An online discussion held in Jersey on 5 June about government's tax and public spending policies, is a great example of how e-government services can be to extend consultation to the public.

The online consultation session was held with Senator Frank Walker, president of Jersey's finance and economics committee. I was initially sceptical that the exercise would work. How many people want to talk about tax policies after they get back from work? The session, held for one hour, attracted 42 questions.

Some of them were very detailed, and people had obviously composed them before going online.

Question 41 voiced the general frustration with government waste: 'Instead of spending ?75,000 on an obelisk to the Queen, what about spending the money on a children's ward or other community project in her name? Answer: Point taken. Not however my committee's decision. See earlier answers. Regards Frank Walker.'

The obelisk came up more than once previously, as many saw the proposal as an example of the continued 'frivolous' spending by government.

The Senator agreed: 'The States (of Jersey) are famous for overspending (wasting) money on capital projects and the cavern, underpass etc. are frequently quoted,' he wrote.

The public's comments were informed and Senator Walker seemed to be an agreeable and forthright guy. You can see how a government online forum can work at: www.gov.je. There's a link off the home page to the public discussion.

A friend of mine, David, phoned me from Cowes on the Isle of Wight yesterday. He had met a man named Spud who had offered him a deal on creating his Internet site.

David's house, squished in with others on Cowes main street, is near a quaint pub. They use the word 'quaint' a lot in Cowes. While he was talking, I imagined that David and Spud had met in the pub and discussed this murky deal.

For ?80 Spud would get David a domain name and create four Internet pages for him. But there was an added twist. David also had to go to an off-license owned by Spud's friend and buy ?50 worth of booze to get the deal.

'Sounds highly suspicious,' I suggested.

'I thought so too,' David said.

I advised him to grab his own domain name for $12 from Gandi.net, so as to ensure he really owned the Internet address, and to go back to Spud and ask him how much he would charge for creating four pages.

Later I called David back. He had finished with Spud. It seems that Spud had wanted to create the site on someone else's site along with advertising.

David has now decided to learn how create his own pages. The attempt at an off-licence sale, indicates that Spud is attempting to muscle in to other businesses in Cowes. Beware.

A.M. Best Co is hosting an annual award for the best use of the Internet by and insurance company. Perhaps a Bermuda company can win one of these. But I don't know if the orange-haired Mr. Cool that BF&M has pictured on its Internet site, will appeal to the judges.

The E-Fusion Award is open to insurance companies, reinsurers, third-party technology providers working with an insurer or a brokerage or related financial services providers engaged in insurance.

The project, product or service must have been introduced or redeveloped within the past 18 months and must be directly related to the business of insurance. Completed entries are due by 5 August and the winner will be announced on September 30 as part of A.M. Best's E-Fusion 2002 conference.

Entry forms are available at: www.efusion2002.com.

Microsoft on Monday released an updated version of its Internet Explorer (IE) browser software for the Macintosh. The software, version 5.2, is available for free from Microsoft's Mactopia site (www.microsoft.com/mac).

Microsoft said the new version is better at handling fonts through Mac OS X 10.1.5's Quartz graphics engine, and better security. Microsoft is coming under increasing competition from alternative browsers, which promise faster, and better performance. This month, Mozilla, released a browser that has been in the production process for about four and a half years. The free browser features cookie management and pop-up window controls, and claims to load faster than Explorer.

Mozilla was created by the open source community, a bunch who contribute their time and efforts to produce software for the Internet. They have a hard row to hoe. Internet Explorer is used by 90% of surfers, and many don't seem inclined to make a change.

Mozilla 1.0 is available free for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems at www.mozilla.org. Other competitors include Netscape and Opera

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at editoroffshoreon.com or (33) 467901474.