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.

Usability is at a crossroads - are we looking at “Back to Basics” or “Brave New World? I attended the latest event from Chinwag, and here are the notes.

On the panel were a Brighton trio - who were presenting their ideas and beliefs on usability and accessibilty as part of the tools for effective web marketing. Bryan Rieger, Andy Budd and Niqui Merrett.

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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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Work can all too often take over our lives outside the office with various ways to ’stay connected’.
However, I encourage you to make your office hours more productive by offering the following relaxation techniques every geek can use.. try the following tips that I use, you may find they will allow you to see things differently and achieve your work/life goals more successfully and more effectively.

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When I was leaving SxSw earlier this month, I picked up an American magazine called .Inc.

It caught my attention as it had Ev, the Co-Founder of Twitter being interviewed.

I definitely recommend you check out the Magazine, or the website which are both fantastic. On the website you will find a whole multitude of feeds you can subscribe to, depending on what type of business information you are looking for.

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Well, the creme de la creme Web Design and Development Conference in Austin, Texas certainly lived up to its formidable reputation.

And it’s hard to put into one blog post an event that encompasses so many aspects of the web, real time social networking, some marketing, and a lot of partying with new friends.

One interesting statistic was that it was thought 20% of America’s iPhone users were at SxSw. There were a lot of iPhones, and Apple products everywhere you looked. It felt like being part of a community just by having similar gadgets with these folks.

I really loved the openness of the event, it’s true - you can sit next to a Vice president of Yahoo! on one side and an A list web celebrity on the other.

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After reading Mr Nice, which was a fantastic insight into his ‘high’ life and times, I discovered Howard Marks and I have a few things in common, here they are:

• Both lived in Brighton
• Both flown on Continental Airlines from Houston to Gatwick (Marks from Prison, Me from SxSw)
• Both visited Notorious Pat Pong District of Bangkok, Thailand
• Both visited the Famous Hobbit House bar in Manila, Philippines

Mark’s now leads a quiet life in Europe, come back to Brighton soon Howard.