A Guide to Online Ireland

Keeping Tabs on Irish Politics

2009-04-24T17:48:00.008+01:00

Just looking at KildareStreet.com from John Handelaar . The site allows you to search through the archives of Dail debates and answers. Whats cool about this, is that you can keep a track of individual TDs and even of your own search terms.

So lets say, you are interested in political developments relating to 'child allowances' or 'property tax' for example, you can track these terms either by subsribing to email updates or subscribing to an RSS feed and get updated anytime this term gets discussed in the Dail.

You can also track the contributions of individual TDs and get alerted everytime they participate in dail sessions.

Each TD has a profile. You can view how often they have contributed to Dail sessions, even track the number of triple alliterative phrases they use, curiously.

According to John Handalaar

In the next few weeks you will also be able to inspect the past five and a half years of TD expenses, and the register of members' interests.

This is just a beta site at the moment. I'm not a usability/design expert, but would humbly suggest a few small design changes.

When I first started using the site, I went straight for the Dail debate links. Didn't actually notice the search box.

To my view, the search box should be the main focus of the home page.

I would give the search box more padding and remove all of the links below line 3 and replace with just 2 links to debates and answers, or possibly add extra tab on top for the latest debates and answers.

You could fill the empty space below with a video on how to get the most out of the site. This would not be necessary for bloggers, but would be useful for general public.

In the video, explain how to use search and how to sign up for email alerts or how to sub to rss feeds based on TD or search term.

Some might not agree with that, but I think that a lot of people don't get the subscription idea and also tend to be more comfortable with visual demonstration then textual demonstration.

A very timely application, I would say. Congrats to those involved.

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3D Camp in Limerick Sat. May 24th

2008-04-22T16:37:00.002+01:00

Image via Wikipedia
3D Camp in Limerick next month, looks like it has an interesting line up of speakers.

According to James Corbett, one of the Organisers of the event:

We have people coming who are involved (or interested) in designing educational environments in virtual spaces, building video CVs, eLearning, 3D visualisations for medical devices, 3D modelling, film/animation production, location based services and much much more.

Steve Collins, co-founder of Havok, is also coming. Havok of course is the company behind the amazing physics and animation engine which has been used in films like The Matrix and games like Second Life. And you'll recall that Intel acquired the company last September. Steve also serves on the Irish chapter of the International Game Developers Association.

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Farmers Markets and Artisan Food Retailers: where to find them in Ireland

2008-03-10T23:59:00.004Z

View Larger Map

Inspired by the logic behind this post from Jenny Vorwaller and this successful initiative by James Corbett, I've decided to start a map of places where you can find healthy fresh farm produce.
The map will include farmers markets, artisan food retailers and individual farmers who sell directly to the consumer. Let me know, if I should add to that list.
The idea is that anybody can see at a glance, who is providing fresh food in their immediate vicinity and when they are open for business.

If you are unsure how to add a location to the map have a look at this video to see how. It's really easy and will only take a minute or so. Click here, when you're ready to add a location to it.

If there are any bloggers out there interested in this subject, it would be great if you could link to this post and spread the word. If this is popular, I'm going to try and creat a badge for it, so that people can put a permanent link to it on their sidebar.

Words don't Matter?

2008-03-03T23:54:00.003Z

Irish Arts Blog taking off

2008-01-29T13:35:00.001Z

Some time ago, I announced the setting up of the Irish Arts Blog. A group blog made up of 11 Irish Artists and Crafts people. This week I am doing the official online launch of the blog.
The artists are really taking to the blog and there has been a great response from international bloggers to it. Go and have a look, lots of really striking works of art on display.

Irish Arts Blog

Where to find free Wifi Hotspots in Ireland

2008-01-25T09:54:00.000Z

James Corbett has come up with another great initiative and started a collaborative google map of wifi hotspots in Ireland. If you want to help out with this map you can edit it directly by clicking here.

View Larger Map

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Irish Christmas no. 1?

