WebElevate; a skills conversion program for the unemployed and / or those seeking a change in career

The WebElevate program which has kept me so busy over the last 12 months is over and so I'm able to return to blogging. The program included four months as a project (production) manager. Managing a team of six, I was able to bring the team to the point of producing a Beta version of the interactive website: www.irishfolklore.org for The National Folklore Collection. In addition the team produced no less than seven videos and a marketing campaign. I will post photos and videos later.

Newspresso at Dublin Startup Weekend

Better late than never. I'm finally posting some photos and videos (later) of the Dublin Startup Weekend (2nd to 4th March) that I attended at the Google European Headquarters in Barrow Street, Dublin 2. I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience despite my having made a complete balls up of my own pitch. I had it worked out at exactly a minute if I read it out. I really should have known better than to try and read it. I had to hold a microphone right up to my mouth and being so aware of my own voice and trying to hold, and read from a piece of paper was bound to lead to disaster. I faltered and suddenly felt very self conscious. In the end I ran out of time, (60 seconds).

I was one of 38 people out of over 100 attendees that pitched an idea. A slight plus in my favour was that one person voted for my idea whereas several other ideas got no vote at all.

Anyhow I ended up joining a small group of three other people on an idea pitched by Diarmuid Bourke, a Developer, which was called 'Newspresso' a platform for enabling journalists and small publishers, such as local or regional papers, to publish a journal and to use the space as a market for services such as photographs and content contributers to support their journal. I offered to conduct any market research and to develop and map out an appropriate business model. I found one direct US based competitor, namely; www.pressmarket.com.

The unique selling point was that content subscribers and photographers would be eligle for a portion of the advertising revenues which would be the main source of revenue. another source of revenue would be a premium membership for additional functionality that would benefit small to medium journals. We didn't come anywhere in the vote rankings for the weekend in part because we had such a small team and in part because we hadn't mapped out our route to market clearly enough. We also didn't complete many of the criteria recommended for a favourable judgement, such as a street survey, (although not really appropriate for this market) and a video. Nevertheless we seemed to be heading for the neccessary 100 Twitter folowers and had tremendous support and encouragement from the mentors including www.siliconIreland.com who gave us a mention on their website.

There were ideas ranging from sport event Apps, Health Care Apps, Gaming developments and much more. Here are just a few:

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All in all it was a very worthwhile weekend. I shall now pitch better in future and I also learnt a thing or two about preparing for presentations as well as the power of Twitter which I will be using much more now to promote this blog and other projects.

Startup Weekend is Here!

So one of the reasons I haven't built my own App is because I've been preparing for the 'Startup Weekend'TM in the Google offices here in Dublin. I'll let you all know how I got on. Wish me luck! On a side note, I wrote a few months ago about the Rasberry Pi miniature computer by those clever OxBridge guys which was finally released this week in England to tremendous aclaim. Apparently the miniature computers were sold out in less than a day. I believe the retail price is set at £30.00, not bad for a PC no?!

Build your own App for free!!

Have you ever wanted to develop an App for your iPhone Android or other smart phone? You have? Yes I know it costs hundreds if not a few thousand Euro, and even if you get that far there's the hassle of getting it into the iTunes store or onto the Android or Microsoft store....or at least it did! Not anymore. I was privileged to be able to attend the formal launch to the World of 'The Mobile App Builder' TM by those fantastically tallented guys at Jampot.ie. The guys at Jampot have decided to jump ahead of their competitors and have developed a platform that democratises app development. Much like website development now, The Mobile App Builder allows your average user to develop a custom app for themselves, or others with the click of a few buttons. The lads have even placed a tab on their platform for HTML5 development so that one can develop a more sophisticated app, provided one is familiar with HTML5 of course. I was talking to a college lecturer from Tallaght IT who felt that it would be a magnificent teaching tool and I think he's right.

I confess that I haven't yet got arround to building an app on the platform but as soon as I have I'll let you all know.

How do these guys make money then you might ask? Well if you want to place your app in any App Store they will charge you about 50 Euro plus any costs from Apple, Google or Microsoft provided it passes their own (Jampot.ie) vetting and assessment procedure. However they look after all the formalities for you as it goes under their own company banner. This means that one can earn money yourself from enabling advertising with your app but one cannot charge for the App. If you do want to charge for the app Jampot will furnish you with the procedures you need and it will then be up to you to apply yourself under your own name for each app to get into the respective app stores.

