CIO Essentials: Nerdy techies, SaaS and social networks

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 Ben Booth, global CTO at research and polling company Ipsos.

Peter Cochrane's Blog: Social networks
Many of us in the corporate world are prone to dismissing social networks as at best a nuisance, drain on staff time and security hazard. Peter Cochrane's blog reminds us we should not underestimate their influencing power.

Businesses cool on software as a service
I found this poll resonated with my own view that software as a service (SaaS) is being over-hyped for larger organisations but, on the other hand, has much to offer the smaller business that wants to keep its capital investment to the minimum.

Young targeted by "Revitalise IT" scheme
I'm very interested in this scheme's aims to increase the relevance of IT training to business. Of course we want to train the brightest computer scientists but many IT graduates will focus more on business. Also IT has a seriously nerdy image problem which I hope this will address.

UK minister dreaming of a high fibre diet
Nice to see Her Majesty's government proposing to take some practical steps to increase connectivity.

The McCue Interview: The AA IT director Trevor Didcock.
It's always interesting to learn how other CIOs respond to the challenges of rapid change.

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.