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3D TV Channel to launch 2010
Sky is to launch a 3D TV channel in 2010. LG and Panasonic have TV sets in production which will have the technology to enable 3D viewing , without wearing funny glasses.
SKY is hoping that the recent blockbuster films such as Avatar and Up will spark a new film making trend that will provide enough content for 3D viewing in the home.
The ever growing App’s market
The mobile phone application market is one of the fastest growing parts of the developed world’s mobile industry. First there was the IPhone App Street, then the Android’s Market, Now thers is the Nokia’s Ovi Store, Blackberry’s App world and Vodafones 360 shop.
App’s vary from free utilities such as the phone book to sat nav’ to games. Many companies now bypass websites altogether to focus on a mobile app strategy.The number of available app’s now exceeds 100,000, this figure is expected to triple or quadruple in 2010.
Digital publishing – a crossroads
The Times, The Sun and the News of the World plan to begin charging for access to their online contents this Spring. Rupert Murdock shocked the world of digital media by making the announcement last summer. The move was greeted with distain and dismissal by many internet experts. However the move is set to go ahead despite this disapproval. It will provide an interesting moment of truth for many other British and Irish newspapers for the future. The circulation of most national newspapers is in decline which is roundly blamed on the free online content been made available through newspapers websites, so if this move of Mr Murdoch’s is a success it could a turn around year for online media.
Low-price laptops
In 2008, the computer industry thought it had reached the ultimate watershed: entry-level laptops starting at €500. However, this has proven to be a mere staging post: the price has now fallen under €400 (with some available for closer to €300). It is vital to note that these are not low-spec netbooks. These are full-sized machines (15-inch screens, DVD and CD drives, more than 120GB of storage memory) with more than enough power to deliver a full home-computing session. Here are three such models:
Fujitsu Siemens LI2
This is the quintessential entry level laptop. Aside from the processor, which is a modest Intel Celeron model, it has everything required for modern internet and home multimedia use. It comes with 1GB of Ram, 120GB of storage and Windows VistaHome Basic. Price: €300 from Power City
2. Toshiba L300
This is another classic entry-level laptop from the world’s biggest laptop maker. It comes with 1GB of Ram, 160GB of storage, a DVD player (and burner), an Intel Celeron (single core) processor and Windows Vista. Price: €380 from Power City
3. Asus X58
Like its entry-level rivals, this 15-inch laptop has 1GB of Ram, 160GB of storage memory, a DVD drive and a Celeron processor. An extra feature is a an SD memory card reader, which has the facility to transfer any photos or videos that are taken on a compat ible digit al camera or camcorder. Price: €400 from The Laptop Shop
Big screens for less
Of all the home electronics categories, flat-screen televisions have seen the most dramatic price reductions. As late as last year, the entry level price for a 32-inch high-definition LCD set was about €500.That barrier has been smashed to pieces with 32-inch sets starting at €300 in mass market, bricks and mortar Irish retailers. Because much of the technology behind the screen is standardised across the industry, each one of the entry-level models will deliver reasonable picture quality. Here are three cut-price models worth looking at:
Beko 520
Beko could be regarded as the Skoda of the electronics world: cut-price, yet of fairly decent quality. This 32-inch set comes at a fairly unbeatable price. Although its specs are basic, its HD standard guarantees a good picture. Price: €320 from Power City
LG LH2000
In addition to a decent specification for this entry-level set, LG has added some very nice styling touches. It’s surprising the difference that a nicely finished cabinet (in this case,gloss piano black, pictured top) can have on a television’s impact within a living room. For under €400, this is the most stylish 32inch set on the market. Price: €375 from Komplett.ie
Nordmende NM 32
Nordmende has been making televisions for more than 40 years, but has only really made a comeback into the Irish market in the past three years. This entry-level set features a slightly higher contrast ratio (which helps picture quality) than most of its budget rivals, but comes in a slightly jaded silver colour. Price: €380 from DID Electrical
Mobile phones for free
Two years ago, buying or upgrading a mobile phone with a network operator cost at least €50, and usually over €100.Today, each of the four main operators offers between ten and 20 phones each completely free, so long as the customer takes out a bill plan. Here are four phones available free, compared with their unlocked prices:
Nokia €63
For a ‘basic’ smartphone aimed at e-mailing and documents, this Nokia model ticks most boxes. It has a Qwerty keypad, a large screen, a good web browser and decent office software (QuickOffice). Price: free with contract on 3 (€80 per month for 2,000 texts, 11 hours of call minutes).
