The Original Sims

Back to radio for me; and it was the best fun I have had in ages. To Bangor for the Sea Bangor Maritime Festival to record some school children trying out sailing. Download the MP3 here or stream it from BBC iPlayer until 20 June.

Paul McKeever, Managing Director of Front was one of about a dozen businesses from Northern Ireland who went to the Web 2.00 conference in San Francisco. In this podcast he talks about his impressions of the event.

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This edition of the podcast is from Barcamp Belfast held in the Art College this weekend. Almost 400 people signed up on the web site for what was billed as is “a user-generated unconference for designers, developers, startups and geeks to share and learn in an open environment”. It’s organised almost entirely by Andy McMillan with the support of a few friends. Much bigger than first planned it moved from an intended smaller venue to occupy 2 floors in the Art College. Davy Sims reports.

Here are some links to interviewees on the podcast: Barcamp Belfast - Andy McMillan - Lee Munroe’s Blog - Front - Reva Health Presentation - Bean and Gone Artisan Coffee - Cupcake Camp NI - 4IP - 38 Minutes -

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BETTER LATE THAN NEVER UPDATE: NICE VIDEO FROM ALAN IN BELFAST BLOG

Lee Munroe modestly describes himself as a 24 year old web designer from Belfast.

Like many emerging talents in web and interactive media he wants to put back into the design community through projects like webdesignire.com. He first came to the public eye with the Big Word Project which he built with Paddy Donnelly.

There’s more in Wikipedia. I met Lee at the Art College in Belfast where we kicked off talking about his latest project Lookaly.com. One site we didn’t mention in the interview is Sponsor Lee . org http://sponsorlee.org/ . With a £2000 target Lee is running the London Marathon on 26 April to raise funds for Action for Kids.

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An all too fleeting visit to “Unconvention Belfast” and http://twitter.com/unconvention yesterday.  Was hoping to stay longer, but a minor domestic crisis drew me home earlier than I would have liked.  The main reason I was there was to do a workshop on Podcasting.  I was unexpectedly (and gratefully) joined by Stephen O’Regan of balconytv.com.  Stephen does things differently from me – first balconytv is video and I don’t really do video, the second is that he uses a different podcasting system. So he was able to bring a different perspective.  But thankfully we agreed tended to agree especially taking a professional attitude to the production of podcasts.

Unconvention (read all about it) is a truly excellent event which runs on adrenaline and volunteerism.  It is a real public service which endeavours to bring professionalism to the music industry of Northern Ireland.

It is time for the rest of Northern Ireland’s business community and media to realise that individuals and small businesses that support and arrange events like Unconvention are as much part of the economic revival of our city and all of Northern Ireland as is any other industry.  The music, entertainment, creative industry have an enormous economic benefit which can been seen on the Profit and Loss account.  But it has a more subtle impact on our ecomony by raising expectations and morale.  And as any business person will tell you morale has a direct impact on the bottom line.

So where were you BBC, UTV, Belfast Telegraph and others?  Yes our desperate "traditional" media – desperate for stories and for younger audiences. You are required by your audiences (and in some cases by Charter and law) to provide a fair and balanced coverage including Economy.  This is not a “good news story” with everybody smiling and saying “Awww, shucks.” at the end.  This is a real business story even if it is by its own title and admission “Unconventional.” This is not kids messing about in front of the mirror playing tennis rackets; this is business. 

Next time send someone.  No, send two – one to cover the entertainment and send your Business Cor.  also.

Yesterday my old (or should that be ancient?) friend Padraig Coyle and I quietly launched the gaelgames.com podcast. It struck me that in such a fan driven range of sports there were quite a few blogs, but no podcasts.  So I suggested to Padraig (like me started in Downtown Radio a long time ago) who recently left BBC NI Sport that we should play around with a Gaelic Games podcast.

It is a quiet almost restrained start; but I hope before too long it becomes irreverent, edgy and driven by the passion that supporters of gaelic football and hurling have for their sports.  So the first is the "Test Transmission".  If sport is your thing, please check it out and let us know what’s on your mind.

