Samuel Beckett Bridge

Some photos I took yesterday of the Samuel Beckett Bridge arriving in Dublin. A more indepth review of the where, how and why can be found here.

Jane Russell’s Original Irish Handmade Sausages

I had the pleasure yesterday evening to be invited to a little offline digital get-together organised by Jane Russell from Jane Russell’s Original Irish Handmade Sausages. The event was a simple meet, eat and greet by way of a roof top terrace BBQ. Jane has just launched a new range of (fantastically delicious) homemade sausages and wanted to share them with some bloggy types (which apparently I'm one of - who knew?).

Hosted in the always enjoyable Odessa Club, this was a great event. Though don't think for a moment that I'm swayed by the awesome free samples that Jane was kind enough to give us. There was an impromptu interview done by social guru Darragh Doyle (a big thanks to Darragh for the introductions), and as soon as I can get my hands on it I'll pop it up.

Jane has taken the bold (though increasingly sensible) option of engaging the digital and social media community to help get her brand out there. So don't be surprised as, over the coming months, you start to see Jane moving into the digital social media world. I for one can't wait - everyone needs to try their scrumptious sausages.

Pop down to Listons, Morton's in Ranelagh or Donneybrook Fair, in either Donneybrook or Greystones, to pick up some now.

Your Blog - Top of the World!

I have three simple questions:

1. Are you a Blogger or Tweeter?
2. Would you like to see yourself at the roof of the world?
3. What would you say if I told you all you had to do was suggest a cool digitasl strategy for a charity?

No brainers, right?

Well here it is, the simplest, most easy, and only, way to get your Blog or Tweet to the roof of the world, Mount Everest!

I work for Cybercom and we have been lucky enough to be given the chance to work with Gavin Bate, one of the most inspirational people on the planet. What do we have to do? All we have to do is the stuff we love doing - blog, tweet, code, optimise and market. What is Gavin doing? Well aside from running www.movingmountains.org.uk (an absolutely incredible charity), aside from making his 5th attempt to reach the highest peak on earth, aside from doing just about everything humanily possible to make the lives of those less fortunate just a little bit better, aside from all that, he's giving one lucky Blogger or Tweeter the chance to send him a message with their name and their Blog/Twitter URL where he will photo them on top of the world!

Seriously, how cool is that!

Get the full story here, but in a nut shell it goes like this...

Gavin is an expert mountaineer but he isn't a digital marketer, cyber guru or online addict. So Gavin needs help and has asked for ideas from the Irish digital community to promote his current summit bid (eventful). Why would you want to do that though? Well as Gavin said himself, "Unlike many of the climbers out here I don't really need to stand on a bit of real estate over 5 miles up in the sky. My sole reason for doing this is to raise money and the profile of my Charity www.movingmountains.org.uk "

So what do you need to do?

Gavin wants killer ideas that will help him promote his website (and donation page). In return Gavin will promote you from the top of Mount Everest by way of a picture with your blog's name on it or via an audio blog mentioning both your name and your blog's name.

Just send a link to your blog post of promotional ideas by Tweet (@gavinbate or @cybercom using #cyb10) and may the best blogger win!

500 Posts

Having just realised that I had posted 499 posts I couldn't help myself from dropping in something fun for the 500th.

Digitology is 1 Year Old!

Well it doesn't seem like it, but Digitology is 1 year old today! For the last year I have tried my best to entertain, educate and share the best bits of what I consider to be Digitology - Digital Marketing, Digital Arts, Digital Technology or Digital Design (though I also like to include a few wild cards every now and then).

365 days / 8,760 hours / 525,600 minutes later, and here I am. Not bad that this is my 478th blog post - that means I blog at a rate of 1 blog per 18.5 hours (God I have too much time on my hands - though I do most of my writing in the wee hours of the morning). I feel like I should have some sort of epiphany or revelation but to be honest, I'm just happy to know that I (hopefully) make a positive contribution to the blogosphere. I'll have a quick run through of stats from Digitology for those that are interested and I'll share some of the things that I've learned about bloggin in the last year.

Digitology Stats
Unique Visitors: 13,554
Visitors:20,132
Page Views: 29,886
Pages per Visit: 1.48
Ave. Time on Site: 2 min 12 seconds

Bare in mind I only put Analytics in place 3 weeks after I started Digitology, so stats are very slightly off.

So what have I learned about blogging?

