Net Visionary Awards 2008
And that makes… Wow a whole lot!
We’ve just finished counting the nominations for the Net Visionary Awards and my how busy you have all been! We received more nominations this year in all categories (especially the new ones :p) than ever before. The judges are going to be busy between now and 29th September!
So a big thanks to everyone who took the time to nominate their Net Visionaries for 2008. The free-to-all aspect of the nomination and voting is an element of our awards that sets it apart from other online business awards and really allows your internet peers to give you the kudos you deserve and for you to get the kudos you have been craving, dreaming about, for which you have been preparing your thank you speech, for which you have dry-cleaned your gorgeous guna/ tux etc.
I don’t know about all of you but I am excited about the Net Visionary awards. Can I sustain this level of excitement until October 30th? Wait til you see me in Christmas mode! 🙂
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Hi ho hi ho it’s off to co-work we go
I’ve just finished a really interesting conversation with the director of one of our newer member companies, EchoLibre*. Eamon Leonard, the company director, is looking for some people to join him in a coworking space. If you don’t know what coworking is there’s a wikipedia entry on it which will explain all.
As Eamon himself explained to me:
“Basically, it’s office sharing with a community element to it. By that I mean that participants are open to the sharing of knowledge and ideas with the people they share the space with. Typically, a coworking space is made up of freelancers from varying backgrounds and technologies.”
He had been participating in a co-working arrangement for the last year, but it’s recently been wound down and he’s since started up EchoLibre, and they are planning to move into new office space in early October.
Eamon really feels that coworking benefitted him and as he feels that it can foster creativity and innovation, he is going to make some of the office space available to freelancers – designers, developers: he’ll consider all types!
The office is on South William Street and consists of two rooms – one will be for EchoLibre, the other for coworking. Already one coworker is on board (“Web Standards legend, Ken Stanley” as Eamon describes him!), and there is space for two more.
Coworking isn’t for everyone, but if you think it’s something you’d be interested in, and you want an office in a nice part of town for a very affordable price, then drop Eamon a line at eamon @ echolibre dot com.
*EchoLibre are very new indeed and will launch their own site soon in case you are wondering why they don’t get a link!
social media, Membership, Web 2.0
A unique videoview-point
A big welcome to Videoview who just joined the IIA. Videoview create rich video marketing for broadcast online, via DVD and on television. While they still haven’t cracked the old television puts on ten pounds chestnut but they are offering packages to suit all budgets, which allows any size company to avail of their interactive solutions for TV/Broadcast, Web Video, and DVD production.
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Don’t come crying to me…
Generally I’m a very sympathetic type of person. However, please don’t come crying to me when the Irish owned website/ digital company/ entrepreneur/ innovator you absolutely love and recommend to everyone you meet isn’t in the shortlist if you didn’t nominate them. Expect me to say, “Well did you nominate them?” and not a word more on the matter. (If you did nominate them and the judges don’t shortlist them, I’m staying out of it 🙂 You can download the rules from www.netvisionary.ie)
Don’t leave it up to someone else. Get involved and make sure those who deserve an award, get a chance to compete when voting opens on September 29th.
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Omniserve join the IIA
Welcome to the IIA’s newest member company, Omniserve. Omniserve provides starter websites for small businesses. Using their unique “Rapid Creation Process” they claim that they can get a small business live on the net with a 5 page website and appearing in Google for searches for their company name in just 60 minutes.
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Today I will mostly be using Chrome
On the 1st September last Google launched Chrome, their take on the web browser. Their motivation according to their graphical (though somewhat previous) press release was that browsers today are simply a conduit for most people to get at the web applications they are using online like email, photo applications, colloboration applications, customer relationship management and tracking application to give some enterprise oriented examples. Therefore browsers should be stripped down and fast, fast, fast.
I had some initial difficulties installing Chrome on Vista (solved by saving then installing rather than running the install directly.) Although I found a number of queries from other users on Google Help Forums having the exact same issue, I couldn’t find a fix. I have it installed now and like many others I miss my add ons that I have installed in my IE and Firefox browsers most especially and surprisingly my Google toolbar!
