entrepreneur – Page 2

Startup Capital: Sean Blanchfield nails it.

Sean Blanchfield writes about Startup Capital in Ireland: I believe that online technology companies are the way forward for Ireland. It is now clear that online technology companies can be as financially successful as more traditional businesses. However, unlike other sectors, it takes very little money to start an online tech company. Neither does your … Continue reading “Startup Capital: Sean Blanchfield nails it.”

Sean Blanchfield writes about Startup Capital in Ireland:

I believe that online technology companies are the way forward for Ireland. It is now clear that online technology companies can be as financially successful as more traditional businesses. However, unlike other sectors, it takes very little money to start an online tech company. Neither does your geography limit your market. All you technically need are brains, and enough money to pay other brainy people to work for you. No need for factories, or 20 years of lab research, or anything like that.

Unfortunately, there are problems providing capital in the relatively small amounts these companies need to initially launch themselves (say €20K to €200,000). There aren’t enough sufficiently cashed-out former technology entrepreneurs to fund at this level as angels. Instead, we rely on small investment firms doling out government money, and a couple of loose angel networks that can make small aggregate investments. At this scale, it’s not viable for investors to have excellent in-house domain expertise to help understand and vet opportunities. Because of this, the dynamics are not what you might expect. You may encounter:

Folks on the investment side getting confused and thinking they are on Dragon’s Den

Rife suspicion that entrepreneurs exist to con money out of investors so they can run away with it to paradise island

He goes into a lot more detail so it’s a recommended read.

The wrong question: Are iPads healthy for children?

Read the full article here at CultOfMac Letting kids use or own iPads is controversial. Parents, teachers and others aren’t so sure about letting kids get sucked into yet another electronic diversion. Pilot programs at a few schools around the country to experiment with iPad-based learning tools are often met with criticism by parents and … Continue reading “The wrong question: Are iPads healthy for children?”

Read the full article here at CultOfMac

Letting kids use or own iPads is controversial. Parents, teachers and others aren’t so sure about letting kids get sucked into yet another electronic diversion. Pilot programs at a few schools around the country to experiment with iPad-based learning tools are often met with criticism by parents and teachers alike.
…
The right question is this: Is the iPad a healthy *replacement* for TV? And I believe the answer is a resounding yes.
…
The iPad is scary because it’s new. But most parents have already accepted a gigantic role for something truly in the lives of their children: television. The content kids see on their TV sets is mostly mind-numbing, soul-deadening, formulaic consumerist crap, punctuated by sophisticated ad campaigns designed to transform children into mindless consumers.
…
The bottom line is that TV is a massive, negative, toxic, unhealthy influence in the lives of American children. I think parents already know this.
…
From a parent’s perspective, the iPad is superior to a TV in every significant way.
…
My advice to parents: Unplug that TV and run, don’t walk, to Toys R Us and buy each of your kids an iPad 2 — before TV turns them into “average Americans.”

If you want to read about a real-world implementation of this, check out Fraser Speirs blog. Frasers story has been inspiring though I’m well aware that there would be no progressive programmes like this in Northern Ireland.

We have some cool edu-tech companies here in Northern Ireland. Some of them are focused on the iPod touch and iPad as delivery devices and I think this is a great development for the region – even if the technology is not adopted locally.

Airpos Opens Office In Silicon Valley

From NewTechPost: Airpos has announced that it is moving on from releasing beta versions of its product to making it fully available to the public and it now has a brand new portal to its site. Airpos was one of the companies showcased at the 4th Annual Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) Awards Ceremony which … Continue reading “Airpos Opens Office In Silicon Valley”

From NewTechPost:

Airpos has announced that it is moving on from releasing beta versions of its product to making it fully available to the public and it now has a brand new portal to its site. Airpos was one of the companies showcased at the 4th Annual Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) Awards Ceremony which took place at Stanford University in April.

