eircom innovation fund

Phew. Now that it's all calming down slightly my thoughts are slowly turning to things *other than* work. Like scrawling the odd post occasionally. Unfortunately, this post is about work. This press release went out a week or so ago:

eircom today announced the four winning companies in the eircom €100,000 Web Innovation Fund. The Fund was launched in November last year to promote, mentor and sponsor innovative web applications in the Irish Internet industry.
The four winners have entered into agreements with eircom whereby concepts are developed through to production and, if appropriate, initially launched on the eircom.net platform. Funding will be released on a staged basis throughout the six-month development process, according to needs assessed on a per-case basis. eircom will provide ongoing monthly funding in order to continue development of the product in line with customer feedback, and as part of a standard content agreement.
The winners will also be given business development training and advice by Enterprise Ireland, as well as additional six-month post-launch funding and help with marketing and advertising of the web service.

The four chosen companies are:

HeyStaks - HeyStaks is a “personalised social search” service, which uses a new revolutionary type of search technology that works with existing search engines such as Google and Yahoo to harness the search experiences and patterns of communities of like-minded users. These preferences are then used to promote search results that are likely to be more relevant to their particular needs. HeyStaks will also facilitate users and online communities to create their own topical search engines that will continually adapt to the needs and preferences of the particular community.
Research has shown that HeyStaks can increase search success rates by up to 50% and trials have demonstrated that it can improve success rates of Google from 50% to up to 75%. This has benefits not only for the user, who will find what they are looking for more frequently, but also for search engines where increased performance can mean significant increases in click-thru revenue associated with search advertising.

Locle - Locle is a social mapping application for mobile phones that combines information from your mobile handset address book with social networks such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace to create mapping services that show users where their friends are. Locle is an enhanced mobile web experience that facilitates “here’s where I am, and here’s where my friends are” for social networks and groups.
Locle is a combination of a web service and downloadable mobile phone software. When the Locle mobile client is activated, it identifies the user’s location and presents the location of “friends” who also use the application. Friends can be both contacts from your mobile phone address book or contacts from your social networks. As well as letting you know where your “friends” are, Locle can also keep you up to date on relevant information to your location such as local events, news, weather and provide details on local restaurants, cinemas and ATM machines etc.

Playza - With most popular online games focused squarely at the adult gaming market, Playza is a new social gaming proposition for “Digital Natives” – our 12 to 24 year olds who have grown up in a digital media environment where mobile phones, social networking, multiplayer online gaming, and music downloading have always been the norm.
Playza is made up of a series of connected mini games in which players complete tasks and earn points. Online game players are encouraged to bring their gaming colleagues to Playza and social networkers can invite their online friends to join. The main objective of the game is to form and control player groups. By getting new members into their group, players will increase their standing and capabilities within the games. Playza users can also create their own page to host their game account and mini games. Within their page, users can create their own game groups, receive feedback and messages and post the game to their other sites or blogs such as MySpace or Facebook.
Playza combines the addictive nature of online gaming with the community features of a social networking portal.

TouristR - TouristR is an integrated full-service trip-planning advisor, which cuts out the information overload online and minimises planning problems. It not only helps the traveller to plan a more complex travel itinerary - such as a trip with multiple destinations on a fixed budget and timeline – but it also draws on content submitted by a community of users which will help the traveller to decide on a destination by getting a sense of the type of experience available at their chosen destination.
A new breed of unique Web 2.0 travel service, TouristR will feature stories, adventures and photographs of destinations submitted by users as well as aid the traveller who needs to factor in multiple elements to their trip such as budgetary, geographical, temporal and other personal preferences and restrictions.

Commenting Mark Taylor, Head of Content & Services Strategy, eircom Online, said “This is a new departure for eircom and one we are very proud to develop. Ireland has a huge pool of entrepreneurial talent and this was clearly demonstrated by the sheer quality of applications we received for the Fund. eircom is committed to fostering entrepreneurship in the online sector and this Fund provides the ideal platform. We are very much looking forward to working with these four companies in the coming months and we are hugely excited about their potential”.

Posted by monoman at 01:05 PM on July 30, 2008

Dark Knight allegory

Have been meaning to blog a whole bunch of stuff but not had any free time to speak of in months. Just got back from the cinema - watched The Dark Knight. Very good film, although perhaps not as good as some have suggested; Heath Ledger's Joker is fantastic however - a truly Chaotic character. I read Andrew Neil's interpretation beforehand and, although he's quite flippant about these insights, I totally agree with him. If the film doesn't work as well as it might, it's perhaps because the comic-book fluff doesn't sit well alongside these heavy-weight themes:

"Batman is really an allegory for America. He thinks he stands for truth and justice but his penchant for vigilante violence is deeply suspect as a means of spreading these virtues (think of G Bush's invasion of Iraq) and actually attracts the sort of evil he is meant to be destroying.

The Joker is obviously al-Qaeda and you are given the strong impression that he wouldn't exist if Batman wasn't there in the first place. Like al-Qaeda, his demands are non-negotiable and there is no real purpose to his criminality, beyond a desire to spread chaos (he even burns the dollar bills he steals, much to the chagrin of the local mafia).

Batman doesn't mind what he destroys in the course of his violence (think Iraq, again) and is not averse to beating a confession out of the Joker (Gitmo, Abu Ghraib). Americans, of course, are beyond redemption: they vote to blow up a ferry-load of prisoners to save themselves. Batman (America) wins in the end, but since most of Gotham (Baghdad) is trashed in the process - even the city's biggest hospital gets blown to smithereens - you wonder if it was really worth it."

Posted by monoman at 10:47 PM on July 27, 2008