Internet World

Two interesting-sounding seminars in the Enterprise Content Management stream caught my eye. Both customers of Swedish web CMS vendor, EPiServer which is exhibiting at the show.

On Wednesday Cian O’Donovan from Setanta Sports will present the company´s web strategy, experiences learned from implementing EPiServer CMS and the impact of Web 2.0 on the business. For those of you who aren’t sports fans, Setanta is the fastest growing pay television operator in Europe providing premium sports TV channels. Their website is updated continuously by 25 journalists covering the latest news in the world of sport.

Then on Thursday Amanda Neylon, Web manager for Diabetes UK, will share how the organisation developed the website that scooped the prestigious “Best site” award at the 2007 Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Excellence Awards. Diabetes UK is the largest charity in the UK devoted to the care and treatment of people with diabetes.

But apart from them, there are hundreds of other exhibitors with interesting news to tell you – I’ll update you on those as and when I can, but in the meantime keep an eye on our cutting edge news for more.

With only one week left to go before the best digital marketing exhibition of its kind begins, I notice another news story rearing its head regarding behavioural targeted marketing. Phorm had already put up a massive PR-offensive wall inviting debate with people not happy about a previous story mentioned in this very blog way back here . It looks like the general public aren’t too happy with being advertised products that they might actually be interested in.

I’ve been so busy organizing the event that I have almost let slide my multimedia collection. How remiss of me! Thankfully there’s a new beta release around at the moment that seems to work pretty well with all the major online media outlets like flickr and facebook. Looks like you can now drag and drop your media between all these apps and make your online media library look better than ever before.

Anyway, back to the grindstone. Still lots to do before all the speakers and exhibitors arrive. My holiday snaps from Bournemouth will have to wait. See you next week!

The power of the digital realm seems to be overtaking the financial world, according to a story I noticed online today, which sees Apple as more valuable than Citigroup. This is obviously related to the international credit crunch, but highlights a time when a technology company selling a lifestyle through its fancy gadgets and media library can overtake the largest bank in the world. All based on potentials, and the bleak future for the banking sector cannot be ignored. Who knows if it might eventually start overshadowing our own areas of industry?

Speaking of rich media and selling a lifestyle, I spotted an interesting and thought-provoking video on the web too… It’s nice to see useful and intellectual content on the web rather than some of the things that end up on Youtube, eh? Come along to Internet World for more of the same, and keep reading this space to make sure you know who has been added to the list of attendees and speakers. I believe I can reveal Google University will be joining us at the event. We’ll be seeing you there, too.

An interesting story this week on BBC News (ironically enough) about UK ISP’s complaining that the iPlayer is overloading internet bandwidth and potentially forcing them to invest large sums in upgrading networks. The ISP’s are going so far as to suggest that the Beeb should foot some of the bill for doing so – which raises all sorts of interesting questions. For one thing, there are loads of sites out there offering TV over the web, including of course YouTube and countless other copycat sites. But, of course, the BBC is underwritten by HM Government (and all of us saps here in the UK paying the annual licence fee) – so makes for a very attractive target.

There is part of me that says the whole basis for the claim these ISP’s are making is ludicrous – the reason people are flocking to the iPlayer is that it offers content they want to watch, so to blame the BBC for putting something in the web sphere that is popular and compelling is almost like blaming a new theme park for increased congestion on the roads around. But then, I think to myself, people DO blame new shopping centres, schools, attractions etc for increased traffic flows, and expect developers to invest some of their profits in ensuring good transport links.

All of which leads to inevitable calls for the Government to step in and broker a deal. Well, whatever the solution, chances are that web users will pay – either through increased monthly subscription charges, reduced broadband speeds, limitation on accessing web TV services – or some kind of Internet Tax (shudder!). This topic is sure to run and run – it comes off the back of a number of increasingly dire warnings that the internet could come apart at the seams – so what do you, our expert community, think the solution should be?

The wealth of technology we have at our fingertips to do any number of digital tasks is impossibly overwhelming at times, and requires some higher level qualification to avoid stepping in any potential pitfalls or otherwise. While we continue to position ourselves at the forefront of digital technology as a whole, we try to practice what we preach. This is why we can now offer a plethora of ways to keep your clicking-finger on the pulse of Internet World. You’re reading one of them right now. And then there is the website which is our main resource for updating you on new speakers and developments at the show. Our monthly newsletter (have you signed up to receive it yet?) provides more thorough insight into the current affairs in the digital arena with our thoughtful articles. And for the slightly more web-savvy interested party, we also have a Facebook group and now a brand new LinkedIn presence too.

