New Tech Post blogs

Tom McEnery on Steve Jobs

Tom McEnery — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:58:47 +0000

In his famous challenge to John Sculley, Steve Jobs asked if he wanted to spend his life selling sugared water to kids, or did he want to change the world?

Jobs was quite a salesman. About a year after that famous quote, I saw much of that legendary asset when I met him to discuss the new Apple headquarters that he wanted to build in the southern reaches of San Jose. He had I.M. Pei to design it, bundles of cash, more cachet, and a plan that was "awesome." And he made me an offer that was tough to refuse: He'd make San Jose a great city. Jobs even talked about living in a loft downtown. Wow. You could really see that glimmer of greatness.

But within a year, the man he seduced to lead Apple would send Jobs on his way, and with him went much of the spark that so enlivened that company. Gone but not forgotten. Like many other parents, I made sure a Mac was on my daughters' desks, part of their kit like a pencil.

There was a sign in my grammar school library at old St. Joseph's — now under the Adobe Towers — that said, "you can travel the world over in your library." Now it was possible in your own room. It was a gift to education and a boon to Luddites like me as well.

The word "great" is nowadays used in the most casual way. I prefer it for those who have transcending ideas or real courage. Jobs surely did. Some of the reason for his unique cult status was his straight talk. It was as legendary as his ability to turn the inventions of others into cash. As the "Woz" has noted, "he sells all the stuff I made."

In my conversation with Jobs about the "insanely great" headquarters that he would build, he disparaged a prominent Silicon Valley developer and philanthropist as a "sleaze ball" and ranted about how Jacob Rothschild had changed a deal at the last minute to buy a New York apartment.

He only savaged the important and dropped only the best names. He was brash and a bit annoying. And remember, he was still in his mid-20s.

Others have written how he changed the world, and I will let others more qualified expand on it.

But I do know this, because I have seen it clearly in my children and grandchildren, and in classrooms from Costa Rica to Ireland. Steve Jobs helped us all to dream a little more and to make those dreams easier to see. He may have been the supreme visionary in this special valley.

Perhaps most remarkable was that as a young man, he wrote his own epitaph when he said to another: "Do you want to change the world?"

Steve Jobs surely did and we are all the better for it.

This article originally appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.

Galway Demobar

Tom Murphy — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:33:16 +0000

Writing software, in practice if not by definition, can involve long hours sitting in front of a computer screen and the opportunity to socialise with contemporaries who have shared interests and concerns is limited. In response to this need to have real world face time with others in the same field, a Demobar was organised in Galway.

Last month, developers and entrepreneurs gathered at a seafront bar to show each other products and projects that they have been working on.

Over 20 different companies were present at Demobar Galway including: Pocket Anatomy, Ex Ordo, OnePageCRM, Seevl, tunepresto and the yet-to-be-launched StreamGlider from our very own John Breslin.

On the evening about a hundred people turned out for an informal showcase of online product demos. According to John Breslin, "Having these people come together is great because there's a network effect when you get all these products being demoed. One or two people on their own couldn't hope to get such a crowd but when there are ten or more products being shown you get all kinds of people showing up."

As well as the social aspect there is real value in putting one's work on public display. In many cases this was the first opportunity for a product to be given a wider airing.

"It is good to put the product out there for a live showing because when you are working in semi-isolation with your product team you tend to miss what early adopters (with similar expectations to developers) or general users (often coming to a product with less background knowledge) will either latch on to or loathe. The early adopters get bogged down in 'can you do this; why didn't you do that' whereas the others tend to say 'hey, look what this can do!'"

Mick FitzGerald of OnePageCRM was one of the organisers of the event along with Dave Kelly, Paul Killoran, Mark Campbell, Siún Ní Raghallaigh and Ronan O'Malley. Mick says that he was surprised by the huge amount of energy present in the room.

"For a small city there seems to be a lot of very good technologies around. All the digital entrepreneurs have a great deal of optimism.

"There are some really good things happening in the West."

Ireland Reaching Out

Tom Murphy — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:18:24 +0000

At the Lough Rea Hotel in East Galway last week, people from all over Ireland gathered to meet with each other, share notes and find out the latest developments in the Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO) project. The idea behind this is to utilize information stored in parish registries across the land to identify members of the Irish Diaspora and reach out to them.

Mike Feerick, Chairman of Ireland XO and an organiser of the event last week, says that one of the beauties of this massively distributed project is that, "Instead of trying to research the entire Irish Diaspora as one big ephemeral entity, what we are doing is breaking it down to two-and-a-half thousand parishes. Because if there are 60-70 million around the world that are connected to Ireland, every one of them has at least one connection to a parish in Ireland."

Although it has some support from the Irish government, Ireland XO is very much a grass roots project. At the event last week, attendees came from as far away as Donegal in the north west and Waterford in the south east.

