Internet Magazine, May 2004
Using the mouse, I place my chips on the roulette table and spin the wheel. A satisfying rumble emanates from my headphones as the roulette ball races around the wheel. It bounces four, five, six, seven times. "Fourteen red," a male voice says. "Player wins!"
I can almost hear the onlookers' cheers and smell the cigarette smoke as the losers around me light up, but this is one gambling hall where no one's actually here in the flesh to witness my success.
My chips are dealt out. Preferring not to lose what I've just won, I cash my chips in and close the game. "Are you sure you want to exit?" I'm asked. I decisively click the 'Yes' box. It feels like I'm stumbling out of a dimly-lit casino and heading back to the stark reality of daylight. I had fun in there, but I'm sure glad to be back in the real world.
Online gambling in its various forms is set to be worth $30 billion (16 billion [pounds sterling]) by 2005, states the 2003 Casino and Gaming Market Research Handbook. Management consultancy Schema (www.schemaonline.com) predicts that online gambling, which accounted for 1 per cent of gambling spend in 2000, will represent 10 per cent of gambling spend by 2005.
The UK gambling sector is set for a shake up in the coming months once the government's latest Gambling Bill becomes law. This will let companies that run online casinos or similar 'remote gambling' operations (such as mobile gambling) apply for UK licences for the first time, rather than having to set up shop in offshore locations. By 2005, a new Gambling Commission will be established to replace the current Gaming Board, and will act as a single regulator for all kinds of gambling. The new Commission will also be responsible for ensuring that gambling is a crime free activity.
Casino royale
Online casinos are easy and fun to play, particularly if you've got a broadband connection available. You usually have to download some mammoth sized software in order to play games like roulette, blackjack or slot machines, although some sites like PokerRoom (www.pokerroom.com) use Java applets so you won't need to download any extra bits to play. A lot of the software, like 32Red's ( www.32red-casino.co.uk) and Victor Chandler's ( www.victorchandler.com), seeks to glamorise the casino scene, as if you were immersed in a movie like Ocean's Eleven or Croupier. Opening sequences display images of women in red, the sound of muzak, and sparkly golden lights.
Online gambling doesn't have to be a solitary experience. Poker is enjoying a comeback thanks to the attraction of playing against real people on virtual card tables. In January, Ladbrokes' site www.ladbrokespoker.com released a report suggesting that 2.9 million UK adults are now interested in playing poker online.
At PokerRoom.com, most people only gamble with play money, but around 10 per cent of its 1.5 million registered users play for real cash, according to managing director Patrik Selin. That's easily enough for the site to generate a profit.
"Poker is growing like crazy," says Selin. "It's community based and you're playing against other people--that's the fun part. It's also quite fast--you can play 100 hands in one hour. It's thrilling, it's real money, and you're betting on your own cards compared to other people's."
The overwhelming majority of PokerRoom.com's clientele is American, which is no surprise--they're the most passionate poker players in the world. Sports betting and gambling on games of chance is illegal in the US, but Selin says the legality of gambling on poker is a "grey area", because it can be perceived as a strategic, skill based game rather than something essentially random.
In any case, many online gambling sites will not accept US customers because of its ambiguous gambling law, and in an attempt to stop US citizens from betting online at non-US sites, many credit card issuing banks block the cards'| use for gambling transactions.
In the UK's Department of Culture, Media and Sport's April 2003 paper on remote gambling, it acknowledged that continued prohibition of cross border gambling is "neither desirable nor practical". It reads: "Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the USA where, despite the apparent illegality of cross-border gambling, more of its citizens gamble online than anywhere else in the world."
Only 10 per cent of PokerRoom.com's customer base comes from the UK, Selin says, but hat number is doubling month by month, as is its total user base. PokerRoom.com, founded in Sweden, currently has its gambling licence and servers in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake in Canada. When the Gambling Bill becomes law, the company will look to register a gaming licence in the UK.
"From our side, it's about trust," says Selin. "If the UK government can approve our company, that will make more customers want to play with us." However, although online casinos have generally welcomed the Gambling Bill, some are still concerned that the Treasury will impose the same 15 per cent tax on gross profits that it levies on high street bookmakers.
Cool technology
Cutting-edge technology is behind many online gaming and betting sites. Safeguards are required to protect people from tumbling into debt. Cheats need to be tracked down. Then there are audit checks, underage gaming preventions and rigging to think of.
Most websites check details against a credit reference agency like Experian ( www.experian.com), or a verification system like VerifyME ( www.verifymyidentification.com). Meanwhile, companies like PricewaterhouseCoopers analyse card shuffling processes and random number generators to verify sites like LadbrokesCasino.com. When the Gambling Bill becomes law, the random number generators that underpin most online games will need to meet the requirements of the Gambling Commission and undergo ongoing testing.
