Gap emerging in Irish VC funds ?

My article below appeared in last Friday’s Irish Times Innovation Magazine…

A new Irish President: can he lead the re-building of the Irish economy ?

My opinion piece below was published in today’s Irish Times.   I wrote the piece a couple of weeks ago when the outcome of the Irish Presidential election was unknown.  It was thus awkward to write,  especially not being able to use “he” or “she” …

In the event,  at lunch time today as I post this it appears, from the preliminary election tallies,  that Michael D. Higgins will be the next President,  and so sincere congratulations to him and his team.

My article below discusses an initiative which I hope the new President may undertake to rejuvenate the Irish economy…

Semantic Tagging: OpenCalais and Sophia

I’ve been experimenting with Sophia’s new Digital Librarian for a few weeks now (disclosure: I’m an investor and also the Chair of Sophia).

The US appears to be on the verge of a patent war over the future of the telephone – and the consumer may be the loser

My article in the Irish Times Innovation Magazine,  published last friday.  I was asked to write an opinion piece on the current patent war for mobile phone technology,  and the implications.  I suggest how patent law could be extended to reduce spurious patents…

Early on Valentine’s Day in 1876, Elisha Gray, founder of Western Electric, dashed to the patent office in Washington DC to file a notice (a caveat) that he was in the process of inventing a new device called the telephone. His notice was duly registered into the office’s cash ledger at lunch time.

Steve or the new Larry: the smartest guy in the room ?

With the Google acquisition of Motorola Mobility,  has Larry Page just out-witted Steve Jobs ?   My theory on what happened follows….

Innovation Ecosystem Symposium

I spoke this morning at the “Innovation Ecosystem” symposium,  organised by TCD and supported by NAIRTL.

I was asked to talk about some of my experiences of Silicon Valley and Dublin as regards innovation;  how IONA came about,  and my thoughts on a greater engagement between academia in Ireland and the start-up community…  Given the audience,  I also took the opportunity to observe the opportunity and threat to the third level education system in Ireland posed by the internet..

Cloud Illusions

This article first appeared in the Irish Times Innovation Magazine last Friday,  June 24th.   I was asked to try and give an explanation of some of the competitive dynamics in the software industry at the moment,   particularly Google versus Microsoft;  and also to explain Apple’s move to the cloud.

I really took some artistic license in trying to find a real world analogy,  and anticipated possible flames from one or two in the tech community who doubtless would see flaws in my arguments and metaphors.   None yet however,  but maybe they’ll still come

Government’s Jobs Initiative

The post below first appeared in the Irish Times Innovation Magazine on Friday last, 27th May.  I was asked to comment on the recent “Jobs Initiative” announced by the new Irish Government…..

Speech to Leyton-organised event on Research and Innovation

I gave the speech below this afternoon to an event organised by Leyton on “Securing Ireland’s Future through Research and Innovation”,  held at the IMI.   About 140 people attended.  My main focus was the role that the multinationals can play in catalysing the innovation economy in Ireland…

Talk to the “Innovation in Public Services” Forum

This morning I was a keynote for this forum,  held in Dublin and organised by Deloitte and eolas magazine. Charlie Leadbeater was the other keynote:  I had previously had the honour of meeting him when I was chair of the IMI during which he gave another keynote at our annual conference.

I was asked to discuss applying technology for innovation in the public service in the current fiscal environment.  Difficult to generalise,  so I talked about some of the thinking on this topic from my work in the Innovation Taskforce.