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3Crumbs app - Are you the local thrifter we all have been looking for? 

[ivanodwyer]

Amnesia vs Intelligence ..for enterprises ..

via youtube.com

found this on the IBM Big Data Hub ....here Jeff Jonas an IBM Fellow and lover of jig-saw puzzles....puts together a series of ideas posited over last 2 years into one single video ....Whenever anyone talks at length using big words about big Data ...refer them to Jeff's slide 2 ..." Organizations are getting dumber " If using technology and new approaches you can close the gap between those lines you will murder your competition as the right knowledge at the right time ( oftern referred to as "actionable insight in context" ) becomes ever more ciritical to competitive advantage....That's it! Thank you Jeff!....

[ivanodwyer]

Genomes and Generators , and wild ducks ?

via youtube.com

This is one of the IBM centenary videos I missed when first came out....and leaving the wild duck analogy aside (?) ...its always good to hear a story being told , not by the big company --but by the "wild" Clients who did something new or took a risk. The Indian Telco story is a great one told by a real entrepreneur whose business disappeared at the stroke of a pen ....but he just immediately did the next thing he could try ....and the next thing .....and BOOM! -- he had the fastest growing business in the known universe.....and a model for how to transform a communications business for the developing world. So many things come down to a combination of risk-taking propensity and good old fashioned "resilience"--- defined as simply the distance between the end of a failed attempt (n) and the beginning of attempt (n) + 1 ...(at anything!).... It's often the overlooked trait ......but deserves more attention. Can it be acquired ? or is it in the DNA ....or both?

[ivanodwyer]

What is this Big Data stuff anyway? (again)

via youtube.com

Every other day at this point , someone asks me What is this Big Data stuff all about anyway? A few years ago everyone was asking about Cloud in the same way, and, just as with Cloud --you get a wide range of answers each one tailored and mapped to a particular providers agenda.....and each explanation touches on some common threads...around data set size and level of structure ,....or volume and variety as IBM puts it. Velocity and Veracity are also important as are Vulcanicity and Va Va Voomness ( ok forget the last 2! )

That's where the similarity ends though!. Cloud and Big Data are two different spheres and should be treated as such in my humble opinon. The former is HOW you do something ...the latter is a WHAT and WHY you do something....at least that's how I see it.

There is a rapidly growing gap of near- paralysis between the growth of data of all types ......and organisations ability to extract value from that data. That gap IS simultaneously the problem AND the extraordinary opportunity to create value and transform much of how every industry operates....

Rather than write a novella here ....I'll let one of IBM's big data leaders Paul Zikopoulos ( who literally did write the novella ) give his easygoing and informative view on Big Data and what it means. The example he gives of the jet engine is interesting and its not what people think of when they think of Big Data. It's worth a look and is part one of 2 short pieces he does...

[ivanodwyer]

41 Lessons Learned # Part 2

here is the much awaited  ( by 4 people on planet Earth --woohoo ! ) second instalment of profound learning :-) 

#15 Nothing really matters.!...and everything really matters!...simultaneously.  This wrecks my head on a regular basis.  Beaudelaire or some other French philosopher or other talked about this at great length in a book he wrote while completely off his head a hundred odd years ago..   This was ok though as I was completely off my head when I read him......what seems like a hundred odd years ago .

#16  I'm just beginning ....at the very edges of beginning ..to figure out what a life well lived is about .  Unfortunately for me...... I need another life to put it into practice. 

