By Natasha Lomas, 30 November 2009 16:50
NEWS
November's top stories on silicon.com tackled some big questions: does my business need an office? Can I work solely on a netbook? Will the UK ever create a Google, Microsoft or Oracle of its very own?
November also dealt with the perennial question of will the UK's ID cards programme ever run to plan?
The answer appears to be a conclusive negative. The latest slip-up in the ID cards schedule, unearthed by silicon.com senior reporter Nick Heath, is the government missing its own deadline to get the cards into the hands of Manchester residents by more than a month. Small beer in the grand scheme of ID cards failures but another in the long list of ID card setbacks nonetheless.
Another negative came last month in response to the question of whether the UK will ever create a software giant to rival the likes of Microsoft, Google or Oracle. silicon.com's CIO Jury voted 10 to two against the likelihood of a British software powerhouse. Why can't Blighty produce a global tech behemoth? Education failures and the national tendency to disparage success were among the reasons cited.
On netbooks, November saw silicon.com sub editor Bethan Jones trade her trusty work laptop for a mini laptop. How did she fare using a netbook for two days in the working week? While there were pros to ditching the full-fat laptop, Jones decided the cons were bigger (or should that be smaller?). Follow her story by reading part I and part II - and then why not post a Reader Comment to share your own netbook-related experiences.
Going from laptop to mini laptop is one thing. But how about trading in your entire workplace? That's what silicon.com columnist Richard Leyland considered in another popular article - looking at whether businesses staffed by knowledge workers should ditch their office and live the mobile working dream.
Leyland explored some of the issues that might crop up, from staff reaction and choice of tech to how to conduct meetings and manage 'loss of control'. So what's his conclusion? For now, at least, it's another thumbs-down.
Another popular article in November was our exclusive interview with Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales. Wales gave silicon.com reporter Natasha Lomas the lowdown on who is - and who isn't - editing Wikipedia, and how he hopes to broaden the pool of contributors. He also discusses using free content as an ad platform and his predictions for which paid jobs are at risk in an era of free content. Read the full interview here.
Elsewhere on silicon.com in the last month, Orange-flavoured iPhones were causing a fair bit of excitement, first up as the mobile operator announced its launch date and tariffs, and then post-launch as it revealed how many iPhones it shifted on day one. More than 30,000, in case you were wondering.
Mobile bells and whistles were the subject of another popular story - this time exploring the tech your mobile might be sporting in 2012.
And from cutting-edge tech to vintage techies - some of the surviving veterans who worked on the Colossus codebreaking machine and helped crack the Nazi military's codes during the Second World War talked to silicon.com's Nick Heath this month. Read their fascinating stories here - including Navy Wren Jean Valentine who was posted to Bletchley Park in 1940, just 18 years old.
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