The keynote speaker was the economist, broadcaster and author David McWilliams. As well as increased tourism and the chance to harness other helpful aspects of the Diaspora such as global business experience and the possibility of investment, David suggests that there might be greater, more immediate benefits closer to home in terms of self-empowerment for the people of Ireland themselves:

"One of the big problems in Ireland at the moment is that people do feel a little bit helpless. They feel that power is remote and there is very little we can do for themselves. I think if you galvanize the community with a goal such as this you can create all sorts of possible ramifications which are very hard to quantify. But there is an enormous, uplifting sense of being in control or even being in a tiny bit of control of your own destiny."

If you want to get involved, you can visit the the Ireland XO website.

John Hartnett of the ITLG interviewed by RTE

Tom Murphy — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:27:35 +0000

On the first day of the Global Irish Economic Forum John Hartnett of the Irish Technology Leadership Group was interviewed by RTE. Here are some excerpts from the conversation. Click on the image to see the original video.

Q: How have things changed in Silicon Valley when it comes to Irish companies trying to get their projects up and running over the past two years?

JH: Over the last two years, what I've seen is more Irish companies coming out [there].

Silicon Valley is a well-known brand but what it's known for is technology. It is the centre of the world for the big companies: the Googles, the Intels, the Apples. The combined market capital of those companies is about 2 trillion dollars.

But it's also where venture capital is raised. Over 40% of all venture capital across the United States is in Silicon Valley. From an Irish perspective we need to take some of that cash and invest it into Irish companies.

We've got 30 Irish companies in the Innovation Center [San Jose, California] that we set up last year. That's 30 more companies that weren't in Silicon Valley two years ago.

Q: How important are forums like these?

JH: I think they are critically important. They are important for a number of reasons. First and foremost the global Irish are not all in Ireland.

[It is also about] being able to have a public/private partnership where you can have a conversation with the government [and] with the agencies about what's good, what's bad, what do we need to do differently.

But now we need to move more into execution of these ideas. For me, what I would love to get out of this is, 'What's the game plan now?'

Q: How significant is Dublin as a place for technology companies?

JH: I have been in technology for 25 years both here and in the US and [Ireland] has a phenomenal track record.

You talk about the likes of the Twitters and the Facebooks and Googles who have had phenomenal success over the last few years but Microsoft have been here 25 years. Apple has been here 25 years. Intel has been here 20 years. This [represents] decades of experience that are not going to get minimized by the current challenges that are there.

So we have a very good reputation. For now, we need to look forward and project where we are going and how we are going to invest in innovation.

Our success in the 21st Century - the Innovation Century - is going to be [based] on our ability to be leaders in innovation.

Q: Are there companies that can lead to more jobs being created here in Ireland?

JH: I think this issue of early exit is core to the challenge we have.

We need to get that confidence where young Irish companies are starting with the end in mind - being a public company, being a multi-billion dollar company. That will create long-term jobs, long-term security [and] long-term value.

Q: Does Ireland have the infrastructure to support those companies in the later stages?

JH: The important things for companies is basically; access to capital, access to customers and access to talent. Customers are outside of Ireland. We are too small a nation to create huge businesses here.

From an Ireland perspective: we're small, we've got minimal resources. So we've got to do a few things and [those] few things really, really well. We've got to be excellent and the place to be excellent is in education.

Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit “Harnessing the Power of the Irish Diaspora” – Review

Aoife Connelly — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:07:11 +0000

Everyone needs to get their hands on a copy of this book, Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit which is available from the Diaspora Matters website, if for no other reason than the fact that these authors have taken the time and effort to implement for Ireland a plan of action against the potential of downfall.

Putting together an assembly of high achievers with Irish roots and global connections could mean Ireland's economic recovery could be more than a slow uphill struggle; it could accelerate us back to where we were before the Celtic Tiger's roar was silenced.

Putting a plan in action of any shape or form has the benefit of planting in fertile minds the notion of survival and allowing like-minded people to come together and consider how they can help themselves. If this plan were completely moot, I would still say it is an idea worthwhile for this reason alone.

As the recent global recession has proven, “No nation is an island.” We are all interconnected. Kingsley Aikins and Nicola White believe that by harnessing the power of the global diaspora and implementing a diaspora strategy, we can aim to extend our networks and by default reclaim some of our lost power in our time of greatest need.

Quotes from Hilary Clinton and JF Kennedy are cited that support the authors' feelings on the importance of global relationships. One is reminded of the presence in Ireland this year of Barack Obama and The Queen, following a hundred-year absence of any royal monarch on Irish soil, that the authors might be onto something. Gaining a global presence and striving for a leading role on the world stage and important allies can only stand to improve matters for us.

What is clear from this strategy toolkit is that Kingsley and his group are committed to improving Ireland and its communities through philanthropy, access to global markets and the advocacy of brand 'Ireland'. This strategy is based on collation and analysis of the experience of Diaspora organisations from around the world.

Kingsley emphasises that, “Networking with the diaspora is going to be a key piece in Ireland’s economic recovery.”