To combat cheating in a multiplayer environment, PokerRoom.com logs all the hands a member has played. "A cheat's technique would involve a person having had cards and trying to raise money to help their friend who has really good cards," says Selin. "So if we see that you've folded to another person many times, it flags that up on our system."
Technology is also required to protect sites vulnerable to online extortion. Already, betting sites based in offshore locations like Gibraltar have been intimidated by hackers threatening to launch denial of service attacks against certain gambling sites unless the site operators pay up thousands of dollars. Usually, these threats are made before big sporting events such as the Superbowl or Grand National.
Problem gambling
Technology also plays its part in allowing the vulnerable to become addicted to online gambling. In January the Edinburgh Evening News reported that the number of gambling addicts in the Scottish capital had doubled in the last 12 months, with one businessman gambling away 70,000 [pounds sterling] on his company business account in two months after maxing out his personal credit cards online.
Gambling help charity Gamcare (www.gamcare.org.uk) has reported an increase in the amount of people contacting its helpline and counselling services. If you've got the ability to gamble around the clock, an inability to keep track of time spent online and a decreasing perception of the value of cash, you could be developing a problem.
There's also always the danger that children could get addicted. Responsible websites will let users limit their losses and make sure no minors are playing for money.
"The extent to which the government opens up the gambling market will largely be determined by how confident it can be that these objectives [to protect the vulnerable] will not be undermined," the UK government writes in its position paper on remote gambling. Reality checks will need to be put in place.
Gamcare works hard with websites to encourage responsible gambling use among their users. "It's possible, if someone has problems, to shut them out of the site," says Selin. "People can also protect themselves by saying, 'I can only deposit one day a month' or 'I can only deposit 100 dollars at a time'."
At Casino On Net ( www.888.com), a self eviction program is in place. Memberships can be cancelled and you can be prevented from entering the casino at your own request. These are measures taken by most popular casino sites.
Place your bets
Apart from having a regular punt on a dog or a horse, the Internet is transforming the way we bet. The real growth is coming from peer-to-peer betting exchanges, which are mirroring the revolution we're seeing in digital music--and let you play the bookmaker.
The most popular gambling site in the UK is Betfair (www.betfair.com), according to Hitwise figures. Another online betting exchange is the year old ibetx ( www.ibetx.com). Here you can back or lay (bet to lose) a selection, even if a game is in play. You can take odds another user has offered, or offer odds for others to take. The sites will take a commission from your net winnings.
The Gambling Bill specifies that betting exchanges will be licensed as 'betting intermediaries', but users will not require a licence.
Don't take our word for it--why not register at some of these sites yourself and let us know how you get on? We'd highly recommend playing for fun money when first visiting an online casino. You can keep up to date with the latest casino developments by going to www.onlinecasinonews.com or www.casinogb.com. Be lucky!
GAMBLING AND BETTING SITES
Ladbrokes Casino www.ladbrokescasino.com
You could win 31,000 [pounds sterling] on Triple Sevens Blackjack like Joel H. from Manchester!
Casino On Net www.888.com
The adverts are everywhere--especially on the London Underground, and in countless pop-ups on websites the world over. It's the most popular online gambling /entertainment site in the UK, according to online research service Hitwise. Casino On Net launched multiplayer tables way back in 1996, and it lets you chat with others gamblers playing at the same table.
Harrods Casino www.harrods-casino.com
Bring the decadent opulence of the famous department store, as enjoyed by countless American tourists, to your very own living room.
Victor Chandler Casino www.victorhandlercasino.com
If you're afraid of gambling away too much money here, lock yourself out by changing your password when your eyes are closed. It worked for someone we know.
Bet365 www.bet365.com
"I won 75 [pounds sterling] on a fiver after betting that Kerry would win I'm a Celebrity!" exclaimed one former Internet Magazine staff member, who shall remain nameless.
Littlewoods Casino www.littlewoodscasino.com
Video poker, roulette, blackjack, sports betting (via BetDirect) and 24/7 support.
William Hill Sportsbook www.willhill.com
One of the UK's most popular gambling and entertainment websites. Bet in eight languages and 11 currencies.
Daily Draw www.dailydraw.com
Play for money in exchange for 'permission-based marketing emails'. Very popular.
Bet On Markets www.betonmarkets.com
If you don't love horses and dogs aren't your thing, perhaps the lure of the stock exchange will do it for you.
Betfair www.betfair.com
Bet against other punters in this lively gambling marketplace.
32 Red www.32red.com
Probably the sexiest roulette number ever. It's even red! Download this mammoth piece of casino software and play for real or virtual money.
THE NATIONAL LOTTERY
The National Lottery is now a British institution. To maintain its integrity operator Camelot must ensure that its online offerings protect players from fraud and problem or underage gambling. Camelot was the first company to acquire full Gamcare accreditation.
But the Lottery sets itself apart from other online casinos or bookmakers. "Realistically, when you go out and talk to lottery players, they do not see the lottery as gambling" says Richard Hurd-Wood, director of interactive at Camelot Group. "They see it as a chance to have a flutter or a life changing win. Also, they know that the purpose of the National Lottery is to develop money for good causes."
