Uncategorized, Guest Blogger
Is your business model under threat?
(Guest Post: Paul Browne is a Development Advisor at Enterprise Ireland, working with Irish Software companies to increase exports, and export led jobs. A key area is Cloud and Software as a Service)
While the IIA is busy digitizing the nation this week, let’s roll back 25 years when a previous digital revolution was lapping our shores. Readers of a certain age will instantly recognize the picture of WordStar, doing roughly what Microsoft Word does today. I say ‘roughly’ as WordStar belonged to an era without touchscreen or Mice, and where users had to had to use ‘ctrl-s’ and ‘ctrl-d’ to move right and left. While WordStar users understood copy and paste to mean actual glue and scissors, it was so dominant that even as a business studies student in the ‘90s, we were expected to pass an exam in its use.
So why do you now (most likely) use Microsoft Word instead ? The answer is Windows 3.1. It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t even the first computer to use a mouse – but Windows was a revolution for mainstream computers. While there was (and still is) a version of Wordstar for Windows, when the dust had settled MS Word had came out on top.
Right now another revolution is happening as computing moves from your desktop to Cloud Services delivered over the internet. This time the revolution is bigger; Computers are more widespread, other devices (such as Mobile, iPads and Netbooks) are hooked up to internet, and the revolution will transform more sectors of the economy. It would be a pity if we digitized the nation, only to leave traditional software companies behind on the desktop.
The IIA Cloud paper shows as many opportunities as threats in this Software as a Service (SaaS) revolution. As a key driver of Exports, and export led jobs, Enterprise Ireland wants to help software companies to seize the opportunities. In the next part of the it’s ongoing SaaS activities (including the well regarded SaaS transition programme) Enterprise Ireland has two upcoming events to help Irish Software Companies;
- On May 19th, Companies can learn about how their business model needs to react to implement software as a service (Event: The Commercial Realities of Sofware as a Service). Speakers include John Appleby of SaasPoint, Gerry O’Connor of Zarion , Philip O’Doherty of eSpatial and Charles Cameron of Encore Ventures.
- On June 16th, it’s the turn of the Mananged Services (Event: Managed Services and the Cloud). Alongside speakers from Finance and PA Consulting, with be Gerry Power, Chair of the IIA’s cloud working group.
For more details of these, and future events to avoid your company losing out on the transition, sign up for Enterprise Ireland’s www.BestConnected.ie blog.
Digitise the Nation
Digitise the Nation with BlackrockVillage.ie and StreamMuseum
BlackrockVillage.ie, DundalkStreaming.com and The County Museum, Dundalk have announced details of a fresh approach to Museums in Ireland. Starting last month and over the course of seven weeks one hour show will feature and discuss aspects of life and work in Dundalk during the 20th century. The shows will be focus in the main on what life was like to work in many of the industries of the area including brewing, , shoe manufacture and tobacco; other areas of life at the time will be discussed including the role and nature of education and entertainment.
Hosted by Harry Lee, the show will feature guests with first hand experience of working in these industries and will provide an entertaining and informative glance at life in the 20th Century. According to Harry “I believe that internet radio is the future and that this is a great way of making history interesting and relevant to a new generation. We’re hoping to generate an atmosphere of a fireside conversation, making it an enjoyable experience for our guests and, of course, our listeners.”
The programme will be designed to assist schools with respect to local history studies with the preparation of a specialised worksheet dealing with each theme over the course of the broadcasts. These worksheets will feature photographs of the activity being discussed and will provide a unique insight into the dramatic changes in life here over the course of a lifetime. These workbooks will be available to download from the Museum’s website.
The project’s technical adviser, Jason McGee, is looking forward to Digitising the Nation on Monday 17th May with a live internet radio stream from The County Musem, at 1.30pm, looking at Tobacco and Cigarette Manufacture as part of the Museum’s exhibits.
“This is an innovative technology that hasn’t been used before. The younger generations are well used to using computers to find information so why not use the internet to provide a history lesson?”
More information about the content and the project may be had by contacting Brian Walsh at 042 9327056, or by checking out www.dundalkstreaming.com.
Digitise the Nation
Digitising the Nation with Kavaleer Animations
Kavaleer (award winning digital animation business based in Digital Hub) will be showing St. Audeons National School school students how digital art is created; sharing with the children how cartoons are made and inspiring the next generation of Brown Bag Productions and Oscar winning “Avatar” creators.
