Mícheál Ó Foghlú's Weblog

European Research Council (ERC)

Very well written article on European Research Council, why it is so different from EC research funding to date, and the challenges it faces Fork in the Road :The Scientist [2010-02-01]. Thanks to Brendan Jennings (@toofardown) tweet.

Minister Cullen tuns sod on new TSSG Research Building

Last Friday we had Minister Cullen visit the TSSG to turn the sod on our new TSSG Research Building, funded by HEA PRTLI Cycle 4 capital programme, with matched funding from Waterford Institute of Technology. See the TSSG press release (copied below).

It is important to mention that the key people behind the original proposal were Willie Donnelly (the PI), myself, Brendan Jennings and Sven van der Meer. Of course like any large proposal this was team effort with many others contributing as well, and more subtly with the potential success based on the reputation of the TSSG that draws on an even wider set of people and achievements. The funding was won back in 2007 and this comprised a recurrent element, that funds the FutureComm project, and the capital element, that funds this new building.

As it happens we are conducting an internal mid-way review of the FutureComm project today in the Digital Hub. The key people in terms of actually delivering this work programme are Dmitri Botvich, who coordinates our research activity and manages the team, and Tom Pfeifer, who contributes his own expertise and acts as the logistics and support coordinator.

So these two events have given me the opportunity for reflection, and I am generally reminded of the good job we are doing, and of the importance of capturing this and promoting it publicly. This is actually very difficult given the complex nature of the inter-relationships between our various activities (126 funded projects in the period 1996-2010 to date, with nearly 40 active in 2010, and that doesn't include the 52 smaller Enterprise Ireland Innovation Vouchers we have done).

Martin Cullen TD, Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism, turned the first sod today (Fri, Jan 29) on a new 1,056m² four-storey research building at Waterford Institute of Technology’s West Campus at Carriganore.

Funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI), the €5m development designed by Devereux Architects is being built by BAM Construction and represents the next phase of expansion at the campus where much of the Institute’s fourth level research, development and innovation activity is now concentrated.

Set for completion in 2011, the new building will be clearly visible from the Waterford City Bypass and is being developed to the northwest of the ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre. With a maritime design, it will overlook the nearby River Suir and accommodate offices and meeting rooms for postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers as well as general office and laboratory space.

Speaking as work commenced on site, Minister Cullen said: “Continued investment in Ireland’s research infrastructure is a central part of our push towards delivering on the ‘Smart Economy’ agenda that offers the strongest prospects for economic recovery and a return to sustainable growth.

“Going back to my own time as Minister of State at the Department of Finance a decade ago when the land-bank here at Carriganore was acquired for Waterford Institute of Technology, I had always been convinced that the Institute would have – as it now does - one of the finest higher education campuses in the country.

“Following on from the refurbishment of Carriganore House, the development of ArcLabs and the National Biodiversity Data Centre, this latest phase of development marks another milestone in the rollout of the terrific vision that exists for this location where excellent sports facilities are also nearing completion. The West Campus is, of course, more accessible than ever to the entire region since the opening in October of the N25 Waterford City Bypass.”

Redmond O’Donoghue, Chairman, Waterford Institute of Technology, added: “In what is our 40th year, the Institute and the wider community in the southeast can be justly proud of the great strides that have been made by researchers here. This latest significant addition to our West Campus will allow that work to continue to grow in scope and depth.

“It is vital that we maintain investment in the research that will deliver the employment opportunities of tomorrow. The additional space to be provided by this latest campus expansion will allow further growth of our Telecommunications Software Systems Group (TSSG) which has won €40m in national and international research funding for 85 projects over the last five years alone. Specifically, the building will facilitate TSSG work on globally significant HEA-funded research where they are partnering with NUI Maynooth and University of Limerick on the ‘Future Internet’.”

Dr Willie Donnelly, Head of Research, Waterford Institute of Technology and director and< co-founder of TSSG, said: “Our research has enabled us to successfully create a mobile services cluster of high potential start-ups where almost 200 sustainable direct and indirect jobs have been created.

