This is an event I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while – WordCamp UK 2008, the first WordCamp in the UK, takes places in Birmingham during this weekend July 19-20.

Twitter may be associated with itty bitty messages and terrible reliability, but somehow, it’s managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  New data shows that Twitter is actually quite popular in the UK.

UK based BT said today that it plans to invest $3 billion in super fast broadband providing access to 10 million homes by 2012.

BT says the new broadband will have speeds of up to 100 Mb/s with the potential for speeds of more than 1,000 Mb/s.

The company says its broadband plan will only be rolled out if regulator Ofcom allows it to receive a good return on its investment.

One of the reasons I often hear as to why podcasting took off in the US is because of the poor choices available from radio.

Homogenized content and script-reading presenters wherever you listen are among the anecdotal statistics thrown about.

In the UK, Germany, and France the Internet has about double the influence of television when it comes to consumer decision making according to the Digital Influence Index, a study done by Fleishman-Hillard and Harris Interactive.

The study found that consumers use the Internet in a number of ways to make decisions. Consumers are more likely to seek opinions of others by visiting social media and product rating sites when making choices that have a major personal impact.

Children are able to purchase violent video games illegally through online auction sites according to the UK based Trading Standards Institute.

Nearly 90 percent of online retailers tested offered violent video games to children who were under 18. Games that were purchased included Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto, Godfather and Hitman, all of which are rated 18 and over because of violent content.

Welsh Heads of Trading Standards (WHOTS) conducted the investigation. Six local authorities used volunteers between the ages of 12 and 16, to purchase 18 -rated video games online.

It seemed as if all manner of chaos and sniping would reign after Google began to allow companies to bid on each other’s trademarks in the UK.  New Hitwise stats indicate that traffic patterns changed have very little, though.

Teenagers in the UK are using Google Earth to find homes with swimming pools in their area and then communicating the locations of the pools on Facebook so they can have impromptu pool parties with their friends.

Police said some homeowners are waking up to find teens swimming in their pools and other have arrived home after work to find their pools littered with beer cans.

Those who participate in the "dipping" parties typically wear nice clothes and are instructed to "bring a bike" so they can make a quick getaway.

Earlier today, the subject was blogs.  Now we’re on to social networks.  It seems people in the UK are becoming quite fond of the things, as statistics in two critical areas has jumped since last year.

Over the last 3 years, UK internet traffic to blogs and personal websites has grown by 208%, according to new data from Hitwise.

The web intelligence company has just released new data on blog readership in the United Kingdom which shows 1.19% of all UK web traffic flowed to a blog. (Not a single blog–that would be a great site to own–but to blogs in general)

It’s a great time to run a UK-oriented blog.  UK traffic levels to blogs and personal sites have taken a couple of deep dips over the past few years, but according to new Hitwise data, visits have now risen and reached a record high.

Look for the CEOs of online retailers and social networks to start acting kindly towards the UK’s rustic types; new Hitwise data indicates that people living in rural areas tend to out-participate city folk in these two categories.

A UK man has been ordered to stop uploading videos to the Internet after a large collection of his crimes were seen on YouTube by local police.

Andrew Kellett, 23, was served with an interim anti-social behavior order (ASBO) at Leeds Magistrate’s Court that prohibits him from uploading any images or depictions of unlawful activity on the Internet.

Kellett’s 80 video collection mainly involves reckless driving along with some drug use, theft, trespassing and other criminal acts.

UK schoolteachers will learn how to identify students involved in gangs by searching computer accounts, social networks and email.

Beverly Hughes, the children’s minister, said, "There is evidence that, if gangs aren’t growing in number then they are coming down the age range," The Guardian reported. "There is anecdotal evidence that girls are being used in particular ways that puts them at risk and is very disturbing," Hughes said.

The UK government is considering creating a huge database that would hold all the details of emails, phone calls and text messages of it residents in an effort to guard against crime and terrorism

Currently, records of phone calls and text messages are stored up to 12 months by telecom companies in accordance with a EU anti-terrorism directive.

A new Home Office (Interior Ministry) proposal would require Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecoms to turn over records of emails, Internet usage and voice over Internet calls.

Close to half of all people in the UK will be members of a social networking site within four years, a new report indicates.

The study found that the UK has the highest number of users in Europe who are members of sites such as MySpace and Facebook. At least 9.6 million people in the UK use these sites and that is expected to increase to 27.1 million by 2012.

Online financial services are used by about a third of the total U.K. online population, according to a new comScore report.

Thirty-three percent of UK Internet users did online banking in January, accounting for 10.9 million customers who used at least one online account in the first month of the year.

The most popular online banking brand was the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) with 2.9 million visitors, driven largely by the 2 million people who accessed NatWest’s online banking service.

As UK businesses brace for Google’s policy change on trademark bidding, there’s a growing amount of evidence that they’ll be hit hard.  Today, Hitwise’s Robin Goad provided several solid examples.

Companies that create fake blogs in order to hawk products violate what most people would consider basic truthfulness.  Starting May 28th, they may also be violating UK law.

Some of the features Google introduces do little more than collect dust, while others become extremely popular.  The Books Viewability API appears to be part of this second set, as traffic to the UK version of Google Book Search has increased by a dramatic amount since its introduction.

It’s hard to believe data about 2007 is still being released, but a new Hitwise report is interesting, nonetheless.  It seems that social networks and YouTube were quite popular last year, with related terms dominating a list of the top ten UK searches.