Sony Ericsson W705
As MP3 phones go, this Sony Ericsson model is one of the better ones on the market. As well as a superb level of stereo playback, it comes with a good three-megapixel camera, a radio and decent earphones. Price: free with contract on Meteor (€45 per month for 500 texts and 500 call minutes)
Samsung Tocco Lite
Samsung’s Tocco Lite packs a lot of fancy features. It has a nice widget bar at the side, from which you can pick and choose your favourite applications. It also comes with a radio, a three-megapixel camera and aweb browser. Price: free with contract on Vodafone (€50 per month for 200 texts and 200 minutes)
Digital cameras
Three years ago, a high-end compact digital camera would have cost about €450 for five or six megapixels. Today, a quality ten-megapixel compact digital camera, with lots of extra new features, costs €150. The price drop is just as dramatic at the top end of the digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera market. Canon’s Eos Rebel, with its 18-55mm lens, seemed a bargain at €750 in 2006.Today, the lens-changing Eos 1000D has a ten-megapixel count, superior image processor and costs €550. At the budget end, here are three quality compact digital cameras for €180 and below:
Canon Powershot A1000
For a high quality camera on a budget, it’s hard to beat Canon’s entry-level A1000. It has a mighty ten megapixels, a superb imaging processor, a (slightly better than average) 4x optical zoom, video recorder and a nice 2.5-inch LCD viewer. But it takes batteries rather than being rechargeable. Price: €150 from Conns Cameras (connscameras.com) and retailers nationwide
Fuji Finepix J27
This is a really decent rechargeable digital camera with a great LCD viewer screen (2.7 inches) for a very modest price. The J27 has a full ten megapixels and a video recording facility. It’s hard to go wrong with this snapper. Price: €120 from The Camera Centre (camera.ie) and retailers nationwide
Sony Cybershot W220
For under €200, you won’t do any better than this fully loaded 12-megapixel camera. It has a wide-angle view for panoramic shots, an impressive 4x optical zoom, movie recorder and a superb 2.7-inch LCD viewing screen. This is the pick of the budget bunch. Price: €180 from Komplett.ie and retailers nationwide
Big value MP3 players
When MP3 players began playing video a few years back, the price was more than €400. Today, you can get a top-brand video-playingMP3player with a radio on it for €75. Here are three low-priced MP3 players worth considering.
Archos 2 8GB
This may well be the best-value MP3 player on the market. With enough storage (8GB) for about 2,500 songs, photos and a colour screen, it ticks almost all boxes for a portable music gadget. It even has a microphone to record voice memos. Price: €50 from Peats
Creative Zen 8GB
Creative’s 8GB MP3 player packs more features into a budget MP3 player than any of its rivals in the same pricing bracket. Not only will it play music (about 2,500 songs) and video, it also has a radio on board. Superb value for the price. Price: €75 from elara.ie and retailers nationwide
Apple iPod Shuffle 4GB
Apple’s entry-level MP3 player isn’t exactly the best value around, but you still get access to the top-rated MP3 music store for well under €100. The Shuffle has no screen and, thus, is a little trickier to navigate than other music machines. Price: €75 from Apple Store (www.apple.com/iestore) or retailers nationwide.
Setting up your own office for under €1,000
It can be pricey setting up on your own. Rents are high. The bank isn't interested in giving you finance. So is your dream of starting up on your own over before it’s begun? Here’s a few tips on setting up a professional office on a shoe string.
All you need is the right tools and a little know-how. To help you out, we've searched the market for the best deals and packages. We've come up with a suite of office IT equipment aimed at getting a start-up up and running.
Here is how the costs of our start-up office break down:
* PC computer - €423
* Laptop - €330
* Website - €25
* Mobile phone - €50
* Printer - €40
* Broadband - €20
* Internet security - free
* Phone and call contract - €54
Total cost: €946
PC
The PC is where most of your work will pass through, so you do not want to skimp too much. However, there are many features on today's high-spec computers that are largely unnecessary for most small firms' requirements.
These include oversupply of storage, marginally faster computer chips and multimedia overkill.
