So here we are, the markets are reeling and the US Federal Bank is taking evasive action.

It seems we have been waiting for this moment for long time. Low interest rates and booming house prices in the UK have fueled the consumer bonanza of the recent times. But now it is time to start paying some of the borrowing back.

Now the hangover begins.

The CBI, back in December 2007, revised their prediction for economic growth from 2.2% to 2%. So technically we are not currently falling in to a recession. But one thing is clear now. We are in for a period of belt tightening. Whilst the government has continued to put pressure on its public spending ratio, along with the continuing saga of Northern Rock, it has a limited capability to manage this downturn using fiscal policy. Alasdair Darling’s first budget in March will be interesting.

So what does it mean for those of us in agency land?

For the most part we move in the larger marketing world. This means we will be under pressure to provide value for money. We need to make sure we are in a position to deliver the goods in an efficient manner. This, as for many agencies, will be a test of in house tools and platforms. We need to be able to provide value added services. As Will McInnes has rightly pointed out we need to provide a stronger, more convincing argument in order to persuade clients to buy our products and services. We need to be able to convince brands, more than ever, the internet can deliver a measurable impact on their bottom line.

For those involved in social software and the development of social and community platforms we may find ourselves in a good position. Social software can provide a more effective means of customer acquisition than advertising. It engages the consumer with the brand directly. Whilst advertising budgets are bound to be cut, turning towards social platforms provides brands with a more meaningful way of engaging with their potential and current customers. Of course successful marketing is based upon a combination of actions, but perhaps some are more effective than others?

To me, it has consolidated my desire that we as a company become product focused rather than service focused. We need to be able to dictate our own agenda and use our products to show how we can cut costs and deliver sales. That is our first challenge for 2008.

There will be a number of companies out there who have relied upon advertising revenue as their main source of income. Interestingly Drama 2.0 points out the obvious. Those that rely on providing free services in the hope of achieving ad revenues are subject to diminishing returns when the chips are down. The problem with scale, as it were, is that it really proves whether a business model is viable.

Our second challenge for 2008 is to try and generate renewable income. Whether for the end user or by selling business tools. Again this means providing quality, but it also means we can scale up in accordance to our business requirement. On the consumer side the trick is, of course, that while consumers will be busy paying off their household debt, we need to convince them to spend the ‘price of a pint’ on a monthly basis for their work-time entertainment. On the business side, we need to convince businesses that our platforms provide the tools they require to do business online.

Late last year I decided to find out a bit more about Twitter. A few of the Brighton crowd had been hassling me and to be honest it was time get with the program.

So Twitter…well where do you start?

Well, there isn’t much to it. But that is the beauty. Its simplicity is its main feature. It is entertaining and informative. It provides me with nice little snippet of news, coding stuff or just plain amusement. I have even start having conversations on it. It seems many twitterers use it for direct communication, rather than just micro-blogging. It’s more subtle than a Facebook feed and more personal, people actually took time (all be it a modicum) to compose something.

What I really like about it, is it fills in the gaps on peoples thoughts. You can find out what makes people tick. Of course what is wrong with face to face conversation? But it is a great ice-breaker.

It has got me thinking long term what Twitter might be used for, and how we might use it the future. People have announced the launch of their blogs on there. It’s great way to get some (quick) feedback on a web app. What I think it could be really good at is extending web communities outside their normal environment. Enhancing the community experience. Whilst users are out an about, they can get a quick ‘fix’ of what is going on.

For effeffelle I am thinking we could use it as a results service as well as a means of keeping people in touch with their teams. As people sign up they could opt in to updates via Twitter and using the API we could feed results, or transfer requests or bids for players in to their feeds. Conversely we could have a generic effeffelle feed broadcasting general site activity to whoever (presumably our users) is interested.

Now I wouldn’t use it for mission critical purposes. But all this got me thinking. On a commercial basis there is not reason why we can’t integrate it with our auction system. I haven’t given this too much thought, but other than perhaps privacy issues, there is perhaps good reason for alerting to people to when they have been outbid on lot items. Or could we alert them when new auctions are put on line?

I think for the time being Twitter is going be confined to the more Geekier amongst us. It will take time to penetrate more general use. But I have heard some good stories on its usage.

We are nearly at the point where we can relaunch the game. I am pleased to say we have kept some of our very loyal community and they have been itching for an announcement of when the matches will start.

We have also had an encouraging number of new registrations since we put the site back up in dormant mode in November ‘07. It has also been good to see the forums come back to life as well. Community, community, community. You can’t beat it.

