Written on May 12, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
We’ve been doing some work recently for the County and City Enterprise Boards and have been finding out about the Student Enterprise Awards. I am so incredibly jealous of today’s teenagers, I would have loved to be involved in something like that in school.
Approx 12000 students take part every year and some great ideas bubble to the top every time. They just had the 2008 awards ceremony last week and Banagher College from Co. Offaly won the top award for ‘Farmer On Board’, a farm safety board game for primary school children.
A La Carte Art from Loreto Secondary School in Clonmel, Co Tipperary won the Intermediate Category and DS Planners, a wall planner company from Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh in Co Limerick, won the Junior Category.
If you look at the criteria that are used in judging (e.g. quality of product/service; marketing plan; level of innovation, management of risk) it is clear that they are just what any start-up should be looking at too.
I also think it’s about time the third level colleges ran something similar for non-biz undergraduates like Engineering and Science. Or are they already?
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on May 6, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
I’ve been struggling with Vista on a Dell D420 laptop recently. It is described as “Vista Capable”. It is nothing of the sort. So tonight I reverted back to XP Pro and have started the long slow re-install of all my favourite applications. This is what I pretty much always install on XP machines now:
- Windows XP SP2 plus all updates
- Internet Explorer 7
- Firefox (plus some standard add-ons)
- KeePass password manager
- Nokia N-Series PC Suite
- PDFCreator
- AVG Anti-Virus
- Microsoft Office 2007
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Pidgin Instant Messenger
- Filezilla FTP Client
- Skype
- OpenOffice
- Sun Java JDK
- Putty SSH Client
- MySQL Tools
- Adobe Flash
- Adobe Shockwave (no idea why I need this!)
- Activestate Python 2.5 (plus a bunch of modules)
- Adobe AIR
- Twhirl Twitter Client
- Google Toolbar x2
- Google Gears
- Azureus Bittorrent Client
- JungleDisk Amazon S3 Backup
- Paint.NET
- Subversion version control
- bzr version control
- Flock Browser
- Quicktime (only when needed)
- RealPlayer (or Real Alternative)
Any other interesting ones you use?
Posted in Tools | Comment Now!
Written on April 30, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
We’re really excited at Argolon HQ to announce that we’ve been accepted on to the Genesis Enterprise Programme. We’ve had lots of dealings with both the Rubicon Centre and GEP over the past year through Cork OpenCoffee and have been thoroughly impressed with the whole operation.
I’ve presented LouderVoice to Denise Kennedy, who runs GEP, twice over the past 18 months. I can honestly say it didn’t go well the first time. We were completely caught up in the technology whilst the business was almost an afterthought. After 18 months of building LouderVoice, making mistakes, going down dead-ends and having successes in surprising areas, my second presentation went down much better!
We know we have a lot to learn as a team. Two people with a background in Engineering Project Management need to broaden their expertise, particularly in the areas of Sales and Marketing. Our aim for the 12 months on Genesis is to come out a much more rounded team with an even more compelling proposition than we have now.
The list of distinguished alumni of Genesis gets longer and longer. Every one of them I’ve talked to has thoroughly recommended it. Here’s to a great year.
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on April 29, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Gordon Murray of eWrite was asking on Twitter this evening what people thought of the idea of him documenting publicly the development of his new product and the business around it. In other words, blogging about it, warts and all.
I think it’s a superb idea and could be of great benefit both to his business and to others who read it. If he can build a good readership then it could become a focal point for people to discuss lots of the standard issues around building a technology business in Ireland.
Of course there are major challenges around time, effort, confidentiality, business sensitive information etc and he’ll have to take stock of these before embarking on it.
It has already been done most famously by Ryan Carson with Bare Naked App which followed Carson Systems as they built the very successful DropSend application. I think it’s about time the same thing was tried here.
But what do you think? Head on over to the poll on PollDaddy and let him know.
Posted in Business | Comment Now!
Written on April 28, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
West Cork Enterprise Board contacted me last week to let me know about a discount offer they had received from the IIA for their client companies (and those of all CEBs). There was a further discount offered for being outside of Dublin too. Whilst the original price of €345 for non-members was just a bit at the high end for us, the double-discounted price of less than €150 is a bargain and I’ve signed up to attend.
If you are a WCEB client, just contact them and they’ll send you on the code. If you are anywhere else, contact both your local CEB and irene AT iia DOT ie to get the relevant code for your area. Strictly speaking the discounts ended on Friday but I’m sure they’ll be flexible if lots of extra interest is shown.
