Google to bring out two versions of own-branded phone

You have to wonder what Google is thinking if it is planning to roll out its own-branded mobile device at a time when so many manufacturers and consumers are embracing devices based on its Android operating system.

Earlier this week, Mario Queiroz, vice-president, product management, in Google’s mobile devices lab, let the cat out of the bag when he revealed that Googlers across the planet were dogfooding an exclusively manufactured device based on the Android operating system.
Then it emerged that the device will be known as the ‘Nexus One’ and would be manufactured by HTC, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that actually has an Android phone in the marketplace, the Hero. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Just how social are the Irish, really?

Siliconrepublic.com and social media public relations player Simply Zesty have joined forces to conduct an online survey into how socially networked Irish people really are.

For example, according to Facebook, some 1.25 million Irish people – more than a quarter of the population – have a Facebook account.

But we want to learn more – for example, how many people regularly socialise online and how big a factor do social-networking sites like Bebo and Twitter play in their social and professional lives. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Govt outlines 2010 investment in broadband and ICT for schools

Communications Minister Eamon Ryan TD said last night that €45 million will be spent on modernising Ireland’s telecoms infrastructure and that 100Mbps of high-speed broadband will be delivered to 78 secondary schools across the country.

The €45-million investment revealed under yesterday’s Budget for 2010 includes the National Broadband Scheme to bring broadband coverage to target areas in rural Ireland where broadband coverage is deemed insufficient.

The National Broadband Scheme is supporting 250 jobs directly.

Ryan said work will be advanced on positioning Ireland as a testbed for energy-efficient fibre-optic networks.

In terms of Education & Science, €715 million will be provided but total funding in 2010 will amount to €794 million, according to Education Minister Batt O’Keefe. Some €579 million of this, including €74 million carried over from 2009, will fund the important school building programme.

This will be complemented by an investment of €50 million, including €7 million carried over from 2009, in ICT for the classroom.

A further €141 million will fund infrastructural investment in higher education, including €46 million for the promotion of science and innovation.

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Software to identify artworks wins prize

AN IRISH company’s mobile phone application that can identify a painting from a snapshot has won an award and $100,000 (€66,000) from Google.

Plink, an Irish start-up company set up by two Oxford University computer science doctoral students, took a top prize in the education and reference section of Google’s second global Android Developers Challenge (ADC2). Android is Google’s mobile phone operating system.

Plink’s “PlinkArt” application, which can be downloaded for free from Google’s Android applications website, allows a person to identify a work of art just by taking a picture of it with a cameraphone.

The image is sent to a database of images and PlinkArt’s software will then recognise and identify the image and return relevant information, such as Wikipedia articles. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Two-thirds of Irish firms have an online presence

Two-thirds of Irish firms now have an online presence, new statistics released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

The CSO’s information society statistics shows that 66pc of Irish firms had a website or a homepage in 2009.

Internet use is nearly universal for Irish businesses, according to the CSO report, with 95pc of Irish enterprises having a computer connected to the internet in 2009.

Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Call for national strategy to tackle cybercrime

IRISH BUSINESSES and consumers continue to fall victim to internet scams, and the lack of a co-ordinated national cyber-security strategy is hampering efforts to tackle the problem, a conference has heard.

The Irish Reporting and Information Security Service (Iriss) held its first annual cyber crime conference in Dublin last week. Iriss was formed last year following unsuccessful efforts to persuade the Government to establish a Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert). Ireland is one of the few western countries not to have such a team.

Staffed on a voluntary basis, Iriss distributes free advice and warnings about information security threats to 250 member organisations. However, many security breaches are not reported to law enforcement, making it difficult to focus resources where they are needed, said Iriss founder Brian Honan. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Irish websites are safest in Europe

Irish top level domain (TLD), .ie, websites are the safest in Europe, according to new research from McAfee.

More than 27 million country and generic web domains were analysed as part of the research, with each calculated for a 'weighted risk ratio'. This was carried out by testing websites for exploits, excessive pop-ups and malicious downloads, giving the sites that failed a rating.

The UK did not fair either, with 'Mapping the Mal Web' report reporting stating that the UK was 55th safest when it comes to website domains.

The most riskiest web domain was Cameroon (.cm), with 36.7% of sites with that suffix showing up as a potential security risk. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Google agrees to limit access to free news

Search giant Google has bowed to pressure from newspaper publishers and agreed to limit the number of articles users can read for free.

Google had operated a "first click free" programme that allowed a Google News or Google search user to find and read articles, even if those articles were blocked behind a subscription wall. However, readers had found they could read an unlimited number of articles for free as long as they continued to use Google.

The change to the programme will now allow publishers to limit to five per day the number of free articles readers can access through Google.
Any more than five articles and readers will be routed to payment or registration pages.

Google announced the change in a blog post.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was one of Google’s most outspoken critics on the matter, claiming that Google was profiting from online news provided by media companies.

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

HeyStaks to unveil groundbreaking web search tool

HEYSTAKS, A UCD-based start-up which has already won plaudits and awards for a software application that has yet to be fully released, will unveil Version 1 of its groundbreaking search tool over the next few weeks.

The company has developed a browser plug-in that is meant to complement popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

HeyStaks works by adding key organisational and collaborative tools on top of these search engines that enable users to organise and build on search results or “staks” on a particular subject.

These staks can be kept private or shared with others and they can be added to by fellow members ensuring that a multitude of data on any given topic can be kept for future reference and expanded. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Twitter Could 'See Off Email In A Decade'

Email could be wiped out by social networking sites and instant messaging within the next ten years, according to a leading professor.
Professor David Zeitlyn from the University of Kent came to the conclusion because of the rise in the use of websites like Facebook and Twitter.

These sites are seen as more fashionable and faster and easier to use, plus they can be accessed from anywhere with mobile phone technology.

Professor Zeitlyn found that although 15 to 24-year-olds do use email, they use instant messaging and social networking sites more often. Read More

Courtesy: Sky News

EU ministers commit to smarter e-government resources

EU ministers have committed to developing smarter online public services for citizens and businesses by 2015.

At the fifth Ministerial eGovernment Conference in Malmö, Sweden, today, EU ministers signed a declaration outlining a joint vision on how more accessible, interactive and customised e-government can be delivered.

The European Commission welcomed the commitment, noting that e-government is a key step towards boosting Europe's competitiveness, as citizens and businesses across Europe can benefit from time and cost savings.

“Today's declaration is another step in the right direction to further improve online public services for citizens and businesses. The commitment to shift from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ to a customised approach is more likely to meet users' needs and will open the path for more interactive and demand-driven public services in Europe," said Siim Kallas, vice-president of the European Commission in charge of administrative affairs, audit and anti-fraud. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Google's open source code for Chrome OS

Google has unveiled the open source code for its much-hyped operating system, Google Chrome OS.
The first devices running Google Chrome OS will be available in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Google made the code available to invite technology partners, the open source community and third party developers to contribute to its development.

AdvertisementGoogle Chrome OS is being designed to be lightweight and fast, enabling usersto boot up their computers and get online within seconds. The operating system is based on Google's Web browser, Google Chrome.

The browser, launched in 2008, was designed to respond to the new wave of powerful applications on the web. Google Chrome OS extends that philosophy by putting a fast, stable and secure Web experience at the centre of the operating system.

Google announced the code's availability during an event at its Mountain View headquarters.

More information visit googleblog.blogspot.com or http://www.chromium.org/.

Courtesy: RTE News

Blog Digest

We may be weary of using the "R" word, but the recession has forced us to become more cautious with our purchases. A few blogs are helping us navigate a leaner way of living. From shopping to eating out, home DIY and connecting up those who have been made redundant, we check out what’s on offer. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

New site for startups

Bizstartup.ie, a new site providing news and advice to business start-ups, launches today. Bizstartup.ie is the definitive online resource for anyone setting up a business or thinking about it, from students to people who have lost their jobs, to serial entrepreneurs.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, each month in Ireland around 2,800 people set up a business – that’s 117,500 people in the past three and a half years.

