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blogsOf Budgets and White PapersThe 2008 UK Budget may have been a modest affair, but published with it were two documents with probably greater implications for the long-term performance of the innovation sector in the UK. Many of you reading through the coverage of Alistair Darling’s first Budget, delivered on 12th March 2008, may have been reminded of Claud Cockburn’s famous (spoof?) entry for the prize of most dull but accurate headline: ‘Small Earthquake in Chile, Not Many Dead’. A Twist in the Tail – Part II: Birth of an IdeaThe Story so Far Earlier this week we looked at how the sub-prime fall-out is impacting on growth businesses and we noted how reminiscent today’s market woes are of the dot.com bust. I suggested that the rebirth of Internet commerce as Web 2.0 provides a hopeful parallel for the current market uncertainty. The really interesting aspect of Web 2.0 is ‘the long tail’. And what’s more, not only did the long tail ‘save’ the Internet, it might even be the way out the perennial funding gap experienced by promising young firms. The Long Tail A Twist in the Tail – Part I: Sub-Prime BluesI was invited to deliver a talk last week on Financing for Companies in the Current Climate. The subject is timely as many of the things we might have taken for granted over the past decade or so are no longer as certain as they used to be. And so deep-seated is the gloom in financial markets that investors have become like Aunt Ada Doom in the classic 1930s satirical novel Cold Comfort Farm, who became reclusive and miserly after seeing ‘something nasty in the woodshed’ as a girl. What WAS in the Woodshed? How Dumb is Your Pipe?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. "Partnership, Trust ... and Mutual Understanding"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 CommunicationsPervasive Google - the Real Beneficiary of the Long Tail?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. Mobile Web - The Old New ThingIn 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 DaysI 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. Pangloss’s Christmas Special – Part 2What are the keys to success in creating a social networking website? The contrasting histories of Google and Facebook may provide some clues. Pangloss’s Christmas Special – Part IIn a departure from normal practice, today’s blog is a Christmas Special looking at how popular culture – such as Ben Elton’s latest novel Blind Faith Why Should the Devil Have All the Best Tunes? Credit Crunch - Angels to the Rescue?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.
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