable as a counterclaim defendant. It is estimated that Motorola has shipped well over 10 million DVRs to cable operators in North America to date, which we believe have been infringing our patents. We look forward to driving these cases towards resolution.
Rogers concluded, "We continue to build momentum in many elements of our business. Our current deals are leading to significant subscription growth, we continue to innovate in advanced television as highlighted by our recent product announcements, and our efforts to protect our intellectual property are progressing well. We believe this, along with our on-going efforts to drive more efficiencies in our operations, places TiVo in an enviable position with strong prospects as we aim to continue to grow our top line and drive towards Adjusted EBITDA profitability in the future."
Management Provides Financial Guidance
For the second quarter of fiscal 2013, TiVo anticipates service and technology revenues in the range of $53 million to $55 million. TiVo anticipates net loss to be in the range of $28 million to $30 million and an Adjusted EBITDA loss to be in the range of $16 million to $18 million. Substantial sequential percentage increases in litigation costs and larger sales & marketing spend to promote the Comcast offering in the San Francisco Bay Area and other markets are expected to impact net loss and Adjusted EBITDA loss in the second quarter.
Further, consistent with our view from the fourth quarter fiscal year 2012 earnings report, we still expect to significantly advance towards our aim of approaching breakeven Adjusted EBITDA excluding litigation spend for the full year fiscal 2013. We expect sequential quarterly increases in MSO revenue throughout the remainder of the year driven by successful deployments with our existing customers, and cost structure improvements, specifically around research & development, where we expect to spend $5 million to $10 million less in the back half the year as compared to the first half of the year due to the launch of several of our products including TiVo Stream and the TiVo IP set-top box and the completion of our common code base efforts, which is intended to make future deployments quicker and faster. Additionally, we anticipate increased legal spend in the back half of the year due to the Verizon trial and our recently instituted actions with Motorola and Time Warner. However, we still expect lower litigation spend in fiscal year 2013 versus the prior year.
This financial guidance is based on information available to management as of May 30, 2012. TiVo expressly disclaims any duty to update this guidance.
Management's guidance includes Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure as defined in Regulation G. TiVo has provided a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss) in the attached schedules solely for the purpose of complying with Regulation G and not as an indication that EBITDA or Adjusted EBITDA is a substitute measure for net income (loss).
Conference Call and Webcast
TiVo will host a conference call and Webcast to discuss the first quarter financial and operating results and guidance outlook at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET), today, May 30, 2012. To listen to the discussion, please visit http://www.tivo.com/ir and click on the link provided for the Webcast or dial (877) 618-4505 (conference ID number is 80099575). The Webcast will be archived and available through June 6, 2012 at http://www.tivo.com/ir or by calling (404) 537-3406; and entering the conference ID number 80099575.
About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.tivo.com and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite, and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo's intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry.
TiVo and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2012 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, TiVo's future business and growth strategies including future subscription growth with TiVo's MSO customers, the timing of future TiVo product roll-outs and availability of particular products in the future with customers such as Comcast, DIRECTV, ONO, Charter, RCN, Pace, and Grande Communications among others, TiVo's ability to leverage its research and development in the future between customers and MSO and retail markets, the future strength and value of TiVo's intellectual property portfolio, future litigation costs related to TiVo's intellectual property litigation, future sales and marketing expenses, TiVo's ability to approach breakeven Adjusted EBITDA excluding litigation spend for the full year fiscal 2013, future reductions in TiVo research and development costs, and future increases in TiVo's MSO revenues. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "intend," "estimate," "continue," or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include delays in development, competitive service offerings and lack of market acceptance, as well as the other potential factors described under "Risk Factors" in the Company's public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2012 and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Results. TiVo's "EBITDA" means income before interest income and expense, provision for income taxes and depreciation and amortization. TiVo's "Adjusted EBITDA" is EBITDA less expense for stock-based compensation. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not measures of financial performance under generally accepted accounting principles, which we refer to as GAAP. We have presented EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA solely as supplemental disclosure because we believe they allow for a more complete analysis of our results of operations and we believe that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are useful to investors because EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are commonly used to analyze companies on the basis of operating performance. In addition, because of the variety of equity awards used by companies, the varying methodologies for determining stock-based compensation expense, and the subjective assumptions involved in those determinations, we believe excluding stock-based compensation enhances the ability of management and investors evaluate our operating performance over multiple periods. Management does not use EBITDA or Adjusted EBITDA as a measure of liquidity because, among other things, they do not exclude the impact of deferred revenues associated with the amortization of product lifetime subscriptions. We do not use stock-based compensation expense in our internal measures. A limitation associated with these non-GAAP measures is that they do not include any stock-based compensation expense related to hiring, retaining, and incentivizing the Company's workforce. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not intended to represent, and should not be considered more meaningful than, or as an alternative to, measures of operating performance as determined in accordance with GAAP.
