Feedback Friday
Feedback Friday 7: Channelship want you to pick holes
Well not quite! Channelship have recently completed two sites for a client and would love a bit of feedback before putting the sites to bed entirely. Both sites focus on products and services for fixing cracks and potholes and beautifying driveways and roads. I doubt there’s a person in Ireland who doesn’t know a spot that could use that kind of TLC! But what about the sites themselves? Are they a bumpy ride or as smooth as silk? Over to Fred Caballero Project Manager with www.channelship.ie to tell us a little bit more about what they would like you feedbackers to focus on when looking at the sites:
We would like some feedback on www.qprroadshop.com and www.qprcoldpatch.com which we recently finished.
The idea would be to have comments on the usabilty, general look & feel, Search Engine Optimisation, coding and any helpful comments that people might have, since we are still on time to make a few changes. If you can think of more aspects to cover let us know!
Don’t forget that we have some guidelines when giving feedback and I will be moderating all comments.
Social Media Working Group
New blog series starting on Tuesday
Next Tuesday will see the start of a new series of guest posts from the IIA Social Media Working Group. This series will focus on case studies of Irish businesses using Social Media in innovative or effective ways and each week will see a different member of the group deliver a case. So a lot of variety and a day off the blogging for me – a win win situation for us all 🙂
Brendan Hughes, the chair of the IIA Social Media Working Group, shares some of his thoughts on business uses of Social Media in a recent blog post. He examines in particular how the web has developed a dichotomous existence with transactional relationships on one side and social relationships on the other. Really successful internet businesses or businesses on the internet are bringing these two relationships together.
State of the Net
State of the Net Issue 12 now available
This quarter’s State of the Net (PDF, 805K, opens in a new window) includes information about:
- the launch of The Ideas Campaign;
- the uptake of Broadband in Ireland compared to our EU neighbours;
- the number of Irish tweeters on Twitter.com;
- statistics about Internet use in Ireland;
- business use of the internet and eBusiness application;
- information from the Data Protection Commissioner about spam in Ireland;
- and child safety online
State of the Net is a quarterly publication produced by Amas for IIA Members and Irish businesses to help them keep abreast of key Internet trends and statistics. You can access all previous editions here.
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Announcing DrupalCamp Ireland
Get hands-on experience in a fun team-collaboration building a website for two chosen charities/not-for-profits. Meet Addison Berry, head of the Drupal Documentation team.
· Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th April 10am to 5pm both days
· DERI building at NUI, Galway
· The event is free, registration is essential
· Full description of the event and more information: http://groups.drupal.org/node/20113
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IIA announce Realex Payments as Headline Sponsor of Congress 2009
The Irish Internet Association are pleased to announce that Realex Payments have agreed to partner with the organisation as the headline sponsor of Congress 2009: Better Business Online in a Tough Economy: Money, Marketing, Monitoring & Mobile. This national conference takes place on May 21st to 22nd in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry in Dublin.
Realex Payments is a leading European payment service provider. Founded in 2000, the company provides a broad range of payment services to small and large businesses as well as financial institutions. Realex Payments process billions of Euro per annum for merchants domestically and internationally, across a wide range of industries including airlines, mobile carriers, utilities, insurance companies and gaming companies.
Commenting on the sponsorship, Colm Lyon, CEO of Realex Payments, said, "Realex Payments has been a longstanding supporter of the IIA and their great work, and we are delighted to once again support the Congress. The theme this year is particularly relevant to today’s tougher climate, but the opportunity presented by the online market place gives companies of all sizes the chance to compete on a level playing field. It’s great to see the IIA are discussing topics which should be hugely beneficial for attendees."
Fergal O’Byrne, IIA CEO, added, “The IIA is delighted to welcome Realex Payments as the headline sponsor of our National Congress. The theme for this year’s congress, Better Business Online in a Tough Economy: Money, Marketing, Monitoring & Mobile, is as much a call to action for those doing business online in Ireland. By partnering with us Realex Payments are echoing that call, encouraging Irish businesses to make the most of the opportunities that the internet offers, to make money, market goods and services effectively, monitor spending & branding and to be everywhere by going mobile. It is possible to do better business online and among those who can facilitate businesses big and small to do this are Realex Payments. As a non-profit business association the IIA relies on the support of its members to continue developing useful, informative and timely events throughout the year and is grateful to Realex Payments for providing some of that support.”
This year the IIA Congress takes place in conjunction with the Annual Net Visionary Awards.
