The Technology.ie Podcast

Tommy Butler owns the domain name Glasgow.com, but now it’s up for sale, and in a podcast interview with Technology.ie he talks about his reasons for selling, his thoughts on the value of domain names, his strategy for domain success, and why a good domain is a business asset.

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 39:58; 23MB; MP3.

A native Glaswegian, he’s especially proud to have owned and run Glasgow.com, which he bought in 1999 for an undisclosed sum. It went on to become a centrepiece of his collection of over 2,000 domains which he develops, manages, buys and sells.

Tommy is a strong believer in mass development of domains as a strategy for success. Each year he publishes all the traffic stats for each of his sites. “Our traffic always increases”, he says, “year-in, year-out”.

“People complain that mass development doesn’t work. It works for us. It’s worked for us for 18 years and therefore I’ve got 18 years worth of traffic stats to prove otherwise.”

The rise of social media doesn’t diminish the value of domains, says Tommy: it enhances them. Glasgow.com comes complete with a Twitter account and LinkedIn profile.

“To me the domain is the heart and soul of your online business. It’s not your social media accounts. It’s not your Facebook account.  And I say this to every business: If you have the right domain name for your business, your business will succeed no matter what.”

Dot-com names have held their value, says Tommy, even with the rise of the new generic TLDs. A good generic name is valuable because it’s a revenue-generating asset.

“People have been uneducated about what is the value of a domain name, and I think that’s why social media and SEO have become far more important … They’ll happily spend two thousand, three thousand, getting their SEO done, but if they took that money and bought the domain name, the domain name will bring in better results than the SEO – and they’ll own the name!

“And then if you’ve got a good name, and you’ve put SEO on it, it’s a fantastic combination!”

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Glasgow.com Domain is For Sale. We Interview Tommy Butler [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology

Michele goes on something of a patriotic rant on this week’s podcast – well it is the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

“Forget about these bloody multinationals who are set up over here and have absolutely no loyalty or ties to the country. What about the Irish companies built on the blood and sweat of Irish people?”

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 35:20; 20MB; MP3.

Not that he’s got anything against multinationals, he explains. It’s the disproportionate emphasis that politicians and government agencies put on foreign direct investment that annoys him. Just a little.

If he’s waving a flag, it’s for SMEs: the “backbone of the economy” as he likes to tell us in the Blacknight office (in between cracks of the whip – but I digress!)

It’s why he sponsors The Blacknight SME Awards – and it’s why those awards are free to enter. Entries close on Valentine’s day! We #LoveSMEs!

To highlight the personal commitment of Irish SMEs awards organiser Damien Mulley has decided to survey the Significant Others of Irish SMEs. Don’t fill this survey if you’re an entrepreneur: give it to your partner (no – not your business partner – the other one!)

“You don’t get to work nine to five”, says Michele, getting worked up again about the sacrifices SMEs make. I tell him it’s not too late to run for election.

The Irish Internet Association is also running a survey. 40% of SMEs don’t have a website – but do they really need one? The IIA plans to compile the results into an online diagnostic tool designed to help companies find the best online approach to suit their business.

Also on this week’s show:

Nominations for The 2016 Blacknight SME Awards are now open and extended to Feb 14 – Valentines Day.

Technology.ie is brought to you by Blacknight. Check out our brand new ‘one-click’ Site Backup tool offering peace of mind for as little as €1.99 per month.

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The Blood and Sweat of Irish People [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology

Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon and I got together in his office on Friday for our first podcast chat of 2016 – and it’s been a busy year so far. Michele brings us up to date on his recent trips to Las Vegas and Turkey and talked about a recent spate of phishing attacks which are specifically targeting Irish users.

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 30:15; 17MB; MP3.

We talk about International Data Protection Day, and the Digital Rights Ireland legal challenge on the independence of Ireland’s Data Protection Commision.

Also:

Nominations for The 2016 Blacknight SME Awards are now open and extended to Feb 14 – Valentines Day.

Technology.ie is brought to you by Blacknight, the One-Stop-Shop for hosting, domains and online services for SMEs.

Like the show? We love making it! Subscribe with iTunes or RSS.

Podcast: Compost, Lost Lobsters and Silly Traffic [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology

On today’s podcast I talk to Michele about Star Wars: The Force Awakens – which I have seen and he hasn’t. Don’t worry – it’s a spoiler free zone.

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 20:51; 12MB; MP3.

We also talk Teresa Mannion, TV reporter turned YouTube viral star, who I interviewed earlier this week at the launch of OMiG Summit in Galway.

Blacknight is a sponsor of OMiG Summit. It’s on in Galway on January 21 – see you there!

We also look ahead to The Blacknight SME Awards. The event is on February 25, but the key date to remember for now is January 7. It’s free to enter up until then, and there are 18 categories ranging from Family Run Business to Environmentally Minded and everything in between.

