Damien Mulley

Google Trends. You can check the search trends for countries and regions. For Ireland it breaks it down by City!

Google Trend search for broadband.

Google Trend search for Podge and Rodge.

Google Trend comparing Bebo to mySpace. Look at the bloody massive rise for Bebo!

But as Dave says in the comments, worldwide Bebo is mauled by mySpace.

Compare UCC to TCD to UCD

Oh I could be here for hours!

Richard mentions a BBC and Reuters survey on blogs and whether people trust them compared to traditional news sources. Details of media trust survey.

The results:

National TV was the most trusted news source overall (trusted by 82%, with 16% not trusting it) – followed by national/regional newspapers (75% vs 19%), local newspapers (69% vs 23%), public radio (67% vs 18%), and international satellite TV (56% vs 19%). Internet blogs were the least trusted source (25% vs 23%) – with one in two unable to say whether they trusted them.

TV was also seen as the most ‘important’ news source (56%) followed by Newspapers (21%), internet (9%) and radio (9%).

Richard said:

I think this is more reason still to see blogs as supplementing, rather than supplanting, established media.

I’d agree with Richard on this. I think some get too excited that us bloggers will take down O’Reilly Corp and Thomas Crosbie Media. Not a chance. However I’m quite upbeat about these figures and I said as much in the comments on Richard’s post. Blogging is just a baby at the moment especially when you compare it to the age of the printing press. 50% of people couldn’t give an opinion on blogs with 25% saying they’d trust them and 23% saying they’d mistrust them. The same level of mistrust they have with local papers. They mistrust public radio and satellite TV more! That’s fairly interesting.

More importantly though to me, I think everyone should have a healthy level of mistrust of all news sources so that they’d check more than one source and on perspective on the news. This to me would make the news more fair and balanced. Also if blogging has a long way to catch up to be as trusted as TV news then good because if blogs ever reach that level I think the blog quality will be much better than TV news. You won’t get much credibility or trust from other bloggers unless you back everything you say with a few links to other sources. Bloggers in a way provide you with their raw newsfeeds whereas TV and radio do not.

I’d be disappointed if everyone that read this blog took what I said as gospel. DO NOT (fully) TRUST THIS MAN

“I am concerned that some commentators overplay the so-called ‘broadband failure’ in Ireland. They risk unnecessarily damaging Ireland’s international reputation.”

(from Noel Dempsey’s speech ‘Our Future: Living and Learning with Technology’ at the broadband conference, Galway, 26th April 2006)

Very good piece from Digital Rights Ireland on the legal rights of photographers. Good to see you can’t be made turn over your film for taking pics in a public place.

The broadband coverage map of Ireland that John Handelaar created was mentioned in the Sunday Tribune today. When you have the Minister’s office, eircom and eircom apologists complaining about it, as Bernie said, you’re doing something right. John was not credited with creating the map in the Tribune which is a shame as he did an awful lot of good work to make it work. Still, us bloggers know!

Via Smart Mobs Via Xinhuanet is news that there’ll be 60 million blogs in China by the end of this year and 100 million blogs by end of 2007. Yowzers. There’s constant talk about net censorship and free speech clampdowns in China but there’s no way such a huge web population can be policed for their content. At least this will allow the world to get a better insight into modern Chinese culture. If we could all read Chinese that is. Time to call on Ken Carroll.

Via Digg via the Wall Street Journal comes details that Al Pacino’s version of the Oscar Wilde play “Salome” has a blog and a video cast. Clever clever. The WSJ reports that other productions are also getting into the idea of using new media to promote their plays:

To attract younger audiences, says Laura Matalon, president and co-owner of the Marketing Group, a theatrical promotion agency, “You get them into the theater by targeting them where they live, which is on their cellphones and the Web.”

What I like though about the Pacino site is they are doing the Youtube idea and allowing you to embed the videos on your site, such as this one:

It’s a damned pity Apple and the like don’t allow you to do this yet for all the trailers on their website. It makes sense to have someone that’s enthusiastic promote your play or movie or book and so allowing them to embed content on their blog/website would make sense. Instead of one person going to the trailer and watching it and liking it you can have someone with 100 daily readers show it to them via their own site. Given the stickiness of sites and that the average joe still only visit sa handful of websites per day it is surely good business practice to allow your content to be distributed as much as possible.

Same goes for TV programs. Those “Next on Lost” pieces should be freely distributed too. Go to the Lost website and copy some code so you can have the content on your own site. Now instead of one site promoting Lost you have 2000. How long before we see touring plays in Ireland have blogs and videos introducing you to the cast and the characters?

More money to foster home-grown companies. From the looks of it though it seems you have to be looking for a million before they want to know you. While great that they have the cash, surely there should be money for smaller investments too? What do the entrepreneurs think?

The government is investing €200 million in Irish venture capital firms to fund emerging entrepreneurs and kick-start the development of new companies.
…

Venture capitalists will be invited to apply for the government investment, which should help them attract backing from banks and pension funds. Ireland’s three main venture capital companies, ACT Venture Capital, Trinity Venture Capital and Delta Partners, are among those expected to raise funds.

The project is a follow-up to Enterprise Ireland’s seed and venture capital programme, which has committed €98 million to 15 funds since 2000.

From the Business Post: Cheaper low-end broadband and phone deals on the way. BB and free local calls and a dedicated number and free install for €25 a month. Not bad. Might kill off timed products now.

However, it is the imminent launch of an all-in broadband and phone line package for under €25 per month, with no line rental charge, that looks set to be the tipping point for the rest of the industry over the coming months.

The deal, to be offered over the coming weeks by a significant broadband provider, will be widely available and will include free calls to any Irish landline, as well as a broadband connection.

Again from the Post: Weckler talks WiFi and the quite high prices. All you can eat cheap WiFi is needed in Ireland.

And another one from the post:

Patchy broadband service being ironed out

This bit intrigues me:

Despite the heated debate over broadband availability, the good news is that most businesses across the country can receive broadband.

How in all that is holy is 30% of businesses not being able to upgrade to broadband GOOD news? A third not able to get broadband is BAD news. 50% not able to get broadband and therefore now able to telework is BAD news.

There’s no Stones without the Beatles. There’s no Roadrunner without Wiley E. Coyote. There’s no Margaret Thatcher without the Monster Raving Looney Party. Richard misses his opposite number.