Worldwide IT spend rebounds but European outlook cloudy

Capital spending on PCs, servers, storage, and network equipment has soared in recent quarters as businesses take advantage of the general economic recovery to catch up with overdue spending on critical hardware infrastructure.

Market watcher International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that worldwide IT spending will increase by 3.8 percent this year, to reach $1.47 trillion. Hardware will lead the way, with growth of 6.4 percent, while software and services spending will increase by 3.1 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.

Emerging markets such as China and India are leading the charge, as they invest in new technology to support export-driven growth. And in the US, government stimulus funding has provided a much-needed boost.

“Just as capital spending on hardware is the first thing to fall in a recession, it’s also the first thing to come back up for air when IT budgets are surfacing above water,” said Stephen Minton, vice president of Worldwide IT Markets and Strategies at IDC. “There is undoubted relief that capital spending and general IT budgets are up, but it’s also clear that some weak spots persist.”

One of those weak spots is Western Europe, which is being impacted by the current debt crisis in Greece. IT spending in Western Europe is expected to be flat this year, having plunged 6.5 percent in 2009. According to IDC, any further strains on the confidence of European businesses and consumers could cast a cloud over the outlook for the second half of 2010.

HP wields jobs axe in $1 billion transformation

Hewlett-Packard (HP) expects to eliminate roughly 9,000 positions over a multi-year period by investing $1 billion in automating corporate IT systems.

The company said it will consolidate its Enterprise Services’ commercial data centres, management platforms, networks, tools and applications, to create a more scalable, modernised and automated IT infrastructure. Once complete, the transformation is expected to generate annual net savings after reinvestment of between $500 million and $700 million.

“Over the past 20 months, we focused on integrating EDS and improving profitability,” said Tom Iannotti, senior vice president and general manager, HP Enterprise Services. “Now that the integration is largely complete, we have identified significant opportunities to grow and scale the business.”

New drivers of business transformation

Meanwhile, social media, cloud and mobile computing have been hailed as the new drivers of business transformation. Those companies not serious about exploiting these technologies could be ‘left in the dust’ by competitors, it is claimed.

More than 120 CIOs and IT executives met recently at the CIO Executive Leadership Roundtable in Chicago, US. Hosted by the Chicago Chapter of SIM (Society for Information Management) and produced by HMG Strategy, the roundtable provided a high-level, private venue for sharing crucial knowledge, exploring new strategies, and envisioning new revenue streams via use of IT.

“This roundtable was a clear call to action,” warned Hunter Muller, President and CEO at HMG Strategy. “CIOs really have to take a good hard look at these newer technologies and figure out how to use them as value drivers – before their competitors do…”

Cloud goes Green

Hosting and cloud computing player Rackspace has been announced as the winner of ‘IT Operator of the Year’ in the Green IT Awards.

More than 75 organisations were nominated, with winners selected by readers of Green IT Magazine. Rackspace has adopted several initiatives over the past two years to help reduce its environmental impact, including:

• Deployment of ambient cooling technology at its data centre in Slough
• The planting of a tree for every new hosting customer (via the International Tree Foundation)
• The recycling of materials and use of paper from sustainable sources at Rackspace offices

“We’ve worked hard not only to make our customer offering sustainable, but also introduce internal initiatives such as employee education and recycling,” said Rackspace Managing Director, Brian Thomson. “We plan to continue to introduce even more initiatives over the coming years and work harder than ever to be green.”

One not so green technology sector is that of mobile handset manufacturing, where efforts are being thwarted by consumer usage patterns.

According to Heavy Reading Mobile Networks Insider, characteristics of green handsets include use of recycled materials, reduced use of toxic materials, and availability of more energy-efficient battery chargers, as well as chargers driven by alternative energy sources such as solar cells.

However, user habits remain the biggest obstacle to making mobile handsets more eco-friendly. “Discarding of still-usable handsets and failure to properly dispose of or recycle handsets are potentially significant contributors to environmental problems,” said Aileen Arcilla, author of the report Mobile Handsets: It’s Not Easy Being Green. “With the number of mobile subscriptions expected to exceed 5 billion over the next few years, the biohazards of handset disposal are likely to grow.”

Er, just one more thing…

Would you book a holiday through oldmanshaven.com? Or visit ipwine.com for a bottle of Chardonnay? And would you download music from mp3shits.com?

‘Slurl’ is the term given to a badly-named URL and is the subject of a new book by Andy Geldman, a self-employed computer programmer who originally coined the word.

Having discovered slurls in 2006 as ‘his true calling’, Andy set up a website and devoted all his spare time to hunting down more gems, with the slurls website bringing in over 75,000 visitors in 2009. His book takes the reader on a global journey to look at the special charms of technology and big business.

“There have always been unintentionally funny names, but the Internet takes it to a whole new level,” said Geldman. “It’s all because you can’t have a space in your URL. A business called ‘IT Scrap’ is fine in the real world, but not so great online with itscrap.com!”

Great work Andy.

UK businesses braced for disruption while IT professionals give 2010 FIFA World Cup the red card

Service providers and employers are bracing themselves for potential network disruption and severe pressure on Internet connectivity as consumers and staff stream video to keep tabs on the sporting action this summer.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the first to have each match streamed live, and also the first to offer high-definition coverage. With the majority of matches taking place during normal UK office hours, Ipswitch is warning that it could cost companies a significant amount of money.

“Users making use of video streaming services can put a considerable strain on companies' networks, resulting in bandwidth chokes and even outages, in addition to exposing them to security threats,” said Azmi Jafarey, CIO at Ipswitch.

To help businesses prepare, the company has developed a World Cup Network Traffic Calculator allowing IT managers to plot the likely impact on network resources. However, it is claimed that more than half of IT managers are more likely seeking to prevent staff from watching the tournament in the office.

A survey of 100 IT and networking professionals by Blue Coat Systems found that 54 percent want employees banned from watching World Cup matches at work. The survey also highlighted concerns that staff might be tempted to discuss the action with friends, family and colleagues via social networks.

“As a streamed football match consumes around 750MB of bandwidth – the equivalent of sending more than twelve editions of Tolstoy’s War & Peace – it’s important that IT and HR managers clearly communicate their corporate rules to employees,” said Nigel Hawthorn, VP EMEA Marketing at Blue Coat.

FIFA ready for deluge

Meanwhile, FIFA.com has announced its server farm in Slough is to house 75 super computers to support 70,000,000 page views per hour during the World Cup.