2007-12-11T23:10:00.001Z

Adam McGuire gives out about the state of music today and has started a campaign to have Tom Waits Christmas Card From a Hooker as the Christmas No. 1 this year. Great idea!

YouTube - CHRISTMAS CARD FROM A HOOKER IN MINNEAPOLIS Tom Waits

New Irish Craft News Blog launches in Ireland

2007-09-11T17:20:00.000+01:00

Congratulations to Karen Harper on the launch of her Craft News Blog. I helped Karen set the blog up, after reading her email newsletter which she distributes to over 400 artists and crafts people throughout the country.
Her newsletter contains tons of great information for crafts people, including information on how to find exhibitions, fairs, good places to source things and advertise YOUR business, or even new stock ranges. She also talks about various support bodies such as Enterprise Ireland, Craft Council of Ireland and Guilds and Associations. She has 20 years of experience in the craft industry, so knows what she's talking about. All of this content will soon appear on her blog also.

I hope to try and encourage more artists to look at blogging and other web 2.0 technologies as means of marketing their art. Setting up this blog should be a step in the right direction.

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Blognation Ireland Launches with great roundup of Web 2.0 Projects in Ireland

2007-08-13T13:40:00.000+01:00

Congrats to Conor O'Neill for launching Blognation Ireland today. The Irish site is part of the blognation network which is building up to be the biggest tech news site on non-US Web 2.0 startups around the globe.
It kicks off with a great roundup of web 2.0 projects in Ireland. I've been following most of these companies for a while, but its great to have this kind of overview.
Conor makes an excellent point about the suitability of Web 2.0 projects to an environment in which investment is hard to come by:

The challenges faced by startups here actually mean that Web2.0 has a strong fit to Ireland; low-cost and free tools and technologies which can be used by tiny teams scattered around the country to create compelling web applications. Whilst most enterprise development is centred on a few large population centres, the majority of webapps in Ireland are coming from the “long tail” of locations.

Hot on the heels of last weeks Open Coffee Club broadcast, this is another step in the right direction.

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Historic Tech TV broadcast

2007-08-11T11:20:00.000+01:00

Well, I was privileged to watch what was the first video broadcast of an Open Coffee club meeting in Ireland. This was a fantastic achievement by the guys in Limerick. For those of you who don't know what the Open Coffee Club is, its basically an informal get together of tech enthusiasts and business people to share ideas and network. I've heard said that the athmosphere is very infectious at these meetings and you certainly won't argue with this, if you watch the video of the event.

The great thing about the video streaming of the event is that not only was I able to watch what was going on, I could send any questions I had by instant message. This is truly ground breaking as a number of commenters have pointed out. All of this great organisation and initiative came about without financial help and mainly through the impetus of bloggers and blogging. More on that later.
Secondly, the guys who presented were very impressive. 2 kids (the oldest was 18 I believe), who had the self belief to rent out offices in Limerick to pursue their software projects, had failed completely to get any support from investors or Enterprise Ireland, decided to move over to Silicon Valley to try their luck with the famous Ycombinator funding group headed by Paul Graham. They got accepted by the Ycombinator program and although their product isn't released yet, there are encouraging signals that their product will be a success. The software seems to be a form of monitoring tool that helps Ebay Power Sellers to track efficiently their sales and stock levels. That may be an oversimplification. For more info check out http://auctomatic.com/. There account of their experiences trying to get funding and their approval of the Ycombinator system was illuminating. They also spoke a little bit about the unusual technology they use to creat their software. That was a bit over my head, but I'm sure would have been interesting to any serious programmers tuning in.
All in all a fantastic event and testimony to the ever growing influence of blogging and social network initiatives in Ireland.
Surely the time is now, for Enterprise Ireland and the investing community in Ireland to start pushing and supporting all these initiatives and in particular investing in innovative social networking and other tech startups. If 2 kids can do this, so can many more in my opinion. There just needs to be the right supportive environment for it to happen.
This brings me back to blogging. Ultimately all of the initiatives that have happened in the last few years have been seeded by discussions started on blogs. Events like barcamp, podcamp and OpenCoffee Club were first mooted by bloggers and their continuing success has been sustained by constant promotion and discussion within the blogosphere. So rather then seeing bloggers as a collection of malcontents, the lazy stereotype employed by some media commentators, there should be a recognition now of the power of blogging to create real social and commercial initiative. Enterprise Ireland and other government bodies, should be looking at every possible way they can support the blogging community and help it prosper.

