RendezVu, the NovaUCD-based company, rocketed its way to international notice with its ExamSpeak product – the only Irish product shortlisted in the six award sections.
Run by the British Council in association with Cambridge ESOL, these awards celebrate innovation in English language teaching. ExamSpeak fills that brief by offering a real time practice environment where students can interact with other test takers and answer exam questions.
The products success lies in the fact that it allows students to practice their English oral skills, without the pressure of an actual exam.
RendezVu has to wait until May 23 to see if it is in the final shake up when the ELTons are announced in London.
The full shortlist is available on the British Council website.

Richard Delevan, current MD with Grove Social in the UK and former deputy managing director at McConnells set up the site and describes it as a ‘history of the Celtic Tiger in 100 objects’.
“Last Friday I came across an umbrella from McConnells, the advertising agency where I worked 2008-2010. It represented something about the way we all did business towards the end of the boom. A Slazenger golf umbrella, with not one but two velcro straps, and the corporate logo. The best, in other words, you can get in an umbrella that isn’t heated.”
It occurred to him that lots of people have these little artefacts from Irish life in the 2000s; things with no real intrinsic value that represent something larger.
Rather than have them just sitting around as clutter, he thought it might be nice to give them an airing.
Contribute to the Celtic Tiger Museum through celtictigermuseum.com. You can also take a photo and tweet it to @rdelevan or use the hashtag #celtictigermuseum.

Dr Peter Gallagher, solar physicist and former NASA employee, led the team from Trinity. He said the app has been getting 3,000 to 4,000 hits from around the world each day.
“We get everyone from secondary school students to professional astronomers using it. Also, those working on GPS systems want to know what’s going on in the sun. If there is an explosion it can affect their GPS systems.”
Gallagher said the team’s aim is to develop the app further as activity on the sun increases.
“Over the next year three years things are going to get active, with the sun at its most active in 2012 and 2013.”

In Ireland, the firm will offer unlimited access to its site for €6.99 per month. However, it is introducing itself to the Irish market by offering a free, one month trial.
Users can watch both local and global TV programmes and films on their laptops, game consoles, blu-ray players, tablets and smartphones.
At launch, the firm is offering programmes from BBC, Channel 4’s 4oD and ITV, as well as CBS, NBCUniversal and Twentieth Century Fox, among others.
Worldwide, Netflix has 23.6 million subscribers. It has reportedly grown to become the biggest source of web traffic in the US since it was established in 1997.

TV3 has just launched a new online player. 3player was developed especially to allow viewers watch on multiple devices such as PCs or laptops, tablets (including iPad) and smartphones (including iPhone).
Magnet Networks which broke new ground with Magnet WebTV has a new and improved re-branded service Aertv.ie. It is now registration-free and allows laptop, smartphone, tablet or PC users with an internet connection to watch TV, without the need for a set-top box, satellite dish, cable, or even a TV. The free service transmits all of the main Irish TV channels as well as Ireland’s first live music channel, Aertv Music.
Meanwhile MUZU.TV, the Dublin based online music video site with the world’s largest legal catalogue, will be coming to Xbox LIVE this Christmas.

Dogpatch Labs are dynamic open plan spaces for entrepreneurs working on new business ideas – hardly a new concept. Set up by Polaris Venture Partners – to connect entrepreneurs and help founders conceive and launch start-ups – the difference is the new Dublin facility is the first to open outside of the US.
In effect the European arm of the initiative, it is expected that it will interesting start-ups to Dublin from Europe and beyond.
The Dublin lab will be open plan space housing an estimated 30 teams working on new businesses at varying but early stages of development. Start-ups generally have six months in their patch – best of luck to the graduates of 2012!

First allow me to dispense with the formalities and introduce myself properly. I’m a long time blogger myself, blogging on my own blog since 2003: if there were prizes for longevity I would have scooped them all and that’s about the only one I’d be good for. I also have an extremely occasional podcast and until recently many people in the digital sector in Ireland had met me through my previous role as Membership manager with the IIA. Many people on Twitter etc. know me as the crocheter who cooks and bakes, all with varying levels of success. However the constant in my life since I was a teenager has been technology: ever since my eldest brother won a ZX Spectrum in a Telecom Éireann Art Competition (I know, weird prize, right?!) I’ve been hooked.

