iia: 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
Peter from Edenweb has made available a set of nominee logos for the IIA Net Visionary Awards
Nice work Peter!
Nice work Peter!
Voting is now open on the Irish Internet Association's Net Visionary awards 2007.
I've been nominated under the Internet Entrepreneur and Online Trader categories.
You'll also see quite a few other familiar names on the list - which is great.
The one thing I don't understand - and hopefully someone will be able to clarify it - is how some of last year's winners got nominated for the same categories again this year.
I'd also love to know what happened with some of the nominations I made. They seem to have vanished! Does that mean that the people rejected their nomination or did the IIA's system lose the nominations?
I've been nominated under the Internet Entrepreneur and Online Trader categories.
You'll also see quite a few other familiar names on the list - which is great.
The one thing I don't understand - and hopefully someone will be able to clarify it - is how some of last year's winners got nominated for the same categories again this year.
I'd also love to know what happened with some of the nominations I made. They seem to have vanished! Does that mean that the people rejected their nomination or did the IIA's system lose the nominations?
I've mentioned Amas' reports previously and the latest one is as fluffy as its predecessors...
The main thrust in this edition is broadband "takeup". It doesn't mention whether it's actually available or not, which seems more than a little counter-intuitive, though admittedly they do mention availability in their own office:
The other part of their report relates to the mobile web:
If it's Irish companies in general I'd love to know where they're getting their stats.
While it's nice to see them talking about mobile sites this kind of vague reporting is not helpful. If you are going to focus on 100 sites and 100 only then why can't you actually mention which sites you are talking about?
They claim that none of the sites they checked scored 5 on the ready.mobi test (they didn't even tell people where the test was located!), so at least I know they weren't looking at ours!
The main thrust in this edition is broadband "takeup". It doesn't mention whether it's actually available or not, which seems more than a little counter-intuitive, though admittedly they do mention availability in their own office:
Despite a Dublin city centre location, and sharing the same street as the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, AMAS has been turned down again for a DSL connection.You'd think that they might have factored that into the headlines...
The other part of their report relates to the mobile web:
Leading companies and government bodies have a poor mobile and PDA internet presence, according to research conducted by AMAS.Wow! Great headline, but who are you actually talking about?
A survey of 100 organisations, split evenly between public and private sectors, showsThat's incredibly vague and the followup statement doesn't actually collate with anything:
most have adopted a mainly defensive strategy to the mobile internet to date.
A majority of both public and private companies have registered a .mobi mobile domain, presumably to protect their brands.Let's look at that statement more closely. Which companies are they talking about? Companies in general or the 100 that they looked at, but haven't actually named?
If it's Irish companies in general I'd love to know where they're getting their stats.
While it's nice to see them talking about mobile sites this kind of vague reporting is not helpful. If you are going to focus on 100 sites and 100 only then why can't you actually mention which sites you are talking about?
They claim that none of the sites they checked scored 5 on the ready.mobi test (they didn't even tell people where the test was located!), so at least I know they weren't looking at ours!
Nominations for the 2007 Net Visionary Awards close tomorrow
NB: Anyone can nominate anyone they want. You DO NOT have to be a member of the IIA
NB: Anyone can nominate anyone they want. You DO NOT have to be a member of the IIA
I was delighted to hear that the IIA board now counts Keith Bohanna as one of its members.
Organisations need to have representation from people based outside Dublin. The IIA is the "Irish" Internet Association NOT the "Dublin" Internet Association, so getting people onto the board who aren't based in Dublin can only help. (yes I know Fergal lives outside Dublin!)
Thanks to Ken for highlighting it
Organisations need to have representation from people based outside Dublin. The IIA is the "Irish" Internet Association NOT the "Dublin" Internet Association, so getting people onto the board who aren't based in Dublin can only help. (yes I know Fergal lives outside Dublin!)
Thanks to Ken for highlighting it
