Computer Weekly Editor's Blog

If you're a hoarder then we want to hear from you. I know that some of us can't bear to throw anything away - I know this as I am one of those people, while my wife, on the other hand, likes nothing better than de-cluttering.

Well if you've been hoarding old IT kit, then we want to hear from you. Send us your video or a photo of your oldest piece of IT kit that you have and tell us why you have held on to them, and enter our competition to win a great digital camera and £50 worth of Amazon vouchers.

Adam Burstow's CIO blog asks for feedback on his company Telereal's website. This is an excellent idea in generating user feedback and reminds me of one of the guiding principles we used when redesigning Computer Weekly.com recently and that is User Centred Design.

I'm so excited .... we have had our first entries for our hardware hoarders competition - you can see the pics at our Flickr group.

This is great stuff but we want more entries and if you do take part you could win a fantastic Sony digital camera and £50 in Amazon vouchers. If you send us a photo of your old IT kit, then try and capture yourself in the picture too!!

Also don't forget there's a prize for the best video too, so send us your videos through our video player on our website - it's really easy to do. Just go to the hardware hoarders area on ComputerWeekly.com. Good luck!

Last night Computer Weekly was at the BCS awards at London's Grosvenor House hotel, where over 1400 people gathered to celebrate achievements in IT throughout Europe. A good night was had by all.

It was the first time Computer Weekly has filmed the event and next week you'll be able to get a real flavour of what it was like from our video round up of the awards. I'll let you know when we post it up on the site.

You can also see who won what now by going to the BCS website.

If you haven't looked at our flickr group, then do, or take a look at the flickr revolving badge below that shows off our entries so far.

Sadly we haven't had any video submissions yet - some one must want to win the video competition surely?? Come on be the first - now there's a challenge!

Our video player can take film captured on a mobile phone - so it's pretty easy to film your oldest bit of IT kit - ideally with you in the film too explaining why you still have got it - and enter it into the competition. We're not expecting George Lucas-quality special effects!!

We are going to be filming a video highlights of 2007 tomorrow.

What are the stories or online videos this year that have had the most appeal to you - send me an email or post a comment letting me know what and why.

This has to be one of my highlights - and it is surprisingly funny!

If you want to see how the night unfolded, catch a glimpse of the winners or just soak in some of the atmosphere of the IT industry's oscars then watch our video coverage of the BCS awards by clicking play on the player below.

If you like reading about the lighter side of IT - then we have just turned our Downtime column from Computer Weekly into its own blog, called imaginatively Downtime. Take a look and if you have any funny IT stories then let us by posting a comment or sending an email to cwdowntime@rbi.co.uk

While reading the Sunday Times at the weekend, I stumbled upon a new buzzword - Moofers or mobile out of office workers.

A quick search on Google - turned up this blog post from Personnel Today's Work Clinic, which gives a thorough explanation of the term.

People who use technology to make hotel lobbys and coffee shops their mobile office. Of course this has all been enabled by the huge and fast development of free Wi-Fi networks.

And there's a guy at Microsoft that has a great blog all about Moofing.

Well, as it's my last week in the office before the Christmas break, I guess it's about time I introduce myself, as James has promised!

I'm Rebecca Froley, and I've recently joined James at ComputerWeekly.com as deputy web editor. If you'd like to know a bit about my background - from Microsoft Encarta, to web sites for builders, via a stint helping make software for vicars - then check out my profile at CW.com.

But enough of that. It's the holiday season, so it's time for some fun...

To help you get into the festive spirit, I've compiled a list of my top five ways to decorate your IT department by reusing stuff from your hardware / media store cupboard...

Searching for the right present for the IT professional in your life? Check out these gorgeous gifts for geek girls and guys.

1. In this server stack jacket you can feel at home even while dashing down the freezing cold high street to Maplins for those last-minute essentials...

As it's my last day in the office today, I wanted to wish all ComputerWeekly.com's readers a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

I hope you all have a great break and enjoy a happy and relaxing time away from the office with your family and friends.

Officially, tomorrow is the last day in the office for our team until the New Year, but we will be periodically updating the site over the festive break - yes some of us will be moofing!

Best Christmas wishes

James

Well, I'd been hoping for a quiet Christmas away from the PC, but it was not to be... News broke today, Sunday, of yet more public sector data breaches. And once again it's the Department of Health which is facing a diagnosis of poor security process.

Only a couple of days ago John-Paul Kamath reported on the Information Commissioner's Office ruling that the DoH had breached the data protection act, by failing to properly protect personal details entered into the Medical Training Application Service website. Now it's the patients' data that the DoH has confessed hasn't been getting quite the treatment it deserves.