Just saw this on Marthas Blog. Apparently this exhibit and project have been on display using Microsoft’s Surface technology for over a month now. Looks pretty cool and I’m behind the times as usual.

On Wednesday January 20th, the National Library launched a brand new exhibition on Kildare Street called “Discover Your National Library.” It’s a fantastic exhibit, not just because of the wealth of the collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, prints and drawings, but also because the experience can also be enjoyed online!

Check out http://www.nli.ie/discover to see the online version, developed by Martello Media.

Via Pat Phelan

You really do have to check out Chatroulette to understand what it is. It can be quite hilarious in a very highschool kind of way.

Pat has a quote from Tim Walker that describes it as:

Chat Roulette is like some bastard child of Skype and StumbleUpon

Now you HAVE to check it out…

Yes the post title is dripping with sarcasm. It refers to this article in the Telegraph which is so utterly devoid of any merit I just don’t know where to start.

So basically these guys scientific conclusions are that you can guess what someone’s like by who they hang out with, sometimes, but not with any real accuracy and only if they happen to be gay men… we think.

Wow you’re right the implications for privacy are HUGE. My god if people can know a few of the people I know and then make a social judgement they might also be able to get my bank account details or even steal my identity!!! We better make sure to hide everything away as everyone knows…

THE INTARNETZ R BAD!

Thanks guys! Enlightening…

The talk of having a Smart Economy or a “Silicon Valley” in Ireland is reaching fever pitch as the government tries to talk up recovery in hope of winning support for some of it’s programs. (Programs that will be massively damaging to the economy in my opinion.)

So I was delighted to see an entrepreneur I have a great deal of respect for, Pat Phelan, speak his mind using a simple example of why we are in dreamland about how we support startups here. I’m not sure that specific government supports are what will help though, when a whole policy revision is required. While talking about wanting to create a “Silicon Valley” here, the government has never really sought to create it at all.

What’s involved

There are a few vital ingredients to the Silicon Valley mix. Paul Graham of Ycombinator has a great article explaining it in broad terms from an American perspective.

I’m not going to go through the details of the funding issues in Ireland which are well discussed elsewhere. Most succinctly by Joe Drumgoole in his commentary on this article on Web 2 Ireland although I would contest his idea that the weather has anything to do with it. I will say though that I’m not sure the issue of cash availability is as much of a barrier as Joe believes. I believe that if more fundamental issues are addressed then the funding problems will be more easily solvable.

Getting Real

Ireland can never be or have within it a Startup Hub similar to Silicon Valley as long as it continues to have a nationalistic startup support policy.

Paul Grahams article is fantastic but as I said gives a VERY American perspective. The priority with technology hubs is the people. He speaks of 2 kinds of people, the money people and the nerds. He is of course 100% correct. What he fails to mention though, probably because it’s part of the American culture, is who the Nerd group are.

America is centred around entrepreneurialism and being the best. The idea of the American dream is a fundamental part of the fabric of society and it let’s that dream expand beyond it’s borders. This can be seen in the influx of basketball players to the NBA from China, Africa and Eastern Europe and similarly in Ice Hockey and even Baseball. No-one questions whether these guys are American only whether they are the best guys for the job.

Similarly in the entrepreneur space, VC’s in Silicon Valley don’t care where you’re from, only if you can deliver. An extension of this is the recent call for a Founders Visa to help fascilitate smoother movement of the worlds most talented startup founders into the valley. Again no one is crying about how they aren’t Americans because America loves the best, but not only that, they recognise that it’s fundamentally more important to have American companies than American executives.

The massive population of the US does mean that the preponderance of entrepreneurs will continue to be American, it’s purely a numbers game, 300 million people from an entrepreneurial culture what else could be expected.

I have as much national pride as the next guy, but do we think that the best entrepreneurs picked from around 4 million people will ever add up to the same number and quality as the best entrepreneurs picked from the US, Canada, India, Israel and other parts of Europe? Are we so deluded that we think this is realistic? I’m not saying we won’t have a few amazing home run entrepreneurs, of course we will, but nothing worth basing a consistent economic policy on.

We could have all the money in the world but as long as we are only finding, funding and encouraging Irish entrepreneurs instead of just entrepreneurs, we have as much chance of becoming Silicon Valley or any kind of hub at all as our soccer team has of becoming as consistent a performer in the World Cup as Brazil are at the moment.

