Europa and no bull

April 30, 2008 · Posted in Uncategorized · Comment 

We received the Eurolink newsletter in the post recently and one item in particular caught my attention. I thought it might interest some of you too.

“60 Ideas for Europe

As part of the celebrations of the 60th anniversaty of the Congress of Europe (1948-2008), the European Movement International has launched a blog called “60 ideas for Europe” to collect EU citizens’ ideas on the future of Europe. You are invited to share your suggestions at http://speakup-europe.blogactiv.eu/ on what could be done, improved or chaged within the European Union.

The best 60 ideas selected will be published and discussed by key EU politicians during the Congress of Europe to be held in The Hague on the 23-24 May. The debate will be broadcast live across Europe.”

Maybe it’s more like a red rag to a bull. If you do contribute please add a link in the comments below. And good luck!

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I’m not obsessed with the weather…

April 30, 2008 · Posted in Membership, Uncategorized, corporate branding · Comment 

But on the subject of rain, our newest members, Imagine, accentuate the positivity of rain on their cheeky website using my favourite colour, pink. Considering their expertise in on-street promotions and guerilla marketing it’s probably a very good thing they have a positive attitude to rain. However as they fluently put it themselves:

“We are media neutral so we can truly put your brand wherever you want, whenever you want.” 

They are currently hiring so if you own your own wellies and mac, you should send them your CV!

I am planning to write a short blog post about all new members so we can all start getting to know each other straight away. However current members are more than welcome to get involved through guest blogging: if you have something you want to get off your chest or an online service that you would like to write about or are seeking feedback from your peers or would like to write about your experience of one of our events, please contact me by commenting below or at members at iia dot ie.

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The Scots describe it as dreech

April 28, 2008 · Posted in Membership · 3 Comments 

I think the only positive thing one can say about the weather today is that it spawned some onomatopoeic gold. With the best will in the world, the weather in Dublin today is the kind of weather that makes you want to scurry back to bed. As I cycled down the hill from Crumlin to the Digital Hub I thought to myself, “Technology is great and all but it can do nothing about this!” But, of course, that’s exactly where technology and specifically the internet does come into it’s own. I could be writing this from my bed for all you know: all hail the Internet for giving us back our lives. (FYI CEO I’m in the office!)

Of course, the right livelihood is needed to make the best use of this flexibility. One of our newest members,  Flexitimers.com, is hoping to help people achieve this flexibility by attracting employers who need flexible professionals and professionals who want flexible employers. Having recently researched the issue of employee motivation it is well documented that trust and autonomy are two of the greatest motivators. We all know that feeling: nothing makes you cease up faster than the feeling that somebody is looking over your shoulder.

Flexitimers.com is one of our many new members this month. If you would like to know who all the others are sign up for our free monthly digest today and get connected.

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Time waits for no-one

April 25, 2008 · Posted in Uncategorized · Comment 

Not even our members! Today is your last opportunity to book a ticket for Congress 2008 Beyond Websites: Business Uses of Social Networking and New Media at the early bird price of EUR195.00 which is exclusive to members.

Just make sure you login before booking to avail of this offer. If you can’t recall your login details email members@iia.ie with your full name, email address, position and company and you will receive a reminder. Extra discounts are available to charities and regional delegates please contact events@iia.ie to avail of these. Looking forward to meeting you all there!

I still have great plans for this blog and I’m hoping that nobody thinks that I’m starting as I mean to go on with the erratic posting. I’ve started with the IIA at a very exciting time indeed. I’ve spoken to a number of our members via email or over the phone on a range of issues so it was nice to speak to you. There has been a number of new members since I started and if you would like to know who they are, visit www.iia.ie and sign-up for our Digest where we officially welcome new members every month.

Based on a recent blog post I read on TechCrunch I’m obviously not the only one who has a busy schedule. Apparently there is help out there. This post discusses an online app called Jiffle which allows your contacts to book an appointment based on your free time. Your contacts cannot access the details of what you are doing in your busy time; obvious maybe but one of the commenters raised this concern. Other commenters on the post suggested a range of other online applications that do similar.

Has anybody tried one of this applications? I would be very curious to hear about your experiences? Are your contacts happy to interact with you this way? I’m off to try it out myself and I’ll keep you posted.

