I'm currently editing an article by Duncan Aitchison, managing director of outsourcing advisory firm TPI. With a cup of Incisive Media coffee at my side, I am a panning the copy - so to speak - for golden nuggets of best practice advice.

The general theme of the piece is change - the outsourcing market has changed, and will continue to change further. Long gone are single supplier deals, where one user trusted its systems with a single service provider.

As has been pointed out regularly during the last six-or-so months, more and more companies are entering into multisourcing deals, where firms can benefit from the expertise of niche providers IT in specific business areas.

And times will get tougher for service providers if they are not alert to further change. In the future - and largely as a result of the current credit crunch, Aitchison expects IT managers to base more outsourcing contracts on the ability of service provider to meet pre-determined targets:

"As outsourcing matures, IT managers are looking for value and a more defined business impact from their outsourcing relationships. Businesses are seeking more than transactional cost savings and incremental service improvements, much of which can be more simply achieved through offshoring," he says.

"We, therefore, expect to see a shift away from input-based contracting to productivity driven deals based on outcome-based pricing. As contracts mature and service providers demonstrate their capabilities, more sophisticated outcome-based pricing may be tied to the vendor’s ability to provide productivity improvements."

Tough times call for tough talking from IT managers, I guess.

Further reading

• Top contact centre outsourcers revealed
• The next big thing in outsourcing?
• Offshoring means Western IT industry is "dying"
• UK firms love offshoring - what about the staff?
• Outsourcing and the lack of skilled UK IT workers
• 2008 - The year of multisourcing and offshoring
• Gartner reveals top 30 offshoring destinations

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

The next edition of Computing Business will concentrate on the role of innovation in IT, specifically around the development of relevant systems and processes for business users.

Pamela Whitby's cover feature makes for an intriguing read - and the following segment neatly illustrates the difficulties of achieving useful IT innovation:

The research from both reports shows there is no shortage of evidence that the business needs IT to innovate, rather than just operate. "Clearly the best approach to innovation is to align the business and the IT strategy," says Lynn Lawton, international president for professional IT governance body ISACA.

However, marrying the business strategy with the IT strategy poses some real challenges. One clear problem is communication - and the IT department and business seldom talk the same language. "People tend to get bogged down in acronyms and infrastructure," says Lawton.

Just 18 per cent of users agree that the IT department always communicates its objectives, according to the the IT Governance Institute - hardly an improvement on 2005, where just 14 per cent of users felt IT communicated its objectives. But be aware that poor communication is not just an IT concern. "Quite often business sees the IT department as nothing more than suppliers of electricity," says Lawton.

Lack of alignment, over-use of acronyms and a lack of respect from users - some things never change, eh? While the role of technology in modern business cannot be underestimated, it seems innovators will have to continue to fight for respect from line-of-business managers.

Roll on the revolution! Whatever that might look like...

Further reading

• There is a depressing lack of innovation in UK IT
• Social web is about improvement, not innovation
• Motion sensing: Wii must replace the mouse
• The future of technology, according to Gartner
• Forget the downturn and fight for innovation
• Don’t be afraid to be an IT innovator

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

“The risk of going to jail usually pushes information security up the boardroom agenda,” conclude Jon Fell and John Skelton in their feature on e-crime. Fair enough, I guess ­ – the integrity of customer data has to be a crucial business priority. But who should really call the shots when it comes to security, the IT department or the business?

A recent survey by Websense suggested 95 per cent of security professionals believe the chief executive should be held accountable for a breach, with a quarter of respondents believing the boss should go to jail in the event of a consumer data incident.

Tough talking from the IT professionals ­ – and the survey also found just five per cent of security experts believe ultimate responsibility for a breach lies with the IT department, a huge drop from 21 per cent in 2007.

Are such hard-hitting opinions reasonable or are we looking at a case of IT professionals attempting to pass the buck?

Chief security officers (CSOs) certainly think so, with conference specialist Infosecurity Europe suggesting many are very concerned about the integrity of their application code.

As many as 75 per cent of European businesses think their applications contain security holes that can be exploited by criminals, according to Infosecurity Europe ­ – and CSOs say they would welcome an initiative to raise awareness of security among the developer community.

IT leaders, then, blame the followers. But let’s be honest, no one would blame security professionals for playing their “get out of jail free” card, especially with the media hype surrounding customer data loss.