Online instant win games were introduced in March last year, but online Lotto only arrived last December. "We've appealing to two groups--dabblers and impulsives who only play the lottery occasionally," says Hurd-Wood. "It's convenient. It's Lotto from your lounge. We're got a strong at-home audience, and quite a strong daytime audience of people playing during their lunch break."
Camelot is not against any relaxation of the gambling laws, but wants to ensure that levels of player protection are taken into account. The company manages the entire site in-house--third parties do develop some of the interactive games, but random number generators are all maintained by Camelot to ensure their integrity. "Players respond well to games offering familiarity, nostalgia and humour," says Hurd-Wood.
By the end of Camelot's licence period in 2009 it expects interactive channels like the Internet, digital TV and mobile phones to generate 5 per cent of sales. With a current turnover of 85 million [pounds sterling] a week, that's a lot of online fluttering!
www.national-lottery.co.uk
THE GAMBLER'S STORY
Sean Hamill is one of millions of people who occasionally have a bet or gamble online. He divides his time between Betfair and Victor Chandler Poker.
Sean spends a maximum of 50 [pounds sterling] a month on these sites and prefers online gambling over traditional methods because of its instant access (he has broadband at home). "It also offers far better odds," he says. "Betfair, for example, will generally have prices that are at least 20 per cent better than the shops. Also, if you study Betfair, you can usually spot a winner or non-trier by the amount of money that's going on it or not! People using Betfair are usually in the know."
The most he's ever won from Betfair is 200 [pounds sterling]. The site lets you bet against other players, and you can also bet for a horse NOT to win, which is much easier than picking a winner. Although these quirks are the prime attractions for some, Sean says he's drawn towards Betfair for its excellent odds.
Meanwhile, Victor Chandler Poker provides him with some real-time excitement. "You have nine people at a table and get dealt the cards. You get a 2,000 point pot to gamble with--this pot can be bought for varying costs depending on the table you wish to join," he says. "A 50p pot means the prize pool is only 4.50 [pounds sterling], but a 100 [pounds sterling] pot gives you a chance of a 900 [pounds sterling] prize pool. It's up to you how much you gamble, and you can watch other people's strategies--which I like!"
Sean has never gambled beyond his means. "I've always viewed it as a bit of fun, and I'd view a 20 [pounds sterling] bet as a big gamble! But I have seen many people get hooked by gambling at dog tracks and in betting shops," he says. "I guess that's put me off getting hooked more than anything."
Suppose you're going to launch a website for a delicatessen. You could spruce up its Web presence and make it instantly appealing by buying a few mouth watering photographs of juicy olives, rich sun dried tomatoes and fresh ham sandwiches.
Or perhaps you could feature 1920s delicatessen poster art throughout the site? It's easy to dynamically search for images online, whether you want to use them on the Web in low-resolution form, or in a high quality printed brochure. There's no need to call up a picture agency and have someone rifle through transparencies in a back room these days.
Free images There are some wonderful artists' communities on the Web, and many of their members have donated their works for free use. Make sure you read the conditions of use before downloading, though.
We like the quality of the photos at Stock.xchng ( www.sxc.hu). The site administrators manually screen all contributions from photographers for relevancy and quality (no holiday snaps of strangers' kids here!). You can use them for almost any graphics project, so long as you contact the photo's copyright owner beforehand and don't use them for any purpose that encourages hate or discrimination.
Non commercial licences for the quality pictures available at Intuitivmedia (www.im-visions.com/pro/index.php).
MorgueFile (www.morguefile.com) is a splendid repository of quality images donated by talented photographers--and you don't even have to register to download the high resolution versions. The name comes from the term used by newspapers for past reference material--so no, you won't find what you'd think you might find here.
Meanwhile, amateur travel photographers' work can be found at www.bigfoto.com. The images here are of varying quality--if you want a picture of Sydney Opera House, say, you'll sometimes get a picture of someone's girlfriend in front of it.
Other cool places are the US-based public domain collections at National Image Library ( http://images.fws.gov), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) repository at ( www.photolib.noaa.gov). One of the most popular sites for free photos is Freefoto ( www.freefoto .com). You'll find more than 100 pictures from Freefoto on your cover disk, but they must be used for non commercial purposes only. The site's founder, Ian Britton, has taken the majority of the photos, and most of them have been taken in public places, for legal reasons.
"It's easier to make sure that we abide by the law by taking all the images ourselves," says Britton. He doesn't accept contributions from outsiders because it can be difficult for the site's small team to determine their origins.
For the same reason, the site doesn't feature photographs of recognisable people. Despite its name, Freefoto is a profitable business with many visitors paying to use photos commercially. The site gets a huge amount of traffic- one million unique visitors a month, each visiting an average of 10 pages.