What else? The puntastic Channel 5 Star Wars weather report, and the Jimmy Fallon Star Wars acappella. Michele’s annual tacky online Christmas card at Michele.Christmas! dotChristmas and dotIrish and lots more Top Level Domains!

Our Christmas opening hours, by the way, are at Blacknight.Christmas.

Technology.ie is brought to you by Blacknight, the One-Stop-Shop for hosting, domains and online services for SMEs.

*”Super-grumpy” is Michele’s description of Harrison Ford. You thought I meant Michele? Tut-tut! :)

Podcast: Super-Grumpy!* [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology

Thanks to a busy run of events recently, it’s been a while since Michele and I got together for a podcast so we had a lot to talk about in today’s episode.

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 33:34; 12MB; MP3.

In fact it’s Michele’s second podcast this week: he was a guest on the Domain Name Wire podcast on Monday with Andrew Allemann where he talked about new TLDs and the IANA transition. “It’s in the endgame” he says about the latter, but he fears it might stall if its not concluded before the US presidential election.

He’s just recently returned from Washington, and tells us how he got on as a member of a delegation from the Internet Infrastructure Coalition.

We talk more about domains – and domains as Christmas presents! Blacknight is currently offering .IRISH domain names for just €15.99!

.IE is an ever popular domain extension for Irish people, but be warned if you plan to launch a site over the Christmas period! The IE Domain Registry manually verifies all registrations, and their office will be closed from Wednesday December 23rd 2015 until Monday January 4th 2016, because that’s how they roll!

Also – if you’ve ever wanted a one or two-letter .IE domain name, they are now allowed, and the Sunrise period for trademark holders is currently open.

Michele also looks ahead to CES in Las Vegas after Christmas, and NamesCon the following week, both events he will attend.

The Blacknight SME Awards have launched – and it’s free to enter until  January 7th 2016!

Finally, we offer our congratulations to Pat Phelan and the Trustev team who were acquired this week, and look forward to Star Wars Episode 7!

Technology.ie is powered by Blacknight, Ireland’s leader in domains and hosting. It’s our staff Christmas party tonight! Ho ho host!

Ho-ho-hosting! Podcast with Michele Neylon [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology

Simon McGarr is our guest on today’s podcast. He’s the solicitor representing Digital Rights Ireland, who were granted amicus curiae status in the case regarding the EU-US ‘Safe Harbour Agreement’, which the EU Court of Justice ruled invalid this week.

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 21:34; 12MB; MP3.

The case arises out of a complaint by an Austrian man named Max Schrems, who asked the Irish Data Protection Commisioner to investigate whether his data held by Facebook in the US was adequately protected under EU Data protection law. The Commisioner initially dismissed his case, arguing that since Facebook was covered by the EU-US Safe Harbour Agreement, that there was no case to answer.

‘Safe Harbour’ sounds impressive, says Simon, but it amounts to nothing more than companies certifying themselves as providing ‘adequate protection’.

It’s a very peculiar thing to be called an agreement. It’s an exchange of letters between the European Commission and the US Government, where the Commission asked for reassurances in relation to how things are done in the United States with relation to data. And then a further list of names is kept by the US Government of companies who agree to mostly self-certify that they are behaving well towards European users’ data, and if you follow all those rules and you were on the list and you had done what was required in terms of self certification, then you were deemed to be part of the Safe Harbour agreement, as about 4,500 companies were.

Digital Rights Ireland and Mr Schrems argued that this was inadequate. It didn’t matter that Safe Harbour was agreed by the EU Commission: it simply didn’t measure up under the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Court agreed.

What the court has said is that Data Protection rights aren’t just a matter of national legislation. They’re not just a matter of EU legislation: the Directive.  They’re actually part of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. There’s now a separate Data Protection Right, separate and distinct, and in addition to your general Right to Privacy, written into the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The result is that when the Commission makes a decision in breach of that Charter, as the Court finds … it has the power to strike that decision down, and it did so.

Significantly, he explains, the ruling says that not only are Data Protection Commissioners permitted to investigate in spite of legislation, they are actually obliged to do so, and – if neccessary – to challenge the constitutionality of such legislation in court.

The data protection authorities of Europe – the independent overseers at national level – have been enormously strengthened by this ruling. They now have the power to make investigations, and indeed, not just the power, but an obligation is put on them by the court that they must investigate matters, even where there has been a Europe-wide decision issued from the European Commission, and if needs be they can take necessary litigation to challenge that European decision if their investigation discovers that the facts do not warrant the decision that has been made.

The ruling is set to have far -reaching implications, he says.

I think there’s no question but that it is significant, and I think it’s going to take a short period of time – not a long period of time for that significance to unfold out into the public gaze. We’ve seen a lot of holding statements issued in relation to ‘business carrying on as usual’, ‘no change’, ‘we can always use different methods of transferring data’, but those different methods – such as model contract clauses – rely on the same presumption that the Safe Harbour agreement relied on: that the United States Government wasn’t going to take a copy of all the data, a presumption which the Court has now effectively rebutted and struck down.