Such incidents have placed increased pressure on firms to ensure their systems and policies are up to date and in line with current regulatory demands.

Take the recently enforced Companies Act, which gives enhanced rights to auditors to obtain information. The Act states directors must disclose accurate information to auditors.

Board members who include false information run the risk of eating porridge at Her Majesty’s pleasure.

Security chiefs take note. While some IT leaders may be keen to apportion blame for e-crime on security professionals, real responsibility will always rest with the boss.

Further reading

• Data leak prevention is just security best practice
  
• McAfee spam project smells like marketing guff
• Time to focus on the good in databases
• Security technology is not a priority for firms
• Flexible working creates a security nightmare
• Stop buying illegal software, or face the risks...

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

How can Web 2.0 work for business - and which social software tools will help CIOs collaborate? Computing Business posed the question to a collection of IT leaders in this month's 'Ask the experts' section.

With analyst Gartner suggesting half of global chief information officers (CIOs) are planning to invest in Web 2.0 technologies for the first time in 2008, the Computing Business panel thought leading-edge IT leaders should concentrate on conception, difference and collaboration:

Could you make better decisions if more people contributed what they privately know? Could you build a repository of high-value content from people who would give it for free? Could your dialogue with customers be richer and quicker? Stop looking at mash-up technology tool comparisons, start fermenting social business ideas.
Mark Raskino, research vice president and Gartner fellow

I find it difficult to get too excited about Web 2.0, however, because social networking is just another platform for communication. I am on Facebook, and occasionally I will be “poked” by my daughter ­ which often means she is running low on cash. But she will contact me through other ways ­ such as email and phone ­ so what is so new and different about social networking?
Fahri Zihni, director of ICT, Aston University

However, the benefit of deploying any Web 2.0 technologies depends on having a corporate culture that is flexible enough to embrace the tools. The open, collaborative, uncontrolled and unmediated nature of Web 2.0 working fits with some firms better than others. Any CIO hoping to choose the most valuable Web 2.0 technology must first understand where and how it would fit with their company’s culture.
Ollie Ross, director of research, The Corporate IT Forum

CIOs must accept that Web 2.0 technology is not a panacea; a wiki will not generate best-practice documentation and social networking will not force employee collaboration. Traditional concerns, such as participant incentives and corporate culture, still go a long way to determining success or failure.
Oliver Young, analyst, Forrester Research

The biggest opportunities are for smart IT leaders to identify new business opportunities using Web 2.0 technologies. Sites such as Epinions.com and e-Rewards.com provide useful customer feedback.
Dharmesh Mistry, chief technology and operations officer, edge IPK

The full 'Ask the experts' feature from May's Computing Business can be found here:
www.computingbusiness.co.uk/2214478

Further reading

• Social web is about improvement, not innovation
• Next generation social networking
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Web 2.0: Your business needs a strategy now
• Social networking creates waste and exclusion
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

An IT leader said to me recently that analyst Gartner is a bit like the new Big Blue. The commonly used adage suggests no IT manager ever got sacked for choosing IBM. And the technology chief suggested the saying now worked for Gartner - ­ certainly in a strategic sense, anyway.

The credit crunch and ever-deepening recession means justifying new IT investment is harder than ever.

Problem is, of course, many of the potential benefits from modern business technology projects sound a bit esoteric.

Forget simple efficiency metrics, the most important initiatives create fluffy benefits such as integration, collaboration and knowledge.

And going to the finance director with a qualitative list is a bit like the proverbial chocolate teapot: useless.

The ongoing downturn means the board wants big, juicy numbers ­ a quantitative value it can associate with a technology implementation.

Enter the IT manager’s good friend Gartner, keeper of the magic quadrant and king of the buzzword.

Line-of-business executives often struggle to understand the bits and bytes of technology. But the business likes Gartner; it likes how reports can be produced to justify technology spending.

The IT leader told me the boon of such an approach is simple: your boss believes Gartner. All of which means the IT manager can justify their project.

But taking business executives on a trip to the wonderful world of Gartner also has its bad points. Show your boss the source of your knowledge and it can come back to bite you.

Recoil in horror as the chief executive enters your office and asks if you have seen the latest research from Gartner. How do you tell your boss to keep their nose out, especially when he is clutching the latest announcement from Gartner vice president Ken McGee, who says the worst consequences of the recession can be prevented by “countering innovation with innovation”?