Over the past five years, entrepreneurship has firmly arrived on the national agenda and the widespread view among stakeholders is that it will be a key driver in bringing Ireland through the current recession. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

South Dublin County Council Named Local Authority of the Year 2009

South Dublin County Council has been named Local Authority of the Year 2009 at Chambers Ireland’s 6th Annual Excellence in Local Government Awards which were held in Dublin last night (28/10/09). The Awards were held in association with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

Outstanding Customer Service Award
South Dublin County Council for providing a Self-Service Digital Space at the County Library, Tallaght which allows users to access the internet, print and top up library cards independently of staff.

Wi-Fi spots susceptible to data theft, says Deloitte

HUNDREDS OF commercial wireless hotspots in Dublin, Limerick and Cork are insecure, leaving users susceptible to having data such as usernames, passwords and bank account details revealed to other users on the network.

An annual “war walk” by consultants Deloitte has found that 70 per cent of public wireless networks have no encryption in place, while 80 per cent are “insecure”, meaning they have no encryption or use the WEP standard which is trivial to crack.
The annual “war walk”, which involves walking down commercial streets in the centre of Dublin, Cork and Limerick and scanning for available Wi-Fi networks, found that, of 6,545 networks discovered, 56 per cent were insecure.
“These include many well-known wireless hotspot providers, as well as the wireless networks at many well-known hotels, restaurants and conference centres,” the Deloitte report says. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Reader's Day 2009

In it's ninth year and hosted by Dermot Bolger, Readers Day will take place in the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght (formerly the Tower Hotel). The authors taking part this year are Chris Binchy, Kevin Power, Diarmaid Ferriter, Paul Howard, Paul Durcan, Paula Meehan, Judith Mok and John Curran. Booking takes place from 10am on Wednesday 28th October by ringing 086-0492815. For more information on the event and biographies of the authors please view our brochure

Courtesy: South Dublin Libraries

Blog Digest

In celebration of Science Week 2009, which runs from 8–15 November, Blog Digest donned its lab coat and tested Ireland’s top science blogs. Conor Lenihan TD, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, says we should celebrate the achievements of mathematicians and scientists in the same way that sports stars and popstars are lauded. I say they don’t need this razzle dazzle and that Science Week works because it is all about inspiring and enthusing kids with the magic of science. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Regulator approves multi-lingual web addresses

One of the most significant changes in the Internet's 40-year history has taken place with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)'s approval of internet addresses containing non-Latin characters.
ICANN, at a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, has given countries the go-ahead to apply for internet addresses (likely as of 16 November) using characters from their national language, such as Greek, Hindi, Arabic, Korean, Japanese and Cyrillic.

The implication of the move is great, as it can open the web to more people around the globe.
Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Macs to support Windows 7 'by end of 2009'

Apple says it will provide official support for Windows 7 in Boot Camp by the end of the year.
Boot Camp is the Apple application that allows Macs to dual boot Mac OS X and Windows. The software currently supports only Windows XP and Windows Vista, although it seems many people have already managed to successfully install Windows 7 via Boot Camp.
In a new support note posted on the Apple website, the company states, 'Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp.' Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Ubuntu 9.10 takes fight to Windows 7

Canonical has released Ubuntu 9.10, as the company issues its first response to Windows 7.
Codenamed Karmic Koala, the update brings a raft of tweaks to the open source Linux operating system.
Perhaps most significant is the Software Store application, which presents the wealth of free applications for Ubuntu in an app store format - hopefully making it easier for new users of the OS to understand what's on offer. As it stands the Software Store is little more than a dressed up add/remove panel, however, Canonical is grooming the Software Store to ultimately replace the Synaptic package manager 'and possibly Update Manager', and its introduction to the release marks a major step in its development. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Bringing the e-reader to book

IN THE midst of the current Kindle/Sony/and-what-about Apple e-reader hype, consider this.
“The major turn-off with e- books has been the discomfort of reading large amounts of text from a PC screen. If you get much beyond a few paragraphs of type, most people print it out,” Bill Gates recently told an audience at Microsoft’s headquarters. “It defeats the idea of immersive reading.”
Even the arrival of lightweight laptop computers hasn’t helped much. “It’s like having a cat perched on your lap on a hot summer’s day,” complains Bill Hill, a researcher with Microsoft’s eBook Group.
“The problem has prompted several companies to come up with specialised hand-held reader devices that are about the same size as the average novel, but with electronic memories and monochrome screens.” Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

FCC to formalise 'net neutrality'

In order to encourage a free and open internet, the chairman of the independent US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed the addition of two more principles to its existing four guidelines.
The FCC currently has four open internet principles stating that consumers are entitled access to lawful internet content, applications, and services of their choice, as well as attach non-harmful devices to the network.
To this, the FCC wants to add two more principles: "The first would prevent internet access providers from discriminating against particular internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management," read the statement. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Active Citizenship Week

South Dublin County Active Citizenship Week will take place from Monday 21st September to Friday 25th September 2009. Mayor Mick Duff will launch Active Citizenship Week in the presence of Minister John Curran. Please click on link below for our full Calendar of Events.

http://www.volunteersouthdublin.ie/Citizens/index.html

Open House Dublin 2009

The Irish Architecture Foundation is delighted to announce the return of Open House Dublin for it's fourth annual architectural outing! It is a simple and powerful idea where over one weekend, from 8 to 11 October buildings selected for their architectural quality and interest open their doors to the public. Open House Dublin has become Ireland's largest architectural event with an estimated 15,000 people taking to the streets at almost 140 events, ranging from building, walking, boat and cycling tours, to explore their city¹s architecture. This year the spotlight is on innovative 'next generation' buildings, including buildings from Tallaght's new Cultural Quarter. Educating children and young adults about the value of architecture is a particular focus of the Open House Dublin programme and we have developed with our partners a series of exciting workshops, such as the ((("My Place" series of family and school workshops from the Arts Office of South Dublin County Council.)))
All Open House events are free of charge. A full programme of events is available in print and by web.
To find out more please visit our website http://www.blogger.com/www.architecturefoundation.ie
Join us and discover your city!

Silver Surfer event is making waves

Preparations are in full swing for one of the most exciting events in Positive Ageing Week. On Monday, 28th September Irish silver surfers will gather in Croke Park for a day packed with information technology activities and celebrations. IMAGINE IT! A Celebration of Older People and IT is the first ever conference, IT expo and Awards for older people.

The day is organised by Age Action’s Getting Started computer training programme. The day kicks off with the TRY IT! expo with over 20 exhibitors showcasing the latest in hardware, software, internet applications and prototype technologies for independent living including Google, O2, RTE, National Library, Apple, Canon, Eircom and the TRIL Centre. Who says new technology is only for the young!

For people involved in the design of delivery of IT programmes for older people and community groups, Nancy Johnson, Digital Inclusion and Technology manager from Age Concern in the UK and a speaker panel from some of the most innovative IT programmes in Ireland will provide food for thought, highlighting the successes and challenges of delivering enjoyable, learner-centred classes for older people in times when budgets are shrinking.

With the closing date for nominations for the Irish Silver Surfer of the Year Awards 2009 approaching this Friday (21st September), preparations are being made to crown Ireland’s Most Dedicated Learner; IT Volunteer of the Year; Passionate Hobbyist; Group Communicator and Silver Surfer of the Year at the Croke Park event. Generous prizes of the latest IT products are being offered by O2, Microsoft, Canon, Peats Electronics and Dublin City Community Forum for award winners.