Rights-managed images To use a rights-managed image, you'll have to pay a fee dependent on how and where the image is used and for how long you'll be using it. Generally, these prices are negotiable and depend on who you are. For example, a charity might get an image for next to nothing, but a multi-national corporation would pay a fortune to feature an image in their brochure. Your usage of the image will be limited according to your contract and you'll probably have to pay a fee for re-use. Paying a little extra for exclusivity will also offer protection against competitors using the same image in their projects.
The world's biggest image agency is Bill Gates' company Corbis (www.corbis.com). Type in anything from 'lip balm' to 'virus' and you'll get sent back a selection of spot-on image results. Illustrations are also indexed. The other major player, Getty Images ( www.gettyimages.com), also owns a huge number of specialist collections there's a step by step walkthrough on how to search for and price a Getty image overleaf. Although the one-off prices quoted by these agencies won't surprise major publications, to the small time Web designer they can seem a bit hefty. It's little wonder that stock photography is such a lucrative business for the agencies involved.
Royalty-free images If you're a busy Web designer, you'll probably prefer to purchase a royalty-free CD (either the physical item, or a virtual 'CD' held on an image library's servers). Not only is this cheaper, but paying a one off fee licences you to use each photo on your CD as many times as you like and for different purposes. You're unlikely to find many shoddy stock photography CD compilations these days, but not long ago you could expect them to contain tons of monochrome clipart and hundreds of bog-standard photos of boring old businessmen shaking hands, along with a few decent pictures you'd actually use. Now you'll get CDs filled with special textures, tasteful backgrounds, funky photographic angles, lavish illustrations, images of exotic locations enhanced with polarised light, and so on.
Prices vary considerably expect to pay as much as 600 [pounds sterling] (or more) for one CD. Places to purchase these treats include all the major stock agencies like Corbis, Getty Images, Alamy and Digital Vision (www .digitalvisiononline.co.uk).
Many sites offer virtual CD services (VCD), which are cheaper than ordering a physical disk and instantaneous, too. Once you've purchased a VCD you'll be able to access its contents online and search it by keyword. Just make sure you've got a broadband connection.
The traditional method You can get bargains and find free pictures by scouring the images indexed by Google ( http://images .google.com) and AltaVista (http:// images.altavista.com). Email the artist and tell them what you'd like to use their image(s) for. Non commercial usage will usually be looked upon favourably, as will a link back to the owner's home page.
BLUFFER'S GUIDE
Comp/comping image:
A low-resolution image for use in dummy layouts. Most of the preview images you'll encounter at online photo libraries will include an image for your 'comps'. Traditionally, comp images are used by design agencies when they mock up a site or pitch to clients for business. Images must not be used for any other purpose before they're purchased or you'll either get a big rap on the knuckles or a hefty fine.
Model release:
All those recognisable people featured in photographs you see illustrating constipation and impotence cures should have given their permission. Make sure the model release specifications correspond to your usage purposes.
Photo objects:
Photographs without backgrounds. Useful. Rights-managed Image: An image that you're only allowed to use in particular circumstances depending on the licence purchased.
Royalty-free:
You can purchase an image or series of images (on a CD, for example) for multiple usage. Prices depend on image resolution. The lower the resolution, the less you can do with the image--and therefore, the less money you'll pay.
Vector graphics:
Illustrations that are vector-based are small in size and entirely scalable. Because they're mathematically defined by points and curves, they're easy to manipulate. Enlarging or reducing the size of an image will not affect its quality, unlike a bitmap.
Watermark:
A translucent logo embedded into an image to identify ownership. In the image library world, this helps prevent unauthorised copying before purchase.
USEFUL SITES
Alamy
Alamy's website is a joy to browse, simply because it's unhindered by superfluous pop-up windows and Flash introductions. We love the keyword searching, swift results and comparatively inexpensive quotes. Registration gives you the right to access tow resolution, non-watermarked 'comp images' to use when mocking up website designs. images are provided by 1,410 photographers and 110 worldwide agencies. www.alamy.com
British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies
BAPLA is the UK trade association representing picture libraries. Specialist agencies and large multinational organisations are represented here you'll be able to search for agencies that meet your particular needs. www.bapla.org.uk Image Source European-based, CD or online. Topics range from food animals, health, passers-by and www.imagesource.com
Magnum Iconic documentary photographs from some of the world's greats include Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eliott Erwitt, Martin Parr and Steve McCurry. www.magnumpiwtos.com
Pictures Colour Library UK-based agency specialising in images faraway places, exotic cultures and sports www.picturescolourlibrary.co.uk
FAST FACT
Did you know Corbis was founded by Bill Gates in 1989 and is still controlled by the man himself?. Although it's a private company, it may go public soon. Apart from the usual stock photo fare, Corbis has acquired a number of important historical photographs (its Bettmann Archive contains 11 million historical 20th century images). It cares for its crumbling negatives in sub-zero temperatures, and physical access is by appointment only. Only a handful have so far been scanned and put online--most are still deep underground in Corbis' Pennsylvanian film preservation facility. Read a report of one journalist's trip to the 'picture mine' here: www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0306/cpmine.html WORDS KIM GILMOUR
Internet Magazine, June, 2003
Karyn Bosnak's success in raising $20,000 online has encouraged people to get out their Web begging bowls. So is cyber begging a legitimate way to raise money or the latest Net nuisance?
