My piece in Wired UK – “Optimism in Dublin’s start-up scene: Pub Summit 2011 report”

My piece for Wired UK on the start up scene in Ireland, and the Pub Summit last night, is copied below. See article on Wired.

Text of the article below:

Despite the rain, and economic collapse, Dublin seems to be the place to be at the moment. A long line of entrepreneurs and investors queued in the rain to get into last night’s heaving Pub Summit 2011. Inside, the focus was on B2B and social business, and the people spoke about the latest and greatest startups.

Optimism in Ireland

Last night at the Pub Summit I spoke to Eoghan Jennings, ex-CFO of Xing, and the man behind the new Bootcamp accelerator that will be launching in 2012. I was struck by his optimism, and he gave me 12 reasons why Ireland is a good place for startups (credit to Colm Rafferty from Maples & Caulder who gave Eoghan input on the list). I was covering the event for Wired UK and didnt have space to put the list into the full Wired piece.  I think his reasons are interesting and worth sharing here.

The Day

Good evening. This is a digest of the major stories on the day.

• The Twitter-Frontline #aras11 story continues with Sean Gallagher asking Rabbitte to consider a full RTÉ inquiry

• In London Kenny met Cameron to discuss the future of Anglo-Irish relations

"He was in hospital from Monday right through until the weekend and probably lost a couple of kilos of weight,” said team manager Michael Kearney today. Read on...

• The Ireland management expect Seán O’Brien to be available for selection for the final Six Nations game against England at Twickenham on Saturday. The Leinster flanker was forced to sit out the 32-14 win over Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday after succumbing to a skin infection in his foot

• The Government has announced a €1.5 billion programme to build 106 primary schools and 43 secondary schools over the next five years.

• New York is No. 1, Dublin is 27th, in a new ranking of most competitive cities in the world.

• A businessman has sued Friends First Life Assurance Company over allegedly threatening to pursue him for almost $10 million

• A woman was jailed today for killing her neighbour, a 66 year old father-of-four, by crushing him with her car.

• The Leaning Tower of Pisa will turn green for St. Patrick’s Day, the latest in a series of world landmarks to sign up for the “Global Greening” to mark the day.

• Two dogs rescued from the pound pawed their way to top honours this weekend at the largest annual dog show in the world

Your most shared article today: Nike's new 'Black and Tan' sneaker. Read on...

• The two most shared stories on the site today were Nike puts its foot in it with ‘Black and Tan’ sneaker and Adventures of Biolbó Baigín set out as Gaeilge in ‘An Hobad’

• A surprising statistic about traffic in Dublin: in the last ten years people are driving less

Apple Marketing

I’m getting worried that Apple could sell me… to myself. Here’s how

_____________________________

Announcing the

iME

from Apple.

What is it?

Well, it starts when you start wearing elegant white or charcoal clothing. Then you have a general feeling of aloofness and only partial compatibility with your fellow human beings.
You’ll quickly get used to admiring glances as you glide down the street.  At the same time, you should be very good at performing design and entertainment related tasks. You’re not necessarily good at games, but that’s ok.
Because you’re an Apple. And you’re better.

Think different. Make the choice to live a life less ordinary.

The iMe. “A whole new you” Shipping today.

_____________________________

This really could sell. Want proof? Go to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=762035792437485705# and watch Steve Jobs pitch the 1984 Macintosh. Watch the entire video and ask yourself when you’ve finished whether you really could do without this wonder machine.

The past 2 years of digital speakers at the IIEA

It’s time to take stock. Here’s an idea of what we’ve been up to since 2008 at the Digital Future Group of the IIEA. In reverse chronological order…

Kool DJ Herc and the future of hacked media

Celebrating the arrival of page proofs of the book, this snippet comes from a section that describes the future of ‘extruded media’…

A digital media boom is underway in which assertive audiences are beginning to use and extrude media rather than watch it. To understand the nature of the coming global media boom, reflect on the birth of break beat hip-hop music.  In the early 1970s a high-rise apartment building on 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in New York’s Bronx became the birthplace of a new culture, and a new style of editing and adapting music. Clive Campbell, aka ‘Kool dj Herc’, a Jamaican-born resident, began playing records at events in and around the building.

