Online Marketing New Ideas (OMNI)

Net Visionary Voting Open

Voting for the 2007 Net Visionary Awards is now open. You can vote in 14 different categories and it is completely free!

Calling all visionaries

The Net Visionary Awards nominations are now closed and my good friends over at the Irish Internet Association tell me that the volume of nominations was nearly double last year's. The Net Vis Awards are unique in Ireland in that they are free to enter, are voted on by the peers and colleagues in the industry and run by a non-for-profit organisation. Be sure to cast your vote this year.

Shane Ross - why you should vote for him

I know readers of this blog are mainly interested in areas relating to Online Marketing but I want to take a brief time-out and ask that, if you are eligible, you would consider casting your vote for Senator Shane Ross in the forthcoming Seanad Elections. The reasons? Very simple really;

In my role as CEO of the Irish Internet Association we tried hard to lobby Government about our pitiful broadband availability. Despite many calls, emails and letters few politicians took the time to meet with me. Senator Ross was the exception. Not only did he meet with me on a number of occasions but he also had a deep understanding of why this issue is so important to Irish business and society. He displayed a keen insight into both the problems relating to broadband and the solutions to rectify them.

I believe he is one of the small group of earnest political practitioners who genuinely care about the issues, not the sound bytes. If you look at the work he has done in the area of Broadband, including getting a debate in the Seanad on his own motion relating to the issue you will, I hope, agree. I would strongly urge you to vote for him and would be happy to discuss or debate why I am backing his candidacy. He is a doer not a talker.

IIA Congress 2007

The IIA National Congress 2007 is being held on May 17 this year. Google, eBay, Bebo, Microsoft, Realex Payments and many more are featuring at this major networking event. The full line-up is available here - last year it was well worth the visit so maybe I will see some of you there.

Invest Northern Ireland Seminar

I am attending Invest Northern Ireland's seminar in Ballymena and the level of speaker and orgainsiation is excellent - some good lessons to be learned for runnning further events. Putting the seminar agenda on the back of your name badge is an innovative idea that I have not encountered before.

I have attended sessions delivered by eBay, Realex and I will be delivering one on behalf of the IIA later on. I also met denise cox of Newsweaver who I have not seen for a while. She has even started to blog, which should be worth checking out. If there are any other bloggers at the event perhaps you would care to comment about your experience of this seminar.

Widgets, Blidgets and so much more

So, just when you thought you had got to grips with the nomenclature; blogs, podcasts and rss feeds. Now you have to deal with widgets and blidgets! I am not even going to try to explain to you what they are. If you are reading this blog post just look to the right of the screen and you will see a widget in a small scroll bar - this is the Irish Internet Association's blog and you can get it here instead of having to visit it there. Once I get my head around all this I will post more but at first glance it looks like a blogger's viral marketing wet dream ...

Searching for Radon

I read an article recently about radon and it freightened the bejasus out of me. This silent killer really is of concern and so few Irish people seem to know, or care about it. So I did a search for "radon gas ireland". There is an agency dedicated to providing information about this relatlvely unknown threat, called the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland. There is lots of clear information and it is worth a visit.

They list some companies (but only in a PDF unfortuntuely and not as clickable links) and I tried one of these, the Radon Centre, as they are based in Wexford near where I live. I received an easy to use test and after a couple of months they removed the test (a small matchbox sized vial that sits in two places in your home) and our house passed the test! Easy and painless. Get you house tested today is my advice for what it is worth.

Cyberbullying

Fair City are talking about it. The Afternoon Show are talking about it. My Mum is talking about it. Cyberbullying. It is a real issue but some of the hysteria surrounding it is unwarranted. In my role as CEO of the Irish Internet Association I get to talk about this issue on the media. My main argument is summarised below;

The internet is here to stay. The interent is a pwoerful tool for enriching our lives in an unprecented manner. The internet is a pwoerful communications tool and if misused can be dangerous. You do not let your kid into a car unless they have been instructed on how to use the powerful (and all too often) deadly machine. You should not let your kids on the internet unless they are educated in how to use it and how not to misuse it.

Government and Society has responded and there are excellent resources available to the non-technical parent who may want to know more. Check out webwise and Childnet International and get involved in the debate, beef yourself up on what's involved and imbue a sense of wonder and respect in your kids about the power of the internet.

Coffee, Danish and 8MBytes Please

Apologies for the hiatus. I was travelling across Europe to my second home in Denmark. The wife is a Dane, don't you know. While talking over Xmas dinner my father in law dropped a casual remark that they were getting in fibre the following week and with 8MBytes as the lowest default for about 30 euro. I had to bite my tongue when he asked me what broadband is like in Ireland. I hmm'd and haww'd for a few moments, drank some coffee and asked him to show me his Xmas presents again.

Isn't it great as a travelling embassador of the Celtic Tiger that we we have to bow our heads in shame whenever broadband is mentioned. We are kings of the world on so many fronts, depending on what elements of David McWilliams creed you adhere to, but we are lowly laggards when internet connection speeds are mentioned.

I am publishing this blog at home via my satellite broadband link. I live in rural Wexford and this is the best I can get. Expensive and just tipping into the lowest technically allowable definition of the word broadband. I drink my coffee and hang my head in shame again.

Mergo of Minds

I am in beautiful Cahir giving a seminar to a group of people on the mergo project. I am demonstrating the effectiveness of using blogging as a communication tool and how it is fundamentally different from publishing to a website.

This is an interesting initiative that gives people in the hospitality and tourism sector a chance to network and learn about all facets of their business. Funded by Failte Ireland it is run under the aegis of Waterford Institute of Technology, and managed by Anne-Marie Frampton. For more information check out the mergo website.