Inside View from Ireland

About social networks

I THINK INHERENT limitations exist with social software.

• Social network software feels very bubblesque.
• Connecting people through people seems compelling, but people need help with complicated tasks (finding a job, an apartment) not complications surrounding new network  nodes.
• In my experience, the best social networks are the smallest.

---

x_ref1256

Modern rural economy

KILKENNY -- I have looked at EU funding available for rural development and have noticed that the long-term success of rural areas will not depend solely on farming. Money for farming is declining. The EU wants to restructure the farming sector. It will pour money into enterprise development, marketing local brands, high tech initiatives, and e-learning links. We need to align ourselves with those initiatives.

---

x_ref101gt

You can't eat the scenery

KILKENNY -- Although Kilkenny culture continues to attract people into the area, it's largely because of individual initiative, not because of the efforts of the Kilkenny County Council. And that's a shame, because wonderful local amenities exist near the city of Kilkenny that should be nurtured. Local TD John McGuinness knows this and he calls for a review of the County Development Plan. The current plan is a mishmash. There appear to be no advocates. There seems to be vacuous vision at the very top. Some elected representive needs to wade in and start banging the drum. Last year, McGuinness would have taken the challenge. This year, national law forbids him from holding an elected position at the county level. So we have a pregnant pause.

Kilkenny needs vibrant tourism and an environment that cultivates business and industry. There is no overall plan that advocates both. There is a lot of clap-happy reference to high amenity areas, wooded river valleys and scenic landscapes. But you can't eat the scenery. It's time for the County Manager to acknowledge this issue and to show executive leadership. If he stays the present course, he condemns Kilkenny to a second-rate touristic status and he will marginalise Kikenny's opportunities in the minds of commercial property developers.

---

x_ref19

Lunch in Kilkenny

KILKENNY -- The most common question I'm asked by people doing business in Kilkenny is "Where is a good place to have lunch in Kilkenny?" I live here and prefer lunch in The Italian Connection, 38 Parliament Street. The pizzas are fast (and hot if you like Testarosa chili), pasta is fresh and chicken very filling. Carlo and Berna Cardillo run the restaurant with a cross-section of their family in the kitchen. My only complaint is I cannot get a seat during peak times even though I am a regular. It's worth a call ahead: +353 56 7764225.

---

Sent mail2blog using Nokia Communicator Typepad O2 service after breakfast in Chez Pierre up the street.
x_ref19

Firms wary of e-learning

CIPD -- Irish businesses are spending less on training now than three years ago, according to Dr Thomas Garavan of the University of Limerick. Garavan told the annual strategic training and development conference of the Chartred Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) that investment in training has fallen from 3.8% of salaries in 2001 to 3.5% of salaries in 2003.

Ireland lags the rest of Europe and the US in e-learning. Irish small enterprise simply isn't interested in using e-learning technologies.

---

Edward Power -- "Firms wary of e-learning" in The Irish Times, 24 Nov 03
Sent mail2blog using Nokia Communicaor O2 Typepad service from Chez Pierre (breakfast in Kilkenny)
x_ref153mo

Job sculpting

KILKENNY -- Hiring good people is tough but retaining them can be even tougher. I was talking to friends who will lose a star performer next year because his contract forbids him from personal development. He is happy with his job but achieves through self-growth. The management in his job imposes a self-defeating set of work practises that ensure the highest peformers cannot set foot in industry during the course of their contractual employment. For star performers, the contracts mean they cannot pursue deeply embedded life interests while fulfilling teaching duties. The constraints are the remnants of work practises scrapped by lords of the manor three generations ago. That they exist in 21st century Ireland is a damning indictment of managerial judgment.

---

More in Harvard Business Review
x_ref153

All the Internet

OPTE -- How about mapping the Internet in a single day? The Opte Project tries to do that and takes musings about spiders by Katie Holten to a totally different level. This Opte Project visually depicts a space that is very much one-dimensional, a metaphysical universe. The data represented and collected for the project serves a multitude of purposes:

• modeling the Internet
• analyzing wasted IP space
• IP space distribution
• detection of natural disasters, weather, war
• extended conversation about aesthetics and art.

Airzooka

I JUST  "snapped my desk" for an online gallery because I want friends to see how much havoc they could wreak with an Airzooka. With a little finger pressure, you can pump up a ball of air and then shoot it at paper piles 20 feet away. In one fell swoosh, I could obliterate a morning's work. How many other office distractions are there that combine scientific principles (like the Bernoulli vortex) with no power outside that of your fingers? I think I will buy two Airzookas (they cost around EUR 20 each) so we can do battle at opposite ends of the ICT office in Clonmel. Nothing works better than rubbing out frustrations on the job.

---

Richard Barkins has the "ICT Clonmel" image in his "snap your desk" collection.

x_ref350

Once in a Lifetime

EMI -- The Talking Heads came out of the New York punk scene around the time I was in jet pilot training on the opposite coast. I remember their phase-shifting on vocals, the scepticism in their lyrics, their 70s hair and no guitar solos. And I remember their radio play because it was in my ears and marked the end of the 70s. The Talking Heads' box set "Once in a Lifetime" is out in time for Christmas 2003. I should get it because its tracks mark my time.

---

Thanks to Francey/Studio Zimbra for the image.
x_ref350

Blokes with boobs

KILKENNY -- What is this? I am getting spammed about boob jobs for blokes. How humiliating that my e-mail system has mirrors. It really is time to start hitting the pavement hard with my running shoes. The cold frost on my nose is a lot less painful than spam that gets too personal.

---

x_ref350