We are undoubtedly in times of fiscal ruin. Whole countries are going bust (how does that even happen?) and there is an impending sense of stagflation, or worse, deflation in the air…or even relegation if you are George Dub-ya.

“…Let’s stick to what we know, then, and make cut backs: no investment for a while, let’s just ride it out…” might say a chief decision maker whom, in doing so, will ensure his business only treads water for the foreseeable future.

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A study of more than 27,000 web users in 16 countries has shown that the Chinese spend the largest fraction of their leisure time online.

The survey also showed, however, that UK housewives spend even more of their free time online - a surprising 47%.

A total of 27,522 people aged 18 to 55 years old were interviewed online by TNS Global Interactive in the following countries: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. 2,500 were surveyed in the UK.  The questions focused on online behaviour and, interestingly, also raised the issue of trust in traditional versus online media.

The average respondent in China spends 44% of their leisure time online, nearly three times the amount of the average Danish respondent.

On average across all countries, under-25s spend 36% of their leisure time online; in China, under-25s claim they spend 50%.

In the UK, a breakdown by occupation shows striking differences in the responses; students spend 39%, more than the unemployed (32%) but still far less than housewives.

As for media and other information sources, in the UK online news sites are second only to friends as the primary source of trusted information; 40% of those surveyed said they considered online news a “highly trusted” medium.

The UK was noticeably much less trusting of print media, with only 23% counting newspapers as highly trusted - roughly the same fraction who considered the Wikipedia site as highly trusted. At the top were Finnish respondents, who were some three times more likely - 69% - to describe their newspapers as such.

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An Australian debtor couple have been served with legal documents through the popular social networking site Facebook, in a ground-breaking move.

Mark McCormack, a lawyer in Canberra, persuaded a court to allow him to use the unconventional method after attempts to serve the couple with papers relating to the repossession of their home by other means failed.

The couple’s home is being repossessed after they reportedly missed payments on a loan of over A$100,000 ($67,000; £44,000).

It is believed to be the first time Facebook has been used in this way.

Mr McCormack says he resorted to Facebook to trace the couple after several attempts to contact them at their home address and via email met with no success, and their failure to attend a court appearance on the 3rd October.

He found the woman’s profile page, and used details listed there such as her date of birth to prove to the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court that she was the person in question. Her partner was listed as one of her “friends”.

In granting McCormack the permission to use the social networking site, the judge made a stipulation that the papers be sent via a private email so that other people visiting the page would not be able to read their contents, thus protecting the privacy of the couple in question.

“It’s somewhat novel, however we do see it as a valid method of bringing the matter to the attention of a defendant,” Mr McCormack said.

He said he thought courts would probably use Facebook more often in future, as long as they were sure the message was reasonably likely to be read by those concerned.

Australian courts have previously granted permission for people to be served with legally binding papers via email or even text message, but this is the first time that Facebook has been allowed to be used for this purpose.

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For the second time in twelve months much of the UAE and Egypt’s internet connection was lost on Friday last, according to France Telecom, with many reporting that performance levels have still not been fully restored.

The Middle East, Europe and America are connected by three cables, all of which have been cut, reducing internet capacity to 85 per cent, according to Etisalat, UAE’s telecom operator.

The cables, which run from Egypt to Italy and carry roughly 75 per cent of the region’s traffic, have back-ups running along side them to shoulder the burden in times of emergency and are in use at the moment, ensuring at least some connectivity is maintained.

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We’ve already given our dos and don’ts for clients who want to buy translation services, but what about those selling them? Yes, I’m talking about translators - the missing link in our business equation. Those who help us make it happen for each and every one of our clients.

Here is an early Christmas gift - just a few pointers for translators who are looking to increase their client base (and in the current economic climate, who isn’t?) by applying to agencies.

1. Your CV: Cast a critical eye over your CV. The same rules generally apply for translators as they do for anyone applying for work: anything over 2 pages is just too long. Two pages is ample to give an overview of your relevant experience, qualificiations and specialist subjects - you can keep a list of translation projects you’ve worked on separately, then it’s ready to provide should someone ask for it. Doesn’t belong in your CV!