Aaron needs $40,000 to help pay off his three year-old son's medical bills. In desperation, he's setup a website to ask for public donations, at www.pleasehelpaaron.com.
"My wife and I have sold our home and moved in with her parents," Aaron writes. "We desperately want to move into a home of our own, free from the monster that is our credit card debt."
But Aaron has only banked $13 from eBay sales, and received no donations at all from visitors to his site. A recent attempt to publicise his site on an inappropriate newsgroup was met with hostility.
"How about some real advice -- sell your computer and stop paying for Internet access," replied Xian. "Oh, and if you're looking for kindness and dignity, perhaps panhandling isn't a good calling for you."
Aaron is one of thousands of 'cyber scroungers'- people who solicit donations from website visitors in the hope of collecting enough money to pay off their debts, medical bills, or legal expenses. People have also been turning to the web in the hope of getting the money for dream holidays, boob jobs, lavish weddings or even sex toys.
Cyber scrounging or 'cyber begging' is not new. Yahoo! was already listing a category for it-with links to four sites - back in 1996. It subsequently renamed the category to the more politically correct 'e-panhandling'.
It all began with the now-infamous 'Send Me A Dollar' website (www.sendmeadollar.com), which offered you the then rare opportunity to send a stranger in America a buck in exchange for a mention on his website. But cyber begging really hit the big time after Karyn Bosnak (www.savekaryn.com) was able to successfully pay off her $20,000 debt thanks to the generosity of thousands of visitors to her website. Brooklyn-based Bosnak had let her shopaholic tendencies spiral out of control, preferring Manolo Blahnik and Prada over K-Mart and Conway.
But Karyn was saved, and is even releasing a book about her ordeal this summer. Now it seems as if the owners of half the websites in the world have added PayPal's simple logo to their pages and are asking for donations (see the lists at www.cyberbeg.com, www.savemesites.com or http://debtrfreeme.tripod.com).
On these mostly amateurish websites, men and women describe how they've got into financial fixes, what they've spent the money on and how their debt is being managed.
"If you want to become an Internet begging phenomenon, you really only need a tiny donation from a large amount of people," says Dr Adam Joinson, an expert in Internet psychology from the Open University (www.joinson.com).
Joinson thinks visitors to online begging sites get a more 'personalised' experience than they would with seeing a street beggar.
"What tends to make us -- at least psychologically -- more likely to help other people is that we can empathise with them," he says. "With an individual tattily dressed in the street, it's difficult to see ourselves as similar. But on the Internet, people give us so much information about who they are, the type of person they are, and what they'll do to help themselves as well as seeking donations. It tends to increase the amount of empathy we've got with people, and once we've got empathy, then we start wanting to help."
A pound of flesh
Ernie Davis (not his real name), based in Scotland, has [pounds sterling]23,000 of debt excluding his mortgage. His ex-partner went on a spending spree when they split up, and he can't keep up the payments. Davis has also chalked up [pounds sterling]8,000 in legal fees after being given custody of his son, but his ex is seeking a change of the court order and he doesn't have legal aid.
His website, Send A Pound (www.seadpound.co.uk) was inspired by sites like Send Me A Dollar and Save Karyn. "I was heartened when I read about Save Karyn. I thought maybe I could do it too," he says.
But, unlike Bosnak, Davis hasn't been successful "Donations stand at [pounds sterling]9, and [affiliate link] commission is currently [pounds sterling]18, but I don't have that yet -- I need [pounds sterling]50 before [companies] will actually send me any money."
Only two people have sent him donations, but he has received supportive emails. "One woman emailed to tell me that not all women are like my ex, and one guy mailed me to suggest that I move house," he says.
Like most online beggars (a term many of them understandably dislike), Davis is investigating other ways of raising money by using the Web. He gets free help from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (www.ccs.co.uk), sells things on eBay, and gets commissions from click-through links, however paltry they may be.
Most online beggars disclose a lot of personal information about themselves, but usually prefer not to reveal information that could lead to them being personally identified, in order to protect themselves and their families.
Although Davis does present a lot of information about his situation on his site, he believes the Internet is "faceless and impersonal".
"I'm sure that if I had the courage to stand in the street and explain to passers by why I was begging, I would have collected more. I'm not a brave person for doing this at all," he says.
But Joinson thinks that the more details you disclose about yourself online, the more likely it is that people will donate. "Self-disclosure and giving information about your background is something that's used in relationships to build trust and intimacy," he says. "It's being used increasingly on websites to make people trust the source of the information."
