Clarity needed for MMS, accounting and a good pint at the e-pub

"I don't know what MMS means. I've never heard of it before." So said one tester of camera phones in a recent study - and who could blame him. The latest research shows that network operators may think MMS - the multimedia, bells-and-whistles addition to SMS in the mobile messaging stable - is the next big thing but your average consumer doesn't quite get it. We think we know why.

Ads in the UK talk about photo messaging, picture messaging and now even media messaging. (Thanks, O2 - 'Invent your own language' indeed.) All the while, the industry and publications like the one you're reading still use MMS.

We think that 'SMS' and 'texting' were about the limit for that generation of messaging. (Witness confusion when the phrase Premium SMS is thrown into the mix.)

So come along operators, decide on something. You used to be good at that, what with GSM and everything.

Now don't get us started on inter-network MMSing.

And talking of standards, ever wonder why so many companies have announced holes in their recent accounts? OK, the downturn and greed during the bubble didn't help but those clever people at Ernst & Young think UK-listed software companies might learn a thing or two from the US.

Now perhaps nobody would advocate importing pro forma accounting or evening classes studying Enron's books but a rigid set of reporting standards might do some good. With 40 per cent of vendors judged 'poor' or 'very poor' it is time for shareholders and users - to name but two interested parties - to call for the highest standards. They are the ones who suffer most in their absence.

And finally, let's hear it for the good people of Inverie, mainland Britain's most remote village. Thanks to Yahoo!, they can order their Christmas presents online from a terminal installed in the local pub. This may be a quirky holiday season story but it demonstrates a serious trend: two weeks ago, EDS unveiled a Jobpoint kiosk in a Somerset pub. That's designed to help jobseekers find work. At least one recent e-voting trial involved putting similar units in supermarkets.

It seems the government and the industry have finally twigged that it's better to put technology in the places people go to, rather than trying to get people to go to the technology. Which environment is more likely to encourage the non-technically literate to join the information revolution - the library or the pub? Mine's a pint of Guinness...