The world’s official football website expects to serve over 5.5 billion page views during the tournament, compared to the 4.2 billion recorded in 2006, and has also prepared two petabytes (2,000 gigabytes) of video streaming bandwidth [much to the delight of businesses no doubt].

FIFA said that particularly avid users are the millions of worldwide members of the free-to-join FIFA.com club, of which British fans represent the largest contingent in Europe.

Whether this contingent will be such avid users past the quarter finals remains to be seen.

Managing the rise in mobile data

Sony Ericsson believes that roaming mobile data usage is set to soar over the summer period due to social media use.

With many consumers opting for smartphones offering social networking functionality, the handset maker argues that the trend in mobile social networking is unlikely to stop as consumers head abroad [ash cloud permitting] for their summer breaks.

A ‘representative of Sony Ericsson’, said: “The advent of mobile social networking has heralded a revolution in how people consume and use the Internet. As such, we would expect that mobile data usage this summer will increase… However, consumers should be wary of the rates of these services, as it is likely that such usage could incur extra charges to their usual tariff.”

At the same time, Telcordia has urged CSPs (communications service providers) to ‘follow the traffic’ and re-evaluate their business models, pricing structure, and OSS (operating software systems) to capitalise on the growth in mobile data.

A survey of industry professionals across 75 countries by Telcordia found that CSPs intend to re-evaluate their billing solutions and re-adjust their business models to capitalise on the exploding rates of data traffic over the next year.

The survey results suggest that CSPs worldwide will rely on network management to control data traffic growth, which is increasing at a much faster rate than revenues, and creating profitability and customer experience challenges.

“All-you-can-eat data plans are not a sustainable business model, and policy-based bandwidth management and real-time charging provide CSPs and their subscribers with the necessary flexibility to try new services while keeping costs in line,” commented Pat McCarthy, VP, Service Delivery Solutions at Telcordia.

Er, just one more thing…

Just in case businesses needed a further reminder of the impending tournament, a World Cup Football Challenge intranet application has been launched by software developer Odyssey Interactive.

The application aims to increase overall intranet usage by allowing users to predict the outcome of matches, receive points based upon the accuracy of their predictions, and compete with other staff and departments via a league table.

“Since a large proportion of employees will be following the World Cup this summer it makes sense to take advantage of this to promote your intranet, inject a bit of fun and boost staff morale,” said Nigel Danson, MD, Odyssey Interactive.

The question is whether employees will have time to visit their intranet given the anticipated levels of social networking and video streaming.

When you don't know what you are looking for…

Microsoft unveiled the new version of its search engine at The Wall Street Journal's seventh 'D:All Things Digital' conference held May 26-28 2009 in the US. Branded 'Bing', the software giant believes that consumers are ready to move beyond search and is thus positioning Bing as a 'decision engine'.

Bing is reported to feature a number of enhancements in core search areas - including entity extraction and expansion, query intent recognition and document summarisation, as well as a 'new user experience model that  dynamically adapts to the type of query to provide 'relevant and intuitive decision-making tools'.

While this is an interesting approach, whether Bing will enable Microsoft to boost its share of the search engine market remains to be seen. According to number cruncher comScore, Google Sites led the US core search market in April with 64.2 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (20.4 percent), then Microsoft Sites (8.2 percent).

However, European-based digital marketing agency Bigmouthmedia has hailed the new service as a potentially crucial landmark in the online search sector's development. Citing Microsoft's pan-European approach and collaboration with key agencies in advance of the launch, bigmouthmedia believes that Bing could add a refreshing new dynamic to the industry.

"It has been some time since the search industry had a realistic alternative to Google, and if Microsoft's new engine can provide that then it will be of obvious benefit to both digital marketers and consumers alike," said bigmouthmedia CEO Steve Leach.

Perhaps Bing will appeal more to 'Wilfers' (those that aimlessly wander the Web) than those that search for something in particular. Or perhaps Librans such as myself that have trouble making a decision when there are too many options to weigh up. Then again, it sounds perfect for those that simply want Microsoft's new search algorithms to make the decision for them…

MNOs beware the smartphone surge in data

In other news from the D Conference, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson admitted that the operator needs to do something to boost speeds before the arrival of 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) cellular networks in 2012. "Between now and then is a long time," he is reported to have said.

According to Stephenson, US wireless networks are not prepared for the surge in smart phones use that has already shown signs of choking their networks. Smart phones such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone have significantly ramped up the amount of wireless Internet surfing, and MNOs (mobile network operators) have come under fire for being unprepared.

AT&T has announced plans to upgrade its 3G network with High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), as it paves the way for a roll out of LTE in 2011. Stephenson also said that AT&T's fixed-line business has taken the biggest hit as a result of the global economic downturn.

HP to axe 5,700 Europe jobs (read full story)

The latest victim of the downturn is hardware giant HP, which has announced plans to axe up to 5,700 employees, in addition to previously  announced losses.

According to reports, the countries especially affected will be Scotland and Germany, where HP has its EMEA Enterprise, Storage and Servers production facilities. These factories are slated to be closed in 2010 and production moved to the Czech Republic.

What's a social media friend worth? (read full story)

Digital friendships speak volumes about us as consumers and workers, and decoding the data can lead to profitable insights, it is claimed. As social media companies grapple with the increasingly perplexing challenge posed by monetising the success of social networking sites, Business Week reports that companies are working fast to figure out how to make money from the wealth of data they're beginning to have about our online friendships.

Marketers are said to be leading the way and finding that if our friends buy something, there's a better-than-average chance we'll buy it too. It's a simple insight, says Business Week, but one that could lead to targeted messaging in an age of growing media clutter. However, it concedes that, for all its popularity, Facebook has yet to prove itself as an advertising platform, with visitors focusing on their friends and paying scant attention to ads, with few click on them, while advertisers pay pennies for page views. Consequently, Facebook, with its estimated revenue of $300 million this year, is said to bring in scarcely a dime a month per member.

The hope is that if marketers manage to track the 'paths of influence' amongst social Web communities, they might be able to offer more effective and lucrative advertisements and promotions. Corporations are also said to be exploring how social Web relationships might benefit their business processes such as recruitment.

Gamers get fit with 'Gym in a Box'

High street retailer GAME has put EA's latest offering 'Sports Active' to the test to determine whether it is a real alternative to the gym. After a two-week trial, GAME's results are claimed to show that regular high tempo EA Sports Active sessions can have beneficial health and fitness effects, as within a week the weight loss target of the experiment had been met.