The debt situation is something many Brits recognise. Those who borrow money now owe an average of [pounds sterling]3,383, according to figures released by Datamonitor.
Davis realises his situation may be seen as an elaborate hoax. "There are many begging sites out there, and I myself find some of them hard to believe. I'm not forcing anyone to give, but if anyone [asks me] any questions, I'll reply with honest answers. I will give my CCCS client number, if anyone wanted to give to the CCCS direct -- that would save me on PayPal fees."
Joinson says it's the more experienced Net users who are likely to donate to cyber beggars. "[They] tend to be able to differentiate between what's truth and what's lies. Also, they tend to be more willing to trust people because experience has told them that most of the people they meet online are trustworthy."
Most begging sites, he adds, appear to be unsuccessful because of thier passive approach. "There's no attempt to cultivate donors, communicate with them and seek repeated or regular gifts from those that want to help."
Whether this is true or not, giving money to beggars requires a "great leap of faith", says Howard Lake, publisher of UK Fundraising (www.fundraising.co.uk), an online resource for charity fundraisers, "Although people are the end beneficiaries of both begging and fundraising, with fundraising by organisations there's an element of professional oversight as to how donations are collected and spent," says Lake. "Where money is concerned, this professionalism should inspire trust in donors."
Instead, he thinks online beggars should seek help from charities or government agencies. "But then, breast enlargement is never likely to become a lawfully charitable objective," Lake points out.
Breast practice
Ah yes, breast enlargements. That would be Give Boobs (www.giveboobs.com), the website of Michel Huang, who lives in southern California. This 23 year-old girl wants money for "big tatas".
"Several hundred people have given to my boob fund," she says. "The majority of donors are men, but surprisingly about one-tenth are women. Often these women already have breast implants and think giveboobs.com is a great way to raise money for a great cause."
Huang's upbeat and frank site has proved surprisingly popular, and she's raised more than $3,500. "If for some reason people give money in another big burst and the fund overshoots, I will take the extra cash and use it to buy boob accessories like bras, halter tops and sunless tanning cream," she says.
There are other benefits: "My site makes talking about breast implants much less of a taboo. Women write to me telling me how refreshing it is to find someone talking openly about their breasts and their desire for a little self improvement."
Joinson points out how the Internet's anonymity breaks down inhibitions. "One of the big advantages of the Internet is that people with problems that they are ashamed or embarrassed about can talk to other people, get advice and look for help not just to do with debt. In that respect it's positive."
Another wishful website is London Dreams, (www.londondreams.net) the brainchild of two students, Kim Wroe and Katie Folk, who want to visit London. These self-described anglophiles are far from poor, but have decided that a trip to London together is their dream, and have setup their site to help realise it.
"On the website, we cite actor Ewan McGregor as the direct cause for our dream, but that's more joking than not," Wroe says. "That is part of it -- we're both fans of Mr McGregor's work, and have gained a higher interest in British film and Britain in general since beginning to follow his career."
These two friends say that the idea of London Dreams was not to "sit on our laurels and wait for everyone else to do our work for us".
Instead, they've sold things on eBay and saved up money from pay cheques. "Most people aren't aware of the website when they purchase from us, but we have made sure to include a little thank you note in their packages," Wroe says.
In the offline world, the government has announced plans to make street begging a criminal offence. But there haven't been any legal issues to date with cyber begging, so perhaps beggars should follow the lead of Californian Kevin Barbieux, aka The Homeless Guy, who updates his weblog from a public library (http://thehomelessguy.blogspot.com).
Barbieux regularly details his thoughts about life and homelessness, but doesn't make an overt plea for money. In fact, although he's sympathetic to e-panhandlers, Barbieux doesn't believe in begging for money himself. A small 'Make a Donation' PayPal icon is all that is there, but his words have touched tens of thousands of people, making him an Internet celebrity.
Cause for offence?
Caroline Barton, associate solicitor in IT law at Field Fisher Waterhouse, believes that Internet begging is far from offensive.
"In the absence of them trying to deceive people, it doesn't seem there is much the law could or should do," she says. "Internet begging has no nuisance factor, and unless a regular income is made, it isn't taxable. But donors won't be able to make tax deductions, because they're not giving to a registered charity."
Cyber begging seems to be here to stay -- and, unless we start getting spam from cyber scroungers (scram?), they don't appear to be causing any trouble.
If you don't like the cyber beggars, you could retaliate with your own website, such as www.dontsavekaryn.com. However, while many cyber beggars have been inspired by Save Karyn's success, the vast majority of fundraising efforts are unlikely to have anywhere near as much luck.
Weblogging-what's it all about? A bunch of losers prattling on about what they had for breakfast and pretending they found links that Memepool unearthed eons ago? Or the new hope, coming up rom the grassroots, for a Web counterculture that's finding itself increasingly drowned out by large corporations? By Kim Gilmour, July 2002.