2. Please please please send your rates with the CV. Even if you negotiate with clients for most projects - your rates may or may not be be the deciding factor in whether you will be approached for a particular project, but you’ll almost never be added to an agency’s internal database without them.

3. Only mother tongue language as target please. “Near-native” strikes me as a vague and somewhat worrying term, and most agencies worth their salt will not use a translator who works into any language that is not their mother tongue. Interpreting and other types of language work are a different matter, each situation may call for something different.

4. Email it. Most agencies won’t thank you for a printed copy these days, as then someone has to input the information into whatever database they use. Don’t even get me started on faxing.

5. Describe yourself. It doesn’t have to be long, and a traditional covering letter may not be appropriate if you are sending your CV speculatively, but do mention your language combinations either in the subject line, or the body of your message. A short description of the type of work you are most interested or experienced in will stick in the memory of whoever receives your message. Many companies also file emails for future use, so this will be a great help if they can search for the language or specialised subject they need at that time, and your message will be found easily.

6. Offer references. Better still, include a couple in your CV as standard, if you have space.

7. Test pieces. We know no-one likes to work for free, but this can be a very effective way to get particular ongoing or large projects from agencies, and also to pick up other additional work from them along the way. Most project managers feel more secure using a translator they know has been tested, even if not for the specific project they are working on. If you are willing to do a test piece of reasonable length (no more than 200-300 words) for free, you could get a lot more work from that company. Unfortunately there is no guarantee of this, just as there is no guarantee that the agency themselves will get the work.

Keep one thing in mind: Project Managers are busy, so the easier you make the processes of remembering you, contacting you and working with you during a project, the more they will want to use you.

Happy Hunting!

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Max Planck Institute Science journal mistakenly uses flyer for Macau brothel to illustrate report on China…

The respected research institute wanted beautiful and elegant Chinese classical texts to adorn its journal, which included a special report on China. Little did they know that the text they had chosen was from a saucy flyer promoting stirppers and other features of a brothel!

To Western eyes, Chinese characters look dramatic and beautiful, and have a powerful visual impact, but be careful that you know what they say before you print or publish whatever you are using them for!

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Every now and then a free web technology comes along that profoundly changes the way we work. Often it’s the simplest that have the most impact. Where would we be today without Skype, Blogging or Messenger?

Over the last few months I’ve been testing Live Mesh Beta. Impressed with the results, I’m ready to evangelise in a bid to encourage adoption among our suppliers, clients and others who embrace tele-working. Put simply, it saves time and improves collaboration.

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UKTI has earmarked the countries that will be the next big thing in terms of International Trade.

The emerging markets in Brazil, Russia, India and China will continue to be key areas for companies trading internationally, but a report commissioned by UKTI has identified Vietnam, Mexico, Ukraine, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates as the new high-growth markets.

The “Tomorrow’s Markets” report also lists Indonesia, Poland, South Africa and Argentina among the priority markets for expansion - these countries have huge potential for investors and look set to provide companies with a similar level of success and growth that has been experienced in China and India.

So, we could soon start to see an increase in demand for Ukrainian and Vietnamese, and the other languages spoken in these emerging market countries as UK companies turn their attention there. Here’s hoping!

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Talking plants are no longer the works of fantasy or science fiction - a far cry from the intimidating Audrey II of The Little Shop of Horrors, and its sinister appetite, a plant in a Japanese cafe has become the world’s first non-human blogger, claim scientists.

Japanese IT company KAYAC Co., Ltd. has developed a sophisticated botanical interface system that allows plants to post their “thoughts” or impulses online.

Satoshi Kuribayashi, who is part of the project at Keio University, says that the aim of the project is to study ways of communicating with plants, and reveal something about their internal world:

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User Generated Content exploded on the web with blogging and social networking phenomenon, but User Generated News (UGN) is a relatively new phenomenon. Whereas European newspapers and broadcasters have been slow to adopt UGN, American newscasters have coined the term ‘Citizen Journalism’ with CNN’s IReport.com, MSNBC’s NewsVine.com and even Al Gore has Current.com. Enter YouReportTV.com.

People need a voice. The BBC gets an average of 10,000 e-mails or posts in a day to its ‘Have Your Say’ site and that can soar on big news days. Although that may sound an enormous number, some 5 million visit the BBC News website in a single day.

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