The Big Tech Show

Women in Tech is a new four-part series presented by Samantha McCaughren, Business Editor of the Sunday Independent.

In the series, Samantha speaks to Irish women involved in tech who are dispelling myths and breaking down barriers.

On this first episode, Samantha is joined by Regina Moran, Enterprise Director with Vodafone Ireland, who, as an engineer by background, has always been involved in the STEM areas and is well-versed in breaking the mould from her early days.

Regina talks about her own career and degree in engineering despite not having honours maths, plus the importance and need to introduce girls to STEM subjects before the age of 12.

Regina is a chartered fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, served on the council and executive and as president from 2014 to 2015, during which time she promoted STEM and the role of women in engineering. 

She has received a fellowship of Irish Academy of Engineering, is also a member of the Government-industry led Smart Futures Advisory Board and is a former non-executive director of EirGrid.

For more from the series go to:
https://www.independent.ie/podcasts/women-in-tech/

The Women in Tech podcast series is in association with 100% Electric Nissan Leaf.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adrian spent a week in China getting a look under the hood of Huawei, the world’s most controversial tech company.

He discusses his experience here with two INM acolytes, Sunday Independent deputy business editor Fearghal O’Connor and Sunday Independent business correspondent Michael Cogley. He recounts how:

- He ended up singing with a band in a Chinese bar only to discover the guitarist was a senior Huawei executive (who then unexpectedly agreed to a revealing interview)

- He coped with being behind the great firewall of China, with no access to Google, Facebook, Twitter or any or their associated services (and how the virtual private network he paid for simply didn’t work)

- He navigated the astonishing scale of Shenzhen, a giant Chinese city that was designed after local politicians visited Shannon in Co Clare in 1980, and which now has 20m people (unlike Shannon in Co Clare)

Adrian, Fearghal and Michael also discuss the wider implications of the Huawei controversy for global security, multilateralism and our choice of mobile phone in the future.

The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Adrian is joined by Independent News & Media (INM) head of product (and business columnist) Steve Dempsey and INM chief commercial development officer Mark Coan. The subject matter is the current and future prospects of the Irish media. 2019 has so far seen multiple Irish media companies announce layoffs. What does the future hold? Can paywall subscriptions turn traditional titles’ fortunes around? What other models are working at present? Or are there simply too many titles and publishers for the market to sustain at present?

The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian is joined by data privacy expert Daragh O’Brien and child protection campaigner Alex Cooney of CyberSafeIreland.

The three discuss the reappointment of Helen Dixon as Ireland’s data protection commissioner to a second five-year term.

They also look at why, a year after the digital age of consent was raised from 13 to 16, it is no harder for children to access social media services and whether the UK’s upcoming age-verified online pornography system can teach us any lessons here.

Finally, the three touch on the issue of e-voting and whether it may be time for Ireland to think again about what was a disastrous introduction of the technology here 15 years ago.

The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zander Lurie is the boss of the world’s biggest online survey company.
The Nasdaq-listed firm has over 17m users and is expanding all over the world.
Lurie reflects on the process by which he became SurveyMonkey CEO after the tragic passing in 2015 of his friend Dave Goldberg, husband of Sheryl Sandberg and former chief executive of SurveyMonkey. “The hairs still stand on the back of my neck, thinking about Dave,” he says.
He also talks about the expectations on a modern tech CEO to take positions on controversial issues in the news, including immigration or President Trump.
And he chats in detail about a number of other things, from the perception that Big Tech now has it all wrapped up to Dublin’s appeal for Silicon Valley.

The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian sits down with Richard Bruton, the government Communications minister at the centre of the state’s €5bn plan to run subsidised fibre broadband to every one of 540,000 rural homes and businesses in the country.

He establishes for the first time that the value of the finished rural broadband network will only be a fraction of the €3bn the state is subsidising.

Diving deep into some of the issues around the controversial rollout, Adrian asks Minister Bruton some other key questions about the current state of the broadband tender, including:

1. SUBSIDIES – did the government’s subsidy rise when Eir pulled out of the National Broadband Plan tender competition, leaving only one bidder?

