Have you heard of Twitter? It’s the Internet phenomenon all the rage also  known as ‘micro-blogging’. Do you often have a question to ask, or just want to tell the world what you’re up to or what you’re thinking about? Or maybe there are people out there that you wonder about. What are they up to?
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Every day in the PlusNet office somebody will post a “Have you seen this great website?” forum post, a “How cool is this?” message will go around or you’ll see a Twit from a friend claiming that this new site makes the whole Internet as we knew it redundant. I’m sure you’ve been there yourself. Yes, there are a million and one interesting/cool/impressive things floating around on the Internet, but how many of these sites do you personally need?

Do you have particular web-sites and web-tools that are so useful that they have actually become an integral part of your life, or as cool as something may be, is it really just time-wasting flotsam?

Personally, I really couldn’t do without the trusty old HSBC Internet banking website. I know it hasn’t really been upgraded for 6 or 7 years, but who cares? It tells me how much money I have (or otherwise) and I can pay my credit card bill without having to go through the pain of an automated phone system or posting a cheque in the mail.

I find that iGoogle is extremely useful; it aggregates the RSS feeds from all the news sites that I read, and provides me with rudimentary ToDo List functionality and access to all my bookmarks, on whichever of the 3 devices I access the web on.

Apart from that, what else is there that I really need? Yes, Facebook is useful when planning my social life and seeing what my friends are up to, Flickr is useful for sharing my photos with family and friends (and also a useful backup of many years worth of photos), and apart from that, cool does not seem to equal necessary. Twitter, Plaxo and Pownce don’t really do anything for me, do they you?

Google Grand Central may be of use when they open up the service to the UK, but for now I’ll stick with Skype on my laptop and Fring on my phone.

I don’t really watch a lot of TV due to being too busy with other things, so BBC iPlayer isn’t something that I need. I’ll wait for the day when TV stations decide to provide 1 minute summaries of their programming in the style of ZeroPunctuation – much more efficient…

So, I suppose that all sounds a bit like Mr Grumpy, but if I don’t need something then I’m not going to waste my time on it.

How about you the PlusNet Community Site reader, what web-sites and web-tool do you really rely on as part of your life?

Matt Grest
Head of Future Development
PlusNet

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I’ve just watched the fifth and final episode of what I’ve found to be a remarkable, if somewhat short, series. The biggest challenge faced by the producers of ‘Paradise or Bust’ (BBC2), and one met with varied success, was in getting close enough to the ground level project whilst retaining an understanding of the online aspect; the Tribewanted community who are ultimately responsible for making the whole thing happen. More…

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Three months after the Fijian military coup that will, for me at least, forever be associated with a bizarre four day delay for a rugby match, Ben Keene is evidently more confident of the Tribewanted project’s future. Last night’s ‘Paradise or Bust’ (BBC2) showed us the island of Vorovoro at last beginning to see the benefits of investment, as the local villagers improve their lot with fluorescent lighting, TV and DVD entertainment. More…

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It’s quite astonishing what had been done in the first two months’ development on the Fijian island of Vorovoro. After his visit, shown at the start of last night’s ‘Paradise or Bust’ (BBC2), co-founder Mark Bowness somewhat lamely leaves to concentrate on ‘other ventures’. Presumably this means his ‘Have You Got The Nerve?‘ idea. More…

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