Registering the World - Dublin Castle

The Connect Team are hosting a stand at the Property Registration Authority's 3 day conference in Dublin Castle. The conference was opened on Wednesday 26th September, by Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr Brian Lenihan, TD. Over 150 delegates are in attendance at the conference and stands represented at the conference include Ordance Survey Ireland (OSI), Land Direct (PRAI), Geo Directory and The European Land Information Service (EULIS).

French 'Social Impact & Cohesion' Category Winner

Congratulations to the winner of the 'Social Impact & Cohesion' category in The 4th Ministerial eGovernment Conference Awards - Besancon from France. Find out more about this best practice eGovernment Project here

Minister Roche visits Connect Stand in Lisbon

Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche, T.D., is attending the Ministerial Conference and visited our Connect Exhibition Stand earlier today to wish us well at the ceremony. Pictured is Minister Roche with members of the Connect team at our stand. He also visited the other Irish Exhibitors, Donegal County Council and the Property Registration Office, and commended us all on our Exhibitions.

Connect @ EU eGovernment Conference Lisbon

Connect have arrived in Lisbon - a fabulous City of amazing architecture & public space - & set up our Exhibition at the 4th Ministerial eGovernment Conference. The judges have visited our Stand & interviewed us to assess our project ahead of the Awards Ceremony tomorrow evening.

All projects shortlisted are exhibiting at the Conference & it is an excellent opportunity for us to network. The competition standard is very high - there are 7 entries in our category (Social Impact and Cohesion). All 52 exhibitors are developing eGovernment projects & so the spectrum is even broader in terms of our potential learning. The Conference runs until Friday 21st Sept so check back here for further updates.

Synergy Centre at ITT Dublin

Synergy Centre is the innovation centre of South Dublin County, providing office space and business supports to early-stage enterprises. Focus is on the high technology & knowledge intensive sectors.

New School Opens in Adamstown

Wednesday the 5th of September marked a new day in the community of Adamstown with the opening of the first primary school. Read More

Hallowfest 2007

Hallowfest 2007 is the second year of this event that will celebrate the tradition of Halloween as an event for all the family in Tallaght, South Dublin County. This event will take place on over two days on Sunday 28th & Monday the 29th of October 2007.

Check out the South Dublin Tourism Website for further information.

In the spotlight: South Dublin County Council

South Dublin County Council is using developments in ICT to help its 260,000 residents get the information they need faster.
Read More

Farmers Market

South Dublin County Council’s Farmer’s Market takes place on the High Street, Tallaght every Friday and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Currently, there are over 20 stalls in place providing everything from fruit & vegetables, organic meats, breads, organic hampers, coffee and teas, jewellery and crafts, fresh fish etc.

The market is located at the western end of the High Street, in a pedestrian area adjacent to the Abberley Court Hotel.

Culture Night Dublin 2007

We salute Culture Night Dublin 2007 which takes place on Friday the 14th of September with free late night culture for all the family! Over 80 of the city’s museums, galleries, theatres,libraries, historic houses, cathedrals, artists' studios and cultural centres will bring you a night of entertainment, discovery and adventure. Find out more

Clondalkin Partnership Intercultural Celebration

Clondalkin Partnership will be hosting its fourth annual Intercultural Celebration this year on Saturday 15th of September at the Dublin City Service Sports and Leisure Club, the “Coldcut Club” in Clondalkin.

You can check out further information on the Clondalkin Partnership Website.

Clonburris SDZ Video

Clonburris will be an exemplar of best practice in sustainable development, place-making and urban design. It will realise the full potential of its high accessibility by public transport, its canal-side location, and its critical mass. This will be a new eco-district that will set new standards for environmental urban expansion and act as a focus for new mixed-use development in the Greater Dublin Area.

South Dublin County Council has prepared a Plan for the development of the lands at Clonburris near Clondalkin. The proposed Plan comprises both a Strategic Development Zone Planning Scheme and a Local Area Plan. The boundary of the Plan area can be viewed here. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) has been prepared in respect of the proposed Plan.

For further information check out www.clonburris.ie

Have your say on the Naas Road Gateway...

South Dublin County Council is carrying out public consultation over the coming month concerning the Naas Road Gateway Urban Design Masterplan.

Positive Ageing Week 2007

Positive Ageing Week 2007 - Celebrating Positive Ageing in Ireland will run from Friday 28th September to Saturday 6th October 2007. For further information visit the Age Action Ireland website

Clondalkin Partnership Community Service Programme

Clondalkin Partnership is inviting expressions of interest for Community Service Programme strands:
* Supervising Community Halls and Facilities in disadvantaged areas.
Maximum support available euro 45,000 pa
* Community Media
It is advised that in order to succeed in attracting support under this strand the applicant group should be in possession of a broadcasting licence
* Services and enterprises which support or employ members of the Traveller community.
Clondalkin Partnership are inviting applicants from the South Dublin County area west of the Naas Road including, Clondalkin, Lucan, Newcastle and Palmerstown.ect.
Expressions of interest, including a short description of the proposed project, the applicant body and the services to be provided under this application, should be submitted to Clondalkin Partnership, Unit D, Nangor Road Business Park, Nangor Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22. Tel: 01 4508788.
Closing date for submissions on or before Monday 1st of October.
For details of Application Criteria see www.pobal.ie

EU Commission plans to half the digital divide by 2010

Efforts to bridge the digital divide in Europe got a boost last Friday as the European Commission proposed a long-term e-skills agenda.
The Commission is aiming to half the digital divide by 2010. Currently nearly 40pc of people in the EU are digitally illiterate and only 10pc of Europeans undertake lifelong learning.
Read more here

EGovernment Awards - Lisbon

Registration for online voting in the EU EGovernment Awards to be held in Lisbon 19th-21st September 2007 has now closed. If you are registered you still have a chance to vote for the Connect Project.
Thank you to everyone who registered and voted for us.