Competing against existing popular titles such as Wii Fit, EA Sports Active is said to offer a range of traditional cardio-vascular and targeted exercises allowing users to 'experience the variety and challenge of a gym workout in their own living room'. Corrinne Garstang, Online Content Manger at GAME, who engaged in the experiment intensively for two weeks, lost 3lbs at the half-way mark of her two week challenge.

"I think I represent a large part of the population who want to incorporate exercise into their lives, but simply don't have the time or money to join a gym. With so many fitness titles on the market, EA Sports Active really stood out because it had a more 'grown up' feel compared to other titles on the market. And after months of feeling increasingly unhappy about my burgeoning waistline I was desperate to see if it really worked".

One has to ask why the results of the second week were not included in the press release. Perhaps Corrinne spent too much time playing 'Cooking Mama 2 - Dinner with Friends (DS)'?

Gaming and mobile getting closer

With some predicting that gaming console giants will at some point have a massive impact in the mobile domain, convergence between the two has taken a step closer with Sony Ericsson's new phone, the 'Aino', which includes connectivity to the Sony Playstation.

According to the handset maker (read full release), the Aino allows users to control their PLAYSTATION 3 and access its media content anywhere, anytime, using 'Remote Play with PLAYSTATION®3'. Initially developed for PSP, this application enables users to control and access media content from their phone and can be done via a local network or using the Internet. For TV lovers in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and UK, users can also watch, pause and record live TV from a range of free channels.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has added a touch screen and Web browser to the next-generation of its Zune music player. The new device, called the 'Zune HD', will also carry a high-definition video output allowing users to play files through a docking station on HD televisions.

According to reports, the new features ramp up Microsoft's effort to compete with Apple Inc. products such as the iPod Touch, and highlight the company's push to integrate different platforms, from PCs and mobile phones to the Xbox.

Er, just one more thing…

TREAT YOUR DAD TO A PORSCHE FOR FATHER’S DAY (read full release)

 

A wireless mouse based on the Porsche 911 has been released by Motormouse. Featuring three sensitivity settings and including the smallest 2.4G wireless receiver in the world, this latest Motormouse comes with its own super-glide mouse mat and soft carrying pouch for easy travelling.

Apparently, this 'must have gadget' is the ideal gift for your dad this Father's Day.

I would be inclined to agree, if I could just get my technophobe father to grips with syncing this wireless wonder to his laptop.

Amid the doom and gloom of a poor summer and the credit crunch, increasing numbers of Britons are choosing to spend their hard earned cash on holidays in less than traditional locations. According to online travel agency Holidays Direct there has been an increase in the number of people booking holidays in destinations more traditionally associated with the luxury end of the market.

This 'summer' has seen higher than average sales for holidays in the Caribbean, Dubai, Thailand and Tunisia, says the company, with British holidaymakers making sure they get a holiday to remember.

“Each year the number of people booking their summer holidays two months or more ahead of the departure date has grown. Following this trend we’ve seen an uptake in bookings for holidays in the Caribbean and Thailand, along with other long haul destinations,” says Holidays Direct spokesperson, Jon Pearce. “This suggests to us that a lot more people are planning ahead and saving up for their holidays somewhere special.”

However, it could be argued that there is another factor at play here - the strength of the Euro against sterling. Anyone that has been on holiday to Europe recently has no doubt been shocked at the subsequent expense of their jaunt. Given that the quality of food, accommodation and customer services has certainly not risen on the Continent, I would argue it is little surprise that Brits are seeking foreign climes further afield. The flights may cost more, but at least we are guaranteed to get more for our hard-earned buck.

And hard-earned bucks they are too if the latest survey from hospitality recruitment website Caterer.com is anything to go by.

Nearly 70% of people are miserable at work

According to Caterer.com, nearly 70% of people are completely miserable at work and one in two think about quitting their jobs on a daily basis. Indeed, 43% of people go as far as saying they dread waking up in the morning. Surprisingly, hospitality workers, despite the long hours and stressful reputation, are the happiest and most passionate about their work.

The survey reveals that 49% of hospitality workers thoroughly enjoy their job, with only 23% admitting to the occasional thought of changing sectors and 19% claiming to not feel any job satisfaction. The complete results show the various job sectors and the percentage of people who are not only happy with their career, but feel genuinely dedicated and enthusiastic about their job:

1)  Hospitality – 49.16% of hospitality workers are happy with their job
2)  Health Sector – 48.89%
3)  Charity – 34.06%
4)  Education – 30.88%
5)  Care/Social work – 29.92%
5)  Forces/Police – 28.57%
6)  Skilled (designer/electrician) – 20.43%
7)  Sales (phone/door2door) – 16.98%
8)  Labour – 11.00%
9)  Office-based – 10.01%
10) Retail – 7.17%

“Hospitality employee’s work extremely hard, especially at this time of year and it’s fair to say the industry is rarely associated with passion or fun," comments Ian Burke of Caterer.com. "For us, these results just confirm what we see every day; that hospitality workers really do love their jobs.”

I wonder whether the ability for instant revenge on a disagreeable customer is anything to do with it? "Is this potato mash now creamy enough for you Sir?"…

In mash-ups of another kind, the Met Police has launched a test version of a clickable crime map for London showing how levels of burglary, robbery and vehicle theft vary across the capital.

Met police in web 2.0 crime map mash up (read full story)

The beta map mashes up Google Maps with crime statistics for each borough, using coloured overlays to indicate varying levels of criminal activity - from patches of dark blue (for low crime) to red (high).

Apparently, Southwark comes out as the most crime-ridden borough, with Hackney, Newham, Waltham Forest and Westminster all above average, while outlying suburban areas Bexley, Harrow, Merton, Kingston, Richmond and Sutton all have below average crime levels.

The site has been developed as part of a Home Office initiative to get more people involved with their local police and enable the public to hold local police forces to account. The Met said further features are likely to be added in the near future.

The Six Degree of Separation Has Shrunk to Just Three (read full story)

The impact of social networking and developments in technology has meant that the six degrees of separation has fallen to just three according to research commissioned by UK mobile operator, O2.

The research included over 50 hours of in-depth interviews with adults across three different age groups, (18-25, 35-45, 55+) and found that the conventional notion of six degrees of separation is out of date.