So go ahead now and build your own app at: TheAppBuilder or check out the guys at Jampot.ie.

Cutting down the Queue. iPad use in Coffee and Snack Bars

iPads are the latest technology to be used in coffee shops and quick food outlets. We've seen it hit restaurants and hotels but is there an iPad / iPhone App for ordering and paying for your meal at your favourite coffee shop or fast food outlet? Well we've scoured the Internet to find some success stories and some companies servicing this market for Coffee shop Apps.

Aptito (http://aptito.com/blog/2011/07/13/technology-prediction-order-food-ipad-%E2%80%93-the-next-big-trend-for-coffee-shops-cafes/) is a menu technology company in the United States whose App for the iPad has worked wonders for some coffee shop / sandwich outlets. Coffee shop proprietors say that it cuts queues and enables the customer to comment on their coffee shop experience for each menu item and their visit in general. See the following video testimonies:

And:

Let us know what you think of this as a time saving device. Would it work in your coffee shop? See also the article on Technology trends in Hotels.

A computer in your pocket? Yes it's here!

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you're working on some project on your PC [or Mac] with all your programs and desktop laid out just the way you like it and then you have to go somewhere else? You could hall along your laptop, cabling but there are bound to be times when even that is too big to carry for where you're going. Another scenario might be that you're a developer of Android Apps and you'd like to have a separate operating system to test your App, but don't want to work off two laptops? Or perhaps as a developer you want to run a server off another PC which is networked to your laptop rather than the computer your working on but you can't lug another desktop or laptop around with you everywhere? Well a PC (Personal Computer) solution may soon be available for under €150.00, which you can fit into your wallet. Well The Cotton Candy PC, named after an American confection because it weighs less than 21 grams and developed by a Norweigen company called FXI Tech, may be just the thing.



The Cotton Candy has a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos ARM CPU (same as in the Galaxy S II), 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HDMI-out and a microSD card slot for memory and most importantly has a USB key on the other side. Designed to be slotted into any monitor, TV, lapto, Desktop PC or Mac or connected via Bluetooth to an iPhone, iPad or other device the miniature PC is loaded with an Android operating system although it supports Ubuntu too and will take power from the device its plugged into. Once plugged in an Android window will open up on whatever desktop, monitor / TV device you are using, take over that device virtualising all input and output devices and displaying all your own files and programs that you own and like to have at your fingertips. You can move files from the host computer onto the Cotton Candy and either store the information there or sync the data to a Cloud service. The device can also support 1.2 Gigapixels of 3D graphics output, quite impressive!


Check out the CEO talking about it recently:

My only wonder is how hot the device could get? There is also another device called the Rasberry Pi which is a another mini-computer which will cost less than €25.00. Equivalent to the performance of a PC from 2002 (Pentium 2) it is not for the general market but is aimed at the educational market to encourage children of 16 and 17 to get interested in computer science. The developers are a charity based in Cambridge University, England who have been working on this project for three to four years. The developers are aiming to go into production in early 2012. See the video explanation below:

Earlier this year, I along with three other colleagues explored possible ways of bringing IT skills like computer programming and hardware development skills to Irish Transition Year schools. We found from our research that there is tremendous demand from all stakeholders but in this climate nobody is willing to cough up money to support such a scheme and because there is such a shortage of skilled practicioners it is dificult to find volunteers with time on there hands to teach kids or too expensive too employ professionals to teach to secondary school persons. The Computer Dojo Club in Limerick and Dublin will begin to fill that gap and some sterling work is being done in the technology in education sections of colleges like Tallight Institute of Technology and The College of Ireland but there is still room for other players to get involved in nurturing IT skills in schools and among the unemployed pool. The Rasberry Pi PC may go someway to bringing computers to everybody in the cash strapped environment of today


Please leave a comment about this article.

And check out the following sites:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/sample-page
http://blog.laptopmag.com/usb-stick-contains-dual-core-computer-turns-any-screen-into-an-android-station#comments

Hotel Tech Talk – Are you ahead of the curve?

Although it’s a while since I worked full time in the hotel industry and even longer since it dominated my career goals, I have nevertheless kept my proverbial toes in the waters of the hospitality industry here in Ireland in one capacity or another since 1997 which is when I returned to Ireland after a ten year absence. Indeed there have been occasions over the last ten years or so, when I worked full time, initially after the foot and mouth disease decimated the tourist industry and consequently my tourism research business and latterly as an addition to freelance work and/or periods of third level study.