Marty and the guys have sweated blood over this product, ignored all of the advice from the “volauvent boys” and went with their guts. They’ve shouted at friends, infuriated officials, shot from the hip and followed their hearts. They were the “pilot” for the StartVI programme run by David Kirk and hosted by a group of passionate individuals here in Belfast.

Opening an office in Silicon Valley is a great step – getting close to the biggest market in the world.

Musing about Learning and Teaching Technology

There’s a group of companies here in Northern Ireland who are focused on the growing educational technology market. Educational technology is, for most part, just the application of general technology to the education market without necessarily the grounding of technology with pedagogy or learning. Technology manifests as tools, as a medium and as a network. … Continue reading “Musing about Learning and Teaching Technology”

There’s a group of companies here in Northern Ireland who are focused on the growing educational technology market.

Educational technology is, for most part, just the application of general technology to the education market without necessarily the grounding of technology with pedagogy or learning. Technology manifests as tools, as a medium and as a network. We might use Photoshop to teach a certain skill, we might populate a wiki, blog or other content management system in order to store and record or we might use email or instant messenger to communicate – but none of these have any specific pedagogical or learning purpose.

I suppose the difference is whether you are using the technology to teach as opposed to teaching about the technology.

Some of the ideas I have regarding ‘educational’ technology are certainly in the tools, media and networks areas. Tools to inform parents of progress, new methods to deliver established content and the development of peer groups beyond the school all fit into these neat categories.

Applying game reward principles to learning and teaching is an enhancement that I can’t accurately describe in the context above. While the tools may be the browser or the iPad, the medium may be the web or dedicated apps (with graphics, sound, video) and the network may be the reporting of achievements (either to the peer group, the teacher or the parents), the process of matching the query to the answer, the process of imparting the techniques for research and the striving for success will be part of the pedagogical delivery.

During my schooling, knowledge was analog. It was written in books, passed on through a formalised oral tradition and collected in condensed form for schools. This meant that if you wanted to know something, you had to visit a library, open a book, ask a teacher. The answer would be both “best effort” and also subject to the local bias of a region. To find out any depth of information, you had to be truly curious. Today, the search for knowledge has become trivial. A tool (the browser) used to access a medium (like Wikipedia) across a network (the Internet) brings the knowledge of the largest encyclopedias into reach of the most casual researcher. For depth, for interest, however, we have to rely on the innately curious; the quality of wanting to know more than your peers, to become excellent at something.

We have to develop the learning and teaching curriculum to create curiosity for the curious will inherit the earth.

I believe in extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people

Mike Cane tweeted: Democracy is based on the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick I firmly believe in the extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. Code4Pizza is a light-hearted meeting of minds, open to coders, designers, people with ideas and people who want to just talk to other people … Continue reading “I believe in extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people”

Mike Cane tweeted:

Democracy is based on the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.
~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

I firmly believe in the extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people.

Code4Pizza is a light-hearted meeting of minds, open to coders, designers, people with ideas and people who want to just talk to other people about the possibilities for public service value (or public good) especially in the area of open data. Our mission is to turn those possibilities into realities by creating opportunities for reflection, collaboration and innovation.

We expect our attendees to become active participants in society by contributing to the creation of goals and the evaluation of actions and work towards these goals. It is not enough to be passengers on the train of democracy – we must take our turns as conductors, engineers, navigators, and drivers.

On November 3rd, We’re having a Code4Pizza meeting and on December 4-5th we’ll be hosting a local RHoK (Random Hacks of Kindness – original site at http://rhok.org/). We will be applying our brains to the various Problem Definitions, modified only for local bias, and working to create teams who can deliver prototype solutions.

And, we hope, innovation.