The term was made famous by US psychologist Stanley Milgram following a 1967 experiment. The six degrees theory was upheld in a 2006 Microsoft study of instant messenger conversations. However, the O2 study reveals that within a shared 'interest' network (i.e. hobbies, sport, music, religion, sexuality etc), the average person is connected by just three degrees.

Email and mobile phones were the technologies that had the most significant impact, with texting seen as a universally important technology, whilst social networking sites such as Facebook were highly rated by the youngest age bracket (although usage declined drastically amongst older participants in the research).

Congratulations ShoZu!

ShoZu Wins Gold in the Future Mobile Awards for their Contribution to Mobile Web 2.0 (read full release)

Mobile Web 2.0 innovators, ShoZu, have been selected by Juniper Research as the top award winner in the Future Mobile Awards - mobile web 2.0 category. The Future Mobile Awards are given to companies that have made a significant contribution to their sector and are poised to make considerable market impact in the future.  The gold award recognises ShoZu as being a leading light in the development of the sector.

“Supporting one-click transfer of digital content between mobile phones and 50+ social web destinations, geo-tagging, mobile-to-web messaging, and behavioural targeted advertising, ShoZu offers mobile network operators an established, all-round Mobile Web 2.0 on/off-deck turnkey platform. The average user is said to generate 20 network ‘events’ (i.e. content uploads/downloads) per month, with heavy users generating in excess of 100 events per month. This success demonstrates what can be achieved if users have the right tools available," says Ian Chard, panel judge and Analyst at Juniper Research. "ShoZu has partnered with Telecom Italia, Singapore’s StarHub and 3 (Austria and UK) under revenue-share agreements, while shipping as an embedded application on Motorola and Samsung handsets. By providing the mobile web equivalent of a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) and catering to the needs of the prosumer, ShoZu is a deserving Gold winner this year.”

In the news

The iPhone Kill-Switch Kerfuffle

Privacy advocates' concern over what Apple will do with iPhone user data may be overblown, industry experts say (read full story)

Bold, Thunder, Flip: BlackBerry Maker Begins Key Rollouts (read full story)

Is it a bird, is it a plane - no, its a trio of handsets from BlackBerry.

Research In Motion has begun what analysts call its most important BlackBerry rollout season ever, with its first touch-screen model and first flip phone on tap.

Disney Dialing Up Kids Again (read full story)

Disney is hoping that Tinker Bell - along with a collection of pirates and other Disney characters - can help breath life back into its mobile phone services for kids. [Why don't they just give it up?]

On the wire

ARCHOS 5 and ARCHOS 7 deliver the entire internet and multimedia world in a handheld tablet (read full release)

A new line of small portable devices is announced: ARCHOS 5, ARCHOS 5g and ARCHOS 7 deliver a new way for customers to enjoy continuous and instant access to the Internet, Media and TV.

OLYMPIC INTERNET TRAFFIC TO GROW AS BRITAIN TAKES TWELVE GOLD MEDALS (read full release)

ScanSafe, a provider of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) Web Security, urges companies to address bandwidth concerns as the interest in the Olympic Games grows due to the success of the British team.

Top 10 Broadband Awards 2008: O2 top the winner's table for comparison website inaugural awards (read full release)

Top 10 Broadband the UK’s broadband comparison site and guide has announced the results of its inaugural annual broadband awards. Winners included O2 as the fastest broadband provider, BT as the winner in the wireless broadband category and ‘3' won the award for best mobile broadband provider.

Er, just one more thing…

As the social networking revolution continues unabated, it seems that even the last bastions of good old fashioned fun are not safe.

ALMOST FULL HOUSE AS BINGO COMMUNITY GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH (read full release)

The All Bingo Club, the online community-based Bingo destination launched recently, reports that Bingo goers have been ditching the halls in favour of playing online. All Bingo Club combines online Bingo play with community interaction, and 1000s of bingo players are said to have joined as the word spreads about its ease-of-play and fun features. “It would appear that our investment in game play and ease- of-use combined with a focus on community, is paying dividends as we have seen a massive surge in sign-ups over the past few weeks," says Mikki G. (brother to Ali?], All Bingo Club’s Manager. "Our ‘Recommend-a-friend’ feature is proving very popular.”

I guess you just have to accept it when your number's up.

Times are tough no doubt. But just in case you've no 'Plan B' as the global downturn continues and your current job/business ceases to exist, help is at hand. 'How to Get a Job You'll Love - a practical guide to unlocking your talents and finding your ideal career' (ISBN 9780077121808, £12.99) by top career transition coach and author John Lees, promises to answer the plethora of classic career conundrums we face every day.

For example, what are the smartest strategies for impressing your boss? How can you effectively market yourself within an organisation? Why do you need to? What is 'career management'? How can you find new fields of work and completely change careers? How can you avoid 'Monday Blues' and love what you do every day of the week? [Please, please, please - I need answers!]

Says Lees: "No job is entirely recession proof. Right now job security is the top issue for people and there are many things you can do to improve the chances you'll still be in your job in 12 months time. Here are some strategies to set you on your way…"

Ten-Point checklist for taking control of your career in difficult times:

1. Look at what's working, rather than what isn't. Which parts of your job are still effective even in difficult times?
2. Find leverage. Concentrate your efforts on projects which are seen to be fireproof, or ways of protecting your income stream.
3. Find a fast-track mentor - an informal arrangement with someone more senior than you who can help you decode your organisation while it's going through tough times.
4. Don't ask for a pay rise just because everyone else is reacting to rising costs. Demonstrate your value - not your cost.5. Go way, way beyond your job description in value-adding ways. Career progression, ultimately, is not a question of what you do, but how far you are seen to be doing the things that matter.
6. At the same time, work smarter not harder on tasks which your organisation recognises as things that make a difference.7. Stay on winning teams. This is the time to negotiate a move away from a dead-end role, or a part of the organisation which is seen as under-performing or peripheral.
8. Stay in touch with changes in your sector, and don't stop networking - both for industry knowledge and for insider tips on the hidden job market.
9. Don't adopt cynicism of the marketplace. Not all organisations and markets are in decline - don't miss opportunities by seeing your glass as constantly half-empty - adopt a glass half-full mentality.
10. Stock your lifeboat before jumping ship: understand what you are really looking for rather than passively reacting to advertised or headhunted opportunities. Well-informed job seekers find great jobs in tough times.And if none of these work for you, then perhaps there is another way - sharpen something else and eliminate the competition…

New 'Knives on the Net' Threat

It is becoming increasingly easy to purchase deadly weapons online at a fraction of the retail price, often with no regulations controlling who is purchasing them and why.

