A message to let you know of a few opportunities that could be of relevance to you, especially if based in the UK.

1 – Catalyst Awards

Catalyst is an award programme for people who’ve used social technology (web, social networking, gaming, mobile, etc) to do something good for their community in the UK.

It’s for all kinds of people: in business, volunteers, employees, individuals and groups. And it’s for all kinds of ideas, including education, environment, skills, health and community cohesion.

If you’re running a relevant project, or have a good idea, then check it out: Catalyst Awards

2- British Library IP Centre

The British Library Business & IP Centre is designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs from that first spark of inspiration to successfully launching and developing a business.

The Centre offers free access to the UK’s most comprehensive collection of business and intellectual property information, including around 50 million patent specifications, unique databases on trade marks and registered designs, thousands of market research reports, company reports, trade journals, business directories and guides to legal information and government publications. British Library information experts are on hand to guide you to the resources.

There is also a programme of workshops and events run by British Library experts and partners.

Two articles published this month – online, and in print.

Firstly I’ve had another article published over at FreelanceUK.com.

I haven’t written about SEO for a long time, and I just wanted to recap on what is happening out there with Web 2.0 and SEO. Perhaps demonstrating by following a few ethical methods for SEO, you can create meaningful content for the search engines as well as more importantly, your sites readers.

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The 5 essential sites that I visited everyday in 2007

Flickr > Reading comments about my pics, and looking at my contact lists latest photos.
Delicious > For finding links i had forgotten.
Twitter > Microblogging for the masses connected community.

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Today is Blue Beanie day! If you haven’t got involved do it now!
It’s the day thousands of Standardistas (people who support web standards) will wear a Blue Beanie to show their support for accessible, semantic web content.
It’s easy to show your support for web design done right. Put on a Blue Beanie and snap a photo. Then on November 26, switch your profile picture in Facebook or other social Network and post your photo to the Blue Beanie Day group at Flickr (here).

Event details on Facebook

Photos on Flickr

Below is a screenshot of Twitter this morning, showing colleagues supporting Blue Beanie day, including King Zeldman himself.

Released today is Twitter for mobile..

Announced by Ev, in a very subtle announcement.

All I can say is.. ‘oh dear, please stop making it more addictive than it is already’.. Probably one of the most visited sites in my daily routine, apart from gmail and the google reader.

It’s a tempting offer.. to add to the ever growing suite of ways to keep in touch with your friends and colleagues..

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.. and useful web services in a web 2.0 environment

want some quick tips on how to increase your productivity? Want to save less time trying to find the information you ‘filed’ last week?

Some are free, some are a few pounds, all well worth checking out to see of they can help you, like they have with me.

They are all about sharing, storing and using information efficiently:

• basecamp – without a doubt, essential tool from 37signals- let your clients know at what stage you are with that all important project.. this is a lifesaver.. should of been using it earlier!
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KNOW WHO YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE

Whether you are running a successful business, social enterprise or charity, you need to know who is buying your goods or services, and whose needs you are meeting. The greater your understanding of people and their needs, the more successful you can be in meeting those needs and growing in business.

UNDERSTAND THE DETAILS OF YOUR BUSINESS – in particular the thing that drive costs

The greatest vision in the world will only get you so far – if you dont have a clear understanding of what makes your business work, you cant plan strategically or make good decisions. Build a simple financial model. The process will make you think carefully about all the cost items you will have, and playing with the numbers will help you identify the activities that drive your costs.

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