Tweet
If you have read anything about the technology industry in 2007 – including this column – you will know that there is a huge technology boom surrounding Web 2.0 and this new internet bubble is driving global growth in the technology sector. Right? Erm … well, actually not really.
According to a recent report from research firm The Library House, venture capitalists were flocking away from social media in droves in 2007. Click here to read the rest of this Tech Talk column.

Tweet
Have you Googled yourself lately? If you are like most people, you probably have.

Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint, according to new research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Almost half the respondents to a recent survey — 47 per cent — said they had searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22 per cent five years ago.
The Internet’s long tail means that we each have an online data trail that we, and anyone else for that matter, can quickly access thanks …

Tweet
As the year draws to a close, many industry pundits are taking some time to peer into their crystal balls to make predictions for the year ahead.
One technology that had a lot of hype in 2007 is destined for great things next year. Research firm Gartner predicts that virtual worlds will have a significant impact on the retail industry.
It says that, by 2010, 20 per cent of global top-tier retailers will have some kind of marketing presence in virtual worlds and online games. This is not surprising considering that Gartner …

Tweet
It’s no secret that the banking industry has had more lows than highs over the past few months.
Barely a day goes by without some mention in the business news media of Northern Rock, the US sub-prime crisis or the pressure on prime rates.
All this bad news is bound to trickle down into every aspect of retail bank operations — and the IT departments are not immune.
A study released last week showed that although customers want better communication, retail banks are being held back by legacy systems and processes that simply …

Tweet
The Isle of Man Space Industry Group’s end-of-year dinner was an event attended by members of the Island’s space sector as well as many visitors from as far afield as the USA, Russia and France.
I was delighted to be invited to share the evening with, among others, a bona fide NASA astronaut and the dean of the International Space University.
Since its inception in April 2006, the Isle of Man Space Group has had a great deal of success in establishing the Island’s reputation as a premier offshore commercial space industry.
This …

Tweet
Anyone who picks up a newspaper these days knows that the much-hyped social networking site Facebook is a lot of fun, addictive, a security risk and a productivity suck. Yes, it has been called all these things.
But, as its membership continues to grow, there is one important fact about Facebook that makes it increasingly important to business.
It is a rich source of data on trusted relationships. Some might argue that the depth of Facebook relationships can be superficial and in many cases this is true. People do tend to befriend …

Tweet
There was a time when the term geek was seen as derogatory and was certainly not meant as a compliment.  It was usually applied to people who demonstrated few social skills, regardless of their level of intelligence, or those who were enthusiastic about a particular subject — typically related to science and technology.
But, as is the nature of language, the meaning of the word geek has changed over the years. I am told the term dork is now more commonly applied to social introverts and geek has come to mean …

Tweet
I came across a rather long post from Richard Murphy‘s Tax Research blog yesterday in which he takes a business reporter on the Isle of Man Examiner to task about some comments she’d made.
I know of Richard because, as he said in his post, he is often called upon for comment about Isle of Man tax policies by many high profile media outlets. And so he seen as a respected source. I know the reporter in question because I’ve worked with her on many occasions on behalf of clients, …

Tweet
There is the dawn of a new era in the Isle of Man. It is the dawn of the Quad-Core processor from Intel.
Actually, these processors were originally launched late last year, but to my knowledge they were not widely available in the Isle of Man until recently when more than 40 new servers based on Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5300 processors were installed at the Netcetera Dataport in Ballasalla.
According to Intel, they can mean a marked increase in performance of up to 50 per cent for some applications compared with …

Tweet
I try not to write about Google all the time, I really do.
There is so much news coming out of the company that I could write a Google column every week if I wanted to. But the whole world covers Google and I try to avoid writing about them so that I can offer something a bit different on these pages.
But what Google did last week was so big and so important that I just cannot ignore it. So, with respect to Arthur Miller, attention must be paid.
Google has announced …