Sounds a bit like a tautology to me, except the second word is exactly the same as the first.

Good luck blending quadrants and tautology in an attempt to secure project funding. My guess is you will need it.

Further reading

• CIO concerns: Rob Fraser switches Boots for CSC
• CIOs will need to transform to survive
• Career moves: Robin Terrell is John Lewis web MD
• Career moves: Steve Markwell is new NCC CEO
• Career moves: Carl Powell becomes Unipart CEO
• Modernise to beat IT and skills obsolesence

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Information is the lifeblood of any organisation and chief information officers (CIOs) need to create a strategy that ensures crucial business information stays protected. It can be a difficult challenge. Forrester Research says information resides across the modern organisation in different shapes and forms.

Successful IT leaders will identify sensitive knowledge and ensure that data disclosure is prevented, says the analyst firm.

But how should the CIO move towards an all-encompassing protection and prevention approach?

The question is answered in this month's Computing Business, where IT decision-makers outline some of the challenges they face on a daily basis.

Such challenges mean now, more than ever before, technology leaders need to focus on risk management,­ a holistic strategy that helps provide protection across a range of key security areas, such as technological threats, human errors and corporate governance.

Top-level risk management will rely on close alignment between the IT organisation and line-of-business managers.

But working relationships between many technology and business leaders are characterised by complexity.

Jay Heiser, research vice president at analyst Gartner , says CIOs com-monly ask him how much they should spend on security.

His standard response: “Go back to the business and find how much confidentially, integrity and availability it needs.”

While clarity on broader risk requirements will help CIOs define a strong risk strategy, our cover story shows practical thinking is crucial.

Rather than seeing corporate governance as an impediment, use discipline-imposing standards ­such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) ­ to help you create a secure set of risk processes.

Also develop a change advisory board, which will help you ensure new systems are tested and back-up plans created.

Finally, do not allow risk management to become risk aversion: rather than just concentrating on preventing problems, concentrate on proactive control.

This month, Computing Business is hosting a CIO roundtable to discuss the challenges of risk management ­ we will feed back those CIO opinions next month.

Take the right steps now and you could prevent information leakages that could result in lost business and an impact on your bottom line.

Further reading

• Data leak prevention is just security best practice
• McAfee spam project smells like marketing guff
• Time to focus on the good in databases
• Security technology is not a priority for firms
• Flexible working creates a security nightmare
• Stop buying illegal software, or face the risks...
• How to cope with rogue IT

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Cast a wary (or should that be weary?) eye on the latest security trends. So says ICI global information security director Paul Simmonds, speaking to Lisa Kelly in this week's definitive guide to security:

“Data leakage prevention (DLP) is being hyped and everyone is trying to flog it. Established vendors are tweaking existing products to DLP, while there are a whole bunch of start ups selling it. But vendors are always telling you that you have a big problem and they will solve it for you."

Simmonds has certainly got solution-obsessed vendors down to a tee. But what's all this about DLP? “We have always done DLP at ICI," says Simmonds - breaking the unwritten rule of no more than one TLA (three letter acronym) in a seven word sentence. That's 'unwritten' as in 'made up just now by me', by the way.

With regards to DLP, Simmonds says his company uses the classic 80/20 rule - 80 per cent of security is about people, processes and procedures, and only 20 per cent is about technology.

It sounds like a winning strategy. Especially as in next week's definitive guide, Freeform Dyanmics analyst Jon Collins says:

"IT leaders need to consider risks caused by their own employees, be they through malice or stupidity. Internal workers have always posed the biggest threat to computer systems - even before product categories, such as DLP, were posited."

Apparently, some vendors also refer to DLP - stay with me, here - as information leak prevention (ILP) and extrusion prevention (EP). Basically it's about putting the right security processes and systems in place. So, for DLP (or ILP and EP) read best practice through a bunch of tools and policies.

Simmonds is right to be wary about the the so-called latest security trends - but weary seems an even more appropriate sentiment, I think.

Further reading

• McAfee spam project smells like marketing guff
• Time to focus on the good in databases
• Security technology is not a priority for firms
• Flexible working creates a security nightmare
• Stop buying illegal software, or face the risks...
• How to cope with rogue IT

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Whatever happened to the innovative IT sector? Long gone are the crazy days of dot com mania, when open plan offices were stuffed with smart cookies, cold beers and fruit machines.

