EirePreneur

With no plans for wireless internet service is Irish Rail really "getting there"?

Image via WikipediaI’m taking my first train to Dublin in years (I usually drive) next Tuesday from Charleville station in Co. Cork. I’m not sure I’ll even bring my laptop with me because I don’t own a datacard from one of the mobile operators for access to mobile broadband (3G, HSDPA). With more and more access to free and open wifi it makes no sense for me to subscribe to such a service for the relatively few times I would need it. And besides, I've previously had a very bad experience with Vodafone Ireland.

When I booked my ticket online yesteday I was surprised to see a €20+ difference between Standard class and Premier Class. However if I knew I’d have seamless wifi broadband for the duration of the jouney, dedicated power point and a quieter more comfortable carriage for working in I’d happily pay that premium.

But Will Knott has been doing some research and found that Irish Rail have no plans to go down that route. In his opinion -

"Even if a current mobile broadband carrier offered to install the local technology on even their First Class (City Gold) carriages and you’ll find that the number of business users would increase. I mean, you have just given a very valid incentive to pay for a “City Gold” ticket! Remember that “cloud computing” is an option used by a lot of companies. For that to work an internet connection is needed. On a almost three hour train trip from Dublin - Cork you can get a lot done."

Other Irish bloggers too have been voicing strong opinions about Irish Rail. Paul Watson was shocked at the price of a trip for two from Waterford to Dublin -

"It cost €63 return for the two tickets. On a Sunday. With a half-full train. Even halved that is more than would have been spent on petrol if we had taken the car and accounted for parking. Once we got to Dublin we then had to fork out another €8, then €24 and a further €20 to get around by taxi. Had the train times been more flexible we could have used the bus service but as it was there was no way we could have used the bus to get around Dublin and been back to the station to catch our train back to Waterford."

And Damien Mulley discovered the meaning of that oblique Irish Rail catchphrase, 'technical difficulties' - "Getting there when they’re good and ready and if you’re not happy about that then they’ll strike."

But getting back to the issue of onboard broadband Will Knott believes Irish Rail are missing the opportunity to make a lot of money, "and the mobile carriers are missing out by leaving 'coverage holes' on the route.". Conor O'Neill has been documenting those coverage holes on both the O2 and Vodafone networks and while O2 is the winner of his tests it's clear that neither option is satisfactory.

According to the Irish Rail FAQ they'll "continue to monitor the speed of advance of such technologies and if we deem that change is not occurring quickly enough we may reconsider the situation." Well listen up Irish Rail - CHANGE IS NOT HAPPENING QUICKLY ENOUGH!!

Twitterfone can enhance the conference backchannel

Image via WikipediaThe big news on Twitter today is that Cork-based Cubic Telecom, along with Dublin-based Dial2Do and an alliance of international partners have together launched Twitterfone - a voice-to-text service which voice-enables Twitter, the hottest social networking service at the moment. With Twitterfone, people can dictate text messages via their mobile to be sent out to everyone on their Twitter social network.

I signed up for the beta and took it for a quick spin. Ironically my west Limerick accent tripped it up just as I was saying "west Limerick". Listening to numerous other tests by those on my Twitter network however it's clear that the translation technology is very advanced, getting it right more often than not, many times even against a noisy background.

When I attended Podcamp in Kilkenny last October I got to observe first hand the potential for a backchannel to enhance the conversation. Ustream was used to webcast a live video feed and remote users' input relayed via the Ustream chat room, Twitter and Jaiku. I was so impressed by this that I've proposed a similar backchannel for 3Dcamp - the upcoming barcamp being held at University of Limerick.

It strikes me now that Twitterfone can greatly enhance the bachchannel experience for those in attendance and those virtually attending. How much better to relay questions and comments audibly, literally from the horses mouth, rather than by proxy. And it's hard to imagine an easier way for the backchannel 'director' to manage the flow than a via a unified Twitter stream.

So I'd ask all those hoping to virtually join us in Limerick on May 24th, from remote locations, to sign up for Twitterfone as soon as possible so as to be ready to phone in your commentary for the various speakers and panels.

Related articles

• Use TwitterFone For Easy Voice-To-Text On Twitter
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Resitance is futile - Google Reader to assimilate Blogger

Image by VoIPman via Flickr

In early 2007 I asked - "What sense does it make that I have to open my Performancing plug-in to blog, visit a blogger's web page to comment and invoke a del.icio.us pop-up to take a note? None! I should be able to perform each annotation from within my aggregator - a single unified interface to the Live Web. And I'm betting that's exactly what Google ReWriter will become."

In fact Robin Blandford and I have been having a conversation about the mythical "Google ReWriter" for quite a while now so when he brought my attention this morning to the announcement of new Google Reader's new Share with note features I have to admit I got geekily excited.

This upgrade essentially turn Google Reader into a very basic blogging tool and it's now encroaching on Blogger territory. Here's my Google Reader blog, with a new header style, webpage excerpt plus comment, shared feed item plus comment, standalone comment (post) and reblogged items.  Formatting options are non existent but make no mistake about it, Google Reader is moving closer and closer towards being an integrated web annotation suite and will eventually assimilate Blogger.

