Archive for the ‘irishblogs’ Category

Manila Rhythm at Bahay Kubo in D4

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Manila Rhythm – I’ll be there

Manila Rhythm – Bohemian Rhapsody

Fluffy Links – Friday October 9th 2009

Friday, October 9th, 2009

‘Encounters at the End of the World’, taken from the title of the Werner Herzog Documentary is the blog of an Irish documentary filmmaker based in Kabul.

Want to go on a Mushroom Hunt on Saturday? Spaces available for readers of this site. First come, first come. Contact: bill < at > mushroomstuff.com. Worth 80 quid.

This is from the people that organise an amazing foodie weekend in Asturias. Nyom nyom. Pics.

Dena’s got a new bag. Er blog.

Via Annette is a company that helps people take all that knowledge about their industry and make something productive business-wise out of it.

Cheap flights to LA. Woo.

You’re fired. Special site for the Irish Apprentice. Fire your friends.

Pics of the Deathmob flashmob.

Refresh Dublin.


Creativity in constraints.

Science Raps Challenge 2009

Science Raps Challenge is a new competition organised by the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at Univeristy College Cork and Teagasc Moorepark for Science Week Ireland 2009. All competition details can be found on http://microbemagic.ucc.ie

Growing your online business

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

The Internet Growth Alliance which I have the smallest of small parts in has come out and launched their Internet Growth Acceleration Programme which is all about teaching companies how to scale and expand and providing them with advice from people who’ve been there and done that. It’s modeled and inspired by the Stanford Leadership for Growth programme.

IGAP is exactly what so many web companies in Ireland need in order to move from being a minnow to fish to big fish and the mentors on the programme are real deal Irish and International people who have walked the walk. The Internet Growth Alliance is comprised of some of the best and brightest web people in Ireland, many of them selfmade multi-millionaires who have a wealth of information to share.

I’ve seen some negativity with some Irish companies complaining that they have to pay to be part of this, ignoring the fact that Enterprise Ireland takes the biggest hit on this and the people involved are doing this because they want to help. Thank goodness not every Irish web startup runs their life with this kind of entitlement syndrome going on.

Apply here.

Falling in Love with the Web Again – 09 Style

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

The 09 Realex Payments Irish Web Awards are on Saturday. Tantrums, tiaras and more. Oh no, that’s the Blog Awards. 20+ categories. 350+ people. Cupcakes. Great food. No tuxes. Thank yous. Mulley’s laptop bluescreening and Rick O’Shea having to improvise. Playful moods. Childish tones. Wear legwarmers. Kicking out very very late. Bloggers, Twitterers er ers, sponsors having a laugh with the nominees. People in full Irish soccer kit. A large chunk of the Irish Web dev community. Himself might call in too.

Tickets €35 each.

Cupcakes

Fluffy Links – Thursday October 8th 2009

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

New blog, least for me. Michellaneous

Playhouse just became a giant Twitter client.

Well done. Silicon Republic are profiling startups. Sign up yours.

Ah humour. Ad on Recruit Ireland for Clown Comhairle.

Irish Hotels using Twitter. Try harder.

Via James KennedyWrite to Your TD.

Aggregator for university research announcements.

Daytum. For tracking and logging all the data you generate.

Oh Apple. Blocking a health care app.

Interesting. Even with social networks, closeness is where power lies.

One point is crucial: We still live our lives in the real world. When we need someone to fix our roof, repair our car or educate our children, we find these things near our homes. We elect officials to govern us by geography. We pay taxes based on geography.

Brian Eno – And Then So Clear

EU Funds spying on blogs, social networks, forums and others.

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Wikileaks have a very interesting document on EU Framework 7 funded spy project that scans blogs, social networks, websites and discussion forums for stuff they don’t like:

This file, marked “confidential”, describes development of an EU-funded intelligence gathering system (“INDECT work package 4”) designed to comb webblogs, chat sites, newsreports, and social-networking sites to in order to build up automatic dossiers on individuals, organizations and their relationships.

Name of report:

Report on methodology for collection, cleaning and unified representation of large textual data from various sources: news reports, weblogs, chat.

Extract:

D4.1 aims to focus on analysis of security related data from websites, blogs, chats and other social medium. The project aims to analyse data related to hooliganism, terrorism and other types of crime. The AGH (Prof. Wieslaw Lubaszewski’s) team has initiated the task of data collection. This section describes the ongoing effort and the methodology employed. It does not include the actual data as this is currently being collected. The current effort is directed towards collecting data on football hooliganism and sale of human organs. In parallel to this, the Ostrava team (Mr Adam Nemcek) has also started work on data collection on similar topics.

This is their video showing their system in action. Machine guns and jackboots all the way:

It seems that there are Irish reps for security research projects like these so it’s not like the Government doesn’t know what’s happening. According to the EU too there’s meant to be an ethics committee watching these things:

As a general rule, the Commission also ensures that the most sensitive projects systematically include an ethics committee, to enable researchers to develop technologies that respect individual freedoms.

But sure, we have nothing to hide if we’re innocent…

it found me

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Usual story. Focus group, college kid asked how he consumes news and all the rest. Then he says: If the news is that important, it will find me.

It’s a phrase that’s used again and again to frighten some people and inspire others. It’s used in every JESUSCHRISTDOSOMETHING style presentation on new media. Still, there’s a growing number of people (young and old) that don’t buy papers, don’t watch the Angelus and the news after it. They find out through other sources about news, entertainment, content, recommendations, truth, lies etc. News before came from news filters like the Irish Times and Radio 1, now they come from text messages (remember Roy Keane and Saipan?), Facebook, Twitter (Michael Jackson dies, the Luas crash), Boards.ie (Leaving Cert English Paper 2) and the list goes on.

On Saturday morning I found out the Lisbon result through Echofon which is a Twitter client on my iPhone. As results came in from different count centres, the news came via people I’m subscribed to on Twitter. I don’t subscribe to news outlets on Twitter. People at count centres. People connected to people at count centres. I then watched Enda Kenny, Gerry Adams and all the rest give speeches at the gates of Dublin Castle not via TV or Radio but via the iPhone of Alexia Golez who used the QIK video recording and streaming application to broadcast out to the world.

This is not the future of news but it is a future. Alexia was also there when Seán Haughey experienced that silent protest. With newspapers and radio stations (bye bye INN) slashing costs and staff, then the general people on the street can be there when news happens and deliver it to their network without a news infrastructure. Unwashed ruffians that they are. If your network is relied on for even more news and trusted recommendations, what happens to PR, to broadcast news, to advertising and marketing?

This was definitely my first news event without ever going to a radio or reading a news website. Very much not the last.

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.