Research by MarkMonitor (a provider of enterprise brand protection), is said to demonstrate the ease with which a variety of knives - from pocket knives to machetes - can be purchased over the Internet from high-street retail brands, e-commerce, online auction and exchange sites with little to no restrictions. Over a three-day period in July 2008, MarkMonitor found that almost 9,021 knives (worth approximately £65,000) were available for sale via online auction sites. 55% were available to purchase instantly with no warnings or restrictions.

The top five types of knife being sold online over the three day period include:

• Hunting knife - 1333
• Lock knife - 1259
• Army knife - 786
• Pocket knife - 707
• Pen knife - 498

MarkMonitor has also checked the websites of the UK's top department stores and retailers and out of a list of six top retailers, four were selling knives with no warnings, age limits or restrictions and may therefore be infringing legislation. Nice to know that we're taking knife crime seriously…

And if you are looking to trim some weight this year [and you really are as vain as a Z-list celebrity] then why not get your holiday snaps re-touched, courtesy of PicWash Slim?

Look Slim in Summer Bikini Photos

With paparazzi photos highlighting the latest in celebrity cellulite, taking pictures in bathing suits has become an almost definite no-no. Enter PicWash Slim. This new photo re-touching service promises to make you and your friends look fabulous in your bathing suit photos and have beautiful summer pictures you can share with the world.

Since August 2007, the site has been retouching user photographs for use on social networks and photo album sharing sites around the world. This week it launches its third service, PicWash Slim, to help alleviate the summer picture jitters. Costing $15 per photo, PicWash's team of designers, based in Miami, Florida, will use advanced techniques to slim the most requested areas of the body. These may include: upper arms, waist, stomach, thighs, cellulite, and general bulges. The results will be subtle and natural looking. [But remember, it is just the photos they do this for…]

The benefits of looking good in your photos are widely recognized. "Today an abundance of scientific research reveals that the physical attractiveness of a pictured person substantially affects interest to meet and to associate beyond first meeting," says Gordon Patzer, Ph.D, author of 'LOOKS: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined.' Perhaps there is a market for this sort of thing, given the continuing success of social networking sites such as Facebook…

Social Networking Explodes Worldwide as Sites Increase Their Focus on Cultural Relevance

Web measurement company comScore, Inc. has released a study of worldwide usage of social networking sites, indicating that while the growth in new users in North America is beginning to level off, it is burgeoning in other regions around the world. During the past year, the total North American audience of social networkers has grown 9 percent compared to a much larger 25 percent growth for the world at large. The Middle East-Africa region (up 66 percent), Europe (up 35 percent), and Latin America (up 33 percent) have each grown at well-above average rates.

"While the social networking trend first took off in North America, it is beginning to reach a point of maturity in the region," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. "However, the phenomenon is still growing rapidly in other regions around the world - especially as the established American brands turn their focus to developing markets."

And comScore believes that a focus on tailoring a site's relevance to local markets is playing a big part in the continuing success of monoliths such as Facebook. "Facebook has done an exceptional job of leveraging its brand internationally during the past year," added Flanagan. "By increasing the site's relevance to local markets through local language interface translation, the site is now competing strongly or even capturing the lead in several markets where it had a relatively minor presence just a year ago."

comScore Enhances Reporting of Ad Networks' Audiences

comScore, Inc. also announced this week that it will provide enhanced measurement of the audiences for online advertising networks. The new reporting structure will provide two sets of measures-the "potential reach" for each network and an "actual reach" reading.

The 'potential reach' measure will be a calculation of the unduplicated visitors to all sites with which each ad network has contracted to deliver advertising. The definitions will be based on written documentation and confirmation provided by the networks. This measure represents the largest potential reach a network could deliver if all parts of the network are used to deliver ads.

he 'actual reach' measure will represent the reach of the ads that are actually served by the network during a given reporting period. In order to report 'actual reach', networks must participate by providing comScore with the appropriate identification protocols for rendered ads. Consequently, only participating networks will be included in the 'actual reach' report.

We believe these two toolsets provide the information that ad agencies need when they are deciding on which advertising networks to consider for ad buys. And, the ad networks will have the high quality, third-party information needed to compete for advertising dollars," commented Magid Abraham, President and ceo, comScore, Inc.

In the news

Gov't battles EU to use passenger data (read full story)

The UK Government is battling European Union (EU) proposals to restrict the way it uses air passenger data to monitor immigration. The Home Office claims that the names and travel plans it collects are crucial to control cross-border movements.

Sad day for the industry as Siemens exits telecoms sector after 160 years (read full story)
Its been a long and glorious history. The German company Siemens was one of the very first companies ever to lay telephone cables and make telephony switches, but this week it is exiting the industry after more than a century and a half.

On the wire

Ten Million Zombies Distributing Spam and Malware Every Day, According to PandaLabs and CommTouch (read full report)

IT security solutions provider Panda Security says that its laboratory for detecting and analysing malware - known as 'PandaLabs' - has just announced the findings from a joint report with CommTouch on the current state of spam. The report found that on average during the second quarter of this year, more than 10 million zombie computers (systems infected by
'bots' and controlled remotely by cyber criminals) were sending spam and emails with malware every day.

Entrepreneur.com's Social Networking Site Opens New Doors for 8.3 Million Businesses

A business-to-business marketplace designed specifically for entrepreneurs has been launched by Entrepreneur.com via US carrier Sprint. While other social networking sites feature an atmosphere of play, Entrepreneur Connect was created by the online authority in entrepreneurial business to facilitate company growth. The network is presented by Sprint to allow businesses to exchange ideas and network with small business owners across the country, providing them with more tools to help them get work done and build their companies.

Let LS Simple help you get the Government to pay 30% of your costs! (read full release)

The Simple Intelligent Power Management (Simple IPM) solution from LS has become the first comprehensive structured cabling system in the world to be eligible for enhanced tax relief under the UK Enhanced Capital Allowance Scheme (ECA). Enhanced Capital Allowances enable a business to claim 100% first-year capital allowances on their spending on qualifying plant and machinery.

eCrypt announces launch of BeCrypt Media Client, its CD/USB media/file encryption solution (read full release)

BeCrypt is able to provide approved data security and data handling solutions to meet requirements for transformational Government BeCrypt’s newly developed CD/USB media/file ‘zero footprint’ encryption solution, BeCrypt Media Client will be available from 1 September. It is currently going through CAPS approval, with FIPS 140-2 approval expected later in the year.

