Freelancing under the microscope

The All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group (APPSBG) is currently holding a public consultation to aid their investigation into the UK freelance industry.

They invite comment from all freelancers and those who hire them, via their website and at a public hearing in London on 11th June, and plan to include issues such as IR35 and opportunities in Europe.

While initiatives that aim to examine the needs and difficulties of freelance working are to be encouraged, the lack of structure within the online consultation process could prove to hamper the development of a really meaningful dialogue on the issue.

Co-incidentally, it was just last week that the freelance/client matchmaking site Guru announced it would be closing at the end of June. Wired News laments the passing of the mainly US resource as another blow for freelancers looking for work.

In the UK, there's much doubt in the freelance community of the value of these kinds of sites where jobs often go to the lowest bidder, no matter their experience.

Freelance writer Neil Bromage said he used to look for projects at smarterwork, a UK matchmaking site, but found it decreasingly worthwhile.

"The problem is that the site became populated by people willing to work for peanuts. As I'm no monkey I just stopped even looking at the postings. Haven't checked the site for probably 2 years now", he said.

Mobile traffic revenue - just for mobile providers?

New Media Age reports on the next battle for mobile content providers - gaining a share of the revenue gathered by the phone companies.

An increasingly large volume of SMS traffic is being generated via promotions and content supplied by publishers and consumer brands, but currently the revenue this generates is staying with the mobile networks.

Pressure to agree to revenue-sharing on mobile traffic is beginning to mount against mobile networks. Industry commentators see this pressure, particularly from major media and sports providers, leading to agreements giving content owners the cut they're owed.

Odd Content: site of the week - Mastercare Nightmare

Marie Griffiths has a problem and she wants to tell the world.

As reported by The Register, Marie, a disgruntled customer of Curry's and Dixons Store Group, wants to share her experience with other consumers.

After getting the run-around from DSG and warranty service provider Mastercare following problems with her newly purchased TV, Marie has created a blog about the experience. She includes a running total showing how much money potential customers have decided not to spend with DSG after reading about Marie's poor treatment.

Marie has received messages of support from around the world, and estimates the current tally at GBP£220,000 in lost customer revenue by DSG.

So determined is Marie to spread the word that she's even bought keywords 'Mastercare' and 'Dixons' on Google to ensure any searches on these companies will highlight her site.

Let's see if the power of online content forces a commercial giant to sit up and take notice.

New metadata standard

The UK government has released the latest version of their e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS), setting out the official line on management of information online.

Reported in e-govmonitor weekly, this new version is the first update to the original guidelines published in April 2002.

The e-GMS is designed to make it easier for readers to find relevant government information online, and adherence to the new standards is mandatory for all government websites.

The Office of the e-Envoy said the new e-GMS will "better meet the information retrieval and management needs of the consumers and of government, enabling eGovernment services to be designed around the needs of citizens."

We hope that government web teams will also recognise that while making the information easier to find is important, it's vital that resources are also spent on making content more reader-friendly.

Swapping readership - UK readers turned to US news during war

According to a report from newmediazero, UK news-junkies turned to US sites to get information on the Iraq conflict.

During the war US news sites performed highly with cnn.com enjoying "a 96% increase in [UK] users to 912,603 a month. Similarly, news.google.com saw a rise of 79% to [UK] 422,418 monthly users", the article said.

UK sites also did well, with BBC News the most accessed with March readership at 4,023,977 - up by 29%.

Many web analysts reported on the trend for US readers to favour UK websites for information gathering during the war, with readers preferring the more open style of the UK media. So it seems there's been somewhat of a swap in transatlantic readership. Reports from Nielsen//NetRatings show the increases from both sides of the pond:

• Britons turn to the web for war coverage online
  
• CNN.com audience doubles as Europeans look overseas for Iraq War coverage
  
• American web surfers boost traffic to foreign news sites

Independent offers content via micropayments and subscription

As reported by Rafat Ali at paidContent.org this week, UK newspaper the Independent has launched an online micropayments and subscription service called Independent Portfolio.

In the article, Rafat describes the move as "the most comprehensive such effort yet by a British newspaper (not counting the more global FT.com)" and calls it a "bold move for an industry that can only be characterized as scared".

Rafat interviews Independent Digital's managing director Richard Withey who discusses the reasons behind the move, pricing, traffic expectations and why they've gone with BT Click & Buy to handle the payments.