“Our research team continues to successfully compete for funding at a national and international level with the additional facilities now being provided with HEA support set to allow us grow further in the years ahead. As well as having a considerable economic impact for the southeast and ‘Ireland Inc’, TSSG research outputs will also increasingly generate products and services that benefit end users in society more widely.”

The project team for the new building also includes JODA Engineering Consultants; Michael Punch & Partners Consulting Engineers and Brendan Murray & Associates Quantity Surveyors.

Video Interview with me, Digital Hub TV

On 3rd December 2009 when I was attending the Irish Future Internet Forum in the Digital Hub in Dublin, I was interviewed by the Digital Hub TV. Here is the edited interview, you can also find it here: TSSG Interiew.

Avatar Review

I enjoyed reading my colleague Paul Watson's Avatar Review. See also the IMDB entry Avatar.

I too saw the movie and enjoyed it immensely, especially the full immersion in the 3D world that was so well realised. I too felt a bit let down by the black and white moral juxtaposition of the final third, that lacked all nuance. Would it not have been much more interesting if the military guys were real people too? or the if the plot had focused on another element of the rich world?

Strangely, as in no one else I have spoken to thought the same, I thought that the film was most like The Mission, essentially a recreation of the moral conflicts that arise with colonisation; for any American or European audience the main such example in our collective history was the discovery and exploitation of the "New World". Indeed the culture on the Avatar world does share many features of the native north American ethos. The Mission has a much more nuanced plot around the religious justification for joining the natives in resistance, and perhaps a more realistic ending where this resistance is doomed to failure against the might of European expansionism. I remember first hearing The Mission as a radio drama that dwelt even more on this debate, that was curtailed for the more visceral and visual movie. Avatar does include a sort of coming of age subplot that works quite well in terms of engaging the audience in the culture.

As for Paul's plea for a cinema that celebrates the science of exploration instead of the blockbuster military show down, perhaps I could direct him to the excellent Mars trilogy of books by Kim Stanley Robinson. If these are ever dramatised, they will need to preserve that focus to really reflect the books.

Also worth mentioning, for the most fully realised depiction of an alternative biology in science fiction is Brian W. Aldiss' Hellicona Trilogy Spring, Summer and Winter.

Despite its flaws, so well described by Paul, Avatar is one of the best science fiction movies of recent times. But really good science fiction is always better a book, as no director can ever capture what people can imagine in their own heads.

3D Objects Representing Social Data

A facinating illustrated article about 3D visualisation of data, as Christmas ornaments russell davies: datadecs.

Snow Business is Web Business

Netcraft have posted an analysis showing that the UK National Rail website is suffering under the increased traffic load as worried comuters and travellers check the availability of their routes: National Rail website affected by snow - Netcraft.

STI Debate in Ireland - A personal Index of Sources

An interesting debate has started up in Ireland in the past few months on the justification for Ireland's investment in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), now more usually called Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to emphasise the importance of the potential exploitation of the results of research by relevant industries.

This page aims to catalogue some primary inputs to this debate, and does not of itself espouse a particular position. For that see other articles I have published on Ireland and STI. This blog does not have comments enabled, so if you wish to comment please email me at mofoghlu attt tssg.org -- I am happy to add additional content as long is it available publicly on-line.

