The Next Leap

Education, Education, Education

The most important page in Johnny’s paper (all of which is online at the link above) is the Key Action Points.  To take a few of them in bunches:

• Launch a Cabinet endorsed drive to transform the education system as a national priority
• Speedy roll-out of a digital curriculum to provide “digital instincts” at primary and secondary level
• Integrate business context into secondary level curriculum to emphasise the viability of a career in the digital sector
• Introduce weighted marks at Leaving Certificate level for ICT relevant subjects
• Commit the funding required to provide sufficient connectivity and equipment to bring Irish schools up to the OECD average, and exempt all school ICT equipment from VAT

The education system is probably the most important factor in the medium-term changes we need to make.  But we need to make the changes now in order for them to give a return in the medium-term.  The fact that most students leave school with less than a rudimentary understanding of how even simple computer programs work is disappointing, to say the least.

If we’re to call ourselves a ‘knowledge economy’, we need to make sure that our workforce has some relevant knowledge.  Bringing computers into the heart of the classroom is one place to start.  When I studied computers in WIT in the late 1990s, I was shocked at the basics that had to be taught to business students (how to open files in Word, for example).  From talking to friends still in that sector, I’m told the skill levels haven’t changed much.

I think we need to start off by using laptops as the primary method of course and work delivery at senior cycle (4th, 5th & 6th year) in second level schools.  This is already happening in private schools, and I’m sure companies like Dell and Microsoft would be more than happy to support a national scheme.  Microsoft would certainly love to have everyone in Ireland hugely familiar with their products rather than a competitor’s before entering the workforce.

Weighting marks at Leaving Cert for relevant subjects is also something that will have to be considered.  Either that, or alter curricula.  It takes far more work to get a decent grade in Higher Level Maths than in any other subject.  Dumbing down that course isn’t an option when we need more people with better maths skills, so let’s do the opposite – improve the return on investment for students.  This isn’t a matter of helping out those who have an aptitude for maths & physics.  It’s a matter of incentivising them to take those subjects instead of so called ‘easier’ ones (in my time, it was Geography).

The subjects, and they way they’re taught, need drastic overhaul, and it’s good to see that being identified by Johnny and his team.

Repositioning Ireland – Pick a Niche

• Brand Ireland as a Green Data Centre location
• Convene a taskforce to discuss an optimal national strategy to promote Ireland as a location for localisation services
• Global Rights Clearance Hub: i) tax deductions could make Ireland an attractive location in which to vest intellectual property; ii) new tax treaties to minimise double taxation on foreign withholding tax; iii) lobbying to join the US Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
• Establish a multi-disciplinary group convened by SEI and SFI to determine whether Ireland could be a hub of “silicon offsetting” research

The Canadian Government has done some great work in creating small clusters for really ‘far out’ technologies.  Things like nanotechnology and tidal energy were picked up on years ago.  The Government invested relatively small amounts of money creating research centres at existing universities, then encouraged companies in those fields to set up nearby.  What you have now is a focus point of North America’s nanotech industry in Edmonton.  A focus of photonics companies in Ottawa.  Those aren’t focuses that would have built up naturally.  They were strategically created by deliberate Government action.

So the IIEA’s ideas here are right.  Pick a niche – it could be one of those mentioned above, or something different – and focus on that.  Put money into researching it at one of the universities/ITs.  Create the incentives for similarly-minded companies to locate nearby.  Rights clearance is a great example.  We have plenty of intellectual property expertise in Ireland, and many of them do a lot of work on that periphery that exists between the US and EU intellectual property systems.  Let’s exploit it.

Encouragement & Discouragement

It was encouraging to see Paul Rellis of Microsoft there to launch the paper.  It started off as encouraging to see Tánaiste & Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Mary Coughlan there too.  Unfortunately, she failed to grasp the point of it, and went through the main elements of the paper talking about how the Government had already done them or couldn’t do them at all, at all.  In particular, she made a snide comment about proposals to change the education system – to the effect that it wouldn’t happen (paraphrased from memory: “I’ll refer that to Batt, but good luck to him”).  Very disappointing that the Government Minister in charge of that side of the economy simply doesn’t appear to get it.

Realism

Overall, though, this is a good paper.  My biggest criticism would be that, at times, it doesn’t go far enough.  But being aspirational and being realistic are two different things at times.  This is a realistic paper that shows where Ireland can improve its offering to the world quickly and, relatively, easily.  It’s something we need to do urgently.

Blackberry Storm

Vodafone:

We promised that you would be one of the first to know. So here’s the news to beat the queues: the BlackBerry^® Storm^™ smartphone is launching on November 27th, purpose-built for Vodafone. Information is power and we hope this helps you snag one of these amazing devices before they’re sold out!