As a friend once said to me when he was the age I am now......... Ok rehearsal over  now what?....   I didn't know what he was talking about as I was 15 years younger and my brain still largely resided in my underpants.  For those of you under 40 ......underpants are things men used to wear in the 70's and 80's ....when "briefs" were a matter for the legal profession  and "thongs" were thimply things that were thung thomethimes.......everyone loved a good  thing-thong back then

#17.  I have a lisp.!! How's that for a life lesson!...  How did it take me 41 years to figure that out ?  I never talk in the mirror I suppose .... I only re-discovered this fact recently when I appeared in an IBM video for work which was played a million times on the internal IBM web....The title of the video ... "Serious Software for Smarter Cities .... was unfortunate to begin with.  There I was chuckling to myself at the poor sap with 3 chins and a speech impediment on a loop in reception ............ lovely .............just F)(*&)^%NG  lovely.    God ....when I meet you I'm going to break your face. ( " Break your face"...a Limerick expression denoting an ambiguous level of disdain or mild  frustration directed at another person or.... in this case....deity ) 

#18 Growing up in an age where screens of different sizes became our interface with the real and unreal worlds has left me incapable of writing basic English without making continuous errors in grammar,  syntax and punctuation. I'm pretty sure at some stage in the past I could write full and proper sentences.   As evidenced here .... that skill has deserted me completely....... and as for writing on paper with one of those writing stick thingys.... not a chance!  It feels almost alien now to write on paper manually.  OK , this is not a life lesson ..just something I realised when I couldn't read something I had written on paper 40 minutes previously.

# 19  The world doesn't owe me anything,  as my economics teacher in secondary school was fond of reminding me .... He was right.  ......but there is another side to that ...another lesson which is kind of the adult equivalent of the sentiment expressed by a child when shouting " I didn't ask to be born "... The world doesn't owe you anything.  It doesn't owe you a living.  It doesn't owe you thrills.  It doesn't owe you fulfillment , or even survival    BUT what do you owe the world back ? .That's right ..... NOTHING , NADA, and the sum total of SFA.  This is actually a liberating notion.  It works both ways.  If we are just chickens just scratching for our immortality ...then scratch away!  Lay an egg or two but don't apologise for  any of it.   The meek do NOT inherit the Earth. The meek just pass through life wearing the same blinkers you do.

#20  There comes a day when the burden must be put down.  There comes a time when the fear of letting go is surpassed by the pain of holding on.....the sooner in a human life that day comes the better .... but what the hell do I know ...I'm still holding on.....

[ivanodwyer]

41 Lessons Learned # Part 1

via google.ie

As I have recently stepped off the clifftop of another decade ...I have decided to try and put into words some lessons that life thus far has "learned" me ..(as I used to say when I was 5 ). I could go on about the mistakes I've made .... but what would be the point?

So ... in no particular order of priority .......here is a first random batch of conclusions I've almost come to. I promise to stop at 41. I promise to stop...period.

#1 Garlic and Olive Oil are indispensable for a well-lived life. In fact there is little that cannot be made great by the addition of one or both of those amazing substances. Same goes for any half decent red or white wine , the voice of Johnny Cash, the songs of Joni Mitchell, and the music of Beethoven and far too many others to mention

#2 Equally ( and I mean this ) indispensable to a well-lived life --is the portion of Cod and Chips from Presto's Italian Chipper near the Beggar's Bush in Dublin. It is special rectangular shaped fish with no eyes or tail .....slightly steamed in the bag... ....as you should ideally be yourself --when in the act of "chipous" A great man once told me when I was in great distress. "you need to get back to just walking home with a bag of chips". At the time I had no idea what he was on about....but I do now. It is the salt and vinegar of salvation.

#3 The ability of the human brain to do pattern recognition at such high speed is responsible for a fair portion of all human achievement. The ability of the human brain to do pattern recognition at such high speed is responsible for a fair portion of all human atrocity...... There's a pattern there somewhere...

#4 "Self-Help Books are one of the the greatest scams in history". This is the title of my new Self-Help book ( which is out in March ..Buy it now ! for 11.99 USD .Get it on Amazon .... and .... read it on your I-Phone ...read it on your I-Pad .read it on your I-Touch ..... Touch it on your I-Read ....Pad it in your I-Hole ....Bare it on your I-Soul ....this is how we I-Roll.