So I decided that I would write an occasional blog post for the Prosperity blog about all the shiny and interesting links that I happen upon in my virtual travels. With that in mind I have been squirreling away some of my favourite links for your reading pleasure over the last few months. So here goes [deep breath]:

• Now I know that I said this was going to be about shiny things but I’m going to kick off with a list of ugly things but this was a hot favourite when I shared it on Twitter recently: 10 Ugly SEO Tools that Actually Rock
  
• I had a big Skype chat with a group of Springboard students in UCC and during the course of the conversation suggested they read Erin Kissane’s great book “Elements of Content Strategy” It’s not a new publication but it’s a classic (and I would do well to heed my own advice and finish reading my own copy!)
• Content was a hot topic last week as Refresh Dublin focussed on the topic with CoryAnn Joseph of iQContent and Des Traynor of Intercom.io sharing their own unique perspectives on content. I would HIGHLY recommend getting yourself along to the regular Refresh events. I even managed to nab myself a lovely new t-shirt which I wore with pride at the weekend. (On the topic of content I actually am recruiting two very different content roles at the moment…)
• While I have been out and about I still have not managed to make the most of the #tweetseats from CrackBird Dublin but I couldn’t help thinking about them when I read about this clever little app from TablesReady. It’s even endorsed by the Cheers Bar in Boston no less. Nothing like a bit of celebrity architecture to make a link seem even shinier, eh?
• During an actual night out (at the Chambers Ireland Corporate Social Responsibility Awards no less!) I got to talking to my dinner companions about women in technology. The very next day, bless their memories, Michelle Daly and Pauline Sargent shared this very comprehensive list of 100 Women Bloggers you should be reading. And yes that is the sound of my Google Reader exploding!
• I’m a big Foursquare fan (yes I announced my child’s imminent arrival with a late night checkin to the Coombe…) so I love this little video that gives a really clear view of how busy 4sq is and where.
  A Week of Check-ins on the Path to One Billion from foursquare on Vimeo.
• I was interested to read on ReadWriteWeb about the acquisition of Ning, the network of social networks I always meant to check out! I think it’s mad to read about the traffic these sites receive: they get “40 million global unique visitors” to their network every month and will add that to the acquiring Glam.com’s 200 million visitors. This is an area that the IIA Social Media Working Group which I remain a member of, will be looking at during a session on International Social Media this evening over in Populis (and much thanks to them for hosting). Follow myself or the chair Eoin Kennedy on Twitter later today to catch a stream or tweets on this session.
• I love this infographic that I picked up from Rounds who are all about Facebook video chat: it’s about the evolution of long distance relationships. Technology is bringing us all closer - aaaww. Well except for the trolls… And on that note I’ll take flight until the next time the Magenta Magpie spots another shiny link!

Both companies now have a presence in London, with Prosperity Digital’s new office located in the heart of London close to Regent Street.
“The whole goal is to create a community and for somebody from the community to speak at each meetup,” says Gary Mullan of Prosperity.
The first speaker at the inaugural gathering spoke about her experiences in London. “There was a great energy and enthusiasm at the event.”
The group has been established to appeal to people in the digital marketing industry in London who are Irish and would like to network. “There was a definite need for people in digital and marketing to network because it’s a quite fragmented market over there. They wouldn’t meet each other otherwise,” he adds.
Prosperity has had a healthy amount of interest from agencies that attended the event. It will recruit for London-based roles as well as helping place UK-based candidates with in demand digital media skills who wish to move to Ireland.
The next group meetup takes place on 8 December, 2011. Find out more on Meetup.com/Green-Gathering

IT consultant and business owner Eamon McGrenaghan launched The Biz Factor in Leitrim this month, with 20 12- to 13-year-olds taking part.

He hopes to inspire school-goers to become entrepreneurs through the programme, which provides a combination of Apprentice-style projects, X-Factor-style judging and Dragon’s Den pitching.

Videos of presentations were posted on YouTube, and were open to the public vote.

A number of ideas emerged from the day, including one for a smart card that limits under-21s to a certain number of drinks in a night.

McGrenaghan plans to extend the programme to 15 year olds and make it an annual event in Leitrim.

“I’d like to see businesspeople contact me to do something similar in their own counties,” he adds.