Vodafone.ie/BlackBerryStorm is the link.  Still no sign that they’re dumping the Paddy Tax, though.

(Hat tip to Damien – I hadn’t seen Domo’s post)

I’ve been using MAXroam for about a year now, and it’s great.  Saved me a huge wodge of cash when I was in the US for the Presidential Election earlier this month.  Also enables me to have a US number that rings through to my Irish mobile where ever I am.

Vote for MAXroam here.

My favourites from the list of awfulness include celebutard, iTard and Twat-o-tron, although I doubt that fanboy, MILF and meh are entirely net-generated.  Anyway, you’ve got to go and vote yourself.

Fucktard is winning right now.

Audio here:
[audio:todayfm20081118.mp3]

Blackberry Storm

Back in March, Pat Phelan exposed the O2 Paddy Tax on the iPhone.  Now, I’m exposing the Vodafone Paddy Tax on the Blackberry Storm – due to be released here in the next few weeks.

Vodafone UK today launched the Blackberry Storm for sale online.  The phone is free on all contracts.  The cheapest £35 (€41) per month contract includes 600 minutes of calls; unlimited texts; unlimited data; and unlimited Blackberry email.

Two weeks ago, Vodafone Ireland gave details of their price plans here to Silicon Republic (later confirmed on Vodafone’s own site).  With the cheapest contract – €49.99 (already a tenner more than the UK) – the phone costs €109.99.  That contract includes just 100 minutes of calls; 100 texts; 1GB of data (including Blackberry email).

Side by Side: UK & Ireland

Let’s put those side by side for comparison:

• Phone Cost: UK – €0; Ireland – €109.99
• Cheapest Contract: UK – €41; Ireland – €49.99
• Bundled Minutes: UK – 600; Ireland – 100
• Bundled Texts: UK – unlimited; Ireland – 100
• Bundled Data (email & web): UK – unlimited; Ireland – 1GB
• Bundled Email: UK – unlimited; Ireland – 1GB

UK customers get more than six times what Irish customers get (infinitely more when it comes to data), and pay a tenner less a month and nothing up front.

And the charges once you pass those Irish limits are pretty outrageous too:

Silicon Republic:

Additional call charges that will be applied to the pricing plans if users go beyond their package allocation will range between 18 cent and 30 cent, 11 cent per text message, €2 per megabyte of BlackBerry email and 2 cent per kilobyte of Vodafone Live.

As James points out, we’re already giving the mobile companies a 66% average revenue per user (ARPU) than the rest of Europe.  And that’s rising, as the Indo reported earlier this week (see the last line of that article).

Going Dutch

In the Netherlands, Vodafone are also giving the Blackberry Storm away free – this time with a basic contract at €44.50.  With that, you get 300 minutes and 300 texts, and unlimited data/email (I’m fairly sure – my Dutch is a bit rusty).  More than three times as much as Irish customers get, but for a fiver less a month, and no up front cost.

Come on Vodafone

Why does someone in Newry pay less and get more than someone a couple of miles down the road in Dundalk?  Why, for that matter, should the customers who generate more revenue per head than any others in Europe be charged far more for far less than other Europeans?

So come on, RIM and Vodafone Ireland.  Get one over on O2 & Apple.  Stop the Paddy Tax.  Stop ripping us off.

Update (2008-11-19):

Matt Cooper covered this on The Last Word too.

Polls have been open in Virginia for just over four hours now, and voting has been brisk, although there haven’t been the extraordinary queues seen last time.  This has a lot to do with the very strong early voting showing – more than 500,000 Virginians voted before Saturday’s close of absentee ballots.

I’ll be updating the blog as and when I can during the day, although don’t expect any miracles.  It’ll be when there’s a gap in the data stream coming in from polling stations across the city.

There’s a good Get Out the Vote (GOTV) operation being run not only by the political parties, but also by quite a few businesses.  Each polling station issues a sticker to those who’ve voted as they leave.  Among the freebies on offer to those who’ve voted are:

• free ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s
• a free star shaped Krispy Kreme donut
• free coffee at Starbucks
• 20% off all online Pizza Hut orders
• from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., a free appetizer at Daily Grill

For those who’ve early voted, Ross has even done up a nice alternative sticker!

Absentee Voter (by Ross)

It’d be great to see some Irish companies do the same for our Local & European elections next year.  How about a free pint from the breweries?

Update

Ross has more.

Update 2

It’s actually Day 11.  Blame lack of sleep.

I hope this will apply to domestic text rates too, because I’m currently paying Vodafone 12.7c per text (plus VAT) even when I’m not roaming.

Of course, I just use Pat’s MAXroam when I’m actually roaming, which is what the telcos should really be trying to compete with.