Cmdr Chris Hadfield took advantage of the International Space Station’s position above Ireland last night to take and tweet photos of Belfast and the Irish capital as they glittered in the springtime darkness.

The Canadian astronaut also provided a bit more of a panoramic photo of Western Europe while many of its residents slept.

“Tonight’s Finale: Our golden lights from Dublin to Paris, nature’s from green aurora to blue dawn,” Hadfield tweeted along with the panoramic shot.

Prior to that, he shared his photo of Belfast, “graced with a touch of haze on a clear spring night,” preceded by his photo of Dublin.

“A clear Dublin night in early spring,” Hadfield tweeted.

The commander had shown the island of Ireland more love during the day yesterday, as well, photographing and tweeting shots taken over Ballina, Sligo, Newry, Thunder Rock, and Cork.

Hadfield, who has been aboard the International Space Station since December conducting scientific experiments and teaching earthlings about life in space, is quite the prolific photographer. While aboard the orbiting outpost, he has snapped coastlines, islands, deserts, cities, hills and valleys all around the world and shared the photographs with his nearly 640,000 Twitter followers.

He is due to return to Earth in mid-May.

Cmdr Chris Hadfield's photo of Belfast, as seen from the International Space Station last night

The photo Cmdr Chris Hadfield took over Dublin last point, from aboard the International Space Station

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Dublin, Dundalk, Drogheda, Limerick and Letterkenny should soon see greater availability of high-speed broadband on the back of an investment by telecommunications company Digiweb.

The investment comes in response to high demand for Digiweb’s existing broadband services, the company said, and the five regions will see a doubling of Digiweb capacity.

“This investment enables Digiweb deliver high-speed and high quality broadband to even more customers in these locations,” said Colm Piercy, CEO, Digiweb.

“Our commitment to continued investment in Digiweb’s own leading networks ensures that more and more consumers and businesses have access to high quality, secure internet connectivity.”

Broadband users in these areas will now have more options for high quality connectivity and services, Piercy added.

“For business customers, our eSIP service provides lower-cost replacements for their older ISDN and PBX phone system connections. This independent infrastructure from Digiweb ensures enhanced competition across the broadband networks.”

Installation and commissioning of this investment has already begun and is scheduled to be completed by June 2013.

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Yahoo!’s operations centre in Dublin is growing and the internet giant is to create more than 200 jobs as a result of the expansion in the Irish capital.

The company, which opened its doors in Dublin in 2003, has already started recruiting for customer support, technology, operations, HR and finance, which will support Yahoo!’s business across the Europe, Middle Eastern and Africa (EMEA) region.

Senior Yahoo! executives met with both An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD, and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, TD, as part of Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) investment missions in the past year.

“At Yahoo!, we’re all about making people’s daily habits inspiring and entertaining, and our team in Dublin helps make this happen every day. It’s the face of Yahoo! for millions of users and advertisers throughout EMEA,” said Christophe Parcot, Yahoo! VP and head of EMEA.

“We’re keenly focused on recruiting and developing the best talent in the industry, and there is significant opportunity at Yahoo! for the right individuals who want to grow their careers with a global digital brand.”

Yahoo! to create more than 200 jobs in Dublin - Photo by Leon Brocard/Flickr

The internet capital of Europe

Kenny said Ireland is becoming the internet capital of Europe with companies like Yahoo! offering great opportunities to the country’s passionate and highly-skilled workforce.

“The Government, through its Action Plan for Jobs, will continue to make the changes to ensure Ireland remains competitive and a natural home for digital companies. Yahoo!’s growing footprint in Ireland is a welcome statement of its commitment to this country,” Kenny added.

Bruton said ICT is a key sector the Government has targeted through the its Action Plan for Jobs.

“Since we took office, more than 10,000 additional jobs have been created in this sector,” Bruton said.

“Today’s announcement that Yahoo!, one of the biggest brand names on the internet, is expanding its operations in Dublin and more than doubling its workforce here with the creation of 200 jobs, is great news and further evidence that the plan is working. We in Government are determined to continue building on this, to attract further investments and create the jobs we need.”

Barry O’Leary, CEO at IDA Ireland said Yahoo!’s decision to expand in Ireland is very welcome news for the Irish economy and further endorses the country’s reputation as a location to service the whole European, Middle Eastern and African regions.

For more information about the positions available at Yahoo! is available on its website.

