To be or not to be ... connected

Are businesses and social networks finally getting together?

By Christian Bellavance, Editor-in-chief

We are a social species and no matter what, we will find a way to get together. When research demonstrated that people spend more and more time online, there were many who predicted the end of human interaction. How wrong they were.

People found a way to stay connected and share personal experiences with not only the small numbers that comprise their immediate friends and acquaintances but also with thousands of others. We are now in the age of constant communication via online social networks. At first, businesses were lukewarm, if not outright suspicious, of bloggers, tweeters and other social networkers, often banning access from company systems. This attitude is changing rapidly, writes Gilles Lajoie in “Social equity” (p. 22), as more companies turn to such channels to market their products and services and have direct conversations with their clients, suppliers and various stakeholders.

Accounting standards might not be as cool as social networking, but they play a critical role in the communication between companies, lenders and investors. They too have changed drastically. Publicly accountable entities received most of the attention, but private companies were also waiting for their own set of rules. Accounting standards for private enterprises, or ASPE, were finally adopted late last year and will be mandatory starting January 1, 2011. Though standard-setters have stressed that these new accounting rules are close to GAAP, there are some differences. In “What’s changed?” (p. 30), Allan Foerster and Mark Walsh highlight the most significant changes to ease the transition process. Canada is also moving from GAAS to international standards of auditing, or CAS. Readers might also want to read “CICA introduces CAS Support Tool” in our News from the profession section (p. 14).

Our Regulars section features articles on taxation (p. 36), public sector standards (p. 38), assurance (p. 40), and personal financial planning (p. 43).

In Netwatch, Jim Carroll explains that he has decided to go back to school to prepare for what he expects might be his next career (“Learning for a living,” p. 12). In Outlook, Marcel Côté stresses the importance of good reading and writing skills in today’s visually oriented world (“Reading and writing,” p. 52). Finally, in Work in process, Michael Burns cautions about talking to users to document the requirements for a new system (“How to document requirements,” p. 13).

Have a great summer!