For €20 including lunch, a great day out is promised and the day’s events are timed to suit those lucky enough to be able to avail of free rail and bus travel. For more details, Silver Surfer nomination forms or to book a place email or call Pauline Power ppower@ageaction.ie, 01- 4756989 or 087 913 3785 or check out IMAGINE IT! at www.ageaction.ie

Meteor drops price on prepay broadband

The Huawei E180 HSPA USB Modem from Meteor Broadband to Go has been dropped in price from €79 to €49, offering what it claims is now the best value mobile broadband on the market.
Meteor launched its Broadband to Go earlier this year for both Pay As You Go and Bill Pay customers.
Pay As You Go customers can buy either a day pass at €2.99 for 500MB or a 30-day pass at €19.99 for 5GB. The modem is priced at €49 but Bill Pay customers may buy the modem for just €29 for a €16.99 per month, 5GB deal.
More details on Meteor Broadband to Go are available at Meteor.ie.

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Twitter opens up to advertisers

Twitter has revised its terms and conditions to specify that it may run ads, as the service investigates ways of making money from its 45 million users.
'Now that we know more about how Twitter is being used, we've made changes to our Terms of Service - these are the basic rules that go along with using Twitter,' wrote founder Biz Stone on Twitter's official blog.
'With these revisions, we expect some discussion so here are a few highlights from the updated page. Advertising - we leave the door open for advertising. We'd like to keep our options open as we've said before.' Read More

Courtesy: RTE

Kildare student is top European in Microsoft comp

17-year-old Kildare student Suzy Farrell, from Maynooth Post Primary school, has beaten the whole of Europe in the Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office in Toronto.
Suzy came fith in the world to add to her European title. The competition attracted more than 80,000 student competitors from across the globe.Paul Rellis, managing director of Microsoft Ireland, commended Ms Farrell.
'We are delighted with Suzy's win. She's a great example to all Irish students, showcasing the skills they should be developing while at school which will greatly help them at third level and beyond when they enter the work place,' Mr Rellis said. Read More

Courtesy: RTE

O2 launches mobile TV service

O2 has announced the launch of a new mobile TV service.
Called 'O2 TV', it offers customers the choice of two mobile TV packages: 'O2 Lifestyle Pack' focusing on entertainment, music, and news with channels including RTE News Now, CNN and the Travel Channel; and the 'Sky Sports & News Pack' offering live sports and news content on channels including Sky Sports 1, 2 & 3 and Sky News.
O2 TV uses streaming technology and is available on a wide range of 3G/HSDPA capable handsets.Both services will be available on a 30-day trial service.
Advertisement
Commenting on the launch, Karl Aherne, category manager, dDigital & entertainment, Telefónica O2 Ireland, said: 'O2 previously trialled live broadcast digital TV on mobiles in 2007 using DVB-H technology.' Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

57,500 receive Leaving Cert results

Around 57,500 students have been receiving the results of their Leaving Certificate exams today. This year's results follow previously seen patterns of low achievement in maths and science subjects. The number sitting higher level maths fell, with only 16% of students sitting the paper. Once again there was a low uptake of physics and chemistry at higher level and high failure rates in all science subjects.

After the emergency rescheduling of the second English paper, students' results in that subject are broadly in line with those of previous years.
While there are minor fluctuations, the State Examinations Commission said the rescheduling of the paper did not adversely affect the quality of this year's scripts.

As in previous years there were high achievers. Among them one candidate who has achieved nine A1s. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

The Tuesday Push: WhoseView.ie

WhoseView.ie is a social review based website currently in open beta that allows all to rant and rave on local services and products!
http://www.whoseview.ie/ was founded by Helen McCarthy and Michael McFionbhear in partnership with Lightbox Multimedia. They are also supported by Enterprise Ireland.

The site was launched on July 17th 2009 with 38,000 Dublin businesses and close to 600 customer reviews. The goal is to concentrate on city locations, moving to Galway and Cork in September, before launching into the UK in early 2010. It is a review website boasts over 10 categories, Restaurants, Food & Drink, Bars & Nightlife, Shopping & Fashion, Health & Beauty, Arts & Culture, Hotels & Travel, Local & Home Services, Recreation and Automotive. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Open Access leads the way in promoting academic research

Scholars are embracing the internet to bypass publishers and speed the process of research
ACADEMIC PUBLISHING seems a world away for most of us, but it’s the intellectual infrastructure that underpins modern life.
And, like nearly everything else, it’s being speeded up by the internet.
What we think of these days as research began with the Royal Society of London, an idiosyncratic group of 17th-century gentlemen scientists. Mostly they were the middling upper-class – third sons of lords, with more free time than responsibility.
They met in a hall to talk about natural history, read letters from absent colleagues and performed experiments for each other. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Clear Channel has donated 10 bus shelter ad spaces to talented artists working in Lucan and Clondalkin

Clear Channel has donated 10 bus shelter ad spaces to talented artists working in Lucan and Clondalkin. Young artists who worked with professional artist Jessica Tobin via the online space of NOISE South Dublin (http://www.noisesouthdublin.com/) will get to showcase their work, which focuses on social issues of importance to young people, this August throughout Dublin. Issues covered in the poster project, entitled Listen to the NOISE discourage stereotyping, alcohol abuse, and following the crowd.
The artwork will appear on bus shelter ad spaces from August 10th through the 23rd. Via workshop sessions in real time and on the space of the NOISE South Dublin website, young people discussed social issues that mattered to them. They then looked at literature, poetry, song writing and visual art that touched a chord with their particular social issue. By examining both writing as well as visual imagery that sparked ideas, the young artists then designed their posters. Clear Channel supported the idea of exhibiting the artwork after seeing some of the poster designs in their initial stages.
The announcement of which posters will appear throughout Dublin was made on Friday, July 31st at a DVD Launch Party event which celebrates work created on NOISE South Dublin since its launch on October 28th 2008. The DVD called NOISE Soundation also celebrates work created by young people in the Soundation, a digital media and music group within Lucan Youth Centre in Lucan/North Kildare Youth Service.

Courtesy: SDCC

25,000 potential jobs for Ireland through smart economy plan

Up to 25,000 new jobs could be in the pipeline if a series of projects aimed at transforming Ireland into one of the world’s foremost digital economies come to fruition, the Minister of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan TD, and Minister of State for Information Society, Minister Conor Lenihan TD, said today.

In what is one of the boldest steps taken by an Irish Government yet towards putting the country at the forefront of the digital age, the Government is to focus on building a smart broadband network called the Exemplar Network that makes use of multiple colours of fibre to dramatically boost the speed of fibre-based communications. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Bing takes another slice of the Google pie

Microsoft’s new, improved search engine Bing shows no signs of losing its shine; in fact it has gained another 1pc of the US search market, eating into Google’s lead.

According to an analysis carried out by the research arm of Irish web analytics firm Statcounter, Microsoft's share of the search market increased from 8.23pc to 9.41pc in the month of June.

These new figures mean that Microsoft and Yahoo combined took 20.36pc of the market in July in comparison to their 19.27pc the month previous. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

New Twitter front page brings search – and world news - to the fore

Social networking site Twitter has unveiled a brash new front page look that puts search to the very core of what the micro-blogging service is all about, breaking the world’s news!

As reported yesterday on siliconrepublic.com, Twitter has been working on a new front page design to better define itself with a mission statement: “Share and discover what’s happening right now anywhere in the world.”

This simple and straightforward statement shows Twitter is keen to build on the unexpected kudos it earned as a disseminator of breaking news as it became one of the few means alongside YouTube through which information was able to reach the rest of the world during the recent political battles in Iran. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Google is ‘the business’ for Irish shoppers

Since Microsoft launched its new improved search engine Bing two months ago it has set its sights on capturing a bigger market share (reflected even more in the new Yahoo! partnership) but how much ground has Bing gained and have Irish online shoppers made the switch?

