Damien Mulley

The World Economic Forum relased their Networked Readiness Index Rankings for 2005 and Ireland is 20th. Last year we were 22nd. We’ve moved ahead of New Zealand. France has fallen back though France has a fantastic broadband infrastructure which we of course don’t have. Here is report for 2005-2006. (PDF file)

Here’s the report from last year.

DamienDamienDamienDamienDamienDamien.com is available or maybe DamienDamienDamienDamienDamienDamienDamien.com

What choices!

*Highest mobile prices in EU*
*Highest line rental in EU*
*2nd highest domestic phone bills in EU*
*Broadband uptake significantly lower than EU average*
*LLU complete failure *
*ISDN usage increasing again*

Well done ComReg. Funny how you hid the most important facts. Tranparency comes in opaque flavours now I guess.

Full details from IrelandOffline.

Bright Eyes – “First Day of My Life”

This is the first day of my life
Swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain, suddenly everything changed
They’re spreading blankets on the beach
Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am, don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I’d let you know
That these things take forever, I especially am slow
But I realized that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange, you said everything changed
You felt as if you’d just woke up

And you said, “This is the first day of my life.
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you.
But, now I don’t care, I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy.”

So if you wanna be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We’ll just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery

Besides, maybe this time it’s different
I mean I really think you like me

EU sets up online discussion forum where the EU public can give their views. Hugely underused at the moment. Go in and give your views. I’ve linked to the english language forum but there are a good few more forums for other languages.

Unsure what that filetype is? Use this site.

Sussurration – Meaning, “A soft, whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.â€?

Another Youtube et al video downloading service

Mashable – TechCrunch competitor. Competition is good. I have to say though that I’m getting quite bored of all these Web 2.0 launches. I might even unsub from TechCrunch soon.

How with proper regulation you can get broadband for all. France gives an example of how to do it. Ireland is the “how to do it badly” example.

The Guardian immerses fully in Podcasting. Woot. Their Guardian unlimited site made a million quid last year. That’s how to do it the right way. Be open enough and make money. I like the idea of the Guardian people doing a news roundup and trying to predict how things might unfold. Will they have an astrologer on the podcast too?

Newsdesk is our new, daily news podcast, where we round up the big stories of the day and analyse how things are likely to unfold. Presented by Jon Dennis, you’ll find a fresh edition daily at 12 midday

Does Paddy Power take unique bets? Noel Dempsey says his broadband targets are going to be met by end of year. He says 400,000 people will be on broadband by years end. I think not and I’m willing to bet on it. 🙂

Via scoble Boston Legals says what the Democrats and so many more didn’t. Years ago shows like Star Trek challenged and informed the world about important issues. Now a show about lawyers does it. Hooray.

Donagh Kiernan told me last night that my blog was “fluffy”. I certainly don’t take that as an insult. I was more pleased that someone of Donagh’s calibre read my blog and still reads my blog despite the fluffiness. I can’t really define what this blog is, there’s no one theme for it. It isn’t tech, it isn’t politics. I guess it is a personal blog but a certain type of personal. It’s just me sitting at a table in a pub chatting to you (the world) about whatever I think is topical or interesting. Fleeting thoughts and views that sometimes get a bit deeper.

But now that I have Donagh’s attention (Hi Donagh!) I wonder would he like to get into the conversation that Dave O’Neill started about whether now is a good time to start a business.

I just did an email type interview with a girl who’s doing a Masters on podcasting. She asked me a few questions and I sent them back but I decided I’d stick the answers up here too. Cheap content for my fluffy blog.

1)Why do you listen to podcasts? Is it because its convient as you can listen to them whenever you want? Because you find podcasts on areas that you wouldn’t find on mainstream radio?

It’s a combination of two things. Original content and I listen to them under my conditions and my control. I can listen to them whenever I want and I can stop or pause or rewind them. Far far more convenient than radio.

2)Do you listen to Podcasts on mostly your PC or iPod/MP3 player? And why?

Both. When on the move I use my mp3 player, at home I’d listen to them on my pc. The pc is the home media centre and is the store for all my media so I like to work off that. mp3 player is great for the car and planes.

3)Does the lack of advertising on Podcasts add to their appeal? Do you find there is too much advertising on mainstream radio? If Podcasts started to include advertisements would this decrease their appeal?

A lot of time I find podcasts are far too shill like and are just pure stealth advertisments. I wouldn’t trust these podcasts as a result. There are going to be a few types of podcasts and there already are. There are the corporate podcasts where the company basically talks to their customers and future customers. If done right these are wonderful insights into the company and builds a weak bond of trust (compared to no bonds previously). These are advertisments anyway and should not then contain additional ads. If they do then they don’t understand how to treat customers.

Then there’s the original content podcasts which might be like radio shows or discussion shows. They need some monetary incentive to keep going and podcasts to produce are not cheap. You need good equipment and you need a lot of time to get them ready. Lots of work before and after the actual recording. I don’t think anyone could object to advertisments on these. If you want to be professional and stay professional you need to break even or make money. I’d prefer ads like radio ads or maybe have one weekly slot where someone is interviewed (in an unbiased away) about their product and they pay for the interview.

4)Would you pay to subscribe to a podcast?

Yeah but only if the content is worth it and I think I’d have to sample it first. A good idea might be to offer a scale of payment where people can choose to pay 50cents 1 Euro 2 Euros or 3 Euros for a podcast. It’s been shown in other stories that not everyone will pay the cheapest rate and they appreciate that they have a choice.

5)Is the fact that podcasting is removed from corporate monoculture appealing? Is it refreshing to hear people talk about things they’re and you’re passion about rather than arbitrary chit chat?

It’s taking a niche show or product that might have only been available to a small catchment area and it’s making it global. This is great. Niche is good, it’s more appealing because it zones in on your specific interests. All that’s needed is for the podcaster to make the podcast findable via search engines and iTunes etc so that they can get a worldwide audience. As above, some of the podcasts will be done by corporates but podcasts encourage transparency so that’s a good thing. I’d love to see more companies doing podcasts and maybe even answering customer queries in a frank manner.

General discussions on specific areas is also good and I’d encourage it.

6)What are you opinions on mainstream radio today? Do you think podcasting will have an effect on traditional broadcasting? And what changes do you feel need to be made?

Podcasting is not a mainstream radio killer. I think radio and podasting can be complimentary and both will change each other for the better. Radio now realises that they can have an audience outside their strict programming times and are making available shows on their sites. I’d really love to get a podcast of morning Ireland, 5-7 Live and the Last Word and additionally Pet Sounds. This would be great.

Commercial radio is naturally commercial and so podcasting allows loads and loads of niche programs that I’m sure radio stations would love to have on but just can’t because they wouldn’t make money. Radio people are huge enthusiastsfor discussion so we might even see Radio stations airing shows on the airwaves but actually offering additional Internet/podcast only shows as well. I would like to see the commerical stations giving over studio time and resources for people to produce podcasts that can be offered on their websites. Radio need to start fostering the next generation of producers and content creators and what better way than to have a kind of academy taking place?

I’ve seen it all now. ..

Googling Sligo Tourism gets this result. Notice the Ads!

Googling for Podge and Rodge gets this one:

Try searches for Aine Chambers too.

Videoteque rocks. They even have a top 65 of 2005 list and you can get a torrent of all the videos. Some absolute gems in there. Go and consume.