John Lamb's week: E-marketers say show me the money

Monday: Ecommerce still looks like a money-spinner for some, even if the dot-com boom is well and truly over.

Senior marketing managers in dot-com organisations or ecommerce departments can expect to earn over £7,000 more than those working in traditional companies do, while middle managers earn around £3,000 more in their pay packets than colleagues in companies without any "e".

That's according to a salary survey released today by Reward Group and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. For details contact surveys@reward-group.co.uk.

Tuesday: Advice from the US State Department suggesting that all transatlantic travel for the next 30 days be postponed is still playing havoc with business plans.

Ed Peters, senior vice president and general manager of Merant DataDirect, has called off a trip to London to meet analysts and journalists today to discuss the announcement that Golden Gate Capital has bought the company for £20.6m.

Talk at the Mobile Commerce World Europe 2001 conference held at the London Arena is likely to be more about survival rather than about the juicy market prospects that drove the business nine months ago. Speakers who have already donned their flak jackets include Glover Ferguson, an Accenture partner and David Levin, Psion Computer's CEO. Check out the website at http://www.mobilecommerceworld.com .

MPs have been castigated in the past for their poor efforts at establishing an online presence. Unreadable, self-serving, boring, out-of-date websites seem to be the order of the day and that's just the good ones.

The Liberal Democrats are grasping the nettle at their annual conference in Bournemouth. A Hansard Society fringe meeting will be asking "What do we want from MPs' websites?"

Research company Mori will be unveiling the results of another poll of politicos' websites at the meeting.

Almost as ubiquitous as the bad political website is the airport book about ebusiness. Peter Keen is over from the States next week to promote his new book, The Freedom Economy, which is about m-commerce.

He'll be at a book signing at Borders on Gower Street, London at 18:00 (BST). To be fair to Keen he is probably one of the better future gurus. He has served on the faculties of Harvard, Oxford and MIT and has been named as one of the top 10 consultants in IT.

Wednesday The trial of Dennis Yates in connection with the theft of a historic Enigma encryption device should start today in Aylesbury. The antique dealer is charged with blackmail and receiving stolen goods after the German-made machine vanished from Bletchley Park where Enigma codes were cracked during the war.

Enigma codes were deciphered using so-called bombs, developed by Alan Turing and others at Bletchley Park. The bombs were the forerunners of early computers. In a bizarre twist to the story, the machine was recovered after it was sent to abrasive TV presenter Jeremy Paxman.

After 20 years of initiatives to improve the IT skills of the nation, here's another one. The e-skills NTO, supported by Department for Education and Skills, is launching IT4all at Microsoft Building 3, Thames Valley Business Park,

Reading today. John Healey MP, Minister for Adult Skills will talk about the importance of IT user skills to the UK.

The initiative involves "bringing together employers, educators and government to discuss and develop a common agenda for improving IT user skills amongst both existing and potential workforces". If people don't know how to use a spreadsheet shouldn't their employer train them? For further information visit http://www.e-skillsnto.org.uk/IT4all.

Friday: Shareholders in Scoot.com will be voting on whether to approve the sale of its classified advertising directory Loot, to a division of Daily Mail General & Trust. The fire sale, forced by financial difficulties at Scoot.com, is likely to get the green light as investors look to realise assets.

Busy David Levin of Psion pops up again today at the launch of netpad from Psion Tellogix. The netpad is a rugged half VGA tablet, designed for mobile data computing applications in demanding environments. More information from will.rae@hotwirepr.com.

Please send your feedback to: jlamb@silicon.com