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TIN IT OR BIN IT is your weekly social media need-to-know.

Hot off the press we deliver the week’s most ground breaking social media news,
oh-no-you-didn’t stories, tips you can’t afford to miss or simply our opinion on trends in the digital landscape.

Lastly, we’ll tell you whether it’s tin material or bin material!

View them all here on our Facebook page.

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Have you ever stopped to wonder how long you actually spend on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube? Or is it simply too scary to think about?

Well for those who are curious (like us), there is now a new browser plug-in called Voyurl that will tell you how many hours you actually spend browsing online.

Users who install it get a detailed description of how they use the web, which is updated in real time. This includes how much time you spend browsing, the sites you spend the most time on and your browsing patterns. Additionally you can compare your behavior to the average user to see where you fit in.

Voyurl also produces a complete list of what sites you visit and how you behave on them. Detailed factors like scrolling and mouse hovering are taken into account.

Voyurl is currently in private beta but there is a section on the site that allows you to click to ‘get a beta invite’.

So TIN IT or or BIN IT?

This is a TIN IT for those who are brave enough to confront their browsing habits. However for those who are freaked out by the concept, this would most likely be a BIN IT.

One of Scotland’s leading digital security experts, Stuart Fraser, has been appointed by miiCard as Technical Architect.  As co-founder of specialist IT security consultancy DNS, Stuart’s appointment is a coup for the pioneering digital identity startup.

Over eight years, Stuart helped DNS become the largest provider of security services in the UK before the company was sold last year to SecureWorks, now in the process of being bought by Dell.

miiCard is a unique digital passport for the consumer that proves “I am who I say I am” in real time, for the first time.   Owned and managed by the individual, miiCard allows the consumer to track, monitor and so, for the first time, take control of their online identity.

Stuart  will be responsible for the design and implementation of miiCard’s security token service which will verify user identity to Anti-Money Laundering, Know Your Customer Regulations and the Proceeds of Crime Act standards.

Drawn to the challenge of developing a global digital passport that proves the user’s identity and becomes stronger the more it is used, Stuart says:  “As the threat of internet fraud and identity theft increases it is critical that we find some way of being able to take control of our digital identity.

“Every day we give away our personal data to companies around the world, from Facebook and Google to banks, retailers and government agencies.   And once we have given it away, we have no control over what happens to our identity.  It is vital that we find a way of taking control back and I am very excited about the implications of miiCard for the future of digital identity.”

Stuart’s early career began in the energy sector working for Conoco, BP and Scottish Power before becoming founder director of DNS. Following the sale of DNS, Stuart returned to his studies, recently completing The University of Edinburgh’s MSc in High Performance Computing – specialising in scaling and super computers.

Flexiant, the pioneering cloud software and services company, has confirmed its attendance at Cloud Expo Europe 2011 in London’s Barbican on 2nd and 3rd February.

The company will run a live demo on the FlexiScale public cloud platform, showcasing its flagship software, Extility, from control panel to billing engine.

Flexiant, headquartered in Scotland, developed Europe’s first cloud platform in 2007 and is one of only a handful of independent cloud platform providers world wide.  Extility helps companies reduce start up costs, capital expenditure and energy consumption, while slashing operating costs and significantly shrinking carbon footprint.

In addition to a range of other deployments, Extility, is currently being used as a test bed by the European Commission on three multi-million pound FP7 research and development projects aimed at driving forward the adoption of cloud computing across Europe.

Cloud Expo Europe is the only European event dedicated to all aspects of cloud computing, from cloud in the data centre, storage and security to open source and the cloud.

Robert Karssiens, Director of Sales and Marketing comments:  ”We are seeing increasing interest from all sectors as people switch onto the possibilities created by cloud computing. This is an exciting time to be working in the industry and we are looking forward to the discussion and debate that will happen at Cloud Expo.

In 2009 Cloud Expo Europe brought together some of the industry’s most respected luminaries and key industry leaders such as Google, Amazon, IBM, Red Hat, Cisco, Sun, SugarCRM and many more to present the case for cloud computing.

Cloud computing is changing the way companies look at how they address cost, scalability and the models that underpin successful software and hardware companies.  A recent report predicts that by 2012, 80% of Fortune 1000 companies will pay for some cloud computing service and 30% percent will pay for cloud computing infrastructure. Gartner, 2010.

For more information email cat@hottinroof.co.uk.

Help is at hand for anyone who has ever missed a payment, unwittingly exceeded an overdraft limit or struggled to budget each month. Launching today, Money Dashboard is an easy to use and free online personal finance service that helps individuals and families to manage their money more effectively.

