Feedback Friday
Feedback Friday: YourLocal wants YourFeedback
Last week after a long process of redevelopment YourLocal.ie, an IIA Member company, relaunched their site. Personally I think it looks rather spiffing but my opinion in this instance is neither here nor there. Josephine from YourLocal.ie has been in touch and is looking for feedback on a very particular aspect of the new site:
“We would love to get some feedback on the search results on our site. There are particular results coming back for searches that make sense in terms of Geo coding however I am not sure these are the best search results for our users.”
So all you search marketing experts out there please visit YourLocal.ie, run a search and let YourLocal.ie know in the comments below what you think of the results. If you need more direction please ask in the comments below – Josephine is on hand to respond.
If you haven’t taken part in Feedback Friday before PLEASE REVIEW THE GUIDELINES before getting all harumphy when I don’t publish your comments. Thanks!
Uncategorized
Data Protection Commissioner issues warning about phone scammers
Every organisation, whether in the public or the private sector, must respect the confidence placed in it by members of the public who hand over their personal data. Every customer, client and employee has the right to full control over the use of their personal information. Personal information is a valuable resource and processing it is a privilege earned by respecting the rights of individuals.
Members of the public must also be on guard to protect their personal information from criminal gangs and other organisations that purposefully set out to engage in fraud or mis-use. In that regard, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is calling on all households to be particularly vigilant when receiving phone calls from organisations “out of the blue” offering to fix problems that the householder did not know existed.
Specifically, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and Microsoft Ireland would like to warn people of a scam that remains active in the Irish marketplace. Irish consumers are receiving telephone calls from persons claiming to be from Microsoft, or working on behalf of Microsoft, to tell them they have a virus on their computer.
Details of the Scam:
- Consumers are cold called from someone claiming to be from Microsoft and told there is a problem with their computer and offered help to solve the computer problems.
- Once the caller has gained the consumer’s trust, they ask consumers to log onto a website to download a file to help solve the problem.
- They then ask for credit card details to pay for software which will fix the virus and also potentially attempt to steal from the person by accessing personal information on their computer. In addition to gaining access to your personal details, they can also infect your computer with damaging viruses and spyware.
Deputy Data Protection Commissioner, Gary Davis indicated “Our Office has received ongoing complaints and queries from unsuspecting members of the public who have received these calls. This would appear to be a major scam targeting Ireland and people need to be aware of the issue. Together with the Gardaí, Comreg and the National Consumer Agency we have sought to highlight the issue to ensure that consumers do not fall victim. We are making progress in identifying an Irish link to these calls and intend to bring prosecutions. In the meantime the best answer is to hang up if receiving such a call and if you have provided details of your credit card to any entity on foot of such a call, we would advise you to contact your credit card provider immediately.”
Speaking on the issue Paul Rellis, General Manager, Microsoft Ireland said, “Microsoft takes the privacy and security of all our customers and partners’ personal information very seriously. We are advising customers to treat all unsolicited phone calls with scepticism and not to provide any personal information to anyone over the phone or online. Anyone who receives an unsolicited call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft should hang up. We can assure you Microsoft does not make these kinds of calls”.
More information on this scam and how consumers can protect themselves is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/phishing/Msname.aspx
Note to Editors:
The Council of Europe has decided that each year there should be a special day dedicated to Data Protection. The 28 January is the anniversary of the opening for signature of the Council of Europe’s Data Protection Convention. This is the fifth year that countries across Europe and indeed beyond have marked the day by increasing awareness of data protection and privacy rights. More information on Council of Europe Data Protection Day can be found at: http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/legal_co-operation/data_protection/
From the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner Press Office
Uncategorized
Dublin Startup Weekend at NDRC
This will be the second Dublin Startup Weekend, and the concept is simple – a roomful of people are brough together (c.50 – 70 developers, coders, marketers, product managers, web evangelists and startup enthusiasts) to go from concept to launch (or at least prototype) in 54 hours. The format is basically:
- Pitch an idea on Friday night
- Work with your team on Saturday
- Present your product on Sunday
The last Dublin Startup Weekend in May 2010 saw four start-ups formed, all of which are still plugging away (see BragBet; GeoDealio; CauseHere and HittheRoad). These start-ups emerged from the 60 participants, all of whom pay to take part, and form teams around good ideas.
