EirePreneur

High fly the feeds of Athenry

Why doesn't every club, association and tiddly-winks team in the country have a website like the one the Athenry Athletic Club have? Not because its the most beautiful example of visual design you'll ever find but simply because they supply useful RSS feeds and publish a calendar of events in iCal format.

I found the site because I was dreaming that RTE might make their schedules available through similar channels and thereby a one click import away from my Entertainment Google Calendar. But a search on RTE only threw up results like the RTE BHAA 5 Mile Road Race and Leinster Rugby matches featured on the TV channel. Hmmm, considering the results of Sunday's match there's something almost karmic about Leinster Rugby and Athenry turning up together for a spurious search like that - "Low lie the fields....." ;-)

Pssst, wanna join my pyramid scheme?

Unlike other pyramid schemes the only thing you need to invest when joining the Open Irish Directory  (OID) project is a little of your time. And believe it or not, everyone is a winner,.. from the very start.

The OID is an information pyramid, a directory, a hierarchy of categories and sub-categories into which we'll organize the Irish web, blogosphere and feedosphere. There are two ways you can help us build it -

The Very Easy Way

Simply copy (drag and drop) this bookmarklet - OID - to your browser toolbar and click on it any time you visit an Irish website that you'd like to add to the directory. Please follow a few simple guidelines when submitting the bookmark -

• Edit the title to make it concise and accurate (eg. remove the "Welcome to....")
• Copy and paste a relevant passage from the webpage into the description field.
  
• Tag liberally
  
• Do not use 'Ireland' or 'Irish' as a tag - it goes without saying!
  

The Easy Way

Build and manage a sub-category for inclusion in the directory. Pick a category according to your domain of interest and/or geographical location. For instance you might like to build a list of websites relevant to parents in Cork. Or to list the websites for businesses, clubs and organisations in your community. Here's how -

• Register for a free account at OPMLworkstation or OPMLmanager
  
• Add your website and feeds to the list and keep an eye on the OID for new bookmarks matching relevant keywords (eg. 'Cork' and 'Parenting')
• Email me at address above or comment here to notify us of your new directory category
• Blog about your category and invite submissions though the process as listed in "The Very Easy Way" above.

There you have it, the most benign Pyramid scheme ever. No money changes hands and you get help build a useful resource for the internet newbies and oldies alike.

No Experience Required but a Fund worthy idea would be nice!

So Thursday night is the new entrepreneurship night on RTE TV. I was looking forward to The Fund but didn't really expect too much of No Experience Required. As it turned out The Fund was quite boring with not a single knock-out idea on show while No Experience Required was unexpectedly entertaining and even saw two of the Advertising Creative wannabes jetting off to Malta to research a billboard campaign. Tough life, eh?

You've got to wonder though if RTE made enough advance effort to get the word out about The Fund. With a €25,000 prize on offer I was amazed at the poor ideas paraded infront of the judges. Ok, not every good business idea needs to have wow factor but I was at least expecting one that would give me 'now why didn't I think of that?' envy.

By the way, RTE are at this very moment (1 to 2 pm Friday 3rd March) hosting a live webchat with career adviser Mike Fiszer who prepped each candidate before interview on last night's episode of No Experience Required. Congrats to RTE on showing embracing the web just a little more.

Welcoming Fergal Breen to the Web2.0 Ireland blog

We're delighted to welcome Fergal Breen of the Irish Developers Network who joins us on the Web2.0 Ireland blog. Fergal recently gave a presentation entitled Introduction to Web2.0, Definition, Business, Marketing and Software Design at the cohosted Irish Internet Association and IDN event in Dubin, and he's now summarised alot of that presentation in this post.

1time needs more time

Its a week since Keith Bohanna pointed to 1time but I forgot to take a look until Emmet mentioned it again today. Keith says -

A quick note on 1time - a new online service that I just came across that offers a web-based time and expense tracking application that allows you to easily keep track of real time project costs..... The service is from Jeebers whose CEO Derek Organ has a blog here.

We need to do a proper review of this for Web 2.0 Ireland but my initial reaction is that its really a pre-beta service. Des Field Corbett felt likewise when he wrote on Derek Organ's blog -

I went to the website but left again as I couldn’t see info/screenshots before signing up. I know I could have just signed up and looked about but before I get to the lifetime commitment of us sharing my info I’d like to date a bit first. Any chance of some info/screenshots on the website or a login to a sample setup.

Des is right. There are a few staples of proper Web 2.0 betas which really shouldn't be ommitted, especially the Learn more, FAQ and Tutorial (Demo) links, not to mention a proper About us page instead of a Contact us link that merely invokes an email message. Without any of this information I can't see many people committing to a 10 minute sign-up.

Irish tourism should be using PictureCloud

I wonder which real estate agent will be first to use PictureCloud. This is such a simple and effective method of 360% photography that the excuse of cost and complexity just won't cut it any more. Every tourist attraction in Ireland should have a PictureCloud on its website. Any teenager with a cameraphone could do this.

 I can't wait to try it out with my Nokia 6630...

Netflix expanding into Ireland?

From Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection -

"Busy Bee DVD, Ireland's second provider of an online movie rental service, says it has been approached about a takeover from overseas -- even before Ireland's other provider has changed its name to reflect its acquisition last month, according to the Irish Independent. Busy Bee DVD says it has been approached by Netflix and by Screen Select. Meanwhile, says the paper, Dublin-based Screen Click is about to change its name to Lovefilm.ie to reflect its EUR3 million acquisition last month by LoveFilm."

I was a subscriber to Screen Click for most of 2004 and quite enjoyed the convenience of DVDs in the post but eventually realized that I'm just not enough of a movie buff to get value out of it. You'd really need to be sure you'll watch at least one DVD per week and I sometimes only got around to seeing one per month. Which of course was a waste of money.

But we do love our movies in Ireland and I hardly know anyone who doesn't have a DVD player at this stage so it makes sense to me that there could be alot of truth behind this rumour.

2.0 bits and pieces

Tablane is an Irish Web 2.0 company that's now on the hunt for angel investment.

The Web 2.0 in Ireland blog posts news of an online timesheet service and a cool mashup.

75 new high potential startups in 2005

Speaking of Enterprise Ireland RTE brings the news that they "supported the setting up of 75 new export focused high potential companies last year - the highest number it has ever supported. The body invested €17m of the total €83m investment in the new start-ups." Kudos!

New magazine for Irish business women

Piaras Kelly tells us that "a new magazine is set to be launched in Ireland this year called ‘Women Mean Business’". I was interviewed by Regina Lavelle in November for a feature in the Irish Independent Weekend section about (the lack of) Irish women in business. It ran before Christmas but my contribution was left out :(

Anyway, one of things I wrote to Regina was -

I was lucky enough to receive a grant from Enterprise Ireland a few years ago to help develop my business, as part of the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology Enterprise Platform Program (EPP) and it entailed travelling to Galway for a day every second week to attend seminars and training. There were 9 different start-up founders in the group and not one of them was female. We were all quite amazed and disappointed by that and it was the first time I realized that something was 'wrong'. It was mostly high tech startups but that still
doesn't mean we should expect such a low 'turnout' of women.

Hopefully this new magazine will play a part in fostering a greater culture of entrepreneurship amongst Irish women.