blacknight: September 2007 Archives
I've just been looking over the list of nominees for this year's Net Visionary Awards and I've been trying to work out who I should vote for...
Best Blogger - It would have to be a toss up between Keith and Grandad. I know a couple of the others on the list, but I don't read them regularly so I can't really vote for them.
While it's hard choosing between Keith and Grandad I'd probably err towards Grandad as he's made me laugh so much over the last year. It's also great to see someone of a slightly older generation not only starting their own blog but also getting other people blogging.
Best Online Banking Service - I've no idea. I don't use any of the banks listed. I really don't understand why they even have this category. If it was broader ie. "financial services" you could get a lot more interesting stuff in there, but how many banks are there?
Best Podcaster - Conn O Muineachain. He deserves it
Education Contribution - Bernie Goldbach. (congrats on the new arrival by the way!)
Paul Whelan from Biology.ie would be another choice
E-Government - No idea. Sorry!
Innovation - This is a really tough one, as I know quite a few of the nominees personally. David Curtin and his team successfully launched Enum in Ireland and that is true innovation. Newaddress.ie is a really cool service, so Kevin deserves credit (they were nominated previously, but I don't think they won). Martin Langedijk's work with Teamwork has made life a lot easier for a lot of businesses including my own! Alan's someone I respect and who has been doing quite a few interesting things over the last year or so - keep an eye on him!
Internet Entrepreneur - Obviously I'd have to vote for myself - though I never actually win!. If you don't want to you could do worse than looking at the likes of Derek Quinn, who was also involved with NewAddress and is probably plotting something new already ... Pigsback is a cool idea, CentralR is useful and all the other ones listed are either already cool and useful or have lots of potential. There's just so many of them to choose from! (Maybe you can just pick me and keep it simple! :) )
Internet Marketer - Dave Davis. I've no experience of the others. RaboDirect has been very successful with their online marketing, though they were nominated for this last year as well when someone else was involved (I think!) . Mark Tarbatt's Generator is an interesting business and unlike some of his competitors he actually does provide quotes when you ask for them!
Mobile Internet Damien Farren from DotMobi
I've mentioned them several times on here and over on both my domain blog and the company one. They're doing cool stuff with the mobile web!
Online Trader - Even though I / we are nominated the list is impressive and I really don't think I should be there. Someone like Geoff Boyle from 123 is much more deserving
Social Contribution - This is always a tough category. Trying to narrow it down is not easy! A lot of the time the nominees are the unsung heroes. The guys and girls that have helped the rest of us in some way (and by "us" I mean people in general)
Damien Mulley has given generously of his time over the last few years in so many ways that it would be hard to know where to start.
Andy Osborn has been slaving away on taking BodyWhys to the next level and it seems to have been paying off.
Paul Clerkin's work with Irish architecture site Archiseek is amazing. You don't have to be into architecture to appreciate that it is a labour of love.
Politics.ie is a fantastic resource, so David Cochrane deserves to be on that list.
Technology Journalist - I'd go with Mulley on this one again, though Eamon McGrane makes that decision difficult.
Web Designer - Oh how I hate this category! Take your pick! Alan, Peter and Darren have all done work for me in either a personal capacity or for the company over the last year, so how I'm going to vote in that category.... God only knows!
Web Developer - I know several people on that list (quelle surprise!) but I am at a loss as to who I'd vote for. I know who I won't vote for, but that doesn't reduce the list enough!
If anyone has any suggestions on how best to vote please let me know!
NB: Anyone can vote. You DO NOT need to be a member of the IIA
Best Blogger - It would have to be a toss up between Keith and Grandad. I know a couple of the others on the list, but I don't read them regularly so I can't really vote for them.
While it's hard choosing between Keith and Grandad I'd probably err towards Grandad as he's made me laugh so much over the last year. It's also great to see someone of a slightly older generation not only starting their own blog but also getting other people blogging.
Best Online Banking Service - I've no idea. I don't use any of the banks listed. I really don't understand why they even have this category. If it was broader ie. "financial services" you could get a lot more interesting stuff in there, but how many banks are there?
Best Podcaster - Conn O Muineachain. He deserves it
Education Contribution - Bernie Goldbach. (congrats on the new arrival by the way!)
Paul Whelan from Biology.ie would be another choice
E-Government - No idea. Sorry!
Innovation - This is a really tough one, as I know quite a few of the nominees personally. David Curtin and his team successfully launched Enum in Ireland and that is true innovation. Newaddress.ie is a really cool service, so Kevin deserves credit (they were nominated previously, but I don't think they won). Martin Langedijk's work with Teamwork has made life a lot easier for a lot of businesses including my own! Alan's someone I respect and who has been doing quite a few interesting things over the last year or so - keep an eye on him!