A survey carried out by a group of Irish e-tailers focused on the search engine traffic over the last month for six commercial websites based here in Ireland and the results were clear: while Bing gained 3pc share of the search engine market, Google still has around a 92pc share of the traffic.
Aedan Ryan, owner of outdoor clothing store PuddleDucks.ie, said: "Google is still the overwhelming favourite for search among Irish online shoppers. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Microsoft and Yahoo! sign landmark deal

Yahoo! and Microsoft have announced their much anticipated agreement to work together on internet search and advertising, in a move to challenge Google’s dominance in this area.
Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, said the 10-year partnership would provide choice, better value, and more search innovation for consumers, advertisers and publishers.
Under the deal, Microsoft will power Yahoo! search while the latter will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

According to the two companies, the deal will accelerate innovation by combining their “complementary strengths and search platforms into a market competitor with the scale to fuel sustained development in search and search advertising. Users will find what they care about faster and with more personal relevance. Microsoft’s competitive search platforms will lead to more value for advertisers, better results for web publishers, and increased innovation and efficiency across the internet.”Read More

Minister announces new round of science funding

The Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan, has announced research funding awards of €20.7 million to be split across 22 projects under the Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator Programme.
Making the announcement, Minister Lenihan said: 'The Government remains firmly committed to developing the smart economy.
'It is research projects such as these that will support the next phase of Ireland's economic development. We must never lose sight of the fact that research and development is primarily about people - the individual and collective talents of our skilled personnel.

'We must continue to support the best researchers to bring about long-term economic benefits and with the assistance of support structures such as SFI, IDA and Enterprise Ireland, we can studiously bring these concepts to that next level, and through exploitation and commercialisation ensure economic and societal benefits for Ireland.'

Courtesy: RTE News

International Youth Day

South Dublin County Council celebrates International Youth Day on the 12th August 2009. A digital exhibition showcasing the Council’s work with young people will be shown in The Big Picture, our multi media hub and in County Library, Tallaght, from Wednesday 12th August to Friday 14th August. This exhibition is open to the public.

Young people make up a very high percentage of our population in South Dublin County. South Dublin County Council has numerous projects running for young people living in the County. We also work very closely with Youth Organisations to ensure that proper facilities and services are available in all areas of the County. Family Days, Sport Events, Comhairle na nÓg Events, Competitions, Music Workshops are only some of the activities from 2009 being showcased over the three days.

South Dublin Libraries will also be showcasing their Digital Library Service for young people in our Libraries throughout the County. .

If you would like more Information about the exhibition please contact Niamh Carton or Sabrina Fogarty, South Dublin County Council, 4149000 or ncarton@sdublincoco.ie / sfogarty@sdublincoco.ie

South Dublin County Council welcomes Real Madrid to Tallaght

Real Madrid Visit
South Dublin County Council's Tallaght Stadium will be the focus of the footballing world tonight Cristiano Ronaldo looks set to make his Real Madrid debut in Tallaght Stadium. The Portuguese star completed a €92 million transfer from Manchester United in time to line out for a friendly against Shamrock Rovers at Tallaght Stadium next week.
Read More

Free Electrical Recycling Day 25.07.09

WEEE Ireland are providing a FREE RECYCLING ELECTRICAL DAY
Proudly supported by South Dublin County Council
Date: Saturday 25th July 2009
Time: 10am to 4pm
Venue: Powercity Fonthill
Anything with a plug or a battery will be accepted including:
Video Players
Game consoles
Microwaves
IT Equipment
Dishwashers
Battery Operated Toys Fridges
Automotive Batteries
Kettles
Power Tools
TV’s
and many more items...
Click here to download poster.

Bord na Mona creates 300 green tech jobs

20.07.2009 Bord na Mona has announced 300 new green tech jobs as part of its vision to reduce CO2 per MW hour by 50pc and meet its target of providing 500MW of wind energy in the next five years. more...

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

The Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen T.D., has announced the appointment of an Innovation Taskforce to advise the Government on its Strategy for positioning Ireland as an International Innovation Hub and to assist in making the Smart Economy a reality.
Announcing the membership of the Taskforce the Taoiseach said: "While weathering the worst global recession of our lifetime, it is imperative that we position Ireland so that we can take advantage of the global upturn when it comes. In December, I launched 'Building Ireland's Smart Economy', the Government's Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal. We need to think smart, work smart, and be smart in order to build our future."
Courtesy: www.Taoiseach.ie

EU R&D funding in Ireland reaches €1m per week

30.06.2009 Irish researchers are punching above their weight when it comes to winning research funding under the €50bn Seventh EU Framework Programme (FP7), amounting to €1m worth of investment every week. more...
Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Micro USB to become standard phone charger for Europe

29.06.2009 The mobile device manufacturing industry has agreed to create a common charger for all phones produced from 2010, saving the European Commission from having to introduce legislation. more...
Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Global venture capitalists may choose Ireland as a base

26.06.2009 Recent budgetary changes to Ireland’s tax system could turn the country into a prime location for the establishment of global venture capital (VC) and R&D operations, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report. more...
Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Digital 21 – Interview with Minister Eamon Ryan

25.06.2009 Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources Eamon Ryan has been the driving force behind much of our existing digital strategy, championing infrastructure initiatives like the metropolitan area networks (MANs) and the National Broadband Scheme. But are we doing enough to link these urban areas to truly create a nationwide digital nervous system? more...
Courtesy: Silicon Republic

New Mayor of South Dublin County Council

At the Annual Meeting of South Dublin County Council held on Friday 19th June, 2009, at County Hall, Tallaght, Councillor Mick Duff (Labour) was elected Mayor of South Dublin County. Councillor Paddy Cosgrave (Lab) was elected Deputy Mayor of South Dublin County. Read the full Press Release
Courtesy:South Dublin County Council

Disabled must be given equal digital rights

Depriving visually impaired people of access to books is but one illustration of the need for copyright law to be rewritten, writes DANNY O'BRIEN

TWO DECADES ago, hardly anyone but a handful of intellectual property lawyers paid much attention to the letter of the copyright law. Now, like it or not, we’re all caught up in the fight over what copies we can make, how, and for what purpose.

Every act of creation or communication online seems to make some copy that we need to double check isn’t infringing. Can we copy our CD collection onto our iPods? Can you stop someone from forwarding the e-mail you sent them? Is someone ripping off your website? Your idea? Or are you copying their idea? Everywhere you look, it seems, copyright law looks in need of an overhaul. Read More

Celebration of Bealtaine: The Festival celebrating Creativity in Older Age

On Monday 18th May 2009 at 11.00 am in the Big Picture (located beside the last Luas stop in Tallaght) Mayor Marie Corr will launch South Dublin County Council and Connects contribution to Bealtaine, the festival celebrating Creativity in Older Age. Bealtaine is co-ordinated by Age and Opportunity, the national organisation working to promote greater participation by older people in society. The name "Bealtaine" comes from the ancient Celtic festival of that name celebrating springtime, freshness and renewal. Todays event was organised by Connect in partnership with The Social Inclusion Unit and Community Services Department of South Dublin County Council.
The population of the County in 1994 when the Council was established was approximately 208,000. It now stands at 238,835. As part of the celebration of Bealtaine, Connect and Community Services Department today announce the winners of a photographic competition, and launch two films. The photo competition concerns the theme of Positive Images of Older People in the Community, and received over 100 entrants, detailing the varied and full lives lead by older members of our community. This was also the theme of the two films, concerning the clients of Trustus, (formally known as Tallaght Welfare Society) in Tallaght, and Liscarne Court in Clondalkin.