#5 Cancer is NOT a gift. The Absence of Cancer IS a gift. Do not confuse these things. A new Christmas Jumper you really don't want to wear is ALSO a gift. The sudden entry of a bizarre thought in your mind that delays you stepping into the path of an oncoming truck is also a gift ..........but Cancer is NOT ! Life IS a gift ...but just as likely to be that aforementioned Christmas Jumper..(.or the well -meant voucher for a shop you know nothing about ) .....as it is to be that exquisite artefact you were praying for ....

#6 the expression "What you see is What you get" has never been taken seriously enough by anyone in history. Seriously!

#7 Cicero said " gratitude is the noblest virtue and the parent of all others ".....He was probably right

#8.Cicero's lesser known bothers Anto and Liamo said Cicero was always a smug self-serving bastard..... They were probably right.

#9 Fear and loneliness are the worst enemies you can face. Fear really IS the mind-killer ( what movie was that? )and loneliness is the disease of the technological age. I don't care how many "friends" you have on "arse-about book".. Yes- let's call it what it should be called... "arse-about" or maybe "arse-around" - book. If I had a finite amount of time left to live would I be logging on to facebook to look at pixels ... or would I be knocking on doors to look in eyes......or at least picking up the "telling-bone". Don't get me wrong , I have a deep and abiding love of technology and I agree with Arthur C. Clarke on the whole "indistinguishable from magic" thing......it just needs to be about what it does FOR you as opposed TO you...

#10......... I have a finite amount of time left to live. You would have thought that might have sunk in by now --wouldn't you?

#11 If you must have religion ( and whatever gets you through the night is fine by me ) than pick one that doesn't bring about pointless martyrdom , the violent death of people who disagree with you or the abuse of children and subsequent covering up of that abuse by men wearing pointy hats. In fact ...avoid pointy hats in general. Pointy hats just don't bode well and never have.

#12 Regrets.....I've had a few.....hundred or so. People who tell you that they have no regrets ( or too few to mention ) are suffering from early-onset dementia or Alzheimer's. You should treat these people with the same suspicion ( or compassion even? ) you have for people who have never owned a music/CD/Album collection ...or a Passport! Whenever someone tells me they have no regrets I find it soothing to hit them with a large blunt object of some kind..... in fact...I rarely regret it!

#13 The fact that nobody understands you or what you are trying to do... does not necessarily make you are a tortured genius....it might just make you an intensely irritating narcissist Either way you need to carry on regardless! ....you may be unique ... but you are not "special". (Apologies to Ernie and Bert for that one )

#14 All you need is NOT love. I'm sorry John & Paul....but sometimes, very sadly , it just isn't enough. Then again " All you need is love , a sense of purpose, penicillin, a defined-benefit style pension, sex, the means to get your kids into college, respite,music,friendship, a sense of humour , basic toilet training, and a negotiated arrangement of some kind with Satan".......-- probably wouldn't have made it as even a Beatles B-side........and Lennon would have written it - NOT McCartney.

14 down 27 to go..!....

[ivanodwyer]

The Replicator Cometh.......

via pcmag.com

Everyday we hear incessantly about the Four Horsemen of the Technocalypse ( Google , Amazon ,Facebook , and Apple ) and which one of them will become the "Tyrell Corporation" that Philip K Dick foresaw in that book that became"Blade Runner".

Who will own our digital lives? ...blah blah yawn etc (Apart from Apple, what do any of them really produce?)

Once in a blue moon , along comes a technology that sneaks into our consciousness by stealth --something we more or less ignore for sometime because we THINK we know what it means...and something that could disrupt many industries at once and make a huge difference to our everyday lives.

Such a technology , in my humble opinion ( I refuse to make that an acronym ) is 3D Printing

The jawbone above ...recently implanted in an 83 year old Belgian women...was 3D printed. This essentially means that a design was fed into a printing machine not much bigger than a kitchen cupboard and a plastic powder compound was laid down in infinitely detailed perfect "slices" building up into the physical object above.....

