Newsweek report in Smoother Surfing (Jan 30) on a exciting new set of technologies known as Ajax which underpin applications such as Google Maps and promises to deliver desktop-like usability, smoothness and performance to web browser-based applications. The potential of web-based applications which are equal in usability to their desktop-based counterparts could re-energise both the ASP (Application Service Provider) and web-based application provider markets and threaten Microsoft's long-standing dominance of office-based applications.

The Northern Ireland e-Government Unit team have just launched EGOVNI.COM: a blog designed to be a general eGovernment news resource and source of information on current developments in technology.

Instead of issuing orders, nature's teams such as ants, geese, dophins, jellyfish and microscopic life forms, function by providing timely information to the team members and then allowing and expecting them to take the appropriate action. Curiously, this information is not provided by the Queen nor a leadership group but by the 'rank and file' members. Team Intelligence provides a team with a much more sensitive and long-range early warning 'radar' than the conventional approach which enables them to spot problems and opportunities sooner and to react to them more effectively.

Wired report (Feb 06) in ‘Geeks in Toyland’ that Lego fully understands the power of customer co-invention by inviting leading Mindstorms enthusiasts to join the Lego R&D Team. See also “Customer collaboration: exploiting the Hawthorne Effect”.

David Brent, the manager in the hugely popular satirical comedy drama about organisational life, The Office suffers from 'delusions of grandeur' concerning his leadership skills and the value of his personal philosophy of management. I have compiled a collection of his top tips in the area of teams, leadership and collaboration.

SearchCIO.com, 2 Feb, reports on the emergence of sophisticated speech recognition software which can highlight words that can indicate trouble on the line such as ‘confused’ and ‘cancel’. The software can also monitor in real-time telltale changes in the pitch, volume and timbre of a customer's voice which indicate hostility or rising anger.

One of the biggest issues facing collaborative business networks is what legal form they should take. Too loose and they lack accountability and robustness but too tight and they become hamstrung and inflexible. Enter the Unincorporated Association and the Consortium Agreement.

The cultures of organisations and teams can be colour coded according to Jerry Connor and Lee Sears authors of “Why Work is Weird”. Red is achievement oriented, Yellow is people focused and Blue values Professional Expertise.