Wednesday 19 November 2008

Blog 31 - Technology

These days there are bigger gaps between my blogging efforts. One of the reasons for this is that other people within the EBU are quite rightly communicating much more by using blogs and I see less need to write myself.

We are trying hard to keep ourselves up to date with our use of technology, especially as we have had a number of email issues recently. In a very short while we are moving towards the use of "cloud computing" where much of our data will reside on highly secure servers (indeed, far more secure than the Aylesbury office) remote from our office and available to be accessed by our authorised users from any location with internet access. This means that our staff will have much better access while at EBU events, improving the services we can offer members.

At the same time we are working hard on improving our web site and our internal use of information technology, always for our members benefit, not just for the sake of it!

Some of the clubs I go to are now embarking on the technology ladder, using tabletop technology to improve the bridge experience at club level, something that we certainly wish to encourage. In these internet times, we believe that technology will become central to the bridge playing population in the future, much more so than today, and I fully expect that the EBU will play its part in helping clubs move forward with technology.

Meanwhile, our own move forward may result in a blip or two as we all get to grips with the new facilities. If this affects our services to you, I apologise in advance, although we believe that these changes will benefit all members very quickly.