• Blogging is about people
• Blogging is about sharing
• Blogging is about talking
• Blogging is about listening

Blogging is, above all, about conversation. It drives creativity. It drives innovative thought. It drives thinking. Bloggers generally share exactly how they feel. Read a blog and you should get to know someone, even if you've never met them - though you should try and meet them, because every blogger I've had the pleaseure to meet has been inspiring.

If I could recommend that you do one thing, it would be visit every blog that I have in my blog roll (Digitology Follows...). These are the people helping to turn the cogs and wheels that make it all go around.

Well there it is folks - short and sweet. I want to say thank you to everyone who reads my ramblings, and especially to everyone who takes the time to comment. Hopefully I can continue to improve what I do over the next 12 months and provide interesting content :)

Shoots Like apes Update

Just a very brief follow on from last Sundays shoot. Check out the video that Darragh posted to Culch.ie:

Living Online

Gavin has written a great post over on Servant of Chaos, about the how we live in the public through our online presence. I highly recommend giving it a read. On the back of this he also references Josh Harris’ movie, 'We Live in Public' (trailer below), which I also recommend seeing.

Electric Picnic 2009

Awesome stuff! Last Wednesday saw the announcement of the Electric Picnic line-up, perhaps the most eagerly awaited music news this year. And why not - it looks amazing!

So what are the who's what's and why's....
This year Electric Picnic will be on the 4th, 5th and 6th September
The venue (as always!) is Stradbally Hall, Co. Laois
Tickets went on sale on Friday last (17th April) at 9am

And the acts....
Headliners (though many would say this year is a collection of headliners!) are the dance giants Orbital, who confirmed that their Irish summer outing would indeed be the picnic. Then alongside them there is an almost endless array of mega-stars:
Flaming Lips
Basement Jaxx
Madness
MGMT
Fleet Foxes'
Klaxons
Bell X1
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Chic
Seasick Steve
2 Many DJs
Lisa Hannigan
Explosions in the Sky
Damien Dempsey
Alabama 3
Bat for Lashes
Zero 7
Erol Alkan
Roots Manuva
The Sugarhill Gang
Billy Bragg
Lykke Li
Imelda May
Echo & The Bunnymen
Magazine
Moderat
Simian Mobile Disco
Four Tet
Skream & Benga's Magnetic Man
Noze
Heartbreak
Halfset
Chris Cunnigham
Okkervil River
Magnolia Electric Company
The Low Anthem
The Villagers
Tunng
Jape
The Whitest Boy Alive
Micachu and the Shapes
The Walkmen
Michael Nyman
Dublin Gospel Choir
Quantic Soul Orchestra
Jazzanova

But stay tuned as that's not the end of it. There are still a lot of actsa to be announced in the coming weeks and as you can see, it's looking like one hell of a weekend.

So what else can I do there....
Back again (thank God on Sunday!) is the Body & Soul Village with all the stuff to right you back again - holistic treatments, reiki, yoga and massage, all combined with that wickedly chilled out vibe and music that feels of so good to the weary dancer. Then once you've got your energy back why not get yourself over to the Comedy Tent to refuel your sense of humour. Though if you're looking for something with a little bit more thinking you can always try the Spoken Word area, which will have (the brilliant) David McWilliams' Leviathan debates, and a host of poetry readings, Irish language performances and storytelling.

Is that it...
Definitely not! There's still Arcadia (except Glastonbury, Electric Picnic will be the only festival to host Arcadia this year), Thisispopbaby, Greencrafts, the Southern Comfort Crawdaddy Stage, the Bacardi B Live Arena and the Hot Press Chatroom. So you see, this is not a weekend to be spent anywhere except in Stradbally.

So how much will this weekend of joy cost me....
Weekend Tickets are €240
Family Camping Tickets are €480 (2 adults & up to 4 kids under 12)
Campervan Tickets are €60 (only one needed per campervan)

Well that's it....
If your mind isn't made up, you're a crazy person. Get your ticket and I'll see you there.

Shoot Like Apes

An exciting day ahead for sure folks. I have the pleasure of helping out as a Production Assistant on today's Fight Like Apes video shoot in Whelans on Wexford Street.

