IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 26 November
26-11-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
EI heads mission to Brazil | Social media strengthen personal ties: study
The Irish Times reports that a man who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy in the boy's home after he met him through Bebo has been sentenced to three years in jail, with 18 months suspended. Colm Twomey of Togher, Cork was found guilty by a jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court earlier this month of sexually assaulting the boy at the boy's home in 2007. Det Garda Gary Duggan told the court that the teenager was on Bebo when he met Twomey in a chatroom, and that the defendant came to his house and sexually assaulted him.
The paper also reports that a database to help prevent the planning mistakes that have led to the glut of 'ghost estates' has been developed by the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis. The NUI Maynooth-based research organisation has combined information from the Central Statistics Office, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, government departments and State agencies in one online resource. Planners using the All Island Research Observatory (AIRO) database will be able to select areas at European, country, county and even street level, and identify the needs of residents to decide where to allocate housing, health, education or transport facilities.
The same paper notes that 34 Irish firms have completed an Enterprise Ireland trade mission to Brazil. During the trip, Web Reservations International (WRI) signed a three-year contract deal for its Hostelworld.com brand with Despegar.com, one of the biggest online travel agencies in Latin America. Also on the trip, a bilateral agreement to co-operate on education and research was signed between the governments of Brazil and Ireland.
The paper also notes that visual content start-up Intune Networks will be sold or go for an initial public offering (IPO) within three years, according to company chief executive Tim Fritzley.
The paper also reports that the head of web content management firm TerminalFour has said exports have become a vital part of his business's development, with 38 percent of its turnover now generated in the US alone. Piero Tintori said the company had no presence in the US just two years ago but had done hard work to establish a niche, which was now paying off.
The same paper says that a Dublin company has developed e-learning software to teach people how to better protect themselves on social networks. The product, developed by Vigitrust, is called Security for Social Networking 101 and is a response to the risks that have emerged from the popularity of sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
The same paper quotes Gary Keogh, managing director of Colt Telecom, as saying that there is no joined-up thinking about the development of telecoms in Ireland and that the cost of building infrastructure is still too high. Colt invests on average EUR1 million to EUR2 million a year in building infrastructure but, while other business costs have fallen in Ireland in the last few years, the "cost of digging" to lay telecoms cables is "still very high", according to Keogh. "The biggest inhibitor for telecoms investment in this country are the civil construction costs."
The paper also reports that social media websites do not weaken personal ties, but strengthen them in unique ways for different age groups, according to a new study. "Our findings suggest that Facebook is not supplanting face-to-face interactions between friends, family and colleagues," said S Craig Watkins, head of a research team at the University of Texas. "In fact, we believe there is sufficient evidence that social media afford opportunities for new expressions of friendship, intimacy and community."
The paper also says that Irish internet domain registrars have edged out international competition in recent years to become the market's biggest players, according to a report by the IE Domain Registry. The registry's 'Domain Industry Report' found that the country's internet address re-seller space had changed significantly in recent years and was also in the midst of major consolidation. "At the start of the decade, the majority of the domain market was held by internet service providers but that has now totally turned around and it's dominated by hosting service providers," said David Curtin, chief executive of the IEDR. The report was compiled to mark 10 years of the registry and the registration of the 150,000th dot-ie (.ie) domain.
The Irish Independent reports that the Irish operations of retailer Dixons -- which include Currys and PC World -- have returned to positive like-for-like sales growth, with an improving margin performance in the second quarter. Releasing first-half figures, Dixons Retail warned that conditions here remained challenging. The company also said that news of developments in the economy over recent weeks had dampened consumer confidence.
According to the Wall Street Journal, YouTube has signed an agreement with three French royalty-collecting agencies to pay artists when their works are shown on the video-sharing website. Under the deal, the three agencies will receive payments from YouTube, owner Google said in a statement. The collecting societies -- which represent a range of filmmakers, screenwriters and authors -- will then redistribute the money to their members. The agreement only applies to content viewed in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
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Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 