Arsenal football club’s new Emirates stadium sits imposingly among the well-appointed streets of Highbury as a sort of monument to modernity. The club moved there from their former ground - known in football circles as ‘The Highbury library’ because of its Grecian pillars and rather fusty atmosphere.

In 2006 with the new ground is the identikit modern stadium: aesthetically pleasing, easy to access, and at ease with its surroundings. All in all it seems an apposite choice of venue for the first meeting of the government co-ordinated Convergence Think Tank, which the avid Arsenal fan and former Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) James Purnell established.

The venue captures something about change from old models to new, and manages to frame the debate in terms of the consumer, some 60,000 of whom choose to spend their Saturdays (or whenever the games are played in the Sky-dominated Premiership) there in the decidedly analogue world, cheering on the Gunners. Change, from analogue to digital, and eventually to a converged set of services and devices, and how the consumer will manage this change are of course, some of the biggest issues to emerge in the convergence debate.    

James Purnell’s good friend, Everton fan, and successor as Secretary of State Andy Burnham opened the event and outlined what he wanted the think tank to examine. He began with a wry remark about his beloved Everton’s Goodison Park, and the contrast with the corporate sheen of the Emirates before stating that convergence is something that, first and foremost, is being driven by and affecting consumers. As such when the priorities of the think tank should concentrate on its impact on consumers. It will look to encourage open markets, empower consumers and citizens and allow universal access to high-quality content. Legislation may occur as an output of the think tank but is not a direct aim.

This is Burnham’s second stint at the DCMS. The first time he was a special adviser and in his opening remarks he recalled sitting in his office back in the late 1990s imagining a future where everyone was using their TV to send and receive emails. It is a useful motif of how far convergence has come already but also how difficult it is to anticipate which services consumers and citizens will really value and adopt. 

After Burnham came the big beasts of the media jungle, among them Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, and Mark Thompson, director general of the, BBC both of whom spent time talking about issues of access for consumers and the fundamental difference between access and participation. Thompson read out a short letter he had recently received from a user.

‘Dear Mr Thompson’ it said. "I am a technophobe but can just about work Google. I googled ‘BBC’, ‘Iplayer’ and ‘Damage’ and there it was. Well done." That’s what is happening and that is what is expected, he said.

The think tank is a bold initiative by the government and has been warmly welcomed by industry. There are anxieties regarding its scope, scale and what it can realistically achieve, but to talk about the challenges this rapidly converging part of the world is presenting to consumers, citizens and government is clearly the right approach. This first session at the Emirates may have kicked off something significant. 

By Sam Ingleby, Intellect Programme Manager

This may be an unusual way to start an article, but put your hands in your pockets and pull out the contents. What do you have?  Some loose change, your house keys, a wallet or purse, probably a mobile phone or some sort of handheld device. If you live in London you’re very likely to have the small plastic card that is the Oyster: the smartcard which makes buying and using transport tickets easier.

That’s quite a lot to be carrying around, a fact acknowledged by mobile phone manufacturers who are looking to lighten the load by embedding the Oyster swipe card used by London commuters into a mobile phone, with a trial set to start at the beginning of next year.

This is part of a wider strategy from phone manufacturers to move away from only pushing entertainment functions onto phones (think music, ring tones, games and some video content) to offering more practical functionality on their devices. In this case, transport, but also banking. The Economist recently announced ‘The death of cash’ and there have been calls to abandon coppers in both the US and the UK as detractors say the coin is obsolete and costs more to make than it's worth.

To this end the Oyster money scheme has already included credit card functionality that facilitates small purchases in around 1,000 shops and cafes - mainly in the City of London and at Canary Wharf. In these shops customers can use their phones to make payments of up to £10. On top of this a number of high street banks are allowing customers to check bank balances and top up mobile phone accounts on their handsets.

M-commerce, as it is known, has not been as rapidly adopted in the UK as in the Far East where there is a very mature market, or even in Africa where mobile banking is revolutionising transactions and the transference of cash in the shape of small loans and payments. This is helping to promote growth on a continent where infrastructure provides a number of barriers to the flow of resources and money. 