The discussion topics at the recent Global Irish Economic Forum touch on a lot of the themes in the book; philanthropy, trade, investment, tourism, culture, education and sport were all discussed.

“In all of those areas there were initiatives suggested and now the key is execution," Kingsley comments, "But the government seems determined and they have set themselves a hundred-day target that they will have a whole series of initiatives in place by.”

How can we make all this networking possible? Technology is the key and the most outright way of opening up the endless connections that stand to be made with the overseas diaspora.

“The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow” – Bill Gates.

The good news is that we don't have to start from scratch. Groups such as the Irish Technology Leadership Group, that encourage and support entrepreneurship and innovation in the Irish Innovation Center, are a prime example of the benefits that can be reaped by engaging with the larger Irish diaspora.

F.lux releases iOS app

Conor Harrington — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:19:36 +0000

Earlier this year, we featured f.lux, a free program which adjusts the warmth of your computer’s display to correlate with the light conditions outside.

The program has been widely hailed as a Godsend by millions of users who stare into their computer screens long after the sun has set, which according to medical studies, can have a disruptive effect on sleep patterns.

One question we asked Lorna Herf at the time was, “When can we expect to see an iPhone or iPad app?” A question echoed by many of the million-plus users of the desktop application. Unfortunately, the app store prohibits certain apps, such as those which make use of background processing, one of f.lux’s key features.

Although iPhones and iPads can adjust their brightness automatically using their ambient light sensors, this does not adjust the warmth of the light, and this warmer, bluer light can still delay the production of melatonin, vital to inducing sleepiness.

“We'd love to be in the Apple app store, but because we run automatically in the background, with the current app restrictions, we'd never be able to. Here's hoping one day," says Lorna.

“It unfortunately requires jailbreaking to install for the time being, but if you do have a jailbroken device, it's so nice.

“We're really excited to be saving people from glowing blue inside dark pubs or restaurants!”

The reaction from users so far has been very positive, and Lorna and Michael have even been contacted by users who have jailbroken their iPhones just to install the app.

Anyone with a jailbroken iOS device can download f.lux for free through Cydia.

Kingsley Aikins on the Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:30:27 +0000

Kingsley Aikins is interviewed by Ina O' Murchu about the importance of the Irish Diaspora and how it can be driven by innovation and creativity.

A full report can be found here: Official Launch: Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit

Ryan Tubridy at launch of Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:05:24 +0000

Broadcaster Ryan Tubridy talks to Ina O' Murchu at the launch of the Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit.

A full report can be found here: Official Launch: Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit

Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit Launch [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:57:03 +0000

Taoiseach of Ireland, Enda Kenny is interviewed by Ina O' Murchu at the launch of the Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit on Wednesday, 27 September in Dublin.

A full report can be found here: Official Launch: Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit

Silicon Valley Diaspora Comes to Ireland for Economic Forum and Tech Mentoring Sessions

John Breslin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 07:04:20 +0000

John Hartnett will lead a delegation of Irish-American tech leaders to participate in the Global Irish Forum and meet Irish tech companies and universities. Picture: Hugh Cooney, Chairman of Enterprise Ireland; Brian McCraith, President of DCU; Enda Kenny, An Taoiseach; John Hartnett, President of ITLG.

A delegation of Silicon Valley tech executives and government officials will come to Dublin next month to meet Irish tech companies, academic researchers and political representatives during a series of tech mentoring workshops at the "Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland" event, to be held just before the Global Irish Forum event in October.

One of the primary aims of the visit by the Silicon Valley delegation is to contribute to the Global Irish Forum - dubbed Farmleigh 2 - in order to aid with the recovery of the Irish economy through increased investment and job creation.

Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG), said: “Ireland's recovery will be impacted by strong investment in research and development. It is imperative that there is a plan to invest at least 3% of GDP in innovation and we must also encourage involvement from successful global leaders from industry.”

John Hartnett, President of the ITLG, said: “San Jose is the capital of Silicon Valley and we are currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of our sister-city relationship with Dublin. This invaluable connection has been instrumental in drawing significant investment to Ireland from companies in Silicon Valley including Intel, Cisco, Google, and Facebook.”

Before the forum, members of the delegation will mentor a selection of over 50 top Irish technology companies and carry out company investor evaluations in a series of private workshops. They will then judge the 2nd Annual ITLG University Challenge, sponsored by Cisco Systems, at Dublin City University (DCU). After the workshops and challenge, more than ten companies will be chosen to be showcased at the Annual ITLG/Irish Times Innovation Awards at Stanford University in Spring 2012.

Earlier this year, the ITLG signed a memorandum of understanding with DCU to promote market-led technology innovation, the latest in a series of alliances between the group and Ireland’s universities. DCU President Dr. Brian MacCraith commented on the forthcoming visit: “Experienced Silicon Valley technologists and investors coming to Ireland and engaging directly with emerging Irish technology companies will have a strong catalytic impact and can point the way to significant enhancements in our innovation ecosystem. Leveraging diaspora investment is key to the rapid global scaling of these companies.”