The longer you think about this the bigger it becomes. Who needs manufacturing plants and supply chains when you can have the schema to almost anything streamed into your house into your little 3D printer and physically produced right by your side.

Still yawning??...ok think about this

The disruption of all manufacturing and the end of Chinese manufacturing dominance. Air Miles and Carbon Impact.....What Air Miles? What Carbon Impact? The only thing travelling is the data ... Mass unemployment in many industries ..... The creation of whole new classes of ....well almost everything! Transfer this to medicine . Already Scientists are using 3D Printing technique to layer cells upon cells to build up human organs from scratch Huge Savings on Delivery for everyone ...who hasn't been put out of business!

To date the largest structures created this way are the size of your living room....but the technology is advancing at a phenomenal rate. In the same way that the smartphone will evolve to become the Tricorder from Star Trek ...the 3D printer wil evolve to become the Replicator from er..ahem...Star Trek ... ( apologies for 2 Trek references in one post )

This technology has been around for 20 years or more .... and I'm only really finding out about it now. As Homer used to say ......DOH !!!

The question here isn't "what can we do with this technology ?" It's more a case of "what can't we do with this technology?"

[ivanodwyer]

Big Data, Big Challenges and Big Blue

So you are looking to be part of the next big thing?  Would you like IBM's help in getting there?

Where to begin?

Here's a perspective from the  "other side" --- the world of B2B , and  Solutions for Smarter Cities....where a significant part of IBM's interests lie.... 

By now , anyone with an internet connection has heard the phrase Big Data  and knows about the exponential growth in Volume , Velocity and Variety of this , much talked about but much less utilised --corporate asset.  Similarly , if you have been crawling out from under a rock on even an occasional basis, you will have heard of the avalanche of unstructured data that the Enterprise ( or the City for that matter )  may have a hand in creating but has no direct control thereafter.   

Just as gold lay in the ground for millions of years before the diamond headed drill-bit was conceived of.......  Competitive Advantage were always hidden in the Data but it is only recently that we have the tools and compute power to mine for it economically.  

The snail trail left by every human and machine action is now up for grabs! ..and in near real time too!

Social Data 

Mobile/GPS Data 

M2M data 

Instrumentation and Scada Data 

Call Data Records, Transaction Data Records, 

Text from all sources not just messages   

Clickstream Data 

scanned data in multiple formats 

and much much more besides

So  ? --Where is the value that entrepreneurs can capture ? Think about this in the context of cities, where humans are congregating faster than ever and where, in many cases, 19th century systems trip over 21st century needs....

From a Smarter Cities Perspective IBM wants to work with innovators who can use leverage the instrumented world to revolutionise how we efficiently manage the  traffic, public transport, physical infrastructure, water supply , communications, and public safety services of our cities where these domains and systems come together.  Migration to cities means increasing demand on static or inefficient capacity. 

The value comes from finding data that couldn't be found , aggregating data that couldn't be aggregated , presenting this to different target groups  in new ways, on a useful time scale( real time or near real time please )  to create actionable insight and hence, .............

better outcomes! ..

Its that simple ....but it is anything but easy!  I

IBM has extraordinary history and extraordinary reach but  it still needs  extraordinary ( or non-traditional partners ) to deliver on what is a pretty ambitious goal.

Now look at the world of the Enterprise from IBM's perspective! 

IBM is interested in solving the biggest problems faced by its large clients both private and public. 

From an enterprise perspective all this data means nothing unless it positively impacts the Revenue, Cost or Risk Profile of the organisation. 

(You would be surprised how many entrepreneurs approach IBM looking to partner without  a compelling story around one of these 3 factors ) 

Clients in different roles tell us their challenges. 

