Category: Irish Blogs

Idea for the Bar Camp South East logo, found somewhere between the end of Part 7 of Band Of Brothers and the chinese arriving just in time to stick on ‘The Rock‘ on DVD 🙂

Here’s the winners from last night’s Net Visionary awards…. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Social Contribution
Sean O Dowd – Realboyle.com – Winner

Technology Journalist Award
John Collins – John Collins (Freelance) – Winner

Innovation Award
Niall Kelly – Salesjobs.ie – Winner

E-government Award
Peter Dee – Dublin City Council – Winner

Internet Marketer
Fintan Lonergan – Aer Lingus – Winner

Web Designer Excellence
Declan O Donnell – IrishJobs.ie – Winner

Web Developer Excellence
Eimear Fogarty – IrishJobs.ie – Winner

Online trader
John Breslin – adverts.ie / Boards.ie Ltd – Winner

Educational Contribution
Matt Glowatz – University College Dublin – Winner

Internet Entrepreneur
Richard Moyles – Furntech Ltd – Winner

Mobile Internet Contribution
Aisling McCabe – RTÉ Publishing – Winner

Best Online Banking Service
Gavin Ross – Bank of Scotland (Ireland) – Winner

Best Podcaster
Brian Greene – doopdesign – Winner

Best Blogger
Twenty Major – Twenty Major – Winner

Following Damien’s earlier post, can I suggest the following…

• Nice logo (get rid of the colour bar)
• Decent stylesheet (blue links on a blue background don’t go)
• Option to add original post to del.icio.us, Kick or any other social bookmarking site, links outputted with each post.
• Utilise the space in the top right corner with something, anything, even if its an ad block, just looks like a white square
• Add the OPML feed that is suggested in the about section, then enable OPML discovery
• Graphic links for Politics in Ireland (might be able to get other political bloggers to sport a small button for posts from their chosen party etc.). Something handy, 88*31, 80*15 etc.
• Make use of meta tags in the source code
• Possible to arrange a daily email of ‘posts of the day’?

Just for beginners… it is Saturday night after all…..

Update: That box in the corner thing… how about a Google search for the site? Does the software have any way of generating a Google sitemap per post?

The Net Visionary shortlist has been announced with Michele, Twenty Major, and Tom Raftery all up for the Best Blogger award.

Check the shortlist.

Long way off the top and by no means is it my goal to be there, but Justin Mason has compiled a list of the top 100 Irish blogs as defined by Technorati.

Plugging ourselves here as much as being able to register to vote but if you’re in Dublin today, take a stroll to Film Base in Templebar where Dick Roche TD is going to launch RegisterToVote.ie as sponsored by Fianna Fail. We’ve been responsible for the design of their leaflet/poster/web campaign. The campaign is aimed at young people to get them onto the electoral register ahead of next year.

The literature and poster campaign, launched by Environment Minister Dick Roche TD, will also feature a website, www.registertovote.ie, where young people can find out how to get themselves on the electoral register.

The cathaoirleach of Ógra Fianna Fáil, Dún Laoghaire TD Barry Andrews, will also attend the launch.

Venue: Film Base, Curve St, Templebar, Dublin Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2006 Time: 1pm

The iQ Boot Camp by iQ Content draws to a close today up in The Morrison in Dublin. Must say, had a very nice email from Lar Veale in relation to the bootcamp which has had “really positive” feedback over the series of workshops. Maybe next time around for me! (Also see my previous post here, iQ Bootcamp For October)

Anyone manage to get there, either for one day or more? Some nice 3-hour sessions had over the three days by the looks of things, with the keynote speakers delivering their own presentations this afternoon before hitting the cocktails tonight!

The 2006 IIA & CheetahMail Net Visionary Awards are now open for your voting. Looks like Keith and Aidan have managed to get themselves in there this year, Keith for Bohanna Consulting under the educational contribution category and Aidan for his new blog which launched within the last 2-3 weeks, WierdInfo.com. Tough competition going up against Tom, Michele and Twenty Major in the best blogger category but best of luck to you!

This is just the preliminary stage and voting will close on October 23rd when the overall shortlist will be announced. Some nice people and companies to choose from in the meantime, so go cast your vote here.

I won’t be in attendance though at this late stage of the game it triggers my interest but making the journey to Cork isn’t on the cards for me tomorrow. However, it is on the cards for a nice sizeable chunk of the Irish blogging community, many of whom I check in on on a daily basis, which is actually a pity as a pint in Cork (come on… it says BeerCamp on the bottom!) would be tasty.

Anyway, those people still not in the know….

Barcamp is a technology-focused, ad-hoc gathering of passionate folks who want to share, interact and spread the love around what they spend their days and nights toiling away on. It is an informal gathering of people from technical and business backgrounds, where information and experiences are exchanged. The event is geared towards sharing knowledge and learning from others and there is a policy of encouraging active participation in all discussions.

Its free for the day (find your own parking / accommodation / look after your own bar tab) and kicks off just after 9am tomorrow in the Webworks building on Eglinton Street (come up Patricks Quay, swing over the bridge and go straight on (don’t turn right for the Bus Station) and you’ll run onto Eglinton Street in a minute or so (near enough to the city hall).