Subscriptions. Management reviews this metric, and believes it may be useful to investors, in order to evaluate our relative position in the marketplace and to forecast future potential service revenues. The TiVo-Owned lines refer to subscriptions sold directly or indirectly by TiVo to consumers who have TiVo-enabled DVRs and for which TiVo incurs acquisition costs. The MSOs lines refer to subscriptions sold to consumers by multiple system operators and broadcasters such as DIRECTV, Cablevision Mexico, Seven/Hybrid TV (Australia), Television New Zealand (TVNZ) (New Zealand), Virgin Media (United Kingdom), RCN, Grande, and Suddenlink, among others, and for which TiVo expects to incur little or no acquisition costs. Additionally, we provide a breakdown of the percent of TiVo-Owned subscriptions for which consumers pay recurring fees, including on a monthly and a prepaid one, two, or three year basis, as opposed to a one-time prepaid product lifetime fee.
We define a "subscription" as a contract referencing a TiVo-enabled DVR for which (i) a consumer has committed to pay for the TiVo service and (ii) service is not canceled. We count product lifetime subscriptions in our subscription base until both of the following conditions are met: (i) the period we use to recognize product lifetime subscription revenues ends; and (ii) the related DVR has not made contact to the TiVo service within the prior six month period. Product lifetime subscriptions past this period which have not called into the TiVo service for six months are not counted in this total. Prior to November 1, 2011 we amortized all product lifetime subscriptions over a 60 month period. Effective November 1, 2011, we have extended the period we use to recognize product lifetime subscription revenues from 60 months to 66 months for product lifetime subscriptions where we have not recognized all of the related deferred revenue as of the reassessment date. We are not aware of any uniform standards for defining subscriptions and caution that our presentation may not be consistent with that of other companies. Additionally, the subscription fees that our MSOs pay us are typically based upon a specific contractual definition of a subscriber or subscription which may not be consistent with how we define a subscription for our reporting purposes nor be representative of how such subscription fees are calculated and paid to us by our MSOs. Our MSOs subscription data is based in part on reporting from our third-party MSO partners.
TiVo-Owned Churn Rate per Month. Management reviews this metric, and believes it may be useful to investors, in order to evaluate our ability to retain existing TiVo-Owned subscriptions (including both monthly and product lifetime subscriptions) by providing services that are competitive in the market. Management believes factors such as service enhancements, service commitments, higher customer satisfaction, and improved customer support may improve this metric. Conversely, management believes factors such as increased competition, lack of competitive service features such as high definition television recording capabilities in our older model DVRs or access to certain digital television channels or MSO Video-on-Demand services, as well as, increased price sensitivity and installation and CableCARD™ technology limitations may cause our TiVo-Owned Churn Rate per month to increase.
We define the TiVo-Owned Churn Rate per month as the total TiVo-Owned subscription cancellations in the period divided by the Average TiVo-Owned subscriptions for the period (including both monthly and product lifetime subscriptions), which then is divided by the number of months in the period. We calculate Average TiVo-Owned subscriptions for the period by adding the average TiVo-Owned subscriptions for each month and dividing by the number of months in the period. We calculate the average TiVo-Owned subscriptions for each month by adding the beginning and ending subscriptions for the month and dividing by two. We are not aware of any uniform standards for calculating churn and caution that our presentation may not be consistent with that of other companies.