Internet Entrepreneur - Obviously I'd have to vote for myself - though I never actually win!. If you don't want to you could do worse than looking at the likes of Derek Quinn, who was also involved with NewAddress and is probably plotting something new already ... Pigsback is a cool idea, CentralR is useful and all the other ones listed are either already cool and useful or have lots of potential. There's just so many of them to choose from! (Maybe you can just pick me and keep it simple! :) )
Internet Marketer - Dave Davis. I've no experience of the others. RaboDirect has been very successful with their online marketing, though they were nominated for this last year as well when someone else was involved (I think!) . Mark Tarbatt's Generator is an interesting business and unlike some of his competitors he actually does provide quotes when you ask for them!
Mobile Internet Damien Farren from DotMobi
I've mentioned them several times on here and over on both my domain blog and the company one. They're doing cool stuff with the mobile web!
Online Trader - Even though I / we are nominated the list is impressive and I really don't think I should be there. Someone like Geoff Boyle from 123 is much more deserving
Social Contribution - This is always a tough category. Trying to narrow it down is not easy! A lot of the time the nominees are the unsung heroes. The guys and girls that have helped the rest of us in some way (and by "us" I mean people in general)
Damien Mulley has given generously of his time over the last few years in so many ways that it would be hard to know where to start.
Andy Osborn has been slaving away on taking BodyWhys to the next level and it seems to have been paying off.
Paul Clerkin's work with Irish architecture site Archiseek is amazing. You don't have to be into architecture to appreciate that it is a labour of love.
Politics.ie is a fantastic resource, so David Cochrane deserves to be on that list.
Technology Journalist - I'd go with Mulley on this one again, though Eamon McGrane makes that decision difficult.
Web Designer - Oh how I hate this category! Take your pick! Alan, Peter and Darren have all done work for me in either a personal capacity or for the company over the last year, so how I'm going to vote in that category.... God only knows!
Web Developer - I know several people on that list (quelle surprise!) but I am at a loss as to who I'd vote for. I know who I won't vote for, but that doesn't reduce the list enough!
If anyone has any suggestions on how best to vote please let me know!
NB: Anyone can vote. You DO NOT need to be a member of the IIA
Pretty much everyone will be accepting pre-orders for personal IE domains in advance of the October 31st "go live"
I just hope that people realise what a "landrush" type situation really involves. I'd suspect that quite a few of them don't.
In a landrush like this not everyone can be made happy. It's simply not possible.
If, like me, you have an uncommon firstname or surname (I have both!) then you should be fine, but if you have a more common combination you may run into issues.
All you have to do is pickup your local telephone directory to get an idea.
I've posted a bit about how the queues can be expected to work on our company blog.
I'd also have to remind people that if you are going to try to get yourname.ie that you choose an Irish provider with servers in Ireland.
This server is only a couple of milliseconds from INEX. Can the same be said for some of the other "irish" providers? (that small "i" is intentional!)
Anyone who recalls the "fun" of the .eu landrush and sunrises will recall that every millisecond made a difference.
It doesn't matter a damn if you market your business on bargain basement domains using bargain basement servers on the other side of the globe - when it comes down to the crunch people will want to get their IE domains from someone who has a fast, low latency connection into the registry.
I just hope that people realise what a "landrush" type situation really involves. I'd suspect that quite a few of them don't.
In a landrush like this not everyone can be made happy. It's simply not possible.
If, like me, you have an uncommon firstname or surname (I have both!) then you should be fine, but if you have a more common combination you may run into issues.
All you have to do is pickup your local telephone directory to get an idea.
I've posted a bit about how the queues can be expected to work on our company blog.
I'd also have to remind people that if you are going to try to get yourname.ie that you choose an Irish provider with servers in Ireland.
This server is only a couple of milliseconds from INEX. Can the same be said for some of the other "irish" providers? (that small "i" is intentional!)
Anyone who recalls the "fun" of the .eu landrush and sunrises will recall that every millisecond made a difference.
It doesn't matter a damn if you market your business on bargain basement domains using bargain basement servers on the other side of the globe - when it comes down to the crunch people will want to get their IE domains from someone who has a fast, low latency connection into the registry.
Paul took some photos over the weekend of our new firewalls
If you're a bit of a geek you might appreciate the photos I posted on the company blog:
Loads of boxes from Dell
More stuff from Dell
Loads of boxes from Dell
More stuff from Dell
In the past few weeks I was contacted a few times by journalists regarding the Irish ISP Test
In response to several queries that we received we've rolled out a couple of new features, while earlier in the week I mentioned we were looking for feedback.
In response to several queries that we received we've rolled out a couple of new features, while earlier in the week I mentioned we were looking for feedback.
