A PERMISSIVE database constructed for Rother-ham Chamber of Com-merce has led to a membership increase of 23 per cent.

The company who built it, The Third Stage, is now doing the same thing for the Newport and Gwent chamber, ngb2b. Chamber leader Patrick Long is rubbing his hands and hoping for a similar boost to his legions.

The Third Stage is chaired Phil Terrett, originally of Southport, but since meeting and marrying a Welsh radio journalist, for the last 17 years he's lived at Llangybi near Usk.

From the nerve centre of the village's White Hart pub he explained to me how a permissive database worked.

But determined not to concede competitive advantage to rivals, he's promised to shoot me if I explain the detail to you.

So, in broad terms, a permissive database is one in which the provision of useful information is used to entice members or potential customers to get in touch, keep in touch and provide information about themselves which can be used for many purposes.

The commercial opportunities of this are obvious, especially in a climate of tightening legislation on spam e-mail.

But it could also be effective in gathering members' views for political lobbying.

Mr Terrett said: "For a representative body to carry weight in its members' eyes and in those it canvasses, it must be sure that what it says accurately represents members' views."

The database works via e-mail using triggers which make people want to get in touch. One of these might be using an emotive issue such as a survey of smoking in public places or the appearance of Newport's new Riverfront Arts Centre.

Because it's a voluntary thing, the quality and usefulness of the responses are very high. A permissive database is predicated on a long-term relationship rather than a flash-in-the-pan.

"At the Gwent chamber Patrick has the vision to be looking two to five years ahead and using this project to gradually improve member numbers and gauge their views more accurately."

Because chambers of commerce were one of the user groups identified as suitable for developing the database, Mr Terrett and his colleagues are speaking to scores of them across the country.

The Third Stage is an interesting virtual company with executives distributed in places such as Russia, Croatia, the US and Australia.

It was established two years ago when Mr Terrett left venture capitalist Vesta. He had been nurturing wireless-based businesses on its behalf in Moscow and Chicago.

Prior to Vesta, Mr Terrett had spent 14 years with Nortel Networks, seven or eight of these working on mobile phone technologies.

"One of the teams I led was the first to put programming language Java on mobile phones. We also worked extensively on 3G applications and services."

Looking to start up his own show, Mr Terrett reflected that most of the sales and marketing he had done in his career was through "warm channels".

By this he meant through people and companies he was familiar with. "The Third Stage was established to market products through warm channels in the digital arena."

There are a number of strings to the business, including consultancy for start-ups to be rewarded by equity, consultancy (for cash) with larger digital outfits, product development for the mobile market and enterprise solutions such as permissive databases.

"The people who love the technical side of product development are often reluctant to become involved in finding routes to market, and in these situations The Third Stage would be a perfect fit.

"We evaluate potential projects on the criteria of their uniqueness and ability to affect the bottom line or to address a societal need such as compliance with new legislation. We don't like to make a big fuss about ourselves, we like to sit just behind our customers' names."

You can find out more about permissive databases on the web at www.thethirdstage.com or email talkto@thethirdstage.com