Since 2003 I have been dipping my toes and quite often allot more, in my work for the Conrad Hilton Hotel, Dublin.  After a refurbishment of the hotel in 2004 and 2005 I noticed that for a hotel of that size and stature it was way behind the curve in the technology arena and about as far away from “Eco Friendly” as old mother Russia after the fall of communism.  Indeed the refurbishment of the public rooms in 2005 had probably managed to increase rather than decrease the electricity bill, going by the number of extra spot lights to be seen.
Back then I did my best to pack the suggestion box full of ideas to save on water and electricity bills even pointing out how other hotels in Dublin had saved thousands of Euro on similar measures. If you could invest thousands of Euro in a refurbishment project on the assumption that it would lead to increased sales, could you not so too invest thousands of Euro in technology knowing for certain, depending on best and worst case scenario’s for energy and water costs, that you’d get your money back over three to five years I asked? “Well, it depends on cash flow”, I was told, “…if you can come back to us with a proposal which has a payback period of one year we’ll take a serious look at it”! I wonder what a refurbishment of the hotel would look like if it required a payback period of one year?  But hey, maybe I’m missing something here after all I'm not much more than a casual observer and not immersed in the day to day management of the hotel.

I am pleased to say now though that I get the very real sense that the hotel has moved on from that view point and in 2006 after merging with the Hilton parent company, (don’t ask me to explain), everybody woke up from wherever they were and began to think ‘Eco’ and to realise that guests will actually hold you [the hotel] in good stead if you leave a note on the bed asking if you REALLY need your linens and towels changed EVERY morning?  Unfortunately this epiphany came too late to take any real advantage of the 'War Chest' that every good business had back in the roaring naughties and before we could say boo to a goose all those lovely tourists and business types stopped coming.  We [the Irish Tourist Industry] have recovered somewhat from the low ebb of 2008 / 2009 but the world is still in a precarious position and we must stay on our toes if we are to keep ahead of the curve.

Despite the budgetary constraints, however, the present general manager has a very pragmatic view on using technology to improve the competitive edge for the  [Conrad] hotel, introducing flat-screen televisions, by now an expectation in any five star hotel worth its salt, (no pun intended), energy saving and other technologies.  In the last two to three years the Dublin Conrad Hotel has had very high ‘SALT’ (Standards and Loyalty Test) scores among its guests, second only to, I believe, Conrad Maldives and is among the top five for guest satisfaction among Hilton brands in the UK and Ireland.

However despite my recent experiences I have always been a firm believer in using technology to gain competitive advantage and every refurbishment should be looking at ways to cut costs and not to increase them while accepting little or no compromise on creating a better impact, both visually and in making the guest’s stay more memorable.

And so it came to my attention that this week in Berlin, leading IT managers came together for the sixth European Hotel Technology Next Generation Conference. Among the topics that this organisation has been involved in is putting together a model for IT vendors for ‘Shared Services.  In an earlier report following a survey among senior IT managers among eighteen of the world’s top hotel companies it found that, “Hotels were least interested in sharing marketing and customer information applications. On the other hand, 80% or more were willing to share such applications as guest-room device management, concierge, point of sale, housekeeping, facilities management, and applications for six back-office and human resource functions”.  Earlier in June Adjunct Associate Professor at Hotel Icon, the world’s first teaching hotel based in Hong Kong, said, at the Hotel Technology Conference at the Marina Bay in Singapore that, “…the use of technology has not merely been solely for the use of guests, but that the hotel had made use of it to go paperless and help drive bookings”.  “We make extensive use of IT,” Hatter said, “From using things like cloud computing for printing, to having almost 40% of our bookings coming from the Internet.”