So then, from lugging around a ramshackle collection of coins and cards in your pocket, the perfect converged handset could consolidate all your consumer needs into one place. UK citizens are slowly growing accustomed to cash less payment; witness the dominance of chip-and-PIN, and swipe as methods of payment. One device for all your transport, banking and communication needs. What’s not to like?

Although there are security implications associated with losing your single device, just like when you lose your handbag, as is technologies wont, this potential problem will only provoke a solution. Disposable or destroyable data cards can’t be far away as well as more sophisticated ways of locking or tracking lost devices.  Handset manufacturers are realising that entertainment systems aren’t the only additional features people are interested in using on their phones. By integrating these very practical functions on to a phone, they will also attract a different market share. Where will convergence take us next?

Amazon’s founder Jeffrey Bezos was on stage in New York this week announcing the imminent release in the US of what he hopes will be the new ‘killer’ handheld device: an electronic book-reading console called Kindle.

Whilst not as aesthetically pleasing as the iphone, Kindle is still an intriguing proposition: long and slim, with electronic ink that mimics the appearance of paper -  if not the feel - and with a back lighting facility that allows you to read in any light, Bezos believes its introduction could herald a step change in our consumption of books and newspapers. Retailing at about £200, users will be able to download books over a wireless connection accessing the extensive Amazon back catalogue of over 90,000 titles for about £2.50 a throw.

Newspapers and magazines subscriptions from the likes of the New York Times and The Wall St. Journal will also be available and in total Kindle will be able to hold around 200 books. Bezos believes we are heading for a brave new world: "Why are books the last bastion of analogue?" he asked.

At this point the technological sceptics amongst you may be moved to remember the old anecdote that describes how during the space race, NASA spent over $20 million dollars trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to develop a pen that would work in outer space. The Russians took a pencil.

To be fair to Bezos he did acknowledge what he called the ‘highly evolved and well-suited’ status of the book – perhaps not the most obvious expression of praise -  and went on to detail the dilemma he felt the Kindle presented to him personally. "The book lover in me often has asked the nerd in me 'is there a way to get the emotions and experiences I love from books, but combined with the possibilities of advanced technology?"

The Kindle cannot hope to replace the dog-eared, annotated, wine stained books that so many people keep as reminders of things past. Readers return to and revisit old books. The cover designs and the colour and feel of the pages all have a special resonance for the reader, as they conjure up the time and place of reading. The relationship that readers can have with a well-loved text relies on the physical and tactile nature of books: an electronic device, regardless of its usability or down load speed, will never be able to replicate this.      

But everyone at Amazon will know this and Bezos own professions of love for the book will make him well aware that the book is as enduring an artefact as a sculpture or painting. The Kindle then, will be a complimentary offering to books rather than a competitive one. What Amazon believe is that there is an opportunity to provide compelling content on demand over a reliable device. From the ipod to facebook, what web 2.0 has shown that if you are capable of doing this, be it in music, film or search, revenues will follow.

What is also apparent is the potential for this device to be adopted by the global jet-set or the have-yachts, as they are sometimes known. A busy business executive can save time and space and most of all, can exercise choice in his or her reading habits, when using Kindle. In this it looks like a sound offering.

A note of caution. In a world of converging, multi-function and competing handheld devices (take your pick from blackberry, mobile phone, iphone, laptop, pdas etc) is there the consumer appetite for something that however slender, is another thing to carry around? Amazon may face the problem that all other device makers are facing; you must be able to perform more than one function well for adoption of the device to reach significant levels.

The death of the book is a traditional topic for publishers and writers alike as they struggle to reconcile themselves with a new digital age. The Booker prize winner Margaret Atwood was recently in London speaking about such a death. She defended the book as the "most perfect technology ever, needing no energy source; tactile, efficient, even beautiful." They will be around for some time yet.   