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Paddys Valley getting some good Press

2007-07-31T16:04:00.000+01:00

I see the guys organising the Paddys Valley trip to Silicon Valley are getting some great coverage in the Press.
Paddy’s Valley is an ad-hoc group of Irish business and technology people who have decided to form their own delegation to tour Silicon Valley and create closer bonds with companies and people in the mecca of the computer world. The tour nicknamed “PaddysValley” will head off on December 2nd 2007, taking advantage of the new air routes from Aer Lingus. The December 2nd visit will be the first of what is hoped will be regular trips, building up stronger and stronger links between Irish technologists and Silicon Valley.

Anyone is welcome to come along on the trip including curious business people and members of the press. The email address for the tour is PaddysValley < at > Gmail .com
Conor O’Neill, James Corbett and Damien Mulley are the principal organiser behind the trip. Please contact them if you have any questions.

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A Band of Outsiders

2007-07-19T13:00:00.000+01:00

Via my other blog, SiopaEile

YouTube - Jean-Luc Godard / Bande à part (Band of Outsiders) / Trailer

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Interview with Marisa haedike, Artist Blogger.

2007-07-17T22:41:00.000+01:00

Via my other blog, SiopaEile

My second interview with an artisan blogger is with Marisa Haedike, the creative and enterprising author of Creative Thursday. Marisa is a prolific artist, who sets herself the considerable challenge of producing one painting a day for her blog Creative Thursday. She has only been blogging since July 2006, but is already an established and highly succesful artist blogger. I'd like to thank Marisa, for taking the time to answer these questions:
As you know Marisa, I am an advocate of blogging for Artisans and am trying to encourage more Irish artists to use the medium. I think you are a perfect example of someone, who fully exploits the internet as a means of promoting and selling your work. Not only do you have an excellent blog, which highlights your unique art, but you also podcast, run work shops, host an online gallery and sell your art on Etsy. You also put your art on prints, cards and furniture. How central to your efforts is blogging, both from a social and business perspective? Do you have stories to tell about connections made through blogging?

First let me say thank you Paul for contacting me and inviting me to share my thoughts with you in this interview!

Now,to the short story of how I got started blogging. I had heard from several people that blogging is vital to anyone's business these days.I already enjoyed following other's blogs, so I thought I would give it a try. I officially started my blog in July of 2006. At this time I was already podcasting, and felt that blogging would be another way to connect with my expanding listener base. The blog really kicked into gear when I started daily painting a month later. It became the perfect place to showcase the painting of the day.

I would say that just in the last two months, coinciding with the start of my Etsy store, I have made my blog one of the most important parts of my efforts.

As I started gaining an audience, and people were leaving comments, I was simultaneously discovering so many inspiring blogs, especially other artists whose work I follow and admire. I love how they really shared a genuine portrait of themselves, and their lives along with their art. I love how they have their own community with all the comments left on each blog. I also noticed that, the blog is a place where they communicate with their buyers. So this combination of influences inspired me to make my own blog more dimensional.

I also have to say, that my blog has become a place for me to share the best parts of myself and my life with me. The fact that I am taking the time to notice and record what makes me happy in my life has become wonderful reminder on days when I don't feel myself, that indeed I already have such a wonderful life and that I'm not missing it. I honestly had no idea that I would enjoy it so much.

