News - The Bumble Bee

February 23, 2006

Mobile IT could save local government millions

UK Guardian Online reports, Feb 8, that local authorities could save millions of pounds if they adopt wider use of mobile technologies, according to a new report: Cutting The Wires. The research, published by independent thinktank the New Local Government Network (NLGN), suggests that councils should use mobile phones and IT to become better organised and more relevant to their local communities.

Posted by Ken Thompson on February 23, 2006 at 12:00 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 21, 2006

Share broadband: save money

Sharing broadband via a wireless network with your next door neighbours or even your whole apartment block is the latest social collaboration phenomenon in distributed computing. It can reduce your costs, increase your speed and enhance your download capacity. But be careful to enable your personal firewall and wireless encryption so that only those with the pin can use it and remember to disable file sharing.

Its not even illegal - but check your service providers contract.

There are even some companies who will set the whole thing up for you such as www.myzones.com.

Others such as www.Fon.com will allow you free wifi whilst travelling on the understanding that you contribute your capacity into a shared pool (a bit like how skype allows you to make free calls).

Be careful if your neighbours decide to move house as the provider will chase whoevers name is on the bottom of contact for all the money.

For an excellent article which provides full details see How the wi-fi revolution could cut your bill which suggests the following checklist of key points in shared broadbanding:

Install a personal firewall
Look into consumer VPN services
Disable Automatic log on
Secure personal details
Turn off file and print-sharing on your computer
Change the default service set identifier (SSID)
Disable SSID broadcast
Change the default password needed to access a wireless device
Enable Mac address filtering

Posted by Ken Thompson on February 21, 2006 at 12:00 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (1)

February 20, 2006

Yahoo social search capabilities extended

Businessweek Online, Jan 23, reports that In a bid to challenge search giant Google, Yahoo the Web's most-used portal, is betting on the wisdom of crowds by developing its offer beyond algorithmic search to social search. Yahoo are doing this by acquiring companies in the social networking arena such as Flickr (photo sharing), Del.icio.us (web favourites sharing aka social bookmarking) and WebJay (music sharing).

What is social search technology

Computer search algorithms can only go so far in divining the intent of the user because a typical Web user only taps a couple of words into their search box.

For example someone searching for "Manchester" could be looking for the city in the UK, the towns in the US, three football teams, the Dukes, the historian William Manchester, the Manchester Bomber, HMS Manchester, the Ship Canal or the Manchester terrier!

Social search tries to fill this information gap by gleaning input and preferences from the communities with which the searcher is associated.

Someone seeking "Manchester" for instance, would arguably be better served by results reflecting preferences of people in the same neighborhood or they might prefer the suggestions of his or her circle of friends over those from whole Internet.

February 18, 2006

e-voting trials for local elections

People will soon be able to vote for politicians in their local Tesco or post office, by home computer or by texting from their mobile phone, just as they do for contestants on Big Brother or Strictly Come Dancing. However The Electoral Commission has expressed concern about the dangers of fraudulent voting. Lets hope the electorate are more keyboard literate than the Greek Olympic judge in Did London win Olympics bid because of voting system usability flaw. For more see Big Brother-style voting to be tested in May poll.

Posted by Ken Thompson on February 18, 2006 at 12:00 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 10, 2006

Virtual teams interactive online event

Heike Philp, CEO of Let's talk online, will be hosting a virtual panel discussion with Nancy White, Ted Kahn, Robin Good and myself on the topic ‘From Virtual Teams to Global Work Teams’ on Wednesday, 15th of February, 4pm (GMT +1) Worldtime. You can join free from home or from work, from the States or from Europe. For more details.

Posted by Ken Thompson on February 10, 2006 at 08:32 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 9, 2006

Executive PDA use myth: new research

According to research carried out by accountancy group UHY Hacker Young: Myths exposed as execs ditch gadgets (11th January, 2006) the image of executives managing their lives through handheld electronics gadgets is hugely exaggerated. Apparently only one in seven use a PDA and three quarters admit they are under-exploiting the internet in their businesses.