More information available at www.iia.ie/congress and www.netvisionary.ie
Watch a promotional video about the 2008 IIA Congress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkpPUWvAQ94
-ENDS-
For more information, please contact
Roseanne Smith, IIA Communications Manager, 087 222 3614 or roseanne@iia.ie
Craoltóirí Gaeilge: Tá Gaeilge líofa ag Roseanne Smith má’s mian leat agallaimh a dhéanamh leí.
About the Irish internet Association
The Irish Internet Association is the professional body for those conducting business via the internet from Ireland. It has been, and remains, one of the driving forces behind the adoption of the medium. Established in 1997, the IIA provides leadership to enterprises and society conducting business in Ireland. The IIA is a strong voice for its 600 plus company memberships. The aim of the Association is to Connect, Inform and Promote. More information available at www.IIA.ie.
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Feedback Friday 6: Activate are actively blogging
This week’s Feedback Friday is a little different. Activate, a member of the IIA since early 2007, have recently redeveloped their site. They are an online marketing agency based in Co Limerick. They offer Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click, Email Marketing, Site sales-effectiveness Consultation and overall Web Strategy Advice. They have clients nationwide, and also whitelabel online marketing services for several design agencies. Martina Skelly, MD, explains the recent developments and what she is hoping to get some feedback on:
“I am welcoming feedback as I have just redesigned the site, had it all imported into WordPress and added a new blog feature. I worked with Sabrina Dent www.sabrinadent.com who put a huge amount of time and effort into this. I am completely new to blogging, so any ideas, tips or suggestions are most welcome!
The blog page is at www.activate.ie/blog”
Therefore Martina is not specifically seeking Feedback on the interface, user experience and design particularly but more in the area of business blogging know-how. Away with you now, check out the Activate site and come back and tell us what you think – thanks!
Please don’t forget we have some guidelines – if you don’t keep them in mind, I won’t publish your comment. Thanks very much to Activate for volunteering.
events
Bizcamp was buzzing!
I know it’s hard to believe but recently I was feeling a little down. All the doom and gloom was getting to me and no matter what I did to try and cheer myself up my natural optimism was flagging. I felt that if I read one more news item online, in a newspaper or heard another radio or tv item or ad that started with the phrase [Insert your least favourite there’s-a-recession-on phrase here] I was going to go nuts!
By last Saturday evening much of that feeling was dispelled thanks to all of those who participated as speakers and attendees at Bizcamp Dublin in the Digital Hub. The mood was upbeat and, dare I say it, indomitable.
Bizcamp Limerick will be taking place on 21st March and I would strongly recommend that anyone involved in business in Ireland get along if only to re-ignite your passion, do some networking and hear some stories from others who know what you are going through.
Throughout the day attendees could choose between three strands taking place in the venue and sometimes it was a very tough choice. Camps being a little less formal do allow for more movement than many events. However the sessions I went to were all so good that I couldn’t bear to leave them to catch the end of others!
I kicked off the day at Aidan Kenny’s presentation on Servitizing your Business which certainly gave me a lot to think about. However I sometimes think we could do with a stern talk about productizing our business 🙂
I also attended a session give by two representatives of our member companies, Paul McKeever of Front, and Andrew Tobin of T2. This session focused on making the most of your web strategy. If you were there and you liked what you heard and you want more, Paul McKeever and Paul May of Front are both presenting IIA events this quarter.
I also attended a session by Niall Harbison on how he has used social media to grow his business, LookandTaste.com. The funding panel was very well moderated by Patricia O’Sullivan, who ran the M50 incubator program for 6 years and who is currently starting up her own business. The Panel comprised five entrepreneurs who all spoke about their experience of raising funds for their businesses, what helped, and what didn’t, but mostly what helped!
- Caelen King of Reva Health (www.RevaHealth.com) – raised €1.25 million
- Niall Harbison of Look & Taste (formerly iFoods as seen on BBC’s Dragons Den) www.lookandtaste.com – raised €400k
- Campbell Scott of IGOPeople (www.igopeople.com) – raised €750k
- Ciaran Crean of MicksGarage (www.micksgarage.com) – raised €560k
- Keith Bohanna of dbTwang (www.dbtwang.com) – raised €110k
This sesssion also included the perspective of Enterprise Ireland, representatives explaining the different schemes that exist, the benefits and possible obstacles and the future direction of the schemes. Enterprise Ireland were well represented on the day and there was plenty of opportunity to speak with them about business ideas.
For me the most enjoyable session of the day was Robin Blandford’s Battle of the Biz. Basically we were divided into two teams and we have 25 minutes to pull together a credible business and present it to a panel of judges. Our team, Digital Finance, won. It must have been the TV advert that swung it…
At one point during the day I was interviewed for Nuacht RTÉ/ TG4 (Dia Dhuit token Gaeilgeoir!) and the interviewer asked me what I thought was the biggest challenge facing entreprenuers today. I replied that I felt it was not so much the economic situation but the potential of that situation to divert the focus required to start a business in Ireland today. This response is a little facile but it is a danger. I think Bizcamp re-energised people, reminded them of their focus and their reason for starting out on their own.
If you would like to capture this kind of energy, head along to Bizcamp Limerick. I heard, Stephen Kinsella, one of the Limerick organisers speak in Dublin about businesses partnering with third level and if he brings half as much energy to Bizcamp Limerick, you’ll be flying!
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Roaming: Vote in European Parliament paves way for swift agreement on lower SMS and data roaming charges
The Commission proposed in September 2008 (see IP/08/1386) to make sure that consumers in the EU do not have to pay more than €0.11 per roamed SMS in the EU (excluding VAT) – a proposal endorsed yesterday by the Parliament’s lead Committee on the new roaming legislation. At present, SMS roaming charges in the EU are on average €0.28 per roamed SMS and can go up to over €0.80 in some countries. The Parliament’s Committee also voted in favour of ambitious measures to reduce the cost of data roaming charges (the cost for surfing the web or downloading data via a mobile connection abroad). To pave the way for lower consumer charges, the Industry Committee voted in favour of a cap on inter-operator charges of €0.50 per megabyte of roamed data. The Commission had proposed such a cap, but at €1 per megabyte. The Parliament’s lead Committee on the new roaming legislation also endorsed measures to enhance the transparency of roaming charges to eliminate the risk of "bill shocks" for data roaming. Finally the Industry Committee voted for an obligation of operators to charge roamed calls by the second from the first second of a mobile call abroad (Commission proposal: from the 31st second). The Commission had identified that consumers currently pay around 20% too much for roamed calls abroad because of imprecise billing methods.
"Yesterday’s vote in the European Parliament is very good news for consumers all over Europe. In view of the current economic downturn, the Parliament is right in wanting to strengthen the purchasing power of European consumers as of this summer, which will encourage them to make even more use of their mobile phones", said Viviane Reding, the EU’s Telecoms Commissioner, who had initiated the new roaming legislation and attended the Committee vote in Strasbourg yesterday evening. "I welcome the fact that the Parliament’s lead Committee on the new roaming rules yesterday evening voted in favour of all the main points of the Commission proposal. I congratulate Adina-Ioana Valean, the Parliament’s Rapporteur on roaming in the Industry Committee, for the impressive negotiation skills she has shown over the past months. I would also like to thank Syed Kamall, the Parliament’s Rapporteur on roaming in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee for his constructive work ensuring that both consumers and businesses can benefit from a practically borderless and transparent single telecoms market for roaming. I would also like to extend my thanks to the Rapporteur of the Culture and Education Committee, Manolis Mavromatis, for his strong support for the Commission proposal."
Yesterday’s vote by the Parliament’s Industry Committee endorsed, by majority vote, all the main features of the Commission’s proposal for new roaming rules, from the €0.11 retail cap for roamed text messages to new transparency obligations. The Industry Committee also supported the principle, proposed by the Commission, that voice roaming calls must be billed by the second. Following the proposal of the Internal Market Committee last week, the Industry Committee voted for an amendment to ensure that this principle applies from the very first second of a roamed call.
The Industry Committee has proposed two further changes to the Commission’s proposal:
- A data roaming wholesale (inter-operator) cap of €0.50 per megabyte. The Commission had proposed a wholesale cap at €1 per megabyte, while the Parliament’s Internal Market Committee had suggested a wholesale cap at €0.25 per megabyte.
- Ending the whole roaming legislation in June 2012, while the Commission had proposed a review in 2013. The Industry Committee proposal would allow the next Commission to review the new rules in the middle of its 5-year mandate.
"I now call on Parliamentarians and Member States to work together very closely over the coming weeks to ensure that the final deal on SMS and data roaming can be concluded well before the European Parliament elections in June", said Commissioner Reding.