Date: Friday the 21st of May
Time: 3hours in the morning.
Class Content:
– An Introduction to Animation and the Animation process.
– Drawing Characters and looking at facial expressions.
– Using facial expressions to tell story.
– Drawing Storyboards
– Animating Workshop, using Freeware Programme ‘Pencil’
and
– Conclusions and possibilities for the children.
It’s going to be a wonderful and exciting day for everyone involved.
Digitise the Nation
Digitise the Nation with OpenStreetMaps
Next Wednesday evening, 19th May from 6pm – 9pm, Irish users of OpenStreetMap will be holding an information evening and mapping party in The Bleeding Horse on Camden St. in Dublin.
The aim of the evening will be to introduce the general public to the OpenStreetMap project which is building a completely ‘free’ map of the world, a map which is built by the public for the public. Huge progress has been made on the map in Ireland over the last 3 years, but we are always interested in attracting new people and spreading the word.
We will also conduct a ‘mapping party’ where we will walk around the Camden St. area with attendees. We will equip them with GPS units, GPS equipped phones and paper maps and show them how to capture information as we walk around the area. People will be recording everything from streetnames, points of interest, cycle lanes or whatever each individual is interested in. After the walk we will return to the pub and show attendees how to load the data they gathered onto the map, and maybe have a pint or two.
There is a lot of online information about the OpenStreetMap project, a good starting point is www.openstreetmap.ie. For further information, contact richard@geographic.ie.
For information on other Digitise the Nation Events, go to www.iia.ie/dtn.
Congress 2010, Digitise the Nation
Digitise the Nation Schedule of Events
DIGITISE THE NATION officially launches on Monday 17th, 8am at the NCI with the “Ditch Your Server” event brought to you by LUCEY and MICROSOFT. The IIA will be there and we hope you will be too!
It’s going to be a landmark week for the industry, bringing everyone together and anchored by our annual conference Vision 2020, on May 20th.
The full calendar of events is as follows:
Monday 17th May – Business Productivity
8am – 9.30am Lucey and Microsoft – “Ditch Your Servers”
Venue: Kelly Theatre, National College of Ireland
Officially launching the IIA Digitise the Nation Week on Monday Morning at 8am, Lucey and Microsoft want to show you how to get rid of your servers and run your business online This breakfast briefing is designed to give businesses of all sizes a practical overview on how to move away from having servers in the office and managing their business in a hosted environment. What’s possible and what’s not, what’s expensive and what’s simple to deploy. Click here for more details.
2pm – 5.30pm Cipherion Translations Seminar
Venue: Nutgrove Enterprise Park, Nutgrove Way, Dublin 14
Top Tips to showcasing your business to over 200m customers in Continental Europe. With more than 200 million customers located in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, more and more Irish organisations are looking to target these markets directly. A key factor to successfully communicate with these audiences is a translated website that effectively communicates your product and service audience. As part of the Digitise the Nation Week, learn about the steps you should take to translate and localise your website for these markets at a free seminar and clinic. Click here for more details.
1.30pm – 2.30pm StreamMuseum
Venue: Online Web Stream at DundalkStreaming.com
“This is an innovative technology that hasn’t been used before. The younger generations are well used to using computers to find information so why not use the internet to provide a history lesson?”
BlackrockVillage.ie, DundalkStreaming.com and The County Museum, Dundalk have announced details of a fresh approach to Museums in Ireland. Starting last month and over the course of seven weeks one hour show will feature and discuss aspects of life and work in Dundalk during the 20th century. Harry Lee and the project’s technical adviser, Jason McGee, are looking forward to Digitising the Nation on Monday 17th May with a live internet radio stream from The County Musem, at 1.30pm, looking at Tobacco and Cigarette Manufacture as part of the Museum’s exhibits. Click here for more details.
6pm to 6.45pm Webinar 7 Essential Steps For Marketing Your New Business Online
Venue: Online Webinar
Are you excited about setting up your new business, but uncertain how to successfully market your business online to attract more leads and increase sales? As part of the Digitise the Nation Week, Krishna De and Ann Donnelly, are delivering a FREE webinar for entrepreneurs! Click here for more details.
8pm – 9pm Webinar ‘Everybody Has A Mobile Phone’
Venue: Online Webinar
Peter Fry will be running a webinar on Using Mobile Marketing to Grow your Business at 8pm. He will be speaking about how companies can grow their business by using mobile messaging solutions and about mobile phones, past, present and future. This will include what is happening presently around the world from airline boarding cards on mobile to payment systems currently being used from mobile. Click here for more details.
