Uncategorized
Commentary on Government’s Consultation Paper on Next Generation Broadband
Firstly feedback on some of the Government Commitments:
1. A breakdown of the €435M would be necessary before any judgement can be made on it’s relevance. Across 7 years this is €62M a year – a very small amount in the context of investment in other essential infrastructure. If this includes planned investment in Metropolitan Area Networks(MAN’s), the National Broadband Scheme and Broadband to Schools then there will be little left over for anything else.
2. This pledge of universal access does not address the cost issue for people not serviced by more than one provider. It is difficult to see this happening by 2010 given the probable need to build out infrastructure to support it. And the speed target of 2012 of being equal to “comparator EU regions” is unambitious – do we not want to establish leadership in this area?
3. This aim is meaningless for the majority of schools who do not fall within the HEANet/MAN infrastructure that will be used to deliver this. How is it proposed to deliver a 100Mbits to those schools? And phased means forever and ever ( or never).
This announcement happens 2 weeks after 18 school ICT advisers around the country were told by the Department of Education that they are being sent back to their classrooms from their secondment and coincides with the ongoing absence of the National Development Plan Schools ICT strategy (announced by the Government in February 2007). Is the intended €252m investment under the Schools ICT plan now part of the €435M?
www.independent.ie/national-news/cutbacks-bite-as-advisers-sent-back-to-classrooms-1421257.html
4. Value for money is vital – but must be balanced against the need for intervention in an area which is speculative – in the same way that we invested in our education system in the 60’s and 70’s which reaped long term benefits in the Celtic Tiger era.
5. Hard to tell what this means.
6. The commitments on backhaul mean that the Minister will have to establish an organisation (another quango?) which either facilitates negotiations with a multiplicity of semi-state bodies or instead takes a direct interest in elements of their assets. It would be optimistic to say that could be hideously slow.
9. This statement is meaningless without some indication of what exactly is meant by it. Is the Minister going to make fundamental changes to the procedures followed, and responsibilities held, by existing purchasing sections across all Departments?
Feedback on other areas of the document:
It is worth noting that a number of the commitments will mean substantial initiatives being driven from this Department. This is the same Department which lacks the basic manpower necessary to administer the National Broadband Scheme – this information was obtained by the Irish Times and also Damien Mulley using Fredom Of Information.
From the documents obtained:
“Various recent developments have given rise to extreme pressure on existing staff within my area . . . again, due to the existing bar on recruitment of new resources to the department, I have no civil servant working on the National Broadband Scheme.” – January 2008 memo from Mr Spratt to Assistant Secretary Peter O’Neill and human resources department requesting additional resources
In a section on Potential Uses of next generation broadband (Page 6) the issue of demand stimulation is covered. However there is no mention of the build out of Government/State services here (although it is referred to on Page 41). This is a tricky area and again would mean leadership being shown and a need for cross-Department cooperation.
The section on International NGN developments is interesting in that it does not include any reference to the existing European NGN networks in Scandinavia (maybe because they have a lower population density than Ireland and thus would not suit the case being made here?).
In addition only passing reference is made to the fact that in many countries who are world leaders in this area (Japan is named here) their broadband policies are only a small part of their overall ICT development policies so that they have a strong context.
Unfortunately in Ireland we appear to be developing the broadband plan first and the ICT plan (from which the broadband plan should be taken) second.
In the NGN developments in Ireland section (Page 21) there is an telling omission. At the end of the third paragraph it says: “This strategy of focussing on the residential market appears to reflect the fact that, in general, the requirements of large corporate users are adequately addressed through existing market mechanisms”.
Although this is merely commentary on the marketplace where are the small to medium businesses in all of this? They make up over 97% of our businesses and employ more than half of our private sector work force and yet do not have access to the broadband services available to large corporates. They make do with barely ramped up domestic offerings coupled with indifferent customer service.
This is a market failure and it is not explicitly addressed here.
The section which analyses the Possible Government policy approaches (Page 33) appears to make sense. However the context here is the budget of €435M available – this does not actually allow for Approach 1 (direct Government support) to be considered as a option on cost grounds so it is little surprise that it is discounted in favour of “providing a competitive environment to spur innovation and investment”. Considerably cheaper!