One successful Irish company is Mcor Technologies, established by brothers Conor and Fintan MacCormack. As part of the delegation, John Ryan, founder of Macrovision Corporation and recently-appointed Chairman of Mcor, will open a new facility and meet new staff at Mcor in Dundalk, following their recent $1M investment from the Irish Technology Capital fund. The fund has also invested in several other companies including Wavebob, Sisaf, Pirate Eye and StreamGlider.

You can register for the "Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland" event at the ITLG website.

The Case for a Tech-Savvy Irish-American President of Ireland

John Breslin — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:55:10 +0000

An article in the online blog An American in Ireland from Irish Central yesterday has ignited the idea of the Irish-American Former Mayor of San Jose Tom McEnery (@tom_mcenery on Twitter) being a potential candidate for the forthcoming Irish presidency.

Tom McEnery has had a long and distinguished career in politics, albeit not in Irish politics. As an Irish citizen, McEnery could run if he received the necessary support from a grouping of independents or from the Fianna Fáil party if they decide to allow members to support independent candidates next week.

While not impossible, this would require some effort, with Irish Voice founder Niall O'Dowd citing the difficulties involved in mounting an independent campaign. However, if he could be persuaded to run, he would bring both practical skills and new life to the position of President of Ireland.

McEnery has strong ties to the tech community in Silicon Valley, and can act as a bridge to California. This is a connection that Ireland needs to build on as it grows its position as a location for tech investment and as a base for European headquarters of various US multinationals. He was also instrumental in establishing the Irish Technology Leadership Group with John Harnett, a supporter of McEnery's potential presidential bid.

McEnery also has wide experience in the regeneration of urban areas, something which Limerick and its doughnut effect could certainly benefit from. He has recently written about the need to nurture successes in Ireland rather than trying to restructure failures, and has said that Ireland should not be trying to improve on an already horrible set of past decisions.

McEnery has an extensive knowledge of Irish history, having written his Masters thesis on Michael Collins, and writing the introduction for John Hume's "A New Ireland".

While the odds may be slightly against this happening, the time is certainly right for an Irish-American President of Ireland, and McEnery would make a great one.

Disclaimer: Tom McEnery is a regular contributor to this site, and is an owner of the Irish Innovation Center, one of the investors in New Tech Post.

The Possibilities of Kinect

Ina O Murchu — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:25:20 +0000

In an interview with Wilbour Craddock of Microsoft Ireland we discuss the opportunities that exist for next generation user interfaces, development possibilities and market applications.

The interview took place at the Microsoft European Development Centre (EDC) on the day of a Microsoft Kinect Event. Developers gathered to hear speakers such as Fred Herrera of Create Ireland talk about the marketing opportunities for gesture based technologies using the Kinect. He pointed out that in a sense the killer app was that Kinect already had a mass market presence. This would make it very easy to distribute applications.

Stephen Howell from the Institute of Technology, Tallaght demonstrated how simple and straightforward it was to create educational and games programs using the Kinect in conjunction with Scratch; a very basic but very powerful programming language.

Finally, Neil Gannon showed how the Kinect device could be used to record real world environments for creating virtual worlds. Clearly, there were other architectural and landscaping applications to be had as well.

More Kinect events are planned and you can expect them to be listed on the Microsoft Ireland Events site when dates are set.

HeyStaks representing Ireland at the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 Final

Tom Murphy — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:45:42 +0000

“There’s a missing link between web search and these
recommender social systems," — Dr. Peter Briggs.

HeyStaks, currently available for the Firefox and Chrome browsers, and for the iPhone, with Android, Internet Explorer and dedicated iPad versions in development, brings together their research in the area of social research and recommendation to fill the gap between current recommendation technology and web searching.

HeyStaks works by organising search results or topics into “staks." According to Peter, “You can create a stak on any topic that you like or you can join existing ones.

"If you have joined a stak on places to eat in Dublin, a search in your web search engine will reveal the standard results, and also the results from that stak. By including your social graph through invitingFacebook or Twitter friends, you can ensure the results are more reflective of your peer group.

“The difference between these HeyStaks results and the standard Google results are that the HeyStaks ones have already been verified by real people, these are results that people like, and have found to be useful in the past, and so you have piece of mind there that it’s not just pages that have been heavily search engine optimised or paid listings.”

Peter points to Google’s +1 and Bing’s incorporation of Facebook “likes” into its search engine as examples of major search players going down a similar road to HeyStaks, but is confident that the socially-customised element of HeyStaks sets it apart from the crowd.

“The difference between what we do and what they do is we allow you to segregate, to partition your social graph based on your interests and the interests of your friends or co-workers. So, for example, you might not trust everybody that you know to provide you with movie recommendations, but you might have a few trusted friends where you know your interests overlap quite a lot, so you can decide to share a movie stak with them or join one that they’ve created and you’ll only get recommendations from those trusted people.”