SBRI

Last week I attended a presentation on the Small Business Research Initiative or, as it is known locally, Pre-Commercial Procurement. Much of this content is cribbed from Eoin McFaddens (of the Innovation Policy Unit in DETI) excellent presentation and description and enthusiasm for the project. Pre-commercial procurement for especially for SMEs For innovative products, processes … Continue reading “SBRI”

Pre-commercial procurement for especially for SMEs

For innovative products, processes or services
Contracts (procurement), no subsidy and no grant
In competition

Goal is threefold:

Solving public questions/concerns , e.g. waste management
Stimulating innovation among SMEs
Exploitation of public knowledge and technology

Exempted are:

Products/processes/services which are not new compared to the state of the art world wide
Projects which were already procured

This diagram captures much of the process. The identification of the Unmet Need, the provision of first stage pre-commercial procurement, the establishment of filters to help define exactly the right process and prototype. The entire process is geared towards deliverables, not hourly rates.

The concept hinges around “Unmet Needs” – areas of development which may not be fully developed locally and where domain knowledge is not present within the public sector.

This process will build domain knowledge within local industry as well as in the public sector, it is 100% funded R&D as it is a procurement and not a grant (and therefore is not subject to EU state aid rules) and in most cases the IP will remain with the company while allowing the public sector certain usage rights. The increase in domain knowledge should bring better products to market for the public sector company and increase competition for the best product.

The most important part here is the green box – full open procurement permitted by every company, even those that were admitted earlier in the pre-commercial procurement but which didn’t make it to later stages.

Examples where this has been used in the past:

Retrofit for the Future – Department for Communities and Local Government
This competition aims to retrofit UK social housing stock in order to meet future targets in reduction of CO2 emissions and energy use.

Keeping Children Active – East of England SHA
Looking for technologies which can help and motivate children to take more exercise, to understand and monitor the amount of exercise they are taking and to incentivise them to exercise more.

Synthetic Environments – Department for Transport
This competition explores the use of synthetic environments applied to transport, in this case, modelling and managing complex traffic situations on motorways

And to finish off, some links to related reports and web pages:

Northern Ireland GIS Data

Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of being invited to Colby House to meet with various departments within the public sector. Present were individuals from DRD, DETI, NITB, CPD, FSNI and Momentum. The focus of the meeting was the vast services and datasets available from Land & Property Services (the organisation formed from the merger … Continue reading “Northern Ireland GIS Data”

Most government departments have signed up to NIMA (Northern Ireland Mapping Agreement) which is a cross-department funding mechanism where departments get access to mapping data in return for part funding L&PS activities. The biggest users of the data are the emergency services followed by the Department of the Environment. Data accessed right in the cabs of fire engines can guide a vehicle to a car crash located in a field with no other data than just geographical features. It’s also interesting that educational institutions also qualify for NIMA.

The agreement permits access to terabytes of data which is continuously updated both in terms of vector and database information and orthophotography to a maximum resolution of 13 cm. The amount of accompanying data, which can be overlayed, is absolutely incredible – everything from vector locations of every house, details of townlands, address, postal delivery codes and years of historical information as well.

To purchase the data would cost in excess of £500,000 but non-commercial developer licenses are available for £340 per year. L&PS also offer distributor licenses, Value Added Reseller licenses and licenses to third parties (clients of other departments which have signed up to NIMA). The VAR license, in particular, costs a nominal fee, just £1, plus an administration cost to obtain the data and then a royalty license depending on how much value has been added.

Of further interest is upcoming INSPIRE directive from Europe. It describes the depth and format of metadata which must be published to permit standardisation of protocols and data across EU countries. This would permit the meaningful comparison of data such as biodiversity, teenage pregnancy rates, health data between EU states. This would mean that solutions built today would translate forward and be potentially exportable to other EU nations.

Land & Property Services are very interested in talking to industry – individuals and companies who can see compelling uses for GIS data.

The remainder of the meeting was a discussion around the concept of Pre-Commercial Procurement, which is an entire blog post by itself.

Special thanks to Eoin McFadden of the Innovation Policy Unit of DETI for making sure that we got to see that presentation.

Getting Involved in Open Data in NI

[Title Reference: All Your Base Are Belong To Us] Today I met with some of the team from DETI and then later, with the team responsible for CAAN. The subject of both was vaguely similar – the opening of ‘government’ data in order to stimulate economic growth. In the case of DETI, it’s regarding the … Continue reading “Getting Involved in Open Data in NI”

[Title Reference: All Your Base Are Belong To Us]

Today I met with some of the team from DETI and then later, with the team responsible for CAAN.