• Irish Times articles
  • 30th Dec - Overcoming R&D's law of diminishing returns http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0104/1224261599678.html
  • 04th Sep - Defending Ireland's strategy for science technology and innovation, Frank Gannon (Director General, SFI) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2009/0904/1224253647119.html
  • 04th Sep - Chris Horn on Smart Economy Strategy http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2009/0904/1224253642455.html
  • 04th Sep - Ian Cambell discusses Rory O'Shea's research into university-innovation links http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2009/0904/1224253815205.html
  • 04th Sep - by Michael Casey discusses the links between R&D spending and the smart economy http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2009/0904/1224253641713.html
  • 31st Aug - Article on proposed cuts in science funding by Dick Ahlstrom http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2009/0831/1224253510984.html
  • 27th Aug - Article by Dr Patrick Cunningham (Irish Chief Scientific Officer) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2009/0827/1224253326151.html
  • 25th Aug - Article on Investment in Research by Liam Donnelly (Teagasc) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0825/1224253194727.html
  • 20th Aug - Article on Science Funding by Michael Hennigan (Finfacts) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0820/1224252951654.html
  • 18th Aug - Article on McCarthy call to cut science funding by Luke O'Neill (TCD) http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0818/1224252768970.html
  • 06th Jul - Article on Innovation Taskforce in Innovation Magazine http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/innovation/2009/0706/1224250001121.html
• Sunday Business Post articles:
  • 30th Aug - Pearse Coyle on spin-outs and innovation http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS+FEATURES-qqqm=nav-qqqid=43986-qqqx=1.asp
  • 16th Aug - Response to Tol's article (see below) by Graham Love (SFI) http://www.thepost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS+FEATURES-qqqm=nav-qqqid=43759-qqqx=1.asp
  • 09th Aug - Article questioning current Irish STI policy by Richard Tol (ESRI) http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=GUEST+WRITER-qqqm=nav-qqqid=43614-qqqx=1.asp
  • 09th Aug - Blog version of Tol article (09th Aug) with comment responses from the Internet http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/2009/08/10/ireland%E2%80%99s-flagging-innovation-strategy-needs-a-radical-overhaul/
• Sunday Tribune
  • 06th Sep - Universities under pressure to commercialise their research by Ken Griffin http://www.tribune.ie/business/article/2009/sep/06/universities-under-pressure-to-commercialise-their/
  • Chris Horn's blog - he is on the Innovation Taskforce
    • 19th Aug - Irish Venture Capital investments 2008/2009 (link to GoogleDocs via twitter): http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BxsAN4FL7PFsZjIyNDgxZGUtZmMyYy00N2RkLWE5NWQtNDY1MWVmMGY2YjMx&hl=en
    • 18th Aug - Comment on statistics he gathered on Irish exits 2000-2009 http://chrishornat.blogspot.com/2009/08/irish-technology-exits-2000-2009.html
    • 18th Jul - Comment on 1st meeting of Innovation Taskforce http://chrishornat.blogspot.com/2009/07/innovation-task-force-first-meeting.html
  • Innovation Blog
    • 06th Jul - Post critiquing lack of debate on smart economy by Karl Whelan (UCD) http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/2009/07/06/some-more-contributions-to-innovation-debate/#more-2984
    • 29th Jun - Commenting on Innovation Taskforce by Karl Whelan (UCD) http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/2009/06/29/innovation-taskforce-appointed/#more-2882
  • Ferdinand von Prondzynski' Blog (President of Dublin City University - DCU)
    • 21st Aug - Comment on tone of STI debate http://universitydiary.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/research-economics-and-trench-warfare/
  • UCD/TCD Innovation Alliance Initiative
    • 11 Mar - Announcement of TCD/UCD "Innovation Alliance" http://www.tcd.ie/Communications/news/pressreleases/pressRelease.php?headerID=1121&pressReleaseArchive=2009
  • The Innovation Taskforce
    • Announcement: http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Government_Press_Office/Taoiseach%27s_Press_Releases_2009/Taoiseach_Appoints_Innovation_Taskforce_to_Support_the_Development_of_the_Smart_Economy.html
    • Main web page: http://www.taoiseach.ie/eng/Innovation_Taskforce/
    • Call for Submissions (DEADLINE Fri 18th Sep 2009): http://www.taoiseach.ie/eng/Innovation_Taskforce/Request_for_Submissions/
    • The Innovation Task Force tag on twitter http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23itaskforce <- does a twitter search for the tag
    • Submissions to The Innovation Task Force http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Innovation_Taskforce/Submissions_to_Innovation_Taskforce/
  • Mícheál Ó Foghlú's blog
    • 16th Aug - Comment on nature of Research Institutes http://www.ofoghlu.net/log/2009/08/does_ireland_need_independent.html

  Last Update: 2010-01-05 @ 17:10

  Posted by mofoghlu at 5:10 PM | Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) | TrackBack (0)

Android Phone

This is an excellent site showing details of All Android Phones.

