PwC says recession putting IT projects on hold

MANY ORGANISATIONS have scrapped or curtailed IT projects in light of the downturn, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey of Irish chief information officers (CIOs).

One-third of those asked said planned or initiated projects in their organisation had been cancelled in the past year. Two-thirds also reported a reduction in the scope of other projects. Eighty per cent of respondents said this kind of cost-cutting was their biggest challenge as they tried to maintain service levels and innovate.

“There’s a few different directions that it [IT spend] is going,” said Pat Kelleher, director of PwC consulting. “There’s a cost-reduction focus in IT, but there are quite a lot of companies where it’s not been cut or has actually been increased in the downturn.”Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Ireland’s Government reveals its social media strategy

The Irish Government’s Information Service has built a whole new social networking-led internet platform based on WordPress, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter called MerrionStreet.ie that will see political leaders, including the Taoiseach, 'tweet' to the nation.

As first reported on Siliconrepublic, Taoiseach Brian Cowen will imminently be in a position to "tweet" to the world based on any number of issues.

A new web presence entitled ‘MerrionStreet.ie’ will go live ‘imminently’, the team behind the project told Siliconrepublic during an exclusive preview.

The team told Siliconrepublic that the project took five months to pull together.

The move will transform Government communications from the present website and press release format to a more dynamic web presence that will include photography, videos, Facebook status updates, Twitter feeds and web chat. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish firms reap benefits of being social

Social networking has become a mainstream business tool in Ireland with fully 40% of businesses having successfully used social networks to win new business, reveals a new global survey commissioned by global workspace solutions provider Regus.

In Ireland, 41% of companies said they planned to devote a proportion of their marketing budget to social networking activities by the end of 2010.

48% of respondents in Ireland used social networking to keep in touch with contacts, slightly below the global average (of 58%).

48% of respondents declared that the main usefulness of social networks was the possibility of managing and connecting to customer groups (globally 51%) and 53% use social networks to find important business information. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Apple faces class action lawsuit over iPhone 4

A pair of dissatisfied customers have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple over reception problems in the iPhone 4 - and it is unlikely to be the only one.

Since the arrival of the latest iPhone, there have been reports of reception problems, with Apple telling users to hold the device differently to avoid disturbing the external antenna.

Maryland residents Kevin McCaffery and Linda Wrinn filed the complaint against Apple and AT&T, accusing the firms of negligence, defective design and manufacture, breach of warranty, fraud by concealment and deceptive trade practices.

'Plaintiffs were sold defective iPhone 4 units, which drops calls and data service when held in a manner consistent with normal wireless phone use,' the filing says. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Finland makes broadband access a legal right

Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications has made 1Mb/s broadband Web access a legal right.

According a report from YLE, the country's national broadcasting company, every person in Finland (a little over 5 million people, according to a 2009 estimate) will have the right of access to a 1Mb/s broadband connection starting in July.

Furthermore, the Finns may ultimately gain the right to a 100Mb/s broadband connection.

Just over a year ago, Finland announced its intentions to make a 100Mb broadband connection a legal right by the end of 2015. The announcement made on Wednesday, brings the country one step closer to its goal.

A legal right to an Internet connection reinforces the government's intentions to reinforce a citizen freedom of speech and access to information. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Google adopts ‘new approach’ in China

Internet giant Google has announced it is adopting a “new approach” to its Chinese site, Google.cn, following complaints from Beijing that could see the company lose its government licence to provide an internet service in China.

In a blog post yesterday, Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond said that instead of redirecting Chinese Google users from Google.cn to the company’s Hong Kong search engine, the company had decided to create a new landing page on Google.cn which will link to the Hong Kong site.

Google stopped censoring its search services on its Chinese site and began redirecting Chinese users to the Google.hk site to allow uncensored search last March, two months after it discovered that hack attacks had been made on its computer systems in China by sources originating from inside the country. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish firm using GPS system to transform navigation for blind

AN IRISH company is testing new technology that could revolutionise navigation for the blind. Point The Way is conducting early tests of its phone application that helps visually impaired users follow GPS directions easily.

The application uses a phone’s built-in GPS receiver and compass to gauge its location. It then vibrates when the phone is pointed in the correct direction, allowing users to follow a route by touch. “A normal GPS may say ‘go straight’, which makes sense to most people but may not to a blind person,” says Tim Walsh, director of Point The Way. “Our tool will let them put it in their breast pocket and follow it quite easily.”