Next Steps
The 785 members of the European Parliament will vote in their plenary session scheduled 21-24 April, on the roaming proposal. If the Council agrees with the content of the vote, the new roaming rules will come into effect on 1 July 2009.
Background
On 23 September 2008, the Commission proposed a new Roaming Regulation that would cut by 60% the cost of sending text messages while roaming in the EU (IP/08/1386, MEMO/08/578). It would also reduce the price for using mobile data services abroad and introduce transparency measures against bill shocks. Moreover, the Commission proposed to extend the duration of the current voice roaming Regulation from 2010 to 2013 reducing roaming caps for mobile calls further by €0.03 each year (now at €0.46 for calls made abroad and €0.22 for calls received abroad which would be further reduced to €0.34 for calls made abroad and to €0.10 for calls received abroad by 1 July 2012 [excluding VAT]).
The Council of the EU’s 27 Telecoms Ministers had already endorsed all elements of the Commission proposal on 27 November 2008 (MEMO/08/745).
If you want to know how much you pay while travelling in the EU for a call received/ made, for an SMS sent or megabyte downloaded, visit the EU’s Roaming website which offers an overview of tariffs per country in the EU:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/roaming/index_en.htm
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The Irish Internet Association supports the Ideas Campaign
This grassroots campaign is about the positive aspects of economic activity that often receive little media attention, and the need to focus on solutions instead of the problems.
It is about setting a challenge to people to be innovative and creative.
The Irish Internet Association supports the Ideas Campaign in its efforts to identify ways of preserving and growing employment, stimulating new economic activity and creating business ideas.
The campaign wants ideas from business owners/executives, knowledge workers, entrepreneurs and academics. It also wants the ideas and involvement of anybody who is concerned about these important economic issues and their consequences, such as the employment prospects for their children.
All contributions received will be turned into an action plan and presented to government in April.
If you are a member of the IIA please let Roseanne Smith, Membership Manager, know about your contributions to the campaign so she may include your ideas in any future promotions of this great idea.
For more information on the Ideas Campaign, go to:
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Cuireann iQContent tús maith le Seachtain na Gaeilge
Mo náire mé! Shame on me!
D’éirigh le iQContent blagmhír i nGaeilge a chur ar fáil romhaim do Sheachtain na Gaeilge. Is iontach é rud é dar liom nuair a thugann comhlachtaí le fios go bhfuil siad tiomanta don phobal ina bhfuil siad lonnaithe agus lena bhfuil siad ag obair. Maireann Seachtain na Gaeilge ó tús Mí Mhárta go dtí Lá ‘Le Pádraig. Tá sé an-éasca páirt a ghlacadh ann: bain úsáid as cibé Gaeilge gur féidir leat tarraingt aníos as doimhneacht d’intinne am éigin le linn na hama sin. Muna bhraitheann tú go bhfuil a dhóthain Gaeilge agat seo roinnt frásaí trádála agus teicneolaíochta úsáideacha daoibh!
iQContent managed to beat me to it with their blog post in Irish for Seachtain na Gaeilge, the week(s) leading up to St. Patrick’s Day when we are all encouraged to use as much Irish as we can. I think it’s great when companies show that they are committed to the community where they are based and with whom they are working. Seachtain na Gaeilge takes place between March 2nd and St. Patrick’s Day every year. It’s really easy to take part: just use whatever Irish your can dredge up from the dark recesses of your mind during that time. If you don’t feel like you have enough Irish hear are a few key business and technology phrases to help you along!
- Ar ath-thosnaigh tú é? Ar dhéan tú ath-bhútáil air? Did you restart it? Did you reboot it?
- An bhfaca tú ár suíomh greasáin nua? Cad a cheapann tú? Did you see our new website? What do you think?
- Tá sé…. spéisiúil. Cén teicneolaíocht atá á n-úsáid ann? It’s …. interesting. What technology are you using?
- Tá sé/ sí do mo leanúint ar Twitter. S/he is following me on Twitter.
- Is cara liom é. Bheul ar Facebook ar aon nós… He’s a friend of mine. Well on Facebook anyway…
- Ná labhair liom faoin diabhal cúlú! Don’t talk to me about the damn recession!
- Cinnte beidh lón againn, a thaisce! Let’s do lunch, darling!
- Ba chóir duit ballraíocht a ghlacadh san IIA – tá na buntáistí togh! You should join the IIA – there are great benefits.
Okay I’ve run out of steam. Ask me for specific turns of phrase in the comments below! Offer only available until March 17th 2009 🙂
