Research undertaken by Foreign Direct Investment found Bristol to be one of the best European cities to invest in, second only to London.

Judged against 75 indicators, including business friendliness, quality of life, human resources and economic potential, Bristol came out above many large European cities, above both Paris and Rome.

This comes as no surprise to Focus staff.  Having collective experience of living in Madrid, Paris, London and Dublin, we would all prefer to live and work in Bristol!

Source: Bristol Evening Post

Numbers of users accessing the BBC website via Chinese servers shot up from less than a hundred to over 16,000 yesterday, after the 'great firewall of China' was unofficially lifted.

 "Technology experts say such a development would not be possible without the approval of internet service providers - which are under strict supervision by Beijing."

This is as good an indication as any that authorities plan to honour their promise of granting foreign journalists more freedom in the run-up to this summer's Olympic Games.  

It will be interesting to see whether further Western information sites are made accessible in the next few months but even more interesting to see how long these lines of communication are allowed to stay open after all the medals have been doled out...

Last week's budget spells good news for small organisations, who may now benefit from Gift Aid without holding charitable status themselves.  Money can now be funnelled through to local voluntary groups, such as youth clubs and community associations from umbrella charities with grant-making power.

This is good news for communities throughout the UK, who will be able to claim 28% tax back on all donations raised. 

Source:  Third Sector

Simon and I were back in Dublin last Wednesday for our first meeting with MS Ireland, since we found out that we had won the contract to develop their new website.

And what a lovely welcome we had, with a breakfast of Pan au Chocolat, hot cross buns and a cup of tea.

The meeting was very productive and we even had time to have some lunch and pop to the shops before catching our flight home.

So, as this entry has an Irish theme, I'd like to say a very happy Saint Patrick's Day to everybody.

Finding a recommended restaurant took up a large part of my lunchtime today, even though I was told its name and general location.  This common irritation could be a thing of the past if Okkam takes off in the next few years.

We have previously mentioned rivals to Google's domination of the online search, just as we've touched on the importance that such a powerful tool has on our ability to retrieve relevant information from the ever-expanding web.

Okkam - an academic initiative from Trento University - is finding a better way to publish, link and find information using a “web of entities”.   It will put information into context, making it possible to identify 'Paris' as an annoying, talentless celebrity, as opposed to the capital of France, for example.

Still in the early stages, it appears that the success of the project will depend largely upon how widely it is taken up in the first two years.  The target for 2008 is to get a million 'entities' on board, with use by application developers crucial to its long term success.

Already big in Portugal, it will be interesting to see how long it will take for Okkam to join Google in the British vernacular.