After a Christmas of excess, January is the perfect time to once and for all take control of your spending and now it needn’t be such a daunting prospect. By bringing your bank accounts and credit card spending history together on one screen and recommending Ways To Save, Money Dashboard promises to take the hassle out of managing your money.

As well as helping individuals, Money Dashboard makes it simpler for families and couples to keep track of their income and spending by enabling them to automatically and securely aggregate their household accounts from multiple brands in a single view.

Users can access the Money Dashboard application from any computer with web access and it allows them to track and categorise spending, set budgets and helps them save. It can also be configured to send emails to alert users if they exceed their set budget or if they are about to go into overdraft. In future, it will also be possible to alert users to suspicious transactions on their account, and for users to log on to Money Dashboard from their mobile.

Gavin Littlejohn, Money Dashboard’s founder and CEO, says: “The Government has demonstrated in painful detail why it is important to keep track of spending and avoid getting into debt. It’s easy to put off reassessing your budget but now is the time to act on your New Year’s resolutions and take the first steps towards a brighter financial future.

“By giving people a clear picture of their finances, we can help consumers make better choices each month and recommend ways to save. Our aim is to take the fear and hassle out of managing money, focusing on helping young families and individuals to confidently manage their debt or create a path to better wealth. The UK consumer has shrinking access to financial advice, so it is important that they gain the confidence to self-serve, and Money Dashboard is designed to help them on that journey”

Since the service opened for public beta testing in May 2010, it has helped 10,000 users to manage their money more effectively. Thanks to feedback received from beta testers, the application has undergone several rounds of improvements as part of its evolution and new features will continue to be added following launch.

Chris Cathcart, a digital media strategist, was one of the first users to benefit from Money Dashboard during its beta testing phase.

He says: “I’m more aware of what I’m spending my salary on since using Money Dashboard and I’m less likely to spend money that I don’t have on items I don’t need. It’s easier to make financial decisions going forward as I have a really clear picture of my incomings and outgoings.

“The best feature of Money Dashboard is the option to tag your transactions. Once you’ve entered your details, the software categorises spending automatically so you can easily see the areas where you’re going over budget.”

Banking innovation and the fight against Internet fraud moves forward today with digital identity company miiCard’s announcement of a strategic development and distribution relationship with Yodlee, Inc., the leading provider of online and mobile personal finance management (PFM) solutions.

miiCard, a patent pending, global, digital identity solution, is soft launching to the financial services industry in Amsterdam, at Sibos, October 28th. miiCard’s aim is to eradicate the final barrier to global trade in financial service products – the often cumbersome and always time consuming need for offline proof of identity before a financial product can be purchased.

Powered by Yodlee, the miiCard Digital Passport enables consumers to prove “they are who they say they are” online, in real-time; enabling them to buy financial products completely online for the first time, in a fashion that meets Anti-Money Laundering laws, Know Your Customer regulations and the Proceeds of Crime Act standards.

Making the announcement at Sibos where miiCard was invited by SWIFT to present at the Innotribe Challenge, James Varga, miiCard’s Founder explains: “Online authentication has become the holy grail for all financial institutions. Proving online identity is the final barrier to global trade in financial services products; and while consumers fall victim to fraud every day, it is critical that we as an industry address the issue and offer a solution fast, and that’s what miiCard, working with Yodlee, intends to do.”

Every day between 70% and 90% of online financial transactions are abandoned when the customer is asked to complete the transaction offline by taking their driving licence, passport or utility bill into their local bank branch to prove identity.

Varga adds: “The Internet world facilitates anonymity, not trust. Our challenge today when conducting business, fighting fraud and protecting the customer, is to create trust between business and consumer without resorting to physical offline identity validation”.

miiCard will be built on the Yodlee 10™ personal finance platform, the first patented, customizable, web platform for financial services. Yodlee is the leading provider of secure, personalized online and mobile PFM services, powering more than 85% of online PFM users at leading bank and portal sites worldwide.

Joseph Polverari, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Yodlee states: “Safer, more efficient online transactions are in ever increasing demand by financial institutions and consumers alike, presenting a significant opportunity. The miiCard Digital Passport is another terrific example of an innovation on the Yodlee 10 platform that we believe will help bring consumers and financial services providers closer together, in a way that is beneficial to both.”

