For UK retailers operating both online and in ‘bricks and mortar’, the option of Click & Collect, offering customers the ability to purchase or reserve a product online and collect in-store, is rapidly becoming more important. It’s not a new proposition, and Argos led the way 10 years ago, with many smaller retailers also adopting a ‘heath robinson’ approach to present cross-channel options early on.

Click & Collect has grown over the last 10 years and Argos’s own C&C sales have grown at 60% per year, now representing 70% of online sales. Other retailers such as John Lewis are also seeing very high growth figures from C&C with an increasing proportion of online sales, and yet more retailers are continuing to join the party with Plumb Center and Game.co.uk introducing C&C in the last few months.

The growth over the last few years clearly proves that Click & Collect model is serving customers well, and as the expectation for retailers to offer this service, and to do it well, increases, it is easy to see why in 2011 this is becoming a prioritised consideration.

Best Practice Customer Experience

The online journey for using Click and Collect has evolved and become much slicker since the early days as the service has matured and systems provide more integration. Below are some suggestions for best practice customer experience taken from UK retailers’ websites.

1. Promote the Service and Integrate it in

As C&C now represents a high proportion of online sales for many retailers, it’s important to reflect this with an integrated proposition for delivery and collection options, yet also providing a guide at the store entry point for those customers that have not shopped using this method.

PC World ensures that customers are aware of their Collect@Store service by promoting it on the home page and linking to a set of steps explaining how to use it.

Clear iconography representing the different options for delivery and collection throughout the shopping journey is also important and presents C&C as an equal alternative to home delivery.

These examples from various sites clearly position the C&C service as a mature fulfillment option alongside home delivery.

2. Allow for Early Sight of Stock/Store Availability

Whether the site functionality offers the ability to check stock in local stores or simply to see which stores participate in the C&C service, it is helpful to the shopper to present this at an early stage in the shopping journey rather than only in the basket or checkout.

Argos presents a postcode entry on the product page that then loads a modal window displaying the nearest store as well as the stock availability.

The information is clearly displayed and allows you to check stock in other stores and enter a new postcode. Additionally, with the modal window, the store availability is displayed without moving the shopper away from the crucial buying page – more about this later.

B&Q has also enabled the stock availability check at an early stage and does it one step earlier on the list page.

Early sight of the stock availability is particularly attractive for the shopper who is looking to solely use C&C as their delivery method – they can see upfront whether an item is available to collect in-store without needing to enter the buying process to find out.

3. Present the Option to Select a Default Collection Store

Allowing customers to enter a postcode, select a store and check stock before they add to the basket is great, but if this store selection is not remembered throughout the checkout when the decision is made to purchase, it’s frustrating to then go through the same process of selecting a store again.

B&Q offers the option to make a store your default selection when reviewing stock levels across stores. This is then carried through the checkout process but also gives you the option to select another store at each stage.

Selecting one of the stores then presents the store address, map and opening hours before closing the window to continue shopping. Not only does the shopper’s store selection get carried through the checkout, but it also changes the stock displays on the list page against each item to show stock availability in that particular store. This is also shown on the product detail page, and if the item is out of stock in the selected store, it suggests the nearest store where stock is available. Further still, if multiple items have been added to basket where stock availability varies in the selected store, the shopper can cross-check other stores for the highest availability across all items.

4. Order the Stores Available for Collection Intuitively

When selecting a store for an initial stock check or to select for collection, most sites display their list of stores arranged by relative distance from the postcode entered. This of course makes sense, but it’s worth considering the shopper’s motivations for choosing C&C and distance isn’t the only consideration.

Jessops displays their list of stores ordered by availability for collection, with the quickest available presented first. There may be other stores closer, but lower down the list as they don’t have stock as immediately as others, although the distance to individual stores is still displayed.

This is great as it addresses a key motivation for using C&C – quick pick-up. Other considerations may be the amount of stock available (if multiple quantities are required) or the hours of opening (if for example the shopper wishes to collect on the way home from the office), so it would be ideal to present ‘sort by’ options in the store list.

