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).

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. ..

Digging through the archives I discovered, Dilbert's Ultimate Cubicle, a unique collaboration in 2001 between Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and Fred Dust of IDEO a leading creative design agency. I propose a sequel.....

Buried deep in a Guardian Newspaper report (February 13) on a new 'lads e-zine' are some chilling figures which reveal that in some organisations non-business-related web activity in the workplace is consuming up to 40% of the working day. But what can you do about it?

Yes Valentines Day is upon you. You have been too busy at work and have have forgotten to buy, decorate and post that card you intended to send to your beloved(s). And February 14 is this Tuesday! You could still send an e-valentine, but be warned you had better follow it up it with some real flowers or perfume or you could just look cheap! If you are desperate here are some places you could try with something for most tastes:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).