I am a strong believer in the benefits of making your company operate as virtually as possible.  Done right, it can make your firm  more cost effective and efficient.

A well designed virtual operation is also far more resilient against interruptions caused by unexpected events such as the H1N1 outbreak and the recent Icelandic volcano eruption.

However, managing a virtual workforce effectively is no trivial undertaking.  This Entrepreneur.com article outlines some  strategies for getting the best out of your remote personnel.  Key recommendations include setting clear expectations, establishing objective performance measures and using technology to keep up with virtual employees.

LinkedIn is a useful tool for small-business people too and this Open Forum post discusses 10 ways your business can benefit.

There has been much excitement around the “Internet of Things” concept for some time now.  The idea is that rapidly improving sensor technology is turning the physical world into a giant information system that can be integrated into the cyber-world.  There certainly have been many movies created around this theme.

This vision is slowly turning into reality with senors, actuators and networks becoming better and more pervasive.  Real opportunities are also opening up for entrepreneurs with the foresight to build solutions around this internet of things.

Read this recent McKinsey report for insights into emerging sensor driven business models.  Also view this YouTube video of an event at the Stanford Business School called The Internet of Things: Sensors Everywhere.

BBC tech correspondent examines where the Web is headed in Where Next for the Web?

Apparently, it is going to get smarter, ubiquitous, increasingly mobile and largely cloud-based.

Social networking tools are proving to be invaluable marketing and engagement platforms for the smart small businesses which have embraced them.

This BBC report provides some anecdotal insight into how several small businesses in the US have benefited by adopting and adapting to the powerful networking potential of websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Growth in global internet traffic was relatively unhindered by the economic downturn according to a recent IT World report.  International traffic grew 79% over the past year up from 61% in the preceding period.

The fastest growth rates were seen in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, South Asia & the Middle East.  Service providers and carriers have also been eagerly building up their network capacities to handle the expanding traffic.  This should provide an added spur to businesses developing new data-intensive services to tap into this rapidly expanding market.

Since getting an iPhone about a year ago, I’ve found myself using using my laptop less and less often while on the move.  Sure, the iPhone has a tiny screen compared to even the smallest laptop or netbook, but my mobile computing needs are fairly lightweight and not having to lug a laptop around is a blessing.

The success of Apple’s iPhone is attracting host of other companies into the smartphone segment.  Besides the traditional mobile phone manufacturers, traditional PC makers are also eying this buoyant market segment with great ambition.  The devices they are creating are becoming more powerful and  feature rich.  These smarter mobile devices, coupled with increasingly ubiquitous wireless broadband networks, point to an emerging revolution in personal computing.

The BBC News website takes a look at the mobile future and examines how the mobile phone is slowly taking over the mantle as the centre of your social and multimedia experience.

The Economist has published a special report on telecoms in emerging markets – a collection of articles looking at how the spread of mobile phones in developing countries is reshaping the mobile landscape.

Of particular interest is the development of new phone-based data services which go well beyond simple music downloads and gaming.  The evolving mobile networks are also poised to bring full internet access to a mass of people in the developing world who have so far been largely excluded from the Web.  This will surely open up exciting new opportunities for developers and independent software vendors who are savvy to the needs of these emerging markets.

A $1-million prize offered by Netflix – an online movies rental service – has been claimed by a team of algorithm developers.  Netflix had offered the prize three years ago to anyone who could improve the accuracy of its recommendation engine by 10%.

Netflix, like many other successful online businesses, relies on an algorithm to predict its customers preferences and recommend other movies for rental.  Well over 50,000 contestants have attempted to rise to Netflix’s 10% challenge over the past three years.  Two teams finally managed to improve Netflix’s recommendation engine by an identical 10.06%.  Team Bellkor  – consisting of seven researchers who had pooled their resources after working independently – managed to pip its rival team Ensemble to the post by a mere 10 minutes!

Update:

As a follow-up to this hugely successful prize challenge, Netflix has announced a second contest with another million dollars up for grabs.  This time, they are encouraging developers to optimize software to predict a user’s movie preferences based on demographic information such as age, gender & domicile.   Check out the Netflix Prize site for more details.

The New York Times also ran an interesting article on the emergence of the “prize economy” where organizations of various stripes are offering multimillion dollar prizes for advances in a range of fields.

Innovation is crucial for the growth and sustainability of any business large or small.  Successful small business owners tend to be natural innovators, driven by necessity, opportunity and ingenuity.  Unfortunately, small businesses generally tend to have fewer resources to dedicate to innovation.

InnoCentive is one way to stretch your innovation dollar.  Modeled as the “world’s first open innovation marketplace”, InnoCentive uses the reach of the internet to help firms seek innovative solutions to their problems.  A company can sign up as a seeker to post their challenges or problems on the InnoCentive website and offer an appropriate cash prize for the best solution.  A network of solvers will then compete to win this cash prize.

Apparently over 400 challenges have been solved since 2001 in a wide range of fields covering technology, business processes and even economic development.  Some of these solutions have been scrutinized by independent auditors and have been shown to have impressive returns on investment and payback periods.  A big advantage that the InnoCentive approach enjoys is that companies pay for practical results rather than just effort.