CIO Essentials: Male techies, data breaches and web 2.0...

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 Richard Steel, CIO at the London Borough of Newham.

Women ignored by gadget makers and sellers - still
I guess this has parallels with the fact that the IT profession still fails to attract many women. My wife and daughter reckon they don't like talking to me about IT as I'm too impatient but I swear I'm no more impatient with them than with male colleagues.

Public sector IT spend to slow
I think this may also be down to a growing sense of realism about what's practical and smarter procurement, as well as shared infrastructure. But, for me, the major benefits are in ensuring that business processes are engineered to exploit ICT.

Photos: BT talks big on virtual worlds
Fancy being 'phoned-up by an avatar? I am fascinated by the pace and variety of web 2.0 and social networking developments, and the challenge to business in understanding, managing and, ultimately, exploiting the opportunities they bring.

silicon.com's Full Disclosure campaign - what we are asking for...

silicon.com wants the government to review its data protection legislation and improve the reporting of information security breaches in the public and private sectors.

We are calling for greater public debate and for the government to consider legislation that would require organisations that suffer information security breaches to alert their customers if there is a chance the breach has put individuals' sensitive personal data at risk.

We want to hear your views about this campaign and the issues it raises. Make your voice heard by leaving a Reader Comment below, emailing us at editorial@silicon.com or signing the 10 Downing Street e-petition.

Experts call for data breach legislation
I strongly agree with the need for action to ensure consumer confidence in our management of their information, and this seems to be something the Cabinet Office's newly formed National Information Assurance Strategy initiative should deal with. In the same vein, I also consider that government should step-in to promote the deployment of IPv6 [Internet Protocol Version 6] to facilitate web integrity.

Photos: High-tech 'spider-boat' races into view
Wow - when I first saw this headline, I thought it must refer to Microsoft's amazing Photosynth technology preview.

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.