Latest Articles

i-design 08 - 3D to 5D

The first panel discussion broached the topic of 5D, the developing area of immersive design that touches on themes around sensory experience, virtual reality environments and design that is not just digital and not just virtual, but rather a hybrid of the two.

Online Advertising Bucks Flagging Market

The industry received a welcome boost this week with the news that Internet advertising revenues rose significantly in the first half of 2008, despite tough economic conditions. NMK quizzed the industry on what we can expect for the next year.

ITV’s Overlay Advertising Trial Panned

Troubled ITV is experimenting with ‘automatically placed overlay advertising’ to help revive flagging revenues. NMK’s Chris Lee canvassed opinion from around the new media industry about the move.

• More Web 2.0 Needed In Schools
• UK Council for Child Internet Safety Launches
• US Presidential Election Gets Social
• i-design 08 - Brendan Dawes, My Interactive
• i-design 08 - Simon Waterfall
• YouTube gets into Top Gear
• Goldfarming for Fun and Profit

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  According to dating software company, WhiteLabelDating.com, having a relevant web site will always encourage relevant people to dip their hands into their pockets. We speak to Steve, Pammenter, managing director about profiting from niche. more

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• Brief Encounter: Huddle

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Related Events

Virtual Worlds Forum

When: October 6th, 2008
Location: The Bridge, Weston Street, London, SE1 The Bridge, SE1 Weston Street, London
Price: Reduced to £0.00 if you are eligible for a discount.

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The Facebook Elephant

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Following claims that social networking sites, such as Facebook could turn out to be a costly ‘white elephant’ for businesses, Tim Hoang reports on how the Web 2.0 world has reacted.

It was reported on business and technology news site, Silicon.com that analyst house Gartner had fired a warning to businesses who ‘rushed to invest’ in ‘Facebook-led web 2.0 hype’.

Describing the technology as ‘a costly white elephant’, the article highlighted how businesses should carefully consider how they would protect personal intellectual property and people’s preferences for using existing non-professional external social networks before they developed their own.

Despite evidence that companies would find it easier to develop their own social networks with Facebook licensing out its developer platform, Gartner’s research apparently alleged that ‘the hype around social networking doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a mature enough technology to make it a critical business requirement’. The article continued: ‘There is also little evidence that social networking will be as beneficial for businesses as other web-based communications tech".

However, some bloggers have hit back at the report. Influential blogger, Euan Semple simply asked his readers to "Ignore Gartner". However, this was soon updated to ‘Ignore Silicon’ as it became apparent that the report, according to Edward Charvet of Internet strategy consultants, Trovus, did not summarise Gartner’s report in a "fair and balanced manner".

"The article from Silicon was making reference to a recent Gartner thought piece, making you think that Gartner’s position was simply that social computing is crap and has no value for a clutch of reasons," said Charvet on his company blog, Rewarding Dialogue.

"It’s not the hellfire and brimstone that the Silicon article will have you believe.  The points Gartner make seem to be to be that Social Computing, like any application set, may be hampered in delivering value if the "human" element is ignore," continued Charvet.

Ken Camp, from digital media experts, Stardust Global Ventures believes that businesses should actually be investing more rather than less, resources into understanding the value of social media and how it can benefit business operations.

"Gartner says that social media technology isn’t mature enough to make it a critical business requirement. I don’t agree. It’s a rapidly emerging tool that’s becoming more vital to success in business every day. The problem is that businesses aren’t investing resources to understand how to capture the value. The value proposition of social media isn’t understood by enterprise business. I don’t think Gartner understands it either," he said.