I will collate some other more knowledgable reviews and post links here but I would love to read or link to your reaction to Chrome so please leave comments below. In terms of doing business on the web, while the figures still have to come in on the take up of Chrome, there is no harm in checking that your own site or sites for which you are responsible work in Chrome. I have no doubt that Google have a cunning plan to get us all on Chrome sooner rather than later!
Uncategorized, Net Visionary Awards 2008
Four days left to nominate Net Visionaries
In case you didn’t get today’s IIA Event Alert I want to remind you that there are only four days left to nominate your favourite business people, companies and organisations for the IIA & Enterpise Ireland Net Visionary Awards. I blogged previously about all the categories but you can also peruse the list and nominate right from there on the Net Visionary microsite. A couple of pointers that you may not have known:
- You can nominate more than once in all categories so if you think a number of companies deserve an award as Best Online Exporter, for example, nominate them all!
Just in case you are concerned about being nominated (and sure why would you be!) you can nominate yourself! Alternatively add the “Nominate Us” graphic on the right to your own site to remind your visitors. Right-click the image and choose ‘Save Image As…’ (on the Mac you can Ctrl+Click and save the image from the context menu) and point it to http://www.iia.ie/net-visionary/nominate/ and watch the nominations roll in!
- Nominate your clients/ customers – it’s a great way to acknowledge that you think they are doing a great job on the project you helped them to develop. You can bask in the reflected glory and they might even invite you along to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham by way of thanks. A win-win situation!
You don’t have to be a member of the IIA to nominate or be nominated so make sure your opinion is heard and nominate today!
blogging, social media, podcast, corporate branding, user experience, Web 2.0
Kilkenny here I (IA) come
I have my bed bagsed in my brother’s place in Kilkenny. I look forward to seeing you at PodCamp Ireland if you are going. The excitement is mounting, not least because of the organisers’ use of social media to attract attention. I’ve been listening to their podcasts, for example, and I think that Krishna De’s interview from last week’s podcast with Michele Neylon of Blacknight Solutions has some great pointers for those planning their domain name purchases, especially if you are considering buying a second-hand domain. Also on the show, winner of Best Personal Blogger in last year’s Irish Blog Awards, Grannymar, talks about her experience of starting a blog, giving some very good pointers on the essence of blogs, saying that some days she might only write two lines or post a photo and other days she might do more. As Krishna herself says Grannymar is an inspiration not least because she tells listeners to just go for it and commenters to get involved, “they are the lifeblood of any blog”. Even though hers is a personl blog, much that she has to say holds true for anyone considering starting a business blog. You can listen here at BlogTalkRadio (no fancy players required!). PodCampIreland are making use of all types of new and social media like RSS and blogs and microblogs and of course podcasts to facilitate the varied audience they have. Most of their content is published once but received by many in “the flavour” they like and much of it is done using free or cost-effective online applications.
Speaking of considering starting a business blog, one of our members has recently taken the plunge and considering the summer we have had here in Ireland I am amazed they had the time. Aedan and Suzanne Ryan are the people behind PuddleDucks, a company who sell waterproof clothing for adults and children. Aedan commented that he was much inspired by what he heard at the IIA Congress back in May about how organisations big and small were using Social Media to engage with their customers. I particularly liked their timely post a couple of weeks ago about getting kitted out for Electric Picnic.
Another company who are getting really into social media recently are IIA members, FBD.ie. You may have read on the IIA.ie website that they have just launched their new site. Part of their marketing campaign involved Twitter, including an advance launch of their site to Twitterers. They are also actively seeking comments from bloggers and twitterers and are engaging with them. Other IIA members using Twitter are the aforemnetioned Blacknight Solutions for whom it is, as they, a no-brainer with the profile of their clients. Two other IIA members, The Irish Times and RTÉ are also on Twitter but rather than using Twitter to start a conversation, they are using it to facilitate Twitterers who want regular news updates. RTÉ are feeding each of their news types through different twitter channels using the RSS feeds from their site.