Long gone, too, are the times when technology firm values would hit million of pounds in weeks, not years.

In fact, the complete opposite is now true. Technology stock values have slipped to the point where backers are leaving the market altogether.

Finance house Close Brothers says falling share prices and the lack of major technology initial public offerings during the past 12 months mean a startling amount of funding is leaving the sector. More than £2.6bn of equity has been delisted through takeovers since March 2007, says Close Brothers.

Money from delisted stocks is normally recycled into new listings, but this is no longer the case. Private-equity specialist 3i has been gradually pulling out of the IT sector, and recently announced it will no longer invest in startups. Apax Partners left the sector last year.

So much for innovative new businesses; there must be hope in blue-chip companies. Unfortunately, the disparity between idea creation and commercialisation is not confined to the stock market, and internal research is also stalling.

Just six per cent of UK executives are satisfied that their company will be able to convert innovative ideas into services, according to consultant Accenture. Less IT innovation means fewer new products, so IT directors have less choice and increasing cost pressures.

Still, who cares? No one wants to splash out on new systems and services anyway. Take banks and securities firms, which are cutting back on IT investment because of the downturn, says the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

With 47 per cent of institutions reporting a decrease in business volumes during the first quarter, the CBI and PwC expect finance firms to slash 10,000 jobs ­ with the IT department likely to be among the worst hit.

For a sector supposedly driven by innovation, times are tougher than a dried goat sandwich. Excuse me for being gruff, but an appropriate conclusion is that UK IT is not very tasty.

Further reading

• Social web is about improvement, not innovation
• Motion sensing: Wii must replace the mouse
• The future of technology, according to Gartner
• China is the home of R&D, not outsourcing
• Forget the downturn and fight for innovation
• Don’t be afraid to be an IT innovator

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Big Blue has announced details of another big green strategy - this time, based around a supercomputer that is cooled by water rather than air. The IBM Power 575 supercomputer uses water-chilled copper plates located above each microprocessor to remove heat.

Traditional, power-hungry data centres that demand high levels of cooling are one of the IT department's biggest source of carbon emissions. For technology leaders looking for a green alternative, IBM scientists estimate water can be up to 4,000 times more effective than air-cooled computer systems.

The press release states the water-cooled Power 575 requires 80 per cent fewer air conditioning units and can reduce typical energy consumption in the data centre by 40 per cent. Nice work - but the most interesting part of the release concerns continuing developments by IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory and its aim to create a 'zero-emissions data centre':

The IBM Research team is working on the next steps: getting the water even closer to the chip - not with a copper plate, but actually inside the chip. Then, once captured there, the water can be routed out of the computer and pumped into the heating system for re-use.

Chips with water? For IT managers looking to act green, they might even be tastier than chips with curry sauce. And that is saying something.

• Read more about the research project: http://www.zurich.ibm.com/news/08/zed.html
• Read more about IBM's Project Big Green strategy: http://www.computing.co.uk/2196219

Further reading: Reuse and recycling Top 10

1. Recycle? WEEE don't undertsand the rules, stupid
2. Computer Aid shows how to beat the green wash
3. Cure for green computing overkill is the real deal
4. Green computing hype needs smarter approach
5. Green computing is not crucial for CIOs
6. The green IT rules from Forrester and Gartner
7. JP Rangaswami says green computing drives BT
8. SMEs lead the way on green computing
9. Green computing is a pipe dream for IT managers
10. CIOs could learn from the green actions of SMEs

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Hold on to your routers, folks - everything on the web is changing (again). A press release from marketing firm All About Brands explains:

"Barely has Web 2.0 established itself than digital strategists are looking at how to make the next leap to Web 3.0 - and the victims of change will be the big publishers, some of whom may vanish with some rapidity."

Vanish with rapidity, eh? Sounds painful. I mean, vanishing is bad enough - but with rapidity? Yikes.

John Straw, digital strategist at All About Brands, basically says you ain't seen nothing yet: "With Web 3.0, everyone becomes a publisher of content with the nett result that many traditional publishing businesses simply being drowned by the crowd of amateur publishers."

He has a point, actually - search for something on the interweb and it is often difficult to see the useful wood from the dead trees; everyone has an opinion and everyone is search optimising their content.

Such developments mean traditional publishers are often fighting against a wave of free content. But most media outlets are attempting to surf the wave, so to speak.

