CIO Essentials: Web 2.0 hype, Google and wi-fi risks

Ever wondered what CIOs are reading on silicon.com? Our CIO Essentials feature puts you in the picture. Each week a leading IT chief picks his or her top stories from the past week and explains why they matter.

This week we hear from Nicholas Bellenberg, IT director at Hachette Filipacchi, the UK publisher of magazines including Elle, Inside Soap, Real Homes and Red.

Peter Cochrane's Blog: Is web 2.0 doomed to fail?
This latest polemic from Peter Cochrane struck two chords with me. Firstly the way 'web 2.0' has become something of a brand on its own. People use the phrase in conversation, determine to build websites in a 'web 2.0 way' and blame online business failures on 'just not being web 2.0 enough'. But do they really know what it means? I didn't really until I looked it up a year ago here. Secondly, Peter makes such a valuable point about bi-directional working. The internet is not all about downloading and, certainly in my industry, successful remote working relies on the ability to upload data quickly and easily, and ADSL just doesn't do the job. As Peter said, pity we didn't all get fibre to every doorstep in the land.

Leader: Why we must know more about wi-fi
Wi-fi is hot, hot, hot at the moment - just last week it became available for strollers and al-fresco picnickers in the City of London and for Express train travellers to Heathrow, eager to browse the web and connect via VPN to the office for the 20 minute journey-time. They must get so much work done. Don't they have BlackBerrys? Seriously though, it's a great step forward - having the facility on longer-haul train services will be a clear benefit. Back to the Leader article, however - yes of course we need to understand any potential health risk associated with technologies, in this case any negative effects of radio waves associated with wi-fi. Blindly harvesting the benefits without considering all implications is short-sighted and irresponsible. Just think about asbestos, for instance.

CIOs 'lack vision and fail to innovate'
Any story that accuses IT leaders of having a lack of vision strikes a blow. Most IT departments are caught between a rock and a hard place with this, and the sooner they realise and can do something about it the better. On the one hand, risks and project scopes need rigorous control which can tend to suppress creation. On the other, business people need to be empowered in all ways and enabled to develop ideas and systems that make things faster, cheaper, better. Getting a novel idea successfully to market is hard. As an IT leader I'm committed to helping my business do all that as smoothly as possible, and without the network failing due to hacker attack, virus infection or by simply using flaky applications. Saying 'no' to every request is not an option. Neither is saying 'yes' to everything - you'll get the sack eventually. You have to bring ideas and solutions to the table and add value. Good ideas will and do get listened to.

Google beats Microsoft, Coke in brand stakes
It's not surprising, really, seeing that 'to Google' something has become common shorthand for doing some web research. But it's staggering to see that the Google brand is worth $66.4bn - over $10bn more than Microsoft. To think that some nine or so years ago, when I first used Google, its minimalism made it look a little odd compared with the big guns of the day, such as Alta Vista. Ask.com is now branding itself as 'the other search engine' but it seems a little pathetic to be aiming to be number two. This story also reinforces the message that technology underpins everyone's daily life in the industrialised world. Those who provide workplace technology - like me and you - are reminded that we have to work hard to deliver IT tools for work that are as good as the ones that people use at home.

Wikipedia woos the old world
A crumb of comfort to remind us that old world media such as print on paper, which keeps me gainfully employed - or in this case bytes on CDs - can co-exist happily with the 'new' media of the web world. Interesting to see this is recognised to be of benefit to those with inadequate web access - which takes us back to Peter Cochrane's points [about the flaws with ADSL]. Wikipedia has its detractors but overall I think it's a superb resource whose benefits overwhelm the drawbacks. And this edited CD version will provide solid up-to-date information to schools in a way that the 'old world' bound volume encyclopedias never could.

If you are a UK-based IT director or CIO and would like to take part in the CIO Essentials series by choosing your top five stories of the week, send us an email here at silicon.com.