Owned and managed by the individual, miiCard allows the consumer to track, monitor and so take control of their online identity for the first time. miiCard is free to the consumer and charged to the vendor on a transactional basis.

miiCard introduces the concept of online trust, enabling customers to buy financial products completely online, in a single session, for the very first time. Participating financial services providers can expect improved customer conversion rates, reduced abandonment, lower operational costs and fewer incidents of fraud.

www.miicard.com

miiCard, the online identity company, has been invited by SWIFT to speak at Sibos in the Innotribe Challenge, a startup competition on Thursday 28 October in Amsterdam.

miiCard is a unique digital passport for the consumer that proves “I am who I say I am” in real time, for the first time to Anti-Money Laundering, Know Your Customer Regulations and the Proceeds of Crime Act standards.

Owned and managed by the individual, miiCard allows the consumer to track, monitor and so take control of their online identity for the first time. miiCard is free to the consumer and charged to the vendor on a transactional basis.

miiCard, a patent pending global solution, is soft launching to the financial services industry with Sibos its first public outing. miiCard’s aim is to eradicate the final barrier to global trade, the need for offline proof of identity, before a financial product can be purchased.

Every day between 70% and 90% of online financial transactions are abandoned when the customer is asked to complete the transaction offline by taking their driving license, passport or utility bill into their local bank branch.

James Varga, miiCard’s Founder explains: “The internet world facilitates anonymity not trust. Our challenge today when conducting business, fighting fraud and protecting the customer is to create trust between business and consumer without resorting to physical offline identity validation”.

miiCard introduces the concept of online trust for the first time, allowing customers to buy financial products completely online. This will improve conversion rates, cut operational costs and fight internet fraud.

SWIFT is looking for start-ups with a compelling and radically innovative B2B offering and miiCard will have the opportunity to pitch their solution to the SWIFT incubation team. The best start-ups and ideas are brought together in this “dragon’s den” to share and discover the ideas and dynamics at the cutting edge of financial services today. Sibos is an annual member event for over 8,000 financial services senior professionals and the trade media.

miiCard will deliver demonstrate its product between 10.00 and 10.30, on Tuesday 26 in the Innotribe theatre on the SWIFT stand.

www.miicard.com

Flexiant is pleased to announce the latest version of its flagship Infrastructure As A Service offering: FlexiScale 2.1. FlexiScale leading-edge technology enables start-ups and SMEs to grow from one server to one thousand servers in seconds – critical for organisations offering streaming video, social networking or SaaS, and ideal for a wealth of other applications.

Powered by Flexiant’s flagship technology “Extility”, FlexiScale’s pay-as-you-go virtual servers can be up and running, or taken down in less than 60 seconds, ensuring businesses can rapidly shape their IT resources in response to dynamic market conditions. With no long-term commitment or capital expenditure, FlexiScale facilitates clear focus on core business activities by reducing time, energy and effort spent on IT provisioning and investment.

Key new features in the 2.1 software release include:

• Ten additional configurations of virtual servers, bringing the total to sixteen;
• Up to 8 virtual CPUs per virtual server;
• A metadata service allowing customers and image vendors to pass a hierarchy of data to virtual servers for dynamic runtime configuration;
• Support for Cohesive-FT’s VPN-Cubed virtual server images, allowing customer controlled networking across multiple clouds, and between private infrastructure and the clouds.

The release also includes a number of minor features and usability improvements, as well as over a hundred minor bug fixes.

Tony Lucas, Founder of Flexiant, explains: “This release is the first of many incremental enhancements to our FlexiScale products. We know our customers will in particular appreciate the far wider range of RAM and CPU configurations and the metadata service will open up a wide range of new possibilities for image providers and those using our platform for automatic virtual server instantiation.”

www.flexiant.com

FreeAgent Central, has scooped first place in the SME Accounting and Finance category of the Sift Media Software Satisfaction Awards for the second year running.

This year’s SME Accounting Category was billed by Accounting Web as a fight between the ‘leading lights of the accounting software as a service industry’ with FreeAgent being a key player in the small business and freelance market.

Ed Molyneux, FreeAgent Central CEO comments: “This is an amazing result for us and we are delighted to be recognised by our customers and SIFT for a second year. Our aim is to democratise accounting, and this just shows that our customers and our peers in the industry are behind us all the way!”

The Software Satisfaction Awards shortlist was drawn up by customers voting for their favourite company. Voters were asked to consider ease of use; functionality; reliability; and value for money when rating the business software.

An influential panel of judges drawn from the accounting industry then assessed the shortlist, scoring entrants on levels of customer service and satisfaction, both over the past 12 months and the future.

This year’s winners were decided by a combination of user voted (50%) and judged (50%) elements.

FreeAgent online software is easy to use and gives a clear picture of profit and loss, making running a business easier and putting the small business owner in control of their finances. Hosted on the cloud, FreeAgent is accessible around the clock, from any computer, which is ideal for the way many small business owners and freelancers work.

