One of the issues that came up several times in this week's news was the matter of policy, as several companies and larger organizations described their efforts toward building policies.

On Monday, we reported that technology policy makers, activists and officials were gathering in Rio de Janeiro this week for the second Internet Governance Forum. The organization, backed by the UN, is designed to give those involved in developing Internet policy a place to share problems and ideas. The IGF grew out of the World Summit on the Information Society meetings, held in 2003 and 2005, and is intended to keep the UN secretary general up to date with Internet issues.

On a more micro scale, colocation provider Switch and Data reported on Wednesday that it would begin imposing new power and cooling standards on its facilities, building operations in a variety of locations to supply power and cooling at more than 200 watts per square foot.

Also this week came two examples of the growing relevance of social networking technology to the hosting business.

On Monday, hosting provider SAVVIS announced that it would provide infrastructure for Capazoo, a large-scale new social networking and entertainment project, signing a contract worth $5 million over three years. SAVVIS will provide the site with a managed IT infrastructure including data center facilities, virtualized serversa nd storage and operations management and monitoring.

Also this week, Ticonderoga Ventures announced plans to hold the Miami Social Networking Industry Conference January 31 to February 1, 2008 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The conference will cover technologies, management, business models and marketing methods suitable to the medium and the social networking business.

And, while new facilities and executive appointments are regular sights in the Web hosting news, this week saw unusual variations on each of those themes.

On Thursday we reported on a group of 11 technology firms in the US and Japan collaborating to convert an abandoned mine in Japan to a subterranean data center with specific environmental advantages. The companies say the facility will save energy by using ground water to cool equipment. They say the tactic could cut power consumption by up to 50 percent. According to Sun Microsystems, the facility will be located 100 meters below ground with an initial investment of $405 million.

And on Wednesday, Go Daddy announced that it had hired well-known domain business personality Adam Dicker, operator of the popular DNForum. Go Daddy says Dicker will work as an ambassador for domainers, providing expertise in the aftermarket, cashparking, appraisals, buy service and backordering areas.

While this week's Web hosting news contained many of the types of stories we've come to regard as commonplace, in many cases the events themselves contained specific details that made for quite an unusual slate of stories.