5. Keep the C&C Journey Integrated with the Buying Process

The C&C journey introduces a lot of additional information into the traditional online shopping process – stock availability, store selection, store details etc – and the challenge is to present this intuitively and without exiting the sales funnel.

Using the above example from Jessops, the stock availability for a product in different stores is displayed in a modal window, and when the store info is selected, this is also displayed in a second modal, which means that a lot of information can be presented to the shopper without them moving from the page.

It is only when clicking on the ‘Map & directions’ button that the shopper is directed to the main store page, but in a separate browser window/tab so the shopping journey is not interrupted but the store info can be kept open for printing etc.

Lessons from Europe and US

So far, the best practice suggestions have been taken from UK sites, but it also helps to look to examples from the rest of Europe and also the US for a comparison. In many ways, an increased density of stores allows for greater C&C demand, leading to a more evolved online user journey, and this can be seen in a couple of examples below.

Europe – Vanden Borre

The Belgian retailer, Vanden Borre has a very intuitive C&C user journey, with many of the elements mentioned above. They also go a step further with some options in the basket that I haven’t seen in many UK sites.

The basket shows the stock availability per item for both home delivery and store collection.

As well as the multi-channel stock availability, the basket also allows separate delivery options per line item, so that not only could one item be collected in-store and another delivered, but also separate items could be collected in separate stores.

Moving from the basket to the checkout, this site allows for online payment, not just reservation for collection in-store, which makes sense if an order could have multiple fulfillment options.

US – Walmart

Click and Collect, as a label, can represent two different models: reserve online and pay and collect in-store, usually on the same day, or pay online and have delivered to store for collection, usually within 2-3 days. Online stores in the UK use either of these models, with the latter being relatively easier for the retailer in terms of data integration.

In the US, Walmart offers both of these models, promoting both their ‘pick up today’ and ‘site to store’ delivery options.

Offering both options brings both the convenience of quick collection for widely stocked items, plus a much greater range beyond what stores can keep in stock. Availability for both of these delivery options are displayed throughout the shopping journey from the product list page, and are included as facets in the filtered navigation.

Conclusion

Of course, the success of C&C for a retailer is not just based on a good online user journey, but is dependent on product types, customer proposition and also the experience for the customer at the collection end as well as the reservation. I didn’t find C&C on Tesco Direct particularly user friendly as an online experience, but they are evidently seeing success, recently doubling the participating stores (to 600) and launching click and drive-through collection points.

We must also remember that front-end usability is just the tip of the iceberg in enhancing the C&C service, and improvements may require a lot of work to integrate the various retail systems and processes, for example, stock accuracy.

Additionally, in comparison with online stores in other countries, we should note that culture also plays a part in the usability of the site. Home delivery is not so popular in France, and both Intermarche and Leclerc request a postcode before the shopping experience begins.

However, as with traditional online ordering, the online shopping journey for C&C can only benefit from clearly thought through layouts and design so that trust is created and minimum thought required from the shopper. Ecommerce has been seen as a leveler between the large high street retailers and smaller pure-play etailers, however as C&C grows and improves as a service, this can become a differentiating service proposition and therefore a competitive advantage for the larger players with networks of stores.

The idea to climb this mountain was conceived at the beginning of 2010 over a family dinner, but it had been a dream of mine for a few years. With only UK mountain experience, most alpine guides would advise me to do some courses on lower peaks first, before tackling the highest peak in the Alps. But not one to turn down a challenge, and with buckets of enthusiasm, I managed to convince my brother and brother-in-law that it would be a good idea. And, anyway, I had no intentions of taking a guide!

Actually, I’m fairly typical of the British first-time Mont Blanc climber. It appeals to the inexperienced because of its prominence and ‘relative’ ease of access as there’s a well trodden route that doesn’t require technical climbing. But this 4808m peak isn’t ‘bagged’ easily – it’s physically tough, there are objective dangers and the altitude takes your breath away, literally. I’m a believer in overcoming inexperience quickly with stretch targets and have a higher tolerance for personal risk than most, but I also read up a lot on what to expect and having done it, there are a few tips I would pass on to increase the chances of success.