Contact person: Su Clarke
01 414900 ext 3380 / 086 6063688

BlueZone equips buses for Internet

While local companies' offers of putting Wi-Fi on our trains may yet to come to fruition, bus travellers will soon be able to enjoy free Internet access thanks to technology from Wexford-based company BlueZone Media.
Using a bluetooth enabled mobile phone, travellers on a range of bus routes can now check their Facebook, read news and send and receive e-mails.
The service will be rolled out early next month on a number of coaches from Cork company Butler Buses and will initially benefit those on their chartered and sight-seeing tours. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Digital media bucking the recession

Companies located in Dublin's Digital Hub expect to create a total of 250 jobs this year, a growth of 25% of the present combined workforce. That's according to the second annual Enterprise Survey of Digital Hub companies published by the Digital Hub Development Agency (DHDA).
The survey was conducted last March amongst the companies located in The Digital Hub, the Government enterprise and regeneration project in Dublin's South West Inner City.Its findings show that Digital Hub companies are expected to grow strongly during 2009, with almost 54% expecting to expand their operations. This is in stark contrast to the general Irish economy, where only 19% of companies expect to see workforce growth this year. Read More

Courtesy:RTE

Over 2,000 Students Take Part in SciFest 2009

More than 2,000 secondary school students are due to participate in SciFest 2009 over the next two weeks as schools from around Ireland exhibit almost 900 science and technology projects at 14 Institutes of Technology nationwide.

SciFest is a one day festival of science, which includes a competition and exhibition of projects, a selection of science talks, science demonstrations in the college laboratories and a prize-giving ceremony.The programme aims to encourage the pursuit of science through an investigative approach to learning and to provide an opportunity for students to display their scientific discoveries.
203 local students took part in the Dublin event which took place today at DIT Kevin Street with 97 projects on display in total. Read More

Courtesy: RTE

Bealtaine Festival 1st - 31st May

Bealtaine is the national festival celebrating creativity in older age. Over 55,000 people took part in Bealtaine in 2008, making it one of Ireland’s biggest arts festivals.

http://bealtaine.com/

From dance to cinema, painting to theatre, Bealtaine showcases the talents and skills of both established and first-time older artists and performers. It is a chance to make new and challenging work, a chance to communicate traditions between the generations, a chance to delve a little deeper into a new area of understanding. Bealtaine creates the space to discover talents until now unseen. Read More

No Grey Bin collection on Bank Holiday Monday

BALLYMOUNT CIVIC AMENITY
CENTRE OPEN ALL DAY

South Dublin County Council is very sorry that some householders have not had a black bin
collection service in recent weeks. We hope that everyone’s bin will be collected, as normal, this week. Thanks to the fortnightly green bin collection, householders are really reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. A lot of households only put out the grey bin once every three weeks. There will be no grey bin collection on the May Bank Holiday Monday or on future Bank Holidays. Householders are asked to put their bin out on the week before or the week after bank holidays from now on.

No Bin Collection on May Bank Holiday

Courtesy: SDCC

Dell no longer top selling brand in Irish PC market

DELL HAS lost its long-held number one spot in the Irish personal computer (PC) market following its decision to cease manufacturing in Limerick with the loss of 1,900 jobs over the next year.
Provisional first-quarter data from market research firm IDC shows that HP is now the biggest- selling brand in Ireland with Dell in the number two position.
Dell’s years as the number one exporter from Ireland boosted its local sales and it was the number one brand here at a time when it could not replicate that feat in other European countries.
The data show that PC sales in the Irish market collapsed in the first three months of this year, with just 124,835 units being shipped,
a drop of 37.9 per cent compared to a year ago. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Arts & Culture Week at the Big Picture

April 20 -25th 2009

Artist’s films and multi-media projects from South Dublin County Council’s
Per Cent for Art Programme, In Context 3.

Short films, photographs and website projects from South Dublin County’s innovative public art programme will be on show for a week at the Big Picture, the new multi-media exhibition space in the heart of Tallaght.

Entry is free and all the films and photographs will be on view continuously – just drop in to see a selection of these exciting projects. The artists worked closely with the people and landscapes of South Dublin County – so look out for familiar faces and places!

Firefox 3.0 becomes the most popular web browser in Europe

For the first time, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 became the most popular web browser in Europe, overtaking Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 7.0, according to web analytics firm StatCounter.
According to StatCounter, Firefox 3.0 took 35.05pc of the European web browser market, followed by 34.54pc for IE 7.0.
“The move is partly explained by a small switch from IE 7.0 usage to IE 8.0, but also by growing market share overall by Firefox 3.0,” explained Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder StatCounter.

“The data shows that Firefox is closing the gap, and is now just 10pc behind all IE versions in Europe.”
The StatCounter analysis is based on four billion pageloads per month. StatCounter is one of the largest website traffic monitoring companies in the world, with over two million members globally. Over 40pc are located in the US with 25pc in Europe.

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Eco Week - Monday 30th Mar - 4th Apr

South Dublin County Council is proud to announce its fifth annual Eco Week, which will be launched by the Mayor of South Dublin County, Councillor Marie Corr on Tuesday 31st March.

Eco-Week runs from Monday 30th March to Saturday 4th, April. The week long festival aims to raise awareness of environmental issues and provide some solutions in an engaging, enjoyable and practical way.

Sorcha O’Brien, South Dublin County Council’s Environmental Awareness Officer said “ there are over 100 events taking place through out the County for ECO-week so there is something for everyone from Community Groups to Schools, Householders to Individuals. This year the launch of ECO-Week coincides with the South Dublin County Environmental Schools competition award ceremony. This adds greatly to ECO-Week as the competition encourages students of all ages to learn about environmental issues and to express themselves artistically.

Some of the ECO-Week highlights range from, Eco-Easter Arts & Crafts Sessions, Naturalists Dale Treadwell, Don Conroy and Eric Dempsey, to Composting Workshops, environmental themed movies, Tallaght’s Eco-Shop and the Smoothie Bike.

In addition a series of lunchtime lectures will take place and exhibitions will be on display in County Hall and South Dublin County Library branches during the week. Topics include Ecological Footprints and Climate Change.

All events are free so come along and discover how to reduce the size of your eco-footprint.

For more information on ECO-Week or to book a place at an event please visit http://www.southdublin.ie/ or contact the Environmental Awareness Section, South Dublin County Council or your local library.

SWAN Family Support - Coffee Morning

COFFEE MORNING
At SWAN FAMILY SUPPORT ORGANISATION

Springfield Shopping Centre
On 8th April 2009 from 10.00am to 12.00pm
All welcome

http://connect.southdublin.ie/swanfamilysupport/

National Spring Clean 2009

National Spring Clean is Ireland’s largest anti litter initiative. The campaign is organised by An Taisce and supported by South Dublin County Council. National Spring Clean is open to all, from individuals to community groups such as residents’ associations or Tidy Towns committees, development associations, sporting organisations, youth groups, schools and businesses.
National Spring Clean takes place during the ‘Spring Clean’ month of April. Everyone who registers their campaign will be sent a free clean up kit which contains information which will help to them organise their clean up event, posters, colour coded refuse sacks, protective gloves and tabards to keep participants clean.
You can register for the campaign directly via the National Spring Clean website at http://www.nationalspringclean.org/, or by calling the National Spring Clean hotline on 01 4002220.

