Power to the People!

Despite many fears and concerns, the internet can be a powerful tool for people to enact change within their community. Recent events in Egypt had people messaging and tweeting information and updates to relatives friends and supporters during the uprising to oust the dictatorship there. Information is power and the internet provides a forum in which the public can share ideas, initiatives and gather support for their cause.
Here in Canada there is a similar drive underway to send the government a message. No, there is no ouster planned, but the very way we use the internet is being challenged by the large telcom companies. Internet companies are in the process of instituting usage based billing or charging you by the byte similar to the way data is charged for smart phones. The explosion of streaming media content available online as well as services such as Netflix which can be viewed through the computer, Wii and Playstation consoles is in direct competition with these big telcom companies satellite and cable television services. This a blatant attempt to gouge consumers and control the internet. Protectionism at its finest Canadian style. Yours truly had his bandwidth allowance cut by over 60% recently despite a $5 hike in the monthly bill! Smaller ISP’s which purchase their bandwidth from the big guys are being forced into the same deal leaving the consumer with no where to go. This will only serve to stifle Canada’s digital competitiveness and put a strain on small businesses and families.
Here’s where you can do something about it though. Public outcry had the government recently re-thinking their decision to allow the CRTC to allow this. Several online petitions have cropped up to allow the peoples voice to heard on this issue. http://www.stopthemeter.ca/ has more information on this important issue as well as a petition that you can sign that will be sent to Konrad Van Finckenstein of the CRTC.
This is your chance to have your voice heard – act now!!

by Tim FairhurstBiz X Magazine

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Online Buyers Beware

I almost made a purchase online last week. I say “almost” because I stopped the order short before releasing payment from my Paypal account. Although I try to source purchases locally there are many things that are either more convenient to purchase online, much less expensive or just plain unavailable. In this case it was a sports jersey that I saw through a Facebook ad. The price was half of what I had seen this shirt for on the official team site and it advertised free shipping to boot. The website looked professional with secure encryption and they had a multitude of products for sale at great prices. My question about the product was even answered promptly by a fellow named “Jason” from their customer service department. I browsed the site for a while before making my selection and customized my order with my favourite players number on the back. A couple of clicks and my order was placed, all I had to do was check my email and login to Paypal to complete the payment. This is where it started to look fishy as ultimately I was instructed to release funds in U.S. dollars to “Pang Loo”. Now this in itself would not be so suspect if his contact info was a generic web based email address. At this point I started to question the authenticity of the product as well given the inconsistencies I was seeing. Sending someone
In the end, I did not buy the jersey and hopefully saved myself some aggravation (and possibly 48 dollars!). Maybe I would have received a great deal if I had gone through with the purchase but visions of trying to track down Mr. Loo with desperate unanswered emails to nowhere seemed all too possible. Granted Paypal does provide some recourse for fraudulent transactions but I had no interest in going there. Although I purchase a few things online this experience just confirmed what we should all practice when doing business, online or in person. Buyer Beware.

by Tim FairhurstBiz X Magazine

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