Web 2.0 Ireland

OK, I know this is a bit last minute but the lovely Liliana who provided us with all those free Web2Expo tickets just contacted me to tell me about Enterprise 2.0 in Boston in June.

They have something called the Launch Pad program which is designed to give start ups a platform to launch new products and services.

Interested companies are being asked to submit a one minute video pitch. These video pitches are posted to the Launch Pad forum where readers will choose who they want to see live at the event. After a few rounds of voting, the final four get to present in front of a live audience in Boston in June, where the winner will be chosen by the audience. The winner of the Launch Pad gets a free booth on the show floor of the 2009 Enterprise 2.0 Conference.

The catch? The deadline for submissions is today! So get pitching now. All that UStream, Qik and Seesmic practice can now be put to good use

Like Web2Expo, we’ll probably have some freebies and discounts for those who just wish to attend. My guess is that Enterprise Ireland may also lend a hand to those who are going.

Pat Phelan has just announced TwitterFone in the past hour and it’s gone completely insane! 1500 signups in 42 minutes. 72 comments on TechCrunch in the blink of an eye.

What is it? It’s a way of sending messages to the Twitter micro-blogging service by calling a number and speaking. Your message is converted to text and then posted to Twitter. For all those times when you can’t SMS (like when you are driving) or it’s just more convenient to speak.

Not only is it a great application with a stunning design by Sabrina Dent but there are some critical start-up lessons to be learned from the development. A small set of businesses came together to build this in a few weeks for a tiny cost. Cubic Telecom + Dial2Do + Zong + VOX!

Amazing job Pat and well done to all involved in the build and launch!

The logos are in and we like them all! Now it’s down to the Irish Web2 community to pick their favourite. To keep it fair, we’re not telling you who did what until the winner is selected. Remember, the winner gets the following:

• One year of PollDaddy Pro sponsored by PollDaddy
• A copy of Microsoft Expression Studio sponsored by Microsoft Ireland
• A year of Blacknight VPS hosting sponsored by Blacknight Solutions

The entries are:

Entry 1:

Entry 2:

Entry 3:

Entry 4:

Entry 5:

Entry 6:

Entry 7:

Entry 8:

Entry 9:

Entry 10:

Entry 11:

Make your choice now:

We’ll announce the winner in a week’s time.

Very interesting post from Sean McGrath on his blog. If you don’t know who Sean is, go right to the back of the class and read this XTech Press Release.

He has five web 2.0 ideas at the moment looking for a home. If you are a business or tech-oriented person looking for a Web 2.0 idea to pursue, he’d like to talk. Or if you have your own Web 2.0 idea but need early stage funding, he’d also like to talk.

Hook up with him at XTech or contact him over on the blog.

PutPlace has been selected for the Under The Radar event in June over in Mountain View.

Check the Under the Radar Blog and PutPlace blog for more details

Pixenate presented in 2006 - and it helped Walter gain lots of valuable attention

We had the pleasure of meeting the Debbie Landa, founder of DealMaker Media, who organize the Under the Radar event series, last week at the Web2Ireland Drinks reception in San Francisco.

Hopefully we will see more Web2Ireland companies present at Under the Radar events.

The Sir Tony O’Reilly controlled Independent News & Media PLC [INM] recently invested in Truphone.

This investment is a very positive sign for the Web2Ireland community - as INM - are very active in the online sector [they have over 100 online services/sites already].

INM could perhaps look at what the Burda Media group do in Germany - stimulating the German internet startup sector with investments, and hosting the world renowned DLD Conference.

Will be interesting to watch out in 2008 for future investments from INM

Loic Le Meur - founder and ceo of Seesmic - hangs out with Lenny from Polldaddy on Loic TV

Check it.

The Roomex guys in Dublin have kindly offered all our readers out there an extra discount on their hotel bookings. Head on over to http://web2.roomex.com/ between now and 5pm on Wednesday to avail of the offer. A big thanks to Jack Donaghy for this.

To complement our lovely new design we thought it might be cool to get a logo to go with it too. This wouldn’t just be for the site but also for events etc.

David Lenehan from PollDaddy came up with the very smart idea on Twitter of running a competition with prizes. Within minutes we had several offers for those prizes. So we’d like to announce the competition now.

The rules are simple, just send us a sample of your logo(s) in one of the standard bitmap formats by Friday May 2nd to web2ireland DOT editor AT gmail DOT com. We will then publish a post showing them all and a poll allowing you to vote on them. The design with the most votes after one week wins!

The winner will not just get lots of publicity here and a permanent credit on the site but they will also win the following:

• One year of PollDaddy Pro sponsored by PollDaddy
• A copy of Microsoft Expression Studio sponsored by Microsoft Ireland
• A year of Blacknight VPS hosting sponsored by Blacknight Solutions

Many thanks to David, Martha, Clare and Michele for the brilliant prizes!