The Internet Service Provider's Association has an interesting take on the good, the bad and the ugly of the UK web community, and each year nominates individuals and organisations that have helped or hindered internet access, availability and usability over the past 10 months.
Its Internet Hero & Villain awards are announced at The ISPAs – an annual event that takes place in February to reward the great and good (and bad) of the industry – and the nominations have just been announced. We're guessing you'd rather hear about the potential villains first.
First up is David Cameron, the hip Tory leader who's been slated by the ISPA for "buddying up with the music industry and trying to appeal to a younger audience". You can't blame him for trying with the latter, but you can blame him for the excruciating Webcameron.
Also on the ISPA hitlist is BT Wholesale "for changing the whole engineering plan for 21CN only six months before the launch date"; HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for "highlighting bad practice in protecting data by losing computer discs containing confidential details of 25 million child benefit recipients"; and French president Nicolas Sarkozy "for his proposed new tax on internet access and mobile phone use to fund France's two public television channels".
Those worthy of praise include Facebook, for retracting the Beacon service; the Rt. Hon. Stephen Timms MP, for leading the push to increase internet access speeds, and Peter Robbins OBE QPM, for his continued leadership of the Internet Watch Foundation. More potential heroes and villains are listed here.
My bet is that HMRC will pick up the villain award (its mishandling of people's personal data on such a huge scale was surely the biggest blunder of 2007), while Facebook will pick up the Hero award (the social-networking site can do no wrong at the moment).
Who's your money on?
Comments
JP said: Oh and the ISPA are woefully misguided if they think Cameron was ever trying to buddy up to the music industry in an effort to appeal to a younger audience That clearly wasnt what it was about He did himself a dis-service there playing to the tabloid readership It seems the ISPA are in need of a new public affairs researcher who understands well public affairs
JP said: What was so excruciating about WebcameronI have my own personal opinions about Cameron but I thought Webcameron was a step in the right direction when it was launched- it offered anybody the opportunity to field and question and have it answered by Cameron as a selection of questions voted for by other site users There were opportunities for frank discussion amongst site members A video diary was kept by Camerons team- okay it was obviously going to be directed to make it appealing but it was an insight in to Camerons themes and how hed conduct himself as a statesmanUnfortunately the site is no longer what it was but what exactly was it about those points I make above that made the site excruciating Have you seen the sycophantic editorial slant that adorns the Civil Service-maintained website for 10 Downing Street