IdeaGen hosted by ArcLabs (TSSG) on Thursday 2nd December 2009 (5pm-7pm)

I have written some background notes on the topics discussed at IDEAGEN on 15th October 1009 in the TSSG, WIT. There is a follow-up event (aimed at for those who attended the first session) on the evening of Wed 2nd December 2009, so these notes could help kick-start some discussions and brain storming. That could be useful notes for those not familiar with the topics, or provocative for those that are.... I just spent 2h or so doing it, so it is not a very studied piece of academic writing, but a set of notes and pointers.

Download PDF Notes

Jonathan Brazil on his new Android Hero

Well, as a personal comment on my recent blog post about smart phones, I thought I'd cross link to one of the TSSG researcher's personal expereinces with the HTC Hero smartphone, that runs Android 1.6 at present: When jbwan met: HTC Hero.

I predict that Android phones are going to be very big in 2010.

Irish Future Internet Forum

Miguel Ponce de Leon: Irish Future Internet Forum 2009

Irish Future Internet Forum will be on in the Dublin Digital Hub on 3rd December 2009, free registration.

See you there.

IMS-ARCS @ Digital Hub - Stakeholder Meeting

This morning I attended the stakeholder meeting of IMS ARCS (http://www.ims-arcs.org) project.

This is an interesting project partly because of the funding mechanism. It is an Enterprise Ireland ILRP, Industry-Led Research Programme. These programmes are defined by a group of industrial partners, who then use Enterprise Ireland funding to fund the research activity in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland. This can be seen as the Irish equivalent (on a smaller scale) of the EU Technology Platforms (EUTPs http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-platforms/).

The project is also interesting as it tracks a major trend in telecommunications: the emergence of the IMS platform (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and the dominant paradigm for fixed-mobile convergence, and for the migration of telecommunications networks to the use of Internet protocols.

The TSSG has used its existing expertise, and the new expertise and market intelligence gathered during this, and other projects, to help create a national IMS testbed. We will be launching this testbed formally early next year.

Smartphone Battles

It is fascinating how in a short space of time the Android platform is emerging as a major challenger to the iPhone in the smartphone market, and also indeed how quickly the iPhone itself became a dominant player in this market. This ZDNET article by Jason Perlow neatly sums up these trends, if slightly provocatively. A good starting point for debate on the future handsets, which is also a big part of the future of the Internet.

(Graphic from ZDNET article by Jason Perlow)

TSSG EU FP7 ICT Call 5 - 41 proposals submitted

This day last week say the extended deadline of EU FP7 ICT Call 5. This is the call, like Call 1 before it, where most topics of relevance to the TSSG come up. I am very pleased to say that the team in the TSSG really engaged with the process, and was involved in the successful submission of 41 project proposals. That's just under one proposal each for every researcher in the TSSG who is funded by EU funding (we're about 150 in total, and around 60 are funded from EU funding). Of course, the rest of the organisation gave considerable support as well, and we had one proposal that came from the commercialisation part of the TSSG, thanks to all of you.

Already the TSSG are the most successful research centre in Ireland at winning EU funding, with 16 active EU FP7 projects as of today (funded mainly through ICT Calls 1, 2, 3 and 4 over the past 2 years). We would have the expectation of at least some successes for these new proposals that have been submitted, and we await the results of the extensive review process. The larger Integrated Projects (IPs) have a review process that allows for clarifications with the proposal team at a panel meeting in Brussels; this should happen some time in Jan 2010 for highly ranked IPs.

The TSSG is built on successful project proposals, without funded projects we have no income and no way to pay our staff. So I am very proud of the huge efforts put in by the whole organisation, and in particular by the core EU funded researchers, who helped achieve this major milestone.

2009-11-19 UPDATE:
After a full audit of submissions there another one I didn't know about when I originally posted this information, so the total is actually 42 submissions with the TSSG as a partner (covering objectives 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 3.5 and 9.2). There has been some interesting public analysis of the submissions to the call posted already http://www.euforskning.no/post/submissions-Call-5.aspx. This shows how many of each type of proposal were submitted under each of the strategic objectives of the call.

