04.22.07
Barcamp
So I went, and enjoyed myself thoroughly and even learned some new buzz words.
Conor Halpin from Le Cayla made a very creative presentation about pricing using a straight-jacket. He kept talking about Saas. Julie Szabo told me it means Software as a Service, so Flickr and those things.
Sean O’Sullivan, Rococo gave us a round-up of what he called Voice 2.0 which was most enlightening. People have hilarious business models to make money from VOIP. He drew attention to the fact that Skype’s biggest problem is the necessity of plugging in headphones.
Darren Barefoot did a Social Media Marketing presentation which gave some great ideas for marketing through blogs and other social networking platforms. This was one of the best. Turbotax, a canadian tax software company, launched a competition for the best tax rap with a €25,000 that got huge traction. What a creative way to get people talking about tax software! I didn’t watch any of the entries, but apparently they’re hilarious and Vanilla ice announced the winner.
After the blogging panel discussion which threw up some interesting perspectives, I had a long chat with Karlin Lillington, to my mind the most interesting technology writer in the broadsheets. Turns out her mother is a great one for column ideas, just like mine. We agreed that the establishment panels on most Irish radio programmes are waaaaaaaay out of touch with the digital natives.
I missed Krishna De’s and Tom Raftery’s sessions due to my extended gossiping session with Karlin and Joe Drumgoole, who complained that I don’t put enough links on my blog. Satisfied now Joe? 
Joe said,
April 22, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Well done! Now doesn’t that feel better!
Conor O'Neill said,
April 22, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Sounds like a great day Sarah, it’s a pity I couldn’t make it up.
I like the look of Sean’s MySay product, I think it could be huge. But someone needs to tell him about these
Tom Raftery said,
April 23, 2007 at 9:32 am
Sarah, you didn’t miss much missing my talk – I was just mouthing off about energy efficiency and carbon neutrailty. Nothing to do with blogs or blogging at all!
Johnny K said,
April 23, 2007 at 10:00 am
Conor, for the next few years most people won’t buy these phones. I think this is a combination of not knowing the phones exist and balking at spending > €100 on a landline phone.
Conor O'Neill said,
April 23, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Johnny, my 68 year old technophobe Da has one of those phones, a €29 zero-features thing I got him in an office supplies shop in Wexford. He uses it to call some of his other retired buddies for free. The idea of free international calls to each other overcame any nervousness with the technology. VOIP in general may remain niche but Skype the product really is starting to leak into the mainstream.
Stephen Neill said,
April 23, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I bought one phone converters of these on ebay for €10 – Adds skype functionality onto all the cordless phones in the house as they are all operated off one base which sits beside the desktop. Works a treat!
See: http://tinyurl.com/2t6kjw (Too lazy to put in the html to make this a link)
Stephen Neill said,
April 23, 2007 at 2:50 pm
oh – I see it worked (the link) – didn’t think it would – I am obviously even more clever than I thought
Will said,
April 23, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Actually you didn’t miss Krishna’s talk. Since the place had to be cleared at a set time, hers was cruely cut short. I assume you might be able to get her to talk at Share IT in Dublin next week
John Ward said,
April 23, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Unfortunately Share IT has been cancelled see Damien’s post
http://www.mulley.net/2007/04/23/shareit-dublin-event-postponed/
Johnny K said,
April 24, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Conor, you got that phone for your Dad. You are not a technophobe. Do you have to plug it into a computer?
Stephen you still need to plug this into a computer. This is the major problem Seán is referring to (in the image showing how to use the device they have a DUALphone skype phone attached anyway – haha).
Phones that can run Skype themselves definitely reduce the barrier to entry, but ones that you must plug into a PC are awkward. This is especially when you consider the number of people who use laptops as their primary computer. Plugging the phone in and out is a PITA.
That DUALphone 3088 looks very nice for home use, and the WiFi phone looks good especially when combined with FON.
Krishna De said,
April 26, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Sarah – great to meet you again after you were speaking at the IIA event.
And thank you for the mention.
I thought your comment about the comments being open and using them for research was a great insight.
I certainly find that comments on my blog extend and enrich the conversation and can help shape my thinking.