The last two developments aim to connect together and provide a more thorough presence on the internet. By appealing to you on several levels we’re hoping to provide something for everyone, so join the groups and let’s get connected. If you can think of any other ways we ought to be reaching out to the digital community, then please drop a comment on here or email me.

We’ve even got one of the most-played games on the web on our site, made just for us by the kind people at Tamba Internet. Go on, have a play – you know you want to!

It is interesting to see where web 2.0 and social networking pops up around the place before the event starts. It has been touted for some time that government should embrace newer technologies in order to evolve and respond better to the needs of the country at a faster pace. It is all very well stating the ways of progress and ushering in a more direct method of communicating with the electorate, but will it actually benefit anyone anytime soon? I for one believe it is essential to modernize, but it is also unlikely it can be done effectively and with real gusto by any government of the foreseeable future. Sadly. But please try. I think voting through Facebook might get a higher turnout from a more informed section of society.

Going from open source to a slightly more closed arena, it seems that Apple have been crowned most influential brand. Good news for Steve Jobs, as Microsoft didn’t fare so well. Possibly next year the winner will come from someone attending our “How To Build An e-Superbrand” presentation….

Here we have an interesting article highlighting the evolution of portals. We have here another viewpoint (different to my touting Firefox as the main upstart) that plants Facebook as the next challenger in the internet, and taking on all-comers. Can a social network really pile on enough pounds to compete in the same weight-class as Google or Microsoft? With a few useful additions it possibly could, and messaging and email are being looked into as I type. Would your boss allow you more Facebook time if it was somehow more productive?

Here at Internet World we are certain that social networking is firmly linked to a successful digital business, and therefore urge you to watch this space and get yourself signed up for the event if you haven’t already. Our top speakers are covering all manner of Web 2.0 issues and social networking topics, so get yourself booked in and sign up to hear the future.

I am currently in the market for a new bathroom, and spent Saturday morning with a designer from one of the larger bathroom design companies. Everything was all set, my partner and I were happy with the proposed design and we were happy to proceed. That was until we started reading online reviews of the company in question – and over 80% of them were overwhelmingly negative.

This has caused us to think again about using this company – but part of me started to wonder about the fairness of this attitude (and I’m sure we are all guilty of having reconsidered a restaurant, hotel or movie based on something we’ve read online). This company has set itself up in business, put a website out there with all the information homeowners need, sends out its people to measure up bathrooms, and does whatever else it needs to in order to promote itself – but then has to contend with anonymous posters on a website over which it has no control which is doing serious harm to the company’s image.

Part of me says that people who’ve had a negative experience are always more prone to venting some rage on a suitable message board or forum – so the sample is unrepresentative. Another part of me says I don’t want to risk going ahead after reading what I read – which I think you will agree is a prudent course of action. But, moving forward, how can we create online forums which provide a more nuanced, and dare I say objective, version of the truth about the service we as customers can expect from a given company? One day, we could all as professionals with websites to maintain be the victim of something someone out there writes about us – is it fair to demand a right of reply? Or should we just chalk this up under the “Dangers of the Web” category? Readers, let us know what you think…

It doesn’t seem too long ago since Google had entered the offline world with their Desktop application, challenging the status quo that Windows had monopolized for so long. By offering an alternative –and possibly better- way of finding things on your own hard drive, our eyes were opened. Of course, those Mac users amongst us have appreciated reliable and faster local search for years…

But in a similar manner, we now see value in an attempt to bridge gaps between not just on- and off-line, but also computer and mobile screens. Only recently, possibly with the arrival of the iPhone, can we really agree that the industry is starting to offer the internet wherever the consumer wants it, not one version for mobile and another for PCs.

Which brings me to Firefox. It is open source, and Mozilla are building on a strong community base and solid following. How long will it be until we begin to see this browser as the ultimate platform for our daily needs?

We seem to have hit on a rich seam of controversy regarding the gathering of your browsing habits for more targeted marketing campaigns. It seems that Qualcomm are arming up with their acquisition of an Irish company that monitors mobile browsing (with a little help from Orange).

We are moving into realms now where most things we do will be noted by somebody somewhere, whatever space we’re caught looking at (computer- or mobile-based) will simultaneously know what we’re looking at too. How long will it be before the television sets in the corner of every house start to feed statistics back to similar companies, a la Orwell’s 1984 or the more recent Blind Faith by Ben Elton?

I suppose the only place where we can get a handle on the answers would be at Earls Court from the 29th of April…