Some friends of mine are considering this challenge later this year, so this is for them and anyone else wanting to reach the top.

1. Select the best route for your ability

The 3 main routes from the French side  are the Goûter route, the Grands Mulets route and the Three Monts route, and of these, the Goûter route is the least technical and therefore the most popular with inexperienced mountaineers. The Grands Mulets is a classic route, a longer one with some risk of serac fall and a lot of height gain to the summit on the second day. The Three Monts is another popular route and can be done in one day but is a lot more challenging, both physically and technically, ascending two peaks on route to Mont Blanc.

I would love to return and make an attempt via the Grands Mulet or Three Monts routes sometime, but for my first visit, the Goûter route was the only sensible option if I wanted the best chance of reaching the top and meeting our objective. It is a 2 day climb with an overnight stay at either the refuge de Tête-Rousse or the refuge du Goûter. However, both huts on this route can become very crowded in summer, so the next consideration was the time of year to make the trip.

2. Consider the best time of year

The peak time for climbing Mont Blanc is through July and August. During these two summer months, the snow line is at its highest and the chances of favourable weather conditions much greater, and with this being the holiday season as well, it’s the most popular time for tourists to make an ascent. This could potentially work well if you’re inexperienced – if you are going up without a guide, there will be plenty of others to follow, and a well trodden path through the snow. However, it also means crowds on the summit and lots of groups moving with different pace (passing in certain spots can be perilous). Additionally, the huts on the main routes are likely to be fully booked as guides tend to reserve in advance, which means carrying the extra weight of a tent and sleeping bag.

An alternative is to plan your trip at either end of the season – mid June or mid September. I decided to go out in June as the climbing season and mountain huts were opening. We were doing it independently but were able to make reservations at the huts easily, which was great as we had to be flexible with the weather. Other services weren’t yet open, such as the Tramway du Mont-Blanc that starts at Saint Gervais Les Bains and takes you up to the Nid d’Aigle station at 2370m, so instead we took the cable car from Les Houches to Belle Vue (1800m) and walked the rest of the tram track to the station. We also found the snowline at the Nid d’Aigle station instead of around the refuge du Goûter, but there’s an argument that this makes crossing the Grand Couloir safer with less likelihood of rock fall.

3. Watch the weather

You can make the best plans and preparations, but ultimately you need the weather on your side to make a successful ascent. If you don’t want to be stuck on the side of the mountain, you need to pick your climbing days carefully, and all you can do is to make sure you have enough days to pick from, with a flexible schedule, and watch the weather reports from the Office de Haute Montagne in Chamonix.

At first, I planned the trip over a long weekend, but quickly extended it to a week once I looked into it a bit more. As well as giving us a chance to fit in some training, the week in Chamonix meant we could watch the weather and pick the best two days to reach the top. Unfortunately, our week in Chamonix coincided with the worst floods the South of France has seen for 50 years, and whilst it rained heavily in the valleys, it was snowing heavily at altitude. After a week of bad weather, we started the climb on Thursday, 17 June and climbed through heavy snow on the first day, and were very fortunate to have a break in the weather on Friday, 18th to make the summit. However, we met fellow climbers at the hut who had waited there several days to get to the top, having made one attempt but turning back after being caught in a thunder storm on the mountain side as their ice axes buzzed with the static electricity.

4. Train well

Whilst the Goûter route may be the ‘least difficult’, it would be a mistake to treat it like a walk in the park, and general fitness is essential to be successful. Only 50% of those who make the attempt, reach the top and a large part of this is down to conditioning. As well as running, cycling and other aerobic exercise, it’s a good idea to get some elevation prep out in the hills, or if you’re based in the city, one of the best preparations for mountain climbing is walking up flights of stairs with some weight on your back (Covent Garden Stn is good for this with 193 steps, equivalent to 12 stories).

