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IrishDev.com Objectives
As the IrishDev.com community has grown in popularity throughout the years, our objectives have broadened to our embrace our diverse membership. In recent years, trends like off shoring and outsourcing, the power of the internet making global relationships a real possibility, and the overnight expansion of a highly skilled European workforce, the industry here in Ireland has changed so rapidly. Couple this with the shortage of graduate developers coming in to the work force, if things are not instigated to address these events, then we could be heading for some very difficult times ahead, despite our governments best efforts to transform our economy to one of knowledge. Even with the economic landscape so different today than it was in 2001, our mission has remained fundamentally unchanged from that of John and Kieran's when they first began the group. That is to- Foster a culture of Knowledge and Education for participants in the sector.
- Provide inspiration to software professionals regardless of their career level - this includes our students.
- Encourage people to become involved in the community and dedicated to strengthening the appeal of software development as a career.
- Promote the excellence of the Irish software industry – the companies, the products and the people.
- Influence inward investment to the Irish software industry, and outward opportunities for our software businesses leading to job creation and business opportunities, securing the future for Irish software industry participants.
Committee Members
Name:
I Believe: I believe that the encouragement of young humans towards computing degrees is vital so that we can continue to build Ireland's knowledge economy.
Oisin Hurley
Job Title:Open Source Tools Architect
Company:Progress Software
Bio
Keen to land an indoor job with no heavy lifting, Oisin started out on
the road to software development in the early 1980's, when his first
task was to write a computer program to sort change for a maths
teacher. His software skills quickly outgrew such fripperies, but when
the lustre wore off the vision of becoming a multimillionaire games
developer, he went to TCD to get a Computer Science degree. In 1993, sfter a
couple of years of post-graduate doldrums, he was offered a job at the
freshly-minted IONA Technologies. Delighted to have achieved his job
goal, he enthusiastically accepted. He now works for Progress Software,
a change that he managed to achieve without even leaving his desk.
In the intervening time, Oisin has been a C++ developer; a coach and trainer; a Java developer; a Perl developer; a Swing developer; a C# developer; an Eclipse developer. He has been IONA's representative to the World Wide Web Consortium, the Object Management Group consortium, the Open SOA Consortium and the Java Community Process. He has helped to architect and deploy small- to mid-scale distributed systems using CORBA, J2EE and Web Services technologies. He has released over twenty software products for platforms from big iron to Blackberries. At the moment, he runs the SOA Tools Platform project, a top-level project at the Eclipse foundation and sits on the board of that organisation. His current interests are domain specific languages for enterprise software development and Open Source software.
It turned out that there was a lot more heavy lifting than he expected.
In the intervening time, Oisin has been a C++ developer; a coach and trainer; a Java developer; a Perl developer; a Swing developer; a C# developer; an Eclipse developer. He has been IONA's representative to the World Wide Web Consortium, the Object Management Group consortium, the Open SOA Consortium and the Java Community Process. He has helped to architect and deploy small- to mid-scale distributed systems using CORBA, J2EE and Web Services technologies. He has released over twenty software products for platforms from big iron to Blackberries. At the moment, he runs the SOA Tools Platform project, a top-level project at the Eclipse foundation and sits on the board of that organisation. His current interests are domain specific languages for enterprise software development and Open Source software.
It turned out that there was a lot more heavy lifting than he expected.
I Believe: I believe that the encouragement of young humans towards computing degrees is vital so that we can continue to build Ireland's knowledge economy.
In
addition, established computing professionals need a community for
confidence and for growth, with a focus on personal career well-being outside of the
corporate environment. I've become involved with irishDev.ie because
I believe that they are uniquely placed to help contribute to both.
Name:
I Believe: The Irish Software Industry is buzzing with companies with the potential to change the world. What it lacks is the sense of community present in the US development hubs.
Sean O'Donnell
Job Title:Technical Director
Company:Group Interactions
Bio
A professional software developer for 8 years, Sean has worked with a wide range of companies in many areas of the industry. Sean specializes in web development with open source python technologies for small innovative companies.
I Believe: The Irish Software Industry is buzzing with companies with the potential to change the world. What it lacks is the sense of community present in the US development hubs.
Great work does not take place in isolation. We need to work to build an environment that allows Irish companies to network effectively, find funding more easy, and grow the talent we will need in the future.
Name:
I Believe: We have a brilliant third level academic sector and in conjunction with organisations like the Irish Computer Societies F1 in Schools, they are working their level best to encourage school leavers to enrol on Computer Science degrees.
Barry Alistair
Job Title:Commercial Director
Company:The Irish Software Developers Network
Bio:
I started my career in the IT contract recruitment sector, establishing the Irish contracts division for Computer Futures in 1998. During the late nineties and early noughties, it was really exciting to see the software sector create so many new jobs for seasoned developers and the new kids on the block. There were some really vibrant start-ups and energetic people at the helms. The beginning of 2001 saw a paradigm shift in university entrants and only recently are we beginning to feel the effect. In 2005 I joined IrishDev.com because as an independent organisation I believed it had something valuable to offer the developing career professionals.
I Believe: We have a brilliant third level academic sector and in conjunction with organisations like the Irish Computer Societies F1 in Schools, they are working their level best to encourage school leavers to enrol on Computer Science degrees.
The sad thing is, whilst the government is transforming the economy from manufacturing to knowledge,, there is very little being done to retain the Computer Science drop-outs - what a stupid and unnecessary waste of peoples really great efforts! Everyone is talking about the lack of graduates, and without sufficient numbers we will lose competitiveness and eventually a very weak industry - despite the millions being poured into the STI. That's why I believe that irishDev.com has such a pivotal role in wrapping our arms around the young guys and getting them mingling with the commercial world at events like our Evangelist Evenings and the IxTC's.
