Web 2.0 Ireland

Another full house for Facebook Garage Ireland 2

2009-07-04T11:09:00Z

The first Facebook Garage was so popular we had to have another one pretty soon after. On Thursday we had 150+ people crammed into a room in the Radission SAS to hear 5 speakers talk about different aspects of their experiences with Facebook.

It opened with Sean O’Sullivan from Rococo presenting their GigMonkey App. Plenty of technical meat in there about the various challenges they faced and some interesting comparisons with Bebo.

Gig Monkey at Facebook Garage Ireland 2

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Robert Mao then gave a broad overview of build FB Apps/Connect and hosting them on Google App Engine.

Build Facebook Connect enabled applications with Google Apps Engine

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I spoke about our integration of Facebook Connect into the LouderVoice reviews widget.

LouderVoice at Facebook Garage Ireland 2

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After the break, Flavien Charlon took everyones breath away with his description of the growth of My City. He currently has close to 500k active monthly users on this Facebook App. His talk covered everything from technical issues to growing a userbase and monetizing.

PPT will be posted later.

Finally Colm Long who runs Facebook EMEA gave us an insight into where Facebook was going, theeir approach to ads and the shocking growth figures for Facebook in Ireland. One important point that he highlighted was what a small company Facebook is (~900 people). So when development slows in one area e.g. Groups, it is only because they are resource strapped.

PPT will be posted later.

Michael Clyne took video footage of the entire event which we hope to post here next week. If you have any photos or videos, please post links to them in the comments.

cmypitch launches in Ireland

2009-06-29T13:36:02Z

cmypitch, founded by Irishman, Emmett Kilduff, has just launched in Ireland

“It will connect entrepreneurs with investors. cmypitch.ie provides businesses with the unique opportunity to upload their own video pitch onto the secure platform, for a registered network of investors to watch and inform their investment decisions. In addition, entrepreneurs can learn how to become “investor ready” by watching video tips from the best Irish (e.g. Eddie Jordan, Ray Nolan) and international (e.g. Doug Richard, James Caan) entrepreneurs and by downloading the best ‘how to’ guides.

For investors, cmypitch.ie has the potential to open up all of Ireland’s best investment opportunities and makes identifying the most attractive deals more efficient. Investors can save valuable time, allowing them to not only assess the business opportunity but also the people behind the proposition. Pitches can be filtered by size, sector and rating – all key considerations for investors. Investors can also receive email alerts when a new pitch is added that matches their preferred criteria.”

cmypitch.ie will also hold regular offline pitching events called “cmypitch Live”, where entrepreneurs get the unique opportunity to pitch to a room full of investors. Events like these will offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to complement their video pitch with more traditional face-to-face pitching and networking.

cmypitch.ie has been endorsed by some very successful Irish entrepreneurs: Eddie Jordan (F1), Philip Lynch (IAWS, One51), Patrick Brazel (former Chairman of Irish Software Association), James Morris (Windmill Lane, TV3) and Tony Kilduff (Kindle).

cmypitch.ie has already signed several partners: Bank of Scotland (Ireland), Deloitte, The Irish Times, Microsoft and William Fry.

Strong Irish Representation in The Europas

2009-06-28T20:00:04Z

The inaugural Techcrunch Europe Award nominees have been announced and there are plenty of Irish companies in there. It’s a public vote, so head on over and keep the flag flying for a lot of great apps and businesses.

The awards are particularly gratifying because there are so many businesses that are new to me in the list. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Europe. Now if only an Irish VC could dazzle everyone and become worthy to join the 2010 nominees.

The Irish are (and let me know if we’ve missed any):

Decisions For Heroes, Best Social Innovation (which benefits society), (Vote Here)
Mobanode, Best Mobile Startup, (Vote Here)
LouderVoice, Best Web Application Or Service, (Vote Here)
Joe Drumgoole, Best Startup Founder(s), (Vote Here)
Dial2Do, Best Mobile Startup, (Vote Here)
Locle, Best Mobile Application, (Vote Here)
MuzuTV, Best Entertainment Application or Service, (Vote Here)
CoClarity, Best Enterprise/B2B Startup (Vote Here)
MaxRoam, Best Mobile Application, (Vote Here)

The Tuesday Push is collab.ie

2009-06-23T08:17:45Z

This week’s Tuesday Push is collab.ie.

It describes itself as follows:

Collab is a simple, easy to use, free online tool to help bring ideas and skillsets together. If you have an idea and you need to find a person or people to work with you or if you want some feedback on a project you are considering collab is for you.

Posting the ideas to Twitter is a nice touch and allows those who are actively looking for projects to work on to keep an eye on what is being suggested.

If you like Collab, why not help the push and write a blogpost yourself?

Facebook Garage Ireland 2

2009-06-23T07:52:59Z

After the resounding success of the first Facebook Garage here, it’s about time we had another.

The theme this time is “Hands on with Apps, Connect and Pages”

It’s a super line-up of speakers:

GigMonkey Facebook Application – Developer Story. Sean O’Sullivan – Rococo
Facebook – Opportunities for businesses. Facebook 101 @ Pages, Advertising, Apps.Colm Long, Facebook EMEA
Build Facebook Connect enabled applications with Google Apps Engine”. Robert Mao
Facebook Connect – the experience. Muzu.tv
Growing pains: get prepared when your facebook app go rocket high. Sharing the real story of MyCity. Flavien Clarlon

The event is on in The Digital Exchange, Crane Street, Dublin (other side of High Street from Hub) from 4pm-6pm, Thursday 2nd July.