To run important items such as spreadsheets, word processing applications, basic business software and the internet, you need the following basic specifications: 2GB of Ram, 2Ghz dual core processor, 160GB storage, 15-inch screen, Microsoft Windows XP (or Vista Basic).
For this machine, you will not pay more than €500 and you will most likely get it for under €400.
Here are a couple of computers that will provide this specification.
Recommended
Dell Vostro
Features: 17-inch screen, 160GB hard drive, 2GBRam, 2.5Ghz Intel dual core chip
Cost: €423 from Dell.ie
Comment: this high-powered machine is good value. It is well-powered (its 2.5Ghz chipset will handle almost anything you throw at it) and comes with a nice screen.
Acer 9P
Features: 19-inch screen, 160GB hard drive, 1GB Ram, 2.4Ghz AMD processor
Cost: €375 from Power City
Comment: this is a basic machine that has enough power to run most typical small office operations. Don't throw anything too onerous at it, however.
Laptops
You have your PC, a mobile phone, your internet connection and the rest of your new office equipment. However you may need something for when you are out and about..
You have two options: an entry-level laptop or a netbook. Both have varying attractions. An entry-level laptop has power, storage and a screen that is big enough to show clients documents and spreadsheets.
A netbook is extremely portable and, although it lacks the power and speed of a bigger laptop, it handles internet and e-mail operations flawlessly. Here are three laptops to consider within budget.
Acer One
Features: nine-inch screen, 1GB Ram, 120GB hard drive, 1.6Ghz Intel Atom processor.
Cost: €370 (the Laptop Shop)
Comment: this is one of the nicer netbooks on the market, with a keyboard that does not punish larger fingers in the same way that some of its rivals do.
Toshiba NB100
Features: nine-inch screen, 1GB Ram, 120GB hard drive, 1.6Ghz Intel Atom processor
Cost: €330 (the Carphone Warehouse)
Comment: Toshiba makes good quality laptops and its netbook is reliable and solid. However, the keys may be a little small for those with big hands.
Compaq CQ60
Features: 15-inch screen, 1GB Ram,160GB hard drive, 2.1Ghz AMD Processor
Cost: €340 (Power City) Comment: this full-sized machine has a modest processor speed compared to some of its dual-core rivals, but offers a very adequate specification at a knockdown price.
Internet security
If you have a computer, you will need internet security. In a start-up situation, there are plenty of packages available for free that do a good job.
The leading candidate is AVG, available from download.com. This stops almost all known viruses from attacking your computer and has some anti-spyware software built in, too. When revenues pick up, a more sophisticated package from Eset, F-Secure or Symantec can be invested in. For now, stick with the thoroughly adequate AVG.
Start-up cost: free
Mobile phones
In years past, mobile phones were a premium cost to Irish companies.Today, they are much more modestly priced. Vodafone, O2, 3 Ireland and Meteor offer more than 100 handsets free of charge on upgrades and to new business customers.
This means that the cost of setting up your mobile account is simply the monthly tariff plan you choose. Here are four decent mobile phones to choose from, all free when taken with a monthly bill pay account.
Nokia €51
Features: e-mail, 3G, camera, document viewer.
A fairly rock-solid, middle-of-the-road Nokia phone
Cost: free
Monthly tariff: €50
Minutes: 200
Texts: 60
Operator: Meteor (also available on O2 and Vodafone)
Samsung Tocco F480
Features: touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, internet, e-mail. A fairly sophisticated touchscreen phone for a budget price
Cost: free
Monthly tariff: €55
Minutes: 350minutes
Texts: 150 texts
Operator: O2
Best phone
BlackBerry Storm
Features: e-mail, internet, touchscreen, camera, music, office documents. BlackBerry's most modern device offered at a knockdown price
Cost: free
Monthly tariff: €50
Minutes: 100
Texts: 100
Operator: Vodafone
Best value tariff Sony Ericsson K660i
Features: Skype, internet, e-mail, accelerometer. The Skype function on this phone allows you to save even more money
Cost: free
Monthly tariff: €50
Minutes: 350
Texts: 1,050
Operator: 3 Ireland
Total startup cost: €50
Domain/host
Registering and hosting your own website does not cost what it used to.
Acouple of years ago, a dot.ie domain cost more than €100 per annum to register and hold. Today, it's about €20.
A dotcom or dot.net address is even cheaper, starting at about €5 per annum. Any registrar on the internet - and there are tens of thousands - can register a dotcom or dot.net domain.