People have always had a need to express themselves, but it's often the same old voices that shout the loudest--particularly on the Internet, where commercialism is becoming rampant and big media corporations are taking over.
But now ordinary people are fighting against the tide of corporate information. Weblogs, or 'blogs' for short, are one of the ways they're doing it. At their most basic, blogs are regularly updated, online journals containing a series of annotated links to timely events or topics. But they often run deeper than that. Webloggers can provide alternative voices to the big media outlets, many of which can't, or won't, paint the whole picture of a particular event or concern.
Today, weblogs are more popular than ever, and anyone from a political journalist to a bird-watcher can set one up. But just five years ago, most blogs were by geeks who cumbersomely handcoded their pages and tended to link to arcane technical sites or IT news. But free or inexpensive weblog software and services, such as Blogger (www.blogger.com), Pitas (www.pltas.com), Radio UserLand (http://radio.userland.com), Moveable Type (www.moveabletype.org) and Big Blog Tool (www.bigblogtool.com) are now making it much easier for people to become spontaneous self-publishers. With these tools you can let more than one person post to your blog, and enable visitors to comment on posts.
You might think most of this blogging chit-chat is driven by self-indulgence--a modern version of the humble yet cringeworthy home page, perhaps--and you'd be half right. But that doesn't make all blogs bad. The fact that weblogs are usually self-edited, personal responses to particular events or topics can make them very powerful.
And media outlets are taking notice. While some might feel threatened by webloggers, many see the opportunities blogs represent. Evan Williams, CEO and president of Pyra Labs, which is behind the popular Blogger service, says: "The format makes sense as a complement for other types of media content. Weblogs have become popular because they take advantage of some of the unique characteristics of the Web--the immediacy as well as the brevity, which a lot of people prefer. And it gives a context for doing a different type of journalism that doesn't just imitate what the media's done before."
For this reason, Guardian Unlimited (www.guardian.co.uk) has embraced weblogs like no other media outlet. Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing at Guardian Online, says: "If the Internet was like inventing printing, then the birth of the weblog is like inventing magazines. They cover so many areas. One minute you'll see techies discussing the finer points of XML, the next you'll see people discussing a school of politics."
Guardian Unlimited has been running its own weblog for around 18 months (www.guardian.co.uk/weblog). "We're going to engage with this quite fully," Waldman says. "We're looking at a number of ways to expand the role and presence of blogs on the site, and we're thinking a bit more intelligently about linking with the blogging community."
Linking up
Links are essential parts of weblogs, but if you look at weblog monitors such as Blogdex (http://blogdex.media.mit.edu) and DayPop (www.daypop.com), many tend to point to the same media sources and stories each day. How can that be unique? "Your collection of links becomes like a meta-resource," says Waldman. "Choosing what to link to is an editorial statement in itself--just as how you edit a magazine. The overall editing is as important as the individual pieces therein."
Links are what blogs are all about, says Steve Bowbrick, founder of Web-based email company Another.com. He believes they bring a much-needed 'connectedness' to the Web, particularly between weblogs with similar outlooks. "The connectedness is fundamental to the whole concept, but easy to miss. Weblogs are, by definition, better connected than home pages. The blog becomes successful by virtue of having lots of inbound links. You get lots of inbound links by providing lots of outbound links. It's the network effect in action."
Linking creates a 'wildfire effect', as weblogs are often updated at least once a day, he says.
Helping Google (usually)
Blogs can help the search engine Google's algorithms. Google looks at the hypertext used to link to the sites, which means the most frequently linked to articles rise to the top of its rankings. So some fun-filled bloggers with too much time on their hands have taken advantage of Google's methods by getting dozens of their peers to link to their blogs with a key phrase (which might be humorous, but might not have anything to do with the link itself). Blogger Adam Mathes coined the phrase 'Google bombing' to describe this When, as an experiment, he got people to link to his friend Andy Pressman's blog with the words 'talentless hack'. For months (until the media picked up on the story), a Google search on the phrase 'talentless hack' came up with Andy's blog at number one every time.
But these jokers are in the minority, says Evan Williams. "On one hand it's almost amazing how much influence certain weblogs, if they get a lot of links in, can have over what shows up in Google for millions of people. It seems a little bit imbalanced, yet Google seems to be improving and [overall] it helps their algorithms to have these links, so they don't seem to mind."
Variety and vanity
Blogs come in all shapes and sizes. In the US, some post 11 September weblogs have been dubbed 'warblogs'--right-of-centre weblogs seeking to address the perceived liberal bias in the media (www.andrewsullivan.com). Old-school bloggers such as Web designer Jason Kottke (www.kottke.org) long for the early days when 'everyone' had a worthwhile opinion, while cult sites such as www.blackbeltjones.com describe the act of 'warchalking', a type of graffiti that tells Net nerds how to find hidden high speed wireless networks. Then there are the London bloggers who map their locations on a tube map (www.londonbloggers.co.uk), and the people who fill in 'revealing' quizzes about what type of Jim Henson Muppet they are, or what rock star they most resemble, and post up the results (http://fluffymuppet.blogspot.com). See the boxout on page 52 for our essential blogs.
