Slides from our recent breakfast seminar
Posted on 23. Sep, 2010 by ger in Uncategorized
You can view the slides from our recent seminar.
Here are some followup ideas:
- Try goshido
- Find out more about
- Let us know if you’d like us to visit your business
Goshido is the new name for coClarity
Posted on 27. Jul, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized
coClarity is now trading under the name Goshido. The official name of the company is still coClarity Ltd. (for now).
If you want to find out about our past accomplishments see the news and blog posts on coClarity.com.
iPad available for web & software developers in Limerick
Posted on 27. May, 2010 by ger in Uncategorized
The iPad is going to be big. If you’re a web or mobile app developer you need to get an iPad to test your software. If you’re not in the US that’s a bit tricky at the moment. So here’s the thing. Here at Goshido we’ve managed to acquire an iPad and we’re willing to share it with other software/web developers in Limerick Ireland.
When I was in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago it was obvious the machine has mass market appeal. While I’d expect the uber nerds at Web 2 Expo to be iPad-mad, when I walked into the flagship Apple Store at Stockton and Market I was astounded.
Apple have chained 30-ish demo iPads to tables just inside the front door. Invariably they’re all being used. When someone walks away there’s a scramble for the machine. A member of staff is roaming constantly from one iPad to the next, spraying screen cleaner and scraping off the the layers of fingerprints. iPads are very susceptible to fingerprints.
The blue-shirted sales staff answer the same questions again and again, ‘Sorry we have no ipads… That’s right we have no stock of any kind… We get shipments every day except Sunday… We don’t know what we’re getting until we open the boxes.’
The trick is to go in at just after 11am. Apparently that’s when the shipment arrives. Even then they’ll only have one type of wifi iPad. The 3G ones are hens teeth. I visited the Apple Store four times to try get one for Mobanode and three of the four times they were sold out. When they did have stock they didn’t have the one Mobanode wanted.
To be honest, at first I was a little disappointed with the device. I have since changed my opinion. I’ll go into that in more detail in a later blog post.
However, from a web app point of view, the browser is excellent, the same browsing experience as a netbook or desktop (maybe better because you can touch the web). People will be using your software/web app on ipads even if it is not optimised for mobile screen sizes.
While many people are very impressed with the performance of the iPad in general I’m wondering about the JavaScript performance in iPad Safari. Our web application Goshido, uses jquery, and it performs very differently on the iPad. The feel is just not right. Effects are not as smooth and some of the navigation that works great on a desktop is less-than-great on the iPad. You can’t see that on the emulator (brilliant and all as it is). At the end of the day, it’s like trying to build a sandcastle with dry sand, software must be tested on real hardware.
Now I don’t know if the problem is our software (most probable), jquery (we’re not using the latest version), or Apple’s implementation of JavaScript (surely not). Whatever it is, we need to figure it out soon.
At the very least you need to make sure your product doesn’t have a similar issue.
So here’s the thing. If you’re based in Limerick Ireland and you’d like to borrow our iPad for a day to test your software, let us know. There’s no charge, all we ask is you bring it back in one piece. Email us (info at goshido dot com) or tweet (@goshido) if you’re interested.
News from Web2Expo 2010
Posted on 18. May, 2010 by admin in Uncategorized
I was in San Francisco in the first week of May for Web2Expo. Web2Expo can be an interesting barometer of where Web based business is going. Here’s what I learned, hopefully it will be of use to you.
The other Irish companies at Web2Expo
A number of Irish companies made the trek including 3dIssue, Goshido, Heystacks, Panodo, Revahealth, Sonru, Spam Titan, Spoiltchild & Weedle. Enterprise Ireland had organised a special package which included discounted tickets and flights. As often happens with these things, we learned a lot from each other as we beat the living daylights out of each other’s business models over the odd pint or waffles & maple syrup (not at the same time).
Funding situation improving
I was at Web2Expo last year as part of the Techcrunch UK supported Webmission. Last year the economic turnaround had started. This year it is in full swing. Investment money has started pouring into startups during the last three months in particular. Seed valuations have improved significantly. However, to my eye it looked like the numbers were down at Web2Expo. I am also sorry to say the UK based entrepreneurs hold the edge when it comes to the intensity of their partying.
Lean startups all the rage
Lean startups and the customer development process are de rigeur at the moment. If you’re in a startup and don’t know about Lean/Agile/Customer Development then find out more by reading blogs by Eric Ries, Sean Ellis and Steve Blank. You’ll also find good material at the “Startup Lessons Learned” conference website or the Fergus Burns’ blog post on Web2Ireland. Applying these principles in the last six months has moved Goshido along immeasurably. This year, Web2Expo hosted an “intensive” (a workshop on steroids) covering Lean startups. I didn’t get to San Fran in time but a number of other Irish companies were there. Frank was there from Goshido and he’ll be writing a blog post about it in the near future.