In Ireland, there are dozens of reputable registrars that can register and host a dot.ie registration. These include Blacknight.ie, Hosting365.com, Hosting Ireland and Letshost.ie.
An entry-level hosting package fromBlacknight.ie costs €5 per month.
For this you get a modest, but adequate, complement of features for a starter website. This includes 10 gigabytes (GB) of web space and the facility to host up to 30 different sites. Other companies' offerings have a similar specification.
Note that these charges are simply the cost of purchasing the bare bones; they do not cover the design of a website. Nor do they cover the procedures required to get a merchant account with an Irish payment processor (required to take credit card payments online).
However, there are ways around this. A blog is a simple (and free) way of populating a web page: use Blogger.com,Typepad.com or Wordpress.
It can be customised to some degree, too. Paypal is a reasonable, reliable alternative to a merchant account for a startup firmto use and is free to sign up to (paypal.com).
In summary: Dot.ie domain - €20
Hosting package - €5 (monthly)
Total start-up: €25
Printers
It's increasingly rare to find stand-alone printers for sale. Normally, they come as part of a ‘multifunctional' device, which incorporates a photocopier, fax machine and printer.
For the budget start-up office, however, a basic inkjet printer will serve just fine. Ink cartridges, which can be the most expensive part of printing, come with each printer.
Epson Stylus S20 The Epson Stylus S20 is a basic, reliable printer that can churn out 14 pages per minute. It's cost effective too, because with individual ink cartridges you only replace the colour used.
Cost: €46 (elara.ie)
HP Deskjet D1560
This entry-level inkjet printer processes 12 pages per minute and is a decent printer that can manage both colour and black and white jobs.
Price: €40 (dabs4work.ie)
Startup cost: €45
Desk phone and call contract
Despite the fall in telecoms costs, phone lines are a pesky additional cost. At €25 per month, the cost of line rental seems questionable value in times of scarce cash. And although many phone packages now throw in local and national calls (to other landlines) as an all-inclusive feature, there is still very few ways to operate a phone service for less than €50 per month.
Relying on your mobile phone to call other landlines can quickly turn into an expensive activity, too.
This is where Skype comes in. It's an internet telephone package that uses your internet connection to make the call.
Downloading the application (from Skype.com) is free. The service offers a monthly tariff which includes unlimited calls to all Irish landlines for €4. Calls to mobile numbers cost 16 cent per minute.
To use Skype on a computer, you'll need a compatible handset (or a headset, which is cumbersome).
Siemens, Philips, Netgear and other manufacturers make these. A good quality model is Philips's VoIP 3211 model. It's a cordless phone with an LCD screen and the potential to incorporate a fixed landline if you decide to opt for a more conventional (and more expensive) route later on.
Start-up cost: €54
Broadband
Despite what is often claimed in the media, there are few places left in Ireland that cannot get some form of affordable broadband.
An entry-level package (on wireless 3G) now costs €20 per month, with no extra costs. For those who wish to put a landline into their office, the cheapest broadband deal costs €40 (including line rental) per month.
Cable broadband, which is an option for a growing section of the country, costs from €28 per month. Fixed wireless broadband (such as Irish Broadband and Ice Broadband), starts at €20 per month plus set-up charges.
Here are the best value monthly broadband packages.
Vodafone 3G
Speed: "up to'‘ 7.2Mbs
Cost: €20 per month, modem is free (when ordered online)
Monthly data allowance: 5GB
Contract: 12 months
Coverage: 85 per cent population coverage
Comment: this is a very good deal from Vodafone, given the speed and lower contract period.
Overall coverage in the country is good. The only drawback is the mean 5GB monthly allowance.
3 Ireland
Speed: "up to'‘ 3.6Mbs
Cost: €20 per month (modem is free)
Monthly data allowance: 15GB
Contract: 18 months
Coverage: 85 per cent population coverage
Comment: 3 Ireland has come on in leaps and bounds as regards coverage across the country.
The quality of the access is generally good, and this has a relatively superb monthly allowance of 15GB, meaning that you don't need to count the kilobytes when downloading.
Startup cost: €20
Ireland’s Broadband Dilemma
There was a rise in overall Broadband subscriptions to 1.2 million according to the Commission for Communication Regulation (ComReg) figures released last month. (This includes 3G mobile broadband subscriptions, which some lobby groups discount.) Also Eircom announced that it would continue, at a slow pace, the roll-out of next generation networks.
