Web 2.0 Ireland

Interesting to see references to local Web2Ireland community in IDA Ireland Horizon 2020 strategy document

The ICT sector in Ireland is already playing a leading role in showing this model in operation, with Facebook connecting with local application developers through its
Developer Garage programme and Google’s Code Jam engaging in a similar way.

One of the sections is very interesting – titled – Connect with Tomorrow’s Twitter

High growth technology companies have impact hugely disproportional to their size. They are often first to market with new ideas and new business models in digital media, life sciences, mobile technology and financial services. These young companies are the seeds of tomorrow’s multinationals – whether through organic growth or in mergers or acquisitions, often with more established firms. IDA will increase its emphasis and focus on these high potential companies in support of the development of
Ireland as a global innovation hub. IDA has established a dedicated team focused on the needs of these companies. Working with sister agencies and other stakeholders, we will assist these emerging companies with financial support and in making connections in Ireland. These high-growth firms
will become an increasingly important part of Ireland’s innovation ecosystem, linking up with established multinationals in ICT and globally traded businesses; third level institutions and their talented graduates; and indigenous companies of similar scale and potential.

Newbay are hiring, Facebook are hiring in Dublin and Crowdstar are looking for a biz analyst (see below)

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Job Specification – Business Analyst
Crowdstar International is seeking a Business Analyst to join its fast-growing HQ located in Dublin, Ireland. This role involves providing ongoing market, competitor and product analysis within the Business Development team, to assist the company in successfully identifying and evaluating new business opportunities.
Responsibilities Include:
· Performing competitor and market analysis to facilitate ongoing strategy development.
· Recommending and assisting in the development of strategies for growth.
· Analysing product performance, trends and activity to provide business insights.
· Identifying emerging market trends and patterns in customer behaviour.

· Developing intelligence on the social gaming industry by playing current games, gathering and analysing relevant industry news and reports.

· Building and using strategic and analytic tools to evaluate current and emerging business opportunities.

· Creating clear and concise dashboards, presentations and reports as required.

The requirements for this position are:
· Strong passion for social media and gaming
· Strong analytic skills and experience with metrics driven strategic decision making
· Experience in online games, social media or consumer internet
· Understanding of virtual economies, viral channels, and online monetization
· Strong verbal and written communication skills
· Enjoy working in a fast paced start-up environment
· Apply a collaborative and consensus driven approach
· BA/BS degree

Applications may be submitted by email to Business Development Manager Gavin Barrett – gavin@crowdstar.com

John McColgan of Riverdance fame, came up with Gateway Ireland concept at Global Irish Forum at Farmleigh event, after discussion with business luminaries such as Dermot Desmond, Denis O’Brien and others.

“The vision is for a national online content hub was proposed and this was met with widespread support. This initial proposal has gathered momentum, an Advisory Group was established (it includes Google, RTE and Facebook among others) and a small team has now been put in place to carry out a feasibility study to review all aspects of the project.”

They are currently seeking a web specialist to work with the team as they “prepare a fully-specified feasibility report to be submitted to Government at the end of May.”

You can listen to a recent interview with John on Marian Finucane

The question is will Gateway Ireland be another Mobhaile or something that can both move the needle in terms of Global Irish business as well as helping to stimulate the Irish web startup scene.

I have some suggestions for John and his team, and no doubt the community has loads of ideas. Please leave some comments and I’ll collate.

Apply to Innovate!2010 to be named as one of The World’s 100 Most Promising Startups and win a share of nearly $250,000 in prizes.

The Irish leg of the Pitch Slam takes place on March 8 after the BizSparkCamp program. Judges for the Dublin Pitch Slam include Brian Caufield, Martin Kelly, Cliff Reeves (MD of MSFT Emerging Business Team)

Readers of web2ireland can attend the Pitch Slam for FREE (thanks Microsoft & Enterprise Ireland!!) using the registration code: BZS2010 here

And startups can apply to the competition here – DEADLINE MARCH 1st

Innovate!2010 is a global competition to identify and promote the Innovate!100: a prestigious list of the world’s 100 most promising technology, media and communications startups..

