Weekend Reading: IT, Productivity and Values

Just recently, FT Alphaville has carried some excellent essays by our old friend Izzy Kaminska.  (Back in the old days, she used to link to us ... *sighs*).    Here's one for the weekend: after starting out on cybercrime she gets to the vexed issue of whether IT actually drives productivity, or just redistributes wealth around the place.  It (or even IT) may be all about the metrics: how is 'productivity' measured (and valued)?  That question can be posed two different ways.

-  If we understand (and value) productivity in the usual economic ways, then in the light of that value-paradigm & its metrics - what's the answer on productivity?  
-  Or, flipping that on its head, does it (IT) point us to valuing things in different ways to how the economists traditionally do?

"The technologists instead claimed the economists were too set in their ways to recognise the real truth: the world was experiencing the dawn of a ‘new economy’ in which ideas were becoming more highly valued than material resources."

Well: maybe, on a good day ... but then again, I am sure we have all seen examples of IT projects chewing up productivity however defined, along with material resources, 'ideas', reputations, careers, sleep ...  and on a grand scale, too.    Anyhow, read on!

ND

A future in Blogging 2.0

I attended an interesting event yesterday, hosted by the FT Alphaville team. These guys (and gals) are probably the best business bloggers out there at the moment. So they should be, with a staff of six and the FT behind them.

However, the debate was about what to do next and many of the bloggers in attendance were at a loss for what to do. Some fundamental questions still remain unanswered, why blog? Should it make money? What do you want to achieve?

The great thing is that everyone has a different answer, some want fame, some want to just express themselves, others are promoting a product or company of their own; many are journalists.

Perhaps most interesting was the twitter split. When I get the chance I have a great idea for twitter which I want to see if I can make work and whether it is legal. However, the split was on the bloggers' having time to do everything. Fine for those in new media 'journalism' industry to go on about gadgets, widgets and twittering. But for many there is not enough time to try and use every available channel.

In this respect I think the professionals in the end will beat the personal blogs who do it just for fun. They have more time to use the new technologies, more access to good content and better presentation. As such, blogging will stratify with a very long tail. Niche blogs are simply not a business model, but perhaps are useful tool for raising profile.

Let's see how many of the Big Brother contestants start writing blogs when they are evicted to test the theory.

My new love: African Copper

I posted on FT Alphaville, during their excellent Markets Live ( a must read for any traders surely), on Friday of my investment in a company call African Copper.

Now I had done this on the basis that the company had seen off a bid and so in the background this suggested that it must have some re-financing arranged. As I said in this post last week, I have been looking to invest in companies that are about to announce a refinance.

Beyond my wildest imagination though something happened yesterday, the company announced a large investment which will secure the financing for the foreseeable and actually allow the company to mine.

The net result, I bought at 4p on Friday and have just sold at 12p on Tuesday morning. My best ever trade by some distance. Lots of luck for a change!

Now to look for some more companies about to announce refinancing....