CMO's , for example, have spent a fortune in past 10 years trying to understand their brand and market dynamics but now need to move to a deep understanding of the  individual and how he/she can be empowered to act as referee , advocate and champion in real time as they interact with an organisation. This is a very different task.

CFO's continue to struggle in a post Lehman world with financial risk and revenue loss due to fraud .....while at the same time having to invest increasing sums in meeting compliance and regulatory demands 

CIO's are told to transform their organisation by putting "it all" in the Cloud by people who don't understand what  " it all " is and demand that "it all" should cost a tiny fraction of what it used to! 

CEO's  understand that they have to sweat that last great capital asset ...Data ...both inside and outside the organisation but are unsure where to start . In a recent IBM Global CEO study,  83% of all IBM Client CEO's talked about business analytics as being their top priority this year. 

Even when you remove or adjust for the hype factor ...its clear that analytical age is upon us! 

[ivanodwyer]

The Joy of Fix

via partselect.com

Just love this example of a cool infographic from the guys at www.coolinfographics.com. It's nice to see a data "viz" for the rest of us!

Yes the change in GDP in Latin American Countries over 100 years is interesting and significant but few things are as annoying to me as having to buy a new dishwasher after 14 months because the repair call out and part cost more than half what we paid for bloody thing in the first place.

And while we're at it, what was wrong with building excellent products that lasted years. It used to happen all the time! There is still a link between an excellent product experience and brand loyalty. I don't care how many million followers your brand has on Twitter or what your social media marketing budget is .....I have this crazy old fashioned idea that when I buy an appliance for 500 quid (or bucks etc )..I expect it to work for longer than it took to have it delivered!

Ok Rant over .... Check out the guys at www.coolinfographics.com for lots more of these interesting snippets

[ivanodwyer]

Mobilizing Open Data.....

Mobilizing Open Data means mobilizing Open Minds.  In the sprit of all things "Open"  and after spending some time with a great bunch of people at Enterprise Ireland's offices yesterday trying to work out how best the open data concept can be used to create value for Ireland and its citizens,-- I wanted to consolidate my thoughts and the output of today's working session  (before they flee my tired brain like rats from the ship!) 

This is with respect to Open Data in the Public Sector.  There are numerous initiatives underway most notably in the UK, Canada , and in several individual US States to make public datasets available to the public at large.....including developers and would-be entrepreneurs......

How do we in this limping economy learn from the best practice and mistakes of others and create a raft of applications to improve the life of the citizen, drive cost-efficiencies for local Authorities / Govt Departments and encourage entrepreneurship at the same time?

Standards and Interoperability...that are Useful Usable and Used..  ( as Michael Hausenblas of DERI so succinctly put it )

Champions and Drivers at Senior Level ... accountability and trust  ( no problems there then! :-) )

Culture of our Public Service organisations ... My Data is my Power ...why would I give this away?

The Collaboration propensity of Irish Enterpreneurs and the ecosystem.. we can't take this for granted ..need to drive it!

Privacy and Security... just focus on what is anonymized and public initially and get out of the traps..?...

Once you have the data and it's available and in some usable or machine readable format ....how do you drive engagement with it?

We need to build on initiatives like http://dublinked.ie/ and http://www.fixyourstreet.ie/ for sure. 

Here's a US startup with the tag line " mobilizing Civic engagement " which I like.  These guys are paid upfront by the city and have been getting very positive feedback from City Hall and City Citizens alike.... http://www.citysourced.com/default.aspx.......

As someone reminded us yesterday ...they used to teach something called " Civics" in school a long time ago....anyone remember what it was about?..;-)

[ivanodwyer]

The internet of things......

via w3.ibm.com

People have been talking about the internet of things for some time ....but here's an infographic generated (by an IT marketplace vendor) which puts a perspective on it.

I'm not sure about the 20 typical households generating more IP traffic than the whole internet did in 2008 ...seems a little far-fetched to me ( and I like far-fetched "factoids" in general ) .... but as for cows, horses, alarm clocks...yes have seen most of that already in place....