Subscription Acquisition Cost or SAC. Management reviews this metric, and believes it may be useful to investors, in order to evaluate trends in the efficiency of our marketing programs and subscription acquisition strategies. We define SAC as our total TiVo-Owned acquisition costs for a given period divided by TiVo-Owned subscription gross additions for the same period. We define total acquisition costs as sales and marketing, subscription acquisition costs less net TiVo-Owned related hardware revenues (defined as TiVo-Owned related gross hardware revenues less rebates, revenue share and market development funds paid to retailers) plus TiVo-Owned related cost of hardware revenues. The sales and marketing, subscription acquisition costs line item includes advertising expenses and promotion-related expenses directly related to subscription acquisition activities, but does not include expenses related to advertising sales. We do not include third parties' subscription gross additions, such as MSOs' gross additions with TiVo subscriptions, in our calculation of SAC because we typically incur limited or no acquisition costs for these new subscriptions, and so we also do not include MSOs' sales and marketing, subscription acquisition costs, hardware revenues, or cost of hardware revenues in our calculation of TiVo-Owned SAC. We are not aware of any uniform standards for calculating total acquisition costs or SAC and caution that our presentation may not be consistent with that of other companies.
Average Revenue Per Subscription or ARPU. Management reviews this metric, and believes it may be useful to investors, in order to evaluate the potential of our subscription base to generate revenues from a variety of sources, including service fees, advertising, and audience research measurement. You should not use ARPU as a substitute for measures of financial performance calculated in accordance with GAAP. Management believes it is useful to consider this metric excluding the costs associated with rebates, revenue share, and other payments to channel because of the discretionary and varying nature of these expenses and because management believes these expenses, which are included in hardware revenues, net, are more appropriately monitored as part of SAC. We are not aware of any uniform standards for calculating ARPU and caution that our presentation may not be consistent with that of other companies. Furthermore, ARPU for our MSOs may not be directly comparable to the service fees we may receive from these partners on a per subscription basis as the fees that our MSOs pay us may be based upon a specific contractual definition of a subscriber or subscription which may not be consistent with how we define a subscription for our reporting purposes or be representative of how such subscription fees are calculated and paid to us by our MSOs. For example, an agreement that includes contractual minimums may result in a higher than expected MSOs ARPU if such fixed minimum fee is spread over a small number of subscriptions.
We calculate ARPU per month for TiVo-Owned subscriptions by subtracting MSOs'-related service revenues (which includes MSOs' subscription service revenues and MSOs'-related advertising revenues) from our total reported net service revenues and dividing the result by the number of months in the period. We then divide by Average TiVo-Owned subscriptions for the period, calculated as described above for churn rate. The above table shows this calculation.
We calculate ARPU per month for MSOs' subscriptions by first subtracting TiVo-Owned-related service revenues (which includes TiVo-Owned subscription service revenues and TiVo-Owned related advertising revenues) from our total reported service revenues. Then we divide average revenues per month for MSOs'-related service revenues by the average MSOs' subscriptions for the period. The above table shows this calculation.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Businesses based in central London lose about 50,000 working days and £37m a year because of slow internet, a new report has suggested.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) analysed more than 400,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their broadband capabilities, finding that many were being hindered by issues with their Internet connection.
Surprisingly, tech companies based around London's Silicon Roundabout, the new technology heart of the city in east London, have been among the most affected.
"The fact that central London has the highest concentration of SMEs suffering from low broadband speeds has implications for productivity in London's economy," Colm Sheehy, senior economist at CEBR, said.
City of London based businesses reported the average broadband speed just about 11.2 Mbps, compared to the London average of 20.5 Mbps. Those based east of the City, near the Silicon Roundabout, have reported even worse figures, which may come as a surprise as this area of east London in known as a technology hub, a frequent base of start-ups developing new digital technology applications.
"Our new technology start-up has faced many business challenges since launching but we never thought broadband would be one of them," said Paul Dolman-Darrall, founder of Gamevy, a gaming consultancy based in east London that creates playable quiz shows.
"Despite residing in an office on the edge of EC1, a mere two minutes from the City of London, we were unable to get fibre-optic broadband. As a company of 10 people requiring heavy data usage this was absolutely ludicrous."
