Thursday, February 26, 2009

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

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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

Monday, February 23, 2009

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

Monday, February 9, 2009

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

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

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

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

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