IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 19 November
19-11-2010
by Deirdre McArdle
Dylan Collins scoops Internet Hero award | Dole sign on system to go mobile
The Irish Times reports that Ireland needs to change quickly to foster young entrepreneurs or risk losing them, according to the chief executive of Globe Forum, speaking at the organisation’s Dublin conference Thursday. "The Government and the banking sector need to watch out if there isn't a quick change," said Johan Gorecki. "If they can't find business and funding it's very simple; they will move and today it’s very easy to move to a new market."
Meanwhile, the paper also reports that Taoiseach Brian Cowen said Thursday that despite its current difficulties, Ireland is still an ideal location for businesses that want to work in a dynamic environment. He was speaking at the IBM SmartCamp Global Finals at Dublin's convention centre. "There are still plenty of reasons for confidence in Ireland’s future and potential," he said. "We have the youngest population in Europe; the highest proportion of graduates amongst the 25-34 age group in the EU; our exports are performing strongly; our competitiveness has significantly improved and we have clusters of the world’s leading multinational companies."
The same paper says that journalists and programmers combined their skills to free up data inaccessibly stored online at the first Hacks and Hackers Hack Day in Dublin on Tuesday. Projects on the day included following the money on the eTenders public procurement website, mapping archaeological monuments and overlaying them with council planning data, charting Environmental Protection Agency licence applications with enforcement orders and comparing speed camera zones with death rates. "It makes sense for journalists to work side by side with software developers," said Aine McGuire of Scraperwiki, a manager of the event. "Together they’ll have a much, much greater opportunity to dig out the data and mine it easily."
The paper also notes that two projects that will save on energy costs and reduce energy demand were recognised at a ceremony during the first day of the Globe Forum event in Dublin. Dr Antonio Ruzelli’s project will allow monitoring of energy consumption in the home using an ordinary web browser, while David Connolly’s research on the integration of more wind power into the national grid was also rewarded.
According to the same paper serial internet entrepreneur Dylan Collins, who founded Jolt Online Gaming, was honoured with the 2010 Internet Hero award at the Eircom Golden Spiders in Dublin on Thursday night. Fota Wildlife Park in Cork won the Travel and Tourism award and the overall Grand Prix Award.
The paper also says that Phonovation, the SMS and integrated voice response services supplier, has invested EUR500,000 in a network expansion which will increase the company’s call handling and SMS capacity by 50 percent.
Finally, the paper reports that credit card provider Visa Europe has entered into a partnership with University College Dublin's Centre for Cybercrime Investigation.
According to the Irish Independent, Ireland was put up for sale, purportedly on the Daft.ie website, on Thursday. Daft.ie bosses have maintained that the advert, selling Ireland for EUR12126212.56 per square kilometre, wasn't on their site. "Someone used Photoshop or some similar mechanism to make it appear the advert was on our website and then they sent several emails with a copy of it," said a spokesman. The ad read: "Republic of Ireland, Western Europe. EUR900bn o.n.o. Island for sale. Floor area 74,000 km2. Unit Price: EUR12126212.56 per sq km. Contact name: Brian Cowen."
The same paper reports that Government is to roll out a new hi-tech social welfare system that will allow jobless workers to sign on for the dole via mobile phone, replacing the need for claimants to sign on personally at their social welfare office. The system would be able to verify a claimant's identity using voice recognition technology. A pilot scheme for the system will begin in January.
The Irish Examiner reports on the it@Cork Leaders Awards. Winners included McAfee, which took home the Sustained Excellence award; Scoil Chlochair Mhuire, Carrigtwohill, which won the Excellence in Education award; Quinn-Healthcare was awarded the IT Dept award; and Abtran/4C scooped the Research and Innovation Project award.
The Financial Times reports that some of Europe's mobile operators are warning that they could take punitive action against Apple if it makes a move to insert a SIM card into the iPhone. An embedded SIM card could allow customers to choose between competing carriers and activate service directly from the Apple Store. The operators are accusing Apple of attempting to gain control of their relationship with their mobile customers with the new SIM. European operators known to have concerns about Apple’s interest in the SIM include Vodafone of the UK, France Telecom and Spain’s Telefonica. They all declined to comment, as did Apple.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 