I think we may be able to get matches up and running this week, with the proviso that we will tackle the remaining bugs as they come up, along with the remaining graphics and user interface issues.

We do have a lot of new stuff on the back burner. Some features will be added to the game soon in an alpha state, where as other bits will take a while longer. However, look out for more on Project Colditz. The new transfer market will add another dimension to the game. The new coaching module has worked well and the new game engine should - fingers crossed - be the final piece of the jigsaw (well certainly in this round of development). But we have a way to go before we get that done.

We aim to get friendlies up this week and will then hopefully let that run in to a new league season.

If you are reading this and wondering what the hell I am talking about, then take a look here

Prior to Christmas we started a new semi-secret project called “Project Colditz”, so called because we likened it to the last day of term at school when everyone brought in games to play.

So since we’ve returned from Christmas holidays we have made a small bit of progress with it.

It’s by no means complete, but it should augment an existing web app development we have been doing on the side for a long time. When there is something to show I will comment on it here.

It’s Christmas and Father Christmas has really been very kind to me this year. I can announce a new arrival (no, not the baby…that is later in January) - my first ever Mac. It’s an iMac, 24 ins, 2.4Ghz, Core duo with the RAM upgrade.

I am really pleased with it. I mean really, really pleased with it.

But it hasn’t quite been all plain sailing…I am sat here now, typing away, happily importing CDs to iTunes, nonchalantly switching between apps and generally wondering why I have put up with PCs for so long. I can hear the mutter of those hard-nosed Mac users in the background offering words of “I told you so”…and of course you are right. You did tell me… and I just didn’t listen, I didn’t want to stump up the extra cash at the time, or I argued that there wasn’t enough software out there to satisfy my needs.

Well, I tell you - I was wrong!

Apple have got this thing absolutely right. Even the bit they got wrong was put right by those nice people over at Apple Care. Through these rose tinted glasses everything is great. Yes siree Bob.

But it didn’t really start all that well at all. There was me, on Boxing Day, waxing lyrical to my partner, Abi, in partial justification that this was something we needed ‘as a family’,  ”This is the real deal.  It is so intuitive, I mean look at the packaging, even the box has an opening at the top…”. 

But then again this ‘late 2007 model’ does ship with Leopard.

I eagerly unpacked the box, removed the [heavy] plastic packaging and set the iMac up on the desk. I sat in awe as the splash screen played, welcoming me in several different languages. “Wow, a multiligual computer, what will they think of next?” I followed the set up assistant, and eventually we were ready to go.

But no. We weren’t.

I entered my final registration details and was then prompted for my username and password. “Oooh, I thought, this is just like setting up Debian or Ubuntu, it will of course require a log in”. So I entered my username and password details previously and meticulously given to set up assistant and guess what. I must have mistyped them.

So I enter them again.And Again. And again…and again.

I must have locked myself out, I thought.

I texted a friend, also a Mac user. He suggested I use the utility disk to unlock myself. Of course I thought. That will work. So I set about unlocking myself. However, I thought, I had better check this out on the web. So I got out the trusty laptop (WinXP - meh!) and having read about Leopard’s infamous launch I thought should find out if I am the only person to run in to this problem. Sure enough, there were others who had had similar issues. One of the suggested solutions was to make an “Archive and Install”.

I got this process underway and went out to a friend’s house trying not to feel like that moment at the end of a hard day’s programming when a bug beats you for time.

On my return I realised this had not worked out and I had to leave it until the next morning.

The next day I rang Apple. I went through a few things with the really helpful Elenor. After a while she conferred with her supervisor and suggested I will have to carry out a complete “Erase and Install”.

The problem, as I had seen for myself, once in single user mode, was while I was setting up accounts with the ’set up assistant’, they were not getting written to disk. The /Users directory was completely empty.

A bemused Elenor advised me this course of action would solve all my problem. So I happily set about the installation. We parted with her reminding me, “don’t forget to back-up, sir.”

I set the process off, it all went smoothly and hey presto, it worked and here we are doing the Mac thang…*cough* as a family.

It’s great. I really can see a time when we will be ditching the TV, downgrading our HiFi to just an amplifier with speakers and streaming content all over the house.

My current favourite features so far are Front Row and the remote control. It is how users and technology should interact. It all just makes sense. I am now already behind on Podcasts - BBC Radio 4’s ‘From our own correspondent’ was particularly interesting this week. The simplicity of stuff being there and easy to get to is so refreshing.

Why oh why as it taken me till the brink of 2008 to do this!