It’s an exciting time to be involved in the digital world; only recently we were still developing .mobi websites, now it’s an annoyance when we get forced to a .mobi on a smartphone browser. We were sending each other MMS messages, now we just email them directly from our email account. Our number one reason to upgrade a phone was for more mega pixels from the built-in camera, now it’s less about the hardware and more about software.

Such rapid changes in technology force the online space to adapt and change to suit how the user wants to access content, one area that has maintained a steady evolution is online video technology.

The recent actions of the world’s biggest social network reveal its beliefs and ideals for digital society; openness and one identity. However, theories suggest that self identity is process of story-telling under constant revision. With our research showing that social networkers are actively sharing different amounts of personal information across different networks, the future of digital society lies in giving users more control over their personal and private identities online.

In April 2010, the actions of the world’s most used social networking site struck several chords of concern in our digital society. In changing default privacy settings for users, Facebook placed privacy as central to the internet paradigm. Discussion, debate and protest from social networkers, internet users, reporters, commentators and the 1,400 people based at the corporation’s HQ in California were focussed on notions of privacy.

Recent research conducted by GfK NOP shows that, among smartphone owners, mobile data allowance is more important than the network operator and the handset type.

From previous posts on TechTalk we’ve shown how the use of mobile apps shows no sign of abating and that the tight integration of services on the iPhone drives Apple’s smartphone success. This thirst for apps and services is the reason why smartphone owners are placing greater importance on their mobile data allowance. Smartphone owners now rely on the services their phone provides and taking these away is not an option.

With many UK operators having recently capped their data allowances, smartphone owners will think carefully about their next mobile tariff. GfK NOP estimates that 24 per cent of contract customers using smartphones would actually switch operators if they could get a better mobile data allowance elsewhere.