10am to 11am Dublin City Council and Age Action’s ‘Getting Started’ Computer and Mobile Phone Classes
Venue: Santry Community Resource Centre Click here for more details.
Tuesday 18th May – Connectivity
10am-12pm, 2-4pm and 7-9pm Drimnagh Social Media Surgeries
Venue: St John Bosco Youth Centre
Drimnagh will be holding three open and informal Social Media Surgeries from 10am-12pm, 2-4pm and 7-9pm. The venue for this event is at St John Bosco youth centre on Davitt Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12. The event is free of charge and open to anyone who wants to learn more about any of the social media tools. Further details are available from DrimnaghIsGood.com. Click here for more details.
10am to 11am Dublin City Council and Age Action’s ‘Getting Started’ Computer and Mobile Phone Classes
Venue: Woodstock Court, Ranelagh. Click here for more details.
Wednesday 19th May – Entrepreneurship
2.00pm to 7.00pm A&A Computing Internet Day
Venue: Walkinstown Library, Percy French Road, Dublin 12.
There will be an Internet Day in Walkinstown Library, where A&A Computing will offer free demonstrations and hands-on experience in Skype, emailing and other online activities. Sessions will run every hour from 2.00pm to 7.00pm and all are welcome. Click here for more details.
6pm – 9pm Open Street Maps ‘Mapping Party’
Venue: The Bleeding Horse, Camden St., Dublin
From 6pm – 9pm, Irish users of OpenStreetMap will be holding an information evening and mapping party in The Bleeding Horse on Camden St., where members of the public learn about the OSM project and can dip their toes into the world of creating and editing the open-source data that underlies this large-scale project. Quite literally the public can learn how to ‘Digitise the Nation’ by adding in roads, paths, buildings, addresses and anything else that is of interest to them. Click here for more details.
10am-5pm Town.ie Open Day
Venue: 7 Tara Court, Letterkenny, Co Donegal
Town.ie is set up to provide an affordable web platform to all Irish indigenous businesses placing them competitively in the market place currently dominated by businesses with large budgets. On Wednesday the 19th of May 2010, the Town.ie team would like to invite you to an open day at their premises in 7 Tara Court, Letterkenny, Co Donegal from 10am – 5pm to take a look at what we do and for our staff members to answer any questions you may have. We look forward to seeing you there. Click here for more details.
10.30am to 11.30am Dublin City Council and Age Action’s ‘Getting Started’ Computer and Mobile Phone Classes
Venue: Mellowes Court, Finglas 10.30am to 11.30am.
Venue: Raheny Court, Raheny 3pm to 4pm. Click here for more details.
Thursday 20th May – Vision2020
8.30am – 5pm IIA Annual Conference
Venue: Crowne Plaza Dublin Northwood
The theme of the 2010 Conference is Vision 2020. This year’s IIA Conference will have a dual focus: what’s good in 2010 and what’s possible for 2020. It will critically assess the next wave of opportunities for the industry, as well as more immediate benefits for businesses in terms of improving their processes, productivity and profitability. Click here for more details.
7pm – late IIA and Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Awards
Venue: Crowne Plaza Dublin Northwood
The Awards, now in their 12th year, are unique as they are run and voted on by the internet industry in Ireland. 15 categories in total reflect the prolific business use of the Internet in Ireland, enabling businesses to grow despite these tough times. The Awards evening remains one of the best in Ireland – the perfect occasion to meet your Internet profession peers. Click here for more details.
11am to 12am Dublin City Council and Age Action’s ‘Getting Started’ Computer and Mobile Phone Classes
Venue: Rossaveal Court, Ballyfermot 11am to 12am. Click here for more details.
Friday 21st May – The Consumer and Social Media
Morning Digital Animation Workshop by Kavaleer
Venue: St. Audeons National School
Kavaleer (award winning digital animation business based in Digital Hub) will be showing primary school students how digital art is created; sharing with the children how cartoons are made and inspiring the next generation of Brown Bag Productions and Oscar winning “Avatar” creators. Click here for more details.
