the engine house

There has never been a better time to explore the many free applications, software, online services and networks available on the web.

With many companies, organisations and individuals generating new content all the time it is worth taking the time to see how each may improve the way you do business, research or networking online.

In this post I have attempted to catalogue some of the many sources I have found useful in my role researching and advising companies at uknetweb on the possibilities presented by Web 2.0.

Some of the links refer to other list blogs cataloging the best of the web, others are my own selections and some are link to directories I found useful when browsing the web.

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Here at uknetweb we are all for pushing the boundaries of web development and coming up with ingenious new ways for customers to interact with businesses online. We have produced a number of European and World firsts for our clients, not driven by technical superiority but from a good understanding of how people do business online.

When we first heard about the dontclick.it project we were excited to see what it had to offer and whether this might just be the start of an entirely new way for websites to work. Driven by my passion (and if I’m honest geeky desire) to search out the best of Web 2.0 projects and emerging internet technologies I first came across dontclick.it through a random Stumble and at first site was pretty impressed.

Not wanting to stop at my own first impressions I felt it was time to let the site do the rounds of the office and see just what the designers, techies and normal polite members of society thought about a site that doesn’t need (or allow) to be clicked.

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I just wanted to submit a quick post acknowledging Orange’s outstanding new ‘Unlimited’ site. For those of you who are yet to visit it check it out here.

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Time and time again technology advances have been driven by human desires to access pornography in more and more private ways. Whatever your view on it, countless advances have been driven by pornographers and their customers.

From the VHS win over the Betamax, through to the development of DVD players, interactive TV, Subscription TV services and of course the internet, pornographers and their customers have helped push technology forward.Now we sit in the midst of the Web 2.0 world, will we see a similar drive from the industry to help promote the ideals and principles of the Web 2.0 project? (Click for link to 2002 Story from The Observer)

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These last few days I have fallen a little bit quiet and I can put this down to 2 reasons. 1) I have been rather busy in my day to day work and 2) I couldn’t think of anything useful to say.

While I have sat around wondering what the next blog should be I have learnt a couple of things that I thought justified maybe just a quick intermission blog to show I hadn’t fallen off that amazing balcony into the sea. (see ‘about uknetweb’)

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I discovered the Flock browser at the beginning of this year after noticing that friends on Facebook were joining up as fans.

A dedicated user of the Mozilla Firefox system, I had my reservations of moving to yet another browser and all the issues in cross browser compatibility on badly developed sites I was sure to have.

On download, I found a browser well beyond my expectations and one that I believe enhances my online experience and my efficiency in carrying out research and networking online. Using the same image rendering as Firefox (according to my techie friends in the office), I don’t need to worry about any new browser compatibility issues at all.

So why do I recommend Flock?

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Owning your own network online could never be simpler than through www.ning.com, a white label social networking site that enables individuals to create their own social networks at no cost.

Never one to miss an opportunity to test a new web application, I created a group for members of the network and referral organisation, the BNI, and joined a local business network created by friend, Alan Jones, for business people in the South West (UK).

So will sites such as Ning lead to the creation of ‘nethoods’, a trend prediction from Trend Watchers extraordinaire - Trendwatching.com, where smaller networks are likely to focus on small real life suburbs, villages or even streets as people search to merge life on and offline?

If you have your own social network why not include it in a comment on this blog? I have.
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