But the trend is not confined to London. A recent report by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) suggested that due to its below-average internet speed, the UK's broadband was not "fit for purpose".
CEBR's report found that 50,400 days were wasted by businesses in London waiting for installation of broadband, time that cost enterprises more than £37m.
London is working to become a greater hub during the technology boom, with the capital hosting its first Technology Week earlier this year, which was launched by Mayor Boris Johnson, and something that he described as wanting to be "bigger than Fashion Week" in the long-term.
Deputy mayor Kit Malthouse has also previously described the technology sector as "central" to future economic policy.


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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
When will the post office die?
U.S. Postal Service ad: 1979. Story: yesterday.
Okay, maybe less a story and more a gripe. In line to weigh a few letters and send out some metered mail when the clerk, cashier, postal officer (what do they call them again?) says they *probably* shouldn't accept the metered items. Cue Walken in True Romance to Hopper: Come again? "Yes, see, it's dated more than two days ago, technically we can't take this."
Explain, please.
"All mail that's run through a meter has to be sent within two days of the date stamped."
Forget MTLB customer logic that since I paid for it, I can send it whenever I want. I explain that this is one of many batches of mail that have been already sent over the last month IN THIS SAME POST OFFICE with no problem, and well beyond their two-day limit—that I'm now just learning about. "Well, we can send it this time."
(I didn't yell, but you want to, ammirite?) This is also going on while the lady next to me isn't getting the discount she read about on the Postal Service website for something she was sending. (Maybe there was a "Send shit free" day email blast that I missed?) Anyway, *her* helpful agent then counters with:
"The internet is wrong. Don't come in here and be mad at us."
It sounded less bitchy than it reads, but it seemed to sum up the disconnect they have with technology in 2010. In a perfect world, all aspects of a business are linked. Even if they may not be aware of a specific promotion, the pleasant, helpful staff can still look stuff up online and verify, see?
The week before, I'm in there and four dudes who look like they haven't seen the better part of a salad bar like, ever, are hanging out behind the counter talking about a post-work function they're going to. Perception that this is an agency staffed by people who know they can't be fired? Check!
When I look at that ad, it's as obsolete. Forget the extra $20, mom and dad transfer funds into their kid's bank account now. Get the zip code right? You mean check and see if they're on chat. Donate space to a government agency in a magazine for commercial purposes? Talk about a bailout.
Nowhere in that equation does the U.S. Postal service factor in. (Care packages, maybe.)
I suppose they're not going anywhere though, considering Ben Kunz's point that they still move a shitload of mail every day for a nominal fee. Even then, is that mail still relevant in a society coming to terms with adopting electronic billing? And when Uncle Sam has your back as one of the few services actually mandated in the Constitution, you'd probably feel untouchable too.
Which means until Saturday delivery cuts actually happen, my boys behind the counter can keep ordering all the pizzas they like. Why not, we're paying for them.
2 comments:
- Ben Kunz said...
You are right that USPS has problems with customer service.
Two important points, though:
1. Not all companies focus on customer service; companies with low costs (USPS, Walmart) often focus on *operational excellence,* which requires military-type efficiency to drive down prices. Complain all you want, but then you expect a 44-cent stamp to send mail across the United States, just as you expect cheap camping gear at Walmart. Customer service costs money; if companies are held to compete on operations and low prices, then service will be substandard.
2. USPS has exactly the opposite of a gravy train from the government. It is the only government agency required to be self-funding; it cannot raise its prices beyond the cost of inflation, which is why stamps always go up in little penny increments; and it cannot reduce service to unprofitable areas. This is unheard of in any business (do you, Bill, continue to work with unprofitable clients?), yet USPS has its hands tied. Rather than complain about its service, perhaps you'd invite them to actually have the ability to compete like a real business, manage its prices, and reduce its low-profit centers. Of course, this means your Aunt Millie in Alaska won't be getting letters from you for 44 cents, but that's what it will take.
(End counter-rant ;) )
- mtlb said...
Maybe we've become poisoned by the expectation of good customer service from other industries that we expect it from everyone.
I don't say gravy train per se, but there is a sense of entitlement by employees viewing themselves as untouchable/unfireable.