The early availability of BeCrypt Media Client gives government departments and other public sector bodies that need to adhere to Data Handling requirements an easy upgrade path to a CAPS approved solution.

In the bloggosphere

Cable is Cornering the Broadband Market

In the harsh glare of second quarter seasonality, the telcos’ wired businesses suddenly look not only like they are weakening… they look like they are positively collapsing.

Google's GMail Outage: Another Blow for 'The Cloud'

When will 'Cloud Computing' be as reliable as your ATM? Questions are asked about Google’s ability to manage, protect, and make available your data better than you can. Based on recent history, bloggers are not convinced…

Er, just one more thing…

Samsong, Samsung or Samstrung?

A 'phenomenal competition' has just launched on borders.co.uk, offering visitors the chance to win a cutting-edge laptop. In association with Currys, Borders is offering customers the chance to win a brand new Toshiba laptop, in return for answering the extremely difficult question above.

No doubt, Borders will be looking to collect a phenomenal amount of personal data in return for entering this fantastic and brain-taxing competition.

Only in America… 'Wireless Devices may be at fault for certain health risks'

Hats [or should that be patches?] off to Yackie Telecom Inc., of the US, for what is quite possibly one of the worst examples of PR scaremongering and bandwagon-jumping I've seen in the last few years.

According to Yackie [a most appropriate name it seems], a European research initiative dubbed 'Interphone' has published "disturbing results coming especially from Northern Europe" regarding the potential health hazards of electromagnetic fields. Apparently, Interphone findings indicate an increased risk of cancer for heavy and long-time users of wireless devices [presumably mobile phones, although not specified until later in the release]. 

Luckily for us, Yackie has "taken a stand for consumer interests" by developing Yackie Safe - a simple patch comprising a series of micro antennas created to counter the effects of electromagnetic fields. Quite where users are supposed to put this patch is unclear, but I do have a suggestion for where Yackie should put this particular press release…

Will Guigle keep its cool?

Promising the biggest Web index with content-based relevance methods, results organised by ideas, and complete user privacy is Cuil - the latest challenger to Google's throne.

Launched this week, Cuil (pronounced 'cool') claims to have indexed 120 billion Web pages, three times more than any other search engine and says that its offering goes beyond today's search techniques of link analysis and traffic ranking to analyse the context of each page and the concepts behind each query. It then organises similar search results into groups and sorts them by category.

According to the company, it gives users a richer display of results and offers organising features, such as tabs to clarify subjects, images to identify topics and search refining suggestions to help guide users to the results they seek. Furthermore, it says that its methods guarantee online privacy for searchers, since pages are ranked on content instead of number of clicks, making personal data collection unnecessary and ensuring personal search history is always private.

It will be interesting to see how this latest development fares against the established search engine giants, and indeed, against Wikia Search - another search engine launched in January this year. The brainchild of Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, Wikia Search uses a five-star rating system that lets users rate the relevance of results and then applies the score for the provision of future results. Although it has been criticised for returning poor results, it is argued that the service will improve as it matures.

VoIP to become the telephony of choice?

'As broadband continues to grow, VoIP will become the telephony choice says Tan Aksoy, Telappliant'

The number of broadband connections will grow from 323 million last year to 499 million by 2012, which is a jump from 18 to 25 percent of worldwide households, the analysts predict. Tan Aksoy, CEO, Telappliant, believes that this penetration will allow the true benefits of VoIP to be seen and dramatically increase take-up:

“The market for next generation voice communications is firmly established, but there is still a long way to go. VoIP has had some minor hiccups along the way. These issues have been ironed out and businesses need to learn to trust the technology.

"VoIP technology is heavily dependent on the user's Internet connection and bad experiences usually stem from insufficient bandwidth to support all functions running over the Internet. With broadband now reaching new heights in the UK, these problems should be a thing of the past."

Hmm - talk of 'minor hiccups' and 'bad experiences' appear a little understated. Granted, insufficient bandwidth is an obvious bottleneck, but network infrastructure [for the enterprise user especially] continues to prove just as big a pain point.

Building on social media

Comms agency Brodeur Partners has stated its intentions to use a social media monitoring platform to track what is being said online about brands, organisations and issues.

The solution monitors all forms of social media, including: blogs, top video-sharing sites, opinion review forums, photo-sharing sites and emerging media services like Twitter. [In which case, I will be especially nice about this idea…]

Radian6 Technologies Inc., is the power behind the platform, providing PR and advertising professionals with a dashboard (GUI) enabling the monitoring of all forms of social media, with results appearing in real-time, as discovered. Various analysis widgets give users the ability to uncover the top influencers, as well as which conversations are having an impact online.

On the wire

British e-commerce Very Different From Elsewhere in Europe (read full report)

British online merchants are increasingly attracting more international consumers, according to a report published by Pago eTransaction Services, the international Acquirer and Payment Service Provider.

Whereas consumers from Germany make up over 95% of custom in German online shops, only 45% of customers in UK shops are from the UK. Nearly one third of international customers stem from countries outside Europe, like the USA or Asia.

Some of the e-commerce trends identified include:

• No real Christmas season in UK online business
• e-commerce slowdown by British consumers at weekends
• UK consumers buy online during office hours
• Credit card dominates European e-commerce
• New payment methods are becoming increasingly important for European e-commerce

Government likely to slash its own tax income through new attack on contractor and freelance expenses (read full release)

"The government could be about to score a spectacular own goal," warns ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin, discussing HM Treasury plans to further burden the contracting sector costs.

"The latest consultation from the Treasury is asking whether contractors who work for umbrella companies as employees should lose their right to claim travel expenses," explains Chaplin. "Our business models, based on nearly a decade of contracting industry experience, suggest that the net contribution to the public sector will fall if contractors lose their rights to claim for travel expenses."

High carbon IT Managers must act before legislation… (read full release)

IT managers who are not actively managing their energy consumption are introducing unnecessary business risk and condoning waste. The IT industry has received yet another wake up call as Chancellor Alistair Darling announced plans that could lead to the compulsory building of 'zero carbon' commercial buildings, including data centres, by 2019.

In the bloggosphere

WiFI Worries Still Going Strong In The UK (from the gotta-freak-out-about-something dept)

A more rounded perspective on yet more scaremongering about the wireless demon - this time the effects of WiFi radiation on children…

Why is Dell trying to compete with the iPod?

