Recently in Business Category

Eamon Ryan is Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.

Now the last time I checked Communications included such things as ISPs, broadband, internet - you know, that sort of thing.

I was also under the rather naive impression that Dail ministers couldn't opt out of parts of their own portfolio. You know, ignore those bits of their portfolio that might make them actually have to deal with real and substantive issues.

As MD of Blacknight I am our representative to the Irish ISP Association (ISPAI). I'm also on the  organisation's working group for data retention.

We've been working with our members and the various government departments and Gardai on the transposition of the directive into Irish law. I won't bore you with the details of this at the moment - it would also put me in a bad mood to even think about it!

A couple of weeks ago the ISPAI sent letters to various Irish government ministers including Mr Eamon Ryan, Minister for Communications (etc)

The letters attached (pdf) are the letter from the ISPAI to Mr Ryan and his signed response.

Considering the directive itself refers specifically to communications (Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC) his reply has left me more than a little confused:

Sorry? You're the minister for Communications. How on earth can you hope to get away by saying you have no function in this matter? The directive affects just about everything your department is in charge of.

So I have to ask dear reader, what purpose does Eamon Ryan serve?

EamonRyanispailetter.pdf

eamonryan-reply.pdf

Damien has posted quite a nice rant about how people should and shouldn't pitch to him.

While he might have been writing from his perspective as blogger, he raises a number of points that extend well beyond blogs and are more about sales in general.

I don't like cold calls. Some people probably enjoy them, but I can't think of anyone offhand. When you first start a business you feel almost honoured that someone is trying to pitch their goods to you, but over time that (quickly) wears off. You soon realise that your time is better spent looking after your own business and if the product or service is as cool and useful as the salesperson is making out you'll probably come across it anyway. (That argument is a bit flawed, but please don't interrupt!)

The problem with some people is that they have blind faith in their own products. Now don't confuse "blind faith" with "confidence" or "pride".
I'm proud of our business, but I also know that what we sell is not suitable for everyone.

I wouldn't try to sell my mother a dedicated server, but I know she needs and uses her email. How it works isn't her problem - though her tendency to seek technical support via my mobile number when I'm in the wrong timezone can be a challenge at times! (Admittedly she hasn't resorted to that since I got my first server)

About a year ago (possibly longer?) we were contacted by someone who was selling a software product.
I can't remember the product name, but I know it was some kind of CMS solution.
And it wasn't cheap. They asked us if we would be interested in selling it to our clients. We weren't for a number of reasons.

End of story? You'd have thought so.
But no.
They then rang again demanding to speak to someone "further up" because the person they'd dealt with obviously "didn't have any vision".

Of course they'd been dealing with me, so they never got that sale.

Whether I have vision or not is irrelevant.

If you're trying to sell anyone anything you can't expect to make a sale with that kind of attitude.

If you love your product, that's great.

But you've got to realise that:
You've got to have perspective!

Hosting365 have announced that they've sold Register365, which is their shared hosting and domains business to Namesco a UK provider.

So now Ireland's largest provider is no longer Irish. According to the press release Hosting365 are going to focus on their managed services.

What does that mean for the Irish hosting market?

It could be interesting times ahead, as Novara was already swallowed up by Irish Telco Digiweb earlier this year.

Are there more acquistions and sales in the pipeline?

I've mentioned the rather stupid way in which Enterprise Ireland mismanage their ebusiness mailing list.

My previous comments were primarily aimed at the "anonymity", which I felt was problematic on a number of levels.

But what about the actual editing and twisting of people's words?

When I write an email, an article or a blog post I do so consciously. I may, from time to time, use words or phrases that may not be the most appropriate, but I am more than happy to accept any and all consequences for my actions.

Do I really need someone from Enterprise Ireland to tell me how to word my emails?

I honestly don't think so.

In reply to a thread on hosting I sent a reply where I clearly stated that I considered the previous reply to be "inane". I know what the word means and I don't hide my identity. If I'd wanted to say "misinformed" I'd have said as much. I didn't.

Do EI's list moderators live in fear of offending the poor ickle business people?

Thank God there are still mailing lists like OPEN where you can say what you want without having your words twisted around (or having to wait hours for someone to "approve" your reply)

Is it any surprise that people like Damien end up organising their own trips to the US instead of relying on EI?

UPDATE: It now seems that people are offended by "my" reply where I said someone was "misinformed". Considering I didn't even use the word in my email I find it amusing that the "moderator" has decided that the discussion should continue elsewhere. Idiots!

Grainne from InterTradeIreland got in touch with me yesterday regarding the All Island Seedcorn Competition 2008.

The competition is aimed at startups and has a prize fund of 280 thousand euro. The first prize is  100 thousand euro (I wish we'd had that kind of money to play with a couple of years ago!)

Full details including entry criteria are on the site

Steve Jobs has Fake Steve Jobs. Shel Israel has a puppet. Paul Walsh has Walsh Watch.

It seems I've now got the next best thing - my own "wikipedia" page courtesy of Mr Eoin Costello. (He was in the news earlier this week when his hosting company was swallowed up)

I must say I am impressed. I didn't realise that Eoin was such a talented wit and not a bad graphic artist either.

It must have taken a couple of hours to put it all together. So maybe we'll see more of these little works of art now that he isn't distracted by his "booming" business.

Of course if he'd spent more time on his business maybe he would still be a "player" and not another footnote ...

Here's a screenshot of the page in case Mr Costello removes it.

Social networking sites were in the news this week again with AOL's purchase of Bebo for $600 million. Maybe the new owners might get round to fixing bebo.ie, which is still pointing at the "cover story" used by its previous owners.

Closer to home Vaveeva is reported to be in trouble and looks like it will be shutting its doors permanently.

The site is currently unavailable, so whether or not it comes back or not remains to be seen.

Last year there was some mention of them faking their online numbers, while they also took
liberties with one of Krystian's photos.

Can all of these various social networking sites survive?

Or are they all trying to be snapped up by some big media giant?

I run a hosting company so I know all about outages and unexpected issues.

They can and will happen.

No matter what happens you will never please all of your clients. You can try, but you won't succeed. It's not that your best efforts won't be good enough, but simply that there will always be an "expectation gap". The best you can hope for is pleasing most of them most of the time.

One thing I have learnt (the hard way) is that being honest and upfront can be both painful and rewarding.

You need to swallow your pride and "eat humble pie" when you screw up.

No matter what you as the provider may think, as far as the client is concerned their little site is the centre of the universe.

You can say what you like behind closed doors, but you need to be respectful in public.

I'm not saying that we all manage to do this all of the time or that it is easy, but it's the sanest way of dealing with things.

Some providers simply don't "get" that.

And if you're feeling particularly evil check Keith's blog