But they do compete now by offering overnite services. Next step for FedEx et al. would be to start offering mail delivery.


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CLARK — Students and graduates of Mother Seton Regional High School in Clark have volunteered a week of their time at Camp Fatima of New Jersey and they have been doing this for 18 years. Each summer approximately 30 students and alumnae from Mother Seton Regional have experienced the "Fatimagic!" in one of two week-long overnight sessions for campers ages 5 through 19.
Students from Mother Seton have served on many camp staffs and continue to return to camp year after year to be part of this incredible experience where staff members come away with far more than anything they could have ever expected! Many have served 10, 15 or 18 years. Fatima is a magical place; each summer a different theme is chosen. This summer during the first week Scooby-Doo, 60 campers, 9 adult campers and staff traveled around the world! Each camper had his or her own passport and enjoyed endless hours of fun!
Sister Jacquelyn Balasia, assistant principal and an alumna of the school, has volunteered for the past 18 summers and served on the Board of Directors for 10 years. "When I see the love and care given to our campers, I am truly touched and blessed to be a part of this magic. The campers have such a wonderful week of fun in the sun, in arts and crafts and in hosts of other activities. To see the joy on the faces of the campers touches the hearts of all involved. I am so proud of our Mother Seton volunteers and each year I continue to encourage more girls to give this week of service."
Many Mother Seton Regional alumnae have gone on to major in special education. According to Justine Enriquez '12 of Iselin, a first time volunteer, "Camp Fatima cannot be explained; it must be experienced. I loved it and want to go back for years to come. It is such a good feeling knowing you are doing your job and seeing campers having the time of their lives!"
Kaity Cruz'12 of Bloomfield, another volunteer, shared that "many volunteers go home in tears because it is so powerful. There is nowhere else where the campers can be as free to be who they are. My favorite part was after each meal when everyone sings camp songs and all the campers are so happy."
Camp Fatima is New Jersey's only all-volunteer camp for children with developmental disabilities. The program is free to campers. Each camper is assigned his or her own counselor who provides 24 hour a day individualized care, with the help of a team of registered nurses, lifeguards, counselor support and administrators, as well kitchen, arts and crafts, sense room and activities staffs. All work together to provide a very supportive atmosphere for both the campers and the volunteers. For more information on Camp Fatima, visit campfatimanj.org; volunteers need to be at least 16 years old.
Part of the kitchen staff who serve 3 meals a day to 240 people many with special diets: Angela Parente, '10, Justine Enriquez, '12, Tatiana Fech, '09, Kaity Cruz, '12 (Photo courtesy of Mother Seton Regional High School)
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You Can't Detect What You Can't See: Illuminating the Entire Kill Chain
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Clearly, companies shouldn't migrate to Windows 7 merely because Microsoft has introduced a new product. Instead, firms should upgrade with a schedule that suits them best, making sure that the all-important, carefully considered migration plan is in place before making their move. Before migrating, firms must deal with issues like application compatibility, decide whether to do PC refreshes or in-place upgrades, and weigh the implications of what's expected to be an OS in use throughout much of this decade.
The true value of making this plan, really, is that migrating to Windows 7 offers an opportunity to not just upgrade an OS but to fully reconsider the enterprise infrastructure. Ideally, the Windows 7 upgrade is a chance not just to make it different, but to make it better. Upgrading to Windows 7 is an opportunity to re-envision the software stack, clean the kinks from the old system, and set up a new system that works with a higher degree of reliability and manageability.
Upgrading to a new OS is an opportunity to rethink your enterprise infrastructure.
In the best case, companies will leverage a number of third party solutions that build on Windows 7. These include security solutions like antivirus and antimalware software that interoperate with Windows 7's improved security features. Similarly, though Windows 7 clearly has integrated backup capabilities, plenty of third party backup solutions may appeal to businesses of various sizes for cost and feature-set considerations.
Windows 7 is more of an evolution than a revolution. While Vista introduced a new kernel and a new interface, Windows 7 builds on user feedback and offers a polished system that provides some clear steps forward to offer companies value. Like Windows XP, which Windows 7 will eventually replace as the dominant desktop, Windows 7 improves on a working formula.