Startup Weekend started in the US, but now has run in over 100 cities across the world with over 15,000 people having taken part. Billed by Forbes as a ‘Name You Need to Know in 2011’, two Startup Weekend originating companies have recently raised investment (Memolane.com raised $2m, and Foodspotting raised $750k)
Amy Neale and Sean Murphy (who are facilitating the event on the ground in Dublin) are passionate about creating a successful event for Dublin. The Dublin Start-Up weekend is run on a voluntary, not-for-profit basis by the duo (participants pay for tickets, which cover their food costs for the weekend), to see what great new ideas emerge from the community, and to help in any way to get them off the ground. The only agenda is to bring together great people with good ideas and support them to build a community and start companies.
More information:
Amy Neale
NDRC
P: +353 1 542 4155
E: amy.neale@ndrc.ie
W: www.ndrc.ie
Tw: http://www.twitter.com/ndrc_i2i
Uncategorized
IIA Membership is great value
Your membership will afford the very best value for money for your company. For example:
Professional Services
- Professional Services: Support on specific legal queries could save you €300 per query;
- As an IIA Member, you can approach our working groups for advice relating to a range of issues from legal queries to web development;
Training and Education
- You can save up to €1,035 on training costs this year as an IIA Member. With an average satisfaction rating of 85% for IIA training events, they are well worth it;
- You have access to course materials and Case Studies valued at €4,200;
Research and Consultancy
- Development guides and White Papers valued at €3,600 are at your disposal. This ever growing range of business intelligence resources is developed for the Irish market and includes "Cloud Business: Assessment of the risks versus the benefits" and many others;
Marketing
- All members have an opportunity to raise their company profile by participating as a speaker, in a working group, as a guest blogger or simply by adding company news or company feeds to IIA.ie;
Member Offers
- You can avail of or make special offers that will help grow and expand your business.
How to join:
It couldn’t be easier. Click here to join online by credit card, EFT or invoice and start making the most of your membership today.
If you have any further queries please don’t hesitate to contact our membership manager, Roseanne Smith, at members@iia.ie or 01 5424154 or you can IM her from Meebo on the IIA Blog.
Membership, events, Meetball
Network at Meetball
We are no shortage of all shades of busy here in IIA HQ and plan to keep it this way in 2011. Darren, who looks after our events & training, has just sold out the third intake of the IIA Diploma in Digital Marketing in association with Irish Times Training.
Meanwhile I’ve been having some great chats, catching up with members on the phone, reminding them to renew their membership for 2011 (I’m a bit of a stuck record on this every January!) and to tell them about our Meetball Networking event on January 26th 2011 at The Tower Bar, The Church, corner of Mary St/ Jervis St., Dublin 1.
This free business networking event is for IIA Members and non-members so if you’re not a member of the IIA it’s a perfect opportunity to come along and find out all about the association.
We already have a rake of registrations including our two new board members, David Kerr of Bonkers.ie and Jermain Williams of Dialogue. So come along and meet them, other board members and working group members too. Register for free online now.
We are using EventElephant, an IIA Member Company, for these registrations and so far I’m very impressed with this online event organisation service. Apart from the easy to use site, two offline aspects of this that I think are slick are
- the ability to download attendee badges for print and
- if you have a barcode scanner you can use this to register attendees; they even link to a number of recommended scanners.
A number of IIA members have also bravely volunteered to demo at Meetball:
The Digital Hub Development Agency
Mason Hayes + Curran Solicitors
There are two demo slots left so if you think your company could do with a boost or if you have a new service or product offering get in touch with me, Roseanne, at members@iia.ie or ring 01 5424154 or Skype me at clogher.
Or pop your question in the Meebo chat box on the right and I’ll IM you back – thanks!
Register online for Meetball and we’ll see you there!