A Revolution 40 Years in the Making

Computing Now | A Revolution 40 Years in the Making

The IEEE Computer Society have publsihed this interesting retrospective to mark 40 years of the Internet. It's a summary page, with links to two articles: An interview with Len Kleinrock on the origins of the Internet (Mar/Apr 1997 IEEE Internet Computing); A contribution on the Internet's future (Jan/Feb 2000).

I think a lot of people who talk about the Future Internet should read this and understand what the Internet is and where it came from, so that their ideas on possible future directsions are grounded in the reality of what actually happened so far.

Of course, I'm having such conversations, and many otehr stimulating conversations, as I am in Istanbul for the eChallenges 2009 conference.

Archimedes Palimpsest

The coolest video I have seen recently on digitising manuscripts was this Google Talk on the Archimedes Palimpsest. I am reminded of it as I am listening to a number of interesting talks on Digital Libraries and Cultural Heritage at the eChallenges 2009 conference in Istanbul.

Convent of Christ, Tomar, Portugal

I am attending (and speaking and chairing some sessions) eChalenges 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey.

Just heard a talk on digitising artefacts at this UNESCO world heritage site in Tomar, Porugal, the Convent of Christ. What struck me most was the beautiful slides so I thought I'd share the Flickr stream with the world :-)

Ideagen Roadshow - Photos Available

Enterprise Ireland have posted some photographs on Flicker of the Ideagen event hosted in ArcLabs on Thu 15th Oct 2009. This one shows Pat Byrne (Enterprise Ireland), Mary McEvoy (Enterprise Ireland) and myself.

Flickr photos of the event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ideagen

EI Big Ideas Showcase 2009

RTE.ie Media Player: Six One News 13 October 2009

TSSG had 4 projects/companies featured at Enterprise Ireland's Big Ideas Showcase, making us the most prominant ICT centre displaying at the show.

• IMS-ARCS (preparing Ireland's indistry for IP-based IMS telecommunications software services)
• Zolk C (next generation mobile solutions for heritage sites)
• Feedhenry (flexible standard-scompliant widget platform for dynamic site content)
• 3CS (Enterprise Ireland's ARE centre that underpins the commercial division of the TSSG)

In the RTE news clip from, yesterday's 6 o'clock news, our stand features (you can see 3CS, IMS-ARCS and Zolk C stands) along with Deirdre Morrissey (TSSG Marketing Manager) and Joe O'Reilly (of Raser/FeedHenry). Unfortunately our interviews didn't make the final cut.

IdeaGen hosted by ArcLabs (TSSG) on Thursday 15th October 2009 (5pm-9pm)

In 2001 the TSSG made the decision to co-locate with the SEEPP, WIT's programme to support new entrepreneurs. The resulting centre was branded as the "WIT Research & Innovation Centre". It was formally opened by the then Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Mary Harney. This plan to co-locate WIT's leading R&D activity with its leading business and entrepreneurial support ecosystem set out our stall in terms of the importance of the links between research and industry, and of indigenous SMEs in particular. In 2006 the then Taoiseach, Bertie Aherne, formally opened the integrated ArcLabs centre. This centre combined the TSSG, the SEEPP but also a number of other services, most importantly an incubation centre for new companies, all under the one roof. Since then many TSSG companies have availed of the services provided by the rich support ecosystem.

The TSSG has grown and now has won €60 Million in R&D funding, bringing in the funding to build the the existing TSSG/ArcLabs building (note this was a combination of HEA funding for the TSSG and Enterprise Ireland funding for an Incubation Centre), and a new TSSG building that will be completed by September 2010, and creating 150 high quality jobs within the TSSG itself, funded by over 125 research projects won through competitive processes. True to its vision of a balanced ecosystem of R&D the TSSG's funding has been a third basic research (funded by SFI and HEA), a third applied research (funded by EU FP4-FP7), and a third pre-product development (funded by Enterprise Ireland). In addition the TSSG has created fourteen spin-out and spin-in companies (c.f. TSSG Companies), creating a further 60 jobs in the region. The TSSG has learned a lot about the difficulties involved in trying to meet all these different requirements from one integrated research centre. We have published our views of how Ireland should continue to support research and innovation in our submission to the Irish Innovation Task Force.

