The Weekly Round-Up: 14.12.07

We British may be rubbish at almost all sports, possess terrible dental hygiene and labour under outrageously high taxes, but by God there's one thing we are the best at in Europe - and that's frittering away what precious, ephemeral time we have on this planet obsessing about our Facebook profiles.

According to an Ofcom report we're mad for it. Four out of 10 adults in the UK regularly visit social networking sites - more than anywhere else in Europe.

Last year, users spent on average 5.3 hours per month on the sites and returned to them 23 times during each month, according the agency's latest International Communications Market report.

This has resulted in online advertisers splurging out huge dollops of money trying to get us to buy their stuff. Advertisers spent an average of £33 per person - twice as much as France, Germany and Italy combined.

Has it worked? Has it heck, we're far too busy tossing sheep at each other and uninstalling pointless applications to give a damn. We just love it. Who cares about how it's all being paid for.

In fact, the only country in the world with higher and more dangerous levels of Facebook addiction than the UK is Canada.

All things considered, this is hardly surprising. Canada: a country roughly 40 times the size of the UK with only half the population. There are small pockets of humanity and the rest is huge stretches of wild land teeming with hungry bears, which, strictly speaking, aren't vegetarians. (But, saying that, we have these guys…).

It also has the widest, straightest roads in the world filled with the most careful and considerate drivers. This also is not surprising. After all, would you want to get in a crash and call the Canadian version of the AA or RAC from the side of the road? Remember the bears.

So it's really no great shock that there's a huge demand for social networking websites, allowing residents to stay in touch with their friends without having the leave the safety of their log cabins.

In related news, analysts are now warning businesses not to put too much faith into Facebook and social networking technology.

While the Round-Up would admit to being at least semi-obsessive about its Facebook account, it is also aware the business is riding the crest of the web 2.0 wave and doesn't want to look as it approaches the rocky shore of reality.

With Facebook pledging this week to license its developer platform to other organisations, creating your own social networking service will be easy to do. Almost as easy as it is for a protective mummy grizzly bear to decapitate you with a single swipe of her scimitar-like claws.

Gartner will have no truck with this sort of thing - social networking, not huge, fearsome bears. The analyst firm is warning that organisations are putting themselves at risk if they rush into developing their own solutions because of the current vogue. The technology isn't mature enough, said the report's author. Ooh, hark at him.

Anyway, the final line from Gartner is: think carefully before committing to expensive "social networking white elephants".

Because, after all, big bubbly elephants go pop.

When it's not making vague and hugely inaccurate statements about countries and their interesting, carnivorous fauna, the Round-Up likes nothing better than to marvel at how we humans utterly fail to learn from our collective mistakes.

Incidentally, did you know that grizzly bears can run as fast as race horses? (Just get on with it, Ed.)

Just a few weeks after the HMRC data loss scandal broke, another government department has admitted it's lost the personal details of over 7,500 citizens.

Personal details of thousands of drivers in Northern Ireland have gone astray after two CDs sent by courier failed to arrive at their destination.

An internal inquiry has been launched after staff at Northern Ireland's Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) sheepishly admitted to losing data on a total of 7,685 vehicle owners and their vehicles.

The missing information consists of the owner's name and address and details of the vehicle - including its make, model, colour, registration and chassis number.

The data, which was contained on two CDs, was being sent from the DVA in Coleraine to the DVLA in Swansea in response to vehicle manufacturers needing to contact owners about potential faults with vehicles. The CDs went missing in transit after being sent via a Parcelforce Worldwide tracked courier service.

Possibly the Parcelforce van was one of the vehicles with the faults and careered helplessly into a tar pit. But most probably not.

In a statement, Department of Environment minister Arlene Foster said the CDs had been tracked at every stage of the handling until they reached the company's central hub in Coventry but said there is no record of the packages leaving the depot. A proud day for Coventry.

Gathered in front of the press, Foster said: "Bugger".

What she really said was: "Parcelforce believe [the discs] were dispatched to their Swansea depot but did not arrive there. In spite of extensive searches at the depot, they have not yet been found."

The data has already been resent to the DVLA via a different method - dead carrier pigeon loaded into a catapult - but Foster said courier delivery has been used for sending "this type of data… without incident for many years".

In light of the HMRC debacle, perhaps a review of operations might have been in order.

Here's the money quote from Arlene: "Due to the nature of the data on the discs, encryption was not used. It is ironic that an internal review instigated by the agency after the child benefit discs went missing identified this method as a systemic weakness a week after the discs had been sent."

It is ironic, isn't it? Oh well, can't be helped, eh? Come on, Arlene...

If you're an IT manager you may be surprised to learn that your staff most probably loathe you.

They may well think you're reactive, officious and bureaucratic. Or quite possibly all three.

This may be precisely the image you've been working on, in which case the Round-Up offers its heartiest congratulations.

Well done. You're a git.

If not then it's time you took a long hard look in the mirror at the ever-growing expanse of glum flesh under the receding hairline and wonder where it all went so horribly wrong. Where did the youthful idealism go? Whither fled the visionary gleam?

The likely answer to both questions is that both were crushed and mangled by the corporate machine, which needs its cogs and wheels to fit perfectly into its infernal machinery.

Depressing? Yes. But that's no reason to put your staff on a downer.

What the hell is the Round-Up talking about? Well, a cheering, goodwill-laden release from the Chartered Management Institute this week reported that overly authoritarian and bureaucratic IT managers are bad for morale and productivity and are making their staff physically sick.

According to its Quality of Working Life survey, the most widely experienced management styles in the IT sector are reactive (45 per cent), bureaucratic (38 per cent) and authoritarian (24 per cent) - styles that can all have a negative impact on workers' morale, productivity and even health - which explains the pallid complexions of so many of Her Majesty's civil servants.

These three management styles have also become more common in the IT sector. The Quality of Working Life survey is based on the views of more than 1,500 individuals with over 250 respondents from the IT sector.

More than 500 other IT workers failed to complete the survey on time - with 34 per cent claiming they would need the proper authorisation from their line managers and all the paperwork in place to take part, another 36 per cent saying they'd do it only after everyone else had done it first, and the final 30 per cent asking who the hell did the survey takers think they were and didn't they know who asked the questions around here?!

Sadly the CMI didn't offer any cures for the disease, it only highlighted the problem.

Either way, lighten up. Christmas is on the way. And even if your procurement strategy review and risk management board is getting you down, help is at hand.

Just take your pain and sorrow and hide it away a dark, secret place deep in your soul and hope it doesn't ruin your department's vibe.

So selfish...

On a final note, the Round-Up has recently discovered a superb use for old floppy disks - coasters with a geeky, retro look. Ideal Christmas gifts, too. Meanwhile IBM has some more sensible thoughts on the recycling issue and green IT.

You need to check out the photos of the year: feast your eyes on the best, worst, sexiest and weirdest of a year in technology here.

Done all your Christmas shopping yet? Or will it be the bag of charcoal and bunch of flowers from the 24-hour garage again? Tell us in the latest silicon.com poll here.

And lastly: Vista SP1 is almost here. Woo! Fancy being completely underwhelmed? Check out the details here. Don't forget to shout "WOO!" Or not. Your call.

And on that bombshell, the Round-Up bids adieu. Next week, is the legendary - and exhausting - Yearly Round-Up. This year it comes exclusively from the desk of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Or at the very least, someone pretending to be him.

Before then, you have the option of brightening up your Christmas with a splendid bottle of Champagne courtesy of silicon.com. The catch is you have to be witty.

And don't forget to check out the The Weekly Round-Up podcast… enjoy!.