By Sam Ingleby, programme manager at Intellect

Despite software and IT services being one of the most important sectors of the UK economy - both in terms of direct contribution to GDP and employment - the industry is currently poorly served by data.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) measures the IT sector as a whole. Its latest figures suggest that the IT sector contributes £66.4bn to the UK economy . That means that that IT contributes 6.4 per cent to the UK economy. Similarly the ONS says that the IT sector employs around one million people. However it does not measure software and services, which we believe account for a large proportion of these figures.

Accurate industry data enables companies to better plan for the future and take advantage of new opportunities. On a macro level, statistical measures inform policy are therefore are the foundations of government’s decision-making process. It is therefore vital to have up-to-date, pertinent data on key sectors within the technology industry.

Intellect is conducting a survey to create an annual snapshot and benchmark of software and IT services companies in the UK. We are asking software and IT services companies for help in providing an accurate picture of the industry by completing this survey. If you work for a software or services company, just click on this link to access the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=P4SPOOP9ynQ5UaT7pgCSIg_3d_3d 

and please do forward it on friends who also work in this sector. 

The survey covers all aspects of software development and sales within the software and IT services community, from staff turnover and profitability to sales and outsourcing of development. The results will be published with an accompanying report towards the end of this year. The report will be sent to government, policy makers, think-tanks, NGOs, trade bodies, and the media.

Thanks for your help with this. Hopefully we will be able to gather a comprehensive and true picture of the sector that will benefit us all.

Intel has become the latest in a line of companies concerned about the impact of email on business productivity. An email-free day has been trialled by a number of companies, to improve communications internally and externally, with some success. But these attempts to deal with email highlight a broader problem facing almost every organisation.

Email has proliferated massively over the last decade. A reliance on email is now commonplace, with some workers found to be checking inboxes 30 to 40 times per hour. Email management has become an increasingly difficult, but vital, skill, as information within emails becomes more business critical and has legal standing.

Information within organisations has also increased, as much as sixfold every year, according to IDC. How companies manage this information, whether it is email, electronic documents, paper files, and so on, is becoming an ever more important part of business strategy. Effective information management is increasingly being seen as a differentiator, adding value that can provide a competitive edge.

Intellect recognises how important information is and how damaging poor management of it can be to business. We are working with our members to ensure that there is greater clarity around the information overload debate and to provide businesses with a path to effectively manage customer and internal information, without resorting to banning emails.

At a party the other night when explaining that I work for the technology trade association and that we represent the likes of Microsoft, Sony and BT, I found myself interrupted with a story about someone's experience that afternoon of their computer crashing. Soon the others in the group were adding in their complaints about what amounted to 'buggy' software.  It was an incontrovertible reminder of one of the many impacts of poor software testing.

There are two main models of software testing. First there are widespread consumer products that will be continually upgraded and are often tested by the market. This means costs for the purchasers can be kept down and it also means that they can get new products more quickly.

The other model, used more commonly in niche business (B2B) software, is: test it, test it and test it again, either in-house or using a software testing firm. This is particularly important for software that will be business critical.

No practical volume of testing can completely eliminate the possibility of faults remaining. The overall objective of testing should be to reduce residual faults to a level that is both acceptable to all stakeholders and provides confidence that the system will support the customer's business as intended.

Responsibility for software testing should be shared between suppliers and their customers. It is vital that customers are involved as much as possible in all levels of testing. If you haven't been involved in the testing process how can you be sure that the software will definitely meet all your needs and perform to the standard you require?, Similarly if bugs are discovered post testing, and patches are issued, it is incumbent upon customers to install them. If they do not, users cannot reasonably expect software companies to bear the consequences.

Equally it is incumbent upon the IT industry to ensure that it does deploy as rigorous a testing process as possible.

The software industry contributes around £36bn annually to UK GDP. Poor testing results in a negative image of software, which in turn reduces investment in software and therefore the industry’s input to the economy. Comprehensive testing procedures not only have the reverse effect, they can also impact upon many other areas of business, and could reduce the number of conversations like the one I had.