Along with Dr Peter Briggs, HeyStaks was founded in 2008 by Dr Maurice Coyle and Professor Barry Smyth.

It is based on technology developed as part of Professor Smyth’s research group and the CLARITY Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, a Science Foundation Ireland funded research centre between University College Dublin, Dublin City University, and the Tyndall National Institute.

HeyStaks is representing Ireland at the Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2011 Final which is taking place in Amsterdam. Ahead of presentations by the finalists members of the public can cast their vote for their choice.

Voting closes at 6 pm (CET) on Monday 12 September. Voting only takes 30 secs.

E—Discovery Ireland 2011: Dealing With the Obligations of Trading in a Global Market

Tom Murphy — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:53:17 +0000

With the recent purchase of Autonomy (who say they service 77 of the top 100 global law firms) by HP for a possible $10 billion and of Clearwell Systems by Symantec for $390 million there is a clear signal to the market regarding the value of e-discovery.

According to Gartner, “The reason e-discovery is now a pressing issue for most companies is clear: ESI [Electronic Storage of Information] in all its many forms dominates in legal proceedings because modern business is mostly conducted using electronic communications and electronic records. Regulators require this ESI to be archived for proof of compliance. Governments of all nations, except the least developed, also produce and disseminate information primarily via electronic channels.”

Elsewhere Gartner says that, “The e-discovery software market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent and is estimated to reach $1.7 billion by 2014.”

Owen O’ Connor is the managing director of Cernam, a Dublin based company specialising in online evidence and investigations. He says that e-discovery, “is about the disclosure of electronic records in the litigation process. There is a requirement for companies to produce electronic records and paper records that are relevant to that case.”

Depending on the nature of the lawsuit and the jurisdiction in which it takes place the obligation to comply with the various legal processes can be very burdensome to a business.

Owen says that solving this problem has resulted in, “A market for companies that are building values in the high hundreds of millions of dollars in a relatively short period of time.”

However, in Ireland there is not professional association or trade publication that exists in this area. In response to this situation Owen has organised E—Discovery Ireland to give the industry a focal point. Owen would like the event, “To catalyze a significant leap forward in the use of digital evidence in Ireland.”

Irish companies, simply by trading in global markets are exposed to the legal processes of other countries either through law suits or government legislation. The area of e-discovery is about the disclosure of electronic records in the litigation process and the requirement for companies to produce electronic records and paper records that are relevant to a given case.

The event offers Ireland the opportunity to, “Get to grips with the level of electronic evidence that is required today. In terms of technology, there has been quite a bit of innovation in the last couple of years.”

According to Owen the participants would be those in the role of, “CIO or Director of IT who are fielding requests from their legal departments. Or, someone who is an information governance or discovery management role and anyone else who is likely to see their company activities pulled into investigations overseas, particularly in the United States.”

However, for the constructive discussion that this subject needs participants are also encouraged to attend from the legal sector. The conference is expecting solicitors and lawyers to come not only from corporations but from independent legal firms as well.

The conference takes place Dun Laoghaire, Dublin on the 6th and 7th of October. You can register here.

John Ryan Becomes Chairman of Mcor Technologies

Tom Murphy — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:20:00 +0000

Mcor Technologies Ltd, the manufacturer of the only paper 3D printer in the world -- the Matrix 300 -- today announced the appointment of a new chairman. John Ryan, co-Founder of Macrovision, now Rovi Corporation – a NASDAQ-listed company employing over 2,000 people worldwide, with a market value of $5 billion.

John Ryan retired as chairman of Macrovision in 2008 and is now a managing partner in the Wilde Angels Investment Fund which has recently made a $1 million investment in Mcor.

Mcor, founded in 2005 by brothers Dr. Conor MacCormack and Fintan MacCormack, has developed a printer that produces 3-Dimensional objects using A4 reams of paper, at a cost of up to 60 times less than competitors’ products. In addition it is a truly eco-friendly product, its only waste being re-cyclable paper, while competitors’ products generate toxic by-products.

Mcor’s expansion plans involve moving to a bigger premises within the next 6 weeks, “With a growing staff we need a bigger facility and a proper demo site for the increasing number of visitors we get from around the world. And now with this investment and team secured, Mcor will finally be able capitalise on the opportunities the US market can offer," said Dr. MacCormack.

John Ryan is looking forward to helping Conor and his team build a valuable enterprise and says, “Mcor has developed a truly world-class product, which is a great tribute to Irish entrepreneurship and the technical skills and perseverance of the Mcor team."

Mcor was a finalist in the Irish Technology Leadership Group’s (ITLG) company of the year awards in April. Dr. MacCormack explains, “The ITLG is an ideal investment partner for Mcor and already has brought a lot to the table; this investment gives Mcor the stable base it needs to continue to innovate while also being able to fulfil the growing Matrix order book."