Property Registration Authority - Dublin Castle Conference

We have been invited to exhibit at the Property Registration Authority conference at Dublin Castle from 26th-28th September.The conference is part of the Tercentenary celebrations of the Registry of Deeds which was established in 1707 and its purpose is to bring together and showcase new developments in the field of land registration and administration. The target audience is mainly officials working in land registration/administration organisations from Ireland and internationally.

The conference will open at 9.15 am on Wednesday 26th September and closes at lunchtime on 28th September.
View Property Registration Authority Website

New Bus Route Connects Adamstown

Dublin Bus has commenced a new bus service (Route 151) which serves Adamstown and the new Adamstown Railway Station. More Info here: http://www.adamstown.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=229&Itemid=2

Vote for Connect!

Connect has been selected as finalist in the European eGovernment Awards 2007
along with 52 other projects across Europe. There is an Online Public Vote for the Most Inspiring Case as voted for by registered members of the ePractice.eu portal site. We need your vote!!

In order to vote, you must:
Be a registered member of ePractice.eu before 7 September 2007. Please Register here:
http://www.epractice.eu/register

Have the following areas of your profile completed:
o Personal data – all required fields.
o Contact data – organization or personal contact.
o Professional profile – Short Bio, Languages. This is where you will be asked to vote for your 3 Most Inspiring Cases.

You will find all cases shortlisted from the full list here:
The link for the Connect project is http://www.epractice.eu/cases/connect

The voting period ends on 20 September 2007 at 16:00 (Lisbon time). We really appreciate your support.

Templeogue Active Retirement Website

Congratulations to Templeogue Active Retirement Association on getting their new domain name up & running. Some very active members having been getting to grips with the internet & digital cameras throughout summer 2007 & have now launched www.templeogueara.com
The Connect Team wishes you every success in your digital adventures! Well done to Donal & all the members for your enthusiasm & dedication.

Location Based Services

Just read an article on www.siliconrepublic.com by Colm Butler, Director of Information Society Policy, Department of the Taoiseach. He tells us that The Department of Environment and Local Government is working with other spatial data creators with a view to coming up with a spatial data strategy.

Colm also mentions how it would be great 'if you could do a search on an area where you might be thinking of setting up home or a business and check out all the facts about the location — from environmental conditions to industrial activities, to demographics and hot spots of activities like sport' (WiFi access etc.) Connect have launched a free service in South Dublin
County where you can do these data searches & more. You can explore the local area in which you live or work. It's called Connect Me. Check it out here: www.sdublincoco.ie/localview/

Colm also expalins 'From a public policy perspective, the availability of that type of joined-up information is proving to be a great advantage in many countries for policy makers, politicians and citizens — and is reshaping the relationships between all three as the quality of location-specific knowledge and connected insights informs discussion and debate on policy options.

Spatial information is relevant in many applications from the basic land registration and management, infrastructure, health monitoring, socio-economic planning, monitoring the environment, statistical analyses, conservation and development and natural resource management. And in the era of evidence-assisted policy-making, the availability of spatially relevant information is extremely useful. It is an area where we can expect to see further developments over the next few years. '

'To get a closer look at the issues around spatial data infrastructures, I would recommend the Spatial Data Cookbook, available in PDF for free from http://geonetwork-opensource.org. It gives a very comprehensive picture of the requirements for a spatial data infrastructure, with good case studies on where spatial information has improved the quality of information and public service responses at local, regional, national and global levels.'

I promise to provide some introductory information on Spatial data shortly. I know that some of this language can be overly packed with technical words. I will get back to you on that one!

24 Community Centres Online

Thanks to some on going collaborative efforts between Connect, Community Services & the Community Centres across South Dublin County there are now about 24 new websites live for our local Community Centres. We hope to get the remaining 13 or so up and running in the coming months.

You can check them out here under 'Community Centres': http://connect.southdublin.ie/connect/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=128

We are looking forward to expanding the content on each this year & beyond but we are happy that we have established an online presence for each so far. Thanks to Dee in the Connect office for all here work on these sites to date & to all our Community Workers who gathered all the useful content.

What is GIS?

A GIS (Geographic Information System) is a system that links geographic information (where things are) with descriptive information (what things are). Unlike a flat paper map, where "what you see is what you get," a GIS can present many layers of different information.

In simple terms, a user could search such a system based on their location & retrieve information based on where they live (or plan to live), work, study, travel etc.

Connect Me is a good example of a GIS system. I can input my address (or pick a point on the map) & then click 'Find my Nearest' & the system will search a big database & return results based on location. It can then tell me where my nearest bank, doctor, creche, community centre is located and show it to me on a map. Sounds good? Check it out here: www.sdublincoco.ie/localview/

Community Blogging!

I would definitely encourage all Community & Voluntary Groups to set up and get used to updating a Blog, there are lots of great sites out there to help you get started & it's much easier than maintaining a website (in my humble opinion!). For those of you who are just getting started with all this technology stuff, a blog is just like a diary that you share with the world so it can be a great and immediate way to communicate. We all love immediacy these days! Go to www.google.ie and search for 'Blog' or visit www.blogger.com to get started now. Go for it! Of course if you live or work in South Dublin County and need help figuring it out email us at connectsupport@sdublincoco.ie and we will try to help.