Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

[Update. After actually seeing the paper for myself, I can tell that my blog wasn't 'awarded' anything as the title of this post suggests. It was featured in Blogspot of the week, which I'm just as happy with.]

I’m absolutely over the moon about this. We all like our egos stroked from time to time and I’m no different to anyone else. This is particularly true because Segala (or I) have never been nominated and therefore have never been in with a chance, to win an award. Segala has purposely stayed below the media radar until now. My partner in crime, Asheesh Dewan and I have spent the guts of €1m on our new business model and technology so that it would be fit to take to investors. I’m hoping that 2008 is the year that everyone will be talking about Segala and our method of enabling more trust on the Web.

To win best blog of the week by the Irish Times is a great start to 2008. My thanks go to Damien, my new Head of Communications for suggesting that I decouple it from the Segala blog (notice I didn’t say Marketing Director, that’s old school). I must admit, I felt liberated when I started writing here. It’s as if I felt that bit closer to you, as a reader/contributor. Kamrul also did a great job building it within 2 days of Damien’s suggestion. Let me know if there are any features you particular like or dislike or if you think I should implement something.

Quite a few people have asked if I’m going to be more risky on this blog. I’m not sure I can, can I? I mean, writing an open letter to the CEO of Carphone Warehouse and telling him to take his finger out is pretty straight to the point. An unfortunate measure that had to be taken in order to get the attention of his IT Director. That’s the power of the blog. We no longer retain full control over the marketing of our brands. It’s now in the hands of the consumer.

Thanks to John Collins for his kind words. I hope he continues to read and perhaps commentate on what I have to say from time to time. As a matter of interest, I launched and continue to edit the BIMA blog which now has a readership larger than most in just a few months. I think it might have been the first industry association to have a blog. I’m almost certain I created the first Facebook group for an industry association too. All of which demonstrates how BIMA is consuming what it commentates on. How can one profess to have a qualified opinion if you don’t consume, create, learn and test this social marketing stuff.

I had a great (heated) debate about the usefulness of blogging at dinner tonight. I didn’t appear to convince some of my peers that blogging was one of the most powerful tools in a company’s marketing holster, even though they consider themselves as tech-savvy early adopting Internet entrepreneurs. And they are. One of them was the Founder of WAYN whilst others had equally successful businesses.

Europe still has some way to go before it catchs up with the US when it comes to Internet trends. If the US caught a cold today we’d sneeze in two weeks time.

I’ve copied the entire article below for those of you you haven’t subscribed to the Times.

Paul Walsh, the chief executive and founder of software company Segala, only launched his personal blog last week but he has a long and chequered history as a blogger.

Prior to this, his company blog (http://segala.com/blog/) was his main outlet and the site of many a heated debate in Irish and international blogging circles.

As an example of how much interaction Walsh’s blog attracts, a post last November suggesting the establishment of a representative association for the Irish digital media industry attracted 74 posts.

The topic of that post is one that is dear to Walsh - how to foster and support Irish technology start-ups.

Never short of an opinion, he’s been critical of State agencies such as Enterprise Ireland for their lack of understanding of web business models.

He’s also had a pop at TechLudd, a new networking event in Dublin inspired by the recent Paddys Valley trip to California, suggesting it’s half-baked and potentially damaging to the Ireland Inc brand.

Some of Walsh’s best posts are the longer, detailed ones where he offers useful pieces of technical advice, like how to manage your privacy settings on Facebook, or get Twitter working on your iPhone.

But everyone loves a controversy and so when Walsh lets fly the rest of the bloggers sit up and take notice.

Walsh has even managed to get noticed by the Chinese authorities and his musings no longer pass through the great firewall of China following a post earlier this month on the death of a Chinese blogger - apparently at the hands of municipal inspectors.

It would be disingenuous to give the impression that Walsh is purely negative or reactionary.

His post RoboBraille Rocks!, complimenting a tool that translates computer files into Braille, is a good example of his enthusiasm for all that is best about technology and the web.

Walsh intends to use the company blog for matters relevant to Segala such as the semantic web, accessibility and standards, while his personal blog will be where he discusses social media, web 2.0 and other web and mobile trends.

For most people, dividing your time between two blogs may result in diluting your efforts. I doubt that will be a problem for Paul Walsh.

Source John Collins, Irish Times

What blogs do you read and why?