ALAN GRIFFITHS is managing partner of e-communications, the independent communications consultancy. Before this, as Head of Multimedia, he created the BBC News online site. He was Editor of Business Programmes for BBC News for five years, writing and creating television and radio programmes about business. He has appeared many times on radio and television talking about new communications technologies. He has advised the States of Guernsey, Philips Electronics, the Financial Times, City and Guilds, the Government of Malta, JCB and SkyDigital. He is the author of Quicksilver Companies: The Battle for the Online Consumer, published by Palgrave Macmillan.