Will Knott

Part of this post is for a Tuesday Push that is, namely Decisions for Heroes, and partly for a push that should be, Kildare Street.

Decisions for Heroes is a project that Robin Blandford has been working on for a while. And talking about it. In fact I assumed that the product has been launched a few months back. I was wrong; today is launch day.

And he’s built something amazing – technology that will help rescue teams save more lives. Its essentially a project management tool combined with an incident reporting mechanism that’s able to monitor team histories and readiness and raise alarms for expiration or under manning conditions.

What makes it different is that it is designed for a particular niche; rescue teams. Are the exercises and training reflecting the actual calls? Or the actually locations? Are there enough cliff climbers on-call this weekend? Are there certifications that are about to run out? This kind of thing actually saves lives. Its been studied, over 1,800 rescuers from Ireland, UK, USA, Greece, and Australia helped to trial and shape the development of the software. But one stands out. Robin is a volunteer member of the Irish Coast Guard (a cliff rescue climber to be precise) so he has seen first hand what is needed, and what is the most useful way to get that information across.

I’m sure that the basis of D4H can be used in more business-like settings, or indeed in logistic based industries.

And from saving lives, we move to a performance management technology that may cost the careers of a few politicians.

Created by John Handelaar Kildare Street is, almost simply a database. A database of what is being said in both Houses of the Oireachtas, by whom, when, how often and the complete text of what they say so it can be parsed for content. Based off the UK project, theyworkforyou.com, you can keep an eye on your favourite politician, or all the politicians in a constituency, or even when a particular word or phrase is spoken in the Dáil or Seanad Éireann debates or in written answers or questions to the Dáil.

There are a few bugs still in the system (it is a beta and since Irish addresses are vague it can misidentify a constituency, particularly when one side of a road is in one constituency, and the other side is in another constituency. It happens), and there is up to a 24 hour delay between the speech in the chambers and the text of the speech hitting the system (not a fault with the system but with the source; debates.oireachtas.ie.

Its useful to find out which TD or Senator has stayed quite all along (the records go back to 2004), and finding out how they actually voted on subjects of concern to you. Then you can challenge them when they call around asking for your vote.

Do challenge them. Right now, I’m wondering if there is a version for the MEPs.

Two people who should be praised for being heroes and making a difference.

Will Knott

Hello Aedan.
Aedan used to be my boss once upon a time. However things change and not only has he set up Puddleducks, but now Puddleducks has a blog! Even Mulley likes it.

Puddleducks sell waterproof clothing for children. And lots of wellies (I’ve heard stories around the ploughing championship times). Its a great idea if you have kids who will find that muddy puddle.

And while this is something of an advertorial, Aedan is a friend and he (and his wife) sell a good product.

take care,
Will Knott

I’m skipping the OCC BBQ Dragons’ Den posts for a quick push for this guy (on the right)

This slightly worried looking gentleman is Marcus MacInnes of pix.ie. Marcus is getting a bit of a push by the Irish tech blogger scene, and well, I’m pushing too. Why, because its a service and site I actually use.

All (well, almost all) of my photographs that I’ve posted here this year have been hosted on Pix.ie. I love the site. Yes, I’ve abandoned Flickr over Pix.ie, so I must be committing some kind of photoblogging sin. (As soon as their API links to Moo I’ll have no reason to use the other site.)

So what do you get on Pix.ie? A beautiful looking site (yes I love the album unfurls when you hover over them. Just look for yourself). They also have a custom album for the “Pink for October” which I can assure you I’ll be using for the online bits of my Pink paper push (its the skin setting in the “profile settings” section).

The servers are optimised constantly and performance is paramount (and yes Marcus can and will talk about the database tips and schemes needed to perform his miracle of bit shuffling if you ask nicely. you may want to sit down first) and I think the pictures are nicer too. The site also caters for using those embedding and resizing their images off the site (like me) and ease of uploading.

In short, pix.ie is being too nice to me.

Its also going to get me out of the house and visit places, well Guinness actually. Of course I really need to start using its social bits more. I’d better start now.

take care,
Will Knott

Oh, and for the record, I’m the large blue thing next to him. Spoiling the photo as usual.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Pix.ie – Not Just Another Photosharing Site

With a cash prize of €280,000 to give away to start up companies on the island of Ireland as part of their Seedcorn competition, Intertrade Ireland are looking for start up companies in high growth sectors with investment potential.

And I liked the picture. Somehow I doubt that the seeds caught in the spiders web are indeed corn.

take care,
Will Knott

Update (June 03 2008) It appears that InterTrade Ireland is actively seeking blog posts now. Did I start something?)

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m currently looking for work (and keeping my own fingers in my own projects) so I’m interested in companies and people that do things differently.

Image via Wikipedia

First off there is the CV. Yes I have a few that get e-mailed out (and even, gulp, posted), and I have a LinkedIn.com profile (and feel free to recommended me) however I’ve noticed that some people go further. I know I could put a résumé on the blog here, but that isn’t my style.

