CandidCapital

New compression and multiplexing technologies mean that true broadband can now be delivered over mobile - so why are mobile network operators apparently so reluctant to let their subscribers benefit from new broadband services?

I went to the Mobile World Congress - the world's leading trade fair for the mobile industry - in Barcelona last week. The battalions of northern Europeans and Americans were denied their usual week of balmy outdoor partying and networking - with an average daytime temperature of 4°C, the outdoor heaters were working overtime.

Technorati Tags: mobile 3G Mobile World Congress broadband HSPA LTE

Can there be too much trust and mutual understanding between management and shareholders - and what are the potential implications of this?

In the preamble to the UK Combined Code on corporate governance, there is a rather lofty sentence: "Whilst recognising that directors are appointed by shareholders who are the owners of companies, it is important that those concerned with the evaluation of governance should do so with common sense in order to promote partnership and trust, based on mutual understanding."

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Effective Communications

Technorati Tags: business angels corporate governance shareholder rights biotech

As Google's grip on the on-line advertising market gets ever tighter - who is set to be the real beneficiary of the long tail?

One of the ideas to come out of Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), source of so much that has shaped modern computing - from the mouse to object oriented programming, is 'pervasive computing' - the idea that everything you do is impacted by and interacts with computers.

Technorati Tags: Google PageRank Sergei Brin Larry Page Long Tail monetization

In 2000 with the launch of WAP, the internet seemed set to go mobile. Eight years on we're still waiting (mostly) - why has its gestation been so protracted?

Early Days

I remember getting my first WAP phone, a Nokia 7110, in early 2000 and starting to browse the internet. Actually, at that time, it did seem pretty amazing and I quickly discovered the excellent kizoom mobile rail timetable site - which was an exemplar of how to organise a web site for mobile devices, especially phones.

Technorati Tags: mobile web UMTS 3G iPhone Nokie N95 EDGE HSDPA

With the credit crunch making it even harder for SMEs to raise bank loans, should the government offer incentives to encourage business angels to close the gap?

The credit crunch continues to filter through the banking system, causing the the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to add nearly £300Bn of liquidity to the system earlier this week. The crunch seems to become more severe and more long-lasting as each week passes.

Technorati Tags: business angels SMEs banks Credit Crunch mezzanine lending

Facebook may have been caught out by the row over its new advertsing program, but the challenges it faces are shared by many, if not all, web businesses.

The recent spat over opt-in or opt-out for users from Facebook's new Beacon program is symptomatic of the challenges facing all social networking and community content sites and most other content-based websites as well. The question is: how exactly do you make money out of all those millions of users benfitting from the rich user experience your site offers but who are paying you zilch?

Technorati Tags: Facebook Beacon AdSense Commission Junction

Why does Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of Silicon Valley's legendary venture capital firms, make so much of its enthusiasm for backing youthful entrepreneurs? Does the experience of Cambridge bear out this predeliction?

Earlier this month DFJ Esprit held their first event in Cambridge since Esprit joined the Draper Fisher Jurvetson worldwide network of venture capital firms. It was a good party, in an English way, with a flute and harp recital in the Victorian splendour of the Fitzwilliam Museum. The guests were the usual suspects: venture investors, business angels, partners from professional services firms, senior academics and officials from the university. Partners were invited which made for a pleasant and relaxed evening without the intensity of business networking.

Technorati Tags: DFJ entrepreneurs Steve Jurvetson Cambridge youth

Is the pre-occupation in the UK with commercialising science and technology reinforcing the country's enterprise potential? Or is it missing the point?

These days, if you're someone with an arts degree (which I have - history, actually), you'd be forgiven for feeling distinctly unloved by the enterprise industry. By the 'enterprise industry' I mean the plethora of government departments, quangos, agencies and assembled other pundits who see themselves responsible for liberating the innovative talent of what they usually refer to as UK plc.

Technorati Tags: Race to the Top Venturesome Consumption poets geeks

Social networks have acquired a momentum reminiscent of the height of the dot.com boom. So much so that two venture funds have been set up to invest in Facebook applications. Do these offer substantial new business opportunities or are they an excuse for a new bout of investors' self-delusion?

Earlier in the summer, having attended Library House's excellent Essential Web 07 conference, I blogged about how the Web 2.0 phenomenon is showing some of the signs of the dot.com fever that raged in 1998/99.

Web 2.0 and TechCrunch

Technorati Tags: Venturecast Techcrunch Facebook Apps Bay Partners Altura Ventures "picks and shovels"

Simplifying taxation is all very well, but are the changes to capital gains tax announced by the UK's finance minister going to achieve what he intended - and, by the way, what did he intend?

On Tuesday, Chancellor Alistair Darling announced a simplification of capital gains tax in his 2007 Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review. The reform is to sweep away all allowances and variations in the rate of capital gains tax (bar the £9,200 annual personal allowance) replacing them with a single rate of 18% from April 2008.

Technorati Tags: Tax UK Government enterprise disincentives