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The Lord Mayor of Dublin Mr Naoise Ó Muirí will unveil the Digital Masterplan for Dublin on Friday, modelled on similar digital development plans in New York and Barcelona.

The Lord Mayor has designated 8 March as Digital Dublin Day, with a series of events aimed at showing Dubliners how technology can positively impact their lives and its potential to enhance the quality of life in the capital.

Dublin's Lord Mayor to reveal city's Digital Masterplan on Friday

The publication of the Digital Masterplan is the beginning of an effort by Dublin City Council and partners to ensure the city becomes and remains at the top tier of digital cities worldwide.

The Lord Mayor said: “Achieving this goal will ensure much increased economic prosperity for the Dublin City region and guarantee a greater quality of living for residents of Dublin.”

Events across the city on Friday will include e-car test drives around Dublin by ESB, a video project by Techspace, who will live edit and display video interviews with Dubliners digitally recorded on the day, and start-up Soundwave will be displaying what music Dubliners are listening to with its innovative technology.

Other activities include: CoderDojo involving groups of local schoolchildren; free public Wi-Fi in the Mansion House area; a display of ‘Apps For Fingal’ which showcases the use of open data; e-commerce demonstrations; a showcase of digital stories, including the story of the Mansion House, via StoryMap; on-site bloggers; and a ‘vibes of Ireland’ Twitter visualisation to coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March.

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Bus Eireann customers can now enjoy free Wi-Fi as they wait to board their coaches or meet incoming passengers at seven of the company’s stations across Ireland.

Travellers can now surf the web, update their Facebook statues, do some online banking or any other online activity for free at Busáras Dublin, Parnell Place Station Cork, Ceannt Station Galway, Colbert Station Limerick, Plunkett Station Waterford, Sligo Station, and Ballina Station.

Ireland’s Minister for Public and Commuter Transport, Alan Kelly, TD, said the free Wi-Fi in Bus Éireann stations will improve customers’ journey experience.

“Buses and coaches are one of the most efficient ways to get around the country and being able to work, study, play games or use social media will greatly improve the transport experience,” Kelly said.

“This will be money well spent. Access to Wi-Fi is an essential part of modern business and education, and as a Government we will continue to support such developments,” Kelly added.

The National Transport Authority has funded the Bus Eireann in-station roll out of free Wi-Fi, and wireless communications provider Fleet Connect supplied the equipment.

Swrve, the Dublin-based start-up that has come up with a mobile app optimisation platform, has secured a US$6.25m investment in a funding round led by Atlantic Bridge Partners and Intel Capital. The company is now planning to create more than 100 jobs in the next two years in the Irish capital.

Hugh Reynolds and Dr Steve Collins set up Swrve in 2010. The duo founded Havok in 1998 and Kore Virtual Machines in 2008.

With the US$6.25m investment, Swrve is now planning to expand its R&D team and to expand its mobile app analytics and testing platform into other mobile gaming markets.

“This funding round puts us in an outstanding position for growth,” said Reynolds, CEO. “We already have a number of blue-chip clients experiencing outstanding return on investment from our product.

“Our team in Dublin already consists of the brightest and best - we just need more of them. A lot more,” added Reynolds.

Brian Long of Atlantic Bridge said Swrve had already successfully validated the service with some of the largest players in the industry.

“They have tapped into a massive market opportunity with an amazing platform, and have already successfully validated the service with some of the largest players in the industry. Our decision to invest was an easy one,” he said.

In addition to this new investment round, existing Swrve backers include SV Angel, the founders of Mochi Media Jameson Hsu and Bob Ippolito, as well as two co-founders of Playfish, Sami Lababidi and Shukri Shammas. Other investors include the AIB Seed Capital Fund, ACT Venture Capital, Delta Partners, Enterprise Ireland and other angel investors.

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Hootsuite, the company that makes social media management tools for brands, is looking to establish a base in Dublin, the company’s CEO Ryan Holmes revealed at the Dublin Web Summit today.

At a press conference announcing the start of the annual F.ounders conference that was attended by Mike McCue from Flipboard, Michael Acton Smith from Moshi Monsters and Barry O’Leary from IDA Ireland, Holmes revealed the news.

Holmes started Hootsuite in 2008 and the company has grown to employ 230 people in Vancouver, Canada, and its platform is used by 5m people worldwide.