Posted by Ken Thompson on February 9, 2006 at 05:01 PM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 8, 2006

e-government blog launched

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.

So far public sector blogging has been mostly the sharing of the private views of individuals who work in government departments or the public or pundits commenting on public sector matters. EGOVNI.COM breaks new ground with a public sector department using the 'blog medium' as an 'official communication channel'. This is the first such blog of its kind which I have seen and would expect this to become a popular approach with government departments.

Bill McCluggage, Director of the Northern Ireland e-government Unit, believes that "Blogging is potentially going to replace conventional web sites as the preferred mechanism for communicating important information and the free interchange of ideas".

Bill goes on to say that "A key element of our role within the Northern Ireland eGovernment Unit is to prepare public sector organisations to adopt the latest online business tools. Our work also includes developing innovative policies that will enable workers within the public sector to exploit these new and innovative types of communication with the public at large. Hence, our weblog is a vehicle through which we are developing a set of enabling policies and, at the same time, learning new communication skills".

The blog is underpinned by an evolving Blog Policy which aims to maintain the freshness and informality of blogging without compromising the care that needs to be taken on the accuracy and objectivity of information which goes with such a role.

EGOVNI.COM: provides an independent perspective on a number of important e-government and e-society topics including:

Central Departments
Contact Centres
Digital Inclusion
Education
eGovernment channels
Events and Campaigns
IT Security
Local Authorities
News & Media Topics
NI eGov Unit Projects
Non-Departmental Public Bodies
Open Source Software
Safety Online
Smart Cards
Smart Communities
Technology

Posted by Ken Thompson on February 8, 2006 at 09:00 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2006

Virtual Peer Collaboration Startup Launched

Thanks to Cory Sorice of Invequity.com for pointing me to a Fast Company report: The Wisdom of Crowds (Beta Version) , published December 2005, which reviews a radically different internet startup called The Business Experiment (TBE) which aims to create new ventures through the power of totally virtual peer to peer collaboration (P2P).

The underlying model is “commons-based peer production” a new non-hierarchical fully transparent form of work. TBE has already agreed its first P2P collaborative online venture through its virtual discussion and voting process. One of the main headaches reported by TBE founder Rob May is getting the participants to move beyond ideas into committed action.

Posted by Ken Thompson on January 31, 2006 at 12:00 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 30, 2006

Blackberry email faces blackout threat

A dispute over patents could lead to email being switched off to Blackberry PDA users in the US according to a report in the UK Sunday Times (29 Jan).

Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian maker of Blackberry PDA, which has become an icon of 'mobile connectivity' with some 4 million users, has been in long-term dispute with NTP who claim to hold US patent rights to some of RIM’s technology. The two sides are locked in an increasingly heated battle and if an agreement cannot be reached, NTP is threatening to pull the plug on America’s Blackberry users which includes the elite of the private and public sectors.

Posted by Ken Thompson on January 30, 2006 at 12:00 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 29, 2006

Most workers just need the money

The UK Guardian reports that in a recent ICM survey, three-quarters of people said they would stop working if they won the lottery.

If we needed more evidence that something is badly wrong with our organisations this is it. The bioteaming manifesto contends that our organisations and teams need to recapture the dynamic element which is present in nature's teams. Without this our workplaces can turn into prisons of dead compliance rather than places of living commitment.

In a related and equally depressing article Laziness, lies and organizational teams I comment on two other surveys – one about employee resentment over “dead wood” colleagues and the other about lies on job application forms.

Posted by Ken Thompson on January 29, 2006 at 10:09 AM in News | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mobile IT could save local government millions
February 23, 2006

Share broadband: save money
February 21, 2006

Yahoo social search capabilities extended
February 20, 2006

e-voting trials for local elections
February 18, 2006

Virtual teams interactive online event
February 10, 2006

Executive PDA use myth: new research
February 9, 2006

e-government blog launched
February 8, 2006

Virtual Peer Collaboration Startup Launched
January 31, 2006

Blackberry email faces blackout threat
January 30, 2006

Most workers just need the money
January 29, 2006

Anti-spam act update
January 18, 2006