2. WHAT THE NETWORK IS WORTH TO THE BIDDER – how much does the government value the completed broadband network and is it giving this asset away too cheaply to a private company, Granahan McCourt?

3. PROFITABILITY – how much is the bidder ‘allowed’ to make under the agreed broadband operation?

4. FAILSAFES – what does the bidder have to fail at for the state to legally claim the network back?

5. FINANCE – how much responsibility does the state take in checking up on how the bidding company is financed, including the source of that finance?

6. SECRECY – why can’t more detail on non-sensitive issues, such as the rate of return the bidder is allowed to make, be disclosed?

7. TAXPAYER VALUE – what was the difference, if any, between the bids of Eir and Granahan McCourt?

And much more. For anyone with an interest in Ireland’s biggest ever communications contract, this is required listening.

The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While attention rests on the National Broadband Plan, eir still holds the keys to many of Ireland’s biggest telecoms problems.

This week, Adrian sits down with company chief executive Carolan Lennon to ask some of the key questions.

On the National Broadband Plan, Adrian asks whether Lennon whether knowing that eir would collect close to €1bn from rental of its poles to the National Broadband Plan was a factor in the company withdrawing from the tender to oversee responsibility for the whole project. Lennon responds in detail about why eir pulled out.

Adrian also asks whether, with €400m of new debt being taken on by eir, the company is again being sucked into a pattern of getting overstretched and over-leveraged.

Other topics are discussed at length. For instance, eir has also promised 99pc geographic mobile 4G coverage of the country. Is this really possible without tens of thousands of new masts?

Does Lennon believe that there’s room in the Irish market for three fully-fledged mobile operators?

Are the days of the landline and home phones numbered? In an era of WhatsApp and Skype, is there a long term future for traditional mobile phone numbers?

The two also discuss potential uses for 5G and the long term future for telecoms companies. And Lennon says that she believes the copper network that eir owns is on the way out.

Lennon even reacts to a suggestion from Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week that the government recently considered renationalising eir.

The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is the National Broadband Plan a visionary thing for Ireland? Or is it a grand folly?

This week, Adrian talks exclusively to Peter Hendrick, the chief executive of the sole remaining bidder for the €3bn state-subsidised contract.

The two talk about rollout timetables, cost and technology.

Adrian asks why the last 20pc is being done with fibre and not wireless which, in the short term, might provide a cheaper solution.

He also asks whether National Broadband Ireland, the new entity which will build and maintain the network, has resolved its differences with Eir and why it will cost €1bn to rent Eir’s infrastructure over the coming years.

For anyone interested in the detail of the National Broadband Plan debate, this is worth listening to.

The Big Tech podcast in proud association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we look at war stories from one of the fastest-growing online scams around – email fraud.

Whether it’s invoice redirection fraud or CEO fraud, the phenomenon of faking corporate emails to siphon off thousands from a business is rampant in Ireland.

Adrian Weckler looks through some of the reported incidences of this happening, including to Dublin Zoo, Trinity College and the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board.

He is joined in studio by one of Ireland’s most senior experts on fraud, Conor Flynn of ISAS. Together, they dig down into the mechanics of how the scam takes root, from the first breach to the ultimate withdrawal.

They also look at the role of ‘money mules’, often in the guise of third level students who ‘rent’ their bank accounts to the fraudsters, and what might happen to them.

Finally, the two discuss ways that companies can protect against it.

The Big Tech show is in association with Magnet Networks, connecting businesses virtually, anywhere in Ireland.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a lot of nonsense spoken about how rural broadband can be delivered.

This week, Adrian Weckler and Irish Independent business editor Donal O’Donovan go through some of the myths and tropes around the process.

They ask whether wireless or 5G might be an alternative. They also look at the cost of the rollout and whether the government can be trusted or not. And then they discuss the basic questions underpinning the whole process: is rural broadband to every home important? If so, is a state subsidy justifiable? And if that’s agreed, should it be high speed infrastructure or a patch-up job?

Also: Adrian gives a very brief, spoiler-free review of ‘Avengers Endgame’.

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