Web 2 Ireland

Apologies for the lateness of this post but we’ve been too busy grinning from ear to ear since the finalists were announced for the Irish Blog Awards. We’re in the Best Technology Blog/Blogger category along with these fantastic bloggers:

• The Gaming Liberty
• Pat Phelan
• Matt Johnston
• Sinead Cochrane

Fergus Burns started this blog for the Irish Web Community way back on the 17th September 2005. I did my first post on 31st July 2006 and we’ve had posts from tons of people since then, including James Corbett, Walter Higgins, Joe Drumgoole, Sean O’Sullivan and David Lenihan.

This is the 872nd post here since 2005 and we hope the blog has been of use to all of you in the web biz whether in Ireland or elsewhere.

As always, this is a blog by the community for the community, so if you’d like to be a contributor, give us a shout on web2ireland.editor@gmail.com

Looking forward to Saturday night in Galway!

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.