Mcor also has an office in the Irish Innovation Center in downtown San Jose, one that will double as a demo site in the coming months, ahead of its US launch.

Dr. MacCormack is delighted with this addition to the team and sees John Ryan’s involvement as, “A significant step forward for the company. He will be a real asset to the company as Mcor continues to grow and expand its business.”

Propeller Venture Accelerator: Application Process is Now Open

Tom Murphy — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:25:41 +0000

The DCU Ryan Academy has just opened its application process for its 3 month Propeller Venture Accelerator program based in Dublin, Ireland. The Academy's aim is to "bridge the gap between academia and entrepreneurial practice in Ireland through training, support and finance for entrepreneurs."

Propeller (see: Propeller Venture Accelerator Fund: Hands On Program For Startups And Early Stage Companies) is one of the top 8 accelerator programs in Europe according to a study commissioned by the Kauffman Fellows Programme.

The aim of Propeller is to accelerate early stage technology start-up companies with an emphasis on software, Web 2.0, informatics, clean-tech and applications. It offers participants:

€30,000 Euro investment in exchange for 6.5% equity in the company
Office space
Over 60 mentors – Advice and guidance from techies, accounting and tax specialists and serial entrepreneurs

The program culminates a demo day on April 6, 2012 in which the participants will be able to pitch their products to a group of specially invited investors and VCs. Over seventy investors attended the last demo day.

Propeller is a TechStars Network Member, one of five outside the US and one of only three in Europe.

“Winning a place on the inaugural Propeller Venture Accelerator was like being plucked off the bus and placed on the bullet train for our business. We were given access to the most senior Irish business talent and an inside track to the Irish and international investment community."
– Paul Healy, CEO Fantom and a Serial Entrepreneur.

This program is not only for Irish based companies. Entrepreneurs from all over the world including the USA, France, Israel, UK and Portugal have expressed interest in applying to the Accelerator.

The closing date for applications is the 2nd November 2011 and the program starts with the companies moving to the Citywest offices on the 2nd January 2012.

Applicants are encouraged to apply early to better be able to discuss their needs and wants with the Academy.

“If you want to do a Masters or a degree please go to DCU business school. If you want to do a short course that is, ‘What can I do in the morning?’ oriented then you come to the Academy. That’s the sort of stuff we do.”
– Gordon McConnell, Executive Director, Arizona State University Venture Catalyst

Registration and more information can be found at the website.

Limerick and the Doughnut Effect: Need to Learn Lessons from US Cities [VIDEO]

Tom McEnery — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:54:04 +0000

ITLG's Tom McEnery talks about Limerick City's decline due to the suburban doughnut effect, and how Ireland should learn from similar stories in US cities like San Jose, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Social X-Ray Glasses: Helping People to Perceive Emotions Better

Aoife Connelly — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:20:40 +0000

Rana el Kaliouby and Rosalind Picard of the University of Cambridge and MIT wanted to help autistic people, who find it particularly hard to pick up on other people's emotions.

These “social X-ray glasses,” as they have been dubbed, are designed to help people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) to better understand the emotions and feelings of others. One of the primary reasons behind the isolation of these individuals; they cannot understand the emotions of others and as a result of this tend to remain introverted in social environments.

Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders often have difficulties operating in the highly complex social environment in which we live and are, for the most part, unable to read or understand other people’s emotions, furthering their disengagement with others.

People with ASD struggle to accurately perceive other's emotions, these glasses have been designed to offer assistance to users by use of a rice grain sized camera. The camera has a data bank of 24 known facial expressions that together convey confusion, agreement and concentration.

These expressions are then analysed by software, compared against the database and relayed to users using an attached microphone and LED traffic light system. A green light, visible only to the wearer, portrays their conversation partner is reacting positively to them, amber indicates a neutral reaction and a flashing red light indicates a negative reaction and warns the speaker to change the subject.

In test subjects wearers retained some ability to read emotions accurately after they removed the glasses, if this is true the glasses could be used as a therapeutic device. However, with the glasses subjects’ accuracy in perceiving facial expressions was around 64%, whereas without the glasses subjects’ accuracy was 54%.

This margin of accuracy means that while the glasses can be useful, it is important to be mindful of their limits to avoid becoming reliant on them. It is hoped that with further testing and improvement these glasses could be a great help to people with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Another limitation is that while the glasses could increase emotional intelligence throughout the generations through continuous use, this doesn’t mean that it will increase empathy; while people may be more aware, they still may not care.

For users other than those with ASDs, they could help more loquacious individuals decipher the difference between dialogue and monologue and enhance their conversational and social skills.

Social Networks Don't Cause Riots — People Do

Aoife Connelly — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:19:32 +0000

A much discussed topic in recent days among the media and the general public has been the role of social media in enabling the organisation of some of the disorder witnessed in the past few days in London and other UK cities.

Many have laid the blame for these riots at the foot of social media services such as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Twitter and in a lesser role, Facebook. The Daily Mail has gone so far as to claim that the North London riots were “fuelled by social media”.