Our group spent a weekend in Snowdonia to stretch our legs before the trip, although it turned out a little more boozy than expected! I put in a few runs to build up fitness and squats every morning to build up leg strength before the trip, and then whilst in Chamonix, we used the first few days to get acclimatised with some climbing and altitude training. This is how our week’s itinerary turned out:

• Saturday, 12 June – flight to Geneva and drive to Chamonix
• Sunday, 13 June – trek up beside the Glacier des Bossons up to Le Jonction and back down
• Monday, 14 June – telepherique to Aiguille du Midi for some glacier walking and crampon practice on the Vallee Blanche
• Tuesday, 15 June – rest day with heavy downpours all day
• Wednesday, 16 June – low level ramble around Argentière
• Thursday, 17 June – 1st day up Mont Blanc ascending 2000m up to the refuge du Goûter (3800m)
• Friday, 18 June – 2nd day, ascending the final 1000m to the summit and back down to the Goûter hut
• Saturday, 19 June – descent to Chamonix in time for some Champagne before dinner
• Sunday, 20 June – flight back to London

5. Climb with others of a similar ability

The rule for any expedition is you move at the pace of the slowest in the team, and on a mountain it’s particularly true because you are roped together. So it’s wise to choose your climbing buddies with care, otherwise you may be frustrated moving at a slower pace and not able to make the summit, or, if you’re the slower party, risk being stretched beyond your ability and letting others down.

My climbing partner was my brother-in-law, Andy. He was fitter than me with a bit more experience, having summited the Matterhorn the year before, but we worked well together – and what I lacked in physical fitness, I tried to make up for in mental determination. I saw other groups that had to turn back because the difference in fitness levels was greater.

6. Think carefully about taking a guide

If you’re inexperienced in high mountains, you will be highly recommended to use the services of an experienced guide, and there are plenty to choose from in Chamonix. They offer training in the days before the climb, and not only will they provide a safer ascent, leading the way and guaranteed access to a hut for the night, but some would say you have a better chance of reaching the top.

We decided not to use a guide, mainly for the cost, but I’m very glad we did it independently – I only have my experience to go by, but now believe we wouldn’t have made the summit if we had taken one. Andy and I reached the refuge de Tête-Rousse on day 1 in heavy snowfall and decided to take a short break to see if it improved before making our way across the Grand Couloir and scrambling up steepest part to the refuge du Goûter. Most of the guided groups in this hut, including some friends of ours, were either staying put for the rest of the day and spending the night at the Tête-Rousse, or turning back. Andy and I considered it carefully, but decided to move on – a risky decision, and one that a guide wouldn’t have allowed, but ultimately meant that we reached the Goûter hut just in time for dinner and bed, and were in a much better position to summit the following morning.

7. Take the right kit

If your experience to date is UK mountains in the summer, there are some essential extras that you need for high mountain climbing in the Alps. But I found that some of the less obvious items made a big difference too.

• Boots – B2 or B3, warm and suitable for crampons (I used Scarpa Freneys)
• Crampons – flexible enough for trekking (I used Grivel G12 crampomatics)
• Gaiters – robust enough to withstand catching them with your crampons
• Walking/mountain trousers and thermal long johns
• Base layer and mid layer top
• Waterproof jacket with helmet compatible hood and waterproof trousers
• Helmet – protection for rockfall
• Down jacket – not absolutely necessary, but great for warmth in the huts
• Ice axe – for walking rather than ice climbing
• Walking/ski poles – I didn’t take these but saw others using them effectively
• Lightweight alpine harness and a screwgate karabiner
• Selection of slings and other karabiners – useful for the scramble up to the refuge du Gouter, some sections with fixed ropes
• Head torch (and batteries!)
• Hat/balaclava
• Sunglasses/ski goggles
• 50m rope – 9mm is adequate and lighter than 11mm which makes a difference when it’s dragging through the snow
• Water (2-3ltrs) – some prefer bottles, I prefer a reservoir with water tube for ‘little and often’, however if the water tube isn’t insulated, it’s likely to freeze hard
• Ear plugs and eye patch – sleep is important, but going to bed at 8pm (to rise at 3am) when it’s still light, in a full dorm with a cacophony of snoring make both of these invaluable

8. Carry as little with you as possible

Having run through the recommended kit list, it’s tempting to over-prepare for every eventuality, but it’s all too easy to end up with a stuffed sack weighing several kilos too much. Unless you’re used to yomping with heavy bergens, a backpack that’s too heavy will sap your strength early into the climb, so if you’re not in the military it makes sense to keep it as light as possible with just the essentials.