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Duration - 27′.22"

For the first time, HP Labs have moved out of their home in Bristol, to hold their a two day conference on Media Scapes – or Mscapes.  Described by one of the speakers as a New Medium, mscapes has been developing since about 2003 and has achieved global interest. 

Visiting the two day mscapeFest08 in Belfast’s W5 were producers, developers, designers and educationalists from Canada, USA, Singapore, Taiwan, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands and many other countries.
Davy Sims spent 2 and 3 December at W5 at the conference which was opened by Northern Ireland Finance Minister Nigel Dodds

On the podcast:
Jo Reid from HP Labs http://www.hpl.hp.com/bristol/ 
Brian Lamb from Ulster Mediascapes http://www.ulstermediascapes.com/
John Bustard who produced Armoy Armada http://www.armoyarmada.com/
Bill McCluggage from Dept of Finance

You can find out more by going to the mscapers.com where you can download the tool kit, browse some 500 mscapes and get involved with the forums and with other people developing the project.

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This is the second in the series about winners of the the Northern Ireland Department of Trade and Investment’s Broadband Content Initiative – one year on.

In this podcast I profile the Constant Comedy Website and talk to Philip Morrow and Kieran Doherty and the competition creator, Paul Robinson. Plus clips from Colin and Brian Northern Ireland daleks, Cutter of the Yard, Diarmuid Corr’s Australian Place Names and the Extreme Tea Drinker.

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Crisis?  What Crisis?

The Digital Circle Podcast returns to the studios of One Zero Zero in boomtown Belfast.  It’s getting tough out there.  

Here are some headlines just from this week:

• C4 pulls plug on digital radio plan
• Viacom and CBS cut profit forecast
• US online advertising blow
• Surprise! Web ads aren’t immune from the credit crisis
• Tanking economy may lead to spear-phishing and social engineering scams

And a confidential Power Point from Sequioa has  been distributed on the web with the heart warming title “R.I.P. Good times”

So with that in mind we’ve brought together this week’s panel.

Also we be finding out with musical combo Escape Act are being Crafty Devils and where you can download tracks.

Michelle Gallen is just back from the Irish Web Awards. Her business is Liquid E-Learning.  
Ruairi McNally is Media Director with Bluecube Interactive. And Rich Dale is a member of Escape Act and works with Crafty Devil.

Download tracks from Escape Act here:

Kings Have Fallen: http://mp3hugger.com/2008/09/escape-act-kings-are-fallen.html
Cabin Fever: http://boxsetgo.blogspot.com/2008/10/escape-act-so-good-they-force-change-of.html
Green: http://www.amuze.me/featured/escape-act-green/

Download Central: http://escapeact.bandcamp.mu
And follow them on Facebook

The Slugger O’Toole Awards event was held in Belfast’s W5 centre on 7 October 2008.

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This is the first glittering and glamorous Slugger Awards and almost all of the politicos, digicenti, blogerati of any note and general hangers-on are gathered for what would have been a Red Carpet Reception. But Red, like Blue, like Green, Orange and even Yellow have political connotations, so the carpet was ignored and we all just had a night on the tiles.

Slugger O’Toole has been following Northern Ireland politics for about six years. It is the oldest political blog in and about Northern Ireland. If it is not the most read, it is certainly among the top titles. And it is read widely. Slugger O’Toole is a place where the Blogosphere and Main Stream Media meet. The web site is read by Journalists, Political Professionals and bloggers alike.

Founder Mick Fealty is no journalist in the traditional sense, but is probably more of a journalist that many news reporters. If it is a journalists role not just to report events, but to seek context and wide comment on events Mick fits that role. There were awards for External Representives (MPs, MEPs and others), Journalism, Local Council of the Year, Local Councillor of the Year, Local Newspaper of the Year, MLA of the Year, Participation and Involvement, Political Blogger, Stormont Committee Chair of the Year, Up-and-coming Politician of the Year and Jobsworth of the Year.

Get more information at the Slugger Awards site.

Other sites mentioned on the podcast include the winner of the Political Blog NALIL, Alan In Belfast and WIMPS (Where Is My Public Servant).

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