BBM seems to have been the tool of choice for many of those involved to organise their troops. Because of the private nature of the service; users must exchange a PIN before making contact. This makes it very difficult to trace or track these messages once they have been sent and prevents the authorities from anticipating the moves of the rioters.

One message sent on Sunday night called for rioters to meet at Oxford circus where they claimed “Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed so come get some (free stuff!!!)”. According to consumer surveyors Ofcom, 37% of British teens are BlackBerry owners.

Twitter seems to have played a secondary role in the action by merely shadowing the messages on BBM, directing other users to check out statuses and images that were being posted.

In response to the negative connotations associated with social media following the riots, clean up operations are now taking place around the UK using the very same services. The Riotcleanup twitter page now has over 87,000 followers with individual pages being established for the other various cities affected following the original outbreaks in London.

The Post riot clean-up: let's help London, Facebook page has now over 19,000 followers and is being used to direct volunteers to help clear the streets of the worst affected areas.

In addition to this the Metropolitan Police have created a flickr page to post images of the looters and rioters in a determined effort to track them down and see that they receive punishment.

In spite of being blamed for instigating the riots, social media is now emerging as the organization tool of choice for organising the clean up operation and assisting the Metropolitan Police in identifying the perpetrators.

New Opportunities at SpunOut.ie

Tom Murphy — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 08:30:59 +0000

With the imminent departure of one of SpunOut.ie's founders, Ruairí McKiernan, a new direction will inevitably forged at the national charity which works, "to empower young people to create personal and social change."

In a recent blog entitled, "Time for the next Adventure" Ruairí says:

"The most important part of our success is that we are succeeding in reaching and engaging young people and winning their trust, time, interest and support. Our hits are growing all the time (now averaging 600,000+ website visits per year), and the services we provide (signposting to help services, a vast bank of regularly updated youth health and lifestyle information, a youth media publishing platform, popular Facebook, Twitter and moderated forums...) are all providing important and mainly unique services to Ireland´s huge youth population."

In a previous article that we published, A Highly Effective Use Of Facebook For Increasing Awareness, we showed how SpunOut.ie has been particularly successful at leveraging modern social network technologies that young people actively use.

With an imaginative use of the medium over four months in 2010 they boosted their Facebook followers from 400 to 12,000.

Ruairí says, “The burning motivation for me was that at the height of the Celtic Tiger, seeing that the sole emphasis was on economic development, development, development. At the same time social development was going in the opposite direction. It seemed to me [to be an increase] in terms of suicide and mental health, particularly around younger people who were being developed as economic units rather than citizens. If you look around now and ask where is everyone and what are they doing and why is there no big big engagement, it’s because the investment was to bring people into the corporate world. Which is fair enough but it needs to be balanced with social development.”

If you are interested in leading on from where Ruairí has left off then you can apply for the job as Director of Spunout.ie here.

From New Tech Post we wish Ruairí all the best in the future and look forward to seeing what he gets up to next.

Paying for Online Content: Will People Pay for Quality Content? [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:32:44 +0000

Last week when Apple released the Lion OSX John Siracusa, from Ars Technica, delivered a 19 page review of the new operating system for free.

Ars Technica then decided to sell a $5 Kindle e-book of the review.

The review was downloaded 3,000 times over a period of 24 hours and it generated $15,000 in revenue.

This was made possible by the power of Amazon's one click experience which makes impulsive shopping or purchases very easy.

Also, it would seem that people appreciate longer pieces of writing and will open their wallets to pay for such content.

Demise of Google Labs [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:56:42 +0000

Just recently Google announced the closure of Google Labs. Although the ideas generated in Google Labs were never expected to go mainstream a number of successful products managed to surface from the project.

These include familiar products such as Google Reader, Google News and Google Maps.

Google is now making Google Plus it's top priority with over 10 million subscriptions to the service over the past month despite it being by invite only.

US Government to Close 800 Data Centres and Switch to Cloud [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:22:37 +0000

The US government is going to close 800 federal data centers in the US to achieve estimated savings of $3 billion a year.

This is a significant move as these 800 data centres account for roughly 40% of government capacity.

While there is the promise of greater efficiencies through centralisation and scale there are also concerns about network security.

Are apps the new music video?

Conor Harrington — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 09:11:56 +0000

Boston alternative rock legends The Pixies are the latest music artists to release free content to the public in the form of a free smartphone app. Black Francis and his cohorts have released an official Pixies app for iPhone which features live concert footage, three live albums spanning twenty years of performances, and tracks from the band’s original demo tape, known as “The Purple Tape."

Icelandic avant-garde singer Björk has also released an interactive audio-visual iPhone and iPad app to accompany her new album, Biophilia, while Belgian DJ collective Soulwax decided to forgo the making of a new album under their 2 many DJ’s moniker, and opted instead to release their Radio Soulwax, a collection of 24 hour-long mixes with accompanying visuals based on the original artwork of the featured songs.

Although YouTube is still a powerful marketing vehicle for music, it seems that the golden age of the music video, heralded just a couple of weeks short of twenty years ago with the launch of MTV, is drawing to a close, or at the very least, entering a new phase of its development.

The more forward-thinking artists are now questioning the wisdom of hiring a celebrity movie director and paying for a harem of dancers and enough lighting to land an Airbus, for a clip that will only ever be viewed on YouTube or Muzu, and fleetingly at that, when they can employ an app developer to create something that stays in the consumer’s pocket and can lead them to engage with, and even purchase from, the artist.

The Pixies app provides free content, but only after the user agrees to share the app with his or her Facebook or Twitter friends. The fan gets free, and legal, content, while the band gets invaluable exposure through social media, not to mention the links to purchase the band’s music and merchandise through the site.

Björk, being Björk, has a slightly more complicated approach, but the basic premise is the same. Her app, narrated by naturalist Sir David Attenborough, is an integral part of the overall concept of her album. The initial app is free to download, and acts as a umbrella for ten micro-apps, which will accompany the ten songs on the album, and will retail at around €1.79/$1.99.

These innovative and, frankly, odd apps will feature various games and interactive educational features which will teach the user about topics such as chromatic scales. This might be a step too far for many people, but if the video for “It’s Oh So Quiet” was released today, how much attention would it receive? Probably not enough to even cover director Spike Jonze’s wages. You have to applaud the source of Iceland’s second-most violent eruptions for her willingness to be a pioneer in this field.

Of course, bands have tried this before with CD-ROM’s; I remember all of twelve years ago spending what seemed like, and probably was, hours sitting at my mother’s rickety old desktop PC waiting for an interactive Foo Fighters “experience”, which turned out to be a couple of tour photos and a music video which took so long to load it felt like watching a cartoon being animated in real time.

Technology has moved on though, and the time is right for artists to properly explore the mobile world, and finally wreak vengeance on the video for what it did to the radio star.

Surprise Upturn In Intel Sales [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:34:12 +0000

Running contrary to industry expectations Intel has just posted record sales $13 billion in its last quarter.

Although demand has ebbed in its established markets of Europe and the United States this has been more than compensated for by the upturn in sales in countries such as Brazil and China.

In addition, apart from buyers in the new markets who are buying PCs for the first time, Intel claims that the advent of smartphones and tablets has not had the impact on sales that many observers would have thought.

According to Intel CEO, Paul Otellini, customers still see these device as additional purchases rather than outright replacement for their PCs.

Apple: Record Profits Amidst Uncertainty in Silicon Valley [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:49:18 +0000

Mac OSX Lion was launched a day after Apple reported record profits in the last quarter. There are predictions that Apple will go on to turnover $120 billion in this fiscal year.

However, the PriceWaterhouseCoopers MoneyTree Report, also just released, points out that although VC investment has been at its greatest in the first quarter of this year since 2008, there are indications that the VCs themselves are having trouble finding funding.

While there is much debate about whether Silicon Valley is in the midst of a bubble or not it does seem that growth in the tech market sector is very mixed.

Graphene [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:03:05 +0000

Graphene, a new material discovered in 2004, is set to speed up the data transfer between computers. The Nobel Prize was awarded in 2010 for research into its behaviour.

Although there a great many obstacles to be overcome before it can go into production its interesting and unique set of properties hold the promise of a great many new and interesting applications in the future.

Infographic: State of the Internet

Tom Murphy — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:41:48 +0000

Source: Online Schools

Apart from some rather mind-boggling statistics presented in a very effective way there are a number of interesting takeaways to be had from this infographic.

Although the internet is growing at a phenomenal rate it is not growing at an equal rate across the globe. In some places expansion is inhibited by lack of resources and infrastructure. In other places direct human intervention is holding back the tide.

The former issue may well be resolved before the latter but even so it will be some time before internet growth can be said to be stable or even predictable.

What is intriguing is that there is now no way of even beginning to comprehend these figures easily without the art and craft that it takes to produce a decent infographic.

Trying to discern meaning from columns of figures on a spreadsheet or even a simple pie or bar chart can be so much harder than deriving information from the representative form of the infographic.

Alongside the growth of the internet will be the growth of the infographicist — a profession devoted to making data meaningful and useful.

Thanks to Candice Parkson for bringing it to our attention.

Cisco Lays off 6,500 People in Contrast to Growth in Rest of Silicon Valley [VIDEO]

Ina O Murchu — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:10:25 +0000

Cisco announces the laying off of 6,500 employees. This runs counter to prevailing trend in Silicon Valley where job growth is expected to be about 15% over the next two years.

Deirdre MacCormack discusses Social Media and Marketing [VIDEO]

Tom Murphy — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:09:46 +0000

Deirdre MacCormack from Mcor Technologies discusses the role of Social Media in the marketing of their 3D printer.