Therefore the TSSG welcomes the opportunity to support IdeaGen - an event organised by Enterprise Ireland that seeks to foster further links between research and industry in the region - on Thursday 15th October 2009 (5pm-9pm) (expression of interest). I have been invited to speak at the event, as well as participate, and I have published my slides on Mícheál Ó Foghlú's Presentation to IdeaGen on the TSSG and ArcLabs.

My message is that Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), the TSSG, and the other elements that make up the research and innovation ecosystem within ArcLabs, have had a vision for proactively linking research and industry that formally dates back to the opening of our first integrated centre in 2001. We have built a real culture of innovation within the TSSG that combines world class research with real engagement with industry. We welcome collaboration with anyone who seeks to promote the same vision.

Update 2009-10-13 - IdeaGen interact with the social network

Follow IdeaGen on social betworking tools:

• Twitter (follow user @ideagendotie)
• Twitter (search for the hash tag, post tweets using the hash tag) #ideagen
• Facebook (become a fan of ideagen)
• Flickr (Photos)

TSSG Publications - New Look on Website

I have recently updated the way the TSSG website displays its publications. The main website that links to these new views of the publications database is TSSG Publications. What's included is an auto-generated listing of all academic publications both by calendar year (in reverse order), and by academic year (in reverse order - we need this for our internal reporting). More interesting to external users is the simple dynamic search facility: TSSG Publications Search.

To do this has involved a few steps, and is the culmination of just over a year of thinking and planning:

• We moved from a proprietary Reference Manager database to using BibTeX;
• We standardised on JabRef to edit the BibTeX and keep it consistent and legal;
• We standardised on UTF-8 as the character set;
• We discussed an implemented a small additional set of tags to capture other useful information not there by default in BibTeX;
• I developed an automation script to synchronise to the latest version of the database (i.e. copy from version control document repository to the webserver);
• I developed a Perl library to handle the creation of suitable HTML format for the different types of BibTeX entries that are possible (basically a big switch statement calling a number of procedures to handle different cases;
• I developed two scripts to run each morning (on the updated source file) and produce the HTML sorted by calendar year and by academic year;
• I developed a preprocessing script to parse the BibTeX and produce some optimised hash data structures for use in the search tool;
• I developed a CGI search tool to find an entry matching a regular expression search, and then display it by calling the HTML library.

There's still lots more to do to auto-generate publications lists for people, for projects, and for academic themes. I'd also like to create automated checks that email the identified author notifying them of missing data and incomplete entries. Most importantly I want to implement the tag we have that links to the PDF download in the WIT Institutional Repository, and I want to try and get the majority of entries to have this field, then I can create the link in the on-line listings, and make it easier for people to find our papers, and read them.

The main drivers I had for this process were to (a) make it easier to automatically keep the website up-to-date; (b) make it easier to generate necessary publications metrics and details for various reports; (c) make it easier for people to find and read the papers we have published. The new system is a good improvement in most of these, and the PDF links should really help with the last point.

TSSG Innovation Model

The Irish Innovation Task Force has called for submissions from interested parties. In response to this request the TSSG has revised an earlier document of its innovation model, and published this as a contribution to the debate. The TSSG has formally submitted the Executive Summary and the Recommendations from this report to the Innovation Task Force.

Balancing the Basic, Applied and Commercial R&D in Higher Education research in Ireland:
Building a Flexible and Sustainable National Innovation System in an Open Economy

• Executive Summary and Recommendations
• Full Report

Dynamic Map of World Broadband Growth

This is a simple dynamic map visualising submarine cables and the density of broadband penetration in each country in the world. The information is displayed as a map with a dynamic timeline covering 1999, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, and a projection to 2011 (with planned cables) BBC NEWS | Technology | How the world was connected. So you can choose the year and see the story at that time. Great stuff!

Interview on WLR FM local radio: Enterprise Ireland funding success €1.7M

The TSSG has had some really great recent success with Enterprise Ireland research funding. The full press release, published Friday 11th September 2009, is on the TSSG website.

Based on this the local radio station in Waterford, WLR FM, contacted me and I did an interview with Mark Power on Friday morning, and it was broadcast on the Friday lunchtime news; I've just uploaded the MP3 Interview WLR FM Fri 2009-09-11 (I've backdated this post to Friday 11th Sep 2009 for ease of reference).

