ROUNDUPS
For the record 26 May
26-05-2005
by Deirdre McArdle
European Union approves EUR660,000 for FLOSSWorld | Ireland faces IT skills crisis, says UCC professor
The European Union has approved funding for FLOSSWorld, a unique project to promote global collaboration relating to Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS). The two-year project, which commenced earlier this month, will involve 17 partners in 12 countries around the world. The partners will all share a grant of EUR660,000, which comes courtesy of the European Union's 6th Framework Research programme. The project aims to enable research and policy development at a global level and facilitate further collaboration between the EU and developing countries in this area.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) aims to mark the ten-year anniversary of its presence in Europe with a celebration on 3 June 2005, at the Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche Applique au Management (CERAM) in the Sophia Antipolis Science Park, France. Attendees at the event will be able to reflect on the progress of the web, its role as a unifying force in Europe, and the policies that shape its role in the daily lives of Europeans.
Intel's Computer Clubhouse, which is located in Dublin's inner city, will celebrate its two-year anniversary on 27 May with an event that joins companies from the Digital Hub with members of the surrounding community. Young people from the community will be showcasing the projects they have worked on in the past year, which vary from video projection to graphic design and animation.
Following the release of a survey by DCU showing increasing demand for IT graduates, University College Cork Professor Ciaran Murphy has said that the Irish ICT market is facing a crisis. Prof Murphy, founder of the Business Information Systems (BIS) degree programme at UCC, said he is concerned that school leavers are no longer considering IT as possible degree and career choices. Murphy said his warning is based on the projected ICT skills shortage outlined in the government's fourth Expert Group report on Future Skills Needs.
Energis has announced that it has won a STG170 million contract from Caudwell Communications. The two-year deal will see Energis become the exclusive supplier for Caudwell's corporate services, looking after the SME and large business markets, and will supply contact centre and non-geographic number services for inbound and outbound voice traffic. Energis said it has also been awarded the contract for a significant proportion of its residential traffic.
E-net, the operator of the government's Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs), has announced that it has selected the SonicWALL Security Solution to protect its internal systems. The solution was implemented by ONS, a Limerick-based company that works with E-net on maintaining its computer systems.
Creating successful email surveys: Denise Cox of email specialist Newsweaver argues that you can tap into your readers' likes or dislikes by surveying them.