There is nowhere to wash in the huts, so leave your washbag (wet wipes suffice), and other than underwear, spare clothes are fairly unnecessary too as you will likely sleep in the clothes you wear during the day … and everyone in the huts tends to smell a bit anyway! The huts serve hot food (and quite tasty) so unless you want the authentic gas stove experience, boiling snow and cooking outside, there is no need to pack food other than nibbles for the climb (home made flapjacks are recommended!) The huts also provide beds with sleeping bags and blankets so you can save on weight and just take a sleeping bag liner.

9. Get sponsored

Reaching the top of Mont Blanc is a major goal if you’re not a seasoned mountaineer, and therefore a great way to raise funds for a worthy cause. It will also keep you motivated to achieve your objective!

I decided to raise money for ACET, a local charity with global reach to victims of AIDs, and I’m very grateful to good friends and colleagues, for helping me raise £1500.

10. Remember, as with all mountains, reaching the top is not the end goal …

… but reaching the bottom safely is! It’s important to remember this if you are stretching your limits and know that you have energy in reserve to descend safely.

11 July – Summer Swing, Kew Gardens – Jools Holland and his Blues Band

Been to this event a few years running now, but this year was my favorite. Mr Holland and his band blow you away with their talent. Great sound from the PA. Big group of friends sharing a picnic. Champagne. Cigars. Whisky. Dancing. Fireworks. Not even the great British summer weather could put a dampener on it, and the tone for the summer was well and truly set!

25 July – 2 Aug – Ealing Festival, Walpole Park, W5

Ealing is blessed with this festival each year. It’s been running for decades and each event is just £1 to enter. What you get are two marquees with live music (main stage and a slightly more fringe one), a huge beer tent, all the usual food and craft stalls, and an excellent atmosphere. The music started on 25 July with a day of blues, followed the next day with world music and then almost a week of jazz. Great for kicking back in the sun on a weekend afternoon/evening with a rug, a picnic, a box of chilled Chardonnay and soaking up the vibes with friends … or getting more energetic – I have top memories last weekend of dancing at the front with my 8 year old friend, Alfie on my shoulders!

14 August – U2, Wembley

Ok, confession time – I have never been to a U2 gig. I narrowly missed out on one in 1993 when I broke up with my girlfriend at the time just before their Zooropa tour and she took the tickets back. I’m a big fan but I feel like the football fan who’s never been to see their team play! Well, all that ends this year. U2 play Wembley on their 360° tour with a grand revolving stage … and my superstar sister got us tickets before they sold out in half an hour! I actually like their last couple of albums, but if I’m honest, I really hope they play a lot of the old stuff from the 80′s and early 90′s.

28-31 August – Greenbelt Festival

Greenbelt has been running for over 25 years and is a music and arts festival with a Christian ethos. A lot of the music is mainstream however – Athlete are headlining this year, and I’m looking forward to hearing Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. Also a good lineup of talks including Douglas Alexander MP and Bishop Gene Robinson.

Post-summer, White Lies at Wembley sounds excellent, but no tickets yet.

I’ll leave it there for now as the final day of the Ealing Jazz Festival is calling. Photos will be up on Flickr soon.

So, these two giants of technology, who have been looking for ways to eat each others market over the last few years (Google creating apps to rival MS Office and Microsoft attempting Yahoo! takeover for greater web search / advertising presence), decide to innovate and strike a blow to the other company.

Will their new developments succeed? And how do they compare as competitive strategies?

Firstly, credit to Microsoft for walking away from a repentant Yahoo! last year and improving on their own search tool instead. Yahoo! didn’t so much represent better technology, but market share and looked to be a bargain at the time. But market share is finite when web users are becoming more savvy all the time and the real competition comes from innovation and new technology. Bing is not just a search engine, but a ‘decision engine’, providing intelligent results and a rich media experience. Early reports show that Bing has already overtaken Yahoo! as the number 2 search engine of choice.