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A quick question for you…

April 15, 2008 · Posted in Uncategorized · Comment 

When I was introducing myself yesterday I failed to mention that I am currently completing a M.Sc in Social Research Skills in the University of Ulster. This course takes place entirely online and that has been a learning experience in itself for all involved.

So you can imagine with the end of my very last module in sight I am in TSR Mode (Total Social Research Mode and no, this doesn’t mean I spend a lot of time in the pub asking people questions. Chance would be a fine thing…) where everything is questioned and nothing is assumed.

While I have no current plans to undertake research about the IIA it is certainly something that could be of interest to all of us and many others besides. In the meantime I have a question for you all and contrary to what is normally considered constructive behaviour I expect you to answer with a question.

If you could ask all the members of the Irish Internet Association one question, what would that question be?

This is also a cunning way for me to get an idea of the issues most on your minds. I think I would ask questions about whether the members use social networking tools like blogs and RSS and how they use them. However I am, of course, totally obsessed with business applications of Social Networking at the moment as it is the focus of this year’s IIA Congress. (Plug plug!)

Sure while I’m at it I might as well keep plugging away! I mentioned in yesterday’s post that our early bird offer of EUR195.00 has been extended until April 25th and that this offer is available exclusively to members. However did you know that you can apply online for membership in four easy steps? Membership is instant so if you do this today you will be able to avail of the early bird offer straight away.

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What a week!

April 14, 2008 · Posted in blogging, news · 2 Comments 

I’m Roseanne Smith, the IIA’s new Membership, Marketing and Communications Manager. I started work with the IIA last Tuesday and it’s been full speed ahead since then.

With the Congress coming up in less than five weeks there has been a lot of interest in membership. It was particularly busy on Friday as our early bird offer closed so there was a desperate scramble to renew membership (Yes it is true: you are not alone although it gets lonelier by the day in the “Oops forgot to renew my membership” camp!) and to avail of the great offers. EUR195.00 for members – a bargain!*

I’ve also been dealing with a number of interesting queries from members and it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to post some of these queries in anonymised form here. I like to think I know a thing or two about this whole Internet business but unfortunately the queries happened to be about the other things about which I couldn’t claim expertise. Let me know what you think: how would you feel about your internet woes being the subject of discussion on this site. Leave a comment to let me know what you think.

And to finish some of you might be scratching your heads wondering where do I know her from so a lá Troy McClure from The Simpsons you might know me from:

  • Rathmines in Dublin where I grew up
  • Scoil Bhríde, Ranelagh and Muckross Park, Donnybrook where I went to school
  • Trinity College Dublin where I got a degree in Drama Studies and Modern Irish and a M.Sc. in Multimedia Systems
  • Too many stage productions to list as either cast or crew
  • (And now this is really McClure-esque) “Amú san Áis” starring Hector Ó hEochagáin – you may have seen my name in the roller on: I was the researcher
  • Gaelport.com: I’m a fluent Irish speaker and I was responsible for developing this community focussed site
  • I was a founding representative of The Legacy Group and the Community Sector Employers’ Forum on behalf of Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge
  • My personal blog which you may have happened upon
  • “Giotaí den saol” daily Irish language trivia snippets on a number of radio stations throughout the country.
  • Letters in the Irish Times because I’m always writing in and givin’ out
  • And if none of that rings any bells I went to Irish College in Rann na Feirste

I look forward to meeting you at Congress in May. Knock over to me and say hello if only to see if I have managed to master the delivery of my extravagant title!

*A slightly later little bird tells me that the early bird offer is extended for members only until 25th April. So get on the case right now. Email me for details.

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Timely Reminder

April 10, 2008 · Posted in Uncategorized · Comment 

Through oversight and neglect we failed to upgrade our blog software to its latest patched version promptly. The blog platform like much software had some vulnerabilities which were exploited by spammers.
The IIA host its blog removed from its secured website and members areas on separate servers so no cross site contamination was possible.
Nevertheless – it is a timely reminder that patching software should be applied without delay. All systems are now restored and working again, and the upside is that the latest versions are always so much better and for now that bit more secure.

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