Is Google planning Adsense for games?

Er, just one more thing…

Don't ask about salary in an interview (read full story)

Techies are being advised to avoid bringing up the big salary question in interviews if they want to impress. Graduates seeking a career in technology should instead focus on swotting up on the ins and outs of the company and the technology industry says IT recruitment company ITjobsforgraduates.com.

Yeah - sure right! Does that mean that you cannot ask how much something is when you buy it? Note to recruitment consultants: people living in the real world work to earn money (in the vast majority of cases). Yes - job satisfaction is great, and a 'varied and challenging role' keeps you on your toes, but at the end of the day, it's what puts dollar in your pocket and food on your table that is important.

Knock Knock? And I thought the Doctor Who joke was old…

World's oldest joke traced back to 1900 BC [can somebody please tell Jim Davidson]

Chrysler has been hitting the tech headlines this week with the introduction of its ‘Uconnect’ service, under which all of the car maker’s 2009 vehicles will come with the option of Wi-Fi networking. The service will be powered via an in-car wireless router that connects to the 3G cellular network and uses an algorithm to prevent dropped connections while in motion.

 

Thankfully, the service is focused on providing rear-seat entertainment and wireless access while parked, but will that really stop drivers with Wi-Fi-enabled PDAs ‘wilfing’* when stuck in traffic (and cursing their traffic information system for not updating them in time)? Indeed, given the abject failure of new road safety laws implemented to stem the welling tide of drivers using their mobiles while driving, the availability of in-car Wi-Fi is likely to fill traffic cops with an unnerving sense of foreboding.

 

In addition, given the difficulties that hand-over between cell sites has posed historically, it will be interesting to see how well Uconnect’s Wi-Fi connectivity holds out when a car is travelling at high speeds, or through areas of patchy cellular coverage. One can already envisage the kids (or indeed ‘grown-ups’) groaning: “Are we nearly there yet” as the blue web-site loading indicator crawls slowly across the page…

 

Even more worryingly, the service has a 100-foot range, meaning that users don't have to be inside their vehicle to be able to connect to the service. This could give new meaning to the issues of ‘tail-gating’ and ‘piggy-backing’.

 

The service, powered by AutoNet Mobile, will cost US$29 per month and requires a dealer-installed US$449 mobile router. I would have thought a laptop loaded with a 3G USB dongle would be cheaper…

 

*’wilfing’ is the term ascribed to the habit of surfing the web without any real purpose.

 

Computer says no – or at least, wait a mo… 

 

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal (read full story) Google is learning that changing the cellphone industry is not easy. The portal giant has said that mobile phones featuring its Android software will not arrive until Q4 of this year. Handset manufacturers are believed to be struggling with the creation of custom user interfaces to meet carrier specifications, while carriers are having trouble customising Android so that it promotes their own Internet offerings.

 

Such news is not surprising and only serves to highlight the significant challenges the industry still faces in the creation of such a platform and, in particular, in ensuring that mobile applications interface with the specific features and functionalities of the mobile phone in a consistent manner (i.e. access to the browser, address book etc.).

 

Meanwhile, the Symbian software platform for mobile phones is set to be unified under the auspices of the Symbian Foundation – a non-profit organisation spearheaded by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and NTT DoCoMo. Together with AT&T, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone, the companies aim to unite Symbian OS, S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) to create one open mobile software platform. 

 

At the same time, Nokia announced plans to acquire the remaining shares of Symbian Limited that it does not already own and then contribute the Symbian and S60 software to the Foundation. Accordingly, Sony Ericsson and Motorola intend to contribute technology from UIQ, and DoCoMo has also indicated its willingness to contribute its MOAP(S) assets. From these contributions, the Foundation will provide a unified platform with a common UI framework, and a full platform will be available for all Foundation members under a royalty-free license. The Foundation is expected to start operating during the first half of 2009, subject to the closing of the acquisition of Symbian Ltd., by Nokia.

 

Mobile industry must adapt to 2.0 web paradigm

 

Following on from my previous (pre-vacation) blog regarding the rise of mobile web 2.0, Juniper Research has released a second wave of findings from this report (click here for more details). The key forecast to be divulged is that the number of subscribers using mobile Internet services will rise from 577 million currently, to top 1.7bn by 2013, spurred by demand for collaborative applications known collectively as ‘web 2.0’, and greater 2.5/3G penetration. 

 

However, it is clear that established mobile players face increasing competition from web-based brands and will have to adapt their commercial strategies to accommodate greater collaboration with other members of the value chain, if future revenue growth in the mobile web 2.0 domain is to be achieved. Mobile network operators and handset manufacturers in particular, will need to relinquish some of their control over the value chain, but to what extent they open up their networks/devices to third-parties remains to be seen. 

 

My call for development of an open environment in which users are able to share, collaborate and exploit content/information without any one party controlling the value chain, is supported in part, by a new study (read full release) by Pioneer Consulting on ‘Multimedia Mobile Content Distribution’. This study estimates that as a result of users sharing content and bypassing the existing value chain, US$16.4 billion worth of revenue opportunity will be at risk by 2012 (which is more than a quarter of the total revenue opportunity for that year, it adds). 

 

Robert Hsieh, author of the report said that, “Mobile operators need to embrace peer to peer (P2P) methodologies within their own networks and focus on the advantages of using both assisted P2P and augmented P2P to mitigate the disruption”. Aditya Kaul, Senior Analyst, Emerging Wireless at Pioneer added: “P2P is generally treated with contempt by operators and has now become the ‘P’ word that should never be uttered. It is more of an attitude problem rather than an engineering one, and unless operators wake up to the reality of the situation, we cannot even begin to solve the problem”.

 

In the news 

 

Virgin Mobile USA to acquire Helio (read full story)

 

Virgin Mobile USA is to acquire Helio, the US mobile phone operation controlled by SK Telecom of South Korea, after each side decided to combine their struggling businesses to build scale in the fast-maturing market, reports the Financial Times. 

 

Bidding Yahoo Adieu (read full story)

 

An exodus of high-profile, innovative managers leaves a leadership vacuum, and troubling implications for Yahoo’s future according to Business Week.

 

On the wire

 

Does 2.0 + 2.0 = 3.0?

