Web 2.0 Ireland

The Big Word Project set up by Paddy Donnelly and Lee Munroe, two University of Ulster students from Belfast, get some coverage in Wired.

They have all of the 291,500 Oxford English Dictionary entries in their inventory — so plenty of opportunity to make some money with this venture.

The project allows you to purchase a word from our list to represent your site. Your site will then represent this word in our list and when people click on it, they will be taken to your site. The project is aimed at changing definitions and creating a new tapestry of words, meaning altogether different things.

For example, you may buy the word ‘Donkey’ for $6 and it will link to your site dedicated to donkeys. The word ‘Donkey’ will then be the gateway to your site and the definition will be changed. No longer will the word Donkey mean ‘a woodworking apparatus consisting of a clamping frame and saw, used for cutting marquetry veneers’, instead it will now be represented visually by ‘Chris’s Donkey Site’.

Those fab people at TechWeb Networks have come up trumps for us again and have given us two free tickets for the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston from June 9th to 12th.

Let’s keep this one simple. Either post your Enterprise 2.0 elevator pitch as a comment here or mail it to web2ireland DOT editor AT gmail DOT com. The pitch can be  anything from the germ of an idea to an existing revenue generating business. The two best ones get the tickets. The deadline is midnight BST on Friday 16th. We also have a discount code for anyone who still wants to attend but misses out on the free tickets. Feel free to mail us for that code from now on.

Given EI’s love of all things Enterprisey, you should definitely request market research assistance from your DA if you are thinking of going.

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.