Naturally, there's a lot of silt covering the gold. Waldman defends bloggers who consider themselves 'amateur journalists'. "If you're a journalist, you're not genetically superior at writing to anyone else on the planet," he argues. "There's no reason why someone who's not by nature of training or employment a journalist can't have valid views, or write well, or have a worthwhile opinion."
But shouldn't there be at least an indication of the blogger's agenda on the site, or a code of ethics? "That's a bit idealist," says Waldman (whose own blog is at www.waldo.net). "The Web is like the Wild West in terms of people's opinions, It's an issue inherent to the medium. It becomes quite interesting when you look at things like weblogs devoted to the Middle East, because there's an ongoing story there where both sides are guilty of distorting the truth, and how it gets covered in weblogs is quite intriguing."
Rob Taylor, founder of blog annotation service Enetation (www.enetation.co.uk), agrees. "During news of the troubles in the Middle East, it's been refreshing to read direct opinions and reports from those who are there via their blogs, rather than the often 'spun' traditional news channels. Media groups may see their authority undermined by conflicting reports."
Evan Williams says blogs and journalism go together. "All the stuff about weblogs versus traditional journalism, as if it's some war that they're fighting, is obviously silly because they're complementary. [Silicon Valley reporter] Dan Gillmor has written stuff about the role of weblogs. His statement is, 'My readers know more than I do.' And that's a good thing. The idea is that anybody can write about what's going on in front of them--and there's always someone on the inside who knows something before a journalist does."
But finding good blogs among the many cliques and vanity-sites that exist op the Internet can be tricky. There are many weblogs out there which detail the self-indulgent, mundane aspect of peoples' angst-ridden lives that most of us couldn't care less about. Isn't it all one big ego-trip?
"I think there's an element of that," says Williams (whose own blog is at www.evhead.com). "And it's not a small element. But there's everything out there you can imagine. In the past there were a lot of complaints about the quality of the blogs and the topics--that they're inane, that they're all by high schoolers. Clearly, if[a weblog] is that easy to do, you're going to get all types of stuff. Some of it's for ego, while some of it's more and more professional, and that's exciting."
But although weblogs might 'democratise' the Internet and provide alternative opinion to big media sources, they can seem like a big popularity contest. Many bloggers link to other people's blogs in their sidebars, which tends to create a rather closed hive of sites.
What's next?
There's no straightforward way of sifting through blog content, apart from following people's links to others' weblogs, or going to sites like Blogdex to see the most-linked to sites each day. It can be a hit and miss affair.
"There's a big problem right now in finding out what's out there in the weblog world in general," admits Williams. "Especially for people new to the world of weblogs."
This is one thing Taylor would change about blog culture. "Currently it's all too cliquey with a lot of interesting writings still hidden from normal Web users' paths... [we should be] promoting the quality and hiding away the dross."
Williams is exploring how to better categorise the weblogs on Blogger so it's not just the most popular links and blogs that get the attention. Based on journalist Steven Johnson's ideas, Williams is planning ways to have weblog content come to you, perhaps in syndicated form.
"We want to put less emphasis on the time factor and more emphasis on the topic," he says. "We're going to rebuild our blog directory and possibly restore some search features we had way in the beginning but couldn't keep up as things grew. We'll show more of the links between people's blogs and help them discover the interesting stuff out there based on all kinds of preferences and topics."
Waldman says blogs are a "democratic school of publishing" and media companies have to decide what they're going to do about the medium. During the World Cup, for instance, The Guardian used real-time blogs to outline every development and display emails from readers, while the BBC website includes a 'newslog' by journalist Nick Robinson that comments on political life.
But whatever happens to weblogs and weblog software, it's generally agreed this is what the Web's been waiting for. Maybe weblogs' popularity will die down in a few years and they'll become, as Bowbrick says, "a part of the ecology". But for now, they're affecting how the media exists on the Web.
Of all the weblog publishing tools, Waldman prefers Blogger. "Blogger is truly smart," he says. "Just when you're feeling really tired of the Internet, something like this comes around and it becomes really exciting again."
Williams says Blogger has more than 636,000 registered users. He still operates it from his apartment in San Francisco with half a dozen other people. Most users prefer the free version, but a premium version is funding new development.
"It's fun to be a part of," he says. "The dotcom boom a couple of years ago was exciting, but in a different way. Despite all that collapsing, and despite being here in San Francisco, everything is more fun and more exciting now because the BS factor has gone away. It's not just about getting rich--it's about communicating, and changing media."
Weblogs in general have also inspired Bowbrick. "It's where the energy is. We've all been looking for that after the last couple of years carrying sacks of cement around on our shoulders. We've all been looking for that new vibrancy, which has come from a grassroots level. That's where it was always going to come from."