CellSpin Launches Palm OS Mobile Blogging Application for MySpace, Facebook, Google Blogger, Twitter, Pownce, eBay, Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Live Journal, Live Space and more

 

CellSpin Soft, Inc. is adding support for Palm OS to its mobile blogging software. This software is claimed to be the first to provide a free, secure, intelligent, one-click simple GUI-based mobile application for capturing images, audio, video and text, and publishing them to one or many of a user's favourite blogging, social networking, photo sharing and auction sites simultaneously [I hope they get the hang of shortening their descriptions when blogging from a mobile device…]. In addition to Palm OS, CellSpin also supports the Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.0 and Blackberry operating systems, with others to follow. 

 

“…with CellSpin Palm OS application users can stay connected, blog and micro-blog on leading social networks with just one click,” said Bobby Gurvinder Singh, CEO and co-founder of CellSpin. “CellSpin is about combining Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 technologies and giving end-users a seamless and easy Internet 3.0 experience.” 

 

So have we really arrived at Internet 3.0 already? Not content with this, CTO and co-founder Marcos Klein added: “CellSpin has become the standard for blogging not only among the technorati, but increasingly among the ‘silver surfer’ set as well.”  

 

Certainly 10.0 out of 10.0 for use of buzzwords…

 

Online Social Network Users Continue to Grow

11 million people in the UK visited social network sites in 2007 (read full release)

 

Facebook continues to trail MySpace in the US, but the online social networking site has overtaken its main rival in worldwide unique users. With almost 20 foreign-language versions of the site, starting with French, German and Spanish, Facebook has seen continuous growth throughout Europe. Now, with the new Chinese-language version, it is beginning its trajectory in Asia. 

 

Furthermore, according to new figures from research firm, eMarketer, an impressive 60.5 percent of the UK population, or 36.8 million people, went online at least once per month in 2007 and, of those, 30 percent (11 million people) visited social network sites at least once per month. 

 

Online social network ad spending in the UK and Western Europe is expected to reach UK£283 million in 2008, rising to UK£804 million pounds in 2012. 

 

Meanwhile, business-focused networking community LinkedIn has been valued at more than $1 billion, having received $53m in venture capital funding from Bain Capital Ventures and three existing investors in exchange for a 5% stake in the company. (read full story)

 

YouTube dominates UK’s online video market

27 Million People Watched More Than 3.5 Billion Videos Online in the U.K. in March 2008 (read full release)

 

Internet measurement company, comScore,’ says that 27.4 million UK Internet users viewed 3.5 billion videos online in March 2008, and that Google sites, driven by the popularity of YouTube.com (which accounted for 99 percent of all videos viewed on the property in March), attracted a 48-percent share of all online videos viewed in the UK. 

 

BBC Sites ranked second with a 1.2-percent share, followed by Fox Interactive Media (0.9 percent share), Microsoft Sites (0.7 percent share), Yahoo! Sites (0.6 percent share), and French video sharing site, Dailymotion.com (0.4 percent share). 

 

According to the comScore Video Metrix service, UK Internet users watched an average of 127.7 videos per viewer in March – the highest usage rate of any of the five countries its Video Metrix service covers (which also includes the US, Canada, France and Germany).

 

Is China Leaving the Internet's Back Door Open?

Chinese Networks Are Hosting Majority of the Internet’s Malware Sites, StopBadware.org Report Finds

 

The majority of the Internet’s malware-infected websites are located on Chinese networks according to the latest ‘Infected Sites Report’ from StopBadware.org. The university-based research initiative, which aims to protect users from dangerous software, also found that six of the ten network blocks that contain the largest number of badware [sic] sites, are located in China. 

 

“Sites that infect visiting PCs represent some of the worst of digital pollution," said Jonathan Zittrain, StopBadware.org co-director and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Digital pollution of course, might be just one concern for China given its infamous Shanghai smog. Ironically, the US, which is another country not recognised for a particularly green approach, was found to be a another major ‘digital polluter’, with US-based networks accounting for 21 percent of bad sites.

 

However, Maxim Weinstein, manager of StopBadware.org, was keen to point out that although the country and network data published within the report are a helpful step in understanding the distribution of malware, people should be careful about assigning blame. “Our goal in releasing this report is not to point fingers or to imply that network owners or governments are at fault for the malware on their networks, but rather to start a conversation. When different links in the Internet chain talk to each other and share information, it leads to solutions that in turn lead to a safer Internet for all of us.”

 

Delivering more for less

IT Managers Batten Down the Hatches for the Year Ahead (read full release)

 

IT managers predict they will be under even more pressure to deliver more for less next year, new research from CIO Connect revealed this week. In a survey carried out ahead of CIO Connect’s annual Team Connect conference for IT managers in London on July 1st, managers confirmed they will have to batten down the hatches in the coming 12-18 months, as board-level executives demand IT departments focus on driving more value from existing infrastructure. 

 

“The difficult economic backdrop looks to be casting a cloud over the forecasts of IT managers for the 18 months ahead. In these circumstances, it is certainly important for IS departments to be driving value from their existing applications infrastructure, but the pressure of tougher economic times can also provide the perfect environment for IT departments to create imaginative and innovative solutions to assist their businesses to gain a competitive edge,” commented CIO Connect chief executive, Nick Kirkland. 

 

One would hope that IT departments already strive to create imaginative and innovative solutions and, despite the impending doom predicted by many as the ‘credit crunch’ continues to bite, surely the ‘more for less’ mantra has been espoused since the early ‘80s?

 

Mastering Millennials

Porter Novelli Offers Insight Into a Generation That's Reinventing the Workplace (read full report)

 

To help employers around the globe navigate the sometimes treacherous inter-generational waters, global communications agency Porter Novelli has issued a white paper about Millennials that aims to address five key questions: 

 

• How different are Millennials?
• What happens to confidentiality in an age of radical transparency?
• If being entertained is the norm, what happens to work?
• What does the world of work and business mean to Millennials?
• What stories are Millennials telling to make sense of themselves and their generation? 

 

In examining these challenges and others, the report also features tips on managing Millennials from 24 senior managers at Porter Novelli. 

 

Born in the 1980s, Millennials are beginning to enter the workforce and are said to be making a profound impact with their wholly different perspective on, approach to, and expectations of a professional experience. “If you want to understand Millennials, you need to allow your mind to freewheel,” noted Porter Novelli CEO, Gary Stockman.

 

“They do not strive for the things we Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers have accepted as gospel. That everyone wants to get ahead at work. That work is the means to a rewarding life. That privacy is something to be held dear. It can be very hard, but understanding Millennials requires parking these preconceptions – and many more – at the door."

 

'Nuff said…