But for me, Google enters a different league in terms of their insight, innovation, ambition and PR savvy. Wave has been lauded as potentially replacing email and considering email technology has been around since the 1960s, is the defacto standard for digital communication and is recognised in the law courts, this is hugely ambitious. But that’s great! Recognising that new forms of communication from social networking are growing and building them into a new platform that will also handle email-type messages is the next step and Google have stolen a march. Will it take off? We should know more by the end of the year in terms of adoption, but you have to say that getting 4000 developers on board with a top demo, giving them sandbox accounts to play with and opening it up with APIs is a great start.

Of course, if you’re one of the paranoid about Google building tools to gather personal data, then Wave ill only increase your paranoia as it could become the platform for all communication (including social networks) if the apps are right.

Ale2.0
When: Thursday, 4 June, 7-9pm
Where: The Harp, Covent Garden
Dreamt up by the chaps at VI, Ale2.o is a meet-up for people in digital, PR, design etc who also enjoy supping pints of ale. Sounds very fine to me.

Being-Digital ’09
When: Tuesday, 9 June, 9am-7.30pm
Where: CBI Centre, London
This event is produced by the mashup team and is designed for businesses in digital technology, particularly start-ups. I’ve got a particular interest in this one as the programme includes some ‘Angel’s Den’ speed pitching. Exciting stuff!

Sadly, I wasn’t quick enough to pick up tickets for FOWA ’09 later this year – they sold out in ten minutes flat. Will be watching the twitterfall and the videos for that one.

Yesterday, I attended a primary school parents evening, not to evaluate children’s progress in classes, but to learn and discuss the growing implications of raising kids in a digital world. I was there as a techie advisor on the panel and answered questions about blocking/monitoring content online, but not being a parent myself, it was a learning process for me too and thought I would comment here about some of the best practices I’ve picked up from the evening and various other places.

This video has been created for shock value but highlights why this is becoming a greater consideration …

I think the first thing to highlight is that it’s easy to be afraid of all the potential ‘dangers’ children are open to with access to the internet and other technologies, particularly if you don’t feel technically equipped to understand, but it’s important to remember that there are great opportunities as well.

• Greater access to information – When I was at school, all my homework was done using books and if I wanted to research, I cycled to the library at weekends. I started using the web at Uni in ’93 but back then the content was not what it is now.
• Keeping in touch with long-distance relatives/friends – With social networking, internet messaging or Skype, it is easy and cheap to contact people thousands of miles away, and post photos etc.
• Meeting like-minded people and networking – As the web matures, new technologies have the power to change society and in particular, the workplace. I’m working on a project at the moment to implement a new collaborative platform within the company I work for, and it has the power to change the way we work and the culture of the organisation.
• Children can learn early to be intuitive with these tools – I’m grateful that my parents bought a family PC when I was at school and I had a chance to try my hand at basic programming (as well as games). It helped me understand computers and not develop a fear of them, which has undoubtedly helped me in my career. Today, the stakes are higher and technical literacy is increasingly important, not just to career success, but being able to engage with others. In fact, it’s not just important, it’s expected! Giving a child access to learning these tools is fundamental to their development.

As with most things, greater freedom requires greater responsibility, and the responsibility in raising children in this age of changing technology is to understand it and help guide them in it. Some of the following reflects conversations I had with parents last night.

• Blocking/monitoring content – this seemed to be the biggest concern raised by parents yesterday evening. Quite simply, greater access to information means greater access to inappropriate content, unless this is filtered in some way. Here are a few tips that I demonstrated yesterday:

1. On the Google home page, use the Preferences link on the right-hand side of the search box to enable ‘SafeSearch Filtering’ – ‘strict filtering’ is the highest level. If multiple browsers are used, it will have to be done for each one. (Remember, it’s easy to enable so it’s easily disabled as well.)
2. You can monitor the browser history on most browsers using ‘Ctrl + H’ to see which sites have been visited. I know some parents agree with their children that if they find some of the history has been deleted, they will assume they have been up to no good.
3. Inappropriate content can also be delivered via spam mail. It’s relatively easy to set up an email forwarder so that you can monitor all email your child receives.
4. Of course, if they have a mobile phone, that is another access point as most mobiles are now capable of internet browsing. One option might be to agree that the mobile should only be used for calls and texts, and the internet usage can be monitored by checking the monthly bills.
5. There are various software packages that can be installed to block/monitor content on the PC. This seems to be a good comparison, but I was also recommended K9 as being easy to use (and free).
   