Produced by market intelligence firm Guidewire Group, developers of the G/Score proprietary assessment methodology for evaluating startups, Innovate!2010 will offer participating companies valuable training and promotion – along with a chance to win a share of nearly $250,000 in sponsored prizes.

Partners and sponsors of the competition include market-leading companies like Best Buy, HP, Motorola, O2 Litmus, RIM, SAP, Sun, SWIFT and Verizon, dozens of early-stage investors, and marquee media partners.

Here’s how the program works:
· Startups apply online to compete for expert feedback & validation, promotion and nearly $250,000 in prizes.
· Finalists are invited to pitch at one of over 20 networking events called Pitch Slams where they will deliver rapid-fire pitches to a panel of expert judges and an audience of local investors, entrepreneurs, executives and members of the media.
· After the Pitch Slam tour, the top-ranking startups will be named to the Innovate!100 list and will receive extensive promotion.
· A follow-on program called the Innovate! Connection Program offers the Innovate!100 finalists pre-qualified introductions to potential partners, investors and customers for a fee.

Via the Google Blog:

That’s why we are excited to announce Google Code Jam 2010 to the true die-hard coding fans. Google Code Jam, powered by Google App Engine, is our annual programming competition, where thousands of coders around the world attack algorithmic problems in several 2.5-hour online rounds. If you make it through the first four rounds, you’ll be flown to our on-site finals, to be held for the first time at the Google office in Dublin! Once there, you will compete with 24 other top coders for the $5,000 first prize — and the coveted title of Code Jam champion.

All the important dates over on the blog. Should be an amazing event. Let’s show em all what we’re made of over here.

A video from recent Facebook Developer Garage in Dublin

Thanks to Jan at TouristRepubic for organizing video and pictures from event

We’re delighted to announce the First Facebook Developer Garage Ireland of 2010

Speakers include:

Gavin Barrett, Crowdstar
Charles Dowd, tickettruck
Declan Kennedy, Betapond
David Lenehan, Polldaddy
Sonia Flynn, Facebook

Thanks to The Science Gallery for hosting the event and Enterprise Ireland for providing support.

Date: Thursday, February 18, 2010
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Science Gallery, Pearse Street, Dublin 2

Sign up on Facebook for event

Lots of Gaming related activity happening in Ireland at the moment

Havok founders, Dr. Steven Collins and Hugh Reynolds are rumored to have signed multiple deals with large gaming platforms and publishing houses, with their startup new game technology, which is trading as Kore

Tribal City Interactive based in Galway are working on social games for both Facebook and Twitter

Jolt Online, recently acquired by Gamestop, are hiring like mad

Crowdstar, one of the largest social gaming companies on Facebook, have an operation in Ireland (codename: CSI) , headed up by Gavin Barrett

IDA Ireland announced over 100 jobs at Dublin based Gala Networks Europe

Daft announced recently their Polish Property web service – Daft.pl

The site is going live with about 60,000 properties across every major city and town in Poland. Approximately ten times larger than the Irish market, Poland has a population of 38 million.

This is also the first Daft site to run entirely on Amazon EC2 Cloud platform.

Eamonn Fallon, founder of Daft, over IM informed us that “The site auto-scales which is a pretty cool technology. Yesterday we went from 3 servers to 18 at the peak and we didn’t have to really worry about it.”

The Microsoft Developer Platform Group are holding an informal, celebratory, evening marking the commercial launch of Windows Azure.

At the event, you will briefly hear from Microsoft on what the Azure Services Platform is about and why it is relevant to market.

The evening will start and end with some drinks and snacks for attendees.

Date: 28th January, 2010

Where: The Westbury Hotel, Grafton Street, Dublin 2.

Time: 18:30 (18:00 Welcome time) – 19.45 (21:00 allowing for afters)

Register here

Agenda

18:00-18:30 Canapés and Drinks on Arrival
18:30-19:00 Welcome and Introduction to Azure
19:00-19:15 Break
19:15-19.45 Customer Speakers: ‘Developing Apps, and Going Live, on the Cloud’
19:45-21:00 Networking and Refreshments