The company is currently running a small trial in conjunction with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland but is hoping to expand this soon. As part of this, it is already in early stage talks with manufacturers like Motorola, which has an accessibility programme in the US. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Nokia gets ready for Oxegen with festival apps

Ahead of the biggest music festival of the year here in Ireland Nokia is readying ticket holders with a selection of free apps - Apps for Oxegen - designed to be part of the festival survival kit.

Available through Nokia's app store Ovi.com these free Apps for Oxegen include three specially created apps for the big weekend: Nokia Live Link, Nokia Recommends and Nokia Video Jukebox.

Even if you're not there on the day you can follow gigs and gossip through these apps and the Live Link app give up breaking news, stage times, special guest info as well as traffic information and where the parties are happening on-site.

Live Link is created by mobile app developer Mobanode, the tech start-up behind apps including national anthem app Amhran na Bhfiann and a variety of apps for Electric Picnic. Read More

Coursey: Silicon Republic

Brown Bag Films lands Disney contract

The twice-Oscar nominated Irish animation company Brown Bag Films has landed a major contract with Disney to produce a new children’s television series.

Brown Bag will produce a 52-episode series entitled Doc McStuffins for Disney, which will be screened on the US cable TV channel Disney Junior.

Brown Bag chief executive Cathal Gaffney said the company would be taking on an additional 14 staff over the next two years to cater for the new contract.

Gaffney founded Brown Bag Films in 1994 with Darragh O'Connell, the studio's creative head. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Demise of the desktop

AS AN increasingly rare sight on retailers’ shelves, in people’s homes and even around the office, it is clear that the desktop computer is dying. So what is driving the demise of this once ever-present machine and does it have any hope of survival?

Once expensive and unwieldy, the laptop is now the dominant player in the computer landscape.

According to both manufacturers and retailers this is because of two distinct trends which, between them, are working to squeeze out the desktop – ever-improving miniaturised technology and changing customer behaviour.

“The price points [on notebooks] have come way down and the market has caught up a lot with desktops in terms of performance,” said Aaron McKenna, country manager for online retailer Komplett.ie.

Just a few years ago, money spent on a laptop would give users far less power than the same amount spent on a desktop. However, cheaper and smaller components mean this gulf has all but disappeared at consumer levels. Read more

Courtesy: Irish Times

Irish cure for vuvuzela 'sufferers'

Irish company Restored Hearing has found a novel way to combat Vuvuzela-related hearing damage from this year's World Cup by providing a low frequency therapy for people who are suffering from temporary tinnitus.

Temporary tinnitus is caused by exposure to loud environments, such as listening to the noise of the Vuvuzela horn. In noisy environments damage can be done to the sound receptor cells in the cochlea.

The cochlea is that part of the ear which converts wave-vibrations into electric signals before sending these signals onto the brain. Read More

Courtesy: RTE News

Connect School Evaluation Report

Connect School Evaluation Report

The Connect School Evaluation Report Launch

The Connect School Evaluation Report will be launched today by Minister Eamon Ryan T.D., Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources at the Big Picture. The Big Picture is located at the last stop of the Luas in Tallaght.

The Evaluation has been carried out by Farrell Grants Sparks.

The Connect School Project is now approaching it's final year, come September the entire student cohort will have been issued with laptops. This, in conjunction with the wireless internet access and the Virtual Learning Environment makes St Aidan's one of the most progressive teaching environments in the country. There are great benefits and challenges inherent in such a ambitious project and these issues are well developed and drawn out by the Evaluation Report. Anyone working in the field of education with an interest in 21st Century teaching and learning will be very interested to read this report.

The full report will be available online once it is launched.

Watch out for a short film on the Connect School Project which will be available here once the Evaluation Report has been launched.

Avatars play starring role at virtual seminar

THE PROGRAMME for the recent Metameets conference at Dublin Institute of Technology – flagged as Europe’s Premier 3D Internet and Developer Conference – carried an unusual little note after each speaker’s name: “live” or “virtual”.

For a conference about 3D and virtual worlds, perhaps it isn’t odd at all that about a third of the presentations were given not by someone standing before the audience, but by their avatars in some online virtual world like Second Life. That a good proportion of the audience was scattered across cyberspace too is the norm for this international event, now in its second year (it debuted in Amsterdam last year).

Add to that the oddity of having the conference organisers listed by both their real-life and their avatar names, and you get the picture.