I’ve suggested this to several people and the only reason given why we shouldn’t do this is fear that foreign entrepreneurs might repatriate their companies at some point along with the benefits they might have gained here. This I say is ridiculous, the cost of moving a company that has had significant growth or investment would negate any benefits to doing so. Not only that, companies tend to stick close geographically to where their investors are if we create a good investment environment for startups there shouldn’t be worries about them “leaving with all our gold”. If A Czech, Ukrainian or Indian entrepreneur has a better idea than me or can execute better than me, give him funding or a grant and let him create jobs here. As an entrepreneur I might not personally like it, but overall Ireland being a good place to start a business is a much better thing than being a good place to start a business if you’re Irish, and will lead to far better economic outcomes. We should be on a talent hunt, marketing Ireland to the world as a place to come and START your business if you are a creative entrepreneur. Not as a tax haven for large corporates with no long term interest in the country.

One social disadvantage we now have over America is the fact that we changed our Laws in 2004 so that there is no automatic right to nationality of children born here. Some might say this makes no difference, however, if I were a entrepreneur weighing my options my concern would likely not just be for myself and my current project but also for my families future. Our change away from the “Law of the land” favoured by the US means that any Non-EU entrepreneur who came here to start a business (and there are plenty of them in the States) their children would not have an automatic right to be Irish and stay here. At one stroke we fundamentally undermined ourselves as a place to start your business if you are not from an EU country. Not only that but the fact that families will not be citizens here makes it far more likely that these entrepreneurs WILL repatriate their companies at some point if they ever do come here. They are far less likely to become Irish as so many people who come here do, blending into our community and becoming part of the furniture, as Irish or even more Irish than we ourselves.

It’s not EI’s fault

Importantly I don’t blame Enterprise Ireland for any of the problems we have in our startup community. They are, in the end, only Civil Servants working within a set framework, largely with tied hands. Shouting at Enterprise Ireland DAs about how startups aren’t supported properly is about as useful as shouting at a staff member in Starbucks on College Green about the quality of the coffee or the colour of the signage.

So what could be done?

Ireland needs to implement policies at government level to attract encourage and support the needs of the best entrepreneurs in the world and if they’re not Irish at the moment then so be it. Will we need cash? Yes! but it’s useless without the fundamental principals and policies in place. Tax breaks to encourage investors in export oriented Tech startups make a damn site more sense than for investors in property companies. Companies create real growth and returns while property investment relies on bubbles for serious returns and we all now know where that leads.

Socially, my definition of being Irish isn’t so closed that I wouldn’t welcome someone coming here from India or the Ukraine to build things and create jobs and add to the richness of Irish society with their families.

I’m the son of Irish emigrant families returned home, and for me the dream of what Ireland is and can be is sharp edged, ground to a point on the millstone of several generations struggle in foreign countries, trying to get home to realise that dream.

I believe that Ireland is truly a great place to do business with great people that has lost it’s way a little. Our natural entrepreneurialism matched to our notions of freedom and opportunity, the primacy of the people and rejection of class systems can be the foundation of greatness and foster the re-birth of Ireland as an entrepreneurial hub and an economic power in it’s own right.

In order to do that though we’ll need a few politicians with the will to do what’s best for Ireland in the long term instead of what’s best for themselves. We have a real shortage of them at the moment, any volunteers?

So in case you hadn’t heard.

I’m delighted to announce a partnership between my own Hat Media events company and Loren Feldman’s 1938media. Our first project together is Audience a conference aimed at those who recognise the need to reach engage and influence audiences of all kinds, an investigation how this is changing, and a look at how new media tools and the social web are changing audience participation and interaction.

The main event is on November 6th in the Hudson Theatre in New York. One of New York’s oldest playhouses, the Hudson is a stone’s throw from Broadway and Times square. We will have a get together on the evening of the 5th with VIPs, speakers and sponsors to launch the conference as well and that will definitely be worth coming along to.

We have an amazing list of speakers from all walks of entertainment and media from large traditional media companies like CBS, where Dan Farber will be explaining his role in transitioning that traditional media organisation to the web, to bloggers like Mike Arrington who will talk about building media businesses from scratch in this technology era to artists and performers like Mike Watt a huge inspiration to musicians like The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and many others. We have a many more people with some interesting thoughts on how audience has and is changing as well. In fact we’re adding more great people all the time. Please stay tuned here and more importantly to the audience blog for updates.

If you’re interested in meeting with a diverse and eclectic crowd and share our goal of understanding how the methods we have used to reach engage and influence audiences have changed and are changing as we speak and the possible future direction of these things then please come along. We’d be delighted to have you.

Shhh… Don’t tell any one else, but you can use the discount code “audience09″ to get $100 off the price. Just keep it between us though. Loren Doesn’t know I’m doing that.

You should hurry to buy a ticket though as the early bird rate finishes next week.

You should follow Audience on twitter here

So the TechCrunch/Arrington/Sam Sethi saga has a new twist with a summary judgement against TechCrunch in a UK court because as they put it “we declined to participate” a decision I can totally understand. Dennis Howlett over on ZDnet has a good explanation of what this could mean for Arrington and TechCrunch and indeed Arrington has responded in that post indicating his reasons for not participating (legal costs) and has cancelled a planned trip to FOWA because of potential for problems. All of this is a bit of a shame really as Mike is actually a great speaker and an enthusiast for startups despite what his detractors say.

One question that no-one has brought up though is how this might affect TechCrunch Europe, that part of TechCrunch which operates (mainly) out of London. If costs (allegedly up to £50,000) and damages (allegedly as much as £80,000 according to the complaint) are awarded to Sam Sethi, does that have implications for the UK operation? Could assets be seized or operations shut down in lieu of payment?

I have no idea how the operation is set-up or what bearing it has on jurisdiction. The site is located at http://uk.techcrunch.com and so is a subdomain of TechCrunch which may mean there is no problem. But it seems to operate largely independently of the TechCrunch mother ship and I’m not sure if it has UK bank accounts etc. but would imagine it does. I am also not a legal expert obviously but it would definitely be of concern to me if I were Mike Butcher the Editor there or otherwise involved in the operation.

While it’s by no means perfect (but then who is) it would be a real shame to see the TechCrunch Europe (it used to be UK but it was recently rebranded) part of the TechCrunch operation put out of business over this.

Anyone out there have any legal knowledge that might enlighten? Or perhaps Mike himself can put this one to bed.

Update: Since I published this I’ve received a one word response from Sam via twitter saying “no”. By which I assume he means It’s not going to be a problem for TechCrunch Europe. Something I’m glad to hear.

Update 2: I asked Sam directly whether he’d ever go after TC Europe as part of TechCrunch who are a co-defendant on the Lawsuit. Sam clarified again saying, that he has no intention of doing any such thing at the moment but the ball is very much in Arrington’s court and depending on what happens now he added “sadly I can never say never”.

Update 3: It seems that Techcrunch don’t have any assets in the UK at all. “No Leases offices or bank accounts” according to their lawyers (hat-tip to @madciapka for pointing it out) in the original response to the lawsuit. So this may not be an issue at all if that’s the case. Hope it is.

A lot was made of TechCrunch’s decision to publish certain of over 300 documents stolen from Twitter by a hacker who broke into company email and several parts of Twitter’s systems . The Hacker going by the name of Hacker Croll sent the documents to TechCrunch. And in case you missed it TechCrunch’s decision to publish them has resulted in much criticism (See comments on the original TechCrunch posts)

It’s interesting then to see James Rainey today in the LA Times defending TechCrunch’s position as having acted reasonably and to the same journalistic standards that any traditional publication might have.

…despite the seamy cloak-and-dagger feel about the source of the information, it seems to me that the website and its editor, Michael Arrington, acted in good faith and were far from the soulless accomplices that some argued.

He went on to summarize quite effectively in my opinion.

In short, the website obtained information, verified its authenticity, asked the right questions about what was of valid public interest and culled the merely prurient before publishing a fraction of more than 300 Twitter documents.

To say that those screaming blue murder and criticizing TechCrunch are over-reacting and living in a dream world where everyone should be nice to each other is an understatement. Had this not happened to a company they feel some sort of emotional connection to (why they feel that connection is beyond me) they wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.

A great example of stolen data being reported and it being celebrated is the recent MPs expenses scandal in the UK. NO one had a problem with an obviously stolen hard-drive of data relating to MPs expenses being reported on. Were we so concerned about that?

If someone had stolen documents from Enron revealing their massive accounting fraud would the New York Times be wrong to publish them? I think not.

This is a presentation i gave recently to the Construction IT Alliance about networking for business and how technology can support networking efforts and help generate referrals. Interesting that while the crowd were mostly traditional building businesses they were very open to ideas around technologies that might help them.

