NEWS IN BRIEF
For the record 16 August
16-08-2007
by Charlie Taylor
Bonus points for Leaving Cert maths proposed | DigiSoft.tv launches mobile-tracker service
Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin has said that bonus points should be awarded to Leaving Certificate pupils sitting the higher level maths paper, in order to encourage a greater number of students to take science, technology and engineering-related courses at third-level. On the day when thousands of youngsters received their Leaving Cert results, the minister said that she favoured giving extra points to students taking the higher level maths paper if it would encourage them to take courses that would help bolster a knowledge-based economy. Almost 5,000 students failed maths at higher, ordinary and foundation levels this year.
SiopaEile.com is offering Irish artists a new way of exhibiting their work online. SiopaEile's founder, Paul O'Mahony, is calling on local artists to audition to become a member of a new artisan group blog. Auditions are running until the end of October. A group of ten artists will be selected to be regular contributors to the blog, where they'll be able to showcase their work and get feedback from readers. "It's a cost-effective way of marketing your art and it brings life and personality to your online presence thanks to the natural human interactivity, which websites on their own generally fail to achieve," said O'Mahony.
IT Solutions, a Dublin-based provider of customised telephony and web-based products to contact centres, has entered into a new partnership with Talisma Corporation, a company which offers Customer Interaction Management (CIM) applications. Under the terms of the agreement, IT Solutions will offer existing and future Irish customers Talisma's CIM product suite, which includes Talisma Knowledgebase, Email, Chat, Phone, VoIP and Campaign.
Professor Michael Donnelly, CEO of Growcorp, has been elected chairman of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA). He replaces Niall Carroll, managing partner, ACT Venture Capital, who has completed his term of office. Prof Donnelly, who has 25 years' international experience in technology-based business development, returned to Ireland after 20 years in the US, to establish Growcorp in January 1999. He has researched and successfully commercialised products for paediatric health care and has held senior executive positions in industry as well as academic and research positions in US universities.
Cork-based IPTV solutions provider DigiSoft.tv has launched DigiTracker, a product which enables the tracking of mobile phone signals via television sets. DigiTracker uses Location Based Services (LBS) and mapping systems to enable the plotting of a mobile location on a map, which it then displays on the TV screen. The opt-in application also allows text messages to be sent to phones via the TV set. "There is an immense appeal for this type of technology as parents concerned about the safety, well-being and location of their children can know exactly where they are," said John Allen, CEO of Digisoft.tv.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 