The great thing about Twitter for a company like FBD, for example, is that they can approach those who twitter and if the Twitterer wants to, they can choose to allow FBD to follow them or not and conversely they can choose to follow FBD or not. It’s all about permission so it suits both parties very well. I have to admit that when setting my own ground rules for the IIA Twitter I decided that I would not follow anyone unless they followed IIA becuase I did not wish to be intrusive. I had, as I have mentioned before, been twittering in a personal capacity for some time and many of those following me were happy to follow the IIA tweets as well. I suppose the single greatest thing about Twitter and other microblogging platforms is that they allow users who aren’t constantly in front of a computer remain connected through their mobile phone by either updating via text, receiving updates by text or if the user has mobile internet capability on their phone a third party application can often be installed to microblog from your phone. I use Twibble on my Nokia E51 and I also have a Twitterfone account (Twitterfone was developed by Irish company Maxroam) which allows me to leave voice messages that are converted into text, ready for Twitter. I also use TwitPic which allows me to send photos from my phone by SMS. So for example I was able to twitter the Liffey Swim last Saturday. Great fun no doubt but imagine you were able to show the world your latest product the minute it arrived? Or twitter pictures of new staff so people would know them? Or a picture of your exhibition stand at a conference so people would know exactly what to look for? (Let’s hear how you are using these applications in your business: leave a comment below.) The name of the game is facilitation and developers are creating all sorts of web and mobile applications for all sorts of platforms to facilitate users and business users can mix and match their social media to create a mix to suit their customer base. While I wonder about the longevity of Twitter’s tenure as a killer app, I find Twitter can be a good source of information, feedback and every now and then, great entertainment and I just hope others feel the same way about our Tweets!
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Roseanne on the Raidió
If you enjoy reading my writing you might like to hear what I sound like too. Tonight Dubliners can hear me on Raidió na Life between 8pm and 9pm and tomorrow the whole Irish nation can hear me on Splanc on Newstalk 106 with Daragh Ó Tuama between 10 and 10.30pm. As this is the first year that the IIA & Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Awards include the category “Best Online Business Use of Irish” I am delighted that the Irish Language media are showing an interest. I also appreciate this opportunity to make sure the people with whom these businesses are doing business are making the nominations i.e. the Irish Language community. It would be a great honour to win this award as it is the only award for those businesses using the Irish Language online as a business or communication tool.
And yes both programmes will be in Irish so I better go and brush up on my terminology. Mobile Innovation as Gaeilge anyone?
Má taitníonn mo chuid scríobhneoireachta libh gach seans go mbeidh spéis agaibh éisteacht liom freisin. Anocht beidh deis ag pobal Átha Cliath éisteacht liom ar Raidió na Life idir 8i.n. agus 9i.n. agus oíche amárach agus beidh mé ar Splanc Newstalk 106 le Daragh Ó Tuama idir 10 agus 10.30i.n. Os rud é go b’é i mbliana an chéad bhliain ina bhfuil an catagóir “Úsáid is fearr de Ghaeilge sa Ghnó ar line” san áireamh i nGradaim Net Visionary an IIA & Enterpise Ireland tá lúcháir orm go bhfuil na meáin Gaeilge ag cur spéise ann. Is mór liom freisin an deis cinntiú go b’iad siúd atá ag déanamh gnó trí Ghaeilge atá ag ainmniú na comhlachtaí seo .i. pobal na Gaeilge. Onóir mór a bheadh ann an duais seo a bhuachaint ó is é an t-aon duais do chomhlachtaí atá ag úsáid Gaeilge are líne mar uirlis ghnó nó chumarsáide.
Agus ar ndóigh beidh an dá chlár i nGaeilge agus mar sin beidh orm snas a chur ar mo thearmaíocht. Cad é bhur mbarúil ar nuálacht soghluaiste???
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15 minutes of fame is like so ’68
Welcome to the IIA’s newest members Life on Media. Based in Galway, they offer clients a branded news TV service which their clients can display online, on screens or on devices. With scaled packages of up to 24 programmes Life on Media are certainly raising the bar on Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame! One of their suggestions for use is as staff training or updates via the company intranet which is a novel way to make company announcements more arresting.