Nearly 3 months in with the MobaNode adventure and things are going roughly to plan. The website (to replace this blog) is very overdue, but should be here shortly. The prototyping and testing has been very successful and you could say that I am now up and running. All I need now is the customers/clients/early adopters to give me my break. Hence, January is the month for me to get out and about and press some flesh. So, if you happen to know anyone in the following organisations or companies, please, please drop me a line, or better still an introduction!

• Sporting Bodies
• Event and Concert Promoters
• Conference and Expo organisers
• PR Firms
• Ad Agencies

In the meantime, for a start-up just out of the gate, I have been very lucky to get both mainstream media and blog coverage and I am very thankful to those of you who have mentioned Mobanode - it is much appreciated. John Collins in the Irish Times December 7th-

Tapping into the Valley The 15 companies that travelled to California this week with the Paddy's Valley networking event have gained access to some of Silicon Valley's leading entrepreneurs and advisers, writes John Collins in Palo Alto As well as fostering links with Silicon Valley, the trip has strengthened links between the mostly internet-based start-up companies who participated. Marc Andreesen, the serial internet entrepreneur who, as co-founder of web browser company Netscape, became the poster boy of the original internet boom, was one of the senior technologists who took time out to meet the group of entrepreneurs. Andreesen told the group that if they were serious about building a technology or internet business, they would have to relocate to the valley. "The eco system is set up here to fund these kind of businesses," said Andreesen. He said that with the exception of internet telephony leader Skype, there were few examples of global internet companies that had been successful without having a base in Silicon Valley. That message was a common theme as the group visited technology and internet companies in the region. Marcus MacInnes, founder and chief executive of photo-sharing service Pix.ie (pronounced "pixie" not "pix dot ie") said he had been surprised by the openness displayed by people in Silicon Valley. Following his pitch at an Enterprise Ireland venture capital event earlier in the week, MacInnes is today meeting a local businessman who could become an investor or partner for Pix.ie. MacInnes will not be one of those relocating to California. "If everyone moves to Silicon Valley, you just end up with 10 or 20 Flickrs [ a photo-sharing site acquired by Yahoo]," said MacInnes. "My product needs to be in Ireland because we have different levels of expertise, usage and capabilities in Europe." Executives from Milestone Group, an advisory firm which helps technology companies raise finance, cautioned the Irish group that venture capital was the most expensive form of funding and they should only consider it if they needed to expand fast in order to address a large business opportunity. Milestone's managing partner Mark Zawacki said Irish firms would find it hard to raise finance in Silicon Valley but said they should consider looking at European venture capitalists outside Ireland who were willing to make investments across the continent. "It was really exciting to hear how switched on and plugged in this group was," Zawacki wrote later in a blog post. "I applaud them all getting organised to come across and make the investment. It'll pay dividends for all of them in the months and years to come." Afterwards Shane McAllister, founder of Mobanode, said he would like to stay away from raising venture capital as much as possible. His firm, which was only founded on October 1st last after he resigned as chief executive of MagneticTime, is developing a system that will enable video clips to be delivered to mobile phones at sporting events and concerts. The company is currently funded with an Enterprise Ireland feasibility grant and McAllister's own savings but he said that, given the cost of deploying a network in stadiums or concert halls, he would have to consider venture capital when it comes to building those networks. Coincidentally, in the same week that Paddy's Valley is based in Palo Alto, Enterprise Ireland's Leadership 4 Growth programme is taking place at Stanford University, the Silicon Valley alma mater that dominates the city. The chief executives of 32 more established Irish technology and life sciences companies have paid €23,000 each to take part in a one-year programme delivered by Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Clearly with so many Irish technology executives in the valley this week, a signal has been sent that Ireland is not just an efficient place for US multinationals to locate their companies but produces home-grown vibrant technology companies.

Damien Mulley in the Sunday Tribune December 16th -

Can the mobile break America? WHEN it comes to mobile telecoms innovation, Ireland is punching well above its weight, giving us a good name worldwide. Young turks like Nubiq, Digiweb, Mobanode, Cubic Telecom and Voicesage are clocking up lots of airmiles showing off their wares worldwide and getting our country a lot of notice and respect. Mobile always has been big in Ireland, with the general population more mobile-savvy than in most other nations. We have more mobiles than people and make more use of them than most of the rest of the developed world. We're an ideal test bed for mobile products, so little wonder we do well in developing them. The rest of the world, too, is showing that mobile . . . and specifically mobile web . . . is hot. Microsoft, Google and Nokia are buying up all types of mobile technology companies and using the technologies or the talent to build their own mobile offerings. However there is an elephant in the room when it comes to the mobile web and it has a stars-and-stripes collar. The US is the biggest market for consumer technology yet the economic giant is holding the world back with its relatively backward mobile development. The world, it seems, will have to wait for America before the mobile web becomes a reality. The mobile market in America is notoriously difficult to do business in. Only recently have carriers stopped charging people to receive text messages; many of the phones are quite basic and are locked by carriers from doing anything that might threaten revenue. It's no wonder the iPhone has been the biggest thing this year in the US mobile space despite being a phone that lacks most of the features we Europeans are well used to. Only a strong brand like Apple could get away with having ultimate control of their phone. Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson have not been so lucky. While in Silicon Valley last week I asked Netscape founder and social networking champion Marc Andreessen whether the mobile web will be a success. He said the space in America was too jammed with competing "standards" and entrenched carriers to make the necessary breakthroughs. Google, though, does not want to wait though and is willing to spend billions to break the impasse. With one in every two people in the world now owning a mobile phone, the mobile web is going to be used more than the existing web. Google wants in but, being a global company, it want a base standard worldwide and not a different standard per country or, worse, many standards in a single country. Recently Google launched its Android mobile platform, which is being given away to mobile handset manufacturers for free and which Google hypes as being based on open standards. This will still not be enough, though, to break the US market and force through an open standard. So Google is doing the unthinkable: bidding to become a mobile carrier and acquire spectrum in the US If Google is successful it is promising to open its network to anyone and allow any application to work on it . . . a move that a horrified AT&T is trying to stop. There's going to be a PR and financial battle that will scar both sides but will ultimately benefit consumers and the mobile web. This local turf war is important globally as even if Google loses, AT&T will probably have to make concessions and allow the mobile web through eventually. C'mon the Google!

Many thanks again for the coverage.