The judgement brings to the fore the essential ideological differences between US and European approaches to data protection.

There is no doubt but that the idea of personal data as a tradeable commodity is now anathema to the EU’s most fundamental laws. Mass surveillance is absolutely anathema to the fundamental rights of European Citizens. The European Court has said that in this case, and in the Digital Rights Ireland case, and in addition the Google Spain case has ruled on the limits of data as a profit centre, where the use of that data might contravene the personal rights of the individual, so what we see is a court that is very much staking out a series of case law precedents which say the privacy and dignity of the individual will have primacy over anything that a company, or indeed industry, may wish to use, and that includes the surveillance industry.

This ruling, he points out, carries the weight of constitutional law. The Charter of Fundamental Rights is “the bedrock document upon which the treaties, and all subsequent legislation, rest”.

So where does this leave EU-US relations, when it comes to digital business? Simon thinks that the court decision will strengthen Europe’s hand in data protection negotiations which have not been making progress. EU negotiators have already requested assurances of better data protection: now those requests carry the weight of a constitutional imperative.

“The commission can’t do a deal which trades away anything that the Court has found is fundamental to human rights. So the Commission now has an absolute red line. It cannot go lower in terms of protections than the court has found is required.”

Therefore, while businesses on both sides of the Atlantic will push for an agreement, in practice only the US has room to manouevre, as the Court decision makes much of the EU position non-negotiable.

“There’s no doubt that the Portarlington office of the Data Protection Commisioner finds itself at the sharp end of the entirety of Europe’s Data Protection regime”.

The task falls to the Irish Data Protection Commisioner to investigate Mr Schrems complaint against Facebook. Simon points out that the Commisioner’s office doesn’t have to start from square one. There is already considerable research on the shortfalls in the American data protection regime, including a report for the EU Commision which was used in evidence in the court case. “It’s up to the Irish Data Protection commisioner to decide the weight to give to that [in its investigation]”

Technology.ie is brought to you by Blacknight, Ireland’s leader in domains and hosting. 100% of our servers are hosted in Ireland. Where does your data live?

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Safe Harbour Ruling Strengthens Europe’s Hand – An Interview with Simon McGarr [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology

Tracy Keogh is our guest on today’s podcast. She’s been involved in startup events for many years and recently joined Bank of Ireland as Startup Community Manager for Galway.

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 07:18; 4MB; MP3.

There’s more going on in Galway than we generally hear about, she says, with co-working spaces opening up in the developing Innovation District in the city centre. We talk about the Kickstarter just launched by game developers 9th Impact, and look ahead to Galway Startup Weekend.

This year, startup weekends are being organised in several Irish cities to kick off the Startup Gathering nationwide. That’s a week-long event run by Startup Ireland, supported by Bank of Ireland and the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs.

Technology.ie is brought to you by Blacknight, Ireland’s leader in domains and hosting. .IRISH domains are on special offer at just €15.99!

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Galway is Startup City: Podcast with Tracy Keogh [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology

Today’s podcast is recorded in Michele Neylon’s office at Blacknight HQ in Carlow. It’s our first show recorded there since we refurbished it with echo-absorbing acoustic panels. Michele jokes that I’ve put him in “a padded cell” – but the sound quality is hugely improved!

Click on the player above to listen to the show, or download it here: 34:31; 20MB; MP3.

It’s also the first show recorded using our new Zoom H6 audio recorder. With 2 built in stereo channels, plus the ability to plug in 4 additional mics and mix the levels for each, it’s like a recording studio in your hand!

This week’s big story is the news that Web Summit is moving to Lisbon. It’s been kicked around like a political football the last few days, with various people citing it as evidence of Dublin’s decline as a technology hub.

Michele is dismissive of these arguments. “It is, what it is”, he says. Web Summit is moving on, he says. These things happen.

To put it in perspective he points to the 80,000 people per day who attended the National Ploughing Championship this week.

While it’s on a much smaller scale, ICANN 54 is nonetheless a big deal – and it’s coming to Dublin for the first time in October. Last week Michele participated on a panel at an event in Dublin designed to introduce Irish people to ICANN and encourage participation in internet governance. The main event runs from 18 – 22 of October and it’s free to attend and to participate.

The Realex Web Awards are coming up (we are sponsors!) and Blog Awards Ireland (we’re nominated!). October is going to be a busy month!

Also discussed: Microsoft Surface, iPad Pro and Deezer! And we’re delighted to welcome Blacknight’s newest product: Microsoft Office 365!

Technology.ie is brought to you by Blacknight, Ireland’s leader in domains and hosting. Now offering Microsoft Office 365 – choose the plan that suits you from just 3.40 per month!

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Podcast from the Padded Cell [Audio] originally appeared on Technology.ie News & Views on Gadgets & Tech - A Podcast about technology