EirePreneur

Move over Google Maps, Map24 covers Ireland much better

'Krustyclown2001' points out, over on the OpenEir GPS mapping project, that Map24 now have the updated NavTeq coverage of Ireland. I have to agree with him - it is indeed very impressive. Much more so than Google maps anyway.

Ryanair to make a reConnexion?

There was lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth lately when Boeing announced the discontinuation of its Connexion in-flight broadband service but if the OnAir service to which Ryanair has signed up eventually supports 3G* then I'll be able to use my Vodafone datacard, with flat-rate plan to the same effect as the axed Boeing option. Sure it's going to be a rip-off and sure it will also mean having to put up with fellow passengers yakking on incessantly but hey, you can't have it everyway!

* According to the OnAir FAQ "3G phones will revert to their 2.5G functionality (GSM and GPRS) when connected to the OnAir mobile service. Any 3G phone that does not support 2.5/2G GSM/GPRS functionality will not be able to access the service." But surely they'll be supporting 3G before long..........??

BarCampIreland now on 30th September in Cork

My prayers have been answered - BarCampIreland has been moved back one week and will now be held on September 30th in Cork. Conor O'Neill has the details.

We're just meme machines

I thorougly recommend that anyone interested in understanding the future of the blogosphere take time to listen to this talk by Dr. Susan Blackmore from The Future of Ideas session at Pop!Tech. Ever since listening to it last night I can't stop framing my own predictions of where things are going in terms of memetics. Its truly fascinating stuff and I've already added a few books on the topic to my Amazon wish list.

Thank you IT Conversations - you've turned up trumps again.

Is Mike losing his Edgeio?

Mike Arrington, one of the brains behind Edgeio, recently launched a new job board - the latest play from the Crunch stable. Now he's suggesting that other small players, like 37 Signals and GigaOm Jobs, should join forces with him in creating what he calls a "decentralised job board for tech".

"I imagined an API for entering jobs, and an API for outputting jobs, that could be displayed anywhere.... I think we should create a single widget that shows all of the jobs listed by 37 Signals, Om and CrunchBoard... We also need to allow other websites to join the network and get a fair revenue split (real: large majority) for bringing listings or potential employees to the service".

What I don't get is how Mike can apply the term 'decentralised' to such a setup. Its more like distributed pockets of centralisation.  Eventhough I've (rather pedanticly) argued previouly that Edgeio isn't a true edge aggregator[1] I still see it as the model for how a crucial part of the distributed live web will evolve. So why abandon that idea? Sure it will be a few years before it goes mainstream and Crunchboard can milk its niche market for a while but centralized jobsites have no long term future [2].

Now if Arrington wasn't clued into the Live Web I might understand but he continually demonstrates how in tune he with the importance of RSS. And of course, as Dave Winer says, the feed is the advertisement. Look at what Matt Terenzio is doing to generate a River of Jobs. That's a step in the right direction and ultimately everything will move entirely to the edges. Every company will blog their own vacancies and filter them into ad-hoc feeds, a la del.icio.us, by tagging them with relevant keywords. There will be a role for Edgeio-like aggregators to play in recombining and sanitizing those feeds, but the idea of paying a centralized job board a fee of $200 will ultimately become a nonsense.

[1] Both Keith Teare and Pete Cashmore made good points in arguing why they believe Edgeio is a true edge aggregator. I'm an advisor to Grazr Corp, another kind of edge aggregator, but Keith and myself had that debate long before I joined the team. I joined them because I'm a true believer in edge aggregation and that it can replace alot of centralization.

[2] Mike's one heck of a smart guy and I'm a big fan of his web publications but I just don't get where he's going with this long term, though it can of course be a cash cow in the short term.

Boards.ie feed grazer completed

'Twas pure drudgery 'twas but I've finally compiled all the feeds for Ireland's biggest online forum - Boards.ie - and bundled them into an OMPL file for easy grazing. Here's the Boards.ie node and here's the node as viewed through Grazr - Boards.ie grazer (might want to drag and drop that link into your browser bar).

You can also view the Boards.ie grazer in my own Feed Grazer here in the sidebar. You might particularly find it a handy way of accessing new items on forums you visit irregulary.

A plea to Irish users of del.icio.us

My del.icio.us network is populated by 21 other Irish users of the social bookmarking service. Can I ask you all, or plea with you even, to take a few extra moments after bookmarking an Irish website to also add it to the Open Irish Directory (at OpenEir.org) by clicking on the following bookmarklet, which you can drag and drop into your browser links bar - OID Bookmark

What's the point? Well each tag gets a dedicated RSS feed and OPML file so you get ready made nodes of things that interest you. For instance here's a grazr view of Irish websites to do with Surfing (of the water sports variety).

Thanks! :)

YouTube and Technorati OPML mashups

Tom Morris has created two great OPML-Grazr mashups - one for Technorati and one for YouTube.

What's the definition of Telecoms Poodle?

What's the definition of Telecoms Poodle? Comreg apparently. Hehe, nice subversive work by the bloggers of IrelandOffline.

Who moved Kerry airport?

While checking out the website for the Barcamp Ireland venue - Webworks - I was amused to see that someone had moved Kerry Airport about 30 miles south from Farranfore to Kenmare, which just about makes it fit in that all-important proximity square. Nice trick lads  ;-)