Computing, for example, encourages industry experts to blog and for technology users to debate the content as part of a wider community. The Telegraph goes a step further, allowing readers to start a my.telegraph blog, join debates and bookmark articles. More features, says the web site, will be added soon.

Finding an easy and successful middle ground between editorial and reader content is no easy task. And All About Brands' John Straw refers to EPIC 2014/2015, Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson's dystopian vision for the future of the web and its effect on journalism.

Changes are undoubtedly afoot. But whether such changes will manifest as yet another "Web.0" is debatable. Surely everything is just part of a greater web that is continually evolving?

To paraphrase Larry David, we're talking about improvement, rather than innovation.

Further reading

• Next generation social networking
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Web 2.0: Your business needs a strategy now
• Social networking creates waste and exclusion
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish
• Web 2.0 technologies = five hours of depression

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Try and imagine the thought process: "I want to improve my appearance and buy some expensive jewellery but my wages mean I can't afford pricey plastic surgery and a flashy diamond ring."

Answer? Fake your expenses claim, according to a survey from hotel operator Travelodge and researcher OnePoll - which suggests British workers are swindling bosses out of £1bn a year.

Respondents admitted refurbishing homes with a new bathroom, kitchen, gym and "even wallpaper and paint" to spruce up their homes. Even wallpaper and paint? Sounds like small change in comparisson to a new kitchen or gym.

How do such errant workers put their expenses through? Does the IT system have a space on the expenses claim for home improvements? I doubt it, seeing as the research highlights how the top three expense scams are:

• Ask for extra taxi receipts and use them to claim back false taxi transport
• Add extra mileage when submitting an expense claim
• Use a cheap restaurant to entertain a business client and use an expensive restaurant for personal use. When submitting the claim use the expensive receipt

Oh, so that's how it works - put in a couple of extra taxi receipts (to Botswana, for example) and buy a smashing kitchen.

The typical worker pockets an extra £17.00 each month through dodgy expense claims, equivalent to an extra £204.00 a year - still some way short of that new kitchen.

But surely organisational policies and processes prevent ridiculous scams? Apparently not, seeing as the research also suggests some workers just cut out the taxi scam and admit to the following "outrageous claims":

• New motorbike
• Private number plate for a BMW
• Hiring a private investigator to find evidence to start divorce proceedings
• Pet hamster called Barry for the office
• Lapdancers
• £1,000 hair extensions
• A new garden shed which was converted into an office
• Charity donations
• Luxury holidays to Africa, USA and Europe
• Dancing lessons

I think pet hamsters for the office and charity donations show an element of alturism. Which is nice, seeing as businesses are losing as millions of pounds on claims for lapdancers and luxury holidays...

Further reading

• Leeds United and four other clubs win mobile title
• Red is probably not the key to technology success
• IT skills crisis not solved via death by powerpoint
• Soho celebrity spots 2: From Sykes to Littlewood...
• Soho celebrity spots: From Oddie to Mortimer...
• Second city Blues

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

"Me? Worried about the downturn? No," said a bunch of chief information officers to Gartner recently, with the analyst expecting IT budget growth to remain unchanged at 3.3 per cent during 2008.

Gartner's survey was based on a worldwide survey of more than 1,000 CIOs. Actually, are there 1,000 CIOs in the world? I thought there were only about 200/300 in the UK, but I wait to be corrected.

And if there are only 200-or-so CIOs in the UK - which is home to some pretty big companies, we might be struggling to find another 800-plus around the rest of the globe. Especially as everyone and their mother thinks the CIO role is either deminishing or already dead, given the increasing power of finance directors and the need for technology to be integrated with line-of-business demands.

Anyway, Mark McDonald, group vice president and head of research at Gartner, says the desire to stabilise rather than cut IT budgets indicates technology is not the ‘target rich’ environment for cost cutting, something it was in the past.

Geographically, IT budgets continue to exhibit growth in Europe (3.86 per cent) and Asia/Pacific (5.98 per cent). Gartner suggests the positivity of European and Asian CIOs is reflected anecdotally in study responses. On several occasions, CIOs in these geographies said the current belt tightening is a US-only phenomenon.

Nothing like a positive-thinking CIO, even if they are about to die (strategically speaking, rather than physically speaking).