Links worth clicking: David Simon of The Wire

David Simon, one of the duo behind The Wire, The Corner, and Generation Kill, on society and news journalism:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/aug/29/david-simon-edinburgh-interview-full

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8E8xBXFLKE (skip the first 6 minutes of preliminary dialogue)

(part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJNkL12QD68 (part 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhPZYjRgqTI

David Simon, “Does the news matter to anyone anymore?”, The Washington Post, 20 January 2008.

IIEA needs an intern (Digital Future)

WE WANT YOU TO JOIN OUR TEAM

http://www.iiea.com/job-opportunities

Job spec: RESEARCH intern on The Digital Future

Payment: unpaid – opportunity to compete for paid position may arise

Caffeine Curve

Credit to the original genius who drew this (not me)

My profile on Wikipedia – a case study of three Wikipedia caveats

I’m a little excited and a bit alarmed by my entry “Johnny Ryan (academic)” on Wikipedia. Knowing its subject (me), I can draw three caveats about Wikipedia content. 

CB3 Communications – web 2.0 in zones of conflict?

I have just accepted a role with CB3 Communications, a Cambridge-based consultancy run by a friend of mine, Jem Thomas. (I will be keeping my other position at the IIEA.)

Next Leap Report comment-on-able at http://nextleap.wordpress.com

The report is now available for comment – at http://nextleap.wordpress.com

Photos and video of the launch will be posted soon…

or download PDF version [cover front / back]

A marvelous sentiment

Adam Curtis, the BBC documentary maker with a keen eye for archival footage and historical trends said this, during an interview with the Register:

“We should be saying to people ‘I’m going to take you out of yourself and show you something you haven’t thought of, which is either awesome, or incredible, or will inspire you’”.

This is the first – and perhaps only – post on this blog that simply presents a quote, but the sentiment is so marvelous that it is worth repeating. More from Curtis here.

Working paper “‘TWO WAY POLITICS’: THE NEW MEDIA ENVIRONMENT AND THE EU CREDIBILIY CRUNCH”

We have arrived at the end of hierarchical communications and are at a new credibility crunch.

The Talk of The Year

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Interview with head of Frontex

I interviewed Ilkka Laitinen, Director of Frontex, the EU border security agency, for the European Biometrics Forum yesterday.

My review of Paul Rogers’ Towards sustainable security

My review of Rogers’ Towards sustainable security is online on Nthposition. [link]

Assessing the recommendations of the coalition for a realistic foreign policy in their January 2005 statement in the Economist.

“Americans should be deeply concerned that we are so unpopular in the region inasmuch as it makes it harder, rather than easier, for us to achieve our major national security objectives in the Middle East”.[1]

In The Economist’s first edition of 2005, the coalition for a realistic foreign policy (‘the coalition’ hereafter) published a statement criticizing the Bush administration’s Middle East policy.[2] According to the signatories, the continued Israeli-Palestinian stalemate jeopardizes America’s two key regional objectives: defeating Al Qaeda and preserving access to oil. They criticize President George Bush Jr’s unreserved support for Israeli expansion and occupation. The support

Unipolar moment or unipolar era?

UNIPOLAR MOMENT OR UNIPOLAR ERA: THE FUTURE OF AMERICA’S ASSERTIVE GRAND STRATEGY
February 2005.

In the run up to the 2000 election, Condoleezza Rice laid out the central tenet of candidate Bush’s foreign policy manifesto: ‘Foreign policy in a Republican administration will … proceed from the firm ground of the national interest, not from the interests of an illusory international community’.[1] Five years later, one European newspaper marked President Bush’s second inauguration by announcing ‘world fears new Bush era’ on its front page.[2] In the interim, an

Principled failure: British policy toward Rhodesia, 1971-72

The History Review 2004. Copyright Johnny Ryan 2004.

INTRODUCTION

The choice lies starkly between a compromise settlement, which by definition will not satisfy anyone but which will gain for the Africans substantial new opportunities for advancement, and a rapid and complete polarisation of the races and the prospect of conflict.[1]

In May 1972 the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary told the British Parliament that the peoples of Rhodesia stood at the crossroads between two destinies: they could accept a compromise settlement or suffer total racial polarisation and civil war. By then, the choice was already made. Despite attempts to initiate dialogue between the European and African parties in Rhodesia, British diplomacy failed to avert slaughter.