Actiance, which has been in the business of real-time communication for 10 years, worked with regulators such as the SEC and FINRA in the U.S., the FSA in the UK and IIROC in Canada to help them understand what was technically possible as communications evolved from email to instant messaging to unified communications and then to social media.

FORBES: Social Media Presents a Moving Target -- 528 Changes at the Big Three

The handicraft is what separates the couture from ready-to-wear, the way opposable thumbs separate us from our less-evolved cousins.

ECONOMIST: Fur and fashion