The last comment made in a recent BBC article concerning hi-tech crime made me pause for thought this afternoon.

Paul Henry from Secure Computing put forward the idea that the only sure way to reduce identity theft and related crime would be to lower the value of personal identity to the point where it no longer holds value for hackers.

Is this a valid argument?

Advertising agencies and corporations will pay a fortune to know your personal details. Ok, so these data are more to do with what kind of car you drive, or your breakfast cereal preferance. Yet if they are willing to invest vast sums in behavioural marketing technologies, so will black market traders be interested in other elements of your digital footprint.

This point requires more thought... I'll be back with more coherant thoughts...

... came to a head last night in Focus New Media's TP Tournament 2008!

Lots were drawn and as luck would have it, our two new directors ended up being in the same team.  Not a fair match we thought at first... that is, until Jim and I managed to run away with a scorching lead!

With questions ranging from the inventor of cat's eyes to the identity of David Chatto's mother-in-law it wasn't an easy game. 

The best thing I realised early on was that Jim is the font of ALL knowledge and I'd ended up on the right side of the board.  A runaway victory was had to the chagrin of our respective bosses - who we now know are rather weak on Geography questions!

With MD Simon playing impartial quizmaster, buying the pizzas and serving up the beers it was generally a brilliant way to spend a balmy Tuesday evening.

Watch this space for news of our newly formed pub quiz team!

Keeping abreast of SEO news is just one of the many things we try to keep tabs on here at Focus Towers.  Mumblings and grumblings about Google's latest update - termed the "Dewey Update" after a blog post from Matt Cutts - have been growing over the past few weeks.

Has this affected your site rankings?

I'd be really interested to get any feedback from anyone affected by this latest change.

Links
Surviving the Dewey Update 
Dewey Discussion
Spanish SEO commentary
Useful tool comparing searches across disparate data centres

A hilarious plan to bring a herd of painted swine into Bath's city centre in the name of art has caused consternation among council officials.  Apparently it is felt by some that the pigs would be "inappropriate" and "damaging to the city's character".

The brightly coloured models have been designed to interest summer tourists, engage people with the history of Bath, and raise large sums of money for charity.  Over £20,000 has already been raised in sponsorship fees, which will have to be returned if the conservative elements of the council have their way.

I was lucky enough to see one of the pigs close-up at a BBWA networking event last week.  Beautifully decorated by one of the members, it will certainly stand out against the backdrop of Bath stone-clad town houses.  Joined by a herd of similarly decorated brethren, the sight may turn out to be in turns comical, bizarre and possibly pointless.  The idea gets my thumbs up though!

Source: Bath Chronicle

Picture Source: EcoSherpa

Read more about King Bladud

A new report published this week by Forrester estimates that over $5 billion will be spent on social networks by 2013 in North America and Europe alone.

Coming above six other Web 2.0 categories - mashups, widgets, wikis, blogs, podcasting and RSS - social networks have been clearly identified as this years' must-have inclusion in any large companies' online budget.

Although this research hardly comes as a surprise, it will be interesting to see what will supersede the current trend.  Attendees of this week's "Geek Conference" in San Francisco will most likely get a taste for what's ahead on the new technology event horizon.

Source:  BBC Technology