Further reading

• CIO concerns: Rob Fraser switches Boots for CSC
• CIOs will need to transform to survive
• Career moves: Robin Terrell is John Lewis web MD
• Career moves: Steve Markwell is new NCC CEO
• Career moves: Carl Powell becomes Unipart CEO
• Modernise to beat IT and skills obsolesence

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

The information age is about evolution and transformation. Applications, hardware and other devices are quickly out of date because of the rapid nature of change. This makes the mouse something of an anomaly, as it has been the dominant control mechanism for three decades.

The device's strength is its usability. Learning to use a mouse is simple and the device provides point-and-click access to applications and resources.

On the downside, however, the mouse lacks portability and requires a hard surface to work.

A more intuitive alternative must exist. Step forward motion sensing, which allows users to control resources with a hand movement.

The most well-known motion sensing device comes with Nintendo’s Wii gaming machine. Called a Wiimote, it allows users to control in-game characters with the move of a hand.

A Wiimote takes some getting used to, especially when playing boxing with a friend.

But the revolution in controlling inspired by the Wiimote has helped Nintendo regain the gaming crown from Sony.

Sales are up and those usually excluded from the gaming experience ­ - such as my auntie ­ - suddenly see the benefits of playing.

But how will motion sensing transfer to business users? It will be through the up-and-coming generation of youngsters who have moved beyond text messaging into social networks and playing games online.

Analyst Gartner says advances in computing power are already enabling the development of practical alternatives to the mouse, based on gestures, movement and facial recognition.

And motion sensing is moving beyond the Wiimote. Freeware application Nokmote, for example, allows users to control their Nokia N95 through motion sensing. Like the Wiimote, subtle movements allow the user to control characters on the phone.

Although Gartner expects “gestural computing” to develop as a long-term business trend, the analyst says IT directors should buy a Wii and play computer games to observe how users interface with technology devices.

Being a technology leader has never been such fun. Anyone fancy a game of boxing?

Further reading

• The future of technology, according to Gartner
• Second Life: Benefits for students and employers
• China is the home of R&D, not outsourcing
• Forget the downturn and fight for innovation
• Don’t be afraid to be an IT innovator

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Whatever happened to knowledge management? The question is posed in the latest edition of System House, analyst Ovum's monthly review of the UK IT industry. Christopher Harris-Jones and Mike Davis recognise knowledge management was a hot phrase in the 1990s, but has become less popular recently.

Rather than disappearing, Harris-Jones and Davis suggest knowledge management has changed its shape - and more - importantly, its name.

Successful knowledge management was all about making the best use of available data and skills and the Ovum analysts say the latest social networking trend follows similar lines, simply proving a way for individuals to share information.

To make the most of the collaborative opportunities presented through social networking, Harris-Jones and Davis suggest social software needs to be integrated with other information management technologies, such as content management.

And in other words, social networking is not - as is commonly perceived - a revolution; instead it is just another means for sharing and exploiting information. Roll-on the next craze.

Further reading

• Next generation social networking
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Web 2.0: Your business needs a strategy now
• Social networking creates waste and exclusion
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish
• Web 2.0 technologies = five hours of depression

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

A free laptop, you say? There must be a catch. And there is. Fifty participants from around the world have signed up to a project where they have been provided with a clean laptop without spam protection and a new email address.

Worse still, the participants will be expected to surf the web, make online purchases and register for promotions.

Sounds crazy. But Christopher Bolin, chief technology officer for project sponsor McAfee, says it's becoming more difficult for internet users to detect spam and it's vital individuals understand the risks of leaving computers unprotected (which, of course, is McAfee's specialism).

Thanks be to good old McAfee, then. But hand on a minute, what's this? Dave DeWalt, chief executive officer for McAfee, seems to be suggesting we already know the answers of the research project:

"This experiment will raise awareness of the problem by showing that a 30-day diet of spam is bad for your online health."

Oh. If we already know that, why is the project taking place? Mmmmm... Rather than canned meat, I can smell the not-so-subtle whiff of marketing guff...

Anyway, if you're interested in the results, check the participants' online diary here: http://www.mcafee.com/spamexperiment

Further reading

• Time to focus on the good in databases
• Check the fine print of the Data Protection Act
• Security technology is not a priority for firms
• Flexible working creates a security nightmare
• Stop buying illegal software, or face the risks...
• How to cope with rogue IT

Want to subscribe to this blog? Click here for the options

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels