Young, successful and rich - Piers Daniell, the 26 year-old managing director of telecommunications provider Fluidata, is the kind of person that should make you feel sick.

But rather than feeling the penetrating force of the green eye of envy, Daniell makes you feel at ease - which is nice. The amiable entrepreneur has some interesting stories about his current business, the computer firm he set up at 15 years of age, and other opportunities for fame and fortune.

One such opportunity was when Daniell made the short-list of the final 40-or-so candidates for the first series of BBC TV programme 'The Apprentice'.

Making it to the last 40 meant Daniell was involved in the final elimination day, where potential candidates completed a series of tasks. He says the decision to select candidates was based purely on the opinion of TV executives - and perhaps unsurprisingly, Daniell says the "noisy and obnoxious candidates" were selected.

But what of Alan Sugar? Daniell says the business tycoon was not involved in the initial selection process. And would have been keen on working for Sugar?

"I didn't even know who he was," says Daniell - but the Fluidata chief says his mother did once own an Amstrad PC.

Further reading

• 'The Apprentice' + Aston Business School = hype
• Men like women in short skirts, says research
• "Glamorous" PR tarred with IT nerd brush
• Be proud of being a technology nerd
• IT skills crisis not solved via death by Powerpoint
• Modernise to beat IT and skills obsolesence

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Yesterday was 'No Internet Day' (NID). Well, it was in my house. My wife has become tired of my reliance on the internet at home. But you know, checking if Aston Villa have signed a right back is important.

And there's always some vitally important question that needs to be Googled. My wife does not agree, however.

"I don't believe you can go a whole day without using the internet," she said yesterday, before announcing it was NID.

But I successfully rose to the challenge - and only really started to get withdrawal symptoms by late evening. By then, my mind was starting to crumble under the weight of questions that needed to be Googled.

Still, I managed it. And it turns out NID is a bit of global phenomena (Google "No Internet Day" and see what I mean).

Maybe next weekend should be NGD ("No Google Day" - you can use the internet, but not to find pointless answers to pointless questions).

Further reading

• Dane-Elec Zpen - better than over-hyped iPhone?
• Instant messaging is a slippery fish for some firms
• How can you make money from social networking?
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish

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

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

A healthy dose of scepticism is always good, especially when it comes to new technology. My colleague Bryan Glick hammers the proverbial nail on the head when he talks about the hype surrounding the Apple iPhone. El Glicko says on his blog:

"Perhaps I’ve been in this game too long and the cynicism has set in after seeing too many product launches, but if anything is more likely to turn me off the iPhone – already the most over-hyped technology product in history – it’s the stage-managed artifice surrounding a me-too, catch-up phone."

Lots of people have commented on his blog, telling him he's wrong. But as I said, a healthy dose of scepticism is always good. Which brings me on to the Dane-Elec Zpen.

I got invited to the launch of the Zpen the other day. Very nice it was, too - sipping champagne on the London Eye. Dane-Elec UK country manager Mark Thuilliez demonstrated the digital pen, stating how the intuitive device allows the user to write on any kind of paper - and convert handwritten notes into digital text for word processing.

I was not convinced. For a start, I have a childish, joined-up scrawl - surely indecipherable to a digital device. Anyway, after quaffing the posh wine, I returned home and charged up the device. And I was amazed - this pen is the business.

Apart from translating my name as Hard - which you have to admit, is pretty cool - the pen was word-perfect. That was only about 30-or-so words; not had time for much else yet. But I'll give the Zpen a thorough work out ASAP.

Given the device is intuitive, I expect the response will improve. Also, just think of the potential business applications - such as time-saving for chemists that struggle to decipher the doctor's scrawl.

Nice gadget, me thinks. And better than an over-hyped iPhone? You'd better ask Bryan about that...

Further reading

• Instant messaging is a slippery fish for some firms
• Vodafone deal boost mobile social networking
• Mobile social networking is a community thing
• How can you make money from social networking?
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish

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

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Excuse me while I 'pop out' from this blog posting and message one of my mates: "Is an eel a fish or not?" Be warned - using instant messaging (IM) technology for such crucial business questions is likely to become increasingly prevalent.

For a start, researcher IDC says IM is set to overtake email as the preferred form of business communication by the second half of 2010. If that sounds fanciful, then the research - sponsored by Nortel - also shows European firms are already heavily reliant on IM. More than 50 per cent of respondents – twice the number of North American executives - use instant and text messaging for business.

But with regards to non-believing businesses, there is at least one significant barrier to overcome: security concerns. Research from ProcessOne suggests the majority of UK businesses miss out on instant messaging benefits because they fear workers will leak confidential information. As much as 74 per cent of firms say IM could provide collaboration benefits, but 72 per cent ban the technology because of security concerns.

As for eel question, forget your mates; turn to the all-knowing Wikipedia, which says: "True eels (Anguilliformes) are an order of fish, which consists of 4 suborders, 19 families, 110 genera and approximately 600 species." The order of the fish? Sounds like a niche members club...

Further reading

• Vodafone deal boost mobile social networking
• Mobile social networking is a community thing
• How can you make money from social networking?
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish

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

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Researcher Datamonitor says social networking increasingly provides "ad hoc unified communications for the general population". That's a nice way of looking at everything Web 2.0, I think.

People are choosing to communicate and receive communications through an ever-increasing array of collaborative devices and platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and RSS. Datamonitor's argument suggests consumers are using social networking services to maintain presence across a unified network - and that mobile phones will be the latest and greatest extension of such an effort.

The researcher says added proof came at the end of last week, as Vodafone acquired Danish company ZYB for 31.5m Euros - a firm that has developed a social networking and online management tool for backing up and sharing contact information. The deal represents further evidence of how vendors are attempting to facilitate the movement of social networking services from PCs to the mobile phone, says Ri Pierce-Grove, analyst at Datamonitor:

“Consumers will increasingly be able to move seamlessly between the PC and the mobile phone, keeping their friends and contacts aware of their movements as they choose. This has a number of positive consequences for providers like Vodafone. It increases consumers' use of data plans, and, potentially, provides a new source of revenue via advertising. Both mobile providers and social networking services are competing to find the right mix of platforms and partnerships in order to meet consumer demand.”

Expect similar deals soon. Back in February, analyst Informa Telecoms & Media released research that told users to expect mobile social networking to be a multi-billion business by 2012.

With more individuals logging on to social networks to join productivity, entertainment and social shopping communities, the analyst reported the growth in user registrations will continue at 30 to 50 per cent a year. Informa estimated there could be up to 23 per cent penetration of mobile social networks among users globally by 2012.

Further reading

• Mobile social networking is a community thing
• How can you make money from social networking?
• Social web is about improvement, not innovation
• Next generation social networking
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish

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Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Who said Web 2.0 was a load of hot air? Certainly not Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has been busy setting up a new social technology awards programme.

The press release for the UK Catalyst Awards states that "the search is on" to find the community activists, social entrepreneurs, software developers and Web 2.0 technologists who are enabling individuals and neighbourhoods to connect with each other in a positive way. Cool, man. There are nine Catalyst awards up for grabs:

• The Shock for Good Award: for something that shocked people into doing something good
• The Revolutionary Award: for something that makes people in power more aware of the need for change
• The Self-Help Award: for something that helps the creator to help themselves
• The Chalk & Cheese Award: for something that brings two different groups of people together
• The David and Goliath Award: for something little that made a difference to a something big and powerful
• The Young Achiever Award: for someone under 25
• The Individual Hero Award: for an individual
• The Community Award: for a community association or group
• The Enterprise Award: for an innovative new technology solution developed by a business

There will also be a public vote to decide an added extra - the People’s Choice Award. According to the Catalyst web site, every entrant gets entered for the People's Choice award.

But be warned - entering some of the Award categories might be a challenge in itself. Take 'The Shock for Good Award: for something that shocked people into doing something good'. Shock for what? Sounds like a load of hot air to me, which is ironic seeing that we're talking about the hyped-up world of Web 2.0.

Then there's 'The David and Goliath Award: for something little that made a difference to a something big and powerful' - which also sounds a bit broad, in my opinion.

Maybe the categories are knowingly broad, given the context of fluff surrounding Web 2.0? But it could be interesting to see how social technology is rewarded across the selected areas. After all, more elucidation of how social technology can create collaborative benefits is no bad thing.

If you're keen to compete, the applications deadline is Monday 16 June 2008. If you want to find out more, visit: www.ukcatalystawards.com

Further reading

• How can you make money from social networking?
• How can a CIO make the most of Web 2.0?
• Social web is about improvement, not innovation
• Next generation social networking
• Finding useful Web 2.0 and social networking tools
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish

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

Want to contact the writer? Email Mark Samuels

Everyone is doing it, but no-one is allowed to do it at work. What are we talking about? Social networking, the addictive habit of the UK masses. Researcher Datamonitor says Britain has the highest membership of social networking sites in Europe.

Continent-wide, usage is predicted to more than double from 41.7 million to 107.4 million. But at the same time, companies remain sceptical about the benefits of social software, with 32 per cent of firms now choosing to block social networking sites, according to ScanSafe.

Time to wake up, says analyst Gartner - who suggest retailers, in particular, need to be more open to social networking - possibly creating a social community to gather feedback, or creating a marketing presence on large social networks.

The analyst has created a top ten tips for retailers considering a social network, summarised below (for full list, visit Gartner).

1. There are Social Sites, and Then There are Social Platforms - Social sites can include features such as discussion forums and consumer reviews. A social platform is a large public site that enables users to do the same things as on a social site, but also creates a platform that encourages and eases the development of applications, widgets and mashups.
2. Social Network Sites Go Way Beyond MySpace and Facebook But Reconsolidation Has Started - Gartner estimates that an individual is able to participate in one to three social networks in any meaningful way. Because there are only so many social networks to participate in, consumers are starting to shift to the large centres of gravity (for example, MySpace and Facebook in North America). Analysts believe that the social network market has not yet settled, so retailers should be cautious with their investments on any one social network.
3. Social Networks Are Rich in Word-of-Mouth Discussions About Retailers and Products - Retailers should view social networks as a lead-generation channel just as they would search engines, review sites, and price comparison sites. Lead-generation vehicles range from banners, to search term bidding, to application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable social networks to access the retailers’ consumers.
4. Social Graphs Make Word-of-Mouth Relationships Known and Usable - Social graphs describe how friends are formally linked to each other on a social network. Word of mouth is effectively amplified by making social graphs usable by friends and business entities on a social network.
5. Viral Propagation is Boosted in Social Networking - Viral marketing is the most obvious route to take with viral propagation but must be closely monitored and managed. Communication between friends about something as simple as a pricing or promotion mistake on a Web site can propagate very quickly in social networks.
6. Applications for Social Networks are Easier to Build - The latest push in the social network world has been the focus on creating a platform that allows individuals and companies alike to build applications (sometimes called widgets) that are designed to run on the social network. Social platforms, especially Facebook, have been providing a platform and technical guidelines to make building these applications easier.
7. Social Networks Are a Huge Source of Consumer Data, but Retailers Cannot Easily Access It - Already some people are regretting having made available so much information available on social networks and access to this information will decrease further over time. However, access to some of this data can be gained by building applications that require members to agree to share some of their data in exchange for using the application.
8. Communities, Groups and Networks Can Be Created By Anyone and Are Impossible to Control - If a social network provides corporations too many capabilities in interacting with members (for example, advertising and selling), there is a risk that members will leave the network. Gartner advises retailers to build their social network presence on content produced by members and create applications that engage members in providing feedback in areas such as product design.
9. Social Networks Are Not Capable of Commerce, Yet - Gartner advises retailers against becoming an early adopter of commerce capabilities on social networks. This lessens the chances of being part of a movement that may drive away social network participants because of the perceived commercialisation of the social network.
10. Social Networks Are Merging Into the Real-Time World - For now this remains an emerging consumer practice, but the ability to access social networks from mobile phones is being promoted by the wireless carriers.

Gartner's tips range from the obvious (social networking is more than just Facebook and MySpace), to the more interesting (social networks are not yet capable of supporting commerce).

The analyst says retailers should stay away from commerce-based social networking - a rule of thumb that might apply to all sectors. I guess the follow-up question might be: "How can you commercialise a successful social network?" After all, the security issues are so significant that most individuals are not keen to give away valuable personal information.

The continuing consolidation - which Gartner refers to as reconsolidation (has there been a previous consolidation stage, then?) - of social networking sites might help provide some clarity. As individuals find useful platforms and begin to trust the methods of operation, more firms should be able to create commercial operations.

Well, that's the theory anyway. If not, expect to be drowned by more and more social networking "opportunities" - most of which offer few benefits and little in the way of commercial viability.

Further reading

• How can a CIO make the most of Web 2.0?
• 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

Leeds United might be struggling to make the League One play-offs, but they are at least top of one division - the hotly contested title of football clubs with the best-performing mobile web sites.

Leeds are actually joint top with Aston Villa, Glasgow Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, according to content provider AnimationFC and mobile specialist Bango. Apparently, clubs who use animated promotions on their homepage generate the most sales.

“Teams like Tottenham Hotspur often accompany features on its star players such as Robbie Keane with links to download mobile photographs and cartoon animations," says director of AnimationFC Gavin Skelhorn, choosing to outline the approach of Spurs, rather than Leeds or the other three contenders.

Which is a shame, because Spurs have already won the League Cup this season. Come on - spread the joy around, AnimationFC and Bango.

Further reading

• Red is probably not the key to technology success
• IT skills crisis not solved via death by powerpoint
• Recycle? WEEE don't understand the rules, stupid
• 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

The pesky network - can't work with it, can't work without it. Application performance problems apparently cost the average UK business more than half a million pounds a year, due mainly to reduced productivity, lost sales and diminished customer confidence. And according to Ipanema Technologies and indpendent research specialst Vanson Bourne, one in ten organisations says poor application performance can cost as much as £2m.

With more and more content being pushed down cramped network pipes, UK firms need to find a way to solve performance issues. The answer, according to technology leaders in this week's Computing (out tomorrow, 14 February), is a careful combination of network upgrades, wireless technology and tight service level agreements (SLAs).

In the second of Computing's four-part definitive guide to network management, writer Lisa Kelly talks to bed retailer Dreams' IT director Lee Felton, who says SLAs should be kept proportionate to need:

"You can spend an inordinate amount of money on resilience and only move a percentage point higher, so it is important to properly define and build any extra solution. We don’t want to be at the bleeding edge or have to make changes because we are out of support, but we do want people to be able to turn their PCs on and know they will work."

The conclusion from the special report is that guaranteed performance is everything. While firms can spend inordinate amounts of cash implementing advanced technology, users simply need to know their technology will perform.

In short, working with the business is sometimes more about about guaranteed provision than leading-edge innovation.

For more on the feature: The definitive guide to network management

Further reading

• Network managers face an automated future
• Open standards and "social networking with a point"
• Twelve confusing content predictions for 2008
• Broadband gains mean Ukraine is offshoring boss
• Happy birthday mobile phone - now for the users

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Expect mobile social networking to be a multi-billion business by 2012, with more and more users logging on to social networks in order to join productivity, entertainment and social shopping communities. That's the conclusion of new a report from analyst Informa Telecoms & Media, which reports that the number of mobile social networking users exceeded 50 million on December 31 2007, approximately 2.3 per cent of the global mobile user population.

The growth in user registrations will continue at 30 to 50 per cent a year, depending on the type of community and the region. And by 2012, Informa estimates there could be up to 23 per cent penetration of mobile social networks among users globally. Revenues generated from all business models, meanwhile, could reach $52bn. 

As has been mentioned previously on this blog (see Futher reading, below), strong social networking growth during the next 24 months is likely to occur in specific sectors or communities - and Informa points to the likely importance of entertainment, productivity and social shopping.

In short, firms that are currently struggling to make the most of the social software revolution will slowly begin to find opportunities for making cash and increasing efficiency. Platforms that create the possibility for sectoral collaboration are the future of social networking, not applications that allow you to 'poke' your friends and play retro games.

Further reading

• Social networking to test traditional banking model
• Access? Open source? Rethinking the digital divide
• Social networking creates waste and exclusion
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish
• $15bn Facebook valuation masks the real deal
• Web 2.0 technologies = five hours of depression

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Sometimes, you have to start out a bit dull to end up in a worthy position. Network management - the focus of this month's Definitive Guide section in Computing - is a good example.

While running networks used to be all about providing suitable bandwidth and pinging routers, network managers today work at the more responsible end of the spectrum (if you'll excuse the network-based pun): security, internet protocols and content control. As Richard Mahoney, enterprise practice leader at analyst Ovum, says in this week's feature section:

"The onset of convergence has brought more complex management functions because voice and video in particular have to be treated in a more sensitive fashion to guarantee higher levels of service."

Future developments in network management, according to writer Linda More, will concentrate on automation and policy-based control:

Next-generation networks
Integrate Ethernet with multi-protocol label switching and you get an IP-centric carrier-class network that can deliver rich multiple services such as VoIP, unified messaging and personal communications services. Whether the traffic flows over fixed copper, fibre or a mobile infrastructure will no longer be of concern to the user or the administrator. Next-generation networks will be more intelligent and offer new features through software residing in the system.

Virtual managed services
The scope of remotely-delivered managed services is set to grow as the technology improves and acceptance of the concept of virtual managed services increases. The management, and even the provision, of enterprise infrastructures, could be absorbed into next-generation networks being implemented by telecoms companies. Virtualising services – such as telephone provision, contact centres as well as conferencing, email and office applications – means that provision could be delivered and managed from the core of the network, rather than from in the enterprise.

Autonomic computing
Self-diagnosing and self-healing network systems may seem like science fiction, but with the increasing complexity and distribution of infrastructure, autonomic computing has the potential to address some of the management challenges facing business. Viewing IT infrastructures and their services as closed-loop control systems, autonomics implements the corrective actions that return the system to its normal state.

Network management portals
The proliferation of modern network management tools, together with changes and advances in additional functionality and service delivery, means that running and monitoring multiple network management applications is no longer workable. Portals will be used to provide the window into the network management world, in the same way that the systems provide an integrated desktop or dashboard for business applications. As remote network management becomes the norm, your network management portal may soon be appearing on a desktop or mobile device near you.

Policy-based management
Taking a manual approach to network management is unrealistic in the long-term: what is needed is a holistic and comprehensive method that supports business requirements. Networks need to be directed and managed according to policies and procedures and we are starting to see policy-based network management tools appearing in the market. Regulatory compliance seems to be the current driver, but expect to see new tools appearing that offer a wider, comprehensive methodology for total network management.

All exciting-sounding stuff, particularly when set against the dull-but-worthy exercise of pining routers and checking for availability. But how do such automatic monitoring and virtualisation tools sit against e-skills UK's recent suggestion that the IT sector will need 140,000 new staff for the next five years to fill high-level positions? Where do such automated advances leave the role of network managers?

• For the full feature: http://www.computing.co.uk/2208869
• For the full Definitive Guide series: http://www.computing.co.uk/2198192

Further reading

• Technology skills gap will create a crisis, says Gartner
• IT needs to show the boss it means business
• Depressed technology professionals need a boost
• Is IT always a business issue?
• The adventures of a technology career

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Trying to find a proper use for Web 2.0 applications is as infuriating as being stuck in a pointless meeting with a business colleague.

Hyped up social networks, such as Facebook, are often seen as time-wasting devices that are only good for one thing: work avoidance.

But research from recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark reveals 38 per cent of UK executives are not signed up to social networking sites. A further 12 per cent of workers have access blocked by employers and 22 per cent restrict usage to out of office hours.

Such research shows a few key trends: some users remain sceptical about the potential of Web 2.0 technologies - and some businesses also remain sceptical about Web 2.0

The reason is simple. Most social networking options currently lack a strong business applicability and until chief executives can see a reason for implementation, users will remain outside the realm of collaboration.

Such exclusion needs to be put in context, especially when just six per cent of UK employees believe social networking sites are a major distraction at work.

Maybe the employees are in a state of denial? Or maybe employers are over-reacting and Web 2.0 is a healthy way of relaxing at work? As one IT worker (DigitAL) commented on my blog recently:

"Just a reminder, IT staff are not machines. If I did not have 20 minutes time out a day on Facebook, I would otherwise chat to the cleaner or go to the coffee machine in the TV room or text my mates."

The Badenoch & Clark survey also suggests workers are more distracted at work by pointless meetings and loud colleagues than social networking applications.

Pointless meetings, eh? Now you are talking. The whole world has gone meetingstastic - and if that is not a word, it should be. As a contact of mine suggested recently, someone should start a social network called meetingsaboutmeetings.com, logging the details of meetings, providing a meeting place for other people involved in meetings to talk about, well, their meetings.

Because people involved in business just love to: "Borrow your time for a quick meeting." What is this strange concept of borrowing time? You can't get it back once you have taken it. As far as I'm aware, no-one has yet invented a time-bartering system.

Basically, your pointless, 30 minute work-avoidance chat about spreadsheets and Tony from accounts may have helped relieve your tedium and helped shorten your day, but it has extended mine and contracted the amount of available minutes for management and administration.

Sound familiar? Apparently so, according to the Badenoch & Clark survey, which suggests almost a third of UK executives believe pointless meetings are a major source of distraction to productivity at work.

Rubbish meetings, however, are just the base level of UK executives ire. More than half (52 per cent) of managers believe loud, distracting colleagues are the biggest source of distraction. It is not hard to understand why, with businesses keen to move towards open plan offices and hot-desking.

Crammed in like commuters on an over-priced train journey, employees are often expected to sit hip-by-jowl with colleagues. Staff are then confronted with their colleagues' selfish habits, such as talking loudly to friends on the mobile phone or eating stinking food at the desk.

Now, here should be the business use for Web 2.0 and social networking applications – providing a way for colleagues and partners to effectively collaborate without shouting or smelling. However, available social software suggests we are some way off such a conclusion yet.

Further reading

• Social networking creates waste and exclusion
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish
• Facebook provides a great business opportunity
• Turn email off to stop unhelpful chatter
• $15bn Facebook valuation masks the real deal
• Web 2.0 technologies = five hours of depression

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Using Second Life really can be an education. This week's Computing (out 31st January) features a column by e-skills UK chief executive Karen Price that analyses how has experimented with virtual world environment Second Life - and the sector skills council suggests students have been the biggest beneficiary.

Making use of IBM’s Second Life facilities, the skills body ran a special event in November last year for employers and university students. Information Technology Management for Business (ITMB) degree students were also able to discuss with employers and tutors the business benefits of virtual world technologies, with booths made available for one-to-one discussions. Price says the event provided a glimpse into the potential of Second Life:

"Virtual worlds also have the potential to enhance and enrich education. Such technologies can bring learning to life in a way that is not readily matched by other digital media. For example, virtual environments can offer students a vibrant, fully immersive environment where they can meet each other and their teachers to receive lessons, undertake projects and present work. Second Life, and similar platforms, also provide a format for students to talk to people they would rarely get the chance to encounter in person, such as senior business leaders."

Price says e-skills was so impressed with Second Life that it plans to run a virtual careers fair as part of a new Revitalise IT programme in 2008, an initiative to transform the attitudes of young people to IT-related education and careers.

The skills body is not alone, as illustrated by comments from IT leaders involved in the analysis. Meri Williams, information decision solutions manager at Procter and Gamble, says the consumer giant uses virtual environments to provide real business benefits:

"Virtualisation is a huge area for Procter and Gamble and we mix the virtual and real worlds a lot. For example, designing a new Hugo Boss perfume bottle uses a fraction of the cost of making physical mock-ups. We also use fully immersive 3D environments such as Caves (computer augmented virtual environments) to demonstrate ideas to our big customers. So, whereas before we'd have to convince Tesco to actually change a store layout in order to test an idea, now we create it virtually and walk them round it."

Further reading

• Social networking creates waste and exclusion
• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish
• Facebook provides a great business opportunity
• Turn email off to stop unhelpful chatter
• $15bn Facebook valuation masks the real deal
• Web 2.0 technologies = five hours of depression

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Two new pieces of research illustrate the startling contradictions taking place in the collaborative workplace - with some individuals apparently taking advantage of social networking technologies and others excluded from Web 2.0 applications.

Research from Global Secure Systems (GSS) and Infosecurity Europe 2008 suggests social networking sites - such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo - are costing UK corporations close to £6.5 billion annually in lost productivity. Which sounds an impossibly large figure, but here's the maths:

The poll was carried out amongst 776 office workers, who admitted to spending at least 30 minutes a day visiting social networking sites whilst at work, that’s a minimum of 10 hours a month which equates to 3 weeks of every year with two respondents who were so hooked that the spend 3 hours visiting these sites everyday. The end result is potentially billions of pounds in lost productivity maintain GSS, plus the extra demand on bandwidth which is an additional cost to a business in terms of efficiency, maintenance and resources.

Potentially, yes (the bold emphasis in the above quote is important, I think). But, of course, there's also some individuals - there must be some out there (see Further Reading, below) - that are managing to gain important business benefits from social networking sites: contact building, contact managing, contact contacting. Blah, blah, blah.

If the GSS / Infosec survey seems like a slice of media-grabbing hype (and hey, it grabbed my goldfish-like attention), other research from national computing and disability charity AbilityNet highlights how social networking sites are "locking out" disabled visitors.

The research suggests the majority of disabled users can’t even register, let alone participate, in the online communities they wish to join. Kath Moonan, survey author and AbilityNet’s senior accessibility and usability consultant says:

"UK participation in social networking is the highest in Europe with around 80 per cent of the online population now making over 25 million visits a month to sites such as those covered in the review. With a disabled population of some 10 million potential users, these sites are inadvertently imposing a 'technological lock-out’ on those who have most to gain from social networking - arguably the most socially excluded members of the community."

None of the sites reviewed – Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo or Bebo - would allow login without the identification of a CAPTCHA image, a visual verification code used to determine whether the end user is human. Individuals unable to interpret the graphic due to vision impairment, dyslexia or learning difficulties are, therefore, blocked from proceeding.

While some of the sites, such as Yahoo and Facebook, offer an (unusable, says the report) alternative, MySpace’s CAPTCHA image changed every 60 seconds – "an added complication to an already impenetrable process for many disabled users," says the AbilityNet survey. Such an oversight is not only unethical, it is also in contravention of the Disability Discrimination Act (1999). Moonan continues:

"Many of the barriers to accessibility we encountered could be easily remedied and it was shocking how little response we received when we approached the sites for advice on these issues. We would like to ask the operators of these sites to look at some of the key factors governing disabled access, namely: the reduction of the amount of CAPTCHA and the provision of an intelligible audio alternative; user-friendly support for those experiencing access problems and lastly, adherence to what is, after all, the law."

Further reading

• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish
• Facebook provides a great business opportunity
• Turn email off to stop unhelpful chatter
• $15bn Facebook valuation masks the real deal
• Web 2.0 technologies = five hours of depression

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Another day, another social network launches. Voxswap arrived earlier this week - and in a bid to create what its co-founders call ‘social networking with a point,’ the site allows users to set up profiles and state which languages they are learning.

“I am convinced social networking is here to stay but it needs to have a point. There’s no benefit in creating long lists of so-called friends and business contacts you never actually meet or contact,” says co-founder Sean Hargreaves.

Couldn't agree more, actually.

Hargreaves continues: “That’s why I decided to launch a social network site that will help people learn or practise a foreign language so everybody benefits. I couldn’t find the site I was looking for, so I decided to build it.”

But is that enough of a pull? Is learning a language really going beyond contact building and taking the user into true connectivity and interaction?

Users will want open standards, access to a combination of systems and platforms - access, inevitably, to everyone at any time. So, how will social networks develop in the long-term to provide access to information? A number of people that replied to my earlier blog posting about social networks being rubbish (see Further reading, below) suggested the best way forward is sectoral.

Ian Hendry, for example, believes networks will become vertical, appealing to specific interests or demographics - one for friends, one for family, one for professional contacts: "All that remains to be seen is which sites get the traffic," he says.

Maybe. But how will such vertical networks interact? As ever, the flow of information and the need for open standards is crucial.

Further reading

• Facebook? LinkedIn? Social networking is rubbish
• Facebook provides a great business opportunity
• Turn email off to stop unhelpful chatter
• $15bn Facebook valuation masks the real deal
• Web 2.0 technologies = five hours of depression

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Social network resources with a point?

• http://www.voxswap.com - Allows users to set up profiles, stating which languages they speak and which they are practising
• http://www.ning.com - Ning offers customisable social networking features to meet each group's specific needs
• http://findasocialnetwork.com/search.php - A dedicated search engine to help find and promote social networks; though I had a quick play and found the results, well, disappointing. Still, feedback from the site says: "We're in very early stages at the moment and still building our database, so the results will be far from exhaustive." Might be worth giving the search engine more patience, then...
• http://www.linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin - Just a glorified contact manager? Offers more than a 100 ways to make the most of LinkedIn
• http://www.wecando.biz - Combines business networking and internet searching in an attempt to provide qualified leads

Well it is - isn't it? Pushed by friends and colleagues, I signed up to a bunch of social networking systems. Several months on, what have I gained? In short, nothing.

Let's take Facebook, for example. Oh the excitement back in 2007, as everyone rushed to find their primary school mates, to add time-wasting applications and to update their profile with pointless information.

Now - in the cold light of 2008 - the Facebook hype looks a bit silly. In fact, can I be the first to say Facebook is the new Friends Reunited - a rush to play with an exciting new internet toy that allows to you find old flames... and then nothing happens (if I'm not the first to call Facebook the new Friends Reunited, it doesn't matter - the point still stands).

Basically, I now sign on infrequently to check I haven't missed some life-changing message. Which I haven't - but you never know, do you? Because some people are still using Facebook alongside email and the phone.

Aaah, yes - email and the phone. They were rubbish last year. Everyone was social networking. Except they're not now. Because everyone has realised that some people join social networks and some people don't. And that means they're pretty much useless.

Because unless everyone you've ever met ever is part of the network and can be communicated through the technology - like they can with the phone or email - people are excluded. And loads of my mates aren't part of Facebook. So, good bye then.

Social networks are cool for Generation Newbie - the up-and-coming kids that are going to take over the world and force me to quickly realise I know nothing about technology, or worse, the world. You see, most new graduates are already on Facebook and so are all their mates. So, it works for them - it is inclusive. But for me and Generation Email, forget it.

And the same is true for LinkedIn. "Relationships matter," says their tag line - yeah, relationships do matter, but only if all your contacts can be contacted - and if half the business world is giving social networking the swerve, something is wrong.

Back in the crazy world of 2007, loved-up critics rushed to make statements in the vain of: "Facebook is more addictive than crack." If crack is that bland, I'm pushing for the re-classification of crack alongside a cup of tea.

Still, I can hardly talk. Just last month, I wrote the following (see link at the end of the post): "You can either join in with the natives, or be a social networking outcast. For the sake of your business, make the right choice."

The choice is simple - until someone creates the right tool that creates perfect connectivity between all users, there is no choice to be made. And I have no idea what that perfect social networking tool will look like, unfortunately.

But if I and a bunch of loved-up critics look crazy, what about Microsoft? They paid $240m for a 1.6 per cent slice of last year's most popular social networking phenomenon Facebook - creating an implied valuation for the total business of $15bn. Good luck and all that.

Further reading

Facebook provides a great business opportunity - http://knowledge.computing.co.uk/2007/12/facebook-provid.html

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Who is the smartest guy round these parts? Which technology expert has the ability to react quickly and succinctly to the news - and offer a pithy response? Who, in short, really has the knowledge?

The answer, given my most recent posting about content predictions for 2008, is principal Alan Pelz-Sharpe at CMS Watch. In the posting, I was quick to slate the analyst firm for their confusing trends: "To be honest, I don't understand many of the predictions."

More fool me. For there was more to the press release than a simple list of trends and catchphrases. As Pelz-Sharpe helpfully pointed out in a friendly comment on my recent posting: "You know we did publish seven pages explaining each prediction in detail on our web site."

Which is true - even the confusing buyers' market and valley of disappointment are explained. So, I'm whispering it quietly, but once you get past the marketing speak, CMS Watch's trends do include a series of useful content predictions for 2008.

Those useful analyst guys, eh?

The CMS Watch content predictions in full: http://www.cmswatch.com/Feature/172-2008

Analyst CMS Watch has unveiled a series of twelve trends it believes will shape content technologies next year - but to be honest, I don't understand many of the predictions:

1. Archiving becomes a prime focus for enterprise content management vendors
2. Google will make a bid to become the world's content repository
3. SharePoint enters the valley of disappointment
4. Return of the buyers' market
5. Web 2.0 exhaustion
6. Social software vendor collision
7. Facebook backlash in the enterprise
8. Security and identity management trump fu nctionality for buyers
9. Finally bridging web analytics and online marketing
10. Search is dead....Not!
11. Productisation of search platforms
12. CMS Watch says it will have 12 new predictions at the end of 2008

Point three - a valley of disappointment - what is that; where is that? Point four - return of the buyers' markets - when did it go and what is it? Is it like the French market that visits my high street every so often? And if so, what's it got to do with content technologies?

The trends seem to include a lot of big words, like collision, exhaustion and backlash. Which sound jolly exciting. And search is "not dead" - which is good, seeing as I search the worldwideinterweb about 500 times a day.

"Perhaps just as noteworthy is what we do not predict," says CMS Watch Principal Theresa Regl, possibly confusing matters further. "We are not predicting rampant vendor consolidation, dramatic technology innovation, or Microsoft/Google hegemony – rather the trends we see for 2008 tend to revolve around executing better with the technologies already close at hand."

OK, then. The last prediction, by the way, is apparently tongue-in-cheek. "Analyst firms love to make predictions, and we're no different," says CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne.

Those crazy analyst guys, eh?

With its adaptable applications that allow users to post video clips and interact with friends, it might seem to some that Facebook offers little more than a souped-up version of standard email.

Many chief executives are becoming hot under the collar as employees spend more time “poking” than working.

The reaction is often draconian, with firms issuing guidelines for use ­ or worse, total bans during work hours.

This seems odd, seeing as the whole world is apparently going Web 2.0. A quick Google News search shows there have been more than 16,000 news stories written about Facebook in the past month.

More to the point, digital natives: the next generation of workers to enter the workplace have grown up using social networking technologies and will expect to be able to use Facebook, Bebo and Second Life.

In an age when businesses are quick to spot a new online opportunity and thrash it to within an inch of its life, are chief executives being rather short-sighted when it comes to Facebook and Web 2.0 applications?

Lessons from past transgressions are not hard to find. After shying away from online commerce in the immediate aftermath of the dot com downturn, firms now see a strong web presence as a given.

So, maybe a little bit of patience and foresight is required, with technology leaders required to sell the benefits of social networking to the business.

Take storage space, for example. Consultancy Detica says that employees who chat over email and share photographs of their personal lives are creating the a risk of an information overload.

