Happy New 2007.!!

May I forward my warmest wishes and hopes for a great 2007. Starting a New Year in a positive manner is important, and here in Virginia we have been blessed with fantastic mild weather. We are now just praying for a short time of winter with snow and ice. That's good for nature and for kids, playing in the snow.

The positive spirit seems also to have given a surge of energy to the community of spammers. My spam inbox was packed with "once in a lifetime offers", like new Chinese mopeds, loose-weight patches, performance enhancing pills or golf resort get-aways. I'm usually not impressed over the intellectual capabilities of spammers or their messages. They are using quantity instead of quality to get their message out. It's especially interesting to see large companies to whom I have a customer account, and their total inability to send personally adapted offers. Their behaviour are similar to the spammers, and they are using the brute force method to promote what they want and not what the individual customer needs.

It's all a matter of understanding information. When I am shopping, I am identifying myself through my card, and the register captures all the items I have purchased. Analyzing and building a profile over my habits could mean that a retail company could present an individual offer over clothes adapted to the current fashion trend, my taste, my sizes and the current weather. All information is available for them to create these new types of services. It's a matter of recognizing the value of data and information, and using it as the valuable resource it is.

For those who will be able to see the blessing of information, 2007 will be a wonderful year.!!