2pm – 6pm Connector Clinic Social Media Consultations
Venue: Harcourt Hotel, Harcourt Street
Conor Lynch will be giving free consultations on Friday 21st of May between 2 and 6pm. Friday is the designated Social Media Day and conor is the current Chair of the iia Social Media Working Group. He will be helping our guests to diagnose digital marketing problems and prescribe solutions based on the Connector 10C’s strategy. Regardless of the size of your business they will decide a tailor made action plan to suit your need based on your business and budget. Please email training [at] connector.ie to make your appointment. Click here for more details.
6pm – 6.45pm Facebook Marketing
Venue: Online Webinar
So you have heard about Facebook and are perhaps thinking of starting to use Facebook to connect to more customers, attract more leads and make more profit in your business? Or, perhaps you’ve already set up a Facebook Page but are not sure it’s working effectively for you? Then you’ll not want to miss this FREE webinar which is being delivered as part of the Irish Internet Association’s ‘Digitise the Nation’ week. Krishna De will be covering the 7 most common mistakes businesses make when using Facebook to connect to more potential customers and to market their business online. Click here for more details.
Digitise the Nation Tweetup Lunch
Details to follow
Heritage Boat Association ‘Live Upstream’
Details to follow
Events running throughout the week:
Dublin City Council and Age Action’s ‘Getting Started’ Computer and Mobile Phone Classes
Classes are being offered to over 55s in centres throughout the city. You are welcome to drop in and see what a computer class is like. See each day’s events for details of locations and time. For further information, please contact Robert Carroll on 087 923 1126 or rcarroll@ageaction.ie. Click here for more details.
‘The Online-Outdoor Family Quiz by PuddleDucks’
Puddleducks.ie is running an interactive competition for children. Children and families are invited to take part in an online treasure hunt which is a wonderful opportunity for parents to introduce their children to the internet in a safe, supervised and fun way. It is brought to you in association with five of Irelands’s fantastic family parks: Brigit’s Garden, Fota Wildlife Park, Castlecomer Discovery Park, Greenan Farm and Carlingford Adventure Centre. We have 15 super prizes of Family Tickets for the lucky winners. Click here for more details.
Additional Events:
- ICANDO Digital Skills Programme. For the full week of Digitise the Nation, I-CANDO.ie will make their Digitial Skills Programme available free of charge in libraries throughout the country.
Or, perhaps you’ve already set up a Facebook Page but are not sure it’s working effectively for you?
Then you’ll not want to miss this FREE webinar which is being delivered as part of the Irish Internet Association’s ‘Digitise the Nation’ week.
Krishna De (www.BizGrowthMedia.com) will be covering the 7 most common mistakes businesses make when using Facebook to connect to more potential customers and to market their business online.
Uncategorized
Welcome to Digitise the Nation with Lucey Technology Business Breakfast
Lucey and Microsoft will officially launch the IIA Digitise the Nation Week on Monday morning with the first DTN Event, Ditch Your Servers!!
Date: Monday May 17th
Time: 8am-10am (Breakfast included)
Venue: National College of Ireland, IFSC
Ditch your Servers!!!
How to run your business with no servers. Host your email, files and applications in the cloud.
Are you a start-up looking to set-up in business?
Are you an established business looking to reduce your IT costs?
Join Microsoft, Lucey & CInfinity at this joint event between the National College of Ireland’s Innovation in Business Series and the IIAs Digitize the Nation.
We will explain the benefits of renting software and were to start!!!
The benefits of cloud computing to businesses of all shapes and sizes is becoming more evident however many businesses don’t know where to start or what is possible. From start-ups to established companies more and more technology offerings are coming online to allow businesses to leave behind the traditional office-based server. Now they can move to a cloud-based infrastructure where a business rents the technology it needs rather than investing from the outset.
The conference will show practical examples of how to move your email, file and application servers online.
Our guest speakers include;
Phillip Matthews, President of National College of Ireland
Dave Northey Microsoft
Ian Lucey co founder and Ceo of Lucey.ie
Adrian Finn, C infinity
Congress 2010
We Love Our Friends and Followers
I have a little treat for you this morning. As you know, our Annual Conference takes place next Thursday, 20th May, and with Anthony Whelan and Bill Liao as keynotes, it’s going to be a fascinating day. Added to that, we have our breakout sessions from the IIA Working Groups and our extremely popular Web Clinics (which always book out, so register early), it’ll be a full, enjoyable and educational day.