Biggest – and greenest – movie premiere launched online

More than 16,000 people in 60 cinemas simultaneously attended the premiere of new environmental movie, The Age of Stupid, aided and abetted by internet technology created by a Belfast internet-streaming firm.
The film, which premiered on Sunday, also had a global audience of up to 100,000 people, who logged on to view the broadcast at www.ageofstupid.net
The online premiere was enabled by Switch New Media, a Belfast technology firm.
The film launch is being cited as the greenest-ever movie premiere as Age of Stupidgenerated just 1pc of the total average CO2 emitted by similar-sized Hollywood extravaganzas. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Microsoft to release Internet Explorer 8 today

Microsoft’s latest web browser, Internet Explorer (IE) 8, will be available from noon in the east coast of the US today, and from 5pm in Ireland and the UK, the company has announced.
The new browser can be downloaded in 25 languages at www.microsoft.com/ie8 at 12pm EDT (-5 GMT).
Microsoft stressed that the new browser will chiefly tackle the security concerns of the growing internet public.
A study commissioned by Microsoft and the National Cyber Security Alliance, and conducted by Harris Interactive, revealed 91pc of adults in the US are concerned about online threats in the current economic climate, and 78pc are more likely to choose a web browser with built-in security than they were two years ago. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Lucan St. Patricks Day Parade

This year Lucan St. Patricks Day Parade are expecting approx 12,000 locals to cheer on the 1,500 participants from local organisations who are participaiting in the St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Lucan. The weather forecast is looking good and they are expecting a fine day and lots of "craic".
The parade assembles at Tesco at 2pm and is led off at 3pm by the Colour Party 65th Reserve Inf. Battalion. They are followed by a sea of colour featuring Irish Dancers, Marching Bands, African Drums, Clowns, Cartoon characters and lots more.
The Lucan St. Patrick's Day Parade is a "Non-Profit" organisation grant aided by South Dublin County Council and donations from local Business. The Lucan St. Patrick's Day Parade website is hosted by Connect an initiative of South Dublin County Council which allows local communities to use technologies in innovative ways for better ends and to shape internet content to be more relevant to local interests and needs. Read More

Courtesy: Lucan St. Patricks Day Parade

Patrick's Day festivities in the palm of your hand

VISITORS ATTENDING the St Patrick’s Day festival this year can keep a guide to events in the palm of their hand with a new mobile application to track the festivities.
Developed by MobaNode in conjunction with the St Patrick’s Day Festival, it can be downloaded directly to a mobile phone or through a PC from
www.stpatricksfestival.ie.
“What we built was a mobile festival guide that can be downloaded to your mobile phone,” said MobaNode founder Shane McAllister.
“Everybody has a mobile phone – there’s 120 per cent penetration in Ireland alone. It’s the ideal medium on which to provide content related to your event.”
The application includes an interactive map with details of where and when each event takes place, and supplies information such as ticket prices and times. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

New site helps Irish practise the mother tongue

With St Patrick’s Day on the way there is no better time to pick up the 'cúpla focal' or couple of words and 14 March sees the official launch of www.TalkIrish.com - a social networking site designed to help members learn, teach and share the Irish language in an online environment.
The social networking site compliments the existing Irish Blog Awards-nominated 'Focal An Lae' or Word of the Day blog which gives a pronunciation podcast as well as flashcard service.

Much like any other social networking site you can build a profile, uplaod images and get talking to other people, but presumably you are encouraged to maintain your status update and discussions 'as Gaeilge' as much as you can!
With more then 50,000 native speakers in Ireland alone and many more scattered to the four corners of the globe it is hoped that Belfast-based TalkIrish.com will become a forum for them to gather, speak and learn.

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Over 2,000 students to participate in SciFest 2009

The organisers of SciFest have said they expect over 2,000 students expected to enter this year's SciFest event.
SciFest is a one-day festival of science which is held in Institutes of Technology all over the country as a regional equivalent of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, with local second level students demonstrating their projects and participating in a competition.
SciFest has been created to cater for the excess demand and provides an additional forum for students who wish to exhibit their work and experience the excitement of sharing their findings with other like-minded students. Read More

Courtesy: RTE

Social media embraces Ideas Campaign for economic recovery

The Ideas Campaign, which is calling on the people of Ireland to propose solutions that will help rebuild the economy, has evolved into a multi-social media endeavour spreading to sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ammado and IGOpeople.
The genesis for the Ideas Campaign began in February and, in weeks, Aileen O’Toole, former editor of the Sunday Business Post and managing director of web consultancy AMAS, began seeking volunteers on LinkedIn, focusing specifically on people who had just been made redundant. A campaign manager was appointed on 25 February and, by last week, the need to generate good ideas for economic recovery that focus on solutions, not problems became an item on RTÉ’s Prime Timeand Morning Ireland. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Chat app to feature on iGoogle

Google’s iGoogle portal is to add a chat widget that will allow users to enjoy instant messaging alongside other favourite applications.
Similar to the chat feature on Gmail, people will be able to send instant messages to their colleagues, friends and family straight from their iGoogle page.Until now, Gmail’s chat programme hasn’t been available on iGoogle, where everything else from weather reports, Gmail, multiple RSS feeds and other widgets could be displayed on a single web page. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Google reveals three million communities of followers on Blogger blogs

Since Google launched its Following feature during the autumn to help bloggers connect with fans of its blog and discover communities of people with the same interests, some three million communities are now linking with each other.
According to Google, there is one new person following a blog every second.
The company has announced it is integrating the Blogger Following feature with Google Friend Connect to give blogs expanded visibility across the web, as followers join other sites and share activities with friends. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Civil servants stage one-day strike against pension levy

Thousands of lower-paid civil servants are today staging a strike in protest over the Government's controversial pension levy. The general secretary of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) has said there has been a 100 per cent turnout of his members in today's one-day strike against the Government's pension levy.

Blair Horan said that 13,000 people are involved in the action, which has affected civil service departments as well as revenue commissioners, and social welfare and passport offices around the country.

Mr Horan said that the pension levy was particularly unfair to lower-paid civil servants who are represented by his union, and that it was important to make that statement today.

Mr Horan said that the CPSU would be staging further protests from the March 9th against the pension levy but that these would be on a more regional basis and would not involve all-out strikes. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

National Tree Week

National Tree Week, supported by the Tree Council of Ireland, takes place annually nationwide. For SDCC’s part, the Parks Department organises between 20 and 30 events annually, usually involving tree planting and/or guided walks for the primary school children.
This year, the Mayor, Marie Corr, is launching the Parks Department’s events in Scoil an Croi ro Naofa, Killinarden, next Tuesday 2nd March at 11am. Coillte and O2 are sponsors of the event overall. This year is the 25th anniversary of the commencement of National Tree Week and the slogan is "Our Trees- Our Culture".

Courtesy: SDCC

Five million video downloads for BalconyTV

A music television station that broadcasts on YouTube, and that is recorded every week on a tiny balcony overlooking Temple Bar. has had its five millionth video view.
“That’s four million video views in just over a year,” said BalconyTV co-founder Stephen O’Regan, who said the station’s achievement was down to the support of both indie and established bands such as The Script and U2, who gave the venture their support.
For example The Script’s BalconyTV performance topped 200,000 views, making it the most-watched BalconyTV show ever. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Eircom ploughs €100,000 into web innovation fund

Eircom has launched its Second Web Innovation Fund with support from the Waterford Institute of Technology-based Technology Software & Systems Group.
Eircom’s first Web Innovation Fund was launched in November 2007 to promote, mentor and sponsor innovative web applications in the Irish internet industry.
“It’s a very challenging time out there for start-ups in today’s economic climate,” said Cathal Magee, managing director of Eircom Retail.
“Money is tight and funding is difficult to secure. While everyone expects and accepts re-prioritisation of monies for investment, we cannot afford to lose sight of a basic fact – an economy has to continue to innovate in good times and in bad, in order to survive. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

