James Skinner

Agile is the all encompassing word used to describe project management methodologies which are empirical.  So from the point of view of a project this means that in an Agile project, some of the definition of what will be delivered is done during the project - and based upon observations and experiments within it.   

Give us the widgets

“We’ve got to have a Twitter widget” – one of the key phrases used by web teams in 2008 and 2009. Prior to that, the best thing since sliced bread was having a Google map on your Contact Us page, or perhaps a nice AJAX-powered dynamic postcode lookup gadget. The truth is, some popular new technical tools are here to stay and others will fall by the wayside. The challenge for any organisation looking to take advantage of these emerging tools is the sheer pace at which they appear, gain ubiquity and, in some cases, drop off the radar.

I'm often asked how the Sift business came about, sometimes by clients and regularly by colleagues. So I asked our CEO, Ben Heald, to give me the details and I'm pleased to share them here.

The Sift Story

Back in August, as his News Corporation company reported huge financial losses, media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced his bold strategy for shaking up the newspaper industry: charging for content. It wasn't a new idea, of course; businesses of all types have tried charging internet users in many ways for many products, some sucessfully and others not.

Anthony Lau, founder of Cyclehoop, emerged victorious after presenting to a panel of top class business talent and an audience of 150 entrepreneurs at the exciting conclusion to The Pitch 2009, having dealt with a grilling from judges Tim Campbell, winner o

Perhaps inspired by the adoption of Drupal by The White House, the Tories this week have announced a lean, mean approach to Government IT projects should they come to power, and will place emphasis on smaller, open-source, user-fri

Our for-profit clients often challenge us to show them new ways to improve their ROI on online engagement and social media technology. It's not hard to show how improved customer satisfaction and increasing self-service can reflect directly on the bottom line.

We're now being asked more and more by not-for-profit organisations and charities to show them how their online activities can translate into benefits for them as an organisation - some of the less obvious and palpable benefits.

As we head in to the final quarter of 2009, we’re looking very busy already, so with that in mind we’re expanding the team and looking to bring in a new Account Exectutive.

The post-holder will work in the Account team managing existing clients with website issues and new business developments. The candidate will be required to work with all the different departments to ensure excellent customer service is achieved at all times as well as achieving set sales targets.

SiftGroups provide social media consultancy services and technologies to enable organisations to develop and sustain rewarding relationships with their audiences.  We work with publishers, membership bodies, charities and the public sector, enabling our clients to build rewarding relationships with their audiences, whether that’s through member retention or simply outright profit.

Our orange paint was shiny and new when we moved in to 100 Victoria Street nearly ten years ago, but we’re bursting at the seams now and so it’s time to move on. Things have changed hugely in the last decade.