Both announcements are to be welcomed. Broadband penetration in Ireland is not at the levels of many other countries yet, but it is a lot better than recent years. And 3G broadband, while patchier than fixed line or fixed wireless, can also fairly be regarded as broadband. 1MB broadband available using a USB broadband stick from 3,Vodafone, O2 or Meteor is available almost anywhere in Dublin (although this is not so around the country just in areas promoted by the providers.)
Predictions that overloading of the network will hamper its efficiency are no more than predictions. While it is true that these services offer nowhere near the 7.2Mbs speeds that operators suggest, the undeniable truth is that anything over 1Mbs is regarded as “broadband'‘ by the people of this country.
Eircom's network decision is a more complex issue. Quite simply, it has decided that it is not going to roll out a new network, capable of delivering speeds in excess of 50Mbs, any time soon. This is because it does not believe that enough people will pay extra for more speed.
In fairness, it has a point. Irish firms are backward when it comes to realising the internet's potential: most firms do not use the web for much more than e-mail. Most consumers are similar.
Having said that, how do we realise an economy that uses e-commerce better without faster web connections? This is a dilemma. The sad truth is that no Irish operator will invest in an Irish next generation network capable of delivering speeds of 50Mbs or more.
So what's likely to happen is that we, as a nation, will wait for other countries to do this. We will then watch e-commerce services (such as legal TV and film downloading) emerge to match the broadband supply. Then, and only then, will an Irish firm have an interest in rolling out a high-speed network.
Limiting Internet Access for your employers
Often internet connections at work can not just be a security risk but also a large drag on productivity.
Some employers often need little reason to skive off, and the internet has made that easier than ever. For many staff, the beauty of idle surfing is that it looks like you’re working at your desk while you peruse favourite websites. A recent Eircom survey on internet usage in the workplace found that four out of five workers use the internet for personal use at work. So it is little wonder that companies take steps to restrict internet access in the workplace.
In Ireland, it is estimated that 60% of people who can go online at work have restrictions to certain websites, including social networking sites, webmail, entertainment sites, and online shopping sites. According to Robert Early of Calyx Security, blocking solutions are broken into two main categories: software based and appliance products. On the software side, companies can incorporate a blocking mechanism integrated into the server or have standalone filtering products on the PCs. Calyx suggests Websense as a software option or Ironport on the hardware side. Blue Coat is another product the company recommends. Websense Express, one of the market leaders, enables three areas of web content management. First are web content and protocol filtering and block including URL filters, media download services and peer-to peer blocking.
The second is threats, such as spyware,phishing, pharming and key logging.Finally, Websense can also help manage use of instant messaging. The software monitors all internet traffic and lets the administrator know what’s going on in detailed reports. You can configure the application to either to report on internet usage or to actively block users from accessing unsuitable content. Matthieu Gorge of Vigitrust believes most solutions will be based on appliances acting as a gateway to check who has access to what. He said most web filtering and web access management solutions are bundled together, and apart from Microsoft ISA (which is also a firewall), they are all appliance based unless you go for a full enterprise solution such as Websense or Surfcontrol. Gorge added: “SMEs want cost-effective solutions and we see many companies investing in a unified threat management solution such as PineApp or installing solutions such as Barracuda web filtering appliances. “It all depends on how granular your web access policy is.
If your policy does not include many exception rules such as authorisations for various groups of people to access websites restricted to other groups, then most solutions will be able to support the policy from a technical viewpoint.” Gorge explained that Websense facilitates complex access policies, even facilitating such rules as permitting an individual to browse the web for personal purposes up to one hour per week, for example. Setting up Websense is not a DIY job: the product requires network interface cards and additional hardware so is best left to the pros. Expect to pay upwards of €20 per user per annum for the software. Under the Data Protection Act 2003,employers are obliged to inform staffersof the reasons and techniques used for monitoring web and e-mail usage. This is best done by devising and disseminating an acceptable usage policy to all employees.
FIND A WHOLE NEW CUSTOMER COMMUNITY
The web is a great platform for businesses to market their services and communicate with customers. Two of the most effective tools for doing this are blogs and social networking sites. Blogging is being taken more and more seriously in Ireland.
There are an estimated 4,000 Irish blogs alone, with new ones being set up every day. Partly thanks to the increase in broadband penetration consumers are increasingly turning to these blogs as an alternative source of news and information.
While blogging is a tool naturally geared towards those working in IT, this web 2.0 communication tool also offers opportunities to businesses in a range of other industries.
One business person who is benefiting from blogging is Barry Meehan, co-owner of the Tipperary-based World Wide Cycles.
Meehan started writing his blog a year and half ago and he recently addressed the Irish Internet Association explaining how blogging has helped grow his business.
“The people who read it have a much clearer sense of our personality than they would ever get from just logging onto the website on its own,” said Meehan.
“That is important in business. One day I was washing my own bike, I just took a couple of pictures and wrote up a description of what I was doing. Sales [of the cleaning products] for the three weeks after that post . . . quadrupled.”
The World Wide Cycles' blog actually ranks higher on the various search engines than the shop's website. It is also driving traffic to the shop's website - as many as 30 per cent of the blog readers navigate to the online store. Meehan sets aside an hour or two every Monday to update the blog. His recent posts talked about some newly launched bike parts, the FBD Insurance Rás and even a muse on what a race commented on by Micheal O’ Muircheartaigh would sound like.
“It has evolved over time,” he said. “When I began blogging first I didn't really know what direction it was going to go in. The stories might be cycling related but I try and make it entertaining for people as well. Every third or fourth blog, I try and get something from YouTube or put a couple of pictures there as well. The blogs that get the best reaction are ones that are a mixture of both, that can have text and a story in it and a picture to illustrate the story.”
Blogs can also be a good place to talk about new product launch or campaign. Social media company Picture Works, uses its blog to talk about its latest advertising post cards and to display images and clips for its recent media campaigns.
Stephen O'Reilly, sales and marketing manager, PictureWorks, was adamant about their effect.
“We were looking for a simple way to increase our online presence and to inform and interact with media agencies and the general public,” he said.
“We have a news section on the website but we were finding it more time consuming to update, so we choose to go with a blog. On a good day we can get up to 100 visits onto the blog. In the six months [since] we launched it has generated a big interest in some of our social media offerings and helped to improve our search rankings.”
Writing a blog is a very effective way for a business to get feedback. The Picture Works blog often receives comments from other bloggers and readers offering their thoughts on a particular campaign or advertising postcard.
However, someone considering starting a business blog should not confuse it with a marketing or advertising brochure.
Piaras Kelly of Edelman Communications pens two blogs. One is about Edelman's activities and the other is a personal effort about public relations, technology and the media. He recommends that business people think of their business blogs as conversations with customers.
“If somebody finds something interesting or disagrees with you they will naturally just enter in a comment,” he said. “It just becomes a conversation. You will find the same people coming back to your site and leaving the comments. They are your subscribers. You need to be able to cater for them.”
Catering for blog readers successfully means uploading informative and varied posts revolving around a set theme, on a regular basis. This can be a time-consuming process and not always with tangible benefits. This means would-be bloggers need to ask themselves if they would be better served writing a post or working at some other aspect of the business.
“I try to be topical with stuff that is happening in the news,” said Kelly. “Ultimately, I am always going to come back to PR and communications. There is no point in me updating my blog everyday about the fact that I support Manchester United. If it is going to be something like how the Glazers engaged with the Man U fan base, when they took over that is where maybe I will bring in my personal interests.”
Business bloggers also need to bear in mind that whatever they write reflects back on the business for better or worse, and once something has been posted up on the internet it can be very hard to remove.
“You can be controversial on your views on certain topic but I wouldn't be out there slagging off the competition. It . . . doesn't look well, on your part. If you wouldn't see yourself saying that in real life, [while] talking to a client, a customer or a competitor, then I certainly wouldn't be doing that online,” said Kelly.
Michele Neylon pens a technology and business blog for hosting company Blacknight Solutions. He believes blogging is great way for customers to get to know, and trust, him. However, he cautions about being overly familiar with readers.
“There are certain things that you shouldn't talk about,” said Neylon.
“Certain turns of phrase or language that you might use, while speaking to a friend in the pub at the weekend, might be fine there, but would you really want that to be associated with your company in public?”
Companies also need to be aware that the type of posts they write could leave them open to a defamation action if they make false and damaging claims about their competitors. In 2001, a Mayo business man was convicted of defamation and ordered to pay substantial damages to a rival, after he advertised her as a prostitute online.
