Inside View from Ireland

Social Networking Scum

THERE IS A SCUM attached to parts of social networking and a case in point is Shelfari. The Shelfari service leverages social networking in a way to share books. But getting to the point of sharing titles often comes at the expense of opening your entire address book to Shelfari maggots who dutifully harvest everything with an at-sign. Then the maggots send a courteous invitation to everyone in your address book. If you open your address book to harvesting, Shelfari assumes you want to tell everyone in your address book about their service. It happened to me when using a mobile browser. It has happened to scores of people with desktop browsers. It is a Shelfari business practise and it has personally affected me. I believe it is unethical and deserves industry attention. Many industry observers believe that Shelfari has gained traction by engaging in unethical practices, including astroturfing (posting on blogs pretending to be users, not employees) and putting out press releases about how they invented the idea of sharing literary experiences through electronic social networking. By far the worst practise is the way in which they spam unsuspecting friends of unwitting subscribers like myself.

Learning from the Irish Times

JAIKU CROSS-TALK told me that my blog earned a "Blogspot" mention in today's Irish Times. John Collins reviewed Inside View through both his newsreader and by visiting the main pages here to draw some observations that have helped me affirm why I've actually lost readers since winning the 2007 "Best Technology Blog" at the Irish blog awards. The reasons are simple.

1. Writing style is clipped and difficult to penetrate. Agreed. But I've learned from Brian Greene and old habits die hard.

2. Embedded widgets in the sidebar. Some of those widgets do not load in local authorities and that means their browsing sessions can crash after visiting my blog. I don't want to shed the widgets so instead I have shed some readers who use bandwidth provided by the Local Government Computer Services Board.

3. Intimidating. I'm working on my fluffy side to compensate for my intimidating demeanor but I suspect the cuddliest part of me comes through earbuds in my podcasts.

InsideView of 3 Skype Phone

ALTHOUGH THE FIRST batch of 3's Skype phones have not arrived in Irish sales channels, I had a look at a 3G Skype phone while in Dublin and just the Skype logo on the phone is enough to suggest this technology is one of the most disruptive to arrive in the telecommunications space in Ireland. The 3 Skype phone is a combination mobile phone and Skype handset. You can make calls and enjoy high-speed data services with the phone while connected to 3 or you can use the Skype software on the phone to connect to friends by using Skype. This capability works wherever you can get a 3G signal while using a 3 handset. In centre city Dublin where I checked out the phone, strong signal from 3 is a common. From practical knowledge, I know that high-quality signal deteriorates in towns with tall terrain obstructions, as in my experience in a home tucked close to the shadows of the Rock of Cashel. Nonetheless, it was impressive to watch the 3 Skype phone at work in Dublin. In my humble opinion, this lightweight phone delivers more value for money than the iPhone.

Serving visually challenged

I HAVE REVISED the way I teach several third level modules to better meet the needs of students who are losing their sense of sight. This is often an under-reported problem, affecting people like Doc Searls. I now hand out worksheets that feature larger blocks of space for responses. If you have eye problems, you may write things in typefonts that are one inch high. I used to limit my print jobs to six slides per double-sided page. Now I print slides of Powerpoints and make electronic copies in DOC format. I am using Nokia E-series phones to read the DOC files through its text to speech capability. The E-series can zoom DOC and TXT files on its screen. The E90 has a TV-out function so it can project class  notes on home televisions. I really hope we can slot the Nokia E90 into a role where it supports learning requirements because it sells with many of the features that visually-challenged people need.

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Christmas in Ireland

YOU KNOW IT'S the giving season when dozens of people show up every day looking for "Christmas in Ireland" and they might leave without seeing some pictures of the Christmas season. I just finished approving the use of one of my blue Christmas shots to the local credit union for its annual general meeting and when signing the release form, I flicked through the shots I had stored online. I wish I had held onto my first digital camera (stolen in the Irish Film Centre) because that little Kodak would have recorded Dublin in the Christmas season a decade ago. For now, I'm linking to my most interesting Christmas shots, thinking some people who visit electronically may want to visit Ireland in person in Ireland. It's warmer here than along most parts of the east coast of the United States in December and the Irish coffee cannot be beat when in the home country of some of the world's best whiskey.

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My photos of Christmas in Ireland, including a shot from the centre of Cashel, Ireland, shown above.
The Temple Bar at Christmas.
Christmas Rush in Dublin.
Garda Band Christmas Concert
Annual Christmas Pilgrimage.

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Dopplr Coincidences

WHILE PLANNING TO GO to Dublin to meet up with Joel Spolsky and a few other people attending the Irish Java Technology Conference, I noticed Dopplr was nudged me to see whether Anthony McGuinness was good for a shout. That's because both McGuinness and I use Dopplr and now Dopplr is recommending "coincidences" for people who want to increase the serendipity of travel. I'm curious why Dopplr didn't suggest Maryrose Lyons as a "coincidence" because we share our trip info and Dopplr knows Maryrose would be at home during the time I indicated Dublin in my travel plans. If you want a Dopplr invitation, just leave a comment below.

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Paul Browne -- "Top 10 Speakers at the Irish Java Technologies Conference"

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More Control for Your Phone

IMAGINE A PHONE YOU CAN CONTROL--really control--from its opening screen. Imagine a phone that let you see whether your friends were within a half mile. Imagine a phone whose desktop you can set up quickly and manage efficiently. Imagine having a phone that can provide "access to information to users wherever they are," a goal of Andy Rubin, the developer. Google hopes to deliver such a phone by providing an operating system that others can use to set up and manage. This is part of Android, the much-awaited Gphone. Google plans to give away its software to handset manufacturers. The idea behind the giveaway is (1) software developers and content distributors will design applications for it and (2) Google will be on the ground floor of the mobile advertising market. If this giveaway succeeds, it will put Open Source code in the pockets of millions of smart phone owners around the world. Moreover, some of the software invited onto the handsets will make smartphones more like mobile personal computers. It's something I'm watching first-hand while helping a college student select the technology he will use to combat his increasing blindness. If he has a choice, he would rather take his notes onto handheld phones that can offer him zoomable fonts and that can read him documents. There are good profits in this kind of market, not only for the special user like a visually-challenged student, but also for anyone interested in getting more than voice conversation out of their mobile phones.

Sunday News

BETWEEN FEEDS, I get to thumb through paper copies of newsfeeds. It's the only day of the week that I actually turn every page of the paper and today I have discovered items from the Sunday news that will affect my life.

Map of Broadband in Ireland

A MUCH-DEBATED MAP showing gaps in coverage of broadband in Ireland is wrong. (There are several maps batted about but the one we used at Limerick OpenCoffee is one to be displayed at a Shannon Broadband seminar this week.) Where large white swaths on the map depict no broadband coverage in an area where I live and travel, I can detect the presence of 802.11 service when war-driving or even when out walking with my Nokia E90. But the map says no wireless broadband should exist. Like many people, I distrust the map. Unfortunately, some entrepreneurs, along with the Irish government, use the map to roll out service where they think they will enjoy easy pickings. As Ice Broadband is discovering in portions of County Tipperary, that's not the case.