Many businesses are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon at the moment, whether it’s to promote new services or interact directly with their customers on a one-to-one basis.

However, the problem with many companies are the restrictions of firewalls to avoid heavy abuse of social network use by untrustworthy staff members.

I realised this morning you don’t need to visit twitter.com to manage the your Twitter account – there are plenty of other web-based Twitter applications setup which are unlikely to be listed in the firewall’s blacklist, essentially acting as a proxy to access Twitter’s services indirectly.

Here are a few to try out:

Br.st

Very well designed and simple to use interface with additional multimedia functionality.

Twithive

More focussed on lists and channels of activity streams.

Brizzly

The added benefit of connecting with Facebook as well

Seesmic

Web-based version of the popular Twitter desktop application

There are also a selection of web-based Twitter apps intended as mobile web apps but work perfectly well on the desktop, especially in a sidebar of your browser:

Dabr
Slandr
Hahlo

Try a few to see which one you prefer – each have their own perks.

On a sidenote, if you haven’t already, install a “decent” browser like Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera or Safari. All these browsers are far superior to the corporate preference of Internet Explorer and tend to cope better when it comes to web-based apps.

Many of these also have the ability to enhance the browser with extensions and addons to interact with social networks (although you may still encounter firewall issues with these). You may also find that most company policies don’t allow you to install software but it wouldn’t hurt to ask your friendly IT department for some assistance.

I had a bit of a media frenzy yesterday - and all thanks to the power of Twitter.

On The Radio

It all started when I hit traffic on the way to work on the M6, apparently due to an accident. So, naturally, I tweeted it.

Somehow (probably from local searches), Tim & Marian from BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Radio picked this up.
They then asked if they could give me a call.
Of course, I obliged (I was on handsfree).
Fortunately, the traffic actually eased off the moment I got off the phone.

So that was certainly a different start to a Monday - certainly not what you’d normally expect when sat in traffic!

In The Paper

Last Friday, we wanted to raise awareness for this Saturday’s Multipack Presents Hack The Planet event where we intend to pool our resources and attempt to build some websites that will help contribute to being more eco-friendly, as well as raising awareness on green issues.

After an open shout out to the Birmingham Post, Dave Hart pointed me towards their Business Journalist Anna Blackaby who I met for five minutes to discuss the situation that afternoon.

Yesterday, Anna published an item on the Birmingham Post website, followed by several promotional tweets from @BirminghamPost as well as the dedicated @BusinessPost account. Hopefully, it will also be going into the printed edition this week too. Rest assured, I’ll be buying a copy to check.

All this just goes to show what potential Twitter has in different circumstances, either from a business angle or social level.

It’s a new year so time for another season of sports fixtures, all delivered directly to your calendar applications.

Over the last few years, you may have noticed I’ve been building quite a collection of sports-related calendar services which allow you to download or subscribe to certain sports fixtures throughout the year, making it easier to organise your social life. This year is no different.

6 Nations

The first sporting event of the year we’ll be embracing is the 6 Nations rugby competition between the Home Nations (England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland), France and Italy. This all kicks off on Saturday 6th February 2010 between Ireland and Italy at Croke Park and continues through to Saturday 20th March 2010.

To make sure you don’t miss any fixtures, download or subscribe to the 6 Nations fixtures calendar. Not much has changed on the website since last year with regards to design or functionality but, if you have any ideas for improvements, don’t hesitate to send them through.

Formula 1

Just as the 6 Nations competition comes to an end, the Formula 1 season will be starting with the Bahrain Grand Prix in Sakhir on Sunday 14th March 2010.

Working with the talented Andy Higgs, we’ve now updated the website inline with the new season and you’re now able to download or subscribe to the Formula 1 season calendar for 2010.

We’ve got a few improvements planned for the user interface later in the year but, to make sure you don’t miss any of the schedule, the calendar is readily available.

UEFA Champions League & Europa League

Last year, a team of us including Brian Suda - the inspiration behind all these calendar services - worked directly with UEFA on a dedicated solution for delivering the entire fixture schedule as downloadable UEFA calendar files, for both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup (now know as the UEFA Europa League). Users were also able to access individual club calendars to focus specifically on a club of interest.

The original service was so well received, UEFA were keen to build on the service and offered us an opportunity to extend the functionality for the new season. Our proposal for Phase 2 was well received by the organisation and their Media & Technology department so we are now in full swing on the improved system architecture and additional functionality, scheduled for a three phase rollout over the next six months.