TJ McIntyre is a lecturer in the School of Law at University College Dublin and a consultant with Merrion Legal Solicitors.
“Blogs have given people global reach for the words in a way that, until recently, was only accessible to the professional media,” he said.
“The difference is the professional media have specific training and they also have backup, in the form of lawyers.”
“There is a risk that businesses are exposing themselves possibly to liability that they might not be aware of. Defamation extends not just to individuals, it also extends to other businesses. A posting about another business which is false, which damages the reputation of that business, is actionable.”
Neylon said that he received legal threats regarding old comments posted on the www.Irishspeedtest.com forum.
He explained that it was important that any business which received complaints about a comment posted on their blog take down the offending statement promptly.
“You have had cases in England and the US of people being sacked for what they wrote in their own blogs. That may be a problem if [the distinction] is not clear. Ideally, if you are in that situation you should probably have two separate blogs,” said McIntyre.
Blogging is just one part of the Web 2.0 communications package. Social networking is a phenomenon that millions of internet users around the world have embraced. The most popular social networking websites are Facebook, MySpace and to a lesser extent Bebo.
Facebook was set up by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, as a way for Harvard students to keep in contact. It now has over 69 million registered users, recently reporting a revenue around $150 million.
Thomas Anderson, Christopher DeWolfe and some other employees from marketing company eUniverse set up MySpace in 2003.Their aim was to get as many like minded music fans as possible to share common interests.
Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp bought MySpace in 2005 for around $580 million. The site now has over 106 million registered users.
Bebo is one of Ireland's most popular social networking. Its audience is primarily young people and college students and its Irish user base shot up from 6,000 to 130,000 in 2007. One Irish organisation which has used Bebo to successfully target its audience is recycling organisation, Repak.
Repak set up its Bebo page to compliment the organisation's blog and to promote recycling week. According to Repak's marketing executive, Alma Jordan, the organisation's Bebo page allows it to communicate with young people who wouldn't normally read the newspaper or trade magazines that Repak traditionally relies on.
Jordan explained: “It is so easy to set up. The capabilities behind [Bebo] are absolutely massive. We can have audio. We can have video. We can put up our press campaigns. We can put up our photo launches . . . that we have had.”
Repak's Bebo page has had over 18,000 visitors and 1,000 of these have signed up to be “friends'‘ with the organisation. Repak also recently ran a competition for young people to design their own bottle bank and pictures of the entries are viewable on the site along with comments from users, polls, a blog and even a carbon footprint calculator.
“It has been an absolutely huge success story especially in not only targeting the younger audience but in targeting the international audience. Any marketer worth their salt knows the importance of these sites. They are highly accessible, they are highly utilised and they are going to become more and more sophisticated,” said Jordan.
However, as with blogs, social networking sites are not suitable for all types of businesses. They can be quite time-consuming and business people need to ask if building an online list of varied “friends' or contacts is relevant to their business.
“If you are selling shoes, for example, in Ennis . . . and you are not selling online and you have no interest in selling online then what's the point in social networking? It is not going to bring you any advantage. It is going to cost you more in lost time than it will bring you in sales,” said Neylon.
Business people who feel they can benefit from a social networking page should look at LinkedIn. It is the most popular business orientated social networking website and was founded in 2002, by Reid Hoffman. The site has more than 22 million registered users in over 150 industries and is valued at around one billion dollars.
LinkedIn lets registered users build a list of contact details or ‘connections' of business people they know and trust.
Neylon said: “We have a certain amount of business through it but I find it's more for establishing contacts. If I wanted to speak to somebody in particular company, they can see me from my LinkedIn profile and they can work out for themselves whether they really want to be talking to me or not. It saves a lot of time and headaches for all parties concerned.”
“For professional networking it is absolutely fantastic. It encourages you to fill out as many of your professional details as possible and it also encourages the entire idea of referral business. There is a great value in that.”
“There is a range of Irish business social networking sites in areas like marketing, tourism and IT. Enterprise Ireland runs www.Irishbusinessnetwork.de, which is aimed at Irish professionals who operate in Germany. Another is www.Irishbusinesswomen.com. It is a discussion forum facilitated by Mayo County Enterprise board. These advantage of these specific networking sites is that the majority of users have similar business interests.
