I’ve been to those run in Dublin and Limerick in the past, and they’ve been a worthwhile trip. It can be a great place to meet mix of like-minded people – from those who have been through the mill of setting up their own businesses, to those who are thinking about taking the first jump.

The idea behind BizCamp is that it’s a user-generated conference – that means that there are no expensive invited speakers, it’s a free conference, and it’s up to those attending to share what they know with the audience (not sales pitches). You can sign up for a talk on the Speaker Registration page (it’s as easy as entering your name, email, and a title & short description of your talk).

If you’re not sure about giving a talk, you can still register to attend over on the Bizcamp Galway site. This  is also one of those times when letting people you know that it’s coming would be great – there’s a lot of empty registration forms to fill, but they won’t be empty for long.

See you there.

Cross posted from the Ambient Age Blog.

I came to it via a tweet by @marklittlenews last night. It seems to have been out for a while, but I hadn’t come across it before. The full version (~60 mins) of the film is available to watch on the Us Now website

Galway, New Years Day, 2010

Came across this great video – someone in Failte Ireland or Look West should be giving him money for it and using it to promote Galway.

There’s a few other in a set over here.

The guy dancing up in the window was the best bit!

If you’re looking for your next big idea, TwitEye could be a good place to start. I’ve already had some suggestions for improving it which I’ll be adding in over the coming days. If you’ve got any more feedback, I’d love to hear it.

You can read more about the thinking behind it in the Introducing Twiteye post, or check it out for yourself at twiteye.com

• using APIs for business development
• building mashups/widgets/etc
• apps on mobile platforms – iPhone, Android, nokia, etc
• using enterprise 2.0 platforms – force.com, IBM, etc
• developer infrastructure – Amazon, Google App Engine

Later that afternoon, the Web2Ireland folks are running Facebook Developer Garage – ” a place to explore, get gritty, tinker, experiment, and test out ideas for Facebook Platform”

On Friday, the Future of Web Apps conference is in Liberty Hall. Tickets are €175 and there’s a good schedule of talks on for the day.

Saturday is Bizcamp, which has over 200 people signed up to attend and a good line up of talks. Registration for it is closed, but there is another one coming up in Limerick on March 21st

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• API Wars and Opportunities (web2ireland.org)

Ina

On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.The Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers in cities around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects.

It’s taking place in upstairs in Nimmos (by the Spanish Arch) in aid of charity:water

charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need

If you can’t make the Twestival, you can still donate to charit:water on their site. If you’re not in Galway on Thursday evening, there are also ones taking place in Dublin and Belfast.

It’s been a while since the last Tuesday Push. The idea behind it is to develop the Irish Tech industry in a coordinated way, by giving companies that launch a new product or service a bump in coverage. A great idea that brings welcome coverage to those trying to get their businesses off the ground.

The first pushee in this welcome return is the Irish-based social networking site IGOPeople. The IGO stands for Individuals, Groups and Organisations, and their pitch is:

IGOpeople is a network for the real world, one place online where you can stay connected with the people, groups and organisations who matter to you. Once you’re connected, you can use the network to start and join in conversations. You can have conversations with friends, groups, organisations you deal with or the wider IGOpeople network. It’s social media for real life.

The site is still in beta, meaning there are still some minor teething problems with it; but the thinking behind it is good. Including organisations was a nice idea, as it gives customers a way to interact with companies on an individual level. However, something that struck me about this approach was the risk of it becoming another  support channel for companies to manage. There are web-based services (like getSatisfaction) that are designed for handling support requests. Would using these types of channels not make more sense as it keeps all similar requests in one place – doing so is also of benefit to users as it means they can learn from others mistakes before contacting customer support.

Having said that, being able to access real people inside the companies that you deal with has its advantages. For companies too, establishing relationships with users can only be a good thing as they will get a better understanding of their needs. Companies are already using the service as a promotional tool, for example PuddleDucks are offering free shipping to their network members. The Groups pages too are a useful way to interact with others of similar interests (…or names; I signed up for “The Kelly Group”).

I signed up for an account when the site first launched and have been checking in with it a bit since. I do think that achieving critical mass with this type of application is more difficult now that so many people have networks established on Facebook, Twitter, etc.  The bonus is that it’s not a closed network (like Facebook) and it doesn’t limit discussion (to 140 charactrs, like Twitter). Perhaps one way of dealing with the critical mass problem is to allow people to import contacts from existing social networks (for example, BrightKite offer the ability to search for Twitter friends on sign-up).

If you haven’t seen IGOPeople yet, it’s worth heading over now and checking it out.

Feel like some more reading? You can follow the Tuesday Push on Twitter, or take a look at the other Tuesday Pushes on this blog.

It’s a really nice idea; I’m a little suprised they didn’t go a bit more e-commerce with it though. I’m sure that adding a little “Buy Now” link would have increased the number of presents they got from people outside Limerick, Cork & Dublin (where the BTKids shops are).

Found via Alexia.