This was a public announcement of a process that dated back to the first half of this year, in fact I am just signinging off on our latestest bactch of proposals going into the next round of Enterprise Ireland CF-TD and PoC funding. The news was that the TSSG/3CS brought in €1.7M in funding in the last Enterprise Ireland round of research funding, with funding for 7 new projects: 3 CF-TDs (larger projects aimed at developing commercial grade software implementations of a research idea), and 4 PoCs (smaller projects aimed at proving whether a concept is feasible by develping a prototype and a market analysis). The TSSG employs 150 people funded by HEA, SFI, EU FP7 and Enterprise Ireland funding programmes. We have a track record of 120 projects and €60M in funding. Our second building is now being constructed in WIT's West Campus in Carriganore.

Well done to everyone who continually works so hard on the proposals that make the TSSG possible. If we didn't bring in the funding to fund our existence, nothing else would be possible.

Bernie Goldbach disusses eReaders and the ePub format

Inside View from Ireland: Late Night in the ePub This is a call to arms to embrace the open ePub format, and stop Amazon's Kindle from dominating the market with a locked in DRM format for electronic books.

Comparison of pre-pay mobile phone call and data plans across countries

This is an excellent high level discussion of the cultural differences to pre-paid plans in different parts of the world -- it's starting to get easier to buy such a plan in 5-10 minutes in a shop in many places in the world, especially the EU VoIP Watch: The Mobile Operator Dichotomy-Product vs... Service Approach.

I used a 3 pre-pay plan in Italy recently, and it worked really well. 3G data is starting to be come better value than expensive hotel WiFi plans.

Economic Models: Rethink Growth

This is a thought provoking discussion of alternatives to economic models with a continuous growth assumption.

The Next Evolution in Economics: Rethinking Growth - HBR Now - Harvard Business Review

In a cellular economy, key metrics change. GDP growth is less important than GDP regeneration. Successful growth takes into account the sustainability of that growth.

The most profound change in a cellular economy is the devaluation of the transaction. Today, economic value is determined primarily by the value of the transaction. To grow (even just to survive), we must keep trading, keep consuming--no matter how wasteful the process becomes--because success is creating more transactions. This keeps us locked into a linear, growth oriented paradox.

RSS vs Social Media - is RSS losing out?

In an interesting post Patricio Robles discusses why RSS usage is dropping of in the USA and wonders about the equivalent rise in the use of specific social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter Is RSS dead? | Blog | Econsultancy.

He concludes the RSS never was mainstream, and that it still serves a very useful function that will not go away any time soon.

I'd agree, adding that we are actually taking about the different flavours of RSS and Atom here. Personally I use RSS/Atom every day, and have started to use Twitter quite a bit. I use tools - like ping.fm - (often enabled with Jabber/IM and RSS) to update Facebook rather than using Facebook directly. Similarly with Yammer, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse, and Flickr). Life's too short to be logging into all of these individually to update status, or to micro-blog. Also, I still value the more thoughtful composition required for a full (even if short) blog entry, compared to a short 140 character tweet. Thus I view the social media platforms as potential hooks to engage people, rather than as my real focus.

GoMo News: Not legal to unlock iPhones in USA and Ireland, but it is in other countries such as Finland

Cian O'Sullivan of GoMo News (a TSSG spin-in company) reports that Legal unlock for iPhone shows just how bad USA and Ireland have got it. I had never realised this - the extent to which the legal unlocking of phones was dictated by one's country, but it does make sense.

As it happens, I use a Sony Ericsson P1i, that is unlocked, a bit of a last year's smart phone but I still like it a lot. I must admit it isn't as good at email as a Blackberry, and it isn't as good at web browsing as an iPhone, but it suits me grand for now.

Boston's innovation culture

It is interesting to read that Boston is only now changing towards a newer type of innovation culture (if this blog post is to be believed) given that it is famous for it's Innovation Corridor on Route 128 The Cultural Revolution: Which Side Are You On? - Innovation Economy - Boston.com