Australian Online Shoppers Expect to Spend More in 2009

Despite the current economic conditions, online spending in Australia is set to increase by 12 percent in 2009. Research recently conducted by Celsius Research, on behalf of Shopping.com, found Australian shoppers spent an average of $1,097 buying products online in 2008, with the forecast for 2009 set to defy the offline recessionary trends.

The Celsius Research showed 54% of those surveyed value the ease of their shopping experience on their chosen site, followed closely by price. Comparison shopping sites – which feature offers from a large selection of retailers – have also proven popular because they do the hard work for you making the shopping experience more efficient and enjoyable.

Facebook’s Holocaust Controversy

Following my article about Anti-Social Networking, I came across this new story about Facebook coming under pressure to take a stand on groups that want to air distasteful and controversal views.

Whatever your views are on this, it is certainly a challenging debate that will rage on.

Have a read and let me know what you think…

Facebook’s Holocaust Controversy

Thanks,
Tony

The Difference Between Project & Program Management

It’s been 2 months since I started my new position of Program Manager, I love
every minute of working in this challenging environment, so I thought I would drop a quick note on what I thought the differences are between Project Management and Program Management.

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Top 10 Tools for Project Management Consultants

In this day and age, being a Project Management Consultant means you have to be extremely transparent for your clients, be able to work and manage while you’re on the move, and be able to utilise quick and easy software solutions to help aid your business.

Streamlining the amount of admin you have to do is vital in giving you more time to actually work on the projects, and having the adaptability to differing project scenarios means you never get caught out in a situation that you can’t handle.

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Great Project Management Quotes

I recently went searching for some Project Management quotes as I couldn’t remember a good one I heard a while back – I came across this article on another blog by an experienced Project Manager and these quotes rang true and made me smile – enjoy!

A Collection of Project Management Sayings

Anti-Social Networking?

Social Networking

I was just thinking about a recent conversation I had while I was in New Zealand, and I came across this related article on the ClickZ Experts website: In Social Networks, All Friends Are Not Created Equal.

This is very similar to the conversation I was having – basically that social networks are actually becoming quite ANTI-social and in some cases are causing more problems.

Take the example of the worker recently sacked for checking her Facebook account when she told her employers she had a migrane and couldn’t use a computer.

Or how about the US Police Officer who had his “internet persona” investigated after he posted comments online saying he was in a “devious” mood and “watching ‘Training Day’ to brush up on proper police procedure.”

There are plenty of stories that cover how and why being so social on the web can potentially affect your “real life”, but the main point we discussed was how, in the attempt to be as social as possible, you actually open up doors to areas that maybe were closed for a reason.

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Ministry of Sound relaunches D2C website

The new Ministry of Sound website

A good friend of mine worked on this project and I think it deserves some serious merit.

Following the collapse of their previous service provider; Trinity Street, MOS set up an internal team to build and manage their own platform.  The amazing point to all this is that they have everything up and running in 6 weeks – a great achievement considering it’s an eCommerce engine with blogs, editorial content and a much improved design!

Well done to all those who were involved.

Read the full article.

Staggering Facebook Facts

In researching the Social Network arena for some new projects we’re looking at getting into, I came across two interesting articles about how staggeringly enormous Facebook (and other social sites) have become.

The first article was published on ClickZ and goes into detail on how many and who is using Facebook:

Mind-Blowing Facebook Stats and What To Do With Them

The second article was published on TechCrunch and covers the top runners and riders in the photo-sharing service – again some jaw-dropping figures when you think about it:

Who Has The Most Photos Of Them All? Hint: It Is Not Facebook

10 Ways to Improve Virtual Meetings

Overview

I’ve recently had a few virtual meetings with teams in New Zealand and India, and I’ve found there are some fundamental areas that are usually overlooked that can really help drive the meetings, keeping them on track, in scope and able to get the most out of your time with the project teams.

Below are some practical pointers and solutions to make the most essential element of collaboration work more smoothly.

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I’m Still Alive!

I’ve had so much on over the last few weeks that I’ve neglected some of the articles I was in the process of typing up for addition to Project Cake.

Fear not my technical colleagues – there is a light at the end of the tunnel and hopefully I will have some more articles up for next week, I’ve got a few very important projects to finish off this week and then I can get back to normal again!