Live OpenCoffee hookup between Dublin, Limerick and Waterford

Image by thekatespanos via FlickrMaryrose and Joe report on the plans being made to do a live video hookup between Dublin, Limerick and Waterford OpenCoffee Clubs this Thursday 1st May from 11am. Joe describes OpenCoffee thus -

"There has been a ground swell movement going on. All voluntary with a great mix of academics, bloggers, entrepreneurs, developers, gadget freaks and just about anyone interested in technology and networking."

I'll be tuning in from the Limerick side.

Bytes 'n pieces

Image via Wikipedia

- Conor Wade has moved over to San Francisco to be the eyes and ears of Co. Clare based startup Tourist Republic. I'm very jealous of Conor - what a wonderful opportunity Jan Blanchard has given him, one he'll make the very best of I know. I'm really looking forward to keeping up with his adventure on his new blog - Bosco is my Hero - and hope he'll also bring us up to speed at the odd Limerick OpenCoffee during his trips home.

- Liam Noonan is thinking of generating some of his own electricity with a wind turbine at his home in Upperchurch, Co. Tipperary. Luckily for those of us thinking of doing likewise he's documenting the process. Step 1 was to put a wireless weather station in place.

- There's now a mobile version of Just Routes.

- And if you lose your mobile here's one way you might be able to get it back.

- OpenCoffeeClub BBQ has been set for July 16th - everybody's welcome! And OpenCoffeeClub Waterford is going to be held at the same time as OpenCoffeeClub Limerick next Thursday 1st of May to facilitate a simulcast between the two venues.

The Lisbon Treaty will be rejected...

Image via Wikipedia

... if the straw poll I took is anything to go by. And I'm not claiming it is, but still - 37 votes, 68% No, 19% Yes, 14% Undecided. And I don't think too many farmers voted yet ;-)

Even more interesting though has been some of the debate the poll generated-

Michael Flanagan: "The fact this has been passed without vote throughout the rest of Europe has me leaning heavily towards a NO vote out of respect to the democracy of other nations."

Evert Bopp: "The EU government has turned into a "regulate for the sake of regulating" circus and has to be disbanded at the earliest opportunity. We are expected to vote for a 'treaty' that even the politico's that put it together can't explain properly."

James Gallagher: "I can't see this treaty as anything other than a threat on our right to self-determination. Our constitution gets eroded enough (mainly on neutrality) without handing over any more power to diminsh it."

Chris Byrne: "I will vote Yes because I don't trust Irish politicians. I believe that this will make them more accountable on a world stage."

Joe O'Brien: "IBEC are calling for a Yes vote partly because it will strengthen our hand against the French. That a couple of millionaires feel it will harm their interests doesn't cut much ice with me."

On a related Jaiku discussion Will Knott made an interesting point regarding my poll and suggested a more specific and revealing set of questions. So if you've already taken the previous poll (please do) it would be great if you could now take this one -

You can learn more about the Treaty of Lisbon on Wikipedia.

Havok co-founder coming to 3Dcamp (along with other very interesting people)

Image via Wikipedia

Still a month to go and we're already at the 30-ish registrations mark for 3Dcamp. If you're curious you can click through to most of the people / companies on the Attendees page and the current list of talks on the Speakers page.

We have people coming who are involved (or interested) in designing educational environments in virtual spaces, building video CVs, eLearning, 3D visualisations for medical devices, 3D modelling, film/animation production, location based services and much much more.

Steve Collins, co-founder of Havok, is also coming. Havok of course is the company behind the amazing physics and animation engine which has been used in films like The Matrix and games like Second Life. And you'll recall that Intel acquired the company last September. Steve also serves on the Irish chapter of the International Game Developers Association.

Video reviews of the Sunday newspapers

Bernie Goldbach takes a look at the Irish Sunday newspapers so you don't have to. Just keep an eye on his QIK page for more -


The meme obviously has legs with Pat Phelan taking a more, er, cranky approach -

Poll: How are you voting on the Lisbon Treaty?

This Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) is urging a 'yes' vote on the Lisbon Treaty. While highly successful businessman Ulick McEvaddy has added his voice to the 'no' campaign by joining the Libertas group.

IBEC says the treaty -

• is vital to ensure growth in the Irish economy at an increasingly challenging time.
• protects Ireland's interests and will encourage more foreign investment, thereby helping to create jobs.
• will help support Irish exporters at a time when they are under pressure due to the weakness of the US dollar.

McEvaddy on the other hand has read the treaty four times and still doesn't understand it! "We are simply being asked to vote for something here in Europe that nobody understands and that is being handed out as the Lisbon Treaty."

I'd normally be an automatic 'Yes' vote for something like this but all I've read so far on the Lisbon Treaty has left me in an utter state of confusion. And all this talk of EU Tax harmonization 'by the back door' has me leaning, if anything, on the side of a no vote. How will you be voting?

Disturbing new fashion

Just goes to show how rubbish a programme You're a Star was when I thought all-girl rock band Black Daisy were kind of crap really. But wow, their new single - Distburbing New Fashion - has completely changed my mind [via Limerick Blogger]