Today's shoot is for the song ‘Something Global’ and will be directed by Eoghan Kidney and produced by Fionn Kidney. Eoghan previously directed the Fight Like Apes’ ‘Tie Me Up With Jackets’ that was hugely applauded for its ground breaking animation, which used 1,400 different oil paintings, and more recently the video for Valerie Francis' 'Punches', which has received a similarly massive amount of praise including a listing on KanYe's Blog (this was also Produced by one of my best mate's Tim Duggan who is CEO of Mercuryboy). Fionn's background is equally impressive, with experience as Director of Digital at Strategem, Assistant Producer with Mercuryboy and providing Consultancy Services to the Darklight Film Festival, to name just a few.

Today's shoot will be no different to 'Tie Me Up With Jackets' from the point of view of creativity and daring. The video will mix pro hi-def camera footage with footage from audience operated handycams, camcorders and camera phones. Of course there's more to tell but I'm afraid I'm sworn to secrecy for the moment. Hopefully this evening I can give a better account of exactly what has been done and how it was pulled off. But we'll have to wait and see.

If you want to know more; either check out Darragh's Tweets throughout the day as he keeps the outside world up to speed on what's going on on the closed set, visit the FLA website or Facebook Page, or pop down to Whelans at 11.30am and if there is any space left in the crowd you could be lucky enough to get in.

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

In the spirit of lazy Sunday afternoons, I'm taking a break and chillin' out for a couple of hours. Enjoy...

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AdAge Powe150

Just opened up my emails to find out that Digitology has been listed on the AdAge Power150 Media and Marketing Blog list! Seriously chuffed. I guess now the pressure is really on. Time to step up to the plate so to speak.

Sunday Links

This week's Friday's Best of the Web runner-ups are.....

Barnardo's: Believe in children I, Barnardo's: Believe in children II: Two very powerful ads from Barnardo's
Good Art HLYWD: Nice intro, nice design, nice site.
Divine Chocolate: Chuck eggs at world politicians in protest to the G20. Definitely worth a look.

Internet User Statistics

This is a breakdown of user statsistics over the last year, from visitors to my blog. The two most intersting things, from my point of view as a digital marketer, is that 60% of visitors are using Firefox and at least 95% of visitors are using Flash 9.0 or above.

Evolution of the logo

I posted before about logos both here on Digitology and over on Cybercom, but both these posts have nothing on this video. Awesome stuff (sorry I'm a graphic novel geek).

Sunday Links

Aside from Digitology I also write on the Cybercom Blog, and one of our regular features is Friday's Best of the Web. I love helping to put this together as it gives me a chance to have a good dig around the net to find what's new, innovative, excellently designed or just lots of fun. Unfortunately we only feature four items and I always mind that I have a load of extra sites/ads/virals etc. that don't get used. So I decided to share them with you. Every Sunday I'll stick up links to everything that didn't make it.

So without further delay........

Seed Magazine
IKEA
Johnny Walker - The Striding Man Society
Casio - CA001

Blizzard in Ringsend

Bit of a redesign

I've been thinking about moving my blog to a dedicated hosting package and getting a 'proper' domain in place. In doing that though it makes most sense to also do a redev of the site (something else I wanted to do for a long time), but I don't have the time to do any of that now.

So instead I thought I do a bit of a change to the colour scheme.

Let me know what you think.

This is how it did look...

200 Posts!

I probably should have done a proper post filled with good solid digital learnings and insights. What can I say...... wu wu 200!

And so it starts....

I suppose I'll start this by writing a bit about myself and why I'm doing this. Not the most original beginning but hopefully I'll make up for that with all that follows. I'd like to think I can keep you both interested and entertained.

I'm a 27 year old Digital Marketing Executive, working in Dublin. I haven't always lived in Dublin and in fact I wasn't even born here. I was born and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. Both my parents are Irish but I do consider myself South African. I've also had the pleasure of travelling quite a bit and living in a few other places. None of that is particularly important now, and unlike Kurt Vonnegut (a favourite author of mine) I don't think it necessary to tell the reader absolutely everything from the beginning. I think you'll have more fun learning it as you read.

So I guess for now that's all I'll say about myself.

As for what this is all about, well, I like to write and (thanks to work, where I contribute to our company blog) I have also recently discovered that I like to blog. I'm interested in Digital Marketing, new/innovative/emerging technologies, design (both graphic and industrial) and photography. This blog will be about all these things. I'm sure there'll be a few other topics which slip in here and there; music, film, art etc. but all in all it'll be mostly about those things.

This is probably already longer then it should be for a blog so I'll stop. Hopefully if you read this and are interested in reading more, you will.