The Term "Big Data" just won't cut it shortly.

[ivanodwyer]

Plus.....a Big SNA engine to boot

via youtube.com

When I first saw Google + idea I was a little confused. After all even the most insanely optimistic Google execs must have looked at 750 million users as a bit of a an unassailable lead for the competition -right? Unless of course, you refuse to compete...

What about the inertia of the facebook masses? What about the fact that people have only so much time to give to posting their lives instead of living them? How long before Facebook come out with their own " circles " ( what will they be called --"squares"?...." gangs" ?...." crews" ?

I don't think Google give a crap about any of this, and its not a technology race either( we've been using similar technologies in IBM internally for a long time )

This is of course about getting YOU to do yourself what Enterprises have begun paying the analytics industry to do for big bucks. This is not just about ad placement. If Plus grows quickly it will allow Google to understand your REAL networks and your relative influence with respect to each much more effectively

Google Plus is effectively a huge SNA ( social network analytics ) engine....with the social network thrown in!..... for the benefit of Google and whoever wants to pay them for that insight. ( every telco and consumer giant for a starters )

What else are circles really for?. Like all clever ideas , it seems painfully obvious now....

Moreover , Google Plus is a pretty good template for and enterprise networking and collaboration platform ...for circles read functions , branch offices , networks of expertise in-house etc...

This could be the way Google breach the corporate walls and reach the money that Facebook can't . Facebook ( and I am one of the willing 750 million ) have reduced everything to a binary equation. You are either a friend or you are not. A blessing or a curse....and privacy is the casualty.

Google might just be able to see the promised land by standing on the shoulders of Zuckerberg....and they are probably the only company on earth that can get away with this....by actively " un-competing"

Having said that , as someone who uses Plus ( maybe ) , Gmail, reader, maps, youtube, latitude and several other Google creations.....I wonder will there by ANYTHING about me that Google won't know or be able to infer...or use...or sell....

I feel like somebody's watching me .....

[ivanodwyer]

Henry Ford and his Faster Horse

via ted.com

This is a great TED piece from Bill Ford on the future of Traffic...the guy would appear to have inherited the "grand vision" gene from his great-grandfather ( a little-known manufacturer of automobiles that loved the colour black )

He makes one small point that really struck me. It's something that is perhaps applicable in many situations where we ( i.e a species on a planet with a finite amount of resources ) face "epic" challenges.

So much is tied up in how you frame a problem ,or alternatively, in how you ask a question....

So in the case of traffic congestion .. ".how do we decrease the size and frequency of traffic jams?" becomes " how do we create a system of personal ( and sustainable ) human mobility?"

So the answer to traffic problems is not more roads....but the effective integration and use of data in real time about moving vehicles of all kinds and focusing on when and where humans need to be mobile and in what context.

Only then do you get the kind of shifts in thinking that keep progress in the realm of the possible..

The answer to a lack of available beds in our hospitals is not -more beds... The answer to massive debt problems is not - more debt...( as David McWilliams keeps telling us ...correctly in my humble opinion ) and I think it's fair to say at this stage....the answer to more crime is not ... more prison cells

Any ideas on why , with so many challenges we face ( and I don't mean just the global ones) we seem to get stuck at the "symptomatic" level. That's probably not the right word...and I'm not putting this elegantly or even spelling things correctly ....but you know what I mean?

I wonder where else real re-framing of the questions might take us?

[ivanodwyer]

The Nightingale and the Rose

via youtube.com

Just when I thought TV watching couldn't be more of a waste of human life , I channel-hopped my way to a BBC4 documentary called " The beauty of Diagrams" Circa 22 seconds into above clip is a piece of data visualization that looks like something that might have showed up on a powerpoint somewhere in the last few years. It is a thoroughly modern looking , crisp pie chart type diagram...which incredibly ....was created over 150 years ago by someone who was fascinated with data collection and presenting the story then uncovered.

This data freak and statistician also had another job, one for which she became far more renowned..... she was a nurse named Florence Nightingale.

The Diagram she created , known as the Rose Diagram...documented the number of Deaths over 24 months and their causes in a military hospital in Turkey during the Crimean War and -because of its visual appeal- ....the military authorities took notice of the insight the diagram presented.

In 1850 only a small percentage of soldiers actually died of the wounds received in battle. The vast majority died because of infections present in the hospital. ( Modern MRSA bugs are a picnic in comparison ) We will probably never know how many thousands ( or even millions) of lives were saved because of simple changes in sanitation and hygiene in just one small hospital that eventually were adopted by all.

What is remarkable about Florence ( to say nothing of practically creating the nursing profession ) is that she understood 150 years ago what we seem to be only "getting" on a large scale in the last decade or so .... i.e that in order to convince the mind of something you must first convince the eye!

I have a lot of respect for the infographic wizards and data scientists that will continue to emerge ...a new breed enabled by technology ....but you have got to give it up for Florence!

Armed with ink and paper...no computer , no database , no modelling software , no photoshop..(not to mention no power or closed sewer system) ...she created something beautiful and useful in equal measure

I had no idea her legacy was twofold.

I'll definitely be series-linking this one on the old hard drive...

[ivanodwyer]

Analytics - How it works

via youtube.com

Another in IBM's series of "storyboard style" explanations of a solutions area or topic of interest. The Series could also have been entitled ..."taking the rocket science out of rocket science" # 37....and so on...You can never have too many of these.....

[ivanodwyer]

The Man with the Card says .......

via youtube.com

As its nearly Paddy's Day....enjoy feeling bewildered and then having a good laugh at this guy.......the pop up piece just ices it....There are business cards and there are BUSINESS CARDS......the rest of us are just losers...apparently...

[ivanodwyer]

The Open Data Initiative in the UK - Lessons Learned

via youtube.com

In 2009 Nigel Shadbolt and Tim Berners Lee were asked to look at Open Data Initiative by UK Government . Last week at the Institute for European Affairs Session in Dublin, Professor Shadbolt talked about the origins of Open Data Initiative and the lessons learned that others can use. while on a fascinating journey. Well worth a look.

What started out as a small few governments publishing general "info portals" to release batches of data about variety of activities,things, services and groups has now led to something much more interesting and interactive. There is , I feel , a lot of untapped potential in initiatives like this particularly in the Irish Context , where anything that creates a possible platform for innovation needs to be grabbed with the same fervor you would grab a 100 euro note that you found blowing around your back garden...

We could do with a few people like Nigel Shadbolt in Ireland. There are some promising developments at the local level, ( OpenData.ie and http://data.fingal.ie/ are two great examples that are named in the video ) ....but we need the idea of Open Data Mashups and quickly created , useful applications to be explored on a much more larger scale.

There are many challenges of course ( security and privacy as usual ) but a lot more to lose by not pushing somehting that is supposed resonate with our strengths....

I saw with interest the Labour Party in Ireland tweeting in an election week on their "Open Governement Data" policy. http://www.labour.ie/policy/listing/12984001544725860.html Unfortunately this seems to amount to a commitment to the Freedom of Information Act and little else. Bravo!.. Time to catch up guys ...though I suppose at least you are tweeting something ....unlike your opposition ( and I would love to be corrected on this )

We should be looking at creating things like this - http://data.gov.uk/apps 100 Applications created using open data for everyday use in many different areas. These are all little applications that assist any citizen in their everyday life, simply by providing curation and fast access to information about roadworks, schools , hospitals, real time and local to the citizen. its clear too that this is only the first level of what can be created.

WHERE IS DATA.GOV.IE? Why can't we have one? - if only to aggregate the data we do have that is useful when put in the hands of individuals, small businesses, to help Ireland Inc and the public good. ( the what now? )...