• Cyber-bullying – Keeping in touch with friends using mobiles, email, online chat, social networking is great, but they can also be used as points to bully an individual, and if it’s carried out online, the bullying can be done in front of a bigger audience, causing more embarrassment and upset to the child. The bullying can transfer between online and offline worlds and vice versa, and I heard last night that a frequent cause of bullying is around the possession of mobiles – which model, stealing phones, etc. What’s clear is that bullying is bullying, however it’s done – it’s against the law and should be tackled as such.
• Meeting strangers – We’ve all heard the horror stories – children getting ‘groomed’ by paedophiles in online chat-rooms and encouraged to meet up, or advertising house parties on Facebook only for hundreds of gatecrashers to turn up and trash the house. The point is that identification needs verification online – this is true for your internet banking and it’s true when teaching kids about who they’re communicating with. In the real world, ‘Charlie’ did a pretty good job of educating young people not to trust strangers, but it needs a bit of savvy on the web.
• Sliding scale – As with other areas of freedom, your approach in monitoring your children online will change as they grow older. This is partly because you learn to trust them more (hopefully) but also because, as they become more technically able, they will learn to get around various settings and blocking measures – it’s not as easy to restrict a 16yr old as it is a 9yr old.
• Parents not police – The key here is that whilst getting genned up on technology can only help in understanding what to block and monitor, this is much more about the parenting relationship you have with your kids. My wife, Jo, was also on the panel yesterday as a social worker who sees more of this subject coming up in families, and her advice to parents was to generate a family policy for internet use, as a family, just as you might do on other matters. It may include simply not allowing computers in bedrooms, but only in family rooms where the screen can be viewed by others.

There are some great resources for finding out more on this subject. The most informative site I’ve come across is www.thinkuknow.co.uk which is a project run by www.ceop.gov.uk.

Several of us Twitterers in the Ealing area are holding a whisky tweetup. If you fancy sampling and imbibing a variety of single malts from across the Scottish regions, comment to this post with your twitter username and the bottle (single malt please) you’re bringing so we get a nice selection. One other thing – you need to bring a poem … of your choice … poems and whisky go together.

Details:
18th April at 7.30pm
Chez moi (address on request)

In the mix so far:
@richward
@Wardybits
@iampauldixon
@paulpambakian
@johnpvdixon

This could become a regular event. Join us for the inaugural one!

5 reasons to keep chickens

1. A ready supply of eggs. Fresh eggs taste better than supermarket ones, and if you’re lucky you’re occasionally gifted with the giant double yolker
2. Gorgeous pets, with real character and personality … and great entertainment (check out the video below)

Click To Play
3. If you have kids, it’s a great way to teach them where food comes from … if you don’t have the space for pigs or cows.
4. Relatively low maintenance. No brushing or bathing for these pets … the ladies take care of themselves.
5. They make a fine roast when the egg supply runs dry!

5 considerations before getting them

1. Cost of food is no more than any other pet, but the shelter can be expensive. Eglus are the best but a bit pricey.
2. Do you love your garden neat and tidy? … they will tear it apart and poo all over it.
3. If you have foxes in your area, you will need to keep an eye on the chickens if they’re roaming freely. However, chickens can take care of themselves with other animals and I heard from a friend that his chickens recently savaged a careless pigeon that was eating some of their food!
4. Noise, particularly in the mornings when they’re up before you and are clucking for attention. Understanding neighbors required.
5. Cover for holidays. Chickens are less easy to transfer to friends, or take with you on holiday but need someone to collect their eggs daily and clean them out.