If you’re thinking of setting up an office
If you’re thinking of setting up an office in the Bay Area you’re spoilt for choice at the moment.
- Mountain View: Enterprise Ireland have moved offices and now have office space for Irish companies.
- San Jose: the ITLG have recently opened the Irish Innovation Centre which includes office space.
- San Francisco: The startup neighbourhoods are SOMA or the upper floors of buildings near Union Square. You’d be amazed at the companies you’d find upstairs over Walgreens or a nondescript Vietnamese restaurant.
- Silicon Valley: The Plug and Play Tech Centers are still going strong.
- Palo Alto: office space is freeing up downtown now that Facebook have moved out. It’s still hard to get a seat in Coupa Cafe.
Southwest Airlines get loads of mentions
A number of talks mentioned Southwest Airlines for different reasons. Apparently they have the highest customer satisfaction ratings of all the US airlines. They give staff significant autonomy and latitude in deciding what to do when faced with customer issues. Their website is an exemplar of usability without using fancy design. Apparently, they don’t break guitars.
Keynotes
Tim O’Reilly presented a deft analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple in his state of the Internet keynote.
I really liked the keynote by Stewart Butterfield (Tiny Speck, Inc.) and Cal Henderson (Flickr), “A Web Nerd’s Approach to building a massive multiplayer game”.
Steve Blank presented the History of Silicon Valley, some scary bedtime tales for the entrepreneurs out there.
Launchpad
Five companies presented at the launchpad. They were all good but not noticably better than some of the Irish companies I’ve seen pitch in the recent past, in particular the companies who went through iGAP with us. In particular I liked Rhomobile and Pearltrees.
Enterprise Ireland tweetup
Enterprise Ireland hosted a tweetup, a meetup in one of the hotels ajacent to the conference venue. This drew a big crowd and was a good way to meet again with potential customers/investors from the conference itself. In particular, we met Bob Walsh of StartupTodo. They do brilliant step-by-step guides for many of the activities involved in building a company.
Goshido
Of course, our main focus during the week was meeting Goshido’s customers, future investors and getting a closer look at competitors. We pitched to two VCs, an exhilerating experience and received encouraging feedback. One of them summed up the current economic situation in an interesting way. To paraphrase, “This is the modern equivalent of Renaissance Florence, most people just don’t appreciate it yet.”
Goshido on TodayFM
Posted on 15. Feb, 2010 by ger in Uncategorized
You can hear Frank Hannigan on TodayFM’s Sunday Business Show (14-Feb-2010) discussing Goshido and fundraising with LinkedIn. TodayFM is a national radio station in Ireland.
You can also download an MP3 file of the show. The segment with Frank starts at 26 minutes into the show.
Goshido in the Irish Times
Posted on 23. Jan, 2010 by ger in Uncategorized
The Irish Times covered Goshido’s recent fundraising round.
Guest Lecture in UL “Multimedia and Computer Games”
Posted on 25. Nov, 2009 by ger in Uncategorized
I’m delivering a guest lecture on the 26-Nov-2009 in the University of Limerick. I’ll be talking about what its like to work in agile projects from the developer, tester and manager perspectives.
I’ll be using the slides from my talk in Enterprise Ireland earlier this week.
The lecture will be part of the 4th year “Multimedia Industry Perspectives” module. Most of the students are from the “Multimedia and Computer Games” course but there’s some from “Computer Science” and “Digital Media Design” as well.
It looks like there’s a fairly big room in the University of Limerick and they tell me visitors are welcome too. If you’d like to attend, the lecture starts at 10am in the Kemmy Business School, room KBG14.
Speaking at Seminar on Agile Project Management
Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by ger in Uncategorized
Agile management techniques are getting a lot of traction in game development at the moment. GDC 09 had a number of sessions on Scrum in particular.
On Monday 23rd November I’ll be speaking at a seminar on agile project management. Lero (the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre) organised this free seminar and Enterprise Ireland are hosting it at their offices in Dublin, Ireland.
Dr. Kieran Conboy (NUI Galway) will be talking about the current state of knowledge regarding agile development. Dr. Xiaofeng Wang (University of Limerick) is going to examine a set of (mis)understandings of agile software development using real world examples and ideas from complexity study.
I’ll be talking about my experiences using agile techniques to manage a number of successful projects in both large and small companies. I’ll also discuss how agile techniques can help you manage non-software projects.
I understand there are a good number of people registered already. To register, contact Enterprise Ireland. Hope to see you there.