Socially,blogging and reading other's blogs I have made so many new internet friends, even new friends here in Los Angeles. And as I mentioned before, I have discovered so many people who lead such tremendously charming lives and share their day to day in such beautiful and creative formats. It's sooo much better for my spirit than reading the news everyday.

You obviously have a busy time of it, given all the activities I mentioned above, yet your art is gentle and uncluttered in nature. How do you manage to do this, especially given that you do a painting aday?

Thanks Paul. And it's true, that I sometimes I have a busy time of it. I pride myself on finding balance these days. When I take time to cook and take walks everyday, I know I have found it :)

Hmmm, as I sit here writing this to you, among the clutter of my messy desk....It is this attempt to find more balance that inspires my uncluttered backgrounds.I live in a big city, Los Angeles, California, filled with millions ofpeople. Some days, life can feel a bit hectic here and definitely crowded. I began to think about how I want my own life and surroundings to have less clutter and to flow easier. This idea gradually translated into my art. Also, I find the idea of negative space very interesting.Just because the space is there, why do we sometimes feel the need to fill it, whether it be our home, our art, or even our conversations with others?

I realize now as I am answering your question that the uncluttered backgrounds really allow me to showcase the little characters I am presently so fond of portraying. And the simplicity in developing each background works beautifully in completing a painting a day.

The gentleness that you mention, that is my simply my nature, on most days. Feisty for sure, on other days! (I usually don't sit down to paint when I feel feisty ;) )

In one of your podcasts, you make the interesting point that artists need to break free from the stereotype of the 'struggling, impoverished and misunderstood artist'. Artists should be 'thriving'. This kinds of coincides with my thoughts on blogging for artisans. I think we are at a unique point in history, where artists have the ability to publicize themselves at little expense to the world and without having to go through intermediaries. The artist, who may have struggled 100 years ago, because he lived in a remote area and didn't have an audience or a publisher for his/her art, now has access to the whole world because of the internet. What kind of steps can we take to convince more artists to avail of this?

Good question Paul. One thing I am learning is you can't really "convince" anyone of anything until they are ready to listen. You just learn to lead by example and most importantly live a life that you are happy with. When other's are ready they'll catch on and if they're not, they'll hang with the other "struggling" artists and have a grand time! (I think)

I agree with you that the internet is amazing and has opened the doors to countless opportunities for those in the arts. There no longer are intermediaries that decide what they think is "good" and this goes for writing, filmmaking, music, painting, basically all of the arts!!! Now,really as a creative person the only thing standing between you and sharing your work with others is you. Exciting for some and scary for others. Life takes on a different meaning when you can't "blame" others anymore for why you didn't do something in your life.

In the meantime, Paul we can keep sharing our ideas of the "thriving" artist.There are inspiring examples everywhere of those of us who are doing it!
Of course, it is perhaps a bit romantic to think that you can just publish yourself on the web and get instantly the kind of publicity you need to thrive. You obviously have to work on it. What kind of steps did you take, to make yourself known in the online world? What kind of things do you do to build your audience?

I'm so happy you consider me one of the thriving ones!!! Yay!!! I'm thrilled to say that I am. I've really only recently been able to support myself solely with my art and it feels AMAZING. Honestly, the gratitude I feel never wears off and grows more everyday. I can still remember how much I wanted my life to be this, what I now get to experience everyday, the freedom to create what I love most.

Here's what I think you need to thrive. Believe in yourself, even if the rest of the world hasn't caught up with you yet. If you are creating art, love what you create! Decide that you will thrive no matter what. No matter what anyone else thinks about it and no matter what's happening with your personal life your "career". It will come together if you decide to thrive now! And this way you won't be wasting beautiful days, while you "wait to thrive" sometime down the road, when things "really" start happening.

When you make the decision to thrive, it's a powerful intention and the world begins to meet you and support you. It always has really, it's just that you notice it now.