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Here's a great routine to get you started towards your goal of being a fit and healthy parent. For those new mums who are starting to exercise after delivery of your baby it is essential that you get the all clear from your doctor or health care professional before commencing any physical activity or exercise program.
If you had a caesarian birth or any complications, your recovery may take longer. Be patient and don't expect your tolerance to be the same as for other new mothers.
Don't forget your pelvic floor either. It's important to focus on the inner muscles first, before concentrating on a general fitness program.
The number of exercises (or repetitions) that you can do will vary depending on your level of fitness and how long since your baby was born. Start slowly and aim to build up to a full routine like the one below after about a month or so. Work at your own pace and remember, it's important to build up gradually and not go too hard or too fast. Take regular water breaks to stay hydrated and enjoy the outdoors with your baby.
Ideally, walk to your exercise destination if it's not too far, if not start out with 2-3 laps of your local oval or park. The pace will depend on your current level of fitness but it must be a little quicker than a casual stroll. You are aiming to get your heart rate up higher than normal. Finish the warm-up near a seat or bench; if there are none around a nice flat area of grass will do.
Squats (3×15 repetitions)
Push-Ups (3×10 repetitions)
Cat stretch (3×10 repetitions)
Sit-Ups (3×10 repetitions)
Walk a couple of laps of the oval to complete a 25-30 minute workout.
Finish with some stretches like calf stretch, hamstring (back of thigh) and quadriceps (front of thigh).
For more information see Women's fitness or Parenting .


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It's no small feat winning over the collective comics crowd, but if there's one team up to the challenge, it's "Umbrella Academy" writer (and My Chemical Romance frontman) Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba.
With the critical and commercial success of "The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite" under its belt, the Eisner-winning collaborators continue with "The Umbrella Academy: Dallas," which hits stores this week through Dark Horse Comics. Bearing fan expectations in mind, the duo spoke confidently of their vision for the future of "The Umbrella Academy" -- both in terms of the comic series as well as the fast-tracked "Umbrella Academy" feature film.
"We really truly hadn't anticipated ['Apocalypse Suite'] to be so well-received and get so much attention," said Way, "So that obviously kind of raised the stakes, [and] not in a negative way. If anything, it's forced us to go even further to not pay attention to what people think about it or what they're going to think about it."
His collaborator Ba agreed, and thinks fans have been quick to realize that the platinum-selling artist is one of their own (which shouldn't come as a surprise, considering Way attended art school and interned at DC Comics before starting MCR). "I think that we have overcome the initial point of 'Gerard is a musician writing a comic' and all the attention that got us, both good and bad, and now we just have to focus on doing the best we can on the following series," said Ba.
"Dallas" opens to a familiar sight. "Are we really fighting another monument?!" shouts a ten-year-old Kraken as he and his super-powered siblings engage a giant, fire-breathing Lincoln Monument. Once again Ba's economic line balances form with function, adding stylish gravitas to Way's quirky, cinematic dialogue. It's like a Wes Anderson movie penned by a feverish Grant Morrison.
"Every single issue is taking some kind of very big risk, and that's been amazing," said Way.
But "Dallas" isn't the only project expanding the "UA" mythos. With the "Umbrella Academy" movie green-lit for production through Universal, Way's been busy navigating Hollywood for the right talent to ensure a faithful-yet-fresh film.
"They want me really involved, which is flattering," said Way. "So I'm going to be as involved as I can, while at the same time relinquishing control of the stuff. I'd like to be available to them but at the end of the day I'm not going to tell them how to do their job."
As involved as Way is though, there is one thing he won't be doing and that's penning the script, especially with writers like Diablo Cody ("Juno") popping up as potential candidates.
"I'm definitely going to turn it over to a screenwriter. I even got Final Draft so I can figure out what they do," said Way, "The craft of actually writing the screenplay as far as the pacing, that's something that's alien to me."
Way says he wants an entertaining script with action, but most importantly it needs to feel like, "a quirky art-house film."