Also in this section the challenges around the business model for the MAN’s is acknowledged yet there is no explicit suggestion on the changes that maybe made to improve this situation.
UPDATE – Consultant paper here (2Mb download)
keith
Keith Bohanna, Chair of the IIA Physical Infrastructure Working group
Uncategorized
Learning from your peers
Into the gap left by the State’s underwhelming provision of national training programs (see my last post) come individuals from the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector in Ireland. The only drawback is that the events organised by this group are usually more relevant to internet and technology start-ups – however they are a valuable resource for that group of IIA members.
Share IT
Spawned by Damien Mulley, the Cork based journalist and Irish Blog Awards founder, comes this free initiative to deliver day long training to those entrepreneurs in the early stages of ICT businesses. Last Saturday nearly 20 people turned up to hear presentations from and discussions with some Irish businesses on topics such as:
- Bootstrapping a small independent software vendor
- Effective communications
- How to use outsourcing to grow a small IT business.
- Marketing research for Tech Startups
- Search Engine Optimisation for your website
- Managing web projects.
- Sales in the IT environment.
The next one is scheduled for Dublin on April 28th – see www.businessadvisory.ie for more
Barcamps
These free conferences are based on the willingness of entrepreneurs to share their experiences and learning with each other. There have been 2 held in Ireland in the last 6 months – 30 Sept last in Cork and 20 Jan in Waterford. See here for the schedule for the next year.
The format? Nothing to do with bars! A couple of people take it on themselves to organise a venue and date. The conference is announced and as the attendees sign up some of them also offer to do talks. So in both Cork and Waterford there were 3 streams of talks happening all day long combined with some great panel discussions. Wouldn’t it be great to see the IIA supporting barcamps?
keith
Uncategorized
Internet training for small business
One of the many challenges facing any entrepreneur in a small to medium sized business is the requirement to keep up to speed with the internet. Structured training is one way of doing that – and in the ideal world that training would be presented in a variety of options.
Introductory talks
Aimed at businesses with limited knowledge, but a strong appetite for learning, these talks are shorter than evening training (1 to 1.5 hours long) and address basic aspects of the internet (how do I set up POP email. What is POP email? How do I find things on the internet)
Longer, one off sessions
These sit between the introductory talks and training that happens over a number of evenings. A typical session would cover the area of dealing with website developers – what should I expect in terms of cost, managing the process, preparing for the initial contact etc
Structured training
Taking place over a couple of evenings or days these courses are relatively in depth and could cover areas such as email newsletters, website design or being found by search engines.
Mentoring
This would allow a business to receive impartial advice on which internet tools are suitable for a business at this stage of its development, and for its current business objectives.
Networks
A network of experienced internet users (who are non-technical) would allow the experiences and knowledge of the group to be shared and evolve together.
In reality the complete structure above would be impossible to deliver in all locations – there is a critical mass needed for some training that will not be possible in smaller counties and towns. However most SME’s will find that almost no aspects of the training above are available in their areas – or that the courses available are offered in a general context and are not tailored for the needs of small business.
The three obvious mechanisms for delivering this training are City and County Enterprise Boards (CEB’s), Leader Groups and Skillsnet. The CEB’s are the only ones with universal coverage so the following applies to them.
- Is there a system of structured internet related training nationally? No
- Is there uniform delivery of at least elements of the above requirements across all CEB’s? No
- Is there national guidance and support available from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment for any CEB that wants or needs guidance in this area? No
In fairness all of the above applies across the board – the CEB’s are deliberately set up as independent entities and allowed to develop training for local requirements. However the complexities of internet training mean that a national program should be in place and that is not the case.
Small businesses around the county will find it almost impossible to find relevant training in the absence of such a national program. Some great training is provided in some areas – however is the exception rather than the rule.
keith
[disclaimer – I deliver elements of this training on a local basis in a number of CEB’s so my commentary is at least partially informed. The introduction of a national program could mean the loss of business for me in the face of competition from larger providers more capable of meeting national guidelines]
Uncategorized
Do you really want to edit your CSS?
Not likely. Most entrepreneurs in small businesses have enough to be doing with getting the text right for their website without learning obscure skill sets. (CSS=Cascading Style Sheets. An adjustable template on steroids)
There are a couple of good alternatives to Sitekreator around and one of them allows to do just that!