When you set this intention, you will be lead to take the next steps you need to continue to thrive. Everyone is different and every path is different. A mistake I think that is often made is when people who "succeed" in an area of their life, tell others "Now, this is how you HAVE to do it". It is so personal really that each individual is the only one that has the answer to that.

The actions I did take was to build an online community, really because it was fun! Because it resonated with me, because I will say again, the people I find online are people I want to know better. The daily painting started because I read an article in a magazine here in the states called "Domino". I thought "Wow, that's impressive, I'd like to try that". And as it turns out daily painting is perfect for me. I'm a prolific and fast creator. I had no idea, how much I needed that daily creativity boost. Committing myself to daily paintings, and to the audience that waits for the paintings every day, has made me more creative overall, especially on days where I thought I had no inspiration.

The daily painting practice along with the podcast and reaching out to other bloggers via email and commenting on their blogs, has really helped me to have an online presence. Because many of those bloggers have shared my work and then their readers have passed it on....and on.... Ultimately building an internet presence is all word of mouth and it can travel very quickly,so believe in the romantic, Paul!!!

Just like anything else, the internet feels like a small world sometimes. I find I read about a lot of the same people who are putting themselves and their work out into the world. You just start somewhere, and I can't stress this enough...Be the most genuine you can be. Spread love and support wherever you go. And your community will grow.

Your podcasts are very inspiring and authentic. You are obviously a champion of the creative life and following your dreams. There is a constant theme in your writings and podcasts of people who have switched from '9 to 5' to a creative life. Of course, you live in an area famed for its positive, 'can do' ethos and one might be tempted to say that it does'nt translate so well to less 'sunny climates'(although thanks to global warming, its getting very sunny here in Ireland;-)). Yet, the internet creates a virtual environment of its own, and with a positive and supportive community in place, you can almost replicate the moral support, you need to be able to follow your dreams. What are your thoughts on this?

Yes,absolutely! This community you make via the internet can be incredibly supportive. And living in a sunny climate helps, although some of my favorite artists live in Portland where it is misty and rainy quite abit. Living in this country helps too, because you feel like you are almost entitled to follow your dreams. Having family in Germany that still remember what it was like to live under difficult conditions, I realize that the opportunity we feel here in the states is something to be very appreciative of. But, this is also where the internet is amazing. There really are no differences anymore. The internet has removed all the lines between us. We can learn from one another and support one another. I also love that the feeling of competition is beginning to subside as the feeling of support, and encouragement begins to be the accepted and cherished norm among my "internet colleagues"!

Do you have any ideas on how we can create this kind of community in Ireland, or is this something that has happened organically for you?

It has happened organically for me, but I wanted it to and I took steps to connect with people. In fact I always have, it happens to be a part of my nature that feels easy. I'm never afraid to reach out to someone and say hello. So to answer your question, just keep doing what you are doing and you'll find it begin to evolve in Ireland I am sure. I tell everyone to never be afraid to "reach out to people" who inspire you.The internet makes this so easy now, too.

If you were an artist starting out with a limited budget, and had to choose between a website and a blog, which would you go for?

A blog definitely!

They are so easy to build and personalize yourself. Most of them are free.And technically it is very easy to update. You can be "live" in 5minutes and then add as little or as much content as you like. It's all up to you!

Finally, you've written a book about being creatively self-employed, which people can get on amazon. Again a great extension of your online presense. You are constantly evolving. Any plans for the future? Can we expect a Marisa Videoblog:-), at some stage?

Actually, the book titled "Creatively Self-Employed" is by Kristen Fischer. She interviewed me to be a part of the book that features many insightful self-employed creatives! I highly, highly recommend it!

I have written an ebook, that I also Illustrated called "Choose a SunnySpot, Life Lessons learned in Improv Class". It shares a lot of the philosophy that gave me the courage to live the life I now lead, that funny enough I did learn in Improv Class.

And so what can you expect next? I may be collaborating on a children's book soon. I would love to have a Creative Thursday TV show that I host, as I originally came to LA to pursue acting which I am also still involved with. Always more painting, and now that I am working with clay in 3D, more to explore with that. Since I worked as an interior designer, with a love of the home and home furnishings I would love to have an entire Creative Thursday line - what that will include, we'll just have to see!

I'll leave with you a line from one of my many bios that is floating out there in the vast internet.

To sum me up:

An entrepreneurial spirit who will never be boxed in; my wish is that everybody find what makes them happy and always follow their heart.

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Creative Thursday Daily Paintings

technorati tags:Marisa Haedike, art, artisan blogging, creativity, creative life

Anne Black Ceramics

2007-07-16T23:19:00.000+01:00

Via my other blog, SiopaEile

From About page:

Anne Black is one of Denmark’s most influential contemporary ceramic designers.

Anne´s approach to porcelain is uncompromising. Each product is unique,crafted by hand, and of high quality materials. The result is a classical yet modern, simple yet intricate porcelain collection.

anne black

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technorati tags:porcelain, ceramics, jewellery, jewelry, unique, denmark, online shopping

The Greatest

2007-07-14T12:14:00.000+01:00

Via my other blog, SiopaEile

YouTube - Cat Power - The Greatest on Jools Holland

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Artisan Blogging Revolution Continued

2007-07-14T11:48:00.000+01:00

Via my other blog, SiopaEile.
Well, I must admit, I haven't being putting a great effort into my blog since Christmas, mainly because of work and other commitments. I have a little more time on my hands now, so I am going to try and reignite my efforts to promote artisan blogging. I got an email from Sara Cullen recently, where she told me about some of the work she and others have been doing as a result of blogging in the knitting and weaving community. Here is what she had to say:

There are a number of knitting groups that meet up around Dublin andkildare, and Cork also, and the main stitch and bitch group alsomaintains an online forum for people to share ideas etc. I have agroup in Celbridge myself, which meets every 2 weeks, and the SnB groupin Dublin meets every 2 weeks also.

She also supplied me with a list of blogs:

www.teaandcakes.net

www.asimpleyarn.net

www.winonaqueen.blogspot.com

http://chicwithstix.blogspot.com/

http://turtleknits.blogspot.com/

http://www.knittingneels.com/

I do like the name Stitch and bitch;-) Even guys are into the knitting apparently8-0

One day I am going to try it, I promise. Great to see,though, that the revolution has started, even if it did so without me;-)

So I've put my thinking cap on and come up with a number of ideas for promoting artisan blogging.

Firstly, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am going to do a series of interviews with established Artisan bloggers. I have a very exciting line up of bloggers for this. One of my goals will be to try and find out what they have got out of blogging, both from a personal and business perspective. I'm also going to ask each one for their favourite tip regarding blogging, so it should be well worth tuning into.

One thing, I have realised is that some artisan bloggers, are not overly technical and sometimes struggle in certain areas. If there are any artisan bloggers out there who are looking for technical advice, feel free to email me and I will do my best to help you. I don't have a whole lot of time to devote to this, so if I can't come up with a quick answer to your question, I will try, at least, to point you in the right direction.

I am also thinking of setting up a forum for artisan blogging. This could be used for technical advice, marketing advice and also for exchanging goods and arranging partnerships. We saw from the interview with Jenny Vorwaller that a number of partnerships have developed out of her blogging. Obviously, the more community tools that evolve around the artisan blogging movement, the greater the opportunities for these kind of collaborations.

Finally, I plan to create a group blog for 10 artisans who haven't as yet got a blog presense. It will take me a while to find them, and if you have any suggestions please let me know. I am looking for unique artisans who do high quality work. I will provide the blog free of charge to them, in the hope that this will give further impetus to artisan blogging in Ireland.

I do have one other very substantial idea, which I will reveal at a later date. Please let me know what you think about this and all suggestions are welcome.