However, social networking sites are not a substitute for face-to-face contact and they are not appropriate for all types of businesses. There are other pitfalls too. A recent Eircom commissioned survey found 78 per cent of workers use their internet connection for personal reasons (like social networking), with many spending up to an hour a day doing so. The Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Organisation (ISME) recommends employers monitor their staff's internet usage and have an IT policy everybody is aware of.
This is to prevent staff members posting sensitive company information on a website. An ISME spokesperson also explained that a clear company IT policy reduces exposure to a bullying or sexual harassment cases.
This could arise if an employee posts inappropriate comments on a site about another staff member, while in work. There are larger legal implications for companies using social networking sites too.
McIntyre said: “Your social networking site . . . is a form of advertising. Are you trying to sell into a particular jurisdiction? Is it a case that you are trying to sell to children in the US? You mightn't realise you are suddenly selling to a world-wide audience and you have to comply with world wide laws when you are advertising.”
He advised that users of sites like LinkedIn get permission from their customers or clients before putting up specific information about them online, and be mindful that the webpage doesn't start sending unsolicited or spam e-mails.
“If you are spamming them. . . that is in breach of Irish law. Social networking . . . involves creating databases for your contacts. The problem with that is the moment you start creating a database of your contacts you are immediately into data protection territory.”
McIntyre explained that it is important companies draw a clear distinction between a business social-networking page and a personal one. This means that when a staff member leaves the company he does not walk out the door with a personal social-networking page filled with business contacts.
The various social networking sites incorporate blogging tools, but there are numerous software packages available online for someone seeking a dedicated option.
Most of these are free and they are a good starting point for a business person looking to play around with a blog.
“If you are going to do it for your business you should really make some kind of commitment. The problem I see is if you are going to actually put your business blog up there, it won't reflect very well on you if you are not going to actually blog. If you are not sure what you want to do then maybe you are better off . . . trying something out on personal level. Play around with that. See how you get on and if you are happy with it move on from there,” said Neylon.
Edelman's Kelly uses Wordpress for his blogs and he said creating posts on it is “literally like writing an e-mail.”
Blacknight's Neylon recommended using Typepad, which is geared towards business blogging and allows users to point their domain at it.
Blogger is also very popular and it links into the Google suite of applications.
Business people can also ask whoever hosts their website if they can set up a blogging domain for them. This will make it even easier for customers to find a newly launched blog.
“You can subscribe to a lot of blogs via RSS. It is a great way of keeping up to date. Rather than having to visit a website al l the time you can subscribe to get all the latest information. People can also subscribe via e-mail and automatically they will receive the latest information from your blog,” said Kelly.
IBM released Lotus Connections in 2007 for businesses that wanted more secure, comprehensive blogging and a social networking service. It is the company's fastest selling software product, to date.
“We have something like 375,000 IBM employees worldwide but there is actually something like 472,000 people on the system,” said Mike Roche, chief architect, Dublin Software Lab with IBM.
“The other 100,000 odd people are made up of business partners and customers. It gives us an opportunity to network with them and share information with them. Lots of people are using things likes LinkedIn and Facebook and Myspace. They are quite happy to contribute to a similar system inside corporate firewalls,” said Roche.
The software can run off a single laptop and users can access its services through any of the main stream browsers. The package is used by organisations operating in insurance, banking, healthcare, education and even the military sectors. Lotus Connections features five key services: Blogs, Profiles, Dogears, Communities and Activities.
The blogs services lets users contribute to the 20,000 plus blogs already on the Connections network. Profiles provides a secure directory of business contacts, similar to those created by LinkedIn and Facebook. This is where a user can find out the contact details and location of person they need to talk to.
Dogears is a corporate version of social bookmarking service offered by the likes of www.Del.icio.us It lets individuals find information, tag it, create links and comments about the information and share it with other users.
For communities or groups of people who are working on similar projects, Activities allows users to manage the range of e-mails, documents and information needed for a particular project, all in a workflow.
“Large corporates are using this to connect their own employee base together. Smaller companies are getting together to partner using some of this software, to form larger entities by combining several small partners to go after business together or to negotiate better deals,” said Roche.
Lotus Connections is jut one of the many blogging and social networking tools available today. If business people apply the same acumen when using web 2.0 communications tools, as they do to other parts of their business, then the rewards will be theirs for the taking.