E-commerce targeting new parents a fertile ground for Irish companies

Irish-based online businesses targeting new parents are plentiful on the web and many are operating in the e-commerce arena. Indications are that such operations will not suffer as much as other industries this year.
Aileen O’Toole, managing director of AMAS, a consultancy specialising in online channels, notes that demographically, parents fit into the category of people who buy most online.
“As parents are time-poor, it’s logical to assume they’re more likely than the general population to buy online. First-time parents in particular are thirsty for any kind of information, as they’re in unchartered territory.
“Traditionally, new parents bought every book they could and drew on the experience of a network of people who have been there before. A lot of that type of activity has transferred online. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Recession will drive more Government services online

The Irish people voted the online TV licence facility as their favourite e-government service last night at the e-Government Awards 2009.
The organisers of the awards said that the recession should be used by Government departments as an opportunity to look at ways of driving savings with in their own organisations.
Delivering education online, for example, can be up to 40pc cheaper than educating people in a classroom demonstrating again the truly significant savings that can be made by driving more and more government services online, according to Maeve Kneafsey, managing director of online strategy and marketing company, Elucidate which co-hosts Ireland’s eGovernment Awards.
“E-government, which includes e-learning, really comes into its own during a time when budgets are tight as it can mean a dramatic cut in the cost of delivering services to the citizen. It can also play a significant role in speeding up our transformation to a knowledge economy,” Kneafsey said. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

NewBay picks up ‘Best Technology’ award at GSMA

A technology that allows mobile operators stay at the forefront of digital lifestyle and social networking services created by Irish mobile software company NewBay has picked up the ‘Best Technology’ award at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The award recognises NewBay’s LifeCache as the leading aggregated social-networking solution for operators based on its proven user experience and its unique ability to easily mobilise online communities through its LifeCache SONA API.
LifeCache Social Networking currently supports a host of social networks including Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Bebo, Flickr, Meetic, Knuddels and Dailymotion.
Comprising the LifeCache Social Networking Gateway and LifeCache Social Networking Client, the LifeCache Social Networking solution is the world’s most comprehensive aggregated social-networking experience in an operator-branded environment. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Thousands protest over economy

Around 100,000 people gathered in Dublin today to protest over the impact of the economic recession on workers.
The General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, told a rally at Merrion Square, that the Government must engage with Congress's plan for the economy.
Mr Begg said said those involved in what he called corruption had done huge damage to Ireland and described their actions as economic treason.
INTO General Secretary John Carr said the demonstration was a vote of no confidence Government's handling of the economic crisis. He said the march sent a clear message that social partnership must be re-convened to produce a programme for national recovery that will have the support of all citizens. Read More

Courtesy: RTE

South Dublin County Council Digital Books Service wins Overall EGovernment Awards 2009

South Dublin County Council won Ireland's Local Government eGovernment Award as well as the Overall Award at the eGovernment awards last night, Thursday 19th February for the Digital book service which is provided by the Library Service. Minister Mary Hanafin presented the overall award to Deputy Mayor Guss O Connell and Georgina Byrne from the Library Service and congratulated the Council on its innovative achievement. Councillor O’ Connell stated that "Accepting the Local Government eGovernment Award for the Council's Digital Book Service on behalf of South Dublin County Council is a great honour and to receive the Best Overall eGovernment award is a just recognition of this project. The Digital Book Service is an innovative project that will make a difference to the lives of many people in this County. The Library now has no walls and we can all access books at anytime. I congratulate all the staff in the Library Service - Maith sibh"

Courtesy: SDCC

Networking makes the right connection

To the surprise of many sceptics, social networking is moving to the workplace, writes Karlin Lillington
GIVEN THAT the Irish have a reputation for talk, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Dublin has become one of the key development locations for IBM’s social networking software.
So-called Web 2.0 social software applications such as weblogs, wikis, chat forums and instant messaging let users easily communicate with each other and with groups, and manage and share information in a highly interactive way.
Pioneered on the internet in recent years where they have become hugely popular, these types of social networking applications have been moving gradually into the workplace – to the surprise of many sceptics who at least initially felt the applications were too insecure to make the transition into organisations. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Businesses are consumers’ worst security nightmare

Cyber-criminals are literally turning businesses against their own customers in the ongoing effort to steal consumers’ personal data.
The latest IBM 2008 X-Force Trend and Risk report has found that corporations are unwittingly putting their own customers at risk for cyber-criminal activity.
It says there has been an alarming increase in attacks using legitimate business sites as launch pads for scams against consumers.
The new X-Force report identifies two main trends from 2008 that show how criminals are targeting the masses through website attacks.
First, websites have become the Achilles’ heel for corporate IT security. Attackers are intensely focused on attacking web applications so they can infect end-user machines. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Havok wins prestigious Front Line Award

Havok, the Emmy award winning Irish company which provides interactive software and services to digital creators in the global games and movie industries, has won a prestigious Game Developer Front Line Award for its middleware product Havok Physics.

US based magazine Game Developer is the leading publication for the worldwide gaming industry and its annual Front Line Awards acknowledge technology companies and products which drive innovation and efficiency in creating state-of-the-art gameplay. Winning a Front Line Award is a significant accolade, as winners are chosen by their peers in the global game developer community. Read More

Courtesy: RTE

Digital sector to play key role in economic recovery

The weeks leading up to Christmas were about the worst possible time to release any sort of strategic report. Along with festive preoccupations, people turned their attention to headlines dominated daily by economic doom and gloom and banking crises.
So an excellent report from the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) slipped under the radar for many people. It deserves to be read and considered, especially right now, as the Government struggles to find a constructive way forward out of an economic morass.
The report by the institute’s researcher Johnny Ryan, entitled The Next Leap: Competitive Ireland in the Digital Era – which can be downloaded from www.iiea.com – is well-considered, concise, and sets out some key tasks needed to build now towards the next phase of economic growth. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Mayor of South Dublin County Council launches new Dublin Mountains Partnership website and newsletter.

Wednesday 21st January, 2009: Mayor of South Dublin County Council, Councillor Marie Corr today officially launched the Dublin Mountains Partnership website and newsletter at an event in the Big Picture Multi-Media Exhibition Space, Tallaght.

The Dublin Mountains Partnership (DMP) has been established to improve the recreation potential of the public lands in the Dublin Mountains while balancing recreation with the other key objectives of the various land owning organisations. The DMP members are Coillte, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, South Dublin County Council, Dublin City Council and the Dublin Mountains Initiative.

One of the many initiatives in the partnership ten year plan is to provide more and better information on recreation in the area. The new website www.dublinmountains.ie provides information on events, sites, trails and how to access them, maps, conservation work and the promotion of better behaviour through the Leave no Trace programme. The newsletter ‘Viewpoint’ is another way to create awareness of the work and objectives of the DMP and to outline progress made to date, and report on events held in the area.

Speaking at the event, Mayor of South Dublin County Council, Marie Corr said: “The website will improve information and ensure all visitors and users are well informed about opportunities for responsible recreation in the area”.

Also speaking at the event, Bill Murphy, Chairman of the Dublin Mountains Partnership said: “The new Dublin Mountains Partnership website is about giving people the tools necessary to access the forests and trails in the mountains for outdoor recreation and to use the public lands in a responsible and sustainable way”.

ENDS
For further information: Karen Woods, Recreation Manager Dublin Mountains Partnership, karen.woods@coillte.ie ; 01-2011187 or 087-0507022

3 launches social networking phone

The world's first fully integrated social networking mobile phone has been launched in Dublin by 3. INQ1 is specifically designed to make social networking and internet communications as easy as making a phone call or sending a text.

The INQ1 integrates Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messenger access with and a host of other social networking utilities. In addition, the phone offers integrated RSS feeds, free Skype-to-Skype calling and unlimited free instant messenger capabilities.