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technorati tags:artisan, blogging, art, craft, online shopping, ireland, revolution, collaboration

Where to find the cheapest laptops in Ireland

2007-06-30T23:09:00.000+01:00

Adrian Weckler of the Sunday Business Post points to several electronics retailers selling laptops for under EUR500. Laptopsdirect.ie are selling a Lenovo 300 C200 for €455 and Harvey Norman have Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li7105 for €497. Dells budget model the Inspiron 1501 also cuts the €500 barrier. Check out his useful list of top online electronics retailers also.

TechWire

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Nessun Dorma by Paul Potts

2007-06-18T16:02:00.001+01:00

Not a big fan of shows like this, but this was a bit different.

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Low pension rating for Ireland - OECD

2007-06-09T00:54:00.000+01:00

Courtesy Independant.ie

IRELAND is close to bottom of the league when it comes to comparing final income with pension income, according to a study from Paris-based OECD.
The report found that people in OECD countries will have to savemore for their retirement as a result of the major pension reformscarried out in recent years.
The average pension promise in 16 OECD countries studied was cut by 22pc as a result of the reforms.
For women, the reduction was 25pc.

To find out what you can expect to earn in retirement, check out the Pensions Boards pension calculator.

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Low pension rating for Irish - OECD - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

Finding Free Software online

2007-05-23T17:58:00.000+01:00

I wrote before about finding free software alternatives online. Now there is a website called Osalt.com that allows you to enter the name of any commercial software (eg photoshop) and returns you the top open source alternatives in that category (eg paint.net, gimp). Quite useful for the none geeks amongst us, I would say.

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A Guide to Online Ireland now searchable by labels

2007-05-23T17:08:00.000+01:00

A big frustration for me until recently with Blogger was the fact that you couldn't use categories to make your content searchable. Now, with blogger Beta you can apply labels to each post and create a categorisation system with the labels. I talk about a wide variety of topics in the blog, so these will help you find content that interests you more easily. For example, I write alot about ways of saving money online. Now you can click on the label "saving money online" on my links panel and you will get all the posts that I have related to this topic.

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3 announce EUR19.99 per month 3G Broadband package

2007-05-23T16:34:00.001+01:00

Via Damien Mulley Sounds like a pretty good deal. 3 now have 3G coverage for over 80% of the country according to their website. If you have a laptop, this means that you can get broadband where-ever you travel to, more or less. I'm seriously considering dropping my landline at this stage.

3 Ireland

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Review of Review of Louder Voice

2007-05-05T11:12:00.001+01:00

Review of Review of Louder Voice

Rated as 5/5 on May 05 2007 by Paul O Mahony

Hats off to Conor O'Neill of Louder Voice who has developed the tool, I am using to rate this post with. It's not just a simple rating tool though. It's coded as structured review (hreview), which means, if I understand correctly, that posts can easily get picked up by other websites across the internet, which support this format. So this gives your blog reviews a much wider audience, then would be the case, if you posted a normal unformatted review on your blog. Indeed Louder Voice will pick up all the reviews posted by bloggers who use the service, and post them on its own website.

If this reaches a critical mass of users, it should be a great way of searching for reviews of just about anything (restaurants, businesses, books, websites etc).
I will try using this for reviewing irish websites.
The userinterface is very intuitive and I was impressed by how easily the set up for Blogger was.

If you write occasional reviews on your blog, I would recommend this.

LouderVoice Review Tags: blogging, louder voice, rating

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Interview with an Artisan Blogger

2007-04-22T16:57:00.000+01:00

from Siopa Eile

I've talked before about the benefits of blogging for artisans and Jewellery maker Jenny Vorwaller who runs the excellent blog True Nature has agreed to do a small interview with me. Jenny's blog is a very entertaining read. She's a very fluent writer and describes with great eloquence and enthusiasm her daily experiences in Montevideo in Uruguay. She moved there last year from the U.S. with her family, basically out of impulse and has some wonderful photo impressions and anecdotes of her experiences there to date. I asked her a number of questions:

You are quite a creative person and able to work confidently in a number of mediums. What do you attribute this to?

