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).

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

Maurene Grey in Collaboration Loop January 03, 2006 reports that two years after being signed into law, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have released their report to the US Congress on the effectiveness of the CAN-SPAM Act.

David Goldes COO of Basex in A Wake-Up Call For Collaboration comments on the New York City's transit strike which although it only lasted 60 hours is estimated to have cost the city's economy $1 billion even though many were able to continue working virtually.

Workforce Management reports, December 14, 2005, that Older Workers Seek Flexibility, Autonomy and Learning as new studies by The National Study of the Changing Workforce support the notion that creative work arrangements may be the key to retaining employees of fifty years and older. Autonomy and flexibility are two defining characteristics of the Self-Managed approach to teams typified by bioteaming.

We are used to having to work very hard to make collaboration happen in teams and groups however sometimes it just emerges. The Christmas Truce is the true story of how British and German soldiers in the trenches on Christmas eve 1914 called a truce and celebrated Christmas Day by singing carols, exchanging gifts and playing football together. It is an amazing example of nature's most effective co-operation strategy, Tit for Tat, which emerged spontaneously for, sadly, an all too short time.

The Guardian reports (December 23, 2005) that one of the judges in the International Olympic Committee pressed the wrong button during the vote to decide the 2012 hosts in Singapore in July. This mis-keying eliminated Madrid who were strong favourites and left London in the final run-off with Paris which they went on to win. It seems the Olympic voting software did not provide that much-loved facility we come to expect in all the web-sites where we enter important data: Hit enter to confirm. To read The fat finger that may have helped London win Olympics

Every journey by every car in UK will now be monitored

The Independent Newspaper leads with the headline ‘You are being Watched’ as it reports (22 December 2005) that Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all the vehicles on its roads are to be recorded to detect potential criminal and terrorist activities.

Some of the principles of bioteaming are based on the organisation, communications and behavior of social insect societies. The BBC has a wonderful series Life in the Undergrowth narrated by David Attenborough with a whole programme dedicated to Supersocieties and Super-organisms which shows the warts as well as the wonders underneath the covers. You can see short video clips of all the best bits including Giant Asiatic honeybees and Mangrove ants.

Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica. These are the conclusions of a study by the British journal Nature which conducted a peer review of 42 scientific entries on both Wikipedia and the well-established Encyclopedia Britannica. To read full Nature Special Report(Dec 14).