Everyone involved in the project is really excited about some of the upcoming functionality and, hopefully, the large user demographic will enjoy it as much as we will.

World Cup 2010

On the 11th June, the biggest football tournament in the World starts in South Africa - World Cup 2010.

With the huge success of the original World Cup KickOff - the first sports-based calendar service we built - we would have been foolish to ignore this opportunity.

Work has already began on the updated solution with Gareth Brown (from One Black Bear) working on the user interface while Brian and I continue to work on the development.

We’re also lining up an interesting partnership with London startup which should add some really special value to the user experience. It’s too early to say at this stage but, needless to say, it is going to be exciting.

We’re planning to launch this project for May 2010, giving you a month or so to plan your World Cup social calendar. If we can release it sooner, we certainly will but it’s better to be realistic than optimistic some times - best follow @worldcupko on Twitter for updates

It’s been a while since Fierce Angels release a compilation, a good four months ago back in July to be exact. So, it comes as no surprise they’ve put all their eggs in one basket, overlooking Es Vive and Angels Fall this year, going straight for a monster release in The Collection, just in time for Christmas.

Consisting of 33 huge house tracks, this is one for the collection on your shelf.

Some of my personal favourites among the tracks are the Fierce Angel Collective tracks with the awesome Soraya Vivian on vocal duty, Melissa Indot opening the compilation with “Starlight” and a whole host of belters from the past year including Freemasons, Joey Negro, K Klass, Hott 22 and Sounds of Soho.

Check out The Collection video advert below for a proper taster.

Buy Online

The Collection is available to buy from many online stores as triple CD compilation and Deluxe Digital Download (which includes 3 special mixes by Mark Doyle himself).

Buy on CD

Buy Digital Download

Track Listing

1. Melissa Indot - Starlight
2. Sound of Soho - Take My Love (12″ Vocal Mix)
3. The Fierce Angel Collective ft Soraya Vivian - You Know How To Love Me (Bassmonkeys Magic Spanx Mix)
4. Solitaire ft Katherine Ellis - You’re Mine (Solitaire Club Mix)
5. Bassmonkeys ft Abigail Bailey - In The Moment (Club Mix)
6. Anton Powers & Rossko - Yellow Brick Road (E- Squire Mix)
7. Joey Negro - Ride The Rhythm (Joey Negro Club Mix)
8. Hott 22 pres Greg Bahary & Carlos Cid - The Conversation (Original Mix)
9. Ultravibe - DJ (Original Dub)
10. The Locksmiths - Little Love (Club Mix)
11. The Fierce Angel Collective ft Soraya Vivian - If You Could Read My Mind (Degrees Of Motion Mix)
12. Hott 22 - Wicked Games (Letting Go Mix)
13. Freemasons ft. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer) (Club Mix)
14. Wamdue Project ft. Jonathan Mendelsohn - Forgiveness (Digital Dog Club Mix)
15. Mr DYF ft Shena - Hold On (Freemasons Remix)
16. Elin Lanto - Discotheque (Original Dub)
17. Agnes - Release Me (Cahill Club Mix)
18. Shanie - Piano In The Dark (7th Heaven Club Mix)
19. Whelan & Di Scala - Breath Away (Original Dub)
20. Elek-Tro Junkies ft. Therese - Neon Lights (Wideboys Remix)
21. Verde ft. Gemma - If Only You (12″ Extended Mix)
22. Wheels & Disco ft. Mighty Marvin - Sun Shine Down (Club Mix)
23. Priors - What You Need (London Extended Mix)
24. Carolina Liar - Show Me What I’m Looking For (Haji & Emanuel Remix - Radio Edit)
25. Pegasus - Pegasus (Extended Mix)
26. The Ian Carey Project - Get Shaky (Ian Carey Mix)
27. Little Boots - Remedy (Kaskade Club Remix)
28. K Klass & Reza ft. Bobbi - Finally (Full Vox Mix)
29. Brad Hed - The Real Life (Original Mix)
30. Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill (Kam Denny & Vandalism Mix)
31. Lazee ft. Neverstore - Hold On (StoneBridge Re-Edit)
32. Paul Van Dyk - Home (Kascade Remix)
33. The Fierce Collective ft. Peyton - Sex On Fire (Bassmonkeys Club Mix)