Product Designer Lee Murray has created an application for CCTV surveillance with his concept, The Observer; a public access viewing station allowing any member of the public to watch others via CCTV cameras. The object explores the potential social implications if all CCTV cameras were monitored by the public.
Using web camera & internet technology to bring the concept to life, Lee hopes that ultimately the entire system would be connected to the nations extensive network of CCTV cameras. Constructed from sheet steel & aluminium, this concept makes interesting nods to ‘people watching’ and crowd sourced surveillance. While  the Observer’s design has been inspired from classic science-fiction books & films such as “Brave New World”, “1984″ & “Brazil”.

With the recent world events and current feeling of unrest and political disbelief, it seems odd to me that only 5% of MP’s would bother to show up and debate the passing of the Digital Economies Bill (#DEBill). This is a bill that has the potential to stifle creativity and induce restrictions over the very connectivity that Digital Britain needs. Repercussions will ripple far further than the Digital Creative community.

The controversial “Clause 18″ which would have enabled the government to block sites, was replaced with a slightly sugar coated version. “Clause 8″ which allows the Secretary of State for Business to block any sight deemed to be infringing, about to infringe or has infringed on copyright material in the past, if deemed so by the court. However unlikely, Google could be deemed

Many a finger bashing “thrill seeking” teenager might be shocked to learn that “Clause 41″ and “Clause 42″ of the DEBill have the potential to censor video that may be deemed violent. Not so relaxed about it now, huh? But I wouldn’t worry too much… This law might take months to pass. At least you have the summer for any extra gory titles to release. But say your more of an online gamer, then these laws could have a much more encompassing grasp than you might think. With cooperating ISP’s and publishers DRM’s look set to get tighter and tighter.

The impending General Election will surely not be a run away affair for any one in the now three horse race. So it seems rather odd to me that politicians would so readily alienate themselves from such a large section of society as the “digitratti”.

The vote was won by Government 189 votes to 47.

So, before you take your vote on the 6th, why not take a look and see if your MP bothered to show up and vote. Either way odds are, they probably didn’t attend the two hour debate.

Numerous website hacked together by feverishly working exasperated techies have sprung up over the following week, many of them within hours. Here are a few of them:

http://www.votethemout.co.uk/

For the record, my MP didn’t vote… “My MP Ben Wallace didn’t vote on the #DEBill”

See how your MP voted

and email your local candidate to see what their views are: http://bit.ly/emailyourcandidates

Onotate is an app allowing users to annotate web design mock-ups but Onotate decided to investigate how we might (annotate) Onotate the world.

Imagine we could express our mood or feelings about things we see in the real world, whether it be liking that morning coffee or disliking your boring desk at work (obviously you will think of more exciting things) slap a coloured sticky on it and proclaim your feeling towards it – Onotate it!

How it  works?

Participants onotate the world using the sticky notes, photograph (geo tagged) and tweet with corresponding hash tags and the image and location is marked on the Onotate world map.

I love the idea behind this, a ‘web enhanced democracy of sorts’.  Now, how do I stick these on a politicians forehead?

For your chance to participate visit Onotate

Not sure who to vote for? Why not let vote match help you decide…

The elections this year are shaping up to be a close run affair. News “sound bites”, flyers, brochures and radio only help to muddy the political spectrum. VoteMatch asks a series of questions around political stand points and ideals, then tells you, in percentage terms, who you should vote for… Now all we need is a “click here to vote” button.