NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 18 June
18-06-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
Three more execs leave Yahoo | ComReg consults on UHF spectrum
Online charity site mycharity.ie has raised EUR420,000 in the year to April, it says. The site 'funnels' donations made online through to charities. Chief Executive Niall Devine forecast that projected growth for the website would reach EUR1.7 million by the end of the year, compared to EUR1 million last year. This represents growth of 70 percent.
Yahoo has seen two more of its top executives jump ship, with Flickr co-founders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield the latest high-profile departures from the troubled search firm. Their departure follows on from the news on Monday that Jeff Weiner, an executive vice president at the firm, is leaving to become "entrepreneur in residence" for venture capital firms Greylock Partners and Accel Partners.
Lori Drew, the US woman accused of creating a fake MySpace profile to bully a girl who later committed suicide, has entered a plea of not guilty at a trial in Los Angeles. Drew has been charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorisation to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl. Each charge carries a sentence of five years.
Communications regulator ComReg has announced a public consultation on the awarding of UHF spectrum in Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Waterford. In a statement, ComReg said the spectrum may be of interest to the broadcasting sector, for the provision of a multi-city mobile TV service, and also to the wider communications sector. The regulator said it will consider any other suggestions for possible uses of the spectrum from licensees. The consultation document is available to download (PDF) from the ComReg website.
Business software maker Novell has reiterated its financial guidance for the full fiscal year 2008. The company said on Wednesday it expects net revenue to come in between USD940 million and USD970 million, and non-GAAP operating margin is predicted to be between 7 percent and 9 percent, excluding all acquisition-related intangible asset amortisation. Novell also announced that Thomas M. Francese, executive vice president of worldwide sales, is leaving the company, effective 31 July. He will not be replaced, due to a reorganisation of Novell's sales activities.
The National Digital Research Centre, a not-for-profit research lab launched last year, has just announced EUR2 million in funding for six new projects at the lab. Among the initiatives are "HealthPhone", a web-based system to support the management of chronic illnesses using mobile technology in the home; "Inside Out", a project that will create a learning games module for children to raise awareness of health issues; and "WellSense", an initiative that will develop high-tech sensors to measure human body postures, with applications in sport, dance, yoga, and computer gaming.
The winner of this year's DIT/ATS (Accenture Technology Solutions) Innovation Award has just been announced. Final year BSc Computer Science student Christopher O'Connor beat a short-list of seven finalists with a project entitled 'A Prototype of a Web Based Walking Route Card System Using Open Source Software'. The project's aim was to produce a web-based product that would generate a hill walking route card for the user, allowing them to map routes and later display them online. As part of the prize, O'Connor will receive IT equipment and will be fast-tracked on the Accenture recruitment process.
Creating successful email surveys: Denise Cox of email specialist Newsweaver argues that you can tap into your readers' likes or dislikes by surveying them.