Posted in Events | Comment Now!
Written on April 22, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
I’m thrilled to see that the YouGetItBack guys have launched the Beta versions of Laptop Superhero and Mobile Superhero (love the branding!). These are applications you install and are activated when your device is lost or stolen. For the well-intentioned finder, the app tells them how to contact YGIB so that they can return the device to you. For the badly-intentioned finder, it locks the devices down so they cannot be used.
I’ll be installing both since my phone cost almost as much as my laptop! The range of phones they support is extensive and they support XP on laptops.
The only pity is that Bank Of Ireland didn’t have something like this recently! Let them know what you think over on the blog.
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on April 18, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Mike Butcher has just published a very useful piece on how to protect yourself as a blogger if you write something that results in a libel action being mounted against you and your content. It is all based around “The Reynolds defense of Responsible Journalism”. Whilst it makes total sense to me as a lay-person, it clearly is only directly relevant to UK bloggers.
Since it’s generally felt that Irish libel law is even more ridiculous than that of the UK, I wonder if there are any similar cases/precedents that apply here? Also, is there any difference between writing in Ireland on a US-hosted blog or on an Irish-hosted one. Obviously there is for the webhost but what about the blogger?
Any Irish legal-eagles wish to comment? But please, no lay person anecdotes or “well if you tell what you think is the truth you’ll be fine” opinions. A set of iron-clad guidelines for Irish bloggers would be really useful and we should all link to such a resource if it exists.
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on April 18, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
I’m really pleased to announce that I’ve joined the it@cork steering committee. Since we founded Argolon Solutions, I’ve always found it@cork to be the real stand-out organisation nationally. I know other cities would love to replicate its success. It has always managed to strike that balance between meeting the needs of established IT organisations and the needs of start-ups.
I’ve already attended my first meeting and I was blown away by how much work is done by the committee and the various sub-committees. I’m looking forward to doing my bit in the coming year.
It you are in the technology business in Cork, then joining is a no-brainer. You should also make sure to let them know about all your news.
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on April 18, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
One aspect of blogging (particularly business blogging) that worries some people is when something negative is written about them. This can sometimes erupt into a blogstorm with a huge hullabaloo across multiple blogs. I’ve seen a few over the past few years and each company/person handled it differently.
Frank Prendergast has written a very thoughtful post on this topic and I’ll be recommending it to all new (and old!) bloggers. The essence of his advice is to keep a level head, state your case, apologise if you are in the wrong and move on. It’s an approach I’ve always tried to use despite emotion getting the better of me sometimes.
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on April 6, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Cross-posting from the
Cork OpenCoffee Blog:
What started
as a discussion about having an OpenCoffee in the Midlands the other day quickly turned into a proposal for an OpenBBQ in Terryglass on Lough Derg this summer.
Think business networking, free Wifi, top class BBQ and fun.
Evert has all the details so far. Please drop him a line if you think you might go. He’s thinking June/July mid-week. If there is enough interest from Cork OpenCoffee we could consider hiring a mini-bus?
UPDATE 1: Please
vote for your preferred date over on the blog too.
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on April 1, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Evert over at AirAppz is doing some research into the landing pages you see when you login to Hotspots and other access points over Wifi. In my experience they vary from unusable (Charles De Gaulle Airport) to very friendly (all FON ones).
What Evert would like you to do is screengrab any you encounter (PrintScreen button on your keyboard) and send them to him at captures@airappz.com
I know he has some very interesting plans in that space so all the help you can give would be appreciated. Not only that, but one lucky person will win an iPod Shuffle!
Posted in Argolon | Comment Now!
Written on March 16, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
If you are looking for the ultimate business phone rather than the gadget equivalent of a Prada handbag, then this is the device for you. Quite simply the best phone I’ve ever owned.
Cards on the table - I love this phone. I’d marry it if it was legal. The rest of this review is an ode to “what computers have become”.
I’ve generally owned middle-of-the-road good business phones, all Nokia, with two short lived diversions to Panasonic and Sony-Ericcson. So it was devices like 6310, 6230 etc. Two years ago I went higher end with the N70 and was amazed by what it could do but frustrated by its lack of speed. Recently it had begun to annoy more and more whilst the hype around the N95 grew and grew. At Le Web in December I had an N95-8GB and iPod Touch pimped to me by Pat Phelan and Tom Raftery respectively. The User Interface and Browser on the iPod were fantastic but I couldn’t overlook the shitty camera and lack of 3G on the iPhone. I’d actually be taking a step back from the N70 if I went with it.
However, Christmas approached and there was no sign of Vodafone releasing the 8GB model here. The lack of removable storage and lens cover bothered me too and the new firmware on the N95-1 supposedly dealt with all of the memory and performance issues it had. So I headed into Wilton with my wife to get the N95-1 as my Christmas present. On requesting it, the salesman asked if I wanted the “older one” or the “newer one”. “Oh you mean the 8GB? I thought you didn’t have that yet?”. “Oh but we do, would you like to see it?”. Arrgghhhhhhhhh, decisions decisions. €50 extra, more memory, bigger battery vs lower cost, lens cover and removable storage? Oh feck it, in for a penny, in for a pound. We parted with €440. Double what I’d ever payed for a phone before. It had better be worth it.
And oh was it!
It’s hard to know where to start. Maybe basic specs and features first:
- It’s a phone
- Slider design
- 3G
- HSDPA to 3.6Mbs (aka 3.5G)
- 5MP Camera with “Carl Zeiss Optics” and LED flash
- GPS
- WiFi
- 120MB RAM
- 8GB built-in flash memory
- Symbian Series 60 v3
- Mini-USB connection to PC (does not charge through it)
- 3.5mm headphone socket
- TV Out
- Accelerometer to detect movement/orientation of phone
Each in itself is impressive but it’s when you combine the features along with some great apps that you have the killer device. In particular, I now see WiFi as a must-have feature on phones and I’m coming to the conclusion that GPS and location based services is where the all-at-sea mobile operators should be putting a lot of focus.
A few of the built-in apps which have been blowing my socks off are:
- Nokia Maps - This comes with a free year of voice navigation. It has worked brilliantly on several occasions for me, leading me from door to door and downloading the extra map detail required on demand using a Vodafone data connection. The recent Beta 2.0 is even better and the Irish maps seem to have had a very recent upgrade, finally showing the very small roads around Bandon. Unfortunately it works less well abroad. I tried to use it from Geneva to Chamonix by pre-loading the French/Swiss maps and not going online (to be ripped off by Vodafone’s extortionate roaming data rates). It wouldn’t even start in Geneva without going online for a short while. I let it (and have fingers crossed that it was only a few KB) and got basic maps without the voice navigation.
- Podcasting - It’s not that the app is amazing (like most of Nokia’s music-related software, it is very basic) but the simple ability to subscribe to podcasts directly from the phone and have them downloaded over Wifi is a joy. No more side-loading bullcrap from the PC.
- TV-Out - OK so it’s a hardware feature but it’s brilliant. I did a full series of demos at the IWTC conference with the output from the phone displayed on a giant screen at Cineworld.
The built-in web browser is good but not awesome and I mainly use it with the mobile versions of various sites like GMail, Twitter etc. It does have an RSS reader but I prefer to use the mobile version of Google Reader which I often think is better than the full blown one! I still haven’t figured out how to open two windows in the browser tho.
The new Nokia N-Series PC Suite is a major improvement over the old rubbish but is very CPU intensive and tends to fall over regularly. But it is worth it for the “Nokia Photos” app. This is basically “Lifeblog” rebranded and pulls all your SMS/MMS/Pics/Vids from the phone and displays them on a timeline. It also puts them in the “right” folders in XP and Vista (”My Videos” etc). There are plenty of other apps in the suite like Sync, Backup, Update etc. All are fine.
Nokia have been building a lot of new apps in their Labs and some of them will eventually be game-changers IMHO. Location Tagger plus Share Online show what is possible when you pull together the Camera, GPS and internet connectivity. I can take a photo, have it GEO-tagged by location and upload it to Flickr or other services in a few clicks. Alternatively I can blog it directly. The GEO-tagging is one of those simple but amazing features that anyone can understand the value of. In my recent trip to Chamonix, you can see a map of some of the places I took photos, rather than trying to guess where they were. On the down-side, I find Shozu (a third party app) far more powerful in terms of target sites etc than Share Online. I also suspect it was responsible for a major slow-down on the phone recently. The lack of full integration between Location Tagger/Share Online/Nokia Photos and Ovi is the one thing really holding things back. Once there is full integration then nothing will be able touch it.
Whilst I’m at it, Ovi is coming along slowly but nicely. I like the simple fact that I have one place to upload video and pics (on what was the old Twango site). The data limits are reasonable and the finer-grained security is welcome. The only thing keeping me on Flickr for the minute is the maps showing the GEO info and the more powerful upload tools.
Another killer use of GPS is the Sports Tracker. This app enables you to set the “activity” and then have your progress tracked by the phone (distance, speed etc). In itself that is useful but added to a web-site to which you can upload info and you have the beginnings of an online health portal to which you could give access to your doctor for example. For geeks, the location trails saved by the app can be used by some of the Open Mapping initiatives to build their map database.
UPDATE: Just thought last night that there is a major sponsorship opportunity for Nokia (or even Nokia Ireland) to give an N95-8GB to all the Olympic qualifiers to track and record their training. I think the Sports Council did something with Palm Pilots and modems a few years ago in this area?
All of the above is more than enough to buy the phone, but when you look at the third party applications, you really see the power of the device.
Here is what I currently have installed:
- Mail By Google - This is the version of the GMail app which works with Goog Apps For Your Domain. It works incredibly well over Wifi and ok over 3G. I sometimes have issues sending mail but I think that is down to the joke of an APN called Vodafone Live (more below)
- Truphone - This is a VOIP application which works best over Wifi if you are an Irish mobile user. I forward my mobile number to my Truphone number due to very poor mobile connection in the office. Fantastic app and scares the crap out of Voda/O2/T-Mobile.
- Fring - This is an instant messaging client and a lot more. It also hooks into Skype and has a SIP stack (to provide similar features to Truphone). I use it for my Blueface 076 number and it usually works well. Skype IM is dead handy on it. It does not work at all on Vodafone Lies.
- KeePass - This is a J2ME password manager which is also available on Windows and Linux so I can see my hundreds of passwords no matter where I am. Clunky but effective
- Putty - This is an SSH client which I use to remotely manage web-sites etc. Haven’t even bothered try it on Vodafone Lies but worked brilliantly using Wifi in a French pub.
- Python - A lot of the mini apps that people write for the N95 are written using Python (as is LouderVoice!) so it’s a pre-requisite
- Screenshot -Enables you to take screenshots of stuff on the phone. Great for Powerpoints, Business Plans and Blog Posts
- Stowaway Keyboard - This software is needed to use the awesome iGo keyboard with the N95. This foldaway bluetooth keyboard plus the N95 is all I need for most of my travel now. Laptop only required for heavy duty PPT or web browsing. Price of this keyboard has plummeted.
- eBuddy - This is an instant messaging client I use with GTalk mainly to view Twitter or Jaiku messages. Does not work with Vodafone Lies. They do have a web-site (m.ebuddy.com) which you can browse over Vodafone Lies using the phones browser and which gives a web interface for IM. Not ideal but it does work.
- Qik - The amazing video application. You can record video on the phone and stream it live to the web. Web viewers can comment live and these comments appear on the phone. Probably the most impressive hybrid mobile-web application I have seen this year. Doesn’t work on Vodafone Live.
- Twibble - This is a great Twitter application which does work over Vodafone Lies. It also has GPS integration so you can live tweet your location. My favourite way of using Twitter
- Jaiku - Actually I can’t use this. It doesn’t work over Wifi and doesn’t work on Vodafone Lies. Would love if it did either/both
- Opera Mini 4 - Actually using this less and less since the built-in browser is good enough. Handy as alternative when certain sites bork the phone browser.
- Shozu - Mentioned above. Enables you to send any pic/vid etc directly from your phone to a multitude of web-sites like Flickr, YouTube, Ovi etc etc. Also has GeoTagging support.
Other apps I use on occasion include: Metro (great assistant for all underground sytems around the world), London Underground Map, emTube for watching YouTube, MWeather, N95 Accelerometer (actually a library used by other applications), Nokia Audio Book Manager, Nokia Wellness Diary, Nokia PCPhone for interacting with SMS on your desktop, Speccy ZX Spectrum emulator, Y Browser file browser.
The biggest drawback of the phone is obvious from the points above and it is called Vodafone Live. I’ve blogged about this before, but in summary it is not an internet package, it is a hamstrung web-package. Once again Vodafone, can I ask for your “mobile broadband” package to be added to my voice SIM? At least 5GB of unrestricted access per month. I’m happy to pay for it. When do you think you’ll be able to figure out how to offer me that service?
Other issues with the phone?
- It is very plasticky for such an expensive item. The N70 is much more impressive from an industrial design perspective.
- The slider mechanism seems to be a constant source of pain for users and I saw during the week that Nokia Service Centres are now replacing the crappy plastic mechanism with a metal one when phones are sent in for repair. Mine is already a little bit wobbly.
- I really wish they could have figured out how to put on a lens cover
- It chews battery particularly when you use a lot of Wifi or GPS. However dirt cheap batteries have finally started appearing on eBay and I’ve ordered two. It’s no big deal to always keep one in my pocket. Note that N95-1 batteries do fit (loosely) but the phone hates them.
- If your phone doesn’t come with the latest firmware, upgrade it immediately. I found the phone much faster (and YouTube now works )
- It slowed to a crawl recently and I had to zap the whole thing. Now back to being very quick with most things
- I sooo wish it could be charged directly via USB. In fact, even with the USB-power adapters you see on eBay you’ll have an issue. The current drain from the N95 exceeds what most laptop USB ports can supply and your phone will never charge. You can get slightly more expensive ones with some sort of voltage converter in the middle which do work but make sure you get the right one.
- Did I mention Vodafone Lies?
UPDATE 2: A few things I forgot to mention.
- Bluetooth Headset: I bought a cheap Plantronics Explorer 350 from MyMemory.co.uk. I’ve only used it in the office and find the sound is very buzzy, almost analogue. Could be due to plethora of Bluetooth, Cordless and Wifi devices in the office. Will update when I try in car.
- Tripod: The Nokia DT-22 tripod is invaluable when using the N95 for video recording. I got mine from expansys.ie
- PIM: I used to run everything through Outlook and was always synced to my Palm IIIx, Tungsten T or N70. For the past 18 months, I’ve only used Google Calendar (in Google Apps for your Domain, GAFYD) and RememberTheMilk (for To-Dos) . I’ve tried a few things to integrate the phone with GCal but nothing has worked so far. The biggest issue is GAFYD as far as I know since some tools supposedly work with normal GCal.I think Nokia really need to jump on this soon and build Phone->Web Sync for a bunch of popular productivity webapps. And Google needs to build a decent To-Do App, or buy RTM.
You will not regret buying this phone for a single second. It will genuinely exceed all your expectations.
Rated 5/5 on Mar 16 2008
Posted in Reviews, Technical | Comment Now!
Written on March 5, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Is there any other phrase to describe the mobile operators? From Vodafone’s rip-off hamstrung data plans to the O2’s Paddy Tax on the iPhone, they’d take money from a baby to keep their unsustainable ARPUs up. “Hey Baby Phones! No-one has done baby phones. That’s an untapped demographic. We could coat the phones in sugar.”
Supposedly these operators know our business and their own. I guess that explains iMode. But perhaps they are getting a clue? I see Vodafone is shutting down their photo-portal. Ye know, this one:
Yes, 5MB in total. Actually, it says 5Mb (since the operators do love to charge by the bit), so that’s strictly speaking 640K. Ah, they let Bill Gates design this for them back in 1981. Who would ever need more than 640K?
So what is Vodafone replacing it with, given that they understand the future of mobile so well and Arun Sarin thinks that future is “the internet” (thanks for waking up a decade after everyone else Arun)? Perhaps a deal with the fantastic Pix.ie? Or a rev-share with Nokia on Ovi/Twango? Or Flickr integration?
Nah. As always, paralysed by indecision and slouched in a corner with an SMS hypodermic dangling from their arm, they are doing nothing except killing a pointless unused service.
Eircom are dazzling the hell out of me with their attitude in the past six months. I wonder are the people running Meteor cut from the same cloth? Willing to grasp that nettle, take a short term hit in data revenue and become the dominant mobile fat pipe in Ireland? Let’s hope so since it doesn’t look like Three have the smarts to do it.
Posted in Business | Comment Now!
Written on March 3, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
I spoke last week at the Irish Web Technologies Conference. My topic was “SMS, LBS and Social Networking” from the perspective of an enthusiastic punter and early adopter. I got a great response from the (albeit small) audience with particular interest shown in
The full deck is available on Slideshare.
I met Russ Nelson, one of the other speakers, at the end of my talk and he showed me his amazing hand-built Bluetooth chording-keyboard device for his N800 internet tablet (yes I’m old enough to remember the MicroWriter). It was only the following day that I found out who Russ was and I am humbled. If you were playing around with network connectivity in the early 1990’s on PCs then you must have encountered Crynwr packet drivers. Russ was the brains behind that and is one of the tech heroes of the communications industry.
Overall, despite the small numbers, I thought it was a great conference. Next year it should probably be only two days and possibly more focussed on a specific area of the web. Support from Enterprise Ireland wouldn’t go amiss either.
Posted in Conferences | Comment Now!
Written on March 3, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Jaiku Invites is a great initiative from Ciarán Rooney. When Google bought Jaiku they shut down new user registrations. There are a lot of people out there who would love to join and take part in all the great discussions we have there, particularly around events like OpenCoffee and BarCamps. Luckily each existing member was given 10 invites that they could hand out.
The purpose of Jaiku Invites is to hook these two groups of people together. So please head over and sign-up if you either want to get a Jaiku account or you have invites available. Thanks Ciarán!
Posted in Community, Technical | Comment Now!
Written on February 26, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
It’s an incredibly busy week of events in Dublin and Cork in the next few days. The ones that we’ll be attending are:
- xCellerate 2008 tomorrow - Half Day conference on raising funds and “bringing Silicon Valley to Ireland”
- IWTC - Irish Web Technology Conference. This starts tonight and runs until Friday. Conor is presenting on “SMS, LBS and Social Networks” on Thursday afternoon
- Irish Blog Awards on Saturday night - LouderVoice is sponsoring the Best Blog Post award
- BlogTalk 2008 - Blogging conference in Cork on Mon/Tue. Conor is taking part in a panel on Mashups, Microformats and the Mobile Web
Hope to see you at one of these and maybe give you a sneak peek of LouderVoice Version 2.
Posted in Conferences | Comment Now!
Written on February 14, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Just spotted that the YouGetItBack guys in Cork now have a blog. It’s all about the business of Lost and Found and whilst they only started on Monday, the posts are flying in.
I wrote about them on my personal blog wayyy back in June 2006 when I found out about their initial product/service. It was a great idea then and it still is now. Buy a sticker for your phone/iPod etc, register the sticker code, put sticker on item. If you lose item, chances are it’ll be found by someone honest who rings the freephone number listed and then YouGetItBack put you both in touch.
The blog is exactly the kind of style I like with a very light touch and friendly attitude without the corporate press release feeling you get off so many in the past couple of years. Check out the “phone found in sack of spuds” story to see what I mean
Posted in Business | Comment Now!
Written on February 14, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
We had a great exchange of ideas on the previous post about ways of getting very small businesses online. Of particular interest to me are the companies with zero technical ability who just need a solution which involves them typing in some information about their company and then they have a web-presence.
One solution for this type of business is eWrite “Cork”. Up until now the eWrite guys, John and Gordon, have been focused more on the Small to Medium end of the market rather than the Micro to Small. With “Cork” they have put together an inexpensive package which will get you online with minimal effort and maximum handholding.
Their offering is well worth a look if you want to have a web presence but really don’t know where to start. I’ll try and do a full review of it along with the solutions discussed in the previous post in the coming weeks.
Posted in Business | Comment Now!
Written on February 8, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
A recurring conversation I have had recently is around very small non-technical Irish businesses having a web presence. I do a lot of Tech-Checks for the Cork CEBs and I continue to be surprised by how many of these businesses are invisible online.
One of the reasons for this may be that companies still think it costs a lot of money to have a web-site and non eircom.net email addresses. And there are still gougers out there charging people €2k for a simple off-the-shelf brochure site with stock graphics.
Jim Flynn of MTS Consulting in Innishannon is a perfect example of someone who realised that his business could be helped with a simple web-site, a basic blog, his own email domain and a LinkedIn profile. For very little money he got his site built via one of the online broker sites like Elance/RentACoder/ODesk etc. He can now be found using the default method for a lot of people (Google!).
When the total investment in getting an online presence is now in the very low three figures, there is simply no argument for even the tiniest business not having a web-site.
If you are a little bit technical you could even do it for less as follows:
- Get a .com domain with the cheapest hosting package at somewhere like GoDaddy for $46 per year, giving you 5 GB Space, 500 Email Accounts, Forums, Blogging, Photos
- Use an online service like Synthasite to create a simple site very easily with info about what your company is and how to contact you
- Upload that design to your webhost
- Done!
- Total cost = $46
Posted in Business | Comment Now!
Written on February 5, 2008 by Conor O'Neill
Alexia Golez is arranging a Blogger Dinner in Cork for Sunday the 2nd March on the weekend of the Blogtalk Conference and WebCamp. You can expect some really interesting visitors (and locals!) to be there. Please let Alexia know if you wish to attend over on her blog.
Posted in Community, Conferences, Events | Comment Now!
