Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

WEBPAGEIRELAND is likely to be the worst designed Web site I have ever seen. Seeing is believing. I twittered it moments ago and at least 20 people replied. That’s a decent response. So, I’ve setup an unbiased/responsible poll to solicit your opinion.

It’s not all negative. I’m going to write a post about the best designed 404 page I’ve seen. Sounds a little sad, I know, but it does demonstrate how this particular company has thought about the usability of its entire Web site. It rocks.

Please read my previous post if this party is news to you.

I thought it was worth providing an update as we’ve seen just over 100 tickets go within a couple of days. There are only 200 tickets available so please make sure to register to avoid disappointment. Everyone is welcome; agencies, brands, technology providers, freelancers, students, graduates, civil servants, bloggers, twitters… you get the picture. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re from either. It’ll be a night to remember!

Tickets are free for BIMA members and just £15 for non-members. I’ve noticed registrations from at least 4 countries so far. Keep ‘em coming and see you on May 20th. Register now.

I’d like to thank diffusion for sponsoring the event. Please get in touch if you’d like to sponsor.

Let’s get straight to the point…

Tickets are free for BIMA Members and just £15 for non-members.

• When Tuesday, May 20, 2008 from 19:30 to 01:00
• Where Soho House, 21 Old Compton Street, London

We only have room at the Soho Private Members club for 200 people and tickets are expected to go even faster than the Great Facebook Debate that I hosted last year.

People are flying in from around the world just for this party so it’s set to be a night to remember!

If you need a hotel, why not check out http://www.londonhousehotels.com/ it does the job and it’s quite cheap.

Register now.

Hope to see you there!

Go to Twitter now and following wubud. A Mac Air will be given away in a prize draw as soon as it reaches 5,000 followers. If you’re an American, help the small Irish guy raise his voice loud enough to be a squeak amongst Scoble’s and Calacanis’ of the world. If you’re not an American, show them that we can be just as noisy, well, almost.

Presents will be given to those who help raise awareness around this silly game. No rules. I will simply do a little research to see who I can hear loudest. Blog posts are already being written.

Do your bit for the environment and head to twitter now and follow wubud

[Update] Since writing this post, I’ve been asked by journalists if they could have an exclusive and asked why I decided to run this little game. Here’s my response:

1. The exclusive has yet to be given. Although a national newspapper has it in Ireland specifically.
2. I’m running this little game to get people talking about my newest venture, wubud
3. I’m also doing it to demonstrate how the power of conversation with communities of people is the way forward. If it’s the way forward for brands then it must be the way forward for traditional media folk to embrace tools/communities such as Twitter in order to find out what’s happening in the world. I’m likely to announce what wubud is and who my shit hot team is, on Twitter at the same time as whoever gets the exclusive. Some of my team is known to every reader of this blog.

In a deal rumoured to be worth approximately $150m, Carphone Warehouse is the latest to sign up to Facebook’s contextual advertising. It looks like it’s working too - look at what they delivered to me today.

It also looks like they’re using their own staff to make the calls. Why didn’t they just tell me they were joking when I was called every month for over a year.

A good friend of mine, Paul Carr, is spending the next couple of weeks in SF (as of tonight). If you’re in town why not leave a comment or send me/him an email to connect. Paul has taken a few months off to write another book, so help him ‘create’ new material. His latest publication is imminent so watch out for it!

Sub to his blog too, it’s hilarious. He knows I won’t forgive him for making fun of iJusine though

paul at alljustwords dot com

At the expense of loosing a mate, Steve Clayton, this is for you. I normally do a Monday Humour post but felt like being early for once.

The Ferrari Formula 1 Team sacked its entire pit crew yesterday. The announcement followed Ferrari’s decision to take advantage of the UK Government’s Youth Opportunity Scheme and employ people from Liverpool.

The decision to hire them was brought on by a recent documentary on how unemployed youths from Liverpool area were able to remove a set of wheels in less than 6 seconds without proper equipment, whereas Ferrari’s existing crew can only do it in 8 seconds, even with millions of Euros worth of high tech equipment.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown went on record as saying this was a bold move by the Ferrari management, which demonstrated the international recognition of the UK under New Labour.

As most races are won and lost in the pits, Ferrari now have the advantage over every team.

However, Ferrari may have got more than they bargained for.

At the crew’s first practice session, the Liverpool pit crew successfully changed the tyres in under 6 seconds.

But, within 12 seconds they had re-sprayed, re-badged, and sold the vehicle to the McLaren Team for a dozen bottles of Stella, a kilo of cannabis and some photos of Coulthard’s bird in the shower.

I asked the question on Twitter this morning, “Why can’t people who are nasty or sarcastic have to be anonymous on my blog?!”

Jemima Kiss’ response was so funny I felt it deserved a permanent placeholder.

Posts that mention me on TechCrunch seem to attract anonymous comments so bad that the type of people leaving them, are formally known as ‘trolls’. I don’t mind anonymous comments per say, mainly because we get them from companies such as Google and Microsoft on the Segala blog - they leave their real names and judging by the conversations I know their identities.

In general, I hate anonymous comments. If you don’t feel you can associate your name with a comment, don’t comment. Should we ban anonymous comments altogether? Should professional blogs such as TechCrunch ban them?

By the way, if we’re not yet connected on Twitter, feel free to follow my feed.