Robert Finnegan, Chief Executive of 3 in Ireland said: "The INQ1 represents the first mass market device to respond to radical shifts in communication. 3 is embracing the social networking trend by offering our customers the most sociable phone on the most sociable network." Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Global IT giants work to bring 21st-century teaching to schools

Cisco, Intel and Microsoft have banded together to develop new assessment approaches, methods and technologies for measuring the success of 21st-century teaching and learning in classrooms around the world.
The assessment research and development (R&D) project spearheaded by Cisco, Intel and Microsoft has received the support of major international assessment organisations.
Specifically, OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development] and the International Association of the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) have expressed interest in using the evidence-based and verifiable output of the 21st-century skills assessment to inform the development of the next versions of PISA and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), their respective international benchmarks. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Robots in battle to boost IT and maths skills in Irish schools

Irish students are programming robots that will fight it out in a competition organised by search giant Google and PC maker Lenovo to elevate maths skills in Irish schools and colleges.
Irish secondary students will compete against each other in the national final, which will be held on 12th March.
The thinking behind the SchoolBots Competition is student participation in computer games programming can help boost interest in mathematics and should be used to help reinvigorate the subject at second level.
Speaking at yesterday’s regional finals of the annual SchoolBots computer programming competition for second-level students at Tipperary Institute, Dr Liam Noonan, from Tipperary Institute’s ICT department, said students can improve their mathematics results by applying theory from text books to fun projects such as game programming.Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

South Dublin County Council confers the Honorary Freedom of the County on Ken Egan

Mayor Marie Corr on behalf of the Members of South Dublin County Council conferred the Honorary Freedom of South Dublin County on KEN EGAN, local born Olympic 2008 boxing silver medallist .
The Mayor hosted a Civic Reception in the Council Chamber, County Hall, Tallaght on Monday 12th January 2009 at 6.30pm. The eventhonoured Kennys high profile achievements as an amateur boxer, including winning 8 National Senior Championships and winning a silver medal at Light Heavyweight at the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008. The Mayor and members of the Council extended their congratulations to Kenny on his achievements to date and wished him well in his pursuit of further honours.
The Honorary Freedom of the County of South Dublin County is the highest honour the County can award to a person. It is awarded to those who achieve great levels in a particular discipline.
This award follows the passing of a resolution to confer this prestigious honour on Ken Egan by the Members of the Council at a meeting of South Dublin County Council held on 13th October 2008.

Courtesy: SDCC

Google shows off early version of Chrome 2.0

Following the full release of its Chrome Web browser in December, Google has made available an early test version of Chrome 2.0, which overhauls the way the software handles HTTP and adds functionality such as auto-complete in fields.
Released quietly via Google's Chrome developer channel, the early access code has an updated version of the Webkit developer engine and new network code to provide a cross-platform implementation of the HTTP protocol.
The new version, build 2.0.156.1, also implements auto-complete in text fields, a feature rival browsers have had for some time. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

A warrantless abuse of privacy

NET RESULTS: When it comes to abuse of privacy, where Britain goes, Ireland tends to follow. That's why we should be worried - very worried - about developments across the Irish Sea that emerged as the year rolled over into 2009.

First came a New Year's Eve story in the Guardian that home secretary Jacqui Smith will propose the creation of a single giant communications database and the option of outsourcing the storage of all the personal details held under the UK's data retention regime to a private firm.
That means potentially that a single repository - a massive, national communications database - would hold all the details about, though not the content of, everyone's e-mails, phone calls, faxes, text messages and internet use.
The same array of data is retained in Ireland as well, though at the moment, as is the case in Britain, data is retained by the communications providers, not in a central database.
Gathering such a spread of private information into a single database would create a "hellhouse" of personal private data that would not only be vulnerable to security breaches on a massive scale but would prove too great a temptation for law enforcement, according to Britain's former director of public prosecutions, Sir Ken McDonald.
McDonald was scathing in his criticism of the idea. "Authorisations for access might be written into statute," he told the Guardian. "But none of this means anything. All history tells us that assurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis, the locks would loosen."
While "security" would be cited as the main impetus for such a database, "the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy that would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile" and bring an "ugly future", he said. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

New business game for students launched

A new online game supported by Microsoft and the County and City Enterprise Boards, aimed at teaching students business skills, has been launched. The Small Business Game, which involves students running a virtual sports shop, teaches key skills such as marketing, finance and stock management.

The Business Game gives students the opportunity to develop enterprise skills in a virtual world.

It will also be closely linked to the Junior Cert curriculum. This means that teachers can utilise the game to give students the opportunity to have their students examine business concepts in a more realistic way. Read More

Courtesy: RTE

International connectivity project gets off the ground

A new €30m project that promises to provide faster broadband at lower costs via a direct link to North America, and which will help Ireland attract more foreign direct investment, is to go ahead, said the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan TD.

Called Project Kelvin, this is a cross-border venture in partnership with the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and is co-financed by Interreg funding from the European Union. Following a tender process announced last July, Hibernia Atlantic has won the contract to construct a fibre-optic submarine telecommunications cable, which will be brought ashore in Co Derry. The company is committed to completing construction no later than March next year and will operate the project until December 2018. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish users of Facebook double in just one year

THE number of Irish people using website Facebook has doubled in 12 months, new figures show.
The social networking site, founded as a private network for students at Harvard University in the US in 2004, now has 400,000 regular users compared with just under half that amount in January last year.
Most users of the site are over 25 years of age and most are female, an analysis by a Cork-based consultancy shows.
Statistics compiled by Mulley Communications from Facebook's advertising system show that Facebook in Ireland has doubled in size in 12 months, going from just under 200,000 Irish users in January 2008 to 400,980 users in January 2009. It has been a huge explosion, considering that in January 2007 just 7,000 users were registered in Ireland. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Independent

TALLAGHT has been declared Ireland’s most improved town for tackling litter

Tallaght moves out of the black in national litter stakes and has been declared Irelands most improved town for tackling litter, as opposed to a year ago when it was declared a black spot.
To recognise this achievement, Dr Tom Cavanagh, chairman of Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL), presented an award to South County Dublin Mayor Marie Corr. Dr Cavanagh described Tallaghts advance towards a clean environment as a spectacular example of the success of the litter league initiative. He said the citizens of that area should look forward to enjoying environs that are on a par with their European neighbours. IBAL said Tallaght was a model for other areas needing to improve their cleanliness ratings. The success stems from South Dublin County Council developing a litter management plan for 2008 which involved a comprehensive and independent litter survey of the wider Dublin area to help identify black spots. Cleansing operations were re-organised, various anti-litter initiatives were established and a grant scheme was organised for community organisations carrying out anti-litter projects. Critically, litter enforcement levels were increased dramatically, with 2,927 fines handed out up to November 2008.

Courtesy: SDCC

Mobile web browsing on the up

Mobile web browsing is increasing dramatically across Europe, according to the latest report from browser maker Opera.
The firm's State of the Mobile web report for November found that the number of people accessing web pages through a mobile device had risen sharply across Europe, led by Russia and Ukraine. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Local government sees big picture and uses tech to get closer to citizens

A unique new project based at the end of the Luas line in Tallaght is using multimedia technology to create closer links with communities in south Co Dublin.
South Dublin County Council is to open an inter-active exhibition centre in December, which will allow it to better utilise the latest technologies to connect with the communities it serves – a move which sets it apart from any other local authority in Ireland.
Called ‘The Big Picture’, the three-floor centre is specially designed for the citizens of south Co Dublin, which encompasses the areas of Tallaght, Rathfarnham, Clondalkin/Rathcoole and Lucan/Palmerstown.
“This will be a centre open to the public where visual and relevant multimedia content will be exhibited for public interaction on council developments. The Big Picture plans to bring to life the current public consultation process for new developments and initiatives of South Dublin County Council,” says project manager, Máire Ni Dhomhnaill. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic