Archive for October, 2009

Fluffy Links – Monday October 5th 2009

Monday, October 5th, 2009

A new blog for secondary students. Irish Student Blogs.

And Aimee has one too, only noticed it now.

Beaut.ie are having their book launch. Hooray.

Love this collection of Dublin doors and graffiti by Eolai.

DownloadMusic.ie now allows you to let Twitter know when you’ve added songs to sell or when a consumer downloads, they can let their friends know.

The Irish Hospice Foundation have a launch of their Zest Cookbook tomorrow. Bloggers are invited. Book website.

Excellent, missed this. Google gives you access to their OCR servers. Slightly buggy/laggy but still brilliant. Makes sense for Google to offer this too.

Liking the Pantone iPhone app. Pricier than most.

Hack 2 Work – hacks for design professionals on running their agency/company.

Autamata – Need You Sunshine

and then two arrive…

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

So first we have:
Get The Focal is a 12,000 word Irish language translator which can be installed on modern mobile phones including iPhones, Nokias and Samsungs. You can translate words from Irish-English as well as from English-Irish

Video:

And we also have Amhrán na bhFiann recently developed for Nokia and available on OVI.

RTE news clip of it.

What is it? It apparently is a Karaoke style application that enables you to learn the words and the tune to Ireland’s National Anthem – Amhrán na bhFiann. Sing it, know it. No truth to the rumour is’s been bought en-masse by the FAI for the soccer squad.

More of this. No leprechauns were harmed in the making of these apps.

RTÉ turn down my FOI request about RTE.ie

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

Sent this request in which was rejected because the information was “commercially sensitive”:

(a)Details of revenue generated via the RTE.ie website for 2008 and the first 6 months of 2009.

Specifically I would like details on the revenue generated via:
Google Adwords and The Google search engine interface on RTE
Banner Ads
Other advertising areas including the online shop/store

(b)
(i)Details of revenue generated via the 2FM website for 2008 and for 2009 up to the “relaunch” of the 2FM website in March 2009
Specifically I would like details on the revenue generated via:
Google Adwords
Banner Ads

(ii) Details of revenue generated via the 2FM website after the realunch of the website around March 2009
Specifically I would like details on the revenue generated via:
Google Adwords
Banner Ads
Content sales including music/videos/ringtones etc

Here’s the reasoning for the refusal:

RTÉ as you know is funded through a combination of commercial revenue and licence fee revenue. Up until recent legislation RTÉ could not use licence fee revenue to fund its On Line activities (Under the 2009 Broadcasting Act this is no longer the case). What this has meant is that up to now RTÉ.ie had to be funded entirely from commercial revenue. RTÉ competes with many other media bodies to secure commercial revenue for its On Line activities. If RTÉ were forced to release details of this activity it might prejudice RTÉ’s ability to raise the revenue required to fund its extensive On Line operations. I cannot see how this could be regarded as in the public interest.

RTÉ.ie is part of RTÉ’s Publishing division. In the Annual Report for 2009 (available on the RTÉ website) the revenue generated by Publishing is detailed. Revenue from Publishing is €14.9m. This figure includes revenue generated by RTÉ.ie.

Section 31 of the same Act provides an additional reason to refuse your request. A record may be withheld if its release might have an adverse effect on the competitive position of a public body. Releasing the information you have requested could lead to a loss of competitiveness by RTÉ as other organisations involved in the provision of On Line services would have access to information about RTÉ whist RTÉ would not have access to the equivalent information from its competitors in this field. The same public interest test applies as for section 27 with the same arguments applying.

Some Saturday stuff

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

I’m giving a talk on Monday for IBAC (Institute of Business Analysis and Consulting ) in the IPA building in Landsdowne. The slightly bullshity title is: Social networks: The foundation for long-term business relationships with your customers. 45 min talk, 25 euros in.

On the theme of Innovation yesterday and 2009 being the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, the IIEA have a lunchtime talk with Paul Garner of BT Innovate & Design, on Wednesday, 7 October 2009 at 12:45 p.m. with the title: Open Innovation in Practice

and two weeks later another one to do with innovation:
“Creativity and Innovation: the European Perspective” by Mme Odile Quintin – Wednesday 21 October 2009 at 12.45 p.m Mme Odile Quintin, Director General, DG Education and Culture, European Commission

And on BT, I blogged last year about their Community Connections scheme for groups and it’s back again now. Open to Irish charity type groups. Free laptops, broadband etc. The deadline for postal applications is 5 January 2010. The deadline for online applications is 7 January 2010

Update: More more thing.
Llama-rama
Statement from the LAMA Awards:

Zurich LAMA Awards wish to issue a statement vehemently denying any involvement in yesterday’s disturbances on the M50, involving a loose herd of llamas. Hannah Bates, Event Executive for the awards says “there will be no awards given out to any llamas, at the Red Cow Roundabout, or indeed anywhere else today. The awards are solely for the Local Authority Members Association and local developments and no matter what stunt these llamas pull, they will not be included in the awards ceremony”

Innovation in Ireland, the IDA and knowledge sharing

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Previously on the Mulley soapbox I mentioned a blogger evening with the IDA I was involved with. I’ve met with the IDA a few times and they do appear to get the idea that the group is more intelligent than the individual and the network is more intelligent than the group. Thus eminating from meetings and the blogger briefing is the Innovation Ireland LinkedIn Discussion group, facilitated by the IDA and with people interested/concerned/working in the future of Ireland contributing to all forms of discussion on current innovation in Ireland, on what other countries are doing and what Ireland should be doing.

Creative Coffee
Photo owned by torontodailyphoto (cc)

I’ve already expressed strong opinions on the death of manufacturing in Ireland and how those that moan about the demise are as bad as the taxi drivers complaining about the inevitability of inevitability. There are close to 200 members of this LinkedIn Group and more opinons are welcomed. Lots of news resources being shared in the group. Don’t be afraid to join and point to a blog post of yours if it covers that topic. In addition we need to accept the situation we’re in and move on. Too much shoegazing and concentrating on the past and all the bad stuff that was done, talking about what others have done and how we can achieve through innovation is better than writing only about job losses, I hope.

A conversation seems to be slowly happening on value added services and proper design thinking these days. I was at DIT (where Seán Haughey got that welcome) this week where some Swedish people as well as Seán McNulty from Innovator talked about Innovation as a way of saving money and increasing business. This was part of their Quality of Life exhibition. Innovation is not just about product design and it’s not about bunging money into R&D. We talk about sales focus, marketing and PR focus, maybe we should ask everyone in every business conversation about how they’re innovating?

Lisbon part two, Lisbon fuck you

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Emailed to me last night. Don’t agree with the sentiment but this guy/guys are massively talented. Fas, John O’Donoghue, Dev, NAMA, Ryan Report, Water Charges all mentions in this hiphop video.

Lisbon part two, Lisbon fuck you
We should vote no if we love our freedom

Website. mySpace. (23k plays on mySpace)

Fluffy Links – Friday October 2nd 2009

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Enjoy voting today. Shame there’s no option for “Yeah ok but you lot are still gobdaws”

On that. Brilliant John O’Donoghue poster.

Great post from Des Traynor on building a web app and then growing it and finally selling it. One of the most pragmatic posts on this area I’ve read.

Making money from twitter and people who want text updates if people reply to them. People said this would not work for bebo and they were wrong. Maith and fear AgTweet.

Desktop app to monitor your o2 bill/usage.

Asda staff member records himself being a cock, sticks video online. Asda lets their own staff respond on YouTube.

o2 are blocking websites now?

Enterprise Ireland’s IdeaGen:

A new initiative that is designed to inspire, inform and connect Ireland’s brightest innovators and entrepreneurs inSouth-East region between October and December 2009.

Good news for CEBs and grants too.

Hi, how are you? iPhone App. For Daniel Johnson fans.

General Petraeus is one badass mofo. Really. Watched too many Clint Eastwood movies?

G’wan Keith Floyd:

Pixies at the Olympia – September 30th 2009

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Debaser

Here comes your man

Wave of Mutilation – Alt version

Update: More videos from Alexia.

Sean Haughey and DIT – 100 Sean Haughey’s greet him

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Minister of State on visiting DIT Bolton Street on September 30th gets met with an interesting silent protest

Just before he walked in:
photo