Collaboration Technology 2.0

Accessing useful sites on the internet through guest networks or hot spots is becoming something of a frustration. With Enterprise Content Filtering ever more sophisticated, a lot of the sites deemed 'social’ are on restricted lists. How these filters get put in place can be something of a minefield. I know. I've walked through one.

Next week I will be blogging from IBM's annual Lotus software jamboree in Orlando. Traditionally the big announcements are made at the Monday morning plenary session but I am not sure that they will be able to top the news that emerged yesterday. Apple has been doing its thing this week with the usual set of 'must have' components. Yes I too would like a mobile PC that is so thin it is almost translucent. Amongst all this IBM and the boys from Cupertino have announced a product that could really put the feline in with the pigeons.

How many keynotes can one conference support? IBM believes the answer is as many as you need - the only problem is that they start at 8am, not great after an evening of refreshing old friendships. And my legs and feet are under siege and my shoes are suffering from cheap carpet burns. To matters:

One of the big rumous prior to January's Lotusphere was the imminent arrival of some sort of Lotus Notes integration with the iPhone. When the annointed time came we were dissapointed with just a 'light' version of the web client being touted as the Apple solution.

Rumour had it that someone (high up) in Cupertino had thown their iToys out of the collaborative pram as the timing of the announcement did not suit them.

Last week I started my Small Things post, each week I am going to look at the plethora of Web 2.0 collaborative (and personal) tools that are arriving on an almost daily basis.

This week I have had a week of Twitter under my belt, and an introduction to Symbaloo and some conversation around Plaxo.

The mobile phone has become the main means of voice and digital service communication. With 3G services enabling fast transfer of wireless data, mobile marketing is meeting its potential and is being used by marketeers in many sectors. It has moved away from being a supplemental channel to become the preferred way to reach the lucrative youth market.

With less happening at the desk, the opportunity lies in developing location based services that bridge the digital and real world. We see some of this already from parking meter charging to monitoring of heart pacemakers. The next step is in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) location, not just for navigation but sending enhanced hyper-linked targeted local ads using a combination of Cell-id, wifi and GPS.

Interestingly, GIS became part of the national A-level curriculum in September last year. ESRI (UK) and the Geographical Association have launched the first A-level GIS teaching resource created for the UK market.Written by Dr Peter O'Connor, Head of Geography at Bishop's Stortford College and a member of the Geographical Association ICT Working Group, GIS for A-level Geography is available now from the Geographical Association.