It is now possible to create a multimedia CV (something no longer limited to portfolios) by using Visual CV. The idea is to update the CV from it’s (mostly) unchanged roots of 1902. There is some sense to it. You can embed examples of your work in the CV. You can show off your showcases. However, being selfish, I’m not involved in the media (pix.ie account aside that is) and given that all the programming work I did has “Confidential, Proprietary” slapped all over it, embedding anything is more of less impossible (and certainly not a good idea. I mean would you hire someone who won’t keep company secrets? I really hope you answered “no”).

Are there other ways to get jobs. As in headhunted. This is where a profile comes in. Be it Monster, IrishJobs or Recruitireland (and others), putting your details in a site like these mean that companies and recruiters can scan through your details and put you firmly in the “maybe” category. Simply put, it is a keyword search. The problem with such a keyword search is that a lot can be missed. Like the little thing called you.

I’ll stick to LinkedIn for now. But despite being recommended I don’t really pump my connections for prospects. But if someone in a company knows me I will be sure to mention it.

So in the meantime I’ll apply for jobs, and hope that they haven’t been filled, like this one.

take care,
Will

Most of you know by now that the Limerick Open Coffee meeting had an interesting pair of visitors, namely Patrick Collison and John Collison of Auctomatic.

The talk was Livestreamed on Ustream.tv by Conn Ó Muíneacháin and Bernie Goldbach has a podcast available.

I would comment about it, but I’m late to the party so I’ll let Aidanf Conor O’Neill and James Corbett do a much better job. Besides I’m mostly be repeating their comments), but right now you can see the potential value of the Paddy’s Valley tour. Remember that the pair left Limerick to go to the Valley in order to get things started.

On the other hand… there is Walter of Pixenate (who suspiciously suffered from a DOS attack after these comments, no connection I’m sure) commented on Twitter about the really weird offer being made by the Irish Venture Capital Association. On Thursday 27th September 2007 the IVCA training programme is ‘How to Raise Venture Capital’ developed in conjunction with the Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship. In otherwords, the IVCA is telling bright and talented Irish Startups how to get money off the IVCA. And is charging the people they might give money to… is that circular logic or recursion?

I’m sure someone would be willing to comment and explain this to me?

take care,
Will Knott

tags : Open Coffee, Limerick Open Coffee, Patrick Collison, John Collison, Auctomatic, Ustream.tv, Conn Ó Muíneacháin, Bernie Goldbach, podcast, Paddys Valley tour 2007, Pixenate, Irish Venture Capital Association

Would you gamble in a horse race? The area now known as Silicon Valley had a history of horse racing and gambling on horses. If you are willing to bet $10k on a horse, why not gamble on a start-up? €10k is quite literally a SSIA money amount. A pittance in the Irish property arena. Not that much in the horse breeding industry either. It is a risk, but so is a horse race. So where do we send the cheque? There isn’t a place.

It’s not just the punters (in more than one meaning of the word) that need to be educated in investment. college students leave with the technical know-how (other discussions aside) but they don’t get thought about looking for investment.

Is there a need for a convention to get the investors to attend? Actually Damien Mulley is looking in to arranging a big pitching event some time in September, so this might happen soon. However there is an opportunity to have an “Open Coffee” style informal session at an IT@Cork, which is not a pure technical event, as investors don’t know where to go. Assuming that investors are out there.

There is an election on. Stamp duty (which canvassers confirm that no one cares about) is being talked up in the media. Can we talk up

Could there be a start-up lobby group? In Cork there is the NSC (and soon a NSC 2), UCC, Rubicon, WebWorks and probably a few we didn’t know about. There isn’t a central organisation. Not always joined up to the media thinking either. For example, Walter of Sxoop and Pixenate moved into the Rubicon building. That’s a press release opportunity which helps to show the creation of a start-up culture in Ireland! Which gets attention in the off-line media world. Sales and marketing of a company beat technical skill when it comes to funding. It’s sad but it’s true.

All IT start-ups are looking for investment. They have to chase the money. However there is no history of investing in technology in Ireland, except for the Eircom share issue. An education which has not been forgotten. An early start-up is a risk, a gamble. Care to bet?

However investment in property (an investment area with a lot of positive education) is declining, so why not take up investing in start-ups? Does Cork (and Limerick and Waterford) need a ‘face’ so that investors look here rather than to Dublin?

It might be easier to get small investors too. The perception of computer technology is completely different now. Once computers were these big untouchable room sized machines. Now they are mobile devices with annoying ringtones. He mystique has gone. Few people are afraid of the technology, so they might be willing to invest in the companies looking in to the next technology.

tags :Silicon Valley, cork, start-up, SSIA, investors, Rubicon, Sxoop, Pixenate, start-up culture in Ireland, investment