EirePreneur

A file format for character?

As well as posting a great introduction to OPML, John Henry Donovan at 5pieces.com has published his collection of links in that same outline format. What's remarkable about this file is how quickly you can get a picture of his personality by scanning the outline.

Click through on Articles and you'll see links to arts, food, movies, music, technology and travel. Click into Tutorials and you'll glimpse his professional interests - Photoshop, Expression Engine and Flash.

Now if John Henry had just published all those links in a flat list you'd be none the wiser - your brain couldn't parse, at a gander, his broader categories of interest. By publishing in outline format he's added meta-data to his personality.

By the way, I've now inserted the file into the Open Irish Directory (see sidebar at left) under the following path -

News & Media -> Blogging -> Blogger Feeds

Technorati Tags: OPML

BlogFlocks for hire

Watching the video from Scoble's Grapes on a Plane junket I was interested to hear Steve Broback recall the reaction of various wineries to his proposal for a blogger event. Either they didn't know what blogging was or they were scared of it.

Of course I was also a little jealous of the group who were flown in a Learjet to the Washington winery by one of the Blog Business Summit sponsors. John Bocolla CEO of Greenpoint Technologies explained that the purpose was to "create a little buzz about what we do and do something a little fun." That's because Greenpoint have few suitable venues to advertise their business - while there are a few journals for their industry those are mostly read by their competitors!

Now, how long is it going to take for Irish organizations to catch onto such buzz opportunities? To make it easier for them I've created a new wiki - BlogFlocks. BlogFlocks are groups of bloggers who are ready and prepared to go on junkets in return for objective coverage of an event. Just add your name and availability and wait for the call, and wait.... and wait....


Technorati Tags: BlogFlock, junket, scoble

Business Expansion Scheme expands

Silicon Republic labels the Minister for Finance 'Santa Cowen' after news that the Business Expansion Scheme (BES) will be expanded for another seven years. Not only that but the ceiling has been doubled from €1m to €2m and the annual limit for investors has been raised from its old limit of €31,750 to €150,000. The annual investor limit for the BES sister scheme, the Seed Capital Scheme, has been put at €100,000.

Excellent news all around for Irish entrepreneurs ... thank you Santa :)


Technorati Tags: business expansion scheme, seed capital, entrepreneurship

Interview with Paul Walsh of Segala

Good to hear an Irish entrepreneur - Paul Walsh of Segala - interviewed on Tom Raftery's Podleaders. Personally I'd like to have learned more about Paul's experience in building a very interesting company, though I realize that's not the focus of Tom's podcasts. Thumbs up anyway.

Oxfam Ireland understands new media

I know I'm not the only one getting these emails from Oxfam Ireland, gently prodding me to help spread the word about their new online Fair Trade shop, but they're executing the campaign so nicely it's hard to resist. The messages may be canned but they're addressed personally and politely, not at all pushy.

On this occasion they've asked me to embed a "recently created viral video to publicise our Christmas page, which shows the various ways that people can buy gifts online with Oxfam Ireland." You might take issue with the 'viral video' label (surely until such time as it goes viral it's just an advert?) and it might not be hilarious, but Oxfam are engaging the community with such style that it's impossible to refuse. So here it is -



Technorati Tags: oxfam, ireland, fair trade, charity, christmas

A damning indictment of Irish VCs

Conor O'Neill of startup LouderVoice posts what I can only describe as a damning indictment of Irish VCs -

"It turns out that not only do they not get involved in early-stage tech investment but they have made zero tech investments since the crash! Their clients “still have the scars from the last time”. It also turns out that “early stage” in their view was anything prior to exit/IPO."

My God, I'm still shaking my head. I had to look up the definition of 'venture' again just to make sure I wasn't living in a parallel universe but there it is, in black and white -

n. An undertaking that is dangerous, daring, or of uncertain outcome. v. To proceed despite possible danger or risk

What a misnomer then for these yellow-belly, lily liver Chicken Capitalists.

Don't bank money, bank people

Wonderful words of wisdom from Om Malik in relation to entrepreneurship and doing the things you love (the money will follow) -

"My grandfather, long departed, used to say, son don’t bank money, bank people. If you do that, you are going to be much better off."

That beautiful turn of phrase echoes what I was saying yesterday in relation to blogging - it's for networking, not journalism (for me at least). I've got AdSense in the sidebar to pay the TypePad bills but I'm not banking money, I'm banking people.

RTE News goes virtual

It was a big day for entrepreneur John Mahon in the Irish media yesterday. Not only did screenshots from his Dublin sim adorn the Virtual Ireland supplement in The Times but he was also interviewed by Philip Bromwell on RTE's 6one news. Yes, believe it or not, RTE's main even news bulletin went in exploration of Second Life. Now it has surely jumped the shark!

What was really interesting though was to observe the reaction of some viewers. At 6.49pm, directly after the news item, I got my first click through here on a search for "Dublin in Second Life" from Google.ie. Between that and 8pm I had 24 more hits for similar search terms after which time it tapered off sharply.

Which goes to prove that people will interrupt what they're doing and invoke the all-seeing Google when they come across something that piques their interest. Either the PC is always-on in the background or it's not an hindrance to boot it up. The sit back and sit forward media can and do complement each other. And the transition can happen in a flash.


Technorati Tags: rte, news, second life, dublin

It's a sign of The Times....

... that the 'paper of record' could include a quote from your's truly on my thoughts about technology. But today's Virtual Ireland section includes a snippet from me in an article by John Collins entitled Power to the People - that takes a look at how users can create and share their own content online. John finishes -

"Traditionally, new technology was introduced to the business market first before trickling down to home users, but now the innovation is happening in the consumer space. It seems like the technology industry has discovered the advantage of giving power to the people."

Mark Foley, who teaches journalism at Dublin Institute of Technology could do with reading John's article because in a head to head with Bernie Goldbach he proves that he's totally missed the point of blogging. Unlike John Collins he seems incapable of looking at it through anything other than the narrow lens of journalism. In fact the drop quotes are particularly informative. Foley says -

"So what if people want to publish their thoughts.... but journalism it is not"

While Goldbach comes from a completely different angle -

"I am no longer a lonely author on the web. I am hooking up with people all over the map"

Spot on! This citizen journalism stuff is blown out of all proportion. I am not an citizen journalist nor have I any plans to be. I'm not any kind of a journalist in fact. My blog is for networking.... it's my digital agent. And only for it I'd never see my name in The Irish Times!

UPDATE: Krishna De has emailed the editor of the Virtual Ireland supplement to ask why the business benefits of blogging were not covered. Let us know what if any response you get Krishna!

Zed.0 - web services naming gone mad

First we had Zimbio, then we had Zillow and now we have Zudeo. I wonder what's left? Zappeo? Zullio? Zip-a-dee-doo-dah-day-eo?

Thank goodness some companies have sense to see beyond the fad of 'madey-up' names!