So, what’s the treat? Well, for everyone that follows our blog, Twitter, Facebook page, etc. we are offering a Social Media Discount on the Conference tickets price. For 20% Off the ticket price, you can use the voucher code “socmed20“. It would be great to see as many of you on the day as possible and if I’m not too busy running around looking after people, I hope to catch some of the breakout sessions myself.
Follow these links for full details on the Conference, Breakout Sessions, Web Clinics and the Net Visionary Awards.
Uncategorized
Ditch your Servers!!!
Date: Monday May 17th
Time: 8am-10am (Breakfast included)
Venue: National College of Ireland, IFSC
Ditch your Servers!!!
How to run your business with no servers. Host your email, files and applications in the cloud.
Are you a start-up looking to set-up in business?
Are you an established business looking to reduce your IT costs?
Join Microsoft, Lucey & CInfinity at this joint event between the National College of Ireland’s Innovation in Business Series and the IIAs Digitize the Nation.
We will explain the benefits of renting software and were to start!!!
The benefits of cloud computing to businesses of all shapes and sizes is becoming more evident however many businesses don’t know where to start or what is possible. From start-ups to established companies more and more technology offerings are coming online to allow businesses to leave behind the traditional office-based server. Now they can move to a cloud-based infrastructure where a business rents the technology it needs rather than investing from the outset.
The conference will show practical examples of how to move your email, file and application servers online.
Our guest speakers include;
Phillip Matthews, President of National College of Ireland
Dave Northey Microsoft
Ian Lucey co founder and Ceo of Lucey.ie
Adrian Finn, C infinity
Please join Lucey us as we help Digitise the nation!!!!
Uncategorized
Digitise the Nation Events #DTN
This week is the big push before the first ever Digitise the Nation Week. The IIA, is calling on companies and individuals across Ireland to help ‘Digitise the Nation’ from May 16th to 21st 2010. The week long campaign is designed to showcase the power and capabilities of the Internet to the broadest set of groups from businesses, consumers, students, children to grandparents.
The week encapsulates five themes covering:
- Monday 17th – Business Productivity
- Tuesday 18th – Connectivity
- Wednesday 19th – Entrepreneurship
- Thursday 20th – IIA 2020Vision Conference and Net Visionary Awards
- Friday 21st – The Consumer and Social Media
Some of the events coming up include:
- Drimnagh will be taking part in the Digitise the Nation event on Tuesday’s Connectivity Day, the 18th of May. They will be holding 3 open, informal Social Media Surgeries from 10-12pm, 2-4pm and 7-9pm. The venue for this event is in the St John Bosco youth centre on Davitt Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12. It will be free of charge and open to anyone who wants to learn more about any of the social media tools.
- Kavaleer (award winning digital animation business based in Digital Hub) will be showing primary school students how digital art is created; sharing with the children how cartoons are made and inspiring the next generation of Brown Bag Productions and Oscar winning “Avatar” creators.
- Cipherion Translations are experts in bringing businesses global – and helping them to market locally in over 40 languages. They support organisations in ICT, E-learning, Tourism, Technology and Life Sciences sectors as they translate their materials for overseas audiences. As part of Monday’s Business Productivity Day, they want to share the steps you should take to translate and localize your website for these markets.
- In Dublin, local computer training business A&A Computer Training have successfully approached their local “Golden Oldies” community group and are showing them how to make Skype calls and send emails.
- In Cork, Puddleducks.ie is running an interactive competition for children. Children and families are invited to take part in an online treasure hunt which is a wonderful opportunity for parents to introduce their children to the internet in a safe, supervised and fun way.
- There will be webinars conducted by Krishna De, Ann Donnelly and Peter Fry.
- Tim Willoughby from Local Government Computer Services Board (LGCSB) is supporting us by allowing our members to use the local libraries to host suitable events.
This week is a superb opportunity to help demystify the Internet for everyone in society. The internet now forms a daily part of many peoples life but much of the capability from video calling relatives in other parts of the world to using social media for business are still largely untapped. We are inviting companies and individuals to organise their own events during the week, based around the themes and to reach out to people who would not ordinarily have the opportunity to take advantage of the digital world.
This is an opportunity for every one of our members to bring their skills and capabilities to the very widest audience, showing everyone how the internet can be used to communicate with friends and family, transact business to business and business to consumer. We are also hoping that this initiative will help show the diversity of internet usage throughout the country.
A specially designed site promoting all the activities taking place throughout the country is available on www.iia.ie/DTN.