Inside View from Ireland

No Broadband? Your Fault.

THE IRISH GOVERNMENT'S public consultation on broadband closes tomorrow. The government consultation seeks to document that "lack of demand for broadband" in Ireland is the reason why Ireland is the most developed country with the worst uptake in broadband. This is absolutely wrong. You should weigh in with your opinion now. Even if you have broadband already, you should have an opinion about your broadband choices and your broadband's capability.

We don't need no internet

THE IRISH INTERNET Association wants guest speakers to debate the question of the internet's death. In our multimedia classrooms, desktop connectivity is synonymous with the internet. When we lost that connectivity yesterday, we reverted to multimedia as I knew it in 1981--snippets, drawings and cursive writing interspersed with block letters. The result of our disconnected electronic experience effectively engaged 16 students during a full work day.

Second Schoolworks Shot

We are wrapping up Day One of Schoolworks and spent nearly 90 minutes in Studio Six at Tipperary Institute. "Voice recording was really cool. We used effects that made voices go deeper and even sound like a whale." Students recorded on-the-go with our Sony Digital Dictaphone and portions of that work will emerge later in the week. Podcast follows on Wednesday.

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Image shot by student using Nokia 9500 and published by student using mail2blog over O2 because broadband desktop service was cut.

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Starting Schoolworks

It's day one of Schoolworks in Clonmel. Some impressions: this place sucks! not really though! I really like it here and I find it interesting. should be a good laugh!

Open Note to Catherine O'Mahony

I DISMISSED A soft blogging piece¹ in The Sunday Business Post (SBP) yesterday as pure marketing hype for Edelman until I realised I was being sexist. The article deserves a response because similar items written by men have kicked up stink in the Irish blogosphere. The half-page SBP article was a rewarmed press release that insulted business readers. As a direct result of O'Mahony's failure to acknowledge the existence of Irish business bloggers, she damaged her byline and inflicted collateral damage on Edelman, the PR consultancy who graciously used her space to trumpet its "Guide to the Blogosphere" in a free placement unmarked as a commercial profile. This misleading tactic incited a rabid back channel among some Irish bloggers that will effectively correct the inaccuracies in O'Mahony's writing.

Plan for failure

I WALKED THE construction zone called O'Connell Street the week before the Orange Order marchers planned to parade down the street and wondered if Dublin City Council had planned for failure. It's a management concept that served me well back in the days that I taught young pilots how to rejoin on a leader's wing while pulling 3Gs in a 400 mph banked turn. You needed to know where your vector was taking you and you had to plan for it to fail. Organising a sectarian march was the same in my mind. It should have been planned to fail.

Starbucks Ireland

[Updated 8 Nov 07: I like the Dame Street Starbucks for a lot of reasons but wish it had comfy seating like you find in the States. That said, it's hard to find comfy seating in High Street coffee shops in Ireland.]

STARBUCKS DILUTED its marque when it set up shop in Ireland. Those expecting comfort, space, ambience and coffee at Starbucks Ireland won't find those brand qualities in the Republic because the chain has opted for a elbows-wide footprint for its guests. That's understandable in the bowels of Grand Central Station where the proprietors want to minimise comfort for the street people who try to camp out all day but for Irish business customers, Starbucks has no space. The company wants a takeaway crowd--how else can you rationalise the puny tabletop allotments in Starbucks Ireland?

Local media online

WE HAVE STUDENTS in work placement with local media companies and although the students have experience with blogs, podcasts, discussion boards and wikis, local media companies feel they don't have the time, money, technical expertise, or a business model to sustain their move to an interactive dimension.

Cat Eats iPod

MY WEEKEND will be successful if I can sort out where to relocate the charging dock for my iPod. Jack, the black-and-white masked kitty cat, has taken a shine to all cables connected to my iPod. Its white power cable is chewed in several places. The earbud leads--the €110 ER6 buds--are serrated as well. This cat destroys tech gear faster than terrible two-year-old hands.

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Tech Blogger Meetup Dublin 11 March

UPDATE #2: Podcasters in conversation with tech experts currently include Brian Greene talking Antoin O Lachtnain, Natasha Guiry, Steve McCormack, Conn O Muineachain and Tom Raftery talking to John Handelaar.

UPDATE #1: Damien has more details.

SEVERAL TECH bloggers have started a meme about a meetup in Dublin on Saturday afternoon March 11th, from 3PM to 5PM, before the Irish Blog Awards event. They participate in a rolling agenda with 15 minute sessions led by an Irish podcaster in conversations with audience feedback. There's room for 20 people in a break-out room inside the Alexander Hotel. James Corbett is talking about Feed Grazing and the Open Irish Directory. I think Antoin O Lachtnain will talk about FON and other smart VoIP tech. I'm doing Reading News While Mobile. I think Emmet Connolly should consent to an interview by a programming podcaster about Web 2.0 in Ireland. Until we get a wiki on this self-organising agenda, please spread this meme if you're interested in joining the conversation.