Whilst it is a free event, you must register over on Eventbrite.

Locle – Brilliantly simple LBS social networking

2009-06-18T14:43:21Z

The Mobile Industry Review has a review on Locle

“I’m particularly impressed that roughly 70% of available European mobile handsets are capable of using Locle at the moment. Since it doesn’t strictly rely on GPS — falling back to Cell-ID for most handsets — it means that, theoretically, if you were wanting to deploy a location based social networking service in, say, India (for example), the first thing you should do is call up Pieter at Locle and do a deal with them.”

The Real Time Web – Investor Perspective

2009-06-12T12:51:33Z

Great Video from Robert Scoble with Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures on his new Building43 startup

Ties in with Ron Conway, godfather of Angel investing in the valley – and his new “investment theme” – persistent/real time data. As per Techcrunch piece “has a goal to invest in 40-50 companies in the next 18 months. His focus will be companies exploiting “real-time data,” which he calls “the next billion dollar market opportunity.” Conway is already an investor in Twitter and Facebook, two companies solidly in the real-time space.”

Check out this video with Ron on AllThingsD

Greenhouse Incubator in Limerick

2009-06-12T08:39:50Z

Evert Bopp, has launched “The Greenhouse” – a startup incubator based in Limerick.

The story so far:

1) Secured 2300 sq.ft. office premises at prime location on O’Connell street in Limerick (free of charge for 1 year)

2) Secured high speed broadband connections and 2 phone-lines free of charge (Eircom)

3) Built up a substantial panel of advisors & mentors that will assist the start-ups in their development.

4) Received significant coverage in national & regional media

5) Opened discussions with Dell regarding financial & material support

6) Entered into discussions with University of Limerick regarding possible cooperation

Evert is also running events – next one is on Blogging & Social Media for biz

Irish iPhone App School Announced

2009-06-12T08:07:49Z

This is the sort of news I love reporting. We now have an App School in Ireland. Over the course of 5 days you can learn how to build iPhone Apps. Run by SQT Training, Patrick Collison and Damien Mulley, this will give you all the skills you get to get your App built and launched. At only €1500 for the week, that’s a bargain considering how much traditional programming training courses cost. The first course is on in the Castleknock Hotel Dublin from July 20-24.

One of the best courses I ever did was back in 2006 when Ryan Carson presented his one day workshop, “A-Z: How to Build a Web App”. Because it wasn’t just about tech but also about all the pitfalls in trying to launch an App, it enabled us to avoid many common mistakes. My sense is that App School could do the same.

As I said on Twitter earlier, I believe that iPhone & Android development could be to techie teenagers what the ZX Spectrum, C64 and BBC Micro were to my generation. I am what I am today because I got a Speccy when I was 14. I taught myself Basic, Forth and Z80 assembler. I even had games published in magazines. Imagine being 15 years old and having people download your App from the iPhone App Store or Android Market. The buzz!

I want to see the next generation of people coming out of technical course in third level education with at least one mobile app and one webapp in their portfolio. The days when Java skills got you a job in a bank are over.

Well done everyone involved in getting App School launched. Looking forward to seeing what the Alumni develop.

IQPrize Shortlist Details

2009-06-12T22:58:31Z

The Press Release on the IQPrize has just gone out and the important bits are as follows.

Decisions For Heroes (Robin Blandford) –A web application that saves lives by helping rescue teams record and analyze their rescue operations and training
GetitKeepit.com (Alan Coleman) – A web application to help consumers declutter their lives by offering an online portal for the management and retention of important documentation
MyHotel.ie (David and Matt Sherlock) – A website and booking engine that reinvents the traditional booking model, offering hotels a powerful new marketing channel with no booking fees
Neurosynergy Games (David Delany, Lorraine Boran and Michael Boran) – Innovative online brain training application designed to enhance both intellectual (’IQ’) and emotional (’EQ’) performance for healthy people and people with specific mental disorders
Octopied (David Behan, Ronan Morris and Michael Flanagan) – A web application for freelancers, helping them manage invoicing, project management, sales and support through one simple and cost-effective tool
Our Writers’ Bloc (Owen Gallagher and Karl Quinn) – An online marketplace that connects self-published authors directly with their readers, and facilitates the distribution of material over multiple formats including mobile phones and e-Reader devices
Pendle House (Michael Furey) – An online currency exchange marketplace that allows companies and individuals around the world to trade currencies directly with each other, cutting out all transaction costs
Plink (Mark Cummins, James Philbin) – An image-driven search engine that allows users take a photo of an object with a mobile phone, and automatically retrieve information about it online

On July 8th, the final candidates will make a Dragon’s Den type presentation to the judges, followed by a public event where the candidates will be able to make a short elevator pitch to the audience. The People’s Choice Award of €1000 and the Grand Prize of €10,000 for the overall winner will be announced at the end of the night.

To add my 2 cents as a judge, I was honestly blown away by the quality of all the biz plans I reviewed. I expected that there’d be lots of badly thought-out, lunatic fringe stuff but I was completely wrong. 90% of what I read could make a feasible business.

Selecting the final 8 was bloody difficult because there were so many great ones submitted. I fully expect to see a ton of those who submitted plans running highly successful businesses over the next few years. I hope they all go straight to their County Enterprise Board or Enterprise Ireland and give them the same plans they sent us.

I don’t know who will win the prize but those 8 businesses could easily generate €100m+ revenues between them.

Here’s hoping IQContent are getting non-stop calls from EI and the CEBs to get access to all the other fantastic plans.

Video from Damian Bannon of the Announcement:

More coverage from Villa81: