The internet has proved an extremely useful tool for marketing, financial management, stock control, administration, and the like. The next stage may be the development of a new business model that challenges the structure of corporate power.

Wild-eyed techno-prophets have been predicting such a shift in the balance of power since the early days of the web. It may be about to happen – and the internet Geeks themselves are leading the way...

Geeks loved the television series Firefly – but no one else did: the brilliant combination of the science fiction and Western genres was simply too intelligent for mainstream audiences. It was cancelled after only 14 episodes.

The Geeks rose in rebellion – successfully. A vociferous internet campaign failed to move hard-hearted television executives, but it demonstrated that there was a market there. This was enough to convince the studios to finance a feature film, Serenity, based on the series. It was successful, but not successful enough to revive the television show.

There the matter rested for six years – until last week, when Nathan Fillion, the star of the series, made a casual remark in an online interview. He said that if he won $300 million in the Lottery, he would use it to buy the rights to Firefly and put new episodes out on the internet.

Firefly fans live on the internet, and take what is said there very seriously. His words have been a call to arms by thousands of well-integrated AB networkers. Within hours a website was up and informed debate was taking place about how his suggestion could be implemented without necessarily winning the Lottery.

The significant point here is not the idea of putting out a major science fiction series online – which is far from original – or even using crowd sourcing to finance a project. But here the consumers of a product are using the internet as a mechanism to try to take control of its production. It is as if a giant co-operative is being organised via the web.

To be brutally honest, it is still unlikely that Firefly will take off again: the figures do not add up without that Lottery win. This is a shame: Firefly really was a cut above normal television. However, it may have an important legacy. The First Geek Uprising, which led to the feature film, showed how customers can use the internet to generate a market. This Second Uprising shows how a customer’s co-operative to take control of a product could be organised via the internet. It may not happen this time – but it will be happening a lot in future. The Browncoats will rise again!

We blame the metric system...

Ever since British television unilaterally started measuring snowfall in centimetres rather than inches – “ten” instead of “four” – Britons have used the higher-sounding figure as an excuse to go hysterical over a little wintery weather.

The United Kingdom has been all but closed for business in the crucial last week before Christmas. There is no excuse – especially since this is the fourth time a relatively small amount of snow has caused major disruption in Britain in as many years.

Of course, there is little that can be done to help retail businesses suffering from the physical absence of customers, but there are practical steps other businesses can take to minimise all forms of disruption.

1.   Accept this is going to happen: a number of recent events have demonstrated how, as modern business life becomes more complex, it becomes more vulnerable to a range of potential disruptions.

2.   Draft a formal emergency plan, and brief employees and, if possible, suppliers and customers, so everyone knows what to expect – and what is expected of them.

3.   Train employees who live relatively near the place of business to act in key roles in case those who normally occupy those roles cannot get to work.

4.   Maximise the number of employees with access to work facilities.

5.   Keep contact details of employees, customers, and suppliers at home. This might violate data protection rules. We wouldn’t want to encourage anyone to break the law but in our experience businesses that take the practical and pragmatic approach tend to fare better than those who show blind adherence to rules that don’t serve them well.

6.   Use the internet – e-mail and websites – to keep everyone informed about what is happening.

Some employers are becoming positively paranoid about the abuse of business internet facilities by employees.

It is certainly true that many working hours are “wasted” by employees using company time and company computers to do a bit of online surfing or shopping ... or whatever. It seems that hardly a week goes past without some bureaucrat being fired for downloading pornography on taxpayers’ laptops – thus confirming our suspicions about the sort of people who become bureaucrats and what they spend their days doing.

It is quite right – and rather satisfying – that bureaucrats are disciplined for waste of resources they are given as a public trust.

However, private business can and should apply different standards. Our best advice to anyone thinking of a drafting a policy on employee use of work computers for private purposes is “Chill Out, Dudes”.

Accept that if technology is available, then it is going to be used – and if it can be used for personal purposes, then it will be used for personal purposes. Just accept it.

If you think too much time is being lost because technology is being abused, just reflect on how much time you are saving because you have that technology. Are you really saying you would rather not have it? A degree of wastage is the price you pay for having the technology – a price worth paying.

Of course, it is possible to reduce wastage by a combination of monitoring and tight disciplinary procedure. However, taking the time to check employees’ browsing histories and follow up with disciplinary measures is just as wasteful as unauthorised surfing. More importantly, it creates the wrong atmosphere in the workplace. If you show you distrust your employees, then the best of them will seek work elsewhere, where they feel trusted and valued – and you will be left only with those who need watching.

Here is a better idea. Stretch your employees. Set them challenging targets. At worst, this will leave them less time to waste. At best, it will engage their interest, so that they do not feel the need to relieve their boredom with a little surfing at work. Indeed, they may end up doing work at home, in their own time and on their own computers.