Victor Keegan
latest news & developmentsWho will control the future of books?
E-readers are revolutionising books, but corporate giants such as Amazon are cornering the market.
Virtual worlds: Is this where real life is heading?
The population of online communities such as <i>Second Life</i> and <i>Blue Mars</i> is now greater than that of the US and Europe combined.
Where does privacy fit in the online video revolution?
With more and more of us streaming live video of ourselves online, the meaning of the word "privacy" is undergoing a change.
Amateurs can be good and bad news
The internet often goes through bouts of soul searching, but a full-blown counter-reformation could be on the way. If so, then Andrew Keen, author of <i>The Cult of the…
The striptease of the vanities awaits us
If you were to stop someone you know and ask them to give you a list of all their friends — together with their friends’ friends, complete with their special interests — you…
It’s a new online chapter for books
Social sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo that want to run your life for you are all the rage, but this shouldn’t distract from the strong growth of networks geared to…
Deleting your stuff is all part of the service
There may no be such a thing as a free lunch in real life, but it is different on the internet where companies are falling over themselves to give you free services such as photo…
Collecting friends is the new philately
It is curious how the globalisation of people is happening much faster than the globalisation of goods. While trade talks to cut subsidies on products have been immobilised for…
Yes, GPS will be great — once it works for us
A few weeks ago a man turned up at my front door, having been guided there by a GPS satellite navigation system on his dashboard. He was a bit surprised when I told him that the…
Move aside, gadgets — the N95 is here
If 2007 is really going to be the year when the cellphone comes of age — after several false dawns — then the much-hyped Nokia N95 may prove to be a turning point in more senses…
How to be a cellphone media magnate
Rupert Murdoch, watch your step. I am coming to get you. I have just launched my own global TV station from my cellphone and laptop. So far, the total audience at any one moment…
To the average Joe, blogs aren’t cutting it
This month’s state of the blogosphere survey by Technorati, the monitoring service, was greeted as if it were the online equivalent of the president’s State of the Nation…
3D or not 3D — that is the question
The arrival of the three dimensional web — in which participants have their own on-screen avatars — is dismissed by some as a nine month wonder that will fade away once the…
A new chapter for books on the web
The web revolution that is turning whole industries from music to television upside down has been slow to reach the cosy world of books — apart, that is, from the pioneering…
Lost? Follow me in, to the social future
If you were walking recently on a beach in Puerto Rico and saw a strange web address scrawled along the sand, or if you saw balloons released from a window in Chicago with…