Super-fast stutters in the cities

Apparently the UK is lagging when it comes to uptake of super-fast broadband with only 4% of households signed up, which is a surprise given how much time we all spend on-line, especially shopping... but that's another blog entirely. However, if there's one other thing that we Brits love it's a pub-table debate and this gets the opinions racing - the people who want to go super-fast can't get access and there's an over-abundance of access elsewhere.

Looking at a wealth map of the UK it's notable that areas such as Scotland, Yorkshire and Wales are doing pretty well thank-you-very-much. However, these (speaking very generally) areas tend to be more rural and the population is spread out to a much greater degree - not the first place that our broadband suppliers look at when laying the new network, despite the fact that there is clearly a market with money to spend. Perhaps time for a re-think of that cost model guys...? BT have announced their next swathe with Cornwall and Scotland featuring prominently, so there is hope.

Densely populated inner-city areas tend, again as a generalisation, to be poorer and take-up of the new services will be lower - something the government has been criticised on recently. The main issue is that most major cities already have very good provision whilst rural areas fall further behind. Given the changes to our demography and the boom in mobile workforce, this all seems a little short-sighted. That said, seems someone still envies what we've got!

Use it or Lose it

There's an old saying: You don't miss what you have until it's gone. There's a more modern saying that you have to let go to be able to move forward... which nicely sums up the challenge faced by many businesses in figuring out exactly what they're going to do with all that data they've been hoarded for years.

According to some folk there's something of a crisis on the horizon for our IT bretheren, as the growing data heap becomes harder to manage and presents real risk for any business. The challenge is essentially in knowing what to keep, how long to keep it for, and when/how to get rid of it. Tricky stuff that makes the weekend garage clearance seem a lot simpler.

While they figure it out (I'd suggest great governance advice and business utility are good starting points...) we could always put this guy in charge. No problems with letting go, none at all.

Who's out to spoliate your fun?

Learning new terminology comes with the territory in the wonderful world of Information Management. Today, I have mostly been considering spoliation and its impact on information governance in the UK. Apart from the obviously naughty schoolboy nature of destroying documents that might feature in legal discovery at some point, there is a social media facet that business Facebookers would do well to take note of.


The recent addition to Facebook of timeline functionality prompted some pretty extreme concerns, and when considered in the context of social media being used in litigation, spoliation could be tempting but ultimately expensive. As with all things social media, the essential rule is still a very healthy dollop of common sense because someone's always watching. Your online life can lead to some wonderful places, but also to some very dark ones. Careful out there kids.

Content to find another way round

Another thing we've learnt in setting up Acuity IMS is that there are so many content sources that it's a challenge just to list them all to find a starting point. Considering device and platform convergence is still increasing, it's also fascinating how many different ways you can do the same thing. For example, my latest BlackBerry came with at least four different Instant Messaging apps installed, all doing largely the same thing.

Makes me wonder what the outcome of India's decision to restrict text messaging will be - I guess user content will still be created, just pushed to another, slightly different platform. The proliferation of choice means there's always another way to do it.

For the Record: Po-Mo is the future of the past

News from our Dutch cousins. I was on a training course in Utrecht recently and there was a discussion about buying criteria for Electronic Records Management (ERM) systems. There was the usual conversation about cost control, better governance, risk and compliance etc etc. You know the kind of thing.

Then one of the Dutch guys (from an unnamed public sector org) said his boss had laid down as criteria... it must be post-modern! A stunning idea and one I cannot wait to see the procurement guys get to grips with. Given that ERM deals largely with yesterday's content, such a futuristic ask may be a stretch too far.

Solution in a Box? Drop everything

As we've been going through the set-up phase for Acuity IMS, we've realised lots of things - some in a Eureka! moment, others in a more downbeat, that'll-cost-us manner. However, there have been some great surprises. One of these was our discovery of DropBox which was a genuine WOW. It does exactly what it promises and for free. Their rampant success is a big part of what is changing the business landscape and it came as no big shock to see the company has passed the 45million subscriber mark. Another WOW. Really interesting to see where they go now...