Well first of all, thank you for that very big compliment! I suppose that the ability to work in various mediums is something that occurs naturally because once you have a creative mindset, then one medium reciprocates another, even outside ofthe applied arts. I find this happens with many other artistic people Iknow. They find decorating comes easy to them after working out acomposition in a painting, because the same rules of design and color apply, it just fits in a different realm. That's truly one of the most intoxicating things about being an artist, that ability to problem solve in any event. And since life presents opportunities to take one idea and move into another level constantly, (what most people call problems) there's always room to practice innovative living.

Your art is very much based on memories and heritage in general. You also say that you moved from the East coast of the America to Montevideo a 'city with faded elegance'. This begs the question,perhaps, "are you unsettled by modernity"? What motivates you to focus so much on the past.

Well there is no place that I would rather be than the present! I feel very blessed to live in a time where we have so much freedom and ability to express ourselves and I feel that I owe those conveniences to many people who made great sacrifices,who maybe aren't remembered as much as we could credit them.
That being said, my last collection was based on heritage, but I go through different phases of influences, where ever my research takes me. Reading and travel help me to find groundwork for expression and at the moment, I'm feeling particularly drawn to a the era of the past.

You describe your spontaneous move to South America with great elequence. It seems very romantic and adventurous? How does your reality compare with what you had hoped for?

I suppose I am living in a very romantic reality! Looking back to before I took such a leap of faith to move here, I'll admit that my vision of life here was only based on what I had read and seen of the place. A vast surround of beaches,architecture that reflected the economic history of the city, a new culture and language, a different life altogether. The remarkable realization is that five months into this experience, that vision is still accurate! It's very thrilling to say, "life is what you makeit."

I am very much interested in blogging as a medium for promoting artisans and would like to know how much blogging has helped you in your work? Do you feel it has broadened your audience significantly? Are there other benefits to it?

Well, I began blogging for more personal reasons, those first weekly installments provided a way to sort myself out and immensely helped me to gauge my artistic motivation. Of course, this didn't last long since blogging is such a unique form of communication, it's a medium in and of itself that begs interaction. Someone once said that bogging without the the option to comment isn't really blogging. I would agree with that! As I continued to share my life online, I soon found that people were reading what I was saying and it worked the other way too. I have found wonderful relationships that act as a huge part of inspiration, friendship and community. I've been blogging for almost four years now, and I can't really see my creative process without such a immediate form of communication.

Do you have any stories to tell about connections made as a result of your blog?

Yes! I've been able to meet other bloggers in person, meeting up to share paintings and face to face interaction, shoot photographs and get to know each other. One development that springs to mind right away is a jewelry collaboration I'm in the midst of with one of my favorite designers, Abigail Percy. We both go weak in the knees for nature and architecture, so it's been a seamless process of swapping ideas and coming up with a piece that speaks to both of us is something to cherish. There are others in the works with artists that I will eventually reveal on my blog soon. Most of the time, I have a preference to work solo, but blending two styles and finding that your work can collide with another's is so symbiotic, like playing music together.

If you were an artist with limited funding and thinking about investing in a website or a blog, which would you go for first?

Well, I love it when friends or family start up their own blogs, I'm crazy about reading them and I feel there is a more personal touch to them than a website since you have the option to update whenever you fancy. So I would say, go there first. The most inspirational bloggers out there have had whole books and exhibits come to reality from the summation of their archives. Social writing has helped me to focus my strengths, reflect on what works, see what people most respond to, and understand what I enjoy expressing the most.

Many thanks to Jenny for her thoughtful replies. Make sure to check out her excellent new collection of jewellery at Queenthings

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technorati tags:artisan blogging, artisan, jewellery, craft, art, unique, montevideo, jenny vorwaller

Take The Lead Tango Scene

2007-04-22T16:50:00.000+01:00

from Siopa Eile

YouTube - Take The Lead Tango Scene

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technorati tags:video, tango