There’s a shed load of (nice and polite Ken) talks going on and it looks to be a fantastic turnout. Keep an eye on the official site and the blog as well, updating during the day no doubt, while we can also expect plenty of feedback from the many participants and attendees. There’s free WiFi going too…

Rumour has it theres some food on in Wagamama tonight (great restaurant I might add)… though its already getting late. Keep an eye on the blog for updates.

Pat Phelan mentions this morning that Rick Segal and Shel Israel are hitting Cork on the 17th of next month and there is a bloggers dinner being organised if you can make it down.

Dinner is in Taste of Thailand Bridge St Cork (they also do Western dishes if you don’t like Thai food)
17th October @ 8pm

I won’t be there but its good to pass the word…. as we were so kindly asked…. 🙂

We just confirmed the venue for the Irish Blogger Conference: Blogging The Election. The venue is the Digital Hub on Dublin’s Crane Street. And the date is Saturday October 7th.

The date has been set, guests will be announced shortly and they’re looking for some sponsorship (my guess to pay for the caterers if they come “with the right cost”.

Keep an eye on IrishElection.com or check the post here.

I like StatCounter, have been using them since the early college days and currently track a dozen or so sites and blogs with their free stats package. James Corbett (EirePreneur) is now looking for someone handy with a bit of scripting to aggregate stats from across all listed Irish blogs using StatCounter to track hits.

Sounds all very interesting and I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing the end result 🙂

Picked this up via a trackback to my post earlier in the year about mapping crime in New York… Matthew Sammon has launched Dublin Crime with the main site here and their blog here.

At the moment the map displays details of homicides that were discovered in Dublin from 2004 onwards; information about these crimes has been taken from Irish news reports.

As well as including the details of future homicides after they occur, it is possible that more data will be added to the map, for example:

• Homicide data from before 2004
• Locations of Garda (State police force) stations
• Armed robberies
• Non-fatal shootings
• Large seizures of illegal narcotics

The blog is in simlar vein to RoadDeaths.ie, set up by friend and colleague John Butler earlier this year which is providing crash reports and an excellent Google Maps set up of all road death locations in Ireland from earlier this year as well as Garda press releases on the same.

Great to see how this new resource will develop over time.

A point that I raised some time ago now was the introduction of a National Blogging Day with a possible date set at August 1st. Just me throwing out ideas, something Mr. Mulley and one or two others seemed to like as well.

Irregardless of whether it takes off or not, or whether it could be shifted to coincide with the Blog Awards you can expect afore mentioned post from me on the day. Hell if the whole thing takes off I can always add a few lines at a later date… just something to get the ball rolling! The idea I think is fairly simple. One day out of the year (my intial suggestion being August 1st), take a few minutes out of your day and throw up a post telling the world, or your readers – whoever – a little about what blogging has done for you in the previous year. Not looking at all the years, just the previous 12 months, that way every year it can be built upon with ease.

Just a few minutes, whether its 2 or 3 lines, a paragraph or a big hearty post!

Maybe it would be nice to have it coincide with the Blog Awards – at least that way you can ensure that there’ll be a bit of a pissup afterwards *ahem* “meet and greet session” *ahem* (thats the right order, yeah? ;))

What do all the good folk of the Blog O’Sphere say, hmmmm?

Or at least people using IrishBlogs.ie do as this picture might show from a visit to the site this morning. Whats the story there eh? Now I could be wrong, and maybe its just Big Brother that people have a real interest in. Big what now?

They’re on MySpace, they have a podcast, and you can download every showing via YouTube…

Are you part of a band? Are you a singer? Are you a poet? Are you a celebrity with a cause? Are you a celebrity with something to say? Are you a celebrity with nothing to say? Can you juggle? Can you stand on your head? Are you Bono? Are you Terry Wogan? Can you turn translucent? Can you crack a few jokes? Are you a stand up comedian? Are you a politician? Do you want to defend your policies? Bertie this could be for you! Speak to the world! Break a news story! Shamelessly publisise something! (It better be good!) Its all possible on Balcony TV.

Innovative Irish site that I was introduced to this morning, Balcony TV could be described as a semi show/video blog coming to you from high over Dame Street in Dublin and watching and listening to some of the performances going on, I think this is a cracker way for people to get introduced to the Irish public online. Some fantastic songs and a great use of the whole Web 2.0 environment…

Balcony TV, well worth checking out for your Friday’s entertainment.

RoadDeaths.ie (yes, now at a .ie domain, as well as its previous incarnation at RoadDeaths.net) has had its death toll figures reach the 200 mark. If you’re still unaware of the site, it is being run by friend and colleague John Butler and provides a great Google Maps mashup crash locations as the accidents happen. While work continues on publishing details from the beginning of this year, one quick glance and the map will tell you that its not going to be a pretty picture by the time we hit December 31st.

One Irish blog is certain to cause a wake up call to the Irish government and driving public this year.