02 June 2003

Against software patents GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Eamon O'Tuathail from Clipcode is circulatinjg a letter that encourages readers to contact Irish MEP Brian Crowley to impress on him that Irish software developers are against the idea of software patents. See the anti-software patent letter. x_ref153

Irish bloggers meeting tomorrow GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Providing I can compress an afternoon meeting into the morning, I am going to The Central Hotel in Dublin for an 8PM meeting on 3 June of Irish bloggers. I always like to put faces next to the names. And I hope to be able to point to my new URL: UnderwayInIreland.com, along with subtly soliciting links to it. x_ref1256

Lazy Bank Holiday GARRINGREEN ISDN -- According to weather reports, a lazy summertime day lies directly ahead. I'm using most of the time tending to the digging of large holes to serve as the foundation for some very attractive gates that my partner Ruth Maher built with her dad. Then I am going to sit out in the sunshine and read through a backlog of materials, most of it from Damien Kiberd, a journalist for The Sunday Times and a talkshow host on Newstalk 106. x_ref19

01 June 2003

Underway in Ireland is moving to its own domain KILKENNY ORMONDE HOTSPOT -- Time to reset your preferences to continue reading this weblog. After 24 June 2003, Underway in Ireland will be situated on its own domain of the same name. The RSS feed will percolate into the major directories as time goes along. Because I know most aggregators won't get this message, I'm going to refresh both radio.weblogs.com/0102560 and www.topgold.com/blog with a summary of the most requested pages from the previous month. However, my daily writings will upload to Underway in Ireland. x_ref1256

Free broadband for Irish schools SUNDAY TIMES -- Hundreds of thousands of Irish children will enjoy broadband access in the next school year at no cost to the taxpayer. That's the plan of Dermot Ahern, the communications minister as he intends to place a €30m levy on telecoms firms operating in Ireland to subsidise the initiative. Neither Eircom nor EsatBT are enthusiastic -- they cannot see the business return. From personal experience, I know most schools don't have the €350 required to set a DSL modem and rudimentary firewall protection. This funding channel will result in hundreds of new business accounts for the telecoms. Stephen O'Brien: "Ireland's telecoms to fund broadband in Ireland" in The Sunday Times, June 1, 2003 x_ref153

Waiting offline for flat rate Internet access in Ireland GARRINGREEN ISDN -- The frequency of my updates to my weblog might appear to stretch out from their normal interval because I have to cut back on my telephone sessions. In most days, I can make my uploads at a Wi-Fi hotspot (the Garringreen hotspot) but as summer sun pushes into the frame, my hotspot activities will recede. That's because the hotspot operator doesn't let it run continuously when there's a compelling reason (sun on the sand) to shut down and use the time productively elsewhere. When I'm relegated to Eircom ISDN, I have to consider the costs of connectivity. My personal experience shows that it costs me €300 in Eircom data charges during the months when I work from home. Like many teleworkers, I think those charges are exorbinant, so I'm staying offline most of the day. That kind of posturing does not enhance my electronic profile. Like many others who want to build the profile of a connected Ireland, the costs of doing the business are too stifling. However, if the Irish ComReg has her way, both Eircom and EsatBT will make dial-up Web access available for less than €30 a month. Based on my usage statistics, I will slot in at the top tier of the Eircom pricing structure, meaning my fees will likely reach € monthly. That's actually good news because I could reduce my charges for Internet access by more than 60%. Read about the woes of Internet access on the Ireland Offline forum. Stephen O'Brien: "Cheapest internet use in Europe, promises EsatBT" in The Sunday Times, June 1, 2003 x_ref17

Setting the business case for digital creatives GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Colleagues from Unlimited, an Irish e-learning company located in Dublin's Digital Hub, are out of work after Unlimited failed to merge with Educational Multimedia Group. Add them to the start-up woes faced by the optimists behind the cluster concept of "creative IT" and you face major questions about the placement of government money in The Liberties at a time when most international companies are clustering to areas where costs are significantly below those in Ireland. Philip Flynn, the man behind the running of the Digital Depot and who needs to build a credible international footprint for the area, wants to attract "the Disneys, the Electronic Arts, and the Universals." Attend any international digital media event, perhaps with the animators in Annecy this week, and you can see the faces of the competition. For one-third the costs, Western media companies can set up operations in Korea, India or the Philippines. Ireland can no longer compete on a cost advantage basis. Matthew Magee: "Aiming to energise the Digital Hub" in The Sunday Tribune, May 25, 2003 For excellent examples in the realm of digital art, see the animators at Annecy 2003 and the graduate show at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. x_ref19

Son of Comical Ali works medical relief from Ireland SUNDAY TIMES -- The son of Iraq's former information minister, the man nimcknamed Comical Ali, is campaigning to get medical supplies to his war-torn homeland. Dr Osama al-Shahaf, whose father has disappeared sice Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, is helping to co-ordinate a relief mission from Dublin to Baghdad. Al-Shahaf, who works as a locum surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, is particularly keen to get supplies to Al Yarmook, in Baghdad, the second-largest public hospital in the country. Juno McEnroe: "Son of Comical Ali backs Irish medical relief effort" in The Sunday Times, May 25, 2003 x_ref17

The Instant Messaging Invasion GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Some analysts predict that the Instant Messaging world will become like telecom, with AOL, Mocrosoft and Yahoo as major carriers. IM handles pesky oneliners that clutter inboxes. Superquick file transfers happen with IM, albeit with some security concerns. AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft have a combined total of 102m IM users, according to comScore Media Metrix. All the major IM players have corporate IM functionalities, including Yahoo Messenger Enterprise Edition, AOL's Emterprise IM Serivces, and MSN Messenger Connect. Microsoft's Real-Time Collaboration is a sweet package that connects IM, e-mail, phones and web conferencing on the same platform. IBM's Sametime has captured 73% of the enterprise IM market. Some of the arguments against IM sound like the ones made against Internet browsers, e-mail and the telephone in the workplace. But can anyone work without any of those? Christine Chen: "The IM Invasion" in Fortune, May 26, 2003 x_ref15

Business Processing Outsourcing exports jobs GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Shannon Development hypes the message that in the age of the Internet, a company's location hardly matters. So you can invest in Thuels, where low labour costs make sense for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Except when one starts to examine the BPO funding lines, eyes move to places like India and the Philippines, wher for $2 an hour companies can hire college graduates to do jobs that an Irish graduate needs $15 an hour. BPO doesn't just save money; it generally results in better work. It attracts the top people in the new countries, since the jobs tend to pay more than most local positions. And that acts as a leveling factor, effectively spreading the wealth of the western world. David Kirkpatrick: "The Net makes it all easier, including exporting U.S. jobs" in Fortune, May 26, 2003 x_ref17