The answer lies with Facebook. Just as small firms are giving workers free Gmail accounts to save storage space, allowing employees to send messages and photographs through Facebook could stop workers hoarding data on business systems.

Technology leaders who are keen to adapt to the business options offered through social networking, meanwhile, will have a leading edge over their competitors.

Facebook launched Facebook Pages last month, allowing users to connect with specific businesses and to post restaurant reviews, buy tickets for a film or talk about a new promotion.

Such initiatives are just the start of an ongoing movement towards all things Facebook.

You can either join in with the natives, or be a social networking outcast. For the sake of your business, make the right choice.

Unless you have turned straight to the opinion page, you will have noticed that much of this week’s Computing is dedicated to our annual awards evening. The extravagant bash, held last week at the Battersea Park Events Arena in London, celebrated the outstanding projects and professionals in UK IT.

As ever, the Computing Awards show that the industry has much to be proud of, from innovative public sector projects to leading-edge private sector implementations.

Such progress, therefore, makes it disheartening to hear Gartner’s suggestion that chief information officers (CIOs) should create a backup IT budget for 2008.

The analyst says technology leaders should produce a contingency budget in case of a business slowdown.

In a time of credit crunches and sub-prime mortgages crises, such advice might seem farsighted.

But is there any IT director that does not already work with a contingency?

Surely every technology leader recognises that deadlines can be missed, projects can run over budget and the economic climate can turn sour?

It would appear not, with Gartner suggesting CIOs should target a decrease in IT spending of at least 10 per cent before the finance director makes his or her own cuts.

Ten per cent is quite a large amount ­ is the economy already in such precarious shape?

While a bit of preparation is all well and good, talk of such cuts could produce a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The economy is not in recession, but if we keep talking about a downturn, we could make it happen.

So how about a bit of optimism? Instead of talk about cutting projects, prepare for innovation within your existing budget.

Make sure the leading-edge mobility, integration and green computing projects are prioritised, rather than resource refresh initiatives.

A recent survey by the European Commission found that Europe’s research and development spending has been declining since 2000, standing at just 1.9 per cent of GDP ­and almost half the rate devoted to research investment in China.

Do not let your IT department become part of the downward trend. And if your company’s finance director wants to cut your budget, fight for the innovative projects with all your might.

The winners of the Computing Awards show that technology leaders have a duty to strive for excellence, not just mediocrity.

Everyone likes a bit of low-level spying and gossip. Be it furtively watching the next door neighbours from behind closed curtains, to having a chin-wag at the coffee machine with colleagues at work, the UK spends - or is it wastes? - a fair percentage of its time embroiled in scandal and hearsay.

And chief information officers (CIOs) are no different, despite their elevated status. Just because they're approaching the top of the corporate ladder CIOs are not immune to enjoying tittle-tattle.

How do you become the technology chief and stay there? The answer, quite obviously, is not by sitting back and avoiding everyone - while the statement, "no-one ever got to the top by being a nice guy," is cliched and hackneyed, it certainly has a ring of truth about it.

And in an age of social networking - both online and offline - where technology leaders are expected to meet and greet with skill and diplomacy, rather than just to tinker with technical tools, it will be the kings of gossip that rule.

On any given day, in any given week (which sounds like a pretty bad blockbuster film title), my in-box is filled with an assorted mix of emails. The relevance of the correspondence ranges across a broad spectrum from irrelevant to ludicrous.

Take yesterday for instance, where I was asked for my opinions on share investments, or the awful newsletter which I haven't asked to subscribe to, which I can't leave and which keeps creating a conflict between my email application and operating system.

Then there is the communication from colleagues that are either too lazy to come and talk directly, or use email as some sort of task-filing strategy. You know the sort of thing: "Oh, didn't you get the email? It was the point about blue sky thinking. It was in paragraph sixteen..."

Lost amongst the quagmire of email guff an fluff lies a small - and I mean minute - amount of useful chatter. Finding such nuggets is akin to panning for gold, with research suggesting electronic communication adds about two hours to the average working day.

Potential answers? Turn the swine off - and only look at email a few times a day. Insist colleagues talk to you face-to-face. Unsubscribe (if you can) from droney newsletters. And keep replies succinct.

Next problem issue? That bloody phone that keeps ringing - and that nutter that keeps contacting you through Facebook...

So, Microsoft has taken a 1.6 per cent slice of this week's most popular social networking phenomenon Facebook for $240m. Nice work - primarily because the stake creates an implied valuation for the total business of $15bn, which seems a lot to pay for a bunch of friendship links and photos of mates getting drunk.

But that's not what's really crucial about the deal, is it? As David Bradshaw at analyst Ovum recognises, Microsoft will be the exclusive advertising platform for Facebook worldwide.

"What really counts here is that Microsoft has tied-down the advertising partnership with Facebook. Since it is one of the most rapidly growing web properties, this is a landmark deal for Microsoft which was a late starter in the syndicated advertising business," he said, in an Ovum press statement.

I guess both parties - Microsoft and Facebook - now have to find ways to exploit the advertising partnership. And users can expect a stream of cleverly targeted content. Not just 'pokes' from former sixt