Busy at the drawing board, Ba hasn't involved himself with the movie just yet, but has high hopes for a future "Umbrella" onscreen adaptation as well as for comics themselves. "I'd like [the film] to be a great experience for the public who doesn't even know it was a comic book," Ba exclaimed. "And I'd love to get everyone who sees the movie into the stores to buy comics."
What do you think so far, "Umbrella" fans? Looking forward to seeing what comes next? Talk to us in the comments.


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I'm going to write something here that might very well get four harmless Cal Poly students in trouble and cost them some cash.
Connor Paquin, Joi Sullivan, Jake Rogers and Will Blumhardt are running for ASI president. (ASI, short for Associated Students Inc., is the organization on campus that provides a range of educational and recreational services and is home to student government.)
According to the ASI Election Code, merely writing that announcement constitutes premature campaigning on their part and puts them in violation of The Rules, which leaves them at risk of punishments ranging from a warning to a $100 fine to outright disqualification from the race.
If this sounds completely stupid to you, join the crowd.
The election policy is intended to level the playing field and prevent anyone from getting a jump on his or her competitors, a point ASI folks made repeatedly to Mustang News, Cal Poly's student news organization. Candidates had until Feb. 28 to file for the race, but no one is allowed to begin "actively campaigning" until April 13, just 10 days before the vote.
"Active campaigning," according to the ASI Election Code, "is defined as a nonverbal public display or distribution of specific information (physical or electronic) about any ASI candidate."
So written communication is restricted to that 10-day window. But running around stumping on campus or speaking to clubs all year long is perfectly OK. How one is active and the other not is beyond me.
Here's where it gets weirder, however.
As it is being enforced by ASI's 10-member Recruitment and Development Committee, the policy applies not only to self-promotion, but any written mention of so-and-so's name with a phrase like "candidate for ASI president."
As a result, on campus over the last week, the policy has erupted into a cascading comedy of ridiculousness, starting when Mustang News wrote a story introducing some of the newly filed candidates, a couple of whom were then fined for getting mentioned by the press.
Mustang News then reported on the fines, and the candidates were held in violation again.
Then students started jumping in on social media and comment pages, and you can see where this is going. Now all four are in some form of violation. That's how fast this policy went from bad to worse to certifiably asinine, careening over the edge in a furious display of student bureaucratic overzealousness.
The policy is not new. Last year, Mustang News published the names ahead of the "active campaigning" period as well, said Sean McMinn, Mustang Media Group editor, but the policy apparently was not enforced as it has been this time around.
ASI obviously has its heart in the right place in attempting to create a fair arena for competition, and apparently similar kinds of limits are common on college campuses, but this is not the way to do it.
Going beyond that and holding individual candidates financially responsible for the legitimate news-gathering and information-sharing duties of the media becomes nearly impossible to fathom.
It is not these students' fault that someone may choose to write about them. You must separate the world they can control from the world they can't.
Once they have formally filed and their names are on record, the issue of their candidacy should be fair game. (Actually, in the real world, they would be fair game at any point.)
Perhaps Cal Poly's student government is right to limit the "active" period a bit leading up to the vote. The university needs only so many days of campaign posters littering the campus, after all, and I'm wondering if it's not that issue that's more the driver here than media coverage.
It's also clear the policy should be revised to focus more on the true potential unfairness problem, which is students actively lobbying for votes — by whatever method — far ahead of the election.
Setting such parameters should not be difficult, and they should absolutely exclude cases in which the media is reaching out to candidates.
Basically, more discretion and sensibility is needed on behalf of ASI. Social media must be more thoughtfully accounted for, in all its vast, unruly beauty. And any punishments must be more carefully applied so that The Rule can achieve reasonable intentions without globally infringing on the rights of others.
Finally, to ASI, despite my statement above, please don't slap any further sanctions on these students.
I don't know them, I haven't talked to them, and I don't care who wins.
The only "active campaigning" at work here is me trying to write some words to get you to fix a silly policy.
ASI's Recruitment and Development Committee's next meeting is slated for today. Here's hoping they loosen their interpretation of the Election Code to reflect more reasonable thinking.
Joe Tarica is the presentation editor for The Tribune. Reach him at email@example.com or on Twitter @joetarica.