As freelancers themselves, the three founders of FreeAgent Central needed a finance tool that would give them a clear picture of their business accounts. That product did not exist and so FreeAgent was born.

The software has a clean and simple design, highly intuitive and usable. It prepares VAT returns, calculates self assessed income tax and corporation tax and manages PAYE and NI. Users can monitor profit and loss, send and track invoices, track time and expenses, manage projects and payments.

The software was recently updated to allow customers to file their VAT returns electronically within the system directly to HMRC, saving many hours of paperwork.

FreeAgent also encourages collaboration between accountant and client by allowing accountants to login to the system, so they can offer the most up-to-date advice. Accountants can easily export trial balance data to generate end-of-year accounts.

An active online community of FreeAgent customers has grown up where users openly discuss ideas, questions and problems about accounts. Additionally there is a live advice helpline where users can ‘Ask an Expert’ about financial issues they may be having.

FreeAgent is subscription based with costs starting at £15 per month for a sole trader, £20 for a partnership and £25 for a limited company.

www.freeagentcentral.com

Volunteering for people in Edinburgh came one step closer today with the launch of Volunteer Centre Edinburgh’s new interactive website designed by CIVIC.

The new website is an essential hub of information that enables those who want to volunteer to access information about the 600+ volunteering opportunities that are advertised in Edinburgh at any one time while increasing engagement with the public through digital media streaming and interactive features. The website is also filled with good practice guides, case studies and resources that will be of interest to people from all sectors.

The website has been developed by CIVIC, an independent creative digital communications agency with major experience in the public and private sector. Using “creative technology”, CIVIC blends design with cutting edge digital expertise in order to apply strategic branding thinking to websites with technical ability needed to make that thinking come to life.

Greig Tosh, Managing Director of CIVIC says “People are at the heart of Volunteer Centre Edinburgh so we’ve designed a site that brings members together through sharing, social media and the YouTube channel. We also enabled commenting on news stories to facilitate conversation with users”.

In 2009 Volunteer Centre Edinburgh had contact with 11,000 people who were given information and support to get involved in volunteering. There are hundreds of organisations that provide opportunities to volunteer in Edinburgh – including charities, schools, hospitals, the police and grass roots community organisations – and the volunteering sector is estimated to be worth over £90 million to Edinburgh’s economy and is ever increasing.

Paul Wilson, Depute Director of Volunteer Centre Edinburgh, says “People volunteer for a huge variety of reasons and many learn new valuable skills in return for giving their time and energy to volunteering. Since the recession we have see even more people come forward to volunteer, who are keen to develop personally and professionally whilst using their time to help out in their community.

“We’re incredibly pleased with the new website and the excellent work that CIVIC have done. We’ve already received excellent feedback from the public and from our peers. Our new website gives people a chance to become more integrated in the world of volunteering in Edinburgh by engaging in dialogue as well as accessing wide ranging information.

“Organisations that use volunteers now have resources at their fingertips to make it easier for them to develop new ways of involving volunteers in their work and making sure their organisation is a great place to volunteer.

To find out more information visit the new website at www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk.

User Vision, one of Europe’s leading independent user experience consultancies, is one of only five events world-wide to be appointed to World Usability Day’s inaugural Partner Programme.

The aim of World Usability Day (WUD) is to increase the public’s awareness of the need to design services and products for human life that are simple and accessible. More than 150 events across 43 countries took part in last year’s World Usability Day.

User Vision was there for the very first WUD in 2005 and has welcomed over 500 visitors from a range of public and private sector organisations through its doors every year since then.

This year’s theme is communication and on 11 November, in User Vision’s Edinburgh Head Office, companies from all over the UK will take part in a series of interactive demonstrations, live usability and accessibility tests and workshops, highlighting key user experience issues many of us face daily.

New technology has fuelled great advances in the field of communication over the past few years and User Vision will help visitors explore the usability issues associated with social networking sites, collaboration tools and modern communication devices.

The latest technologies will be available to try out with a rare chance to test one of the first smart tables to arrive in Scotland.  User Vision will also be will road testing the latest eye tracking glasses from Tobii, taking them out on the street to understand how department stores and advertisers influence our buying decisions.

Chris Rourke, User Vision’s MD explains:  “To be chosen as one of only five usability events worldwide is a great accolade and recognition of the popularity and success of the World Usability Day events we have run for the last six years.  Once again this is our chance to really shine a spotlight on usability and accessibility and to make everyone aware of its importance to every day life.”

www.uservision.co.uk