Hootsuite allows brands to manage their social interactions via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, Mixi, MySpace, Ping.fm and WordPress via single easy-to-use dashboard.

The system is used by 79 of the Fortune 100 companies.

“We opened a small office in London, and I’m here learning more about EMEA and Europe as a market as I am here.

“I’m learning lots about Ireland and Dublin, so there’s a good chance we are going to open an office here due in part to coming out and meeting people and hearing their success stories,” Holmes said.

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The recent FOWA Dublin event, held by the Carsonified team was a fantastic day, with great speakers providing lots of very useful information on web applications and development.

Web App Survival Tips (by Ryan Carson from Carsonified)

The day started with some tips from the man himself based on their experience in building DropSend web application.

• Billing & Invoicing (e.g. don’t bother building your own billing system, save time and use an existing one)
• Marketing - get marketing your product early - create a buzz
• Usability testing - very important!
• Selling your web app

Web Conventions

Eoghan McCabe & Des Traynor from Contrast gave a very engaging presentation on Web Conventions, including looking at page layouts, best practices, building software vs. building websites.

Accessibility

Robin Christopherson from Ability.net (a UK charity) showed us how inaccessible some websites can be and how frustrating this is for users with disabilities.

He estimated that about 10% of the population have some sort of impairment in accessing the web e.g. reading/writing difficulties, age related conditions, blindness, dyslexia etc. so as web designers/developers, we need to bear this in mind when creating web sites/apps.

Robin mentioned Aria (Accessible Rich Internet Application Suite) - which is definitely something worth learning about if you are designing with accessibility in mind.

To see an example of a web site designed in Flash - Robin recommended checking out JK Rowling’s official website.

How to Build Amazing Web Apps - Lessons learned from building Twitter.com

Next up was Blaine Cooke - an ex developer from Twitter.  He forsees richer integration between social networking sites e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr.  Some sites he recommended reviewing include:

• Ravelry.com
• Flickr developer community

The Future is Ruby without Rails by Emma Persky (Trampoline Systems)

This well-received talk was definitely aimed at web developers, but unfortunately, being a mere web designer, I was a bit lost on Ruby and Rails etc. so can’t do Emma’s talk justice here, but the feedback given by web developers in the audience was that she knew her stuff!

€10,000 Prize for Best Business Plan for a Web App

Morgan McKeagney from IQ Content surprised even Carsonified with their announcement of a prize for the best business plan for a web app.  This is your chance to win €10,000 - no strings attached, if you have the winning business plan for a web app.

How to Build Desktop Apps that Help Your Web App Succeed

Matthew Ogle from Last.fm gave a great insight into how Last.fm works, privacy issues relating to desktop applications and also explained how to make money from web apps.  Some sites worth looking at include:

• Tripit.com - Online travel itinerary and planner
  
• Dopplr.com - online service for smarter travel
• Adobe Air - for building rich internet applications
  
• Google Gears - A Firefox and Internet Explorer extension that allows to navigate on compatible websites offline and synchronise when going back online
• Songbird - Open source music player
• Last.fm Boffin - generates tag clouds of your music collection

Web Application Horror Stories

Now this was a scary talk! Simon Willison filled us in on some useful tips and things developers should be aware of e.g.:

• Never allow a user to inject JavaScript into your web pages (JS could even be pulled in via the CSS files eg. (background: url(…js));
• Always set a character set.
• Don’t use crossdomain.xml - see Adobe website for more info
• Clickjacking

Start-ups Pitch their Ideas - in 120 Seconds!

Three people got the chance to pitch their web apps to a panel of judges.  This was a great idea as we got to see how best to present your web app pitch (always state what your web app is about), if you have a website for it - put this up on the screen!

The pitch that stood out for me the most (and I think for the panel too) was - one by Robin Blandford, from ByteSurgery.com, on their Decisions for Hereos application.  This is just such a great idea - rescue teams can file reports via web and mobile and the information gathered can really help in future rescues. Plus there is the added bonus that the stats gathered can be sold to insurance companies.  So this is a real example of a web app with the ability to make money!  Very inspiring.

David Heinemeier Hansson (37 Signals)

Finally, David Heinemeier Hansson from 37 Signals gave a fantastic talk on setting up a web app company.

Round Up

Overall, it was a really great event, well worth checking out if Carsonified come back to Dublin - or if you are able to make it to any of the other FOWA/Carsonified events being held - I highly recommend it.