You can see the results here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AoBRu050aBBYdEtHY2pZR2cySHBzdzhBS1phekp0Z2c&output=html

Image by KDamo

Technovate 2012 is on next week in Wexford town. Looks like a great event and and doesn’t suffer from ‘its a conference so it must be held in Dublin’ sydrome.

Great Speakers, great sponsors, if you want to see more events like this outside the Pale then vote with your wallets.

Do suggest sites to add.

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Dash over to mobilecf.feedhenry.com and give it a spin.

A Microsoft Word version is here.

A poor but serviceable HTML version is here.

The website is at http://www.djei.ie/science/ipr/crc_statement.htm

The email address for feedback is : copyrightreview@djei.ie

Send feedback by post to:

Copyright Review

Room 517

Department of Jobs

Enterprise and Innovation

Kildare Street

Dublin 2.

 The IIA in turn posted a statement on their website which outlined my key concerns with using an  ”Industry body” to collate feedback for an issue that will have widespread societal impact. Specifically:

This will allow the IIA to collate the views of its members and enable us to comprehensively represent their concerns and ideas to Government and input into this important legislation. 

So its first priority is to collate the views of its members, which is right and proper. The IIA is a society of its members that as far as I know does not purport to represent the views of those segments of the industry who are not members.

The IIA then goes on to say:

Non-members are welcome to submit their comments using this survey tool. However, comments by non-members will be passed un-collated and un-filtered to the department as it would not be in the best interests of our members to use IIA resources in working for non-members.  I believe this methodology strikes the right balance of being inclusive and facilitative whilst prioritising our member’s needs as we are charged to do. Allowing the widest stakeholder feedback is quite simply in the spirit of the community.  Stakeholders are not limited to using this tool but it is open to everyone.

They are upfront about this, the IIA is about its members.

So where is the forum for feedback for non-members of the IIA? I don’t want my feedback refracted through a third party organisation. Nor do I want to be treated as a second class citizen because I have no business being a member of the IIA. Stakeholders are not limited to this tool, but where are the other tools?

What priority is the minister likely to place on IIA feedback vs feedback from other sources? No one can tell at this point. But we can infer from his behaviour on the SOPA Ireland issue that feedback and decisions how to proceed are likely to be made behind closed doors.

Can I suggest that a more open forum for Feedback would be for the minister to set up a Facebook page to which anyone can post public commentary, an email address to which private commentary can be posted and his own survey (again trivial to setup on a site like PollDaddy).

All this feedback should be published “in the raw” including back-channel input from various industry bodies who use “other channels” to reach the minister. Lets shed a little sunlight on the process.

I would be happy to do this work for no charge in order to facilitate an open feedback process.

Tagged: Government, IIA, polldaddy ]]> http://blog.joedrumgoole.com/2012/03/02/why-the-iia-is-not-the-best-forum-for-government-feedback/feed/ 15 Joe sean-sherlock-tweet http://blog.joedrumgoole.com/2012/02/29/the-shame-of-sopa-ireland/ http://blog.joedrumgoole.com/2012/02/29/the-shame-of-sopa-ireland/#comments Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:13:58 +0000 Joe http://blog.joedrumgoole.com/?p=1250 ]]> Un.Fucking.Believable.

SOPA Ireland got passed into law tonight despite the protests of 80,000 people. I ask you, what do we have to do to move the needle for the venal deadbeats that have brought this country to its knees? These people want to hand it over piecemeal to every transnational corporation who comes looks looking for a piece of the action.

If democracy can’t work like this how is it supposed to work?

We spent the last 50 years eradicating the anti-democratic forces that turned Northern Ireland into a battlefield only to find the enemy has always been amongst us. The Trilateral Commission in 1973 bemoaned “The Crisis of Democracy” surrounding the protests associated with the Vietnam War. They would have smiled benevolently on our current government’s ability to blithely ignore the concerns of the electorate in order to serve the “the needs of the market” i.e. the music industry who put a gun to its head after the Eircom three strikes ruling was overturned.

We apparently “must legislate” because the EMI told us so.

What should we do? What can we do? Our government had slapped us on the arse and told us to go to bed.

If as a democratic state we no longer have democracy then the alternatives are bleak indeed…

Please have a look at the following posts and take action at Stop SOPA Ireland.

• TJ McIntyre’s FAQ on Ireland’s SOPA
• The Business Post’s article on it
• Michele Neylon’s rallying call
• Karl Monaghan has written about how it sucks

Sign the petition now.  (thanke to IrishStu for the list of links).

EI is doling out another pot of money to the South East. Now I am a big fan of EI. I think they are the best agency of their type in the world, bar none. But this regional development plan is a dissipation of scare resources. It also makes no sense for startup policy in Ireland.

Here’s how it plays out. Money is ring fenced for the South East. Now instead of competing against all the startups in Ireland the South East is competing against itself. If you expect to win a grant based on your ability to export and you can’t beat out the local competition in Ireland, how in the wide world of sports are you going to compete on a global stage?

It would make much more sense to widen the global pot for Ireland and make the South East stand up and be counted.

I know for  fact that they have the talent to do so.