Not so comfortable about the idea of publishing on the web. To counter those objections I proposed that they had expertise that they could show online which could actually make a customer feel more comfortable about picking up the phone and calling them. It effectively acts as a frame of reference for the customer. Which helps engender trust. (Something Chris Brogan talks about a lot)

What do you think? Is there a place for plumbers who blog? What’s the ROI? When you look for a plumber online do you just want to know his number to call him or do you want more?

I’m absolutley delighted to hear today about the Launch of Decisions for Heroes. Robin Blandford is a very smart guy and through his blog he’s been entertaining and inspiring people for the last few years and I’m glad to know someone launching such a worthy service.

To be frank it’s difficult to think of something that’s more deserving of praise than building a piece of technology that will help rescue teams save more lives.

Robin Blandford recognised that all rescue teams have three common challenges. “They have a lot of equipment to train in, massive communication logistics, and large amounts of paperwork to back it up.” explains Robin.

So what does Decisions For Heroes do? Decisions For Heroes was created to monitor response readiness, team availability, valid qualifications, and experience. Armed with a laptop and internet connection, 999 responders can record the details of their rescue operations and training exercises. The software automatically performs analytical charting, draws heatmaps, and benchmarks reports and such like to outline areas of strength, weakness, and expertise.

Organisations are granted the ability to share data and perform paperless reporting between their teams. Easy-to-generate statistics can be used to observe patterns, educate potential casualties, and reduce accidents in a community.

Robin writes for technology from his blog and in a great example of listening to what works and practicing what you preach he gathered over 1,800 rescuers from Ireland, UK, USA, Greece, and Australia to trial and shape the development of the software.

I have only one criticism. No free version. Robin has chosen NOT to go down the Freemium route which is perfectly reasonable from a business perspective. However it does create a few issues. I have several friends who work in Mountain rescue, I’d love to be able to recommend D4H to them but I can’t. Why? I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen the software as there is no free version to kick the tyres with, I’ll be telling them to check it out and get in touch with Robin but they’ll have to pay to see how it works. That doesn’t make me overly confident that they’ll give it a whirl. This could be easily resolved with a demo account with dummy data so someone can see the system as it would work.

I’m also a great believer in letting your users use your software the way they think it should be used. I think Robin may have cut off the possibility of unintended uses. Often systems designed with a particular market in mind end up serving several they didn’t intend to. I fear that D4H’s potential outside of the rescue field may never be seen. And that’s a shame as I can think of several places where this type of task logging team management would be useful. An example might be sales teams or ESB or National Grid Engineering teams working on powerlines.

Robins press release reads “Decisions For Heroes is amazingly intuitive” I have no doubt it is but I can’t testify to that.

Today Robin launched ByteSurgery Ltd. to commercialise and expand Decisions For Heroes to emergency services around the world from local fire brigade to alpine ski patrols. I’m impressed with Robin anyway and I think this is a great product. If you’re a Hero you really ought to give him a call.

Update: Robin dropped by to tell me there IS a trial version and that teams who want to try it out can get in touch directly.

I’m posting this as I travel to Dublin on the new Gobus service from Galway and I have to say I’m a fan already. Not only is it the only direct bus service between the cities it’s also the only intercity transport service IN THE COUNTRY from Galway to offer a WiFI service.

They’re also smart enough and have enough foresight to know that this isn’t an opportunity to squeeze another dollar from your customer and the wifi is free. The also have toilets on board for those that need them. I don’t know the guys at Gobus but here’s a quote from their about page

GoBus is a new coach company, operated by Jim Burke & Sons of Tuam. Jim has spent over 30 years in the Transport Business and prides himself in listening to customer requirements and being able to provide the right solution at the right price.

I think it’s safe to say that in this case those aren’t idle words. I’m not crazy about their website and I think they could have better information, or an FAQ section may be in order, but the payment route is simple and clean.

This is a company that has got the important basics right for me and improved web experience is more of a nice to have. More importantly while not being as comfortable as the newer rail experience from Irishrail (you don’t have a table and working at a laptop is more difficult) at 10 euro single and 20 euro return on top of everything else, it tops the Irish Rail(43 euro) and Bus Eireann (13.60 single 17 return)euroin terms of value for money, and in the current climate (yes I did use THAT phrase) can our public services afford to continue to offer poor services with no value add? Surely a Green government should be encouraging people to our public transport system by offering services customers want, at prices that are reasonable with added services that make them even more desirable.

Please can whoever is in charge of our Public transport hire Jim Burke as a consultant, I have a feeling it’d be money well spent.

Update: It appears I’m behind the times on this as corrected by James in the comments. JJ Kavanaghs beat them to it