Weebly – www.weebly.com
This one is a prettier interface than Sitekreator and thus will suit some users well. It is also template driven and offers some additional functionality such as the ability to download your site as a zip file and “pre-filled” integration with Google Maps. Their service is currently free.
Squarespace – www.squarespace.com
This service is pitched somewhere between websites and blogs – it uses the efficiency of blog publishing tools to allow you to build a website as well. And with Squarespace you can start with a template and then adjust that to suit yourself. This flexibility makes this service attractive to designers who may want that customisation without having to learn to use a tool such as Dreamweaver.
The Squarespace service does not have a free component – it starts at $7 a month with $17 a month being the most expensive. For the hosting and content editing of any business site I would always be more happy to pay so that the business model of the service is clear.
This is a screenshot of part of the Squarespace customisation interface showing the complexity of that page – this is where you get to tinker with that CSS.
The next couple of posts will look at some collaboration tools online and also the state of Government support for internet adoption by small businesses.
keith
Uncategorized
Build your own site – Sitekreator.com
After the euphoria of the dotcom days settled it became clear that most businesses could comfortably survive without a website for a while longer. Internet use in Ireland was slower to catch on than had been forecast and it is only in the last year or so that broadband penetration has reached the tipping point.
Today we have finally caught up with those forecasts! It is increasingly important for most businesses (probably still not all) to have a website – with nearly 50% of the population using the internet and research being one of their top activities. (For more information see the IIA State of the Net reports here)
For many businesses the process of getting their first website is daunting. Web developers have to charge €400 to €600 a day for their services so even an entry level site can be expensive. This leads to a part of the market considering the option of building their own site.
There are a number of tools on the market that make that possible – however there are big differences between them. One of the best ones that I have found is Sitekreator – a web based tool that is usable by entrepreneurs with no html skills or training. This is the one I use on the training programs that I run so my comments here are based on my experience with SME’s on those courses.
Summary
Although it’s interface is not always intuitive Sitekreator allows a normal computer user to build a business website in 10 to 12 hours. The $7.95 a month package that they offer includes hosting, the use of your own domain name and the ability to use funtionality from other places on the internet (such as forms, calendars etc)
Control over Look and Feel
Sitekreator is template driven and users have always found one that suits their businesses. With a couple of them you can also include your own custom header – an image that you can make up to include your logo etc. Some of the templates are basic – however they are getting better as the service develops.
Affordability
While the service can be used for free it is the $7.95 a month level that is most attractive to SME’s.
Functionality
Because Sitekreator allows you to include snippets of HTML within your site it is possible to build in all of the basic functionality that a small business will require. That includes calendars and forms (using the Wufoo service)
The End Result
Have a look at these – some sites built in the last couple of weeks by entrepreneurs in Kilkenny using Sitekreator. Design purists will not necessarily like them – however they do the job. And they are fully updatable and maintainable by the business concerned – one of the keys requirements for them.
www.2ofakindband.com
www.allpatchedup.com
www.callan800.com
www.fitzgeraldfleming.com
www.kilkennyphysioclinic.com
Reliability
The Sitekreator service can be slow at times – however it is only once been unreachable in the last couple of months. The business model is clear and the founding company is in existance for 9 years.
My next post will look at a couple of interesting alternatives to Sitekreator that take a slightly more complex approach and so open the door to more control over the look and feel of the sites that can be developed.
keith
Uncategorized
Intro – SME theme
Hi, my name is Keith Bohanna and I will be filling the guest blogger spot ovet the next two weeks. I am a non-techie consultant and my work focuses on helping small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s) to use the internet effectively. My own blog is at keith.bohanna.com.
My posts will have two themes:
- Reviews of various online tools that could make life easier for entrepreneurs in SME’s. The internet has changed a lot over the last couple of years and services and functionality that were the preserve of large businesses have now been made available to the rest of us!
- How the various state bodies support (or don’t support) the use of the internet by businesses. The track record of the government on this is patchy – to put it mildly.
Looking forward to hearing your comments over the next 2 weeks and thanks to Fergal O’Byrne for the invite.
keith