These are people passionate about the virtual, who do not consider it just an amusing pastime, or a hobby, but a significant element of daily life and for many, their chosen area of entrepreneurship and business. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Most Irish politicians to use social media for campaigning

MORE THAN three-quarters of Irish TDs plan to use social media tools in the next general election campaign, with Facebook overwhelmingly the favoured platform.

A new survey from PR firm Pembroke Communications found that 77 per cent of politicians said they would use these web-based tools to get their message out during the next hustings. Of the 48 TDs that responded to the phone and online survey, 96 per cent said they would use Facebook, 65 per cent said they planned to use Twitter, while half said they would use YouTube and blogs.

The survey found that fewer than one-third had used social networking tools in the 2007 general election.

The recent British election saw a large number of prospective MPs use web tools to communicate with voters. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

Merck's MSD to create 150 new Dublin jobs

MSD is recruiting immediately for 150 positions at a new facility to be located in South County Dublin.

MSD is a part of Merck, the world's second largest pharmaceutical company.

The new MSD shared business services centre will serve the firm's operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Already MSD has manufacturing, research and sales and marketing centres located in Ireland - in Swords, Cork, Wicklow, Tipperary and Carlow.

The new facility will provide support in the areas of finance and accounting and the 150 jobs have all been described as high quality by the IDA which is supporting the project.

Ireland and Dublin was selected because of its track record in delivering such complex projects according to MSD and Merck.

The company says the country's educational system, quality of the workforce and proximity to European markets were all key factors in deciding to locate the jobs here.

Courtesy: RTE News

Dublin social media firm raises €500k

Dublin-based social media agency Simply Zesty has just announced news of a €500,000 investment from The Oxford Research Agency (TORA) for a minority stake in the firm.

Celebrating its one-year anniversary earlier this week, the investment now values the social media company at €1m. With clients including Vodafone, Universal Pictures, Nokia and The Body Shop, Simply Zesty was co-founded by chef Niall Harbison and social media marketing consultant Lauren Fisher in May 2009. TORA is a long-standing market research agency founded in 1982, whose repertoire includes retail and shopper insight, social research and simulated test markets.

"This is a huge vote of confidence for our young company and we are delighted to be partnering up with such a well-established and reputable company," said co-founder Niall Harbison.shopper insight, social research and simulated test markets. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

Irish diaspora create their own social networking site

Some 5,000 members have already signed up to join a social networking site called RendezVous 365 that aims to link the 80m people of Irish heritage across the world. It is poignant that such a site is being established by emigrants as the spectre of emigration returns.

RendezVous353 was created in response to modern-day emigration, providing a resource for Irish people all over the world to stay connected with each other and to provide a link between those in Ireland and the Irish-connected people outside of Ireland. Since the test site was created in February, 5,000 members worldwide have already signed up. The newly launched version of the site aims to connect Irish business people around the world, encouraging social interaction and creating a platform for business networking amongst the diaspora. Read More

Courtesy: Silicon Republic

State urged to support clean technology

THE GOVERNMENT and public services should be using their purchasing clout to aid the development of the Republic’s clean technology sector, according to some of the industry’s leading figures.

The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) yesterday published a snapshot of the sector, Inside the Smart Economy, at a seminar for the industry, its financiers and relevant State agencies. After the event, SEAI chief operations officer Dr Brian Motherway said one of the issues that the report identified was the need for State support for the industry, which was just beginning to find its feet.

Mr Motherway said that did not necessarily mean grants but through adjusting procurement policies so that the companies involved could sell their technology, goods and services to the State.

He said this would give the businesses a meaningful revenue stream on the one hand and also allow them to demonstrate the worth of their products to other potential customers. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times

At last the west awakes to broadband

FOR SEÁN O’Flannagáin broadband access is more than simply a luxury. The former investment banker left Merrill Lynch earlier this year to set up a small investment management firm, Kinsale Capital Management. Based between Dublin and Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands off the west coast, O’Flannagáin depends on high-speed internet access to successfully run his business.

“When we decided to set up the business, we knew that dependable, high-speed broadband was imperative,” he says. “It wasn’t just a matter of having access to e-mail and the internet, we’re increasingly using cloud computing so we need to access data remotely.” Much of the firm’s work involves the use of web-enabled applications. Because it works with global banks, it needs to have secure and speedy access to finance programs.

The arrival of wireless broadband to the remote islands in November last year allowed O’Flannagáin to base his business in Inisheer.

He eventually hopes to work full-time from the area. Read More

Courtesy: Irish Times