The subject of both was vaguely similar – the opening of ‘government’ data in order to stimulate economic growth. In the case of DETI, it’s regarding the development of a community of developers who will be able to respond quickly to government identification of unmet needs – similar to the recent calls by the TSB (which was inspired by the DETI project writeup).

All of this will be progressed later this week in a meeting which will include other departments in a non-committal and ‘no prejudice’ discussion of the value of opening select datasets to the public eye and, more importantly, to the eyes of eager developers for the construction of apps for web and mobile.

I’m interested in finding some local developers who would be interested in these datasets. We’ve begun the process with Code4Pizza and Code4Pizza will remain as the social gathering for information dissemination and hack sessions – but there needs to be a group of local developers who have a vested interest in getting access to new datasets for commercial objectives.

From the CAAN perspective, they already publish their data in a limited fashion, restricted only by OSNI/L&PS licensing (and yes, I’d like to see some minor changes there to facilitate developer update). They, like many agencies and departments, have a revenue target to hit and I reckon that some canny developers would be interested in a revenue share in return for access to the data and some co-branding. CAAN are the body responsible for providing information on walks, cycle paths and canoeing activities in Northern Ireland. My pitch this afternoon went along the lines of they have 200 “quality” walks and they need to get more people walking them, they need more information on the people walking them and they’d like to be able to include safety and amenity information. That sounds like a perfect solution for a motivated developer.

Adding in game mechanics (Achievements!) for completing walks, gathering information on how frequently they walk them, sending out information on organised gatherings and also querying how many people are in a walking party are all activities that would be done well from an iPhone, Android phone or Blackberry. If the developer did it right.

So, if you’re interested in getting involved, then get in touch.

An App for the Apple Store? Or your Store?

Apple launched the iPhone 4 Free Bumper or Case programme yeterday with little hoopla. You download a free app, verify your iTunes account and pick one of the cases they have pre-selected. iLounge has a great review of the cases on offer. This app is, if you think about it, an Apple Store app. Not … Continue reading “An App for the Apple Store? Or your Store?”

This app is, if you think about it, an Apple Store app. Not an iTunes store app or an App Store app, but one where you can order physical goods using your iTunes ID. Apple spoke recently about there being 150 million credit cards linked to iTunes accounts and this provides an easy way for Apple to verify identities, ship to paying customers and establish an interesting precedent.

Apple currently takes 30% of all purchases and while this may work for digital content (where the cost of distribution is trending to zero), there’s no way that a company which ships physical product (atoms) could afford to give away 30% to Apple. This means that third parties who ship atoms have to establish their own stores and provide their own merchant accounts. If Apple could facilitate the selling process (albeit for a much smaller fee), then I think they could quickly gain a presence in the shipping of physical items.

On the other hand, they may leave that to Amazon or eBay to manage.

If, on the other hand, you fancy an App for your own physical store (presumably selling boutique atoms), you should probably get in touch. I don’t develop apps (and am not associated with any companies which do) but I have some friends in some of the best iPhone development contracting companies who have done some astounding work and can provide some good references.

Drive

This presentation was being re-tweeted a few times. It’s on the subject of what motivates us. Ten minutes long. Watch it and then come back to me. OK? So, as long as the tasks are manual, mechanical and don’t require much brain use, more money means better performance. When the job requires thought, more money … Continue reading “Drive”

This presentation was being re-tweeted a few times. It’s on the subject of what motivates us. Ten minutes long. Watch it and then come back to me.

OK?

So, as long as the tasks are manual, mechanical and don’t require much brain use, more money means better performance.

When the job requires thought, more money generally means poorer performance. People need to paid enough so that the question of money isn’t on the table – otherwise you’re demotivating them. You have to provide other methods to motivate.

I’m not going to explain more. You’ll understand it all if you took my advice and watched the presentation.

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