Despite my relatively recent introduction to all things IT, I think I can say with some intuition if not authority that the Apple iPad, iPhone and other tablet and Smartphone equivalents will have a big impact on hotels, especially business hotels such as the Conrad Hotel, Dublin both for the guests and back of house. I was recently pondering on what sort of iPad / iPhone Apps might be introduced into the hotel and rather than producing an Application [App] to complete one task my inclination was, if I were the software vendor or IT manager requesting a bespoke App, to produce an App suitable for all guest needs rather than just check-in / check-out, in-room dining or mini-bar ordering. Another App with different access controls might be useful for back of house functions such as mini-bar stock control, room maintenance and housekeeping etc for employees. However in my recent research into the HTNG organisation I came across a software vendor from Orlando in Florida called Intelity who won the 2010 HTNG organisation’s 2010 award for “Most Innovative Hospitality Technology”. These award winners are a telling example of what’s in store for guests’ convenience and hotels’ competitive advantages in the future.  The following excerpt is quoted here:

“The winning technology, ICE (Interactive Customer Experience™) Touch on iPads, presents the hotel guest with the full array of hotel services (thirty or more depending on the hotel). An iPad is assigned to each guestroom where it is mounted on special stands or cases. With the touch of their finger, guests can order in-room dining, turn downs and wake-ups, request restaurant reservations, book transportation, make housekeeping requests and other services. In 2010, following the introduction of the iPad tablet, Intelity developed a guest interface that was deployed in September at the Royalton Hotel in New York City. Since then, it has been deployed at New York's Plaza Hotel. Others, including the Hilton Inn at Penn in Philadelphia, will be premiering soon. This is Intelity's second year on the award stand: last year, their ICE software product was runner-up”.

Check out the following:
Intelity's ICE Touch Premiers at The Plaza Hotel from Intelity on Vimeo.

Guests can use their own hardware device or request to borrow one from the ‘Desk’. The system is already in use with two of the American Conrad Hotels and Resorts and a few American Hilton properties.


“This year's first runner-up technology, from Corning MobileAccess, focuses on personalizing the guest experience by providing guests with high quality access to their mobile content and services such as streaming video and gaming. The MobileAccessVE architecture enhances hotels' cellular coverage by leveraging existing LAN cabling for cellular signal distribution while maintaining full Ethernet and wireless LAN capabilities. MobileAccessVE allows hotels to address 2G/3G as well as 4G services. With this technology, hotels have a cost effective, quickly deployable, non-disruptive path to migrate to premium LTE service, with smart MIMO antenna technology, and the ability to support migration to enterprise femtocell solutions as guest bandwidth demands increase.”

Another area which will become an expected norm in the future will be the ability to by-pass the check in desk with push notifications telling the guest that their room is ready and being able to access their room using their hardware device. Security would be an issue but one can only assume that this has been ironed out since the third place in this year’s awards went to, Allegro Online-Mobile-Kiosk Check-in/out Solution from Ariane Systems.

“Allegro's self-service technology allows guests to check in/out, pay, and manage their reservation from any web-enabled device, including cell phone, PC, laptop, PDA, iPad or even the lobby kiosk. Leveraging the power of a fully-featured "cloud-based" platform Allegro automatically detects the device used during check-in and sends notifications and instructions to the guest via "push mode." Through integration with OpenWays mobile key technology, it is possible to bypass the traditional "front desk" completely, as guests can use their mobile phone as a securely encrypted room key.”
 
In summary I think we can say with some certainty that the best chance for business hotels to get ahead of the curve is through sharing out IT costs on 'Cloud Systems' among numerous hotels for common hotel functions. The other major push should be in mobile devices to enhance the guest experience while simultaneously improving sales revenues, yield management and stock control.  Saving energy and water remain important investments however and should, in my opinion be given the same level of importance as investment in refurbishment, indeed the two should go hand in hand.

Finally, although a bit out dated one should download and read the following PDF from HTNG @: http://www.htng.org/white-papers, which reminds us that we need to think about how the current younger generation thinks and what their technological expectations will be in five to ten years from now. "

“ 'The Guest of the Future: In-Room Technology Preferences Today and Tomorrow'  represents an amazing view into the needs of tomorrow’s guests, and what it will take to satisfy them. Hotel rooms being built today will, over the course of their lifetime, be occupied mostly by people who are still under 30, or even 20. Their expectations will not be the same as today’s travelers, and if the hospitality industry is to succeed at meeting those expectations, it needs to understand how the expectations of younger generations differ from those of older ones – and how they are likely to continue to evolve over time." Alternatively I can highly recommend reading, 'Grown Up Digital' by Don Tapscot, see: http://www.grownupdigital.com/archive/.

And most importantly, PLEASE take a few minutes to join up and comment on my blog. Thankyou.

References: http://www.networksasia.net/content/hotels-and-cloud-match